Questions about episodes Robert Reed likely hated

[gregrob]

1. Is it true that Reed refused to appear in the pie fight scene in "Welcome Aboard?"

2. Reed appeared only briefly in "Dough Re Mi" and was in none of the scenes with the kids singing. Did he think those scenes were too corny?

3. I would have expected Reed to hate the far fetched episode "Two Pete's in a Pod." When both Peters appear in the same scene together near the end, Reed is nowhere to be seen although Carol and Alice are present.

[Jack1000]

Great Topic,

Robert was a stickler for realism and would often insist that scripts/storylines be changed to produce a less than "slapstick approach." Sherwood and Lloyd said that he hated comedy and had no sense of humor. There was always great friction between Reed and the Schwartzes, concerning how funny or serious storylines should be.

I liked the balance of humor/realism in the shows. Kudos to Reed for working so hard to maintain that. But Sherwood and Lloyd are great people as well, and because of a mixture of seriousness and comedy, the series worked!

According to Barry Williams, Growing Up Brady, an excellent reference except for the horribly inaccurate episode guide, Reed refused the following:

1.) He wanted nothing to do with the pie-fight scene. He thought the script was weak in itself. Robert may have found it unrealistic in the first place for Oliver's family to leave him with the Brady's for such a long unspecified period of time.

2.) He might have resented "Dough Re Me" saying, "How could a nice conservative family like us have kids who could sing so well in one episode, when it was never established they could sing in the first place? " Robert however liked to act and sing, and probably make less of a fuss about it because of this.

3.) According to GUB, Bob DID find it unbelivable that any child would run into someone at school, with so close of a resemblence that he fools his parents. "Two Petes in a Pod."

4.) Bob HATED the tag sequence of "The Impractical Joker" according to GUB. He was also infuriated with the scene that had him with Greg and Myran the mouse in the garage. He tries to blow on Myran to make him move in the right direction. He got so pissed at Sherwood, that he went over to a bar, like he did many times after arguing with him, and came back drunk when they were rehersing that scene! He finally said something like, "I don't give a f**K! Shoot this!"

5.) He also wouldn't appear in "The Hair Brained Scheme" because he found it riddiculous that any kid would be interested in selling "Hair Tonic." He did show up out of camera range, while the episode was being shot, complaining about it and sulking.

6.) He hated everything associated with Skip Farnum in "And Now A Word From Our Sponsor" and the fact that a family with a sense of frugality and caution would allow six children to dirty their own clothes. He thought the names of the laundry detergents were stupid. He hated Carol's overly happy, "Clear and Bright, then we switched to Champ" speech.

7.) He MUST have hated crawling on the floor and ribbiting like a frog in "Eeenie Meenie, Mommy Daddy."

8.) He thought the scene in "The Grasss is Always Greener" where he falls in the kitchen three times was total slapstick. When they first rehearsed the egg-dropping scene, Bob hit the floor really hard, and Ann said to him:

"Do you think you can play the scene realistically now?" Bob said, "You know Ann, I was thinking, when I fell down like that, I deserved this!" This is why Bob's filmed egg scene where he falls is a little slow and overly cautious, according to GUB.

9.) He must not have liked the obvious time filler in "Is There A Doctor in the House?", when Carol and Alice are doing a chalkboard chart of illnesses that the family has had. You can hear some disgust in his line, "The doctors have kept records that they can transfer from one to the other." It also appears that in his line, "Now, this is wrong, none of the kids have had shots for distemper." that his lips say, "rabies." Alice says, (and I am sure Reed objected to this.) "That's Tiger's column, might as well keep a record for the vet." He might have considered rabies an outdated term and demanded that post-production change that line.

10.) He also hated the Tiger/Fluffy slapstick sequence in "The Honeymoon."

Jack

[comedyfreak]

Originally Posted by Jack1000

Great Topic,

Robert was a stickler for realism and would often insist that scripts/storylines be changed to produce a less than "slapstick approach." Sherwood and Lloyd said that he hated comedy and had no sense of humor. There was always great friction between Reed and the Schwartzes, concerning how funny or serious storylines should be.

I liked the balance of humor/realism in the shows. Kudos to Reed for working so hard to maintain that. But Sherwood and Lloyd are great people as well, and because of a mixture of seriousness and comedy, the series worked!

Jack

I liked the balance as well, and I give him credit for wanting something you could be proud of. My favorite seasons are 1 and 2.

[passionsfan79]

My favorite season is 4,and 5 but I like mostly all of the episodes though.

[Mikado]

Makes you wonder WHY he signed up to do this show in the first place

[Pitooey]

Originally Posted by Mikado

Makes you wonder WHY he signed up to do this show in the first place

You're right Mikado... I'm saddened to hear how he really felt about the show. I love this show and I figured he liked doing it. Jack you're so informed about Robert Reed. How do you know so much about him and about almost every episode that he hated doing?

I love reading these tidbits.

[comedyfreak]

Originally Posted by Mikado

Makes you wonder WHY he signed up to do this show in the first place

I think he signed up cause he didn't think the show would last or get picked up. When it did, he was comitted to it already.

[Jack1000]

Pit,

I read Barry's book and others. Actually, I am one of those "Brady Bunch" fanatics! So, I either know or remember a lot of what went down with how people felt about the series, and am also a noted authority on the episodes!

Thanks for your interest!

Jack

[Jack1000]

Originally Posted by comedyfreak

I think he signed up cause he didn't think the show would last or get picked up. When it did, he was comitted to it already.

Yea,

He really liked working with the kids and pretty much most of the crew except for Sherwood and Lloyd. It was known that he would often argue with directors as to how scenes should be shot. (He didn't get along with John Rich, who directed the first six episdoes.) I got the impression that Florence thought that he was "too strict" with details at times. She said on a couple of occasions to him things like, "Bob, we're not doing Shakespere here, this is a sit-com series." I think it was hard to deal with anything that wasn't reality based. I don't think he took criticism very well either. He got into a big thing with Sherwood when Ann and Florence were cooking strawberries in a scene from "Jan, the Only Child." He was supposed to say something like, "It sure smells like strawberry heaven." Bob insisted that "Strawberries have no odor when you cook them." and Sherwood said, "Bob, I can smell them all over the set!" Bob wouldn't leave his dressing room to go out to reherse the scene and insisted that his line be changed. He wound up saying, "I do believe I've died and gone to strawberry heaven."

According to many sources, Loyd and Sherwood said he was VERY difficult to work with. He would take scripts and rewrite them, often in consultation with Doug Cramer, who was President of Paramount TV at the time. Bob would send his script to Doug with the notes about what he would be fighting with the Schwartzes about, and Doug would often approve of the changes and send them down to Sherwood like the changes came from HIM. (The Paramount head.) But Bob was getting approval on changes/storylines that he wanted.

Than when Doug left, Bob started often working with other writers. They brought in a script editor, who befriended Reed, Tam Spiva, and they worked together on scripts. But Sherwood (and later Loyd as well) had that final say, and they said they often would allow Bob to change things as he wanted just to keep him happy, but I don't think they ever REALLY got along with each other. I could certainly see why after five years, Sherwood wanted him out.

Jack

[Mikado]

Originally Posted by comedyfreak

I think he signed up cause he didn't think the show would last or get picked up. When it did, he was comitted to it already.

hmmm yeah, I believe i DID hear that on the E-talk Brady Bunch special, come to think of it

[Mr. Television]

Dispite what he felt about the show though, he did appear in all The Brady Bunch sequel series so he never ran away from the show like some other actors have. I'm glad the show ended after 5 seasons because I can't picture the show without Robert Reed.

[Mikado]

Originally Posted by I Walk The Line

Dispite what he felt about the show though, he did appear in all The Brady Bunch sequel series so he never ran away from the show like some other actors have. I'm glad the show ended after 5 seasons because I can't picture the show without Robert Reed.

I expect hed have been killed off, and newly widdowed Carol Brady ( now with 6 kids to take care of ) would meet a man named John Egg with 6 kids of his own and.................The dozen Eggs, the dozen Eggs, thats the way we all became the dozen Eggggggggsssss!!!!

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by Jack1000

...
1.) He wanted nothing to do with the pie-fight scene. He thought the script was weak in itself. Robert may have found it unrealistic in the first place for Oliver's family to leave him with the Brady's for such a long unspecified period of time...

Great job with this info, Jack..thanks!


btw, another thing about that Oliver episode...didn't Oliver's parents just kind of leave him at the Brady's front door? I can't remember that scene when Oliver shows up...was it one of those in which they leave him at the front door, and then drive off honking their horn as Mike and Carol wave?

At any rate, what kind of parents would just leave their 7 or 8 year old kid like that without coming in and talking to Mike and Carol, at least thanking them for taking the brat off their hands for an indefinite period of time?

Originally Posted by Jack1000

2.) He might have resented "Dough Re Me" saying, "How could a nice conservative family like us have kids who could sing so well in one episode, when it was never established they could sing in the first place? " Robert however liked to act and sing, and probably make less of a fuss about it because of this...

Yeah, someone pointed out on another thread that Reed paid the kids NOT to sing at the end of the Davy Jones episode.

Originally Posted by Jack1000

3.) According to GUB, Bob DID find it unbelivable that any child would run into someone at school, with so close of a resemblence that he fools his parents. "Two Petes in a Pod."

Yeah, two kids resembling each other is one thing, and being identical is bad enough, but being able to fool their families, particularly their parents, and Alice...that was a little much..

Originally Posted by Jack1000

...
5.) He also wouldn't appear in "The Hair Brained Scheme" because he found it riddiculous that any kid would be interested in selling "Hair Tonic." He did show up out of camera range, while the episode was being shot, complaining about it and sulking.

Yeah, I always thought it was the orange hair that Reed thought was ridiculous, but I never thought of this angle...why WOULD any kid be interested in selling "Hair Tonic"? What kind of kid's magazine would advertise such a contest??

Originally Posted by Jack1000

6.) He hated everything associated with Skip Farnum in "And Now A Word From Our Sponsor" and the fact that a family with a sense of frugality and caution would allow six children to dirty their own clothes. He thought the names of the laundry detergents were stupid. He hated Carol's overly happy, "Clear and Bright, then we switched to Champ" speech.

That was never one of my favorite episodes, either... and I always thought Carol's speech was stupid and waaaay over-acted..

Originally Posted by Jack1000

7.) He MUST have hated crawling on the floor and ribbiting like a frog in "Eeenie Meenie, Mommy Daddy."

I don't know about that...fathers crawl around on the floor making animal noises, especially for their young kids... I'm not sure that this scene was so unrealistic. Now if, as in the "Leave it to Beaver" episode, "Beaver the Bunny", if this had been a 5th season episode, with Cindy playing a fairy princess, and Reed hopping around ribbiting, THAT would have been bad!
But fathers play with their young kids a lot in this way.

Originally Posted by Jack1000

8.) He thought the scene in "The Grasss is Always Greener" where he falls in the kitchen three times was total slapstick. When they first rehearsed the egg-dropping scene, Bob hit the floor really hard, and Ann said to him:

"Do you think you can play the scene realistically now?" Bob said, "You know Ann, I was thinking, when I fell down like that, I deserved this!" This is why Bob's filmed egg scene where he falls is a little slow and overly cautious, according to GUB.

Yeah, that was funny! The quote that I read (from Ann telling this story) was that Reed said, "You know, I was thinking all the way down (as he was falling) that I deserved this!"

Originally Posted by Jack1000

9.) He must not have liked the obvious time filler in "Is There A Doctor in the House?", when Carol and Alice are doing a chalkboard chart of illnesses that the family has had. You can hear some disgust in his line, "The doctors have kept records that they can transfer from one to the other." It also appears that in his line, "Now, this is wrong, none of the kids have had shots for distemper." that his lips say, "rabies." Alice says, (and I am sure Reed objected to this.) "That's Tiger's column, might as well keep a record for the vet." He might have considered rabies an outdated term and demanded that post-production change that line.
Jack

I always forget to watch Reed when he says the distemper line... I gotta remember to watch for that...

Originally Posted by Jack1000

10.) He also hated the Tiger/Fluffy slapstick sequence in "The Honeymoon."

Yeah, he always said that the wedding scene looked like something out of Gilligan's Island (wow, can you imagine how much Reed must have hated THAT series?)..

[tdr]

Bob wouldn't leave his dressing room to go out to reherse the scene and insisted that his line be changed. He wound up saying, "I do believe I've died and gone to strawberry heaven."

He insisted on realism and wanted his line changed to that?