I was thinking about this after reading about her feud with Maureen McCormick. When I bring up the notion of her possibly being bitter and resentful, is that she was unable to carved out a better career for herself. Among the kids on The Brady Bunch, Eve Plumb (while not exactly "brilliant") was arguably the best actor/actress and more than anybody else, it seemed like she wanted to escape her Brady image/legacy but never really could.

From my understanding, Eve was actually working in a lot of stuff in the late '70s, including the TV movie version of Little Women that became a short-lived series. On the same token however, part of Eve's problem was arguably that after The Brady Bunch she played all those TV victim movies where she was a runaway prostitute.

I think she must have hit a career lull around 1980 which brought her back to the Brady fold with the Brady Girls Getting Married movie and Brady Brides series. Eve did say that said she was resistant to doing The Brady Brides and the other reunions but they kept throwing money at her so she caved.

I was thinking about this after reading about her feud with Maureen McCormick. When I bring up the notion of her possibly being bitter and resentful, is that was unable to carved out a better career for herself. Among the kids on The Brady Bunch, Eve Plumb (while not exactly "brilliant") was arguably the best actor/actress and more than anybody else, it seemed like wanted to escape her Brady image/legacy but never really could.

From my understanding, Eve was actually working in a lot of stuff in the late '70s, including the TV movie version of Little Women that became a short-lived series. On the same token however, part of Eve's problem was arguably that after The Brady Bunch she played all those TV victim movies where she was a runaway prostitute.

I think she must have hit a career lull around 1980 which brought her back to the Brady fold with the Brady Girls Getting Married movie and Brady Brides series. Eve did say that said she was resistant to doing The Brady Brides and the other reunions but they kept throwing money at her so she caved.


That is very much what it seems to me. I think Eve was good at acting, possibly or probably more than the other young cast members of the show
However she did want to escape the "Jan Brady" image but could not. The Brady Bunch just became such an iconic TV show with iconic characters. Unfortunately Eve felt that her character was the stereotypical loser in the family because she was less popular with guys than her older sister, and seemed to be more of a bookworm or teacher's-pet type of teenager.

I think that a lot of actors of the 60s and 70s who did not like the character that they became most famous for playing, tried to go on to do other roles
but they could not get hired and were not making a decent living so if there were "sequel" shows or "reunion" shows they caved in to the money being offered to them.
I am sure that that is the case with Eve Plumb.

As far as her being bitter, I think so.
Maureen McCormick has said in a TV interview that she and Eve were friends during the original filming of the Brady Bunch TV show, but in her book "Here's The Story" Maurren McCormick does not say that she and Eve were friends and says things such as Eve used to walk around naked on the set and was crass and used to pass gas and if anyone complained she would say "Get over it."

In another interview, McCormick said that she once joked about how she and Eve had kissed each other. It was a sarcastic comment because she was being asked by a reporter if she had romantic relationships with the male cast of The Brady Bunch. Maureen McCormick said that Eve Plumb did not like the joke and felt angry at her since.

It does seem as if they are angry with each other, but who started what?

I thought Eve was pretty easily the worst actor out of the group. She wasn't as talented as any of the others, even Susan Olson was slightly better. She wasn't terrible or anything but whenever she was to act surprised, it seemed she couldn't do it so it was believable. The rest of the gang was great... especially Robert Reed, he was really good in some episodes.

What was the question again? :confused:

'I can't escape it': Eve Plumb on trying to get work in Hollywood after playing Jan on The Brady Bunch (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4543764/Eve-Plumb-career-playing-Brady-Bunch-s-Jan.html)

That is very much what it seems to me. I think Eve was good at acting, possibly or probably more than the other young cast members of the show
However she did want to escape the "Jan Brady" image but could not. The Brady Bunch just became such an iconic TV show with iconic characters. Unfortunately Eve felt that her character was the stereotypical loser in the family because she was less popular with guys than her older sister, and seemed to be more of a bookworm or teacher's-pet type of teenager.

I think that a lot of actors of the 60s and 70s who did not like the character that they became most famous for playing, tried to go on to do other roles
but they could not get hired and were not making a decent living so if there were "sequel" shows or "reunion" shows they caved in to the money being offered to them.
I am sure that that is the case with Eve Plumb.

As far as her being bitter, I think so.
Maureen McCormick has said in a TV interview that she and Eve were friends during the original filming of the Brady Bunch TV show, but in her book "Here's The Story" Maurren McCormick does not say that she and Eve were friends and says things such as Eve used to walk around naked on the set and was crass and used to pass gas and if anyone complained she would say "Get over it."

In another interview, McCormick said that she once joked about how she and Eve had kissed each other. It was a sarcastic comment because she was being asked by a reporter if she had romantic relationships with the male cast of The Brady Bunch. Maureen McCormick said that Eve Plumb did not like the joke and felt angry at her since.

It does seem as if they are angry with each other, but who started what?

She said that in her book?

I thought Eve was pretty easily the worst actor out of the group. She wasn't as talented as any of the others, even Susan Olson was slightly better. She wasn't terrible or anything but whenever she was to act surprised, it seemed she couldn't do it so it was believable. The rest of the gang was great... especially Robert Reed, he was really good in some episodes.

What was the question again? :confused:

Speaking of bitter...

Speaking of bitter...


Get over it! :mad:


Here is the order best to worst actors:

Mr. Brady
Peter
Bobby
Greg
Marsha
Mrs Brady - Alice (tie)
Cindy
Jan

We're not counting the mailman, Joe Namath, Peter's double, Mr. Phillips or Sam in this particular case. :o

Get over it! :mad:


Here is the order best to worst actors:

Mr. Brady
Peter
Bobby
Greg
Marsha
Mrs Brady - Alice (tie)
Cindy
Jan

We're not counting the mailman, Joe Namath, Peter's double, Mr. Phillips or Sam in this particular case. :o

What about Tiger?

Get over it! :mad:


Here is the order best to worst actors:

Mr. Brady
Peter
Bobby
Greg
Marsha
Mrs Brady - Alice (tie)
Cindy
Jan

We're not counting the mailman, Joe Namath, Peter's double, Mr. Phillips or Sam in this particular case. :o


"Peter" ?!!!!!!!!!!!!

You mean next to experienced and classically- trained and professional actor, Robert Reed, the otherwise generally-unknown kid actor Chris Knight was the best actor of everyone, even more than Florence Henderson ?!!!!!!!

I don't mean to be mean but though Peter Brady had a good amount of episodes focused on him and his adventures, he still seemed to be the male "Jan" of the family not only because of his proximal age to Jan but because compared to Bobby and Greg he was invisible.
Also , again not to be mean, but Chris Knight was merely OK for a kid actor. He did not seem to have particular acting talent. Also when "The Brady Kids" actually went around as a singing act, Chris Knight reportedly was the one "Brady Kid" who had the worst singing ability of them all.

Also when "The Brady Kids" actually went around as a singing act, Chris Knight reportedly was the one "Brady Kid" who had the worst singing ability of them all.

I always heard that too, so I don't understand why him and Maureen McCormick did an album together.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QtZzBT_wCYw/hqdefault.jpg

I always heard that too, so I don't understand why him and Maureen McCormick did an album together.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QtZzBT_wCYw/hqdefault.jpg


Maureen certainly did not mention this in her book, that she and Chris Knight did an album together.
Judging from the front cover of the album, it was done when they had matured to their late mid to teens and the Brady Bunch was just cancelled.

I always heard that too, so I don't understand why him and Maureen McCormick did an album together.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QtZzBT_wCYw/hqdefault.jpg

My guess is that since they were popular at the time, it really didn't matter if they were good singers or not, as far as economic viability.

And since they were friends, they were probably happy to do a project together. Sometimes friendship trumps critical judgment.

Maureen certainly did not mention this in her book, that she and Chris Knight did an album together.
Judging from the front cover of the album, it was done when they had matured to their late mid to teens and the Brady Bunch was just cancelled.

It came out in 1973, so it was just a little while before The Brady Bunch was cancelled.

Get over it! :mad:


Here is the order best to worst actors:

Mr. Brady
Peter
Bobby
Greg
Marsha
Mrs Brady - Alice (tie)
Cindy
Jan

We're not counting the mailman, Joe Namath, Peter's double, Mr. Phillips or Sam in this particular case. :o

When you say, the mailman, are you referring to the man that, according to Cindy, Alice was hugging?

yes, she's definitely bitter...see an old Jenny Jones show she was on.

yes, she's definitely bitter...see an old Jenny Jones show she was on.i saw that ep whem it first aired and eve acted like a complete jerk i know it probably can get tiresome awnsering the same questions but the fans really dont mean any harm when they ask it just means that in some way you have made someone else happy through your work and i hope some day eve starts to realize that

Could be that EP is not that great of an actress as she thinks she is.

Compare her to Susan Dey from the Patridge Family. Susan Dey has done other series.

If EP wanted to escape the Jan Brady image, then why did she do the reunion movies? I know, money. But you can't have it both ways. Tina Louise didn't do the Gilligan's Island reunion movies.

Could be that EP is not that great of an actress as she thinks she is.

Compare her to Susan Dey from the Patridge Family. Susan Dey has done other series.

If EP wanted to escape the Jan Brady image, then why did she do the reunion movies? I know, money. But you can't have it both ways. Tina Louise didn't do the Gilligan's Island reunion movies.


That is a very interesting comparison. I have read and heard a lot about how much Tina Louise hated "Gilligan's Island" in generation and her part in it in particular. After the show's initial run, she stayed as far away from it as possible.

It seems like what Eve lacks is just a sense of humor about it all. Even the stars who were at first not happy about being pigeon holed as the star of such and such sitcom seem to be able to laugh at the whole thing now, or at least most of them.

Eve seems so rigid and resentful. Yeah, it's crazy to be answering questions about something that happened 40 odd years ago, but just go with it. People love it and it doesn't really cost her anything. She can still have her career outside the show.

Eve is currently starring in a play version of Family Ties based on the popular sitcom.

What about Tiger?


Well, he wanted too much money and lost his contract so he really doesn't count. :confused:

"Peter" ?!!!!!!!!!!!!

You mean next to experienced and classically- trained and professional actor, Robert Reed, the otherwise generally-unknown kid actor Chris Knight was the best actor of everyone, even more than Florence Henderson ?!!!!!!!

I don't mean to be mean but though Peter Brady had a good amount of episodes focused on him and his adventures, he still seemed to be the male "Jan" of the family not only because of his proximal age to Jan but because compared to Bobby and Greg he was invisible.
Also , again not to be mean, but Chris Knight was merely OK for a kid actor. He did not seem to have particular acting talent. Also when "The Brady Kids" actually went around as a singing act, Chris Knight reportedly was the one "Brady Kid" who had the worst singing ability of them all.

I thought he was very natural in his acting ... I mean, gee he was just a good actor for being so young. I think everyone had their bad moments and maybe I just noticed more of Eve when she was off. :confused:

When you say, the mailman, are you referring to the man that, according to Cindy, Alice was hugging?



Yes! Babblermouth Cindy!! :mad:




Off the subject.... have you all ever noticed that when Mike pulls the car into the driveway he scoots out the passenger side? :confused: I know it's better for filming to keep him in the frame but geeze, who actually does that? :o

I'm finally getting Maureen's book on my e-reader tomorrow. Cannot wait to hear all of the details on what happened.

I'm finally getting Maureen's book on my e-reader tomorrow. Cannot wait to hear all of the details on what happened.
Not anymore. Change of plans all of a sudden.

Could be that EP is not that great of an actress as she thinks she is.

Compare her to Susan Dey from the Patridge Family. Susan Dey has done other series.


Susan Dey was fashion model gorgeous. Eve was good looking when she was an older teenager but there's no comparison.

Maureen McCormick has said in a TV interview that she and Eve were friends during the original filming of the Brady Bunch TV show, but in her book "Here's The Story" Maurren McCormick does not say that she and Eve were friends and says things such as Eve used to walk around naked on the set and was crass and used to pass gas and if anyone complained she would say "Get over it."


I wasn't there but I find it very difficult to believe that a young teenage girl was allowed to walk around naked on a film set, especially with other kids and their parents around. If that did happen, everyone connected with the show would have spoken about it long before now.

At least Eve is a better actress than Maureen. She has done more and has more range.

I wasn't there but I find it very difficult to believe that a young teenage girl was allowed to walk around naked on a film set, especially with other kids and their parents around. If that did happen, everyone connected with the show would have spoken about it long before now.
I have the book and it happened in the girls dressing room, not on the set.

I have the book and it happened in the girls dressing room, not on the set.

I'm reading the book right now.

I have the book and it happened in the girls dressing room, not on the set.


Then it only would have happened in front of Maureen and Cindy, if it's true.

Eve Plumb on the Jenny Jones interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t58bVuos3Hk) did seem incredibly bitter. She's seemed much cooler in more recent interviews. More like she's finally okay with being known as the actress who played Jan Brady.

I wish that Eve would finally bury the hatchet with Maureen.

I wish that Eve would finally bury the hatchet with Maureen.

Hopefully, not in the back. ;)

Eve Plumb on the Jenny Jones interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t58bVuos3Hk) did seem incredibly bitter. She's seemed much cooler in more recent interviews. More like she's finally okay with being known as the actress who played Jan Brady.


It is something how there is such a lasting legacy in this kind of way, bitterness between former co-stars.
I'm not sure if this has exactly happened with any other TV show. I heard that the actors who played Fred and Ethel in "I Love Lucy" disliked each other, I heard that even Abbott and Costello disliked each other. Of course those actors did not go on to write books and talk on talk shows about their hatred toward their co-star. not that I know of.
The Brady Bunch as iconic as it became in pop culture, still just fits the description of junk TV of the 1970s. And yet, the serious things that went on behind the scenes is what is becoming most apparent decades after the TV show was cancelled and the original youngest cast of the show are now aging into their mid 50s to early 60s.
A lot of former child actors or former teen actors are resentful about the characters they played because they could not go on to be considered for other roles as they grew older.
I find it odd that, according to what I have heard of the young female actors who played Cindy and Jan and Marcia Brady, they all resented being depicted as such "wholesome" kids and wanted to be depicted as mature for their age, particularly in a sexual way. Reportedly Susan Olsen wanted there to be an episode in which her character, Cindy starts getting physically mature and needs a bra. I guess it was the mindset of the 1970s in younger people then. Drugs, sex, and rock and roll, was the trend and younger people did not want to be thought of as "Unpopular" or "Uncool" by other young people.
It is what seems to largely fuel the resentment between Eve Plumb and Maureen McCormick. Eve somehow seems to feel that her part in the Brady Bunch as the wiser and more square middle daughter was ruinous to her acting career.

Eve Plumb on the Jenny Jones interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t58bVuos3Hk) did seem incredibly bitter. She's seemed much cooler in more recent interviews. More like she's finally okay with being known as the actress who played Jan Brady.

Eve Plumb's cameo in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-STJeDotdaw&t=38s) ironically, made you think that she had little problem poking fun at her Brady Bunch past.
:lol:

I was thinking about this after reading about her feud with Maureen McCormick. When I bring up the notion of her possibly being bitter and resentful, is that was unable to carved out a better career for herself.Yes well with Marsha getting all the attention,im not surprised she is bitter!!

I can understand Eve being tired of answering the same questions. However, why did she appear on Jenny Jones knowing that those types of questions would be asked? She put herself out there and made herself look bitter.

I can understand Eve being tired of answering the same questions. However, why did she appear on Jenny Jones knowing that those types of questions would be asked? She put herself out there and made herself look bitter.

Yes. It was one of the oddest appearances I've ever seen.

I heard that one of the reasons Eve was so bitter is because after the show she did by far the best of the kids. In the late '70s, she frequently starred in Movies of the Week. But then suddenly the roles dried up, and she's bitter about it. The other kids didn't do very well at all ever or until they were much older (such as when Barry and Maureen on Broadway for different shows).

Apparently, Sherwood Schwartz and the writers of The Brady Bunch decided she was by far the best actor among the kids, and was especially good at playing tormented and miserable. That's why there are so many episodes where Jan is so anguished. But of course that's what people now remember about the character, and so her character got the most mocking in the '90s of all the Brady kids when there was suddenly a Generation X nostalgia obsession with The Brady Bunch.

Did you see them all on the Today Show the other day? Eve seemed somewhat bored and annoyed by the whole thing, but I’m sure it’s part of her deal with HGTV. My guess is that they made her an offer she couldn’t refuse from a monetary standpoint.

And I think there’s still tension between her and Maureen. They may be in the same room for the sake of the HGTV show and publicity, but they don’t interact with each other. At all.

Yes! Babblermouth Cindy!! :mad:




Off the subject.... have you all ever noticed that when Mike pulls the car into the driveway he scoots out the passenger side? :confused: I know it's better for filming to keep him in the frame but geeze, who actually does that? :o


They do it a bunch in the Andy Griffith Show. Annoys me, and I don't know why

They do it a bunch in the Andy Griffith Show. Annoys me, and I don't know why

Highway Patrol LOL the cops ALWAYS getting out the passenger side
some said it was safer than getting out the traffic side of the car (?)

even older movies it was common ...

seems so odd today

Jan in S5 E10 Try Try Again -

In real life she is really not very coordinated teen, her skills at running skipping jumping dancing, throwing a ball ... throughout the many episodes shows it (just how some people are). At occasional times - as they say - she has an uneasiness playing her parts that require some physical skill sets ... The other actors are more natural for the most part.

I wonder when they wrote the Try Try Again they saw that in her and she resented it ?

When I watched the HGTV series Eve seemed a lot happier and really seemed to enjoy working with her TV brothers and sisters. Eve and Maureen laughed and appeared happy together. It made the show so enjoyable seeing all of the so happy and truly touched when talking about Florence, Robert and Anne.

Yep - I saw the same thing. Either they’re both putting on a very good show, or working together has melted the ice from the last ten years. I choose to believe the latter.

Yes well with Marsha getting all the attention,im not surprised she is bitter!!

I've been wondering if Maureen McCormick (https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-brady-bunch-star-maureen-mccormick-bombed-at-her-audition-with-steven-spielberg.html/) was being positioned as the breakout star among the kids (https://www.datalounge.com/thread/12095307-why-didn-t-the-brady-kids-go-on-to-stardom-)? In other words, she was presumably, the one you would expect to have the biggest career after the show ended.

I don’t think so. Not that I’ve counted, but it always struck me that the kids all got an opportunity to be in the spotlight and be the focus of different episodes. It wasn’t like The Partridge Family, where the youngest two children were mostly in the background and almost never were the focus of stories.

I'm glad all 6 got their chances to shine. Whether it was a solo episode or with each other.

I don’t think so. Not that I’ve counted, but it always struck me that the kids all got an opportunity to be in the spotlight and be the focus of different episodes. It wasn’t like The Partridge Family, where the youngest two children were mostly in the background and almost never were the focus of stories.

That's a great point. They even replaced the youngest (male) Partridge kid.

What they did on The Brady Bunch seemed so much more fair: everyone got his/her own episodes, every season. Certain characters may have had a few more lines here or there, but it never felt completely unbalanced the way The Partridge Family was. As King of Comedy says, everyone was given a chance to shine.

'I can't escape it': Eve Plumb on trying to get work in Hollywood after playing Jan on The Brady Bunch (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4543764/Eve-Plumb-career-playing-Brady-Bunch-s-Jan.html)

Eve Plumb Credits One Role for Saving Her From Child Star Curse (https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/6725/brady-bunch-star-eve-plumb-credits-dawn-movie-saving-her-from-child-star-curse/)

A few years later, Plumb wanted to continue acting but was worried about being typecast as Jan. When fans find a character they love, they tend to hold on to the persona and don’t want to see the celebrity do anything else which can also lead to the dreaded child star curse. Plumb was cast in Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway in 1976 and credits the role of a teenage prostitute for saving her life and career.

She shared, “What happened for me was very fortunate. I auditioned for it and tested for it back in the day. … And I got the role. That was the giant leap that sent me from being Jan Brady to being an adult actress. By that time, I had already been in high school for several years. I was already becoming an 18-year-old. I was already very nearly adult. … I was very excited to play something very different and very challenging.”

She continued, “It was a really great opportunity. It was very popular. It did really well in the ratings. I haven’t faced a lot of typecasting. I’ve been fortunate enough to continue to be cast in different roles. Nobody has seemed to put me in a niche.”