The Brady Bunch Was Created Over A Sentence in the Newspaper - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Brian Damage · 08-08-2010, 11:23 PM

TVP: Is it easier to write for a character you invented yourself or for someone like Freddie the Freeloader who is the creation of someone else?

SS: That was not the issue. I could write just as well for one as the other. What creating the shows did for me was to let me present ideas. The easiest show I ever developed was not "Gilligan's Island." That took a long time. "The Brady Bunch" was very simple. That was based on four lines I read in the Times, the LA Times, It was a filler item in the paper that said that that year some 29 percent of all marriages had a child or children from a previous marriage. And that's all I needed. Two sentences, three sentences gave me "The Brady Bunch" because I realized when you're talking about a third of all marriages, you're talking about a whole new sociological phenomenon.

I was so sure there would be 900 writers writing ideas based on that, that I raced to the typewriter and wrote the premise for "The Brady Bunch" and wrote the script as quickly as I could. And much to my surprise, nobody else even saw that item or it never meant as much to anybody else as it did to me. To me, it opened a new door in situation comedy. The premises were much easier to come by; they had not been done before.

http://www.tvparty.com/sherwood-schwartz2.html

catlover79 · 08-09-2010, 01:34 AM

Cool story!!

comedyfreak · 08-10-2010, 08:07 AM

yeah, cool story.

08-08-2010, 11:23 PM	#1
Brian Damage I'm Rich Bitch Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 03, 2002 Location: What Ain't No Country I Ever Heard Of...They Speak English in What? Posts: 63,108	The Brady Bunch Was Created Over A Sentence in the Newspaper TVP: Is it easier to write for a character you invented yourself or for someone like Freddie the Freeloader who is the creation of someone else? SS: That was not the issue. I could write just as well for one as the other. What creating the shows did for me was to let me present ideas. The easiest show I ever developed was not "Gilligan's Island." That took a long time. "The Brady Bunch" was very simple. That was based on four lines I read in the Times, the LA Times, It was a filler item in the paper that said that that year some 29 percent of all marriages had a child or children from a previous marriage. And that's all I needed. Two sentences, three sentences gave me "The Brady Bunch" because I realized when you're talking about a third of all marriages, you're talking about a whole new sociological phenomenon. I was so sure there would be 900 writers writing ideas based on that, that I raced to the typewriter and wrote the premise for "The Brady Bunch" and wrote the script as quickly as I could. And much to my surprise, nobody else even saw that item or it never meant as much to anybody else as it did to me. To me, it opened a new door in situation comedy. The premises were much easier to come by; they had not been done before. http://www.tvparty.com/sherwood-schwartz2.html Attached Images
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08-09-2010, 01:34 AM	#2
catlover79 God Bless Val Forum Addict Join Date: May 29, 2006 Location: Bewitched in Ohio Posts: 70,376	Cool story!!
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08-10-2010, 08:07 AM	#3
comedyfreak Cheers! Forum Fanatic Join Date: Dec 14, 2005 Location: Sunny California Posts: 11,058	yeah, cool story.
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