Kathy Garver reveals 'Family Affair' almost moved to ABC before 'The Brady Bunch'...

[TMC]

...debut

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainm...cab8fa7d&ei=76

Story by Victoria Miller

Family Affair was one of the most beloved television shows of the late 1960s, but another family-themed sitcom seemingly stole its thunder near the end of its run.

In a new interview on the Classic Conversations Podcast with Jeff Dwoskin, Kathy Garver, the actress who played Cissy Davis on the CBS series, revealed that there was a solid deal for Family Affair to move to ABC amid CBS’ infamous "Rural Purge” in 1971.

Garver, 80, noted that Family Affair was still popular when CBS ended its five-season run as part of a sweeping network house-clearing. But producers had an idea for a path forward for the show about a bachelor uncle (Brian Keith) raising his orphaned nieces and nephew (Garver, Anissa Jones, and Johnny Whitaker).

“The truth that was CBS, they were getting away from the rural shows, the family shows, and they were going more into All in the Family instead of Family Affair,” Garver shared on the podcast. “But our producers Don Fedderson and Ed Hartmann, I mean, they were really brilliant. I must say they had a vision for this show … so they went to ABC and they said, ‘How about we'll do the show here?’ They were just about to sign on the dotted line when The Brady Bunch appeared.”

Garver added that with its blended family theme, The Brady Bunch copied many of the elements of Family Affair.

“After we had set the groundwork for a different kind of family,” she said. “And you will watch The Brady Bunch with Susan Olsen, she will even say that she put her hair in little ponytails like Anissa. She even had a little doll. They really imitated and copied what had been a success from our show, and they put it in a different kind of family, different kind of mode. That's what happened, that's where it went.”

Garver also explained that The Brady Bunch used the same type of problem-solving formula that Family Affair did, ending with a little moral at the end of each episode.

The Brady Bunch aired on ABC for five seasons, from 1969 to 1974. Fans barely had a chance to miss the Bunch when they returned for a musical variety show in 1976 and went on to become a full-fledged franchise with TV movies and spinoffs.

“We could have gone on like that, but God had different things for our clan,” Garver said of Family Affair.

The youngest one in curls

The pig-tailed character Buffy Davis made Jones a star on Family Affair. Her signature bespectacled doll, Mrs. Beasley, is still available six decades later via Ashton-Drake.

On The Brady Bunch, Cindy Brady (Olsen) wore her blonde hair in spiraled pigtails and carried around a doll named Kitty Karry-All.

Olsen, now 64, appeared on The Social Club Live and revealed she competed against Jones for a movie role and lost. She also revealed she loved Cindy Brady’s pigtails at first “because they made me look like Buffy on Family Affair and I really liked her.”

After a while, Olson tired of the routine, which required her to sleep in curlers due to her straight hair. She also had to bleach her hair to make it blonder.

By the end of The Brady Bunch, Olsen “hated” the pigtails and convinced producers to let her wear her hair down.

[DJM77]

I'm having a hard time making sense of the timeline of this story. She's talking about how Family Affair was about to move to ABC in 1971, but that then The Brady Bunch appeared and that killed the deal. The Brady Bunch appeared two years before then.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by DJM77

I'm having a hard time making sense of the timeline of this story. She's talking about how Family Affair was about to move to ABC in 1971, but that then The Brady Bunch appeared and that killed the deal. The Brady Bunch appeared two years before then.

Agreed, I don't know what she's talking about. The only thing I can think of, maybe Fedderson and/or Hartmann pitched it to someone at ABC who thought it was a possibility so that person kicked it upstairs only to have it rejected by the higher up because the network was already airing The Brady Bunch. Family Affair is really an expansion of the Bachelor Father concept with maybe a little of My Three Sons thrown in for good measure. The Brady Bunch is really a blended family.

[paul.austin]

Originally Posted by TMC

...debut

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainm...cab8fa7d&ei=76

Anissa's last TV appearance - the Cavett show in 1971 - it is on Yew Choob - where someone has forced her to wear the Buffy hairdo that she hated and she lies about her own age at one point. Also likely forced upon her.

Burn, Don Fedderson. And burn well.

[paul.austin]

Originally Posted by Duster76

Agreed, I don't know what she's talking about. The only thing I can think of, maybe Fedderson and/or Hartmann pitched it to someone at ABC who thought it was a possibility so that person kicked it upstairs only to have it rejected by the higher up because the network was already airing The Brady Bunch. Family Affair is really an expansion of the Bachelor Father concept with maybe a little of My Three Sons thrown in for good measure. The Brady Bunch is really a blended family.

Garver is 80 years old. That's why she's muddled the TL.

[biffbronson]

Originally Posted by Duster76

Family Affair is really an expansion of the Bachelor Father concept with maybe a little of My Three Sons thrown in for good measure.

The Dennis O'Keefe Show, 1959-60 on CBS, was another earlier series about a single dad, Hal Towne, raising his child -- a boy in his case. As a widower, Hal had more in common with Steve Douglas and Mike Brady than Bill Davis.

Anyway, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, 1969-72 on ABC, also explored the concept. It seems to me that ABC would have that existing series in mind (concurrent with The Brady Bunch) as well if Family Affair were pitched to continue on their network.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by biffbronson

The Dennis O'Keefe Show, 1959-60 on CBS, was another earlier series about a single dad, Hal Towne, raising his child -- a boy in his case. As a widower, Hal had more in common with Steve Douglas and Mike Brady than Bill Davis.

Anyway, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, 1969-72 on ABC, also explored the concept. It seems to me that ABC would have that existing series in mind (concurrent with The Brady Bunch) as well if Family Affair were pitched to continue on their network.

Good examples (I had to look up Dennis O'Keefe Show I was unfamiliar with it). An example of a blended family from an earlier time in TV history is the Danny Thomas Show. Danny Williams who had two children married Kathy O'Hara (Marjorie Lord) after his first wife died, Kathy was a widow with a daughter (Linda) who Danny later adopted.