Beyond the Bunch: The Brady Kids’ Best Non-Brady Roles

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Susan Olsen
One year before The Brady Bunch debuted, the youngest one in curls appeared in “Paint Your Waggedorn,” a first-season episode of Julia that offered a sincere if simplistic examination of prejudice. She plays Pamela, a visiting grandchild of one of Julia’s neighbors, who spends a day playing with Julia’s son Corey and his best friend, Earl J. Waggedorn. When grandma and grandpa find their walls covered in crayon drawings, they immediately pin it on the black kid, though Pamela is later revealed as the guilty party. The older folks learn their lesson.

Two things stood out to me about this episode. First, Corey suggesting a game of cowboys and Indians, so he can be the Indian and “pretend we’ve captured a white woman.” It’s one of those lines that comes out of nowhere and reminds us of what TV was like before cultural sensitivity training. The other is how Olsen, even at this young age, is already acting circles around series regulars Marc Copage (Corey) and Michael Link (Earl).

Mike Lookinland
Lookinland had just four post-Brady credits unrelated to that series. The most substantive was in the Secrets of Isis episode “To Find a Friend” shot in the year between the end of The Brady Bunch and the start of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

Every episode of this series featured a kid that had to be sorted out by Isis, and here it’s friendless Tom Anderson (Lookinland), who steals his father’s gun to trade it for a ride on a stranger’s dirt bike. Of course, that kid steals the gun and Tom doesn’t even get his ride. Regular visitors to this blog already know how much I love this show, so this would be an easy choice even if the only other contenders for Lookinland were not glorified walk-ons.

Eve Plumb
If I were basing choices on personal enjoyment, I’d opt for her appearance on Here’s Lucy as a teenager in love with guest-star Donny Osmond.

But with Eve Plumb there’s no escaping the more prominent and once salacious legacy of Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976).

It’s one of the rare 1970s TV movies that still get talked about from time to time. But unlike Brian’s Song and The Night Stalker, which people remember because they were really great, Dawn was noticed because it delivered a Brady as a teenage prostitute.

It’s not a good movie, and Eve Plumb is not particularly good in it. But it is certainly a memorable relic of its time. If you’ve never watched it, proceed with caution – the scene in which William Schallert takes Jan Brady back to a cheap Hollywood motel room can scar a classic TV fan for life.

Christopher Knight
“Max” (1977) is one of the more unusual episodes of The Bionic Woman, as the bionic woman herself is hardly in it. With Jaime Sommers confined to the hospital for a 50,000-mile tune up, the spotlight shifts to a bionic German Shepherd named Max. Christopher Knight plays Bobby, the teenage nephew of the dog’s guardian. It’s a substantial role that carries the episode and he handles it well, even when he has to channel Jon Provost for the dialogue scenes with a dog.

Maureen McCormick
It’s not surprising that the girl who played overachiever Marcia appeared in more interesting non-Brady projects than any of her TV siblings. Before the series, a very tiny Maureen played young Endora in two episodes of Bewitched, and the rottenest of rotten kids in the Honey West episode “In the Bag.”

After the show you’ll catch her in a dozen or so guest spots on The Love Boat and Fantasy Island, and once again playing the daughter of Robert Reed in a 1978 episode of Vega$ called “The Pageant.”

But the one I keep coming back to “Street Games,” a 1975 episode of Harry O. She plays Nancy Wayne, a pregnant, drug-addicted runaway who witnesses the murder of her junkie boyfriend, and is now on the run from his killers. Given her own struggles with addiction, it’s not always pleasant watching her fiddle with a cigarette in a trash-strewn alley, or going through a traumatic withdrawal. Even stranger and sadder is the scene where Nancy tries to score from another addict played by Lani O’Grady, who lost her own battle with addiction back in 2001. It sticks with you.

Barry Williams
No other Brady Brunch cast member embraced his Brady status more than Barry Williams. I believe he still occasionally appears in 70’s-themed concerts, where he gamely dons the matador suit of Johnny Bravo and transports audiences back to simpler and happier times. I'm tempted to select his appearance as an altar boy in Dragnet's Christmas episode, as it's one I look forward to watching every year.

But I must choose “Up In the Air” (1982) from Three's Company, as it is widely considered the series’ best episode. At a party for a man Janet is trying to impress (played by Williams), Jack gets loopy on booze and tranquilizers, and John Ritter delivers a master class in physical comedy. It’s Ritter's show, but Williams carries off the straight man role with aplomb.

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I'm surprised you didn't mention Mike Lookinland's role in "The Towering Inferno." It was the best movie any BB kid was ever in. With Mike present, I told a fan, "Are you not familiar with Mike's screen career? He has appeared on screen with Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Fred Astaire, William Holden, Jennifer Jones, Faye Dunaway, Robert Wagner, Robert Vaughan, O.J. Simpson, Richard Chamberlain..." The fan said, "Wow, you were in all those movies?" Mike replied, "It was one movie." What you call an all-star cast.

Maureen McCormick also guest starred in an episode of "Lou Grant." She played the niece of Mrs. Pynchon, the owner of the newspaper, and she had a shocking secret. (No spoilers here!)