The Bradys

Mike Brady running for office? Bobby handicapped? True enough, the original Brady Bunch wasn't funny. But why rub it in with this schlock??

I have to admit, when Bobby gazed up like Bambi at Mike and asked if he'll walk again I did get a little choked up. But then I immediately started laughing! God strike me down. I've loved the Bradys since the beginning, so I felt a little torn, but let's be serious, there's nothing dramatic about the Bradys. So why try? This attempt at drama, turning the Brady Bunch into the Colbys was ridiculous!

There was something really wrong-headed about this show. I kept waiting for footballs in the nose and lies about George Glass and arguments about using the toilet and Pork Chops and Applesauce! And if everyone was supposed to be there, then where the hell was Cousin Oliver?

I don't care what anyone says, this was a very good show!!! 10 out of 10 for me! It was fun seeing them reunite the Bradys again, but unfortunately no one gave this new show a good chance to survive. The main reason it failed isn't because it was a bad show, it was because the network played it too early. They should have targeted the adult audience who were raised with the Bradys.

This new drama was VERY GOOD! I loved it! I taped every show. The only thing I didn't like is they made Mike a politician. I hated that idea. But working for an architect myself, I unfortunately know how much architecture is closely related to politics. But for an honest politician, I found Mike had a LOT of conflicts of interest!!! Sure didn't make him look too clean when several members of his family are involved with his proposal. Another thing I didn't like is when Nora joined her two sisters-in-law in the catering business when she's a nurse.

I loved that Marcia stood by Wally through thick and thin! I loved that they brought realistic problems i.e. Wally constantly looking for a job, Marcia and Wally being homeless, Marcia drinking too much, Bobby being paralyzed, Jan & Phillip who can't conceive, Greg & Peter getting into a huge fight only to have Dr. Greg ultimately save his brother's life. How can anyone say that these are not good story lines? I still get mad every time I think that this show was cut short when it could easily have had a long life!

Completely unexpectantly, the two-hour pilot of this uh, series, casually began to play on my television set. For reasons beyond me, it was called "The Brady 500," which was quite cutesy, but I could still tell it was the 'movie' that led to "The Brady's," a very dramatic one hour drama that reunites the they're together so often I'm surprised they're NOT a real family family of the Brady's... you know, Mike, Carol, Greg, Marica (a faux Marcia, not Maureen McCormack)... yes, THOSE Brady's from the corny sitcom "The Brady Bunch," only their lives are not so funny anymore.

In "The Brady 500" Mike and Carol are basically the same, as is Alice, the "goofy" housekeeper, whom I think is either still working for them, or just hangs out at their house too often. Greg is married with child (a young Johnathan Taylor Thomas...which was not thrilling news to discover) and is an Obstitrician; Marcia is still married to Wally (from "The Brady Brides"), who's main talent seems to be losing jobs. His last one cost them their house, so they and their two precious children must move in with Mike and Carol; Peter is some womanizer (of all characters) who's been engaged four times, but can never find the right girl; Jan does not seem to enjoy communicating with her family much (stubborn middle child) unless it involves telling them all of her problems, which involve she and hubby Phillip (also of "The Brady Brides") and their inablity to have children; Cindy is a deejay, who is attracted to her older, widowed boss, and Bobby...well, he WAS a budding race car driver who gets PARALYZED during some big, important race. Oh, the horror. How will the rest of the Brady's cope with this dramatic struggle.

Actually, Bobby's paralysis really seemed to take a back burner as the last forty minutes or so seemed to involve his love life with a jilted fiance, Tracy...whom he ends up marrying; as well as Wally's casually getting a new job (truly, nobody seemed to care when he announced it), and Jan and Phillip deciding to adopt and ending up with not a baby, but a young Korean girl, who seemed to only communicate by whispering in her new mommy's or daddy's ear. I guess other episodes probably dealt with Bobby CONTINUING to deal with his handicap--as well as a new wife; Jan and Phil's adjustments; Wally's new job, etc. I believe other plots also involved Mike running for--and winning--a seat on Congress; Marcia *howl with laughter* being an alcoholic, and many other dramatic, tensing situations. I think the Brady's even had to (oh dear) MOVE!!!!!

Quality-wise, I found "The Brady 500" about on par with "A Very Brady Christmas," which means it passed the time, but wasn't all that great. The thing I had to wonder was, what was the point of reuniting the Brady family for a dramatic series, when everyone knows them as the corny, "comedic" Brady's. It presents a concept too hard to swallow (the three flashbacks to the original series did not help...and Dabs "Reverand Alden" Greer as the minister in Bobby's wedding cornily referring to Mike and Carol's wedding did not do much to help me take it seriously, either), which is probably why it didn't exactly go on to last for YEARS or even one year, I believe.

Sure it was cheesy and took itself too seriously, but I find it very easy to love, nonetheless, and it holds a special place among my favorite shows.It isn't high quality in the way my other favorites are, but there is still something very special about it, and it's the natural followup to "A Very Brady Christmas". Leah Ayres did a fine job as the replacement Marcia, and the rest of the cast got a chance to show that they truly were talented dramatic actors all along. I can't help but love this show.

Just what were the writers and producers thinking when they decided to feature a family from a half-hour situation comedy in a new one-hour drama?? While it was nice to see a post-series Brady Bunch reunion TV-movie ("A Very Brady Christmas"), bringing them back in a new series was completely uncalled-for! A one-hour drama for a hilarious family just doesn't cut it. I didn't like the idea of Bobby being paralyzed. Too depressing! This 1990 revival made the "Brady Brides" look better.