List of The Brady Bunch characters

The following is a list of characters from the American television series The Brady Bunch, and related shows and movies.

Contents

The Brady Family

Carol Brady

Caroline "Carol" Ann Brady (née Carol Ann Tyler) portrayed by Florence Henderson is the wife of Mike Brady. At the beginning of the pilot, her last name is Martin from her first marriage, during which she had had three daughters. She gains three stepsons when she marries Mike Brady. Carol enjoys singing in the church choir, and with her daughter Marcia in the high school Family Frolic Talent Show. In the episode "A Fistful of Reasons," in which Cindy is bullied because of her lisp, Carol confesses that she too overcame a lisp while growing up in Swampscott, Massachusetts.[1]

During the original Brady Bunch series, Carol is a stay-at-home mother. In the sequels, she becomes a real estate agent, converting the boys' old room into her home office.

How Carol's previous marriage ended (i.e. due to a death or divorce) is not mentioned. Creator and Executive Producer Sherwood Schwartz had originally intended for Carol to be a divorcee; however, ABC refused to allow the fate of her first marriage to be revealed on the show. Sherwood Schwartz later wished to use her divorce to his advantage, and wanted to use Carol's previous husband as a mechanism to replace Robert Reed on the show should the show enter its sixth season. The show was canceled before Schwartz could execute his plan.[2]

Mike Brady

Michael Paul "Mike" Brady portrayed by Robert Reed is the head of the Brady household. He has three sons of his own. Mike, a widowed architect, became the stepfather of three daughters when he married Carol Martin. Mike enjoyed fishing and camping.

Shortly after the fourth season began, Mike grew his hair into a longer, curly style. He was named "Father of the Year" by a local newspaper after his stepdaughter Marcia submitted an essay. His parents have sometimes been mentioned, but never seen. Mike has a firm personal integrity (i.e. he refuses to participate in a commercial if it means saying a product is the best that he believes isn't) coupled with a strong sense of ethics.

It is implied that Mike is a very highly qualified and well-respected architect, although he has had his share of failures. For instance:

Mike was one of the staff architects with the firm he worked at; the name was never mentioned in the series, and Mr. Ed Phillips was his boss. By the time A Very Brady Christmas and The Bradys aired, he was the senior partner at the firm.

In episode #4 of The Bradys, "Hat in the Ring," when sworn in as City Councilman, his full name is given as Michael Thomas Brady.

Both Gene Hackman and Jeffrey Hunter were considered for the role of Mike Brady. Hackman was Sherwood Schwartz's first choice, but was rejected by Paramount for not having enough experience. Jeffrey Hunter approached Schwartz to play Mike Brady, but Schwartz felt Hunter was too attractive to play a down-to-earth architect.[2]

In 2004, TV Guide ranked him number 14 on its 50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time list.[3]

Greg Brady

Gregory "Greg" Brady is the oldest Brady son and was played by Barry Williams. Greg is a Westdale High School student who plays football, plays guitar, surfs, and aspires to be a singer. Greg is portrayed as self-confident and brassy at times, and generally acts as leader and spokesman for the other kids. Being the oldest of the Brady children, Greg is usually the one who devises their plans. As the series went on, Greg became somewhat of a "ladies' man" at school. Also as the character got older, Greg often attempted to disassociate himself from the younger siblings, eventually getting his own room in the attic.

Despite this, Greg always sticks up for his younger siblings and helps them out whenever he can. He also frequently shows an ample sense of fair play, as when he refused to go along with a classmate's plan to spread a false rumor about Marcia at school. However, he has been known to cross the lines when he believes the situation warrants it (specifically, when he created a phony playbook to thwart a cheating quarterback from a rival high school). He has also been known to use the line, "Something suddenly came up," to break off a date (without giving a further explanation) so he can go out with a more desirable girl.

Greg's dream of becoming a singer almost comes true when he was handpicked by record producers to be a pop singer under the stage name "Johnny Bravo"; however, he walked away from a potentially lucrative deal when he found out his recordings were being electronically "sweetened" and that the producers were more interested in the visual product than substance. "They didn't want me; they wanted a robot," he said about the incident.

Greg eventually became an obstetrician (as mentioned in A Very Brady Christmas). His wife's name is Nora (who is a nurse), and they have a son, Kevin.

Marcia Brady

Marcia Brady (née Marcia Martin, later Marcia Brady-Logan) is the oldest Brady daughter and was portrayed by Maureen McCormick. Marcia is portrayed as a mature and popular girl at Westdale High School. Her popularity is an ongoing source of contempt for her younger sister Jan. She is a great fan of TV-star idols Desi Arnaz Jr. and Davy Jones (Both actors, portraying themelves, appeared in their own episode). Despite Marcia's reputation, she has her share of problems, such as unrequited crushes, insecurity over having braces, and insecurity over receiving a swollen nose from a stray football thrown by Peter. She has a fragile ego that sometimes goes amok (as evidenced in "Juliet is the Sun," when she becomes so hard to get along with she is dismissed from her star role as Juliet).

In The Brady Girls Get Married, Marcia had graduated from college, became a fashion designer, and marries Wally Logan. However, by the time A Very Brady Christmas aired, she was a stay-at-home mother (raising two children, daughter Jessica and son Michael "Mickey"). She was still unemployed at the beginning of The Bradys, and at this point her ego began to take such a beating she briefly turned to alcohol for solace. By the end of the series, Marcia and her husband, Wally (a toy salesman who was frequently out of work, due to either layoffs or getting fired) join their sisters-in-law (Nora and Tracy) to open a catering business.

Peter Brady

Peter Brady is the middle Brady son and was played by Christopher Knight. Peter often thinks badly of himself, such as believing he has no personality in the episode "The Personality Kid". The clumsiest of the bunch, he sometimes gets overexcited and acts before thinking. Nevertheless, he is a fun-loving boy whom girls adored later in the original series. He has a non-related twin named Arthur Owens (also played by Christopher Knight), who is shown in the episode "Two Petes in a Pod". Peter is also the only one in the family with brown eyes—all the others had blue or green eyes.

Peter later joined the military for career guidance, as seen in The Brady Girls Get Married. In later sequels, he is an administrative assistant (at one point, working under his fiancee, Valerie; they later end their engagement), and still later, a business partner with Bobby. Peter was the only Brady child to not have a spouse or significant other when The Bradys was cancelled.

Jan Brady

Jan Brady (née Jan Martin, later Jan Brady-Covington) is the middle Brady daughter and was portrayed by Eve Plumb. Storylines which involve Jan often feature her jealousy of her seemingly more popular older sister Marcia, or her awkward position as the middle child. In addition, Jan is insecure about having freckles and wearing glasses, embarrassed about the fact she does not have a boyfriend (she invents a fictional boyfriend named "George Glass" in an effort to save her reputation), and concerned about her future appearance. A typical plot line surrounding Jan would feature her attempting to carve out her niche in the family, or make a name for herself at school. Once, in exasperation at her supposed inferiority to Marcia, she uttered the now famous catch phrase, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" which was later parodied in the Brady Bunch movie and in a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch.

As a young teen, Jan had a striking resemblance to her Great-Aunt Jenny (played by Imogene Coca) in her younger days. Jan is also occasionally absent-minded, once losing the tube containing her father's architectural plans while visiting King's Island amusement park in Cincinnati. In her later high school years, Jan found she had a talent for painting (as does Eve Plumb), which likely led to her career choice as an architect, following in her father's footsteps (as shown in later reunion films).

In The Brady Girls Get Married Jan marries Phillip Covington. The two met in college (he was her professor). The Covingtons briefly separate in A Very Brady Christmas, but reconcile. However, they are unable to conceive their own children and in The Bradys adopt a Korean girl named Patty.

Bobby Brady

Robert "Bobby" Brady is the youngest Brady son and was played by Mike Lookinland. Bobby was the "safety monitor" at his school and occasionally gets the other siblings into trouble. The precocious and often overlooked youngest boy, Bobby was often portrayed as a whimsical dreamer, fantasizing about having various adventurous lifestyles, such as being a race car driver, a cowboy, and an astronaut. On one occasion, one of his fantasies came true when he got to play football with Joe Namath.

On another occasion, Bobby became a professional race car driver, which led to a crash and Bobby's paralysis on The Bradys. Bobby is going through rehabilitative therapy when he marries his girlfriend, Tracy (Martha Quinn). Bobby — who had dropped out of business school to pursue his dream of racing cars — resumes his originally intended career path, joining Peter in a business venture.

Cindy Brady

Cynthia "Cindy" Brady (née Cynthia Martin) is the youngest Brady daughter and was played by Susan Olsen. She was portrayed as a naive, but occasionally precocious little girl, who was most often seen wearing her hair in pigtails and had a pronounced lisp. She frequently liked to snoop and share secrets she had found out. In one episode, the family had to help her correct her habit of tattling. She also had various failed attempts at fame, such as attempting to break a world record for teeter-tottering, appearing on a game show (on which she suffered from stage fright and had a catatonic attack), and trying to become "the new Shirley Temple". However, she does play a pivotal role in helping Bobby meet boyhood idol Joe Namath by signing Bobby's name to a letter stating he is "really, really sick."

On The Bradys, Cindy became a deejay (much like Susan Olsen herself did). At the radio station, she becomes romantically involved with her boss, a Jewish widower who is more than 15 years her senior and has two children. The relationship did not have time to develop before The Bradys was cancelled.

Other main characters

Alice Nelson

Alice Nelson, best known to television viewers as simply Alice, is the housekeeper to the Brady family. She was portrayed by Ann B. Davis.

Alice grew up in the same neighborhood as the Bradys, graduating from Westdale High School, the school Greg and Marcia attended in the series. Alice was the housekeeper to Mike Brady, his previous wife (who died before the series started), and their three boys. Alice stayed on, to be the housekeeper for not only his boys, but for his new wife, Carol, and her three daughters. Alice was generally impartial toward the children, although she presented Jan with a locket at one point, "from one middle sister to another."

Alice was best known for telling jokes (often self-deprecating, and usually interspersed with drier humor than the rest of the Brady clan), which were almost invariably met with multiple "Oh, Alice!" responses. Alice was also known for her sky blue housekeeping uniform, which she almost always wore. She also joined in the children's games (including playing basketball), and went along with the family on vacations.

In an apparent running gag with the character, strenuous physical activity would sometimes cause Alice to throw her back out, making her immobile for a short period of time.

Alice had an identical cousin, Emma (also played by Davis), who was a retired master sergeant in the Women's Army Corps. Emma once filled in for Alice when Alice traveled out of town. Alice quit her job at one point when she felt the children no longer trusted her, becoming a waitress at a local restaurant. Her replacement Kay (who did her work faithfully, but never tried to become close with the Bradys) told the kids where to find her ("The Golden Spoon at Fourth and Oak..."), and they begged Alice to come back.

For most of the series, Alice dated Sam Franklin (Allan Melvin), who ran the local butcher shop. In the final season, Alice and Sam were engaged. Alice and Sam have won awards in Charleston dancing and bowling, which was parodied in the Brady Bunch Movie, in which Sam gave Alice a new bowling ball instead of an engagement ring. They were married some time after The Brady Bunch left the air in 1974 and before The Brady Girls Get Married.

In the 1990s parody movies, Alice was played by actress Henriette Mantel. In the first film, Davis makes a cameo as a truck driver whose CB handle is "Schultzy" (Davis first became popular in the 1950s playing a character named Schultzy on The Bob Cummings Show).

The role of Alice was originally to have been played by Monty Margetts, but at the last minute, the role was recast. This was due to the fact that producers of the show changed their mind about casting Joyce Bulifant, who was originally cast as Carol Brady, and instead replaced her with Florence Henderson, who took on the role; producers felt a more comedic, zany housekeeper was called for, to balance Henderson's soft-spoken, low key presence.

Sam Franklin

Sam Franklin is Alice's boyfriend, who owns a local butcher shop. While he is frequently mentioned in dialogue, Sam actually appears in only eight episodes, although his appearances span all the seasons. In the made-for-television film The Brady Girls Get Married, Sam had been married to Alice for quite some time. Sam was portrayed by Allan Melvin. Lewis Arquette portrayed Sam briefly in A Very Brady Christmas, wearing a Santa Claus beard.

Cousin Oliver

Cousin Oliver stays with the Brady family during the last six episodes of the fifth and final season of The Brady Bunch. As explained in the episode "Welcome Aboard" from season five, Carol's brother Jack and his wife Pauline are traveling to an archaeological dig in South America, and because their son Oliver is unable to accompany them, he is sent to live with the Bradys. Cousin Oliver was played by actor Robbie Rist.

Cousin Oliver was eight years old (Rist was actually nine) and very young in contrast to the other kids, all of whom were twelve or older—an apparent attempt, despite Oliver's precociousness, to restore some of the appeal the series had enjoyed when the other children were younger. Some fans would later call the addition of Cousin Oliver the moment when the series "jumped the shark".[4] Similarly, in The Partridge Family a precocious four-year-old neighbor named Ricky (Ricky Segall) was added for its final season (the same year as the final season of The Brady Bunch). The addition of younger children to sitcoms that seem to have run their course, in an attempt to improve declining ratings, became a television trend popularly known as "Cousin Oliver Syndrome".

Years later, Rist appeared with members of The Brady Bunch cast on an episode of the game show The Weakest Link. Introducing himself, he joked: "I hope I don't kill this show too!" Rist ended up being the first "weakest link" of the episode.

The Bradys' pets

Tiger is the name of the Brady Family's dog, who appeared in many of the early episodes. The original dog used was run over by an automobile and died of his injuries before the fourth episode, but a replacement look-alike (named "Tiger" in real life) was found. This version stayed on until partway through the second season, when he was quietly written out of the series. This paralleled the Brady's Friday night companion show The Partridge Family whose dog Simone also disappeared that year without an explanation. Tiger appeared in a total of 10 episodes.

Fluffy is the name of the cat owned by Carol Brady and her girls. Fluffy only appeared in "The Honeymoon" episode from Season One, and was never seen again.

The children had a series of other pets throughout the series, each of them were featured in one episode apiece (to advance a plot). These pets ranged from frogs and birds to rabbits, goldfish and hamsters.

Characters making three or fewer appearances

References

  1. ^ "The Brady Bunch: A Fistful of Reasons". TV.com. http://www.tv.com/the-brady-bunch/a-fistful-of-reasons/episode/4896/trivia.html?tag=episode_tabs;trivia. Retrieved 2009-03-04. 
  2. ^ a b Moran, Elizabeth (1992). Bradymania! Everything You Always Wanted to Know - and a Few Things You Probably Didn't. Adams Publishing. p. 238. ISBN 1558504184. 
  3. ^ TV Guide Guide to TV. Barnes and Noble. 2004. pp. 536. ISBN 0-7607-5634-1. 
  4. ^ http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001927.php