JamesG
02-05-2025, 02:02 AM
Barry Williams Says "The Brady Bunch" Creators Tried to Diversify "The Whitest Show on Television"
by Maureen Lee Lenker
February 4, 2025
Here's the story of a family named Brady, who tried to bring some diversity to their show... Though the core cast of "The Brady Bunch" was all white, Barry Williams (Greg) says the creators made genuine efforts to diversify the show.
"I know that we're the whitest show on television, but I do think that there were very deliberate attempts to try and integrate the show,” Williams said on his recap podcast The Brady Bros.
"There were a couple of episodes that specifically dealt with that, and we see this a lot, especially when there are crowds and then maybe there are two or three friends, we’ll see different ethnicities and et cetera."
The conversation arose because Williams and his cohost and fellow Brady, Christopher Knight (Peter), were discussing the "Miss Popularity" episode of the ABC sitcom, the 13th episode of season 5 from December 1973.
Williams singled out the episode for the introduction of a supporting character, Shirley, played by Jere Fields (then credited as Jerelyn Fields). Fields appears in the episode as a classmate of Jan Brady (Eve Plumb), though it marked her only appearance on the show.
"I thought this was nice because this is a young lady of color, and this didn't happen a lot,” Williams said.
"There was a lot of influence there by [producer] Lloyd [Schwartz] and [creator] Sherwood [Schwartz] of making sure everyone was represented.... This is one of those cases, and she's adorable, and it was fun to see."
https://ew.com/barry-williams-says-the-brady-bunch-creators-tried-to-diversify-show-8786123
by Maureen Lee Lenker
February 4, 2025
Here's the story of a family named Brady, who tried to bring some diversity to their show... Though the core cast of "The Brady Bunch" was all white, Barry Williams (Greg) says the creators made genuine efforts to diversify the show.
"I know that we're the whitest show on television, but I do think that there were very deliberate attempts to try and integrate the show,” Williams said on his recap podcast The Brady Bros.
"There were a couple of episodes that specifically dealt with that, and we see this a lot, especially when there are crowds and then maybe there are two or three friends, we’ll see different ethnicities and et cetera."
The conversation arose because Williams and his cohost and fellow Brady, Christopher Knight (Peter), were discussing the "Miss Popularity" episode of the ABC sitcom, the 13th episode of season 5 from December 1973.
Williams singled out the episode for the introduction of a supporting character, Shirley, played by Jere Fields (then credited as Jerelyn Fields). Fields appears in the episode as a classmate of Jan Brady (Eve Plumb), though it marked her only appearance on the show.
"I thought this was nice because this is a young lady of color, and this didn't happen a lot,” Williams said.
"There was a lot of influence there by [producer] Lloyd [Schwartz] and [creator] Sherwood [Schwartz] of making sure everyone was represented.... This is one of those cases, and she's adorable, and it was fun to see."
https://ew.com/barry-williams-says-the-brady-bunch-creators-tried-to-diversify-show-8786123