Why did "The Brady Brides" and "The Bradys" fail

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I'm sure that this has been asked before but I thought about this again after watching the "13 Week Theatre" videos on the Brady Bunch sequel TV series from the 1981 and 1990 respectively.

Pab, the producer and narrator of "13 Week Theatre" believes that in the case of The Brady Brides, audiences wanted to see the entire Brady family (as shown in the Brady Girls Get Married pilot movie) instead of just Marcia, Jan, and their new husbands (with occasional appearances by Carol and Alice).

He adds that when the series proper began with the fourth episode, "Living Together", instead of merely a continuation of The Brady Bunch that showed where the characters now were, following the end of the series in 1974 (I don't know if The Brady Bunch Variety Hour is really "canon", so I'm not going to acknowledge it right now) what we essentially got instead, was The Odd Couple. Basically, Pab suggests that The Brady Brides didn't give more of what people truly wanted from a Brady Bunch associated series.

As for The Bradys, Pab simply said that it was the complete anti-thesis of The Brady Bunch. Whereas on the original series and even A Very Brady Christmas (which inspired the creation of The Bradys, due to the massive ratings that particular movie garnered when it first aired on CBS in 1988), all of the problems were solved by the end of the episode.

But on The Bradys, in Pab's own words, misfortune stalked the family on a nonstop basis. And more importantly, none of the problems were completely resolved. The Bradys after being the family that everybody aspired to be like, turned out to be completely miserable like everybody else.

There were obviously other issues that the show had to deal with. First and foremost, Maureen McCormick didn't come back as Marcia. Also, CBS in their infinite wisdom, scheduled The Bradys at the 8 p.m. timeslot against Full House and Family Matters on ABC, which were constant ratings winners at the time. Those shows simply put, dominated the family demographic that CBS wanted for The Bradys. And just like with the original TV series, Robert Reed had issues creatively, which were so bad, that it is generally believed that had their been a second season of The Bradys, his character would've been killed off.

[A.C.]

Loved both shows....especially THE BRADYS

To be honest I thought THE BRADYS was a great progression. It made the family seem more REAL because they actually were dealing with grown up problems and puts into perspective some of the overblown stuff like failing the driving test etc from the original series.

And the fact they had the courage to make Bobby paralyzed and not miracuously recover made me give it mad props....that was bold, daring and a welcome change of always sticking with the status quo.

[TVFactFan]

Because the public had seen enough of the Bradys by that 80's and 90's

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Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Because the public had seen enough of the Bradys by that 80's and 90's

From the looks of it, it appears that both The Brady Brides and The Bradys were never organically intended to be weekly TV series. The Brady Brides came to be after the reunion movie about Marcia and Jan's wedding. But NBC in their infinite wisdom, cut the movie up in three half hour installments, before we finally got the series proper in the "fourth" episode.

The Bradys was created in no small part due to the big ratings success that A Very Brady Christmas gave CBS. Supposedly, the Schwartz's originally planned on making a movie or two for CBS a year. That was one of the reasons why Maureen McCormick didn't want to come back, as she wasn't at the time (having recently given birth) willing to do a weekly series.

Both NBC and CBS were in third place at the time, and they were just about desperate for anything.

[RetroTVNitekatt]

As I recall, the 1981 Writer's strike impacted THE BRADY BRIDES...and for whatever reason, NBC opted not to renew for a second season. I don't think ratings were an issue at this point - it did "ok".

[TMC]

It's kind of an "open secret" by know, but I now wonder how much Maureen McCormick's personal issues at the time, affected The Brady Brides and how far it could go. Maureen's substance abuse problems around the time that The Brady Brides was in production was pretty out of control to the point that it held up production several times.

This likely explains why Maureen's part was so underwritten you could argue, in A Very Brady Christmas. Although Sherwood Schwartz and his son, Lloyd tried to help her, they may have gone into A Very Brady Christmas not knowing if she would be reliable.

Again, before anybody jumps to conclusions, I have absolutely no proof if Maureen's personal issues at the time, was the absolute main reason why The Brady Brides had such a short-run. But it does give you some additional food for thought about what may have "gone wrong" with that show.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by RetroTVNitekatt

As I recall, the 1981 Writer's strike impacted THE BRADY BRIDES...and for whatever reason, NBC opted not to renew for a second season. I don't think ratings were an issue at this point - it did "ok".

Also, I wonder how much Marcia and Jan's husbands contributed to the failure of The Brady Brides. The "13 Week Theatre" episode like I said, blamed the short-run on the notion that fans of the Brady Bunch didn't want to see Marcia and Jan in an Odd Couple like show. I think that suggesting that people merely wanted to see a straight up continuation of The Brady Bunch is a bit of a cop out.

Like I said, I wonder if viewers simply didn't like Marcia and Jan's husbands more than the idea that they simply didn't want to see a show that only focused on the two eldest Brady girls.

Basically, don't you think that Wally and Philip were both guys that neither one of them would have dated as teens? They both seemed like dullard husbands who they had zero chemistry with. Also, how can a beautiful girl like Marcia end up with a goofy, nerdy loser like Wally in the first place?