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!

It's a really tough call--is THIS the absolute worst TV show ever created or was another Sid and Marty Kroft show, PINK LADY AND JEFF? It's really hard to tell--they are BOTH that bad! And, they actually share some things in common other than the same producers. Both are variety shows that feature people acting way outside their ranges! While Florence Henderson could sing, the rest of the cast couldn't and there was a strong effort to peddle the Brady kids as a pop group (you've got to hear their albums--they are unintentionally hilarious). So what you have, apart from Ms. Henderson, are some well-meaning but not very talented kids (and this is not just my opinion, but that of the cast when they were interviewed years later) and Robert Reed who just seems totally lost.

Okay, so the songs are a problem (sort of like WWII was a "bit of a tiff")--and that's bad because about half the show is singing and bizarrely choreographed dancing in lots of orange, pink and purple sequined jumpsuits. The rest of the show is "comedy"--something that the Brady family was really not known for--yes, they did a bland little family show, but this was far from the demands they placed on them in The Brady Bunch Hour. Here they were expected to be true comedians at times and do skits that invariably bombed.

And, if all this isn't bad enough, Eve Plumb ("Jan") refused to do the show, so they just picked another person who only had a vague resemblance to her and did it anyways! Despite the fact that almost everyone was totally outside of their element and the show featured a "faux Jan", it only got worse. The Krofts, while described by some as "geniuses", simply couldn't cut it and the show was pure 70s tackiness. It was so loud, so "in your face" and so gaudy, the show literally attacked instead of entertained. It actually reminded me of a high school talent show combined with a Vegas review! Now, you might just assume that I don't want you to ever see this show. Not exactly,...I say see it and see how unintentionally funny and awful it was. I guess I can't blame the cast, as I am sure they got very well paid and they didn't have a lot of other options for acting.

UPDATE--Well, perhaps I spoke too soon. Tonight I saw something from TV from the same time period that was worse, though it was a TV special. The "STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL" is amazingly bad--so bad that it's a train-wreck bad.

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?

I'll watch just about anything that Robert Reed appears in. I've always heard that he loathed the Mike Brady role and tried to balance that dreck with meatier roles like his supporting role in MANNIX and a tasting sinister turn as a hit man in HARRY O.

Something must've distracted him along the way because he signed on to this mess, the Brady mob singing and dancing and pretending to be entertainers of some sort. It's just painful. Badly written and endlessly strained, it lasted nine episodes before being put to sleep forever.

Please spare yourself of this mess. Guest stars like Vincent Price (???) in torturous sitcom skits t(avoiding the use of well-known Brady sets) didn't help, nor did the contrived musical numbers. And what's with the canned laughter and extended applause?

Seventies TV was rarely 'great' and there has to be a bottom rung somewhere. Trust me... this is it.