The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

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.

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?

E!(Entertainment Television) had the balls to show just one episode of this series and to me enough was enough! The TV family that won't go away starred in three sitcoms,a quasi-stomach turning drama,a cartoon, a TV-movie and spawn two feature length films based on this series(which starred Shelley Long and Gary Cole),and just when you thought it was all they wrote,they come with at the time one of the most stupidical dumbfounded variety series to ever grace TV during the late 70's(second banana to ONLY Donny and Marie's variety show of the late 70's as well as the Brady's counterparts The Partridge's which had a even bigger sinker of a variety show themselves---all within the last decade of the 1970's).

This was the most dumbfounding of them all:a hour long variety show featuring the original cast(with the exception of Eve Plumb-always the smart one and the ONLY Brady with brains not to do this--was replaced by newcomer Geri Reischi)in character---courtesy of executive producer Sherwood Schwartz who was the creator of the original show as well as this variety series along with other producers Sid and Marty Krofft.

It seems the kids would go into some routine dance numbers and from there it was a laugh riot since NONE of them had any musical talent(with the exception of actress Florence Henderson of course who was a Broadway star),but it seems that architect dad Mike had reluctantly given up blueprints to join his family in a musical endeavor-which explained actor Robert Reed's profound lack of song and dance talent. So what was the kids' excuse? Who knows. Nobody was buying it since America had enough of the clan and it was off the air that same year. Good writtens.