The Bradys
Genre	Drama
Written by	Ed Scharlach Lloyd J. Schwartz Sherwood Schwartz Sandra Kay Siegel
Directed by	Bruce Bilson Nancy Malone Dick Martin Bob Sweeney
Starring	Florence Henderson Robert Reed
Theme music composer	Frank De Vol
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Producer(s)	Barry M. Berg
Cinematography	King Baggot
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	February 9 – March 9, 1990
Chronology
Preceded by	The Brady Bunch The Brady Girls Get Married The Brady Brides A Very Brady Christmas
Related shows	The Brady Kids The Brady Bunch Hour

The Bradys is a six-episode American television drama that aired on CBS in 1990. It was a revival of the early 1970s sitcom, The Brady Bunch (1969–1974), and was about the trials and tribulations of the extended Brady family some 15 years after the end of the earlier series. It followed two earlier short-lived spin-off/continuation series: the 1977 effort The Brady Bunch Hour and 1981's The Brady Brides.

Contents 1 Influence and casting 2 Style 3 Failure 4 Episodes 5 Cast 6 Format 7 External links

[edit] Influence and casting

The Bradys series came about as the result of the ratings and critical success of the 1988 television movie A Very Brady Christmas. All of the original cast members of the 1969-1974 series returned except for Maureen McCormick, who declined to reprise the role of Marcia Brady due to her real-life pregnancy and was replaced by Leah Ayres. The show also incorporated cast members from The Brady Brides who reprised their roles from the earlier series. This show marks the only time that the cast of a sitcom has been reunited playing the same characters in an hour long drama series solely featuring the original sitcom cast (the closest analogy is Lou Grant, a drama series focusing on a single character from the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show).

[edit] Style

Produced at the height of the dramedy trend in American television, epitomized by such shows as Frank's Place and Hooperman, The Bradys aimed to change direction towards more dramatic storytelling than viewers had been used to in the previous Brady series. This led to the series being nicknamed Bradysomething, a reference to the introspective thirtysomething, a water-cooler show at the time.

[edit] Failure

The show was actually never officially canceled but put on hiatus with plans to continue sometime later in the year. Poor reviews and low ratings led to the hiatus and quiet cancellation of the series after six episodes. At the time, it was thought that the audience was simply unwilling to accept the sitcom characters in a more dramatic setting. In his book Growing Up Brady, Barry Williams 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. Attempts to convince CBS to move the show to the 9:00 p.m. time slot were to no avail.

[edit] Episodes

Episode	Title	Airdate
01	Start Your Engines	February 9, 1990
02	Here We Grow Again	February 9, 1990
03	A Moving Experience	February 16, 1990
04	Hat in the Ring	February 23, 1990
05	Bottoms Up	March 2, 1990
06	The Party Girls	March 9, 1990

• Note: In syndication on channels such as ABC Family (formerly FOX Family), episodes are bundled into two-hour blocks and retitled.
  • Episodes 1 and 2 sometimes are known as The Brady 500
  • Episodes 3 and 4 sometimes are known as Bradys on the Move
  • Episodes 5 and 6 sometimes are known as Big Kids, Big Problems

[edit] Cast

• Florence Henderson as Carol Brady
• Robert Reed as Mike Brady
• Leah Ayres as Marcia Brady Logan
• Eve Plumb as Jan Brady Covington
• Susan Olsen as Cindy Brady
• Barry Williams as Dr. Greg Brady
• Christopher Knight as Peter Brady
• Mike Lookinland as Bobby Brady
• Ann B. Davis as Alice Nelson-Franklin
• Jerry Houser as Wally Logan
• Ron Kuhlman as Philip Covington III
• Caryn Richman as Nora Brady
• Martha Quinn as Tracy Brady
• Ken Michelman as Gary Greenberg
• Jaclyn Bernstein as Jessica Logan
• Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Kevin Brady

[edit] Format

Unlike the original thirty-minute sitcom, The Bradys was an hour long and featured far more serious plotlines. Among them:

• Bobby's budding car-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.
• Jan and Phillip, unable to conceive children of their own, adopt a Korean girl.
• Stay-at-home mother Marcia battles alcoholism while Wally loses yet another in a series of jobs, the latest being Mike's campaign manager. Wally and Marcia, who along with their two children have been forced to move in with Mike and Carol, eventually decide to open their own catering business to support their family.
• Radio host Cindy begins a romantic interest with her boss, a widower more than 10 years her senior who has two children.

Despite the more downbeat tone, the show did feature a laugh track at certain moments.

[edit] External links

• The Bradys at the Internet Movie Database
• The Bradys at TV.com
• Brady World - episode guide
• Jump The Shark - The Bradys
• History of The Brady Bunch by Wendy Winans

v • d • e Television series produced or created by Sherwood Schwartz Gilligan's Island • It's About Time • The Brady Bunch • Dusty's Trail • Big John, Little John • The Brady Bunch Hour • The Brady Brides • Harper Valley PTA • Together We Stand • The Bradys • The Real Gilligan's Island