One of the most fascinatingly insane TV disasters of all time: The BB Variety Hour

[TMC]

https://www.nathanrabin.com/happy-pl...ady-bunch-hour

People know The Brady Bunch Hour largely, if not exclusively, through The Simpsons’ ingenious parody of it as “The Simpsons Family Smile Time Variety Hour” on the classic eighth season episode “The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase.”

It’s a parody of spin-offs and abysmal, tacky variety shows (which is to say, variety shows) in general but it is very specifically a pitch-perfect, devastatingly funny parody of one absurdly tacky, abysmal variety show in particular: The Brady Bunch Hour, the Krofft brothers’ bizarre, notorious attempt to reinvent America’s favorite blandly idealized blended family as unlikely vaudevillians.



“The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase” host Troy McClure, who would have felt right at home on The Brady Bunch Hour pitches the variety show as an opportunity for the Simpsons “to show off the full range of their talents”, however, “one family member didn’t want that chance” but thanks to some creative casting, you won’t even notice her absence.

In “The Simpsons Smile Time Variety Hour” the lone holdout is predictably and realistically Lisa Simpson, who understandably would have seen the variety show as beneath her dignity, and, indeed, beneath the dignity of anyone who possesses dignity to begin with. In The Brady Bunch Hour the Brady Bunch veteran who is conspicuous in her absence is Eve Plumb, AKA the Real Jan.



Plumb might not have been the most popular or important Brady Kid but when she opted out of returning, not wanting to commit to either 13 episodes or a five year option for more shows, she instantly became not just an important cast member but the most important Brady kid because her absence completely invalidated an already surreally misguided, ill-conceived project.

Making a Brady Bunch variety show without Eve Plumb would be like making a Beatles variety show with a new, slightly revamped line-up of John, Paul, George and Freddie Joe. It wouldn’t matter how talented a drummer Freddie Joe might be. It wouldn’t even matter if he was a better drummer than Ringo. No, all that would matter is that Freddie Joe is not the drummer of the Beatles, a very famous group with a very well-known lineup, and consequently super-fans overjoyed at the Fab Four’s return would never accept him as anything other than a Fake Ringo whose presence alone transforms a potentially satisfying reunion into a deeply unsatisfying almost-reunion.

Under no circumstances could The Brady Bunch Hour have worked. At the risk of being hyperbolic, making the Bradys into variety show hoofers is arguably the single stupidest idea in the history of the universe. But replacing Eve Plumb with newcomer Geri Reischl in the role of Jan truly represents the maraschino cherry placed gingerly atop this three scoop **** sundae that is The Brady Bunch Hour.

[MIKEPR]

I'm still wonder what was the reasoning for making a variety hour out of a show that was out of production at that point?

[dakert]

I got into the Brady Bunch re runs in the summer of 1976 so when the BB Variety Hour came along in January 1977 I was ready for it. It was only on once a month so cut it some slack