The Brady Bunch (1969–1974)
10/10
Heavily Flawed, But Beyond Irresistible! This is the kind of family everybody always wanted.
19 February 2017
The Brady Bunch has always been one of my favourite shows. Being heavily influenced by styles from the 60s and 70s, I don't think I will ever grow out of it. But there are so many other things that can contribute to someone not liking it. Anything bad that this show has is part of its charm.

If I'm not mistaken, The Brady Bunch was the first show about a blended family. A man named Mike Brady (Robert Reed) has three sons: Greg, Peter, and Bobby (Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland). He marries a lovely lady named Carol bringing three very lovely girls--who have hair of gold like their mother: Marcia, Jan, and Cindy (Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, Susan Olsen). Also moving into the Brady house is Mike's housekeeper Alice Nelson (Ann B. Davis) who has worked for him since his wife died. They are one big happy family.

Like any family sitcom, its main area of expertise is sibling rivalry. Six kids are bound to get on each other's nerves. It also deals with other traditional formulas such as smoking, running away, egos, and that's about it in terms of serious issues. The show never really showed any true dangers of serious issues. There have been a few when the family takes vacations, but that doesn't count issues that ordinary kids face. But whatever, the episodes in their place are good enough. And the more serious episodes are like older James Bond and John Wayne stuff.

Aside from the lack of social issues, what other problems does this show have? People like to nitpick at its little things, but those are too noticeable not to poke fun at. For instance, the house has only one bathroom for nine people and there is not a toilet. Then there's their dog called Tiger. He was gradually faded out from the show, but his doghouse stayed. I read that the dog was in a car accident and they tried one episode with a replacement dog but the people on set found the switch to be too noticeable. Why not use this in an episode? A death of a pet could have worked well. But perhaps the biggest flack people give this is how happy the family is. They always throw words around like "swell" and "nifty." Nobody is ever really angry. Sometimes the kids get all fired up (especially in the first season which became super annoying) but nothing even Happy Days handled.

The perfect family may not be realistic, but it was certainly charming beyond belief. The world is full of misery, so The Brady Bunch provided the perfect getaway for people that didn't have the most loving family in the world. There was so much love that you couldn't NOT rewatch the show. Then there's the groovy styles in fashion and music that are far out. Everybody must remember songs like "Sunshine Day" and "Keep On." It just adds to a wonderful show.

The Brady Bunch spawned s few spinoffs and movies. The spinoffs sucked but the movies were good (well, just the first two). The movies poke fun at what fans secretly thought for years. Does that diminish the show's quality? Not at all. It just gives some more things to laugh at.
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