Cousin Oliver
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cousin Oliver (played by Robbie Rist) was a character who was introduced in 1974 on The Brady Bunch during what turned out to be the show's final season.[1] Cousin Oliver, who took up residence in the Brady household and appears in the last six episodes of the series, was unpopular with fans of the show.
A "Cousin Oliver" is also a metaphor that is sometimes used to denote when the writers of a television program decide that the addition of a cute child actor to the cast will improve the ratings of the show, or as a replacement for child cast members that have grown up since the show started. [2]
[edit] Trivia
- Batman: The Animated Series parodied this phenomenon in the season 3 episode "Baby Doll", in which the villain had once starred in a TV show which was cancelled after the addition of a "cousin" character, leading her to kidnap her old co-stars and take her revenge. Interestingly enough, although Robbie Rist appears in this episode, he is not the "Cousin Oliver" character (here named "Cousin Spunky"), but rather the older brother character from the original cast. Spunky was voiced by Jason Marsden.
- X-Files — In the episode "Sunshine Days", a character (Michael Emerson) who recreates the Brady Bunch house from his thoughts renames himself Cousin Oliver.
- Family Guy - In the episode "Emission Impossible", Stewie expresses his objections to Lois and Peter having another baby by saying "See what happened to The Brady Bunch when they added Cousin Oliver!!". Afterwards a cutaway shows the Brady family abusing Bobby.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Brady Bunch. IMDB. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
- ^ Pennington, John (2006, July 15). Pennington: Fulmer up for Pennington Award. Knox News. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.
