The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

This has to have been the worst television series ever (at least until "The Brady's" came along). When this show was announced, I thought it was just going to be a simple reunion show with the actors playing themselves then going into various sketches involving their characters. Instead they stay in character throughout the show. Rip Taylor was about the only funny thing on the show. Also, the other thing that was strange about this show was the fact that Eve Plumb (Jan) was the only one that didn't reprise her role (she was off doing more serious roles including starring in the acclaimed Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway). Instead, it was poor Geri Reischl to play the role of television's most famous middle daughter. It looks as if Plumb made the right choice and Reischl is nowhere to be found.

Playing this video in an endless loop at Guantanomo would have 'em all talking! So Awful, it's fantastic! Where do I begin? What does an indoor swimming pool, dancing girls, disco songs, HR Pufnstuff, horrible and I mean horrible outfits, and the Brady Bunch have in common? Nothing! And yet they managed to cram all of this into one variety hour - no small feat! The singing - and there's lots of it - is atrocious. Greg Brady ala Elvis, the fat years, Ma Brady, and even Marcia, all have solo numbers that are spell-binding...I mean nauseating.

The one gem here is if you're a Marsha fan (all of mankind), then you get to see those pretty blue eyes, and I mean pretty. Wow! Dreamy ! The tip-off that this was a disaster in the making is that it was produced by Sid and Marty Kroft - of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, HR Puf N Stuff fame. It looks like they used some of the leftover props and ugly costumes.

The interview with Bobby and Cindy was interesting, but too long. Unscripted, they tended to ramble on. And the shocker was when Bobby actually said what every male with a pulse has ever thought: that everyone wanted to DO Marsha. I thought that was bizarre and also rude, since Cindy was sitting right there. I got the impression he was lamenting about not getting that opportunity.

It really is indescribable how bad/good this is. It represents the absolute worst in 70's television, yet at the same time, is strangely good to see a time when corny, over done productions were on TV, and not the graphic, sexual filth that is the norm today. Truly, a classic train wreck to watch!

The Bradys (for some reason) get a TV variety show to do. The episodes consist of them and guest stars "singing" and "dancing" and doing "comedy". Also every single fashion mistake of the 1970s (and there were LOTS of them) are worn at one time or another in this show. I'm not proud to admit that I saw every single episode of this when it aired but, even at the age of 15, I realized it was terrible but I couldn't stop watching. It was just SO wretched with abysmal comedy (even worse than the original "Brady Bunch" show) and variety acts that had my jaw dropping! Eve Plumb (Jan) had the brains NOT to do this show but the rest of the original cast was there. There were a few (very few) good moments here and there. They could all (more or less) sing and Barry Williams and Florence Henderson were very good on their own but this show was just a train wreck from beginning to end. It boggles the mind to think that ANYONE thought this could work. Even Williams in his book "Growing Up Brady" said it was the worst TV show ever. Well he's wrong. "The Brady Brides" was even WORSE! A 1 all the way.

I caught The Brady Bunch Hour on YouTube and, oh man, they can't sing, they can't dance and those gaudy 1970s fashions just glitter at you like flashes from a nuclear explosion. The bubble gum music just adds to the laughs. I wonder if any of them are embarrassed about it now? I sure would be - especially during the highly glossy number of "Baby Face". Eve Plumb (Jan) was extremely wise in backing out of this one.

I don't mean to bash the wholesome goodness of the Bradys (I loved the Brady Bunch as a kid), but the fallout after wards when the show got canceled in '74 has been pretty funny. Like The Bradys (1990) where Marcia suffers from alcoholism (gasp!), gets treatment for it at the nearest rehab center and then becomes a strong supporter of fighting addiction - all in one episode! Oh yeah, and then there's another scene from The Bradys about Bobby's paralyzed state after getting into a race car crash, but in a climactic finale in one episode, he rises from his wheelchair and walks up the stage where his dad is giving some kind of public presentation and everyone cheers in ecstatic awe! It's like The Partridge Family meets The Young & The Restless!!! Oh man, I love the Bradys - before and after wards! They sure have big egos considering The Brady Girls Get Married (1981) was the only post-Brady Bunch reunion they've all appeared together in (someone always backed out and was replaced by a replica star from then on in). After the humiliating polyester/ bell bottomed glow of the Brady Bunch Hour, I would've thought the egotism would've been humbled by now.

So hilarious were those production numbers I'm dying to think of what Simon Cowell would've thought had they performed on American Idol or Britain's Got Talent - 3 strikes without a doubt!

The Brady family that appears in this mangled mess of a variety series is not real. I think that is the creepiest part about it. They are, of course, the actors who appeared on the infamous comedy series "The Brady Bunch", which played from the late 1960's through the early 1970's. Well, it was the late 1970's when this one occurred and I guess "we" are supposed to believe that they are still related and have...gotten famous since then. For here they all are:Mike, Greg, Jan and everybody...referring to each other as "Mike" and "Greg" and "Jan", as opposed to their real names and having occasional cheap looking scenarios(such as Greg wanting to move out)mixed with their singing, dancing and "teasing" one another. Let's just say if the Brady's WERE real, they would make me nauseous, for who wants to watch some family's variety hour, but that fact that they are not is plain bizarre! Why they didn't just appear as themselves and mention their memories of the Brady Bunch is beyond me. Why ever did this last only a year?