Shark Bytes

Cousin Oliver was actually an undercover assassin sent to snuff out Mike Brady because he had finally come too close to exposing the whole ugly fashion smuggling conspiracy. If the show had continued on into another season, Oliver would have made several attempts on Mike's life, culminating in a "very special" episode when Mike would be fighting for his life after Tiger (working alongside Oliver) almost takes him out. It would be Alice who discovers Oliver's real identity and resolves to destroy him.

leave cousin oliver alone. he ruled. and was only on six episodes. when he came the show was already bad and dying and reed was gonna leave anyhow. and love oliver: www.cultfilmfreak.com/robbierist

"Housekeeper" was just a cover. Mike Brady was a deep-undercover federal agent investigating illegal fashion smuggling into this country. Alice was actually his partner, posing as the housekeeper to avoid questions from the nosy neighbors. It can now be told that Sam was their agency contact.

The toughest part of the whole operation was keeping Carol, who was a civilian that knew nothing of the real situation, busy and out of their hair. She refused to take a job or spend time out of the house except for the occasional bake-sale, beauty appointment or shopping trip and the one saving grace was her naivete and denseness. More often than not, the most obvious situations would take place all around Carol without her ever noticing. Mike and Alice took advantage of this and, using the kids, could create the most outlandish cover schemes ever.

And people thought they were just watching a show about 6 kids and their parents. Ha!

Why did Carol Brady need a housekeeper? She didn't have a job, go to school or have little kids to take care of. Even the kids had chores to do. What did Carol do all day?

Paula

the show was never good but the first episode in season 5 was the clincher. in that you took an adult actor(greg was over 18 at the time) and put him in a small childs role, then followed it up with a playboy playmate and a friggin heroin junkie to boot. sherwood really put alot of thought into that one. talk about being desperate for material they were scraping the bottom of the barrel on that one. and thats just one example of many.

If the show had continued on another season, would the writers have developed a plot-line exploring the jealousy between Bobby and Oliver over Cindy's attentions? I mean, here we have Bobby, with Cindy's undivided amour, and then suddenly this new kid comes to town who sweeps her off her feet. What a show-down that could have been! As great as the Carol-Alice-Sam triangle of a few seasons earlier!

For the poster named 'hmmm',

In your post about the episode where Peter hides his dad's tape recorder under his siblings' beds to record confidential conversations and expose their secrets, you make a good point. Greg and Marcia decide to teach Peter a lesson after he got off so lightly by merely having to apologize to the others for causing so much internal strife. They record a bogus conversation for Peter to hear involving a faked 'surprise' party they are planning for Peter. Peter gets all jazzed that he is getting a party thrown for him and when Mike and Carol find out what Greg and Marcia did, they decide to REALLY throw Peter a party! What kind of lesson does that teach Peter? That crime does pay.

Now... had this been a modern sitcom where overt sexual innuendo are rampant - such as FRIENDS - here's how it would have played out....

Mike and Carol realize that Peter has been secretly recording everyone's private conversations (mostly involving sexual fantasies) and decide to speak to him about it when, the very next morning, they go downstairs for breakfast only to hear Peter playing back for Alice a recording of them having sex the night before. NOW Peter gets in trouble!

Peace.

I think two things changed Carol's personality during the series. First, there was the affair with Sam. Having a real man like him made Carol see what a wimp she had married and made her regret her decision to bring her girls into the same household with a bunch of geeky guys. And the huge knife fight she ended up having with Alice after the affair was exposed gave her some back-bone.

The other thing that changed her personality was the effect of the electro-shock therapy. Those weekly jolts really made her a different person. When I saw the episode about her being taken to the mental ward by Mike after she had her drunken tryst with Greg and Pete and was later found walking naked down the street -- that was a classic. The show should have won an Emmy for the writing on that episode.

I agree about Carol Brady. Carol is a COMPLETELY different person comparing any first season episode to any last season episode. This show was only on for 5 years and in that rather short time period, Carol's personality changed 180 degrees from a reluctant, sappy and rather unhappily appearing housewife to some picture perfect, hip-and-happening, ultra content housewife.

i love the brady bunch especially because of ANN B. Davis and her character she was by far the funniest person on the show. I think this show was very sappy and very corny in season 1 and it almost sort of reminded of how Full House began. In season 1 of The Brady Bunch the family is combined and the adjust to life by trying to live with each other but the thing that made it sappy was Mrs. Brady. If you noticed in like maybe the first 13 episodes of season 1 Mrs. Brady always seemed very lost and like needed Mr. Brady every second and also those two were very gushy gushy at the start and seemed to ignore the kids and concentrate on each other it was sappy in season 1 and mostly due to Mrs. Brady Mrs. Brady ur husband has a life get urself one also

I always hated the ep in which Peter starts twisting things his sibs said to each other and all five siblings have this gigantic argument with each other at the dinner table with Pete having the most evil,manipulative smirk seen this side of Palpatine! For one moment, the Brady 'rents get smart and realize that Pete had pitted his sibs against each other for his own amusement by meddling and they decide to 'teach' him by lecturing him on how meddling's wrong. That's it. Naturally Greg and Marcia think that's totally bogus and Pete hasn't even begun to have been punished so they decide to sabotage him by leaving taped messages in which they were pretending to throw him a big party. So, what happens? Mom+ Dad find out and are furious with Grey + Marcia for (get this) questioning their lectoring of Peter so they decide to punish them by throwing Peter a party for real! Never mind that by him snooping around that tape player, Peter had just proven that he had NOT learned his lesson about meddling(therefore hadn't been punished enough for it). It was more important to the parents to spare the creep's feelings and punish his sibs for objecting to the lack of consequences! Huh?!

If Sherwood Schwartz had really wanted to make the last season more interesting, Marsha should have moved into the attic with Greg...all that sexual tension would have catapulted the ratings through the roof. And there could have been a "very special episode" with Alice and Mrs. B finally sharing an on-screen kiss. Tabloid heaven...

I've always thought that this show was great because if you compare it to today's family television shows, the Brady's were not exactly a good looking group of people. Yeah, I know some of you are going to say Marsha and Jan were pretty, but I'm sorry, I have to disagree. They weren't hot. I've had no fantasies about either of them.

However, every one of today's t.v. shows, even if its just an average everyday family, have gorgeous models as the sister and brothers. I think the last show to have average looking people was The Cosby Show. And even it had the smoking hot Lisa Bonet.

This show somehow survived a "jump the shark" opening moment with the song performed by the Peppermint Trolley Singers? who sound alot like The Wellingtons (see Sherwood Schwartz's other creation, Gilligan's Island).

does antone know what song the bradys sang on their trip to the grand canyon?