I noticed in the 1988 TV special A Very Brady Christmas,the Brady house is all redecorated in 80s fashion,as opposed to the original late 60s early 70s look in the original series.Which I understand and find only natural.Styles change with each new decade and era.However,in the two more recent theatrical movies,The Brady Bunch Movie and A Very Brady Sequel,the house looks ecxactly the way it looked in the original TV series.But I suppose that was because these two movies were making fun of the show,by having the Brady family live in a time warp,mentally.But they must have used a different studio set for the 1988 Christmas show,leaving the original set restored.

The original set was never left in place -- each time you've seen it ("Brady Girls Get Married", "Very Brady Christmas", "Brady Bunch Movie"), you've seen a rebuilt set, although the props (like the horse statue )were kept around in storage. They often rebuilt the set in the same studio as the original, though.

It's very unusual for studios to keep sets of cancelled series around -- takes too much space, and it's cheaper to just rebuilt if the sets are needed again. The one exception I know of is the "All in the Family" set. Norman Lear thought he might use it again, wound up doing so in the short-lived "704 Hauser".

That,s true.I believe the Bunker home set was also reused for the All In The Family 20th Anniversary Special from 1991.I,ve actually seen Archie,s and Edith,s chairs on display at The Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington DC.

It's a real house, not a "set." It was repainted white during the 80's specials. But then they repainted it again closer to the original colors afterwards.

i thought it looked horrible in white

Originally posted by richheart
It's a real house, not a "set." It was repainted white during the 80's specials. But then they repainted it again closer to the original colors afterwards.

Although the house used for establishing shots is a real house, the interiors were shot on a set in a studio on the Paramount lot. The set was rebuilt for each special or movie (this is detailed in "The Brady Bunch Book"). It wasn't a matter of repainting the set for the late 80s specials: they simply built an updated set (the set used for the "Brady Girls Get Married", which looked like the original, was struck after production wrapped).

Did they use that same anique horse for the Very Brady Sequel movie that they used for the show? I never really did a side-by-side comparison of the two.

Yup, the same horse was used through all the movies and specials.

Actually, the interior house is a real, fully built, fully functioning house, whether you want to call it a "set" or not. There were no artificial stages used for the inside of the house. Every part of the house was real.

The outside photo is of a completely different house, which looks so different from what the real house must look like, it's absurd. Maybe the reason they didn't show the real exterior was to avoid fans.

Originally posted by richheart
Actually, the interior house is a real, fully built, fully functioning house, whether you want to call it a "set" or not. There were no artificial stages used for the inside of the house. Every part of the house was real.

According to both "Growing Up Brady" and "The Brady Bunch Book", the show was shot on Stage 5 of the Paramount lot. If you saw the set built in the studio, it's quite different from a real house; the ceilings are cut away, for instance, to allow for lighting, and in some rooms (such as the living room), the fourth wall is missing so that cameras can shoot from that angle. There's a picture in one of the books of Sherwood Schwartz in front of the living room sliding glass doors, and you can see where the set ends and the dark studio walls begin. I'm sure the oven, refrigerator, sinks, etc. were fully functioning, but I wouldn't consider it a fully built house, with four walls, a ceiling etc.

I always wondered about the window on the front of the house. What room was it for? The living room's vaulted ceilings made that room and impossibility.

It wasn,t a real window.They placed that window there for the the show,s exterior shots,I,m not sure why,I guess to make it more attractive to tv viewers.It was an artificial window nonetheless.

The reason I thought it was a real house was because I once read from an anthoritative source (I forget where), which mentioned that it was real, that all the rooms had four walls, ceilings, etc.

It may be that they are now trying to deflect fans away from it.

It is probably inside a studio somewhere (not outside). It seems like a pretty elaborate thing to "rebuild." Though I admit that's not impossible.

I wish they had showed more of the service area between the kitchen and Mike's den. One of the later specials mentioned a guest bathroom being there (I guess those were taboo on television or something).

As far as the "real" house that they used for exterior shots, I really dig the way it looks. Especially the way it looked back then. The contemporary style (for the time) definitely seems like a style that would definitely match the interior.

They must have really liked it too, because they took liberties by using a "split-level" house, where the house resides on a slope and the lower slope contains 2 stories, while the "downstairs" is really halfway between the 2 stories, adjacent.

Some exterior shots from the side corner (showing the front and some of the side of the house) really emphasize the split level nature. Those are cool shots.

For anyone that wants to see the actual Brady Bunch house (the house used in all the exterior shots) you can go see it whenever you want. The house is in California's San Fernando Valley. Studio City. Although it has some noticable differences than what it looked like on the show in the 70's. Plants in the front yard have grown, mostly the tree located near the driveway. The upstairs window is not there obviously since the show placed a it there to give then hint of second story to the house.

The most noticable difference though is the addition of a big white fence which now surrounds the house. The owners put it up because they got tired of so many Brady Bunch fanatics coming on their lawn and peaking through the windows.

I always liked the exterior shots of the Brady's house. And the mountains and hills in the background made it a very nice sight.

If I'm ever in California, I'd love to drop by with my camera and take a look at the house.

Here are some links about the house. You might find these interesting....

This link shows a ton of up close pictures of what the house looks like today. It even shows some aerial shots...

http://www.1164.com/burbank/bradys/


This link is from an article in 1994. It gives a big history over the house and how it has changed over the years-

http://davidbrady.com/times/latbrady.html

Here are some other great ones -

http://www.bigwaste.com/photos/ca/brady_bunch/

http://www.seeing-stars.com/ImagePages/BradyBunchHousePhoto.shtml

http://www.ibiblio.org/team/history/mirrors/bradys/bbhshist.htm