The Brady Bunch (1969-1974) is an American pop culture icon. Even the most layman television fan can hear famous lines like “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” or “porkchops and applesauce,” or “Oh! My nose!” and not only know where the quote originates from; but even know which character uttered the line. The Brady Bunch sometimes gets a bad rap for being corny and unrealistic. Frankly, I love The Brady Bunch for those reasons–which is why I love The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996). I may have seen both films in the theater in middle school when the movies were new!
The Brady Bunch Movie did a very good job with casting actors who somewhat resemble their television predecessors. Carol (Shelley Long) has Florence Henderson’s iconic flip/shag mullet ‘do. She wears a lot of brightly colored and patterned pantsuits. Carol puts absurd amounts of sugar in her coffee and constantly says “Oh Mike!” throughout the film. Gary Cole plays Mike Brady and while he doesn’t look exactly like Robert Reed (original Mike Brady), he has his style of speaking down to a T. Mike is very adept at always having a lesson at the ready, whether it’s something short like “when you tattle on others, you’re really tattling on yourself. You’re saying ‘I’m a tattletale'” or a more long-winded lecture, such as when he lectures Greg on not wanting to take part in the Search for the Stars Contest. Henriette Mantel, while she doesn’t really look like Ann B. Davis, she sounds similar to Alice and does a good job emulating her way of speaking. I also love how Alice’s formal dress looks like a fancier version of her maid uniform; but it’s the same thing. Even Ann B. Davis wears a powder blue jacket with buttons in the same arrangement in her cameo scene.
The Brady kids are varying levels of successful in terms of portryal with the standout being Jennifer Elise Cox as the perpetually overshadowed and ignored Jan. Eve Plumb gave us a very memorable portrayal of middle child Jan, who constantly feels inadequate next to her popular sister Marcia. Jan provided The Brady Bunch‘s most iconic quote: “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” Christine Taylor as Marcia is the second best character in the film. She is a dead-ringer for Maureen McCormick. She also is adept at mimicking some of McCormick’s odd pronunciations, “skewl” (school) being one of the most memorable.
Christopher Daniel Barnes plays oldest child Greg. He is most known for providing the voice of Prince Eric in 1989’s The Little Mermaid. He looks somewhat like Barry Williams and does a good job acting like the “Casanova of Clinton Avenue.” Paul Sutera plays middle son, Peter, memorably played by Christopher Knight in the original. Jesse Lee and Olivia Hack play Bobby and Cindy Brady, recreating the parts played by Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen in the original series.
The Brady Bunch Movie presents a satirical look at our favorite 1970s family and plops them down in 1995 Los Angeles. The Bradys still live in their iconic mid-century modern home at 4222 Clinton Way–astroturf lawn and all. There are dozens of references to the original show. As an avid viewer of the television show and a massive fan of the movies, I could list all the references; but that may make this article insanely long to read. One of the main references to the show are the Bradys’ neighbors–Mr. and Mrs. Dittmeyer (Michael McKean and Jean Smart), who were mentioned on one or two occasions in the original series. Carol memorably hooks one of Mr. Dittmeyer’s bags of charcoal when she’s practicing casting a fishing line in the backyard. However, every characters’ respective personality and quirks are played to the hilt for laughs.
While The Brady Bunch television show is often criticized for being unrealistic in its tackling of non-issues like breaking mom’s favorite vase, or having to appear in a television show. This criticism is understandable, especially when it aired alongside shows like All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. However, I would argue that having shows about having to wear glasses or braces, or being peer pressured to smoke cigarettes is far easier to relate to than a more timely, 1970s-centric, issue. While some shows from the 1970s seem more dated, The Brady Bunch remains timeless, which is why it still remains relevant today.
However, The Brady Bunch Movie does feature a very serious un-Bradylike issue as its main plot: Mike and Carol are behind in their property taxes and face foreclosure if they can’t come up with $20,000 by the end of the week. Their neighbor, Mr. Dittmeyer, is the villain of the story. He is in real estate development and hates the Bradys. He is trying to convince his neighbors to sell their homes to a developer for a tidy sum. The only hold out are the Bradys. Due to their mail being misdelivered and Mr. Dittmeyer’s opening of the Bradys’ mail, he gets wind of the Bradys’ tax problems. He is only too happy to buy their house at the upcoming auction.
The kids have one of their infamous kid meetings to come up with a plan. Marcia is going to become a model (of course). Bobby and Cindy are going to try and find money around the house. Greg is going to become rock star, Johnny Bravo (obviously), and Peter is going to ask neighbors if they need chores done around their home. Jan’s plan is to enter the $20,000 “Search for the Stars” contest. This is the plan that they ultimately follow through with at the end of the film, and of course because its The Brady Bunch, they win. I love that all the original recordings performed by The Brady Bunch Kids are used in this film.
The movie also features subplots for the kids, with Jan’s being the most memorable. Marcia accidentally makes two dates for the same night: one with Charlie and the other with “Big Man on Campus,” Doug Simpson. Doug is more interested in getting Marcia into the sack, since despite being the most popular girl in school, she is notoriously “harder to get into than a Pearl Jam concert.” Marcia’s also trying to get Davy Jones of The Monkees to perform at the prom. Greg is trying to become Johnny Bravo, by singing songs like ” ‘Til I Met You” (…clowns never laughed before, beanstalks never grew. Ponies never ran before, ’til I met you…). ” ‘Til I Met You” was co-written by Barry Williams. While the Greg in the television show was made out to be a ladies’ man, this Greg is so lame that girls literally scream and run out of the room.
Peter is going through puberty and also finds himself having a crush on Holly, the grunge girlfriend of his neighbor, Eric. Holly also thinks Peter’s cute “in a Gilligan sort of way.” Bobby becomes the school safety monitor and hates that his job involves ratting out his classmates. Then there’s Cindy. Frankly, the Cindy in this movie is a moron, she looks to be at least 12 but acts 5. She echoes the sentiments of Susan Olsen who hated how ridiculous Cindy acted throughout the series.
Finally, there’s Jan. Jan is so awesome and has the best subplot of the entire film. First she has to bear the indignity of having to wear glasses–saying that “glasses make [her] look positively goofy.” Then, she is mistaken for Marcia at school. Jan is so tired of Marcia being better than her at everything, she decides to set herself apart. In a scene straight out of the show (except a swap of venue and a more exaggerated sized wig), Jan decides to don a giant black afro wig to the prom, in a desperate attempt to draw attention away from Marcia. Her anxiety over being in constant competition with Marcia starts causing her to hear voices. Jennifer Elise Cox’s portrayal of Jan is worth the admission alone to the film.
My favorite line from the film. It makes me laugh every time.
In A Very Brady Sequel, the film answers one of the burning questions of the original series: What happened to Carol’s first husband? The original series never addresses what happened to the girls’ father/Carol’s husband. After the second season, the show stops even addressing the fact that the Brady Bunch is a blended family. Carol even makes comments about the boys inheriting traits from her!
The film starts with Trevor Thomas (Tim Mattheson) and Carol’s husband Roy Martin on a boat. Roy has a rare (i.e., expensive) statue in his possession and tells Trevor that he sent it ahead to his wife, Carol. Trevor and Roy’s ship then wrecks and Roy dies. Trevor spends the next decade or so trying to find where Roy’s wife, Carol lives. He finally tracks Carol down at the Brady home and introduces himself as Roy Martin. Carol and the girls are understandably shocked. Roy then spots the rare statue in the Bradys’ home–it’s the horse statue which was seen on a sideboard in the Bradys’ living room next to the famous stairs.
Like in the first film, there are numerous subplots involving the other characters in the film. The family is getting ready shopping and planning for Mike and Carol’s upcoming wedding anniversary. In an ode to another memorable episode, Greg and Marcia fight over the newly remodeled bedroom in the attic. In the show, Greg won the attic using the argument that he was older and was graduating the next year. In the movie however, both Marcia and Greg are given the room, with the idea that they’d share. However, when you have two opposite sex teenagers, technically not related, sharing a bedroom… Don’t get me wrong, Greg and Marcia don’t hook up; but they find themselves having very awkward feelings about each other. This entire subplot is an allusion to the real-life romance between Greg and Marcia’s original actors, Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick, who dated during season 4 and into season 5. There are many season 4 episodes where you can see Greg making cow eyes at Marcia.
In A Very Brady Sequel, Jan’s neurotic behavior continues when she invents a fake boyfriend named George Glass. Jan in the television series also made up a fake boyfriend named George Glass, but she didn’t go to the extent of making a dummy and pretending to be with him. Jan is so desperate to be seen as desirable that she hilariously calls a 1-900 hotline to speak to a “live guy.” Peter, Bobby and Cindy don’t have that exciting of storylines. Peter starts to idolize Trevor which concerns Mike. Bobby and Cindy start a “detective agency” and end up discovering that Trevor isn’t who he says he is. This leads to Trevor kidnapping Carol and taking her to Hawaii where he can meet with Professor Whitehead to sell the horse statue. As we all remember, in the television show, Vincent Price played the infamous Professor Whitehead who kidnaps the boys and ties them to large statues in his cave. There’s also the hilarious tiki statue and great “DO DO DO DOOOO” music that makes an appearance.
The sequel isn’t nearly as good as the first film; but it is still funny and worth watching. The first film feels more cohesive, and all the references feel more organic. In the second film, all the in-jokes seem more forced, as if the writers realized there were more jokes from the series that they need to fit in. There are some funny scenes, such as Carol getting her hair done at a punk hair salon; or Jan seeing her guidance counselor Mrs. Cummings (RuPaul) at the pool with her daughters who are exactly like Marcia, Jan and Cindy. Though, I’m easy to please, so I find a lot of the scenes pretty funny. I love Jan’s phone call to the 1-900 number. “I’d like to speak to a live guy. What do you mean ‘what am I wearing?’ My red jumper with the floral print trim. What do you mean, ‘take it off?’ “
The sequel ends with Greg and Marcia finally ending the suspense and kissing each other (just go with it, they’re not technically related; though I’m sure a relationship between the two would cause some strange drama in the family). Jan meets a real boy named George Glass while in Hawaii and ends up inviting him to Mike and Carol’s anniversary party. The party ends with a shocker–the reappearance of Mike’s first wife!
