'The Brady Brides' Totally Miscast!

[Brian Damage]

I think the reason this sitcom failed, is because Marcia ended up marrying a total nerd!. No offense to the guy, but for someone like Marcia Brady, it really seemed unbelievable she would wind up with a guy named Wally Logan...Agree? Disagree?

[Tweety]

I couldn't stand the guy who played Wally OR the guy who played Phillip. Wally was a nerd and Phillip was a dweeb.

Terrible casting for both parts.

[catlover79]

Hey...I liked Wally. Then again, I'm a Jerry Houser fan - is very prolific in voiceover work and such.

Besides, if Jerry Houser hadn't been cast as Wally, Maureen McCormick may not be here today (according to her book). Check this out:

http://www.thegregbradyproject.com/2...-of-the-story/

I always suspected that Jerry Houser was a good guy. Jerry Who? Oh, ye of little Brady knowledge! Jerry Houser, the actor who portrayed Wally Logan, aka The Man Who Married Marcia Brady. I’ve always thought that he is probably a very nice person. Now, I know that the image an actor projects as a fictional character is often unrelated to the true nature of the human being who is speaking the lines. Take Margaret Hamilton, for example, whom we remember as the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. Turns out she wasn’t evil (who knew?). So just because Wally Logan always seemed like the best brother-in-law a family could have, it doesn’t mean that Jerry Houser must therefore be similar. It’s just that his performances seemed endearingly genuine to me. Thanks to Maureen McCormick’s new autobiography, Here’s the Story, I now know that my hunch was on the money.

Oh, you won’t hear much about Houser in the barrage of promotion and press coverage concerning this book. No doubt you’ve heard a salacious detail or two (or three or four) by now, and whether it’s the nature of modern media or the provocation of a publisher that knows sleaze sells, most all of the publicity has taken a decidedly negative slant. There’s little point in elaborating upon those details here. But what’s struck me the most about what I’ve read and heard in all of the recent press is that the positive and redeeming part of Maureen’s story is being largely ignored. I’ll be the first to admit that Here’s the Story isn’t likely to win any literary prizes, but there’s more here than the tabloid headlines would suggest. Some of it is difficult to read, not because of the accounts of very un-Brady-like behavior but rather due to the pathos of an addict repeating the same mistake again, and again, and yet again. Just when it seems like our autobiographer has pulled herself together, she descends into another self-indulgent relapse of destructive behavior. By the time she began working on The Brady Brides, she was a total mess. That’s when Jerry Houser came along.

At first he was smitten with her and sought a romantic relationship. She soon decided they weren’t right for each other. That was far from the end of things, however, as a sincere friendship evolved between the two. He was concerned for her health. He visited her regularly. They took long walks and talked about their lives. One night, he took her into a church, and…(hold your ears, Hollywood)…he prayed for her. Out loud, even. And soon he brought her to his home church, where she met the man she would marry in real life. Nothing changed overnight, but it was the beginning of the end of an addict giving in to her addiction. I would call Jerry Houser a genuinely good guy, wouldn’t you?

So rest assured, folks, it’s not just the story of a lovely lady who was binging, coking up, and sometimes hurled. Like a prodigal daughter, this is also a tale of redemption. You won’t hear about it from most every other media outlet, but take it from The Greg Brady Project: Here’s the Story is ultimately an inspiring testimonial of how faith and commitment can overcome our darkest days.

[70s show watcher]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Hey...I liked Wally. Then again, I'm a Jerry Houser fan - is very prolific in voiceover work and such.

Besides, if Jerry Houser hadn't been cast as Wally, Maureen McCormick may not be here today (according to her book). Check this out:

http://www.thegregbradyproject.com/2...-of-the-story/

I always suspected that Jerry Houser was a good guy. Jerry Who? Oh, ye of little Brady knowledge! Jerry Houser, the actor who portrayed Wally Logan, aka The Man Who Married Marcia Brady. I’ve always thought that he is probably a very nice person. Now, I know that the image an actor projects as a fictional character is often unrelated to the true nature of the human being who is speaking the lines. Take Margaret Hamilton, for example, whom we remember as the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. Turns out she wasn’t evil (who knew?). So just because Wally Logan always seemed like the best brother-in-law a family could have, it doesn’t mean that Jerry Houser must therefore be similar. It’s just that his performances seemed endearingly genuine to me. Thanks to Maureen McCormick’s new autobiography, Here’s the Story, I now know that my hunch was on the money.

Oh, you won’t hear much about Houser in the barrage of promotion and press coverage concerning this book. No doubt you’ve heard a salacious detail or two (or three or four) by now, and whether it’s the nature of modern media or the provocation of a publisher that knows sleaze sells, most all of the publicity has taken a decidedly negative slant. There’s little point in elaborating upon those details here. But what’s struck me the most about what I’ve read and heard in all of the recent press is that the positive and redeeming part of Maureen’s story is being largely ignored. I’ll be the first to admit that Here’s the Story isn’t likely to win any literary prizes, but there’s more here than the tabloid headlines would suggest. Some of it is difficult to read, not because of the accounts of very un-Brady-like behavior but rather due to the pathos of an addict repeating the same mistake again, and again, and yet again. Just when it seems like our autobiographer has pulled herself together, she descends into another self-indulgent relapse of destructive behavior. By the time she began working on The Brady Brides, she was a total mess. That’s when Jerry Houser came along.

At first he was smitten with her and sought a romantic relationship. She soon decided they weren’t right for each other. That was far from the end of things, however, as a sincere friendship evolved between the two. He was concerned for her health. He visited her regularly. They took long walks and talked about their lives. One night, he took her into a church, and…(hold your ears, Hollywood)…he prayed for her. Out loud, even. And soon he brought her to his home church, where she met the man she would marry in real life. Nothing changed overnight, but it was the beginning of the end of an addict giving in to her addiction. I would call Jerry Houser a genuinely good guy, wouldn’t you?

So rest assured, folks, it’s not just the story of a lovely lady who was binging, coking up, and sometimes hurled. Like a prodigal daughter, this is also a tale of redemption. You won’t hear about it from most every other media outlet, but take it from The Greg Brady Project: Here’s the Story is ultimately an inspiring testimonial of how faith and commitment can overcome our darkest days.

im a huge jerry houser fan too

[70s show watcher]

i foud it strange that jan ended up with an anil retentive stick in the mud like philip in the brady bunch jan always seemed to go for the more laid back types like wally

[ZeldaGilroy]

Thanks for sharing that Monika! I haven't read Maureen's book yet. I am a Jerry Houser fan as well and I always liked him on the Brady Brides and the reunion movies. That was a great story about their relationship.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by ZeldaGilroy

Thanks for sharing that Monika! I haven't read Maureen's book yet. I am a Jerry Houser fan as well and I always liked him on the Brady Brides and the reunion movies. That was a great story about their relationship.

It's a great read. Jerry Houser is also on Facebook and I have had the pleasure to "friend" him. What a terrific guy. Here is his voice in an old Keebler's ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UKrNez6Zgk

Here are two podcasts featuring Jerry and the actress who played his daughter on a show for Focus on the Family. He refers to himself as the man who married Marcia Brady.

http://whitsendblog.org/?s=jerry+houser

[lucyandethel]

I agree, the Brady brides had potential but it was horribly cast. Sorry.

[cocytus]

I disagree.

The Brady Bunch was a limited concept that had reached its organic end when the main series was canceled. That's why the subsequent follow up series failed; there was nothing left for them to portray.

[Jude The Obscure]

the writing was more at guilt, than the casting.....had Sherwood handed off the scripts to more polished professionals, we might have seen a better overall product.

[Jack Gomez]

I didn't mind Jerry Houser as Marcia's husband. He was goofy and nerdy, but on the original series Marcia was shown at times to be into geeky types like Charlie and Harvey the kid who collected bugs.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by Jack Gomez

I didn't mind Jerry Houser as Marcia's husband. He was goofy and nerdy, but on the original series Marcia was shown at times to be into geeky types like Charlie and Harvey the kid who collected bugs.

Very true!!

[Jude The Obscure]

Proving that Marcia wasn't the shallow type deep down

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by Jude The Obscure

Proving that Marcia wasn't the shallow type deep down

Exactly. As far as I can tell, Mo and Jerry are still friends (I happen to know he is still in touch with Susan and Leah Kalish, as I am FB friends with all of them).

[Marvo301]

I just finished re-reading Brady Brady Brady by Sherwood and Lloyd Schwartz. Lloyd mentioned that when he wrote the script for "The Brady Girls Get Married" the TV movie that led to The Brady Brides he used two actor friends of his as models for the characters of the husbands. Those friends were Jerry Houser and Ron Kuhlman. When they held open auditions for the roles over 100 actors turned up and two of them stood out above the rest and were cast in the roles. And it was none other than Jerry Houser and Ron Kuhlman! Lloyd speculates that because he wrote the characters as a Jerry Houser type and a Ron Kuhlman type those two were able to play the characters better than all the others who auditioned. So you could say the roles were perfectly cast not miscast as others have thought.