Did "The Brady Bunch" forget it's premise after a couple of seasons?

[steevo]

When the series started, it was "the story of the lady meeting the fellow and knowing that the crew (kids included) had to form a family, becoming the Brady Bunch." Yet as the series went on, the pemise seemed to be entirely forgotten.

The two most glaring examples:

In season three, at the end of part three of the Grand Canyon adventure, hte family were meeting the indian family. The father of the tribe, upon seeing how large the Brady family is, comments to MIke "Mr. Brady, you have very large tribe. You would be honored among our people" to which Carol responds "he had help".

In season five when Jan is going for and winning "most popular girl" Peter comments that "blood is thicker than water", referring to the loan Jan was going to give him for helping her win the contest.

Did it seem to anyone else that the boys "forgot" their original mother and vice versa the girls their father?

Then again, maybe I shouldn't think too much into these things.

[TeeVeeCloset]

Originally Posted by steevo

When the series started, it was "the story of the lady meeting the fellow and knowing that the crew (kids included) had to form a family, becoming the Brady Bunch." Yet as the series went on, the pemise seemed to be entirely forgotten.

The two most glaring examples:

In season three, at the end of part three of the Grand Canyon adventure, hte family were meeting the indian family. The father of the tribe, upon seeing how large the Brady family is, comments to MIke "Mr. Brady, you have very large tribe. You would be honored among our people" to which Carol responds "he had help".

In season five when Jan is going for and winning "most popular girl" Peter comments that "blood is thicker than water", referring to the loan Jan was going to give him for helping her win the contest.

Did it seem to anyone else that the boys "forgot" their original mother and vice versa the girls their father?

Then again, maybe I shouldn't think too much into these things.

Interesting thoughts BUT first this was a Sherwood Schwartz show which meant no reality, no sadness or rememberance of family's past or even present....we barely even heard of either side of grandparents! It's like going on a three hour tour and bringing all your clothes and money, ala Gilligan!

The premise was just used to set up the show via the famous theme song, just like gilligan, a simple song for anyone who watches the show once or every week, knows the premise right away.....as for the points you bring up, it shows that the bunch did become a family and never thought of their previous lives again. Otherwise Greg really would have been attracted to Marcia if he really didn't think of her as his sister....lol.....

your not the only one who thinks of these things, it bothered Robert Reed all the time as he complained about the scripts and premise weekly!

[Waterston_Fan]

Originally Posted by TeeVeeCloset

Interesting thoughts BUT first this was a Sherwood Schwartz show which meant no reality, no sadness or rememberance of family's past or even present....we barely even heard of either side of grandparents! It's like going on a three hour tour and bringing all your clothes and money, ala Gilligan!

The premise was just used to set up the show via the famous theme song, just like gilligan, a simple song for anyone who watches the show once or every week, knows the premise right away.....as for the points you bring up, it shows that the bunch did become a family and never thought of their previous lives again. Otherwise Greg really would have been attracted to Marcia if he really didn't think of her as his sister....lol.....

your not the only one who thinks of these things, it bothered Robert Reed all the time as he complained about the scripts and premise weekly!

Yeah. And plus, you can't really blame Robert for getting all hot and bothered with the scripts.. Some of them were kinda lame..

EDIT: Something else I just thought of. It might just be too difficult to explain things to people who think that all 6 kids are yours.

One time I went shopping with my brother in law since I needed something. The cashier thought he was my dad since I looked like I was about 12 and he was obviously much older. My brother in law just indicated, yeah she was but later explained he just thought it'd be easier. Besides, it was a one time thing we went to get something, had to get some soda.

[SKay]

Another time when the premise seemed to have been forgotten was when Carol heard Greg singing and said proudly, "It just goes to show that talent is inherited." (Sorry I can't remember the exact words.)

[Smartboy]

The episode that you are thinking of is the second season episode in which the primaru theme is Greg being caught smoking. The secondary plot was his new job in a band. I was thinking of this inconsistancy myself. Although I am also not sure of her exact words, I think that she said something about talent being in the blood. By the way that she said it, it was clear that she was referring to her own blood and not her second husband's!

[sixfingers]

A lot of shows seem to forget their premise after a while. In the last half season of the Patty Duke show, for example, we don't see Patty's "identical" cousin anymore even though the orginal theme song was retained. This was strange considering that Patty Duke played both roles!
[when I first saw these shows on Nick at Nite it was in the last season and I wondered what that bit at the end about "identical cousins" had to do with it!]

People do often speak without thinking and phrases such as "blood is thicker than water" are often used in situations where they don't really apply. This happens a lot in real life, not just on sitcoms.

My brother pointed to an episode (kelly's kids?) where carol talks about "Bobby and Cindy's Baby pictues" and indicated that conflicted with the premise "saying they have baby pictures of them together" but that
could also mean "Bobby's baby pictures" and "Cindy's baby pictures" not necessarily both in the same picture. Also, the term "baby pictures" is often
used quite loosely to refer to children who are in the preschool or even early elementary school age range. Since we don't know how long Mike and Carol were going together before they married, there could have been pictures of Bobby and Cindy together in that age range.

I have never come accross a really clear cut contradiction of the shows premise, though it did seem to be forgotten in the sense that as the show developed the plots were increasngly about normal family situations rather than about the adjustment of a "blended" family.

[Lee G]

I don't see it as if the premise was forgotten, it's more like a natural thing where after awhile the boys treated Carol as if she were their real mom and the girls treated Mike as if he were their real dad. And vice versa. Some early episodes in the 1st season play like the "new" family is getting used to one another. Later on, they were simply one big happy family for the most part.

In the last season of The Patty Duke Show, I believe Patty was getting weary playing the dual role of Cathy, so they wrote her brother Ross into more of those episodes. In some season three episodes, Cathy doesn't appear at all. I think that was a positive thing as Patty and Ross were always funny together. The 3rd season is my favorite. One of the best episodes is when Patty and Ross are handcuffed together. Lots of funny moments in that episode.

[bluthree]

What I dont understand is why the girls last name changed to Brady when Mike and Carol got hitched? My mother has 3 kids from a previous marriage.
And when she married my dad her kids last name did not change to my dad's last name.
When I was realy little it use to puzzle me why I had 2 brothers and a sister that had a diffrent last name from me. My mom would refuse to tell me why. Of course when I got older I found out why.
You think the girls on The Brady Bunch would of want to keep there real fathers last name in respect of his memory. Well that is if he's dead? They never did tell us who and what happen to Carols first husband?
And Mikes first wife was only mentioned on the first episode. Yeah Bobby had a picture of his mom. What became of that picture? After the first episode it was never scene again.

[Waterston_Fan]

Originally Posted by bluthree

What I dont understand is why the girls last name changed to Brady when Mike and Carol got hitched? My mother has 3 kids from a previous marriage.
And when she married my dad her kids last name did not change to my dad's last name.
When I was realy little it use to puzzle me why I had 2 brothers and a sister that had a diffrent last name from me. My mom would refuse to tell me why. Of course when I got older I found out why.
You think the girls on The Brady Bunch would of want to keep there real fathers last name in respect of his memory. Well that is if he's dead? They never did tell us who and what happen to Carols first husband?
And Mikes first wife was only mentioned on the first episode. Yeah Bobby had a picture of his mom. What became of that picture? After the first episode it was never scene again.

Well, I think we can assume their real dad is dead. But I kinda think that maybe their real dad was a jerk and maybe Carol didn't want to remember him because he was a jerk. Heck someone is writing a Brady story about Carol's first husband and Mike's first wife and how MIke and Carol met. It's really good.

Not sure why your mom didn't want to tell you why your half siblings have different last names though.

[tdr]

I think the examples of where one of the Bradys implies they are not a 'mixed' family are just "double-sided" humor. Anyone who knows the show knows Carol is not Greg's real mother, so her saying he inherited her talent is a funny impossibility-- but in case someone hears that scene and is not acquainted with the facts, it's humor of false ego.

"Blood is thicker than water" is a line used figuratively in many circumstances. One example is in Water Lord's A Night to Remeber, about the Titanic's tragedy. After it sunk, people swimming in the freezing water tried to climb onto an overturned boat and those that got there first tried to push others away because there's no way it could hold all of them. But one who got aboard was a baker, and when he recognized one of the swimmers as a fellow baker he knew, Lord writes "Blook proved thicker than water..." and the first guy helped the second climb on (they were not relatives). In a similar way, since the Bradys had been a family for quite some time, the phrase is still appropriate, though not in its biological meaning.

[bluthree]

Originally Posted by Waterston_Fan

Well, I think we can assume their real dad is dead. But I kinda think that maybe their real dad was a jerk and maybe Carol didn't want to remember him because he was a jerk. Heck someone is writing a Brady story about Carol's first husband and Mike's first wife and how MIke and Carol met. It's really good.

Not sure why your mom didn't want to tell you why your half siblings have different last names though.

Well because my moms first husband was a jerk. He treated my mom and his 3 children like crud. and he could care less if they ate or not. When she divorced him she wanted nothing more to do with him. Then she met my dad and my dad was totaly difrent then my moms first husband. He did not beat on her and he made sure that her 3 kids had food on the table. Well thats the story that she finaly told me one day. With my dad she had 2 kids my brother Donald and then finaly me. So I have one full brother and 2 half brothers and 1 half sister. And we was nothing like The Brady kids growing up. I used to fight with my full brother all the time. We even threw things at each other. We also use to fight over the TV. My brother wanted to watch Chips and I wanted to watch The Brady Bunch or what ever else was on at the same time.

[James]

Originally Posted by steevo

In season three, at the end of part three of the Grand Canyon adventure, hte family were meeting the indian family. The father of the tribe, upon seeing how large the Brady family is, comments to MIke "Mr. Brady, you have very large tribe. You would be honored among our people" to which Carol responds "he had help".

I think Carol could be referring to Mike's first wife as far as "help" is concerned.

[sixfingers]

Originally Posted by bluthree

What I dont understand is why the girls last name changed to Brady when Mike and Carol got hitched?

I've often wondered about that one myself. I think it might be evidence
for the "divorce" theory, which is what Schwartz wanted to do in the first place.

[steevo]

Originally Posted by James

I think Carol could be referring to Mike's first wife as far as "help" is concerned.

It's possible, but the way I was looking at that was that the tribe leader was looking at the entire family when he said that.

All very good points.

[Jack1000]

How about this one in "Call Me Irresponsible" (Greg goes to work after school for Mike)

Greg is thinking about his future and wants to save up for "A Car of his own."

"A car of your own!?" Carol shrieks. "Oh no Greg, no, I was worried enough when you got a bicycle."

There's a continuity issue here. When Mike and Carol met, Greg was about 14-15 years old. I think most kids would have maybe 3 bikes by than. I don't think Carol knew Mike when Greg would have been say 6-8 years old and gotten his first bicycle!

She shouldn't have been worried about Greg having a bike a 14! But that's what the script implies!

Other issues:

Where did Greg's big attic room come from? It wasn't in the early seasons, and at that time, when Greg wants more privacy and his parents are talking about his own room, Mike says Greg can't move into the attic because he's not 2 1/2 feet tall! Mike, being an architect must have remodeled.

How about the BBQ pit in the back yard? We see it at least once in, "You Can't Win Them All" when the Brady's planned get-together dinner menu with friends keeps changing because other commitments keep coming up. But what happened to the BBQ?

There are many more. But I give Robert Reed much more credit than criticism for keeping realism in the show. Nothing against Sherwood, but I don't think The Brady Bunch would have lasted as long as it did if Reed had not had influence on the scripts and story-lines.

Jack