TMC
10-21-2023, 08:40 PM
https://www.nickiswift.com/1422142/dark-secrets-cast-the-brady-bunch/
BY BRENT FURDYK/OCT. 21, 2023 11:15 AM EST
It seems odd to describe "The Brady Bunch" as groundbreaking, but at the time of its 1969 premiere, it absolutely was. The notion of a blended family was certainly a new one for television, particularly in the sitcom format, as the wedding of Mike (Robert Reed) and Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) brought together six kids from their previous relationships — his three boys, and her three girls — into one big unconventional family. Were they divorced? Had their spouses died, or perhaps, serving lengthy prison sentences? Bizarrely, it was never addressed; in fact, none of the Brady kids, nor their parents, ever once mentioned that two other parents who were, for whatever reason, completely out of the picture.
Viewers didn't notice — or didn't care — and watched in such numbers that the show became a TV phenomenon that ran for five hit seasons and then garnered new generations of fans via reruns that aired endlessly throughout the decades that followed.
The show's wholesomeness was certainly a big part of the appeal, looking back. Yet the family-friendly hijinks that viewers watched unfold on TV screens didn't tell the whole story. As the series' young stars grew older and began telling their stories, another narrative emerged of salacious secrets from behind the scenes.
BY BRENT FURDYK/OCT. 21, 2023 11:15 AM EST
It seems odd to describe "The Brady Bunch" as groundbreaking, but at the time of its 1969 premiere, it absolutely was. The notion of a blended family was certainly a new one for television, particularly in the sitcom format, as the wedding of Mike (Robert Reed) and Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) brought together six kids from their previous relationships — his three boys, and her three girls — into one big unconventional family. Were they divorced? Had their spouses died, or perhaps, serving lengthy prison sentences? Bizarrely, it was never addressed; in fact, none of the Brady kids, nor their parents, ever once mentioned that two other parents who were, for whatever reason, completely out of the picture.
Viewers didn't notice — or didn't care — and watched in such numbers that the show became a TV phenomenon that ran for five hit seasons and then garnered new generations of fans via reruns that aired endlessly throughout the decades that followed.
The show's wholesomeness was certainly a big part of the appeal, looking back. Yet the family-friendly hijinks that viewers watched unfold on TV screens didn't tell the whole story. As the series' young stars grew older and began telling their stories, another narrative emerged of salacious secrets from behind the scenes.