50th Anniversary 2019

[Bachu]

TBB started in 1969 so 2019 marks the 50th anniversary. The original house has been bought and is being gutted to recreate the house which I imagine will be done in time for the anniversary.

What I would like to see in 2019 as way of celebration is a release of the original show in HD on blu ray. As it was made on film, assuming the negatives are still being stored, it should look as good as those HD releases of original Star Trek and Lost in Space. Oh to see the show in HD; to see all the detail in the Brady house in HD...

I would also love to see them release The Brady Girls Get Married in its 2 hour format as well as the entire series of The Brady Brides on dvd. HD would be great but I am not greedy. It surprised me that they released The Brady Bunch Kids on dvd and surprises me more that this isn't on dvd.

They released one of the three hour long versions of The Bradys in the compete series boxset so come on, release all three two hour movies or all six hour long episodes on dvd as well.

The rest of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour would be great too!

[OH Nuts!]

Here’s the story of a lovely series....! Happy Golden Anniv. BB!

[Bachu]

Since the 50th I have started a re-watch of the series. Some observations; a patio scene in Ennie, Mennie and a patio scene in Alice Doesn't Live Here were filmed at the same time as they use the same camera angles and the furniture is all in the same places on the patio with the same kids books spread out. Alice Doesn't Live Here gives us Alices' bedroom and Katchoo shows us the original laundry room. The view from Alices bedroom door shows nicely how it links to the utility room and how later to probably speed things up that they just erected a flat wall outside her room.

In fact, lots of the early episodes show us angles where fourth walls have been placed correctly giving the true layout of rooms.

[jehobden]

There is a Brady 50th anniversary DVD out now which includes almost every Brady-related series except for the variety hour. I'm not sure you'll ever find "The Brady Girls Get Married" in 2-hour form, since NBC split it into the first 4 episodes of THE BRADY BRIDES. The movie may have been recut into a 2-hour format later for syndication, but that's not how it was originally aired.

[Bachu]

Originally Posted by jehobden

There is a Brady 50th anniversary DVD out now which includes almost every Brady-related series except for the variety hour. I'm not sure you'll ever find "The Brady Girls Get Married" in 2-hour form, since NBC split it into the first 4 episodes of THE BRADY BRIDES. The movie may have been recut into a 2-hour format later for syndication, but that's not how it was originally aired.

I did. It is on the 50th dvd set.

Originally Posted by Bachu

I watched The Brady Girls Get Married this evening though on the disk menu it is called The Brady Brides. It is the first time I have seen it in the TVM format. I noticed the following differences between this and my off air copies:

When Wally and Marcia are in the canteen and Marcia goes to pay for the meals, there are a couple of extra lines in the sitcom version however, the sitcom version then cuts out about 1-2 minutes of action with Jan and Phillip and starts from Phillip producing a list of songs.

After Carol finishes her telephone conversation with Peter about him not being able to make it to the wedding, Alice and Carol have a couple of extra lines in the sitcom version. The sitcom version, like the TVM cuts to the restuarant but the TVM has extra scenes in that it starts with Wally and Marcia lone together before Jan and Phillip join them. On the sitcome version the scene starts from the girls talking over each other. A cut towards the middle of the
restuarant scene also occurs in the sitcom version with perhaps 30-60 seconds cut.

The TVM has extra lines between Alice and Carol after Carol mentions putting Gilbert and Sullivan back together again.

At 1hr 6mins and 40 seconds there is some tape damage visible on screen so these prints came from a video tape and were not remastered.

In the TVM Phillip is walked into the house blindfolded. In the sitcom version this scene starts from Philip saying he hates the idea of them all living together.

In the TVM Marcia has a scene with the movers, followed by a scene with Jan and the movers. The Jan scene is not on the sitcom version.

EDIT - And of course part of Carol singing is cut from the dvd but is in the sitcom version and no doubt is in the TVM version but just not this version because of the rights no doubt.

[Bachu]

Just watched Sorry, Right Number. Some random observations.

Jan gives advice to a friend about removing freckles. Something she will soon want advice about herself.

At 8 minutes into the episode Marcia wears a dress that Jan will wear at the end of The Not So Ugly Duckling.

We get to see the curtains in Mikes Den in an open position. The view looks like the view from the first floor with the garage to the left.

I think this is the first appearance of Sam the Butcher.

The picture quality has been better than I remembered on the dvds though in this episode there are many shots that are quite poor.

[Bachu]

Almost at the end of season 1. Some observations. Your see the fourth wall quite a bit in this season. There are close ups in the boys room where the directors have taken the time to wheel in the fourth wall. We see this a few times with the living room as well and even some shots showing the patios doors from within the house looking out.

On the HGTV show one of the presenters said you never saw the fourth wall in Mikes den. She was wrong. Even I knew that to be false. You see it in Father of the Year and also in close up during a later episode.

Quite a few scenes with Mike and Carol take place in the family room during season one. The cast often said this was their favourite set but I never cared for the look of the den that much. I really didn't like the wood pannelling much.

[Waterston_Fan]

I just ordered the 50th anniversary DVD and I really hope there is no cuts on it.

[Bachu]

Originally Posted by Waterston_Fan

I just ordered the 50th anniversary DVD and I really hope there is no cuts on it.

Bad news I'm afraid.

Originally Posted by Bachu

So, my set arrived today. Impressions.

Despite the fact that this was being shipped to Great Britain it came in a jiffy bag so the sleeve that covers the plastic casing was a tad dented on the corners and at least one tiny bit of plastic in the set had broken.

The sleeve is still too garish IMO.

The plastic casing is rubbish. 3 disks stacked on top of each other and those 3 disks are stacked on another 3 disks!

I would say that there is no remastering on this set for Bunch. Menus and trailers are the same as the the original release about 10 years ago. Surely MyGyver is no longer NEW to dvd!!!

The pilot and Greg Gets Grounded are still missing the tag. The 3 parters are still missing the grid before the tag. Episodes are not subittled.

The only improvement these disks have is that the episode titles are written on the disks for Bunch and Kids.

All 10 episodes of Brides are on one disk. Episode titles are not written on the disks which is odd as they are brand new to dvd. Episodes 1-4 are present in the TVM format. The song mentioned is cut. Picture quality is poor IMO. It is also poor for the rest of the sitcom episodes. For some reason a modern Paramount logo bookends the start and end of these episodes or at least the couple I looked at. There is one extra in the form of material for a sitcom about the movers. What I quickly looked at suggests most of it came from the actual Brides episode. All episodes of Brides appear to be subtitled.

Did the first two episodes of The Bradys air as a feature length one? That is how they are presented here. All episodes appear to be subittled. Ad break bumpers tend to appear at the mid point of the episodes. Picture quality looks a bit like vhs and not much better. Next time trailers are present as are recaps on some episodes. Perhaps they were never there on all of them? All three episodes are split over two disks. Episode titles do not appear on the disks. The laugh track is present on the clips I looked at. The song that Florence sings at the wedding just after the minister arrives is the same as the version I have that I recorded from Sky which was the movie length version so unless that one was cut or there is another song I am guessing a song wasn't cut here but no promises. I think I noticed a variation in the theme music but the vocal one that was only on the feature length versions did not jump out at me so I am guessing it is not present even as an extra.

The Brady Bunch Movie - when I popped the disk in, it looked just the same as the original dvd so i would say it is.

I have not checked the Kids disks or the rest of the movies but I am guessing they are carbon copies of what came before.

If you are a big fan of the show and have never bought it on dvd before this is a bargin for everything that you get. If, like me, you own all the other stuff released all you get here that is new to dvd is Brides and Bradys which will porbably be released in a year of two as separate releases.

So, they put the show out for it's 50th with no remastering of the original episodes from the episodes I checked to see if missing stuff was put back. Brides and Bradys appear to have had no remastering either. It really is a shoddy release. Episodes remastered from HD prints can look really quite stunning even when presented on SD disks and watched through a blu ray player but we are not even given that here. If they couldn't pull out all the stops for the 50th set I doubt they ever will. To not even present Brides and Bradys in a remastered format is also really poor. I honestly do not get how a show as popular and as famous as this (I mean, what other show had the house used for establishing shots gutted so the inside matches the outside?) got such poor treatment.

[Waterston_Fan]

Damn I don't like its un cut. The tracking for the order shows it should be here today but the dates they gave was Monday through Wednesday.

I do see other Brady Bunch sets and I wonder if I should just buy those for the original but the ones that has Paramount on the top looks like it should be uncut.

[Bachu]

I think every set that has been released has the exact same cuts. Also, I think the Dentist episode is missing the final grid but the tag is there. On the whole I wouldn't let what amounts to about perhaps 2-4 minutes of footage across 5 seasons put you off. Niggles aside, I don't think it gets any better than this.

[Bachu]

Now onto season two. Surprised that considering i have seen the show quite a lot that I am still really, really enjoying it. I have been taking screengrabs as well focusing mainly on the set and looking at things rarely seen such as shots of the fourth wall, unusual angles and close ups of things rarely seen such as that second sink in the Brady kitchen to the right of the larder/pantry. Just when did they have a sink behind the twin sink on the island???

The directors have got a bit lazy in the second season. A close up of Greg going on a date in Call Me Irresponsible should feature the wall with the TV behind him. Instead it was filmed against the closed curtains where the dinning table is. Earlier Alice talks to Mr Brady in his den and stands behind it. We should see a blank wall with a picture but instead they have moved Mikes desk for the close up of Alice so she has the window with the curtain drawn behind her.

Mind, Going Steady films the parents bedroom by removing the wall behind Carols mirror so we get some nice shots of the room and see a bit of the fourth wall with the larger window behind the desk. We also get to see a better look at the cabinet behind the room devider behind the double bed. This episode actually gives us some very interesting shots overall. Marcia walks in front of the house set; Marcia is tracked running from the front door to the kitchen and we get a nice shot looking down the Brady staircase.

Picture quality is still on the whole very good indeed save for the bits that must have been put back in from poor quality versions of complete episodes. This is probably why my memory of the picture quality is that it is poor. When it is poor sometimes it is poor but on the whole the picture quality is very good indeed for about 85-95% of the episodes.

[Bachu]

Have reached the end of season two where I will take a rest for a while as Christmas approaches. Some observations. Think I said before that I am taking screengrabs of the sets. It is amazing how lazy the producers/directors got in the second season. Quite a few shots are either framed so they do not go to the effort of erecting the fourth wall or use a wall that is wrong. A close up of Greg leaving for his date at the end of the Irresponsible episode features a curtain behind him rather than the wall with the tv on it.

But some directors still liked to shake it up. Tell It Like It is features many shots of the fourth wall in Mikes office. In fact, they clearly removed the window wall to film from that angle.

In A Very Brady Renovation they mention just one prop in the living room is from the set. In season two that vase often swaps places with another vase on the 'pony' wall. Perhaps Alice could never remember where things came from as she was dusting!

[MIKEPR]

Originally Posted by Bachu

I think every set that has been released has the exact same cuts. Also, I think the Dentist episode is missing the final grid but the tag is there. On the whole I wouldn't let what amounts to about perhaps 2-4 minutes of footage across 5 seasons put you off. Niggles aside, I don't think it gets any better than this.

Wonder why they'd cut anything out?

[Bachu]

I would hazzard a guess and say that they couldn't find the missing bits from the original series. I doubt they did it on purpose.