My Rundown of the BigAppleCon Panel with the Brady Brothers on 10/2/10

[JamesG]

I attended the BigAppleCon on Sat. Oct 2, 2010 where Barry Williams, Chris Knight, and Mike Lookinland were at.

They held a special panel for one hour for the attendees. They didn't allow any video or audio feed so I did my best to recap what was said.

Hope you like it!







A fan mentioned that they all must be aware that Florence Henderson 'Mrs. Brady' is currently on Dancing with the Stars.

The fan asked if they planned on attending any of the tapings and if any of them have ever been approached to do the show?


Chris Knight said right away that he would “never do it” as he hates singing and dancing.

Barry Williams said that he “plans on visiting Florence sometime soon” but it wasn’t clear if he meant a private visit or a show taping.

However, they all said that they “are voting for her.”













Another fan asked what it was like working with Robert Reed on the show.


Mike Lookinland explained that there were two Robert Reed’s.

One was the one that they saw everyday on the set who “was always available to the kids at any time”, and the other was the one that fought with the Schwartz’s.


Lookinland and Knight explained that as kids they were all unaware of the behind-the-scenes feuds going on with Reed and the Schwartz’s. Lookinland said that most of the time he “came in, did his thing, and left” so he was clueless about anything else going on besides shooting his scenes.


Williams said that as he grew older on the set that he “sensed something was up” with the show.






Since the Schwartz’s were now being mentioned their new book Brady, Brady, Brady was brought up.


All of them mentioned that they “enjoyed the book very much.” They all said that to them it was very interesting to read from Sherwood about how he came up with the idea and what was involved with making the show happen.

To them nothing “shocking or surprising” came from Lloyd in the book so it didn’t interest them all as much.















Now it was time to discuss all of the Brady spin-offs and movies…


A kid asked why the parents weren’t in the cartoon "The Brady Kids" to which Lookinland replied “Well… it was The Brady Kids.”

Knight chimed in saying that “Yeah, with singing pandas there was no room for mom and dad.”







A fan then asked what it was like doing "The Bradys".


Barry Williams explained that television was changing and there was no way a show like "The Brady Bunch" could have succeeded in 1990, so the only option available was to do the dramatic approach.

He mentioned that his own personal opinion for "The Bradys" failing was that "The Brady Bunch" was wholesome and "The Bradys" was everything but that; that the fans “didn’t want to see The Bradys like this.”






This lead into the second motion picture A Very Brady Sequel.

Barry Williams went on to say that he thinks the second movie wasn’t as successful as the first because of how the characters were portrayed in it.

He specifically mentioned the “love thing” with Marcia and Greg and said again that “the fans didn’t want to see The Bradys like this.”







Another fan asked if there has been any talks of doing a serious 'Brady Bunch' movie.

Lookinland mentioned that there have been talks before and after both films about doing “a serious Brady Bunch movie” with the original cast, but they were “just talks.”








Now the infamous variety show "The Brady Bunch Hour" was brought up.


Lookinland said that back then he “was excited” about being a part of it but now he thinks that “it’s not the greatest thing that we ever did.” He also explained that back in the day variety shows were “the thing to do” and that The Bradys were thought to be “the right ones to do it.”


Knight, who’s known for hating to sing and dance, said that he “hated doing it.”

Williams just called it “ridiculous” and said that “everyone tried, but it didn’t work.”














A fan then asked Chris Knight about the duet album he did with Maureen McCormick ‘Marcia Brady’.


He explained that it “wasn’t his idea at all” and that at the time the show’s producers found out that Peter and Marcia were the most popular of 'The Bunch' and they looked to capitalize off of this with a music album.

He said what a producer told him back then, “Christopher, you are so famous right now that if you were to go out and spit on a record that somebody would buy that record.” and he said that he couldn’t believe it.


He said that he dreaded the recoding sessions but that Maureen didn’t seem to mind it, “that she likes singing better than me.”



The album never being officially released, except for promos, was Knight’s doing as he kept mentioning over and over that he didn’t like it so everyone agreed to pull the plug on it.












A fan then asked them how they all coped with their fame back then as kids.


Lookinland and Knight mentioned that they both hated it and Knight said that he wouldn’t leave his house for long periods of time except to go and do the show.


Williams said that he didn’t mind it and he was at the age “where he liked taking off his shirt all of the time” when the fame really took off.




Williams then explained that now it is much harder for the stars to lead private lives because everything is always in your face.

He mentioned that today you can tweet and video record us right now in this very room and the whole world will know what we are saying right this second, you couldn’t do that back then.

He said that “the starlets” of today would do anything for fame; especially “those kids on 'Jersey Shore',” which is very sad.







So that is the basic rundown of the panel from Saturday. After that they thanked everyone for coming on down and said that they are all headed back to the autograph table.

[Marvo301]

That was very interesting! Thanks for the report JamesG.

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by Marvo301

That was very interesting! Thanks for the report JamesG.

I'm glad you liked it.

[Tweety]

Sounds like an interesting time. Glad you made it over there, and thanks for posting those comments. Interesting that they didn't allow recording devices in there, but we're glad you took some good notes!

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by Tweety

Sounds like an interesting time. Glad you made it over there, and thanks for posting those comments. Interesting that they didn't allow recording devices in there, but we're glad you took some good notes!

Yeah, I believe it is up to the convention and the celebrity guests on if they will allow any recording devices for their panels.

Some of the bigger ones, like over at the San Diego Comic-Con, have it video recorded so that the panels can be included on the DVD releases. I know off-hand that "Supernatural" featured some con panels on their releases.



My rundown was pretty much basic and only included the important parts. I didn't mention a lot of the banter between themselves and the fans, things like that.

I'm glad you enjoyed it though.