Coming-Out Party

[Madame X]

I just watched "Coming-Out Party" (season 2) where Carol and Cindy get their tonsils out. I like this episode, but there have always been things that bugged me about it:

-Bobby is not in this episode.

-Dr. Howard is the visiting doctor. What was all that fuss about girls' vs. boys' doctors in season one's "Is There a Doctor in the House?" I thought the family was going to use the newly-formed practice of Dr. Porter and Dr. Cameron to solve everything!

-Try to hoist a 5 lb. bag of charcoal 6 feet over a fence gripping fishing line with bare hands. Alice did it!

-When the doctor is examing Cindy, Mike is chewing gum (for the first and only time ever?) but then he has no gum in his mouth when he hugs Carol. What was the point of Mike chewing gum in this scene anyway?

-Mr. Phillips invited the entire family on his boat for fishing. First of all, the footage showed a sailboat, not a fishing boat and no people were visible. Secondly, the boat would have to be the size of a charter boat to hold 10 people!

-At the end when the family came home, why did Mike bring his fishing pole (without line) into the kitchen? Nobody else did, and he walked right passed the garage where the poles were stored.

I did get a kick out of one of Alice's lines in this episode though:

Mike: Alice, seasickness is just a state of mind.
Alice: Well I'm a native of that state!

[Bachu]

-Bobby is not in this episode. - Perhaps something suddenly came up???

-Dr. Howard is the visiting doctor. What was all that fuss about girls' vs. boys' doctors in season one's "Is There a Doctor in the House?" I thought the family was going to use the newly-formed practice of Dr. Porter and Dr. Cameron to solve everything! Dr Porter and Dr C were on their honneymoon...

-Try to hoist a 5 lb. bag of charcoal 6 feet over a fence gripping fishing line with bare hands. Alice did it! - she is made of stearn stuff!

-When the doctor is examing Cindy, Mike is chewing gum (for the first and only time ever?) but then he has no gum in his mouth when he hugs Carol. What was the point of Mike chewing gum in this scene anyway? - Perhaps Robert Reed thought they were just having a camera run through?

-Mr. Phillips invited the entire family on his boat for fishing. First of all, the footage showed a sailboat, not a fishing boat and no people were visible. Secondly, the boat would have to be the size of a charter boat to hold 10 people! - I wouldn't know the difference and I bet that is the only footage they could find.

-At the end when the family came home, why did Mike bring his fishing pole (without line) into the kitchen? Nobody else did, and he walked right passed the garage where the poles were stored. - He wanted Alice to clean it???

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by Madame X

I just watched "Coming-Out Party" (season 2) where Carol and Cindy get their tonsils out. I like this episode, but there have always been things that bugged me about it:

-Bobby is not in this episode.

-Dr. Howard is the visiting doctor. What was all that fuss about girls' vs. boys' doctors in season one's "Is There a Doctor in the House?" I thought the family was going to use the newly-formed practice of Dr. Porter and Dr. Cameron to solve everything!

I did get a kick out of one of Alice's lines in this episode though:

Mike: Alice, seasickness is just a state of mind.
Alice: Well I'm a native of that state!

- This was one of a series of 2nd season eps that left out 1 of the 6 kids. 5 eps were made like this, but apparently the producers changed their minds when it was time to exclude Greg. Here are the other eps that are missing Brady kids:

"What Goes Up..." no Marcia, even though Alice mentions how she likes her hamburgers

"The Tattletale" no Peter, even though Cindy tattles on him too

"A Fistful of Reasons" no Jan

"Call Me Irresponsible" no Cindy, and the kids other than Greg have very little to do in this one

Barry Williams mentioned on his "Ask Barry" Q&A site years ago that this was a move to save $. The kids probably had contracts that didn't specify that they'd appear in each ep, so the producers probably did this once almost all the way around before giving up when it was "Greg's" turn to miss.

About Dr. Howard, he apparently lasted long enough as the Bradys' doctor for a house call to check on Marcia's "illness" in the 4th season's "Today I am a Freshman".

[Madame X]

Originally Posted by jehobden

- This was one of a series of 2nd season eps that left out 1 of the 6 kids. 5 eps were made like this, but apparently the producers changed their minds when it was time to exclude Greg. Here are the other eps that are missing Brady kids:

"What Goes Up..." no Marcia, even though Alice mentions how she likes her hamburgers

"The Tattletale" no Peter, even though Cindy tattles on him too

"A Fistful of Reasons" no Jan

"Call Me Irresponsible" no Cindy, and the kids other than Greg have very little to do in this one

Barry Williams mentioned on his "Ask Barry" Q&A site years ago that this was a move to save $. The kids probably had contracts that didn't specify that they'd appear in each ep, so the producers probably did this once almost all the way around before giving up when it was "Greg's" turn to miss.

About Dr. Howard, he apparently lasted long enough as the Bradys' doctor for a house call to check on Marcia's "illness" in the 4th season's "Today I am a Freshman".

Great post, Jehobden! Thanks for the info about missing Bradys. I was curious about this and you saved me the time of finding the episodes. Also, that's interesting about Dr. Howard. I'll have to check it out.

[Bachu]

And Mike missed a few as well but that's another story

And even get me started on Tiger and Fluffy.

[McGillicuddy]

I remember a couple instances where a kid was missing, but I always thought the actor was sick or something. Never knew the absenses were on purpose!

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by Madame X

Great post, Jehobden! Thanks for the info about missing Bradys. I was curious about this and you saved me the time of finding the episodes. Also, that's interesting about Dr. Howard. I'll have to check it out.

Thanks! I can't take credit for it myself, as I found this info on the individual episodes' trivia on tv.com. I remember at one point trying to figure this out for myself and having a hard time. "Confessions, Confessions" was made around the same time as these other eps but obviously needed all 6 kids so all but Peter could confess to breaking "Mom's favorite vase" by playing "ball in the house".
It seemed to me that "Call Me Irresponsible" was also missing Marcia, but she does appear in one small scene, attempting to cheer up Greg in his bedroom after he first loses his job. I think that the syndicated version left out this scene, but Nick/TV Land restored it. Peter, Jan & Bobby are reduced to 1 or 2 short scenes where they're trying to raise $ for rides in Greg's future car, so as I said before, the kids other than Greg didn't have much to do here, and Cindy's absence precluded any scenes around the breakfast or dinner table in this one too.

[sixfingers]

Originally Posted by jehobden

-
...
"What Goes Up..." no Marcia, even though Alice mentions how she likes her hamburgers
...

She also supposedly brought Bobby a glass of milk. They acted as if she was there even though she wasn't. It's often been asked why they didn't do that in The Hair Brained Scheme with Mike. That would have been more plausible then saying he was out of town on business.

[Dude111]

I remember when Mike called and fooled Carole!! (She answered when she shouldnt have talked)

A good episode.......

[BestTVever]

This was discussed on the Real Brady Bros podcast. They guess leaving one kid out of each episode did save some money. I think it was in their contract so many shows. However towards the end of the series this was sort of abandoned.

Coming Out Party really shows how medicine has changed. I had my tonsils out when I was 5 in 1975. Today they rarely remove tonsils since its a major operation. But back in those days getting tonsils out was routine. Its ridiculous for a doctor to come to a house and look inside a mouth and schedule you for surgery. Removing tonsils on an adult is a much more dangerous kind of surgery. It was so common back in the early 70s. But its a very rare surgery today because its such an extreme measure for inflamed tonsils.

[OneWayFilms]

Including ALL six kids in every episode can be a real challenge. So, an occasional episode missing one child wasn't that noticeable. The episode's plot lines revolved around each character pretty evenly, giving each actor a chance to shine, so when an episode came around without them, it was hard to notice one missing.

it's a brilliant plan to save money and give the actors some well-deserved time off.

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by OneWayFilms

Including ALL six kids in every episode can be a real challenge. So, an occasional episode missing one child wasn't that noticeable. The episode's plot lines revolved around each character pretty evenly, giving each actor a chance to shine, so when an episode came around without them, it was hard to notice one missing.

it's a brilliant plan to save money and give the actors some well-deserved time off.

It did save some money but the kids were paid so little it would be a joke. I think they were paid $400 per episode. In 1970 that was big bucks for a child actor on a series. But hardly rich. Thats about $8,000 per year. The average income for a worker in the USA in 1970 was about $7,000. So they definitely had a good job. But for being on a major TV series not so much.
Barry Williams says all the time that the amount he was paid for A Very Brady Christmas was more than all the money in all 5 seasons of the Brady Bunch combined.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by OneWayFilms

it's a brilliant plan to save money and give the actors some well-deserved time off.

Hmmm I dont remember an episode where any werent in it... (I mean where 1 of them wasnt there)

Hmmmmmmm