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The Bradys

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The Bradys
GenreComedy-drama
Written by
Directed by
Starring
Theme music composerFrank De Vol (main title)
Opening theme"The Bradys" performed by Florence Henderson
Ending theme"The Bradys" (instrumental)
ComposerLaurence Juber
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersSherwood Schwartz
Lloyd J. Schwartz
ProducerBarry Berg
CinematographyKing Baggot
EditorSteve Shultz
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time44–48 minutes
Production companiesBrady Productions
Paramount Television
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseFebruary 9 (1990-02-09) –
March 9, 1990 (1990-03-09)
Related
The Brady Bunch

The Bradys is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from February 9 to March 9, 1990. The series is a sequel and continuation of the original 1969-1974 sitcom The Brady Bunch, focusing on its main characters as adults, and was the second such continuation after the short-lived 1981 sitcom The Brady Brides.

Airing on Friday nights, The Bradys failed in the ratings against the popular TGIF lineup on ABC and was canceled after one month; the last of the six episodes produced aired on March 9, 1990. In its short run, the show went through three different theme songs based on that of The Brady Bunch, the last featuring revised lyrics sung by Florence Henderson.

Cast

Influence and casting

In 1988, CBS commissioned a Brady Bunch reunion telefilm for its Christmas season programming. A Very Brady Christmas premiered on December 18, 1988 and drew a 25.1 rating and 39 share, very high ratings for a television film at the time. The success of the film convinced series creator Sherwood Schwartz that a new Brady family TV series could be a hit, and work began on the show in December 1989. CBS re-aired A Very Brady Christmas on December 22, 1989, using it as a promotional tool for the upcoming new show.

Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen all returned in their original roles from The Brady Bunch, Jerry Houser and Ron Kuhlman also reprised their roles from The Brady Brides. While Maureen McCormick had appeared in A Very Brady Christmas, she declined to return for the series, and Leah Ayres assumed the role of Marcia.

Style

The Bradys involved more dramatic storytelling than that which viewers had seen in the previous Brady series.[1][2] Unlike the original 30-minute sitcom, The Bradys was an hour long and featured far more serious plot lines. Among them:

  • Family patriarch Mike begins a political career.
  • Bobby's budding auto-racing career ends abruptly in the first episode after an accident leaves him a paraplegic. As he recovers, he marries his college girlfriend.
  • Peter breaks up with his fiancée, to whom he became engaged in A Very Brady Christmas, and begins dating the abusive daughter of Mike's political rival.
  • Jan and Philip, unable to conceive children of their own, adopt a Korean girl named Patty.
  • Stay-at-home mother Marcia battles alcoholism while Wally loses yet another in a series of jobs, the latest being as Mike's campaign manager. Wally and Marcia, who have been forced to move in with Mike and Carol along with their two children, open a catering business to support their family.
  • Radio host Cindy begins a romance with her boss, a widower more than ten years her senior who has two children.

Despite the more dramatic tone, the show did include a laugh track.

Cancellation

The show was put on hiatus with plans to continue sometime later in the year, but production never resumed and The Bradys was quietly canceled after six episodes had aired. Following the premiere, which had semi-decent ratings, the show was among CBS' lowest-watched each week until its cancellation, only once outperforming another show, an episode of Tour of Duty. At the time, it was thought[who?] that the audience was simply unwilling to accept the sitcom characters in a more dramatic setting. The situation was further complicated by the show's time slot. When The Bradys launched, CBS placed it in the 8:00 p.m. slot on Friday nights, making it the third show of the season to lead off the network's Friday lineup; the other two, Snoops and Max Monroe: Loose Cannon, both flopped. At the time CBS’ Friday night lineup also consisted of the serial dramas Dallas and Falcon Crest, both of which had been on the network for years but had in recent seasons seen a precipitous ratings decline.

The network placed the show against the comedy hits Full House and Family Matters, which comprised the first half of ABC's Friday night TGIF lineup. In Barry Williams' autobiography Growing Up Brady: I Was A Teenage Greg, he stated that when the initial two-hour episode aired, ratings were poor for the first hour, but when the second hour aired, the show won its time slot and the producers believed a change could be beneficial. CBS, however, was not willing to disrupt its schedule to accommodate the producers’ request in spite of the continued struggles of the Friday lineup as a whole; Dallas would eventually finish outside the Top 30 in the Nielsen ratings for the first time since its first full season while the ratings for Falcon Crest dropped so low that CBS cancelled the series at the end of the 1989-90 season. Oddly enough, CBS would move Dallas ahead one hour as the producers for The Bradys wishes they would; the move, however, was made after the series was cancelled.

This would prove to be Robert Reed's final role of any significance. He fell ill in 1991, suffering from a combination of colon and bladder cancer that was exacerbated by his development of HIV, and died in May 1992.

Episodes

Ep. Title Director Writer(s) Air date
1"Start Your Engines"Bruce BilsonSherwood Schwartz & Lloyd J. SchwartzFebruary 9, 1990 (1990-02-09)1-1
Cindy is a morning radio DJ, and Bobby is now a race car driver. He makes it to the Nashville 500 where he is in a serious car wreck and paralyzed from the waist down. Marcia, her husband Wally (who has lost another job) and their kids move in with Mike and Carol. Peter breaks up with his business-minded fiancée Valerie (Mary Cadorette) and becomes a playboy. Jan and husband Philip try to get pregnant. Greg, following Bobby's car wreck, considers going back to medical school and changing his specialty to orthopedics.
2"Here We Grow Again"Bruce BilsonS. Schwartz & L. SchwartzFebruary 9, 1990 (1990-02-09)1-2
The Bradys rally around Bobby in his efforts to recover. The arrival of Bobby's old college girlfriend Tracy Wagner helps to lift his spirits. Unable to conceive a child of their own, Jan and Philip adopt an Asian girl named Patty. Cindy is a morning radio DJ and begins dating her boss. Greg decides to stay with obstetrics after Tracy's pregnant sister goes into labor at Bobby's and Tracy's wedding, which is officiated by the same minister who performed Mike's and Carol's wedding.
3"A Moving Experience"Bob SweeneyS. Schwartz & L. SchwartzFebruary 16, 1990 (1990-02-16)1-3
The Bradys are notified that the Department of Transportation will tear down their house to make room for a new freeway and, in a fight to save their home, they have it moved to a new location. Cindy's relationship with her boss intensifies. Gene and Mike decide to run for city council.
4"Hat in the Ring"Nancy MaloneS. Schwartz & L. SchwartzFebruary 23, 1990 (1990-02-23)1-4
Mike declares his candidacy for city council with the help of Peter and Wally as his campaign managers, but his political future is nearly threatened by a blackmail attempt by his opponent's campaign manager (Herb Edelman). In the end, Mike wins the election.
5"Bottom's Up"Bruce BilsonSandra Kay SiegelMarch 2, 1990 (1990-03-02)1-5
With Carol doing more things for Jessica and Mickey, Wally working overtime with Mike, Cindy debating about a job promotion, Jan busy managing the family's architectural firm and Peter, Bobby and Greg working on a new trauma center, Marcia feels left out and unneeded and turns to alcohol for escape.
6"The Party Girls"Dick MartinEd ScharlachMarch 9, 1990 (1990-03-09)1-6
Marcia, Nora and Tracy open their own catering business called The Party Girls, and their first assignment is a mistakenly Austrian-themed event at the Brady residence for an ambassador who is actually from Australia (Gerard Maguire). Meanwhile, Greg and Peter are constantly feuding when their schedules keep conflicting. Greg saves Peter from choking and the brothers make peace.

Notes

  • "Start Your Engines" and "Here We Grow Again" were later repackaged as a two-hour movie titled The Brady 500.
  • "A Moving Experience" and "Hat in the Ring" were later repackaged as a two-hour movie titled The Bradys on the Move.
  • "Bottom's Up" and "The Party Girls" were later repackaged as a two-hour movie titled Big Kids, Big Problems.

Home media

On April 3, 2007, the two-hour pilot episode, The Brady 500 (a.k.a. "Start Your Engines/Here We Grow Again"), was released as a bonus feature on The Brady Bunch: The Complete Series 21-disc DVD box set issued by CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment.[3]

In 2019, the series was released on DVD as a part of The Brady-est Brady Bunch TV & Movie Collection.

References

  1. ^ Terrace, Vincent; Marsh, Earle F. (24 June 2009). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. ISBN 9780307483201.
  2. ^ Maçek III, J.C. (12 January 2017). "What Happens When Happy Shows Turn All X-Files on You?". PopMatters.
  3. ^ "The Brady Bunch – The Complete Series (Seasons 1–5 + Shag Carpet Cover) (1969)". Amazon.com. Retrieved Feb 16, 2010.
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