The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

I love how the applause is so obviously canned and repeated ad nauseam during the big finales.

Geri Reischl (the Jan substitute) seems to have a good sense of humor -- her Twitter handle is "@FakeJan."

I'd love to read the book on this show (yes, there is one), but it never shows up in the Amazon books-for-a-penny list (not worth paying close to cover price).

Robert Reed had the time of his life. Fabulous time for him. FABULOUS.

It's so bad, so embarrassing to watch. The Osmonds were corny too but at least they could sing. All that unresolved sexual tension between Donny and Marie.

Barry Williams looking foxy as hell though.

Rip Taylor as "our resident loony?"

Gotta love it lol

Episode 1 (with other episode links on the page)

Campy to watch it .............if it was a really happy time for Robert Reed, it kind of makes me smile.

Oh, yea ..... I OWN the book about the show (co-written by Susan Olsen) .....half price at The Strand in NYC ($11.50)

Wonder if Maureen McCormick was jealous of Fake Jan, who got her share of the solos (and wasn't half bad)

I have the book. It's a real treasure trove for a Brady Bunch fan like myself.

Ann B. Davis did not get a along with Rip Taylor.

I watched it as a very young gay in the making, and thought that the boys were all cute. But I'm sure the show sucks.

[quote]I'd love to read the book on this show (yes, there is one), but it never shows up in the Amazon books-for-a-penny list (not worth paying close to cover price).

Oh, you couldn't be more wrong, r2. It's worth every penny of the cover price. Beautiful pictures, great behind-the-scenes gossip, a wonderful depiction of TV production in the 70s. I only wish it were available in hardcover to make it a true coffee table book. Okay, I kid, but it really is worth the price.

Some tidbits:

- Ann B. Davis HATED Rip Taylor and refused to speak to him when they weren't doing their scenes together. Because she had retired from acting and was living in a religious commune in Colorado, they would fly her in just for the taping days.

- Florence Henderson took the show VERY seriously and snapped at several of the Brady kids when they didn't show up to rehearsals or made derogatory comments about the show. She also would make homophobic jokes about Robert Reed, though apparently they were good friends

- Eve Plumb was going to do the show when it was just a one-off special but wouldn't commit to the series if the special was a hit so Fake Jan was created

- Maureen McCormick's drug abuse got her in trouble several times during the show's production.

- Susan Buckner was one of the "Kroftettes" who danced and swam in the chorus. After this she'd play Patty Simcox in "Grease."

- Bruce Vilanch was one of the writers on this and Donny & Marie's variety show; he had a huge crush on Donny Osmond

- Susan Olsen and Geri Reischl would sneak away from rehearsals to hang out with Chevy Chase and Paul Shaffer (Chase was producing a comedy special at the time.)

The book is definitely worth a borrow; I'm not sure I'd re-spend the $17 I drunkenly forked over to buy it.

Geri Reischl was a trained singer and dancer. She made a good impression on the show because she was actually qualified to do it.

Flo Henderson came from musicals, so she reamed the kids when they weren't working hard enough, and they never were (which is evident).

Robert Reed probably had to wear a panty liner to keep all the KTLA-studio-adjacent hustler spooge from leaking out of his ass.

ABC had so many high-rated shitballs that were spinning in the air of their own accord that the network never really had a place for the show, which was dropped into the schedule erratically. It was a terrible show, but really no worse than Donny & Marie (from the same producers). If it had a regular time slot, it probably would've run much longer. The contemporary Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries suffered the same fate; the same year, The Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman had to move to other networks because ABC had no place for anything but the shiniest dogshit.

Is there actually documentation of Reed with hustlers in the book, R12? I mean I easily believe it, just curious what was written.

Also, per the book: The laughter and applause sounded canned because it was canned. There was no room for a studio audience because of the fucking swimming pool.

Susan Olsen wrote that when she first saw the original psychedelic glitter-bombed set as it appeared in the pilot, she thought it looked so cheap and tacky she cried. She says it was a surprisingly fun show to do but that she didn't want any of her friends to watch it. The producers got on her case about her "baby fat" and constantly encouraged her to lose weight. Barry Williams and Maureen McCormack got more air time (for what that's worth) than the four younger Bradys who were under 18 and limited to fewer working hours.

Unwatchable.

[quote]how many chorus boys did Robert Reed help himself to?

All of them.

[quote]She also would make homophobic jokes about Robert Reed, though apparently they were good friends

Well, that's disappointing. Flo came from musical theatre. Shocking to hear that she's a homophobe.

Amazingly, neither the producers Sid & Marty Krofft nor anyone from ABC contacted Sherwood Schwartz to secure the rights to the characters, which he owned. Schwartz could have pulled the plug on the show, whose existence he learned about in the trade papers. But he had always liked the cast, except Robert Reed, and he didn't want to deprive them of the paycheck. So he accepted a good-sized check from ABC and allowed the debacle to proceed.

Hollywood doesn't make television shows like this anymore -- taking characters from a decades old sitcom, pretending they're a real family and then giving them their own variety show. Really, can you imagine any show from recent years which you would love see the actors return to sing and dance?

Love this, needed something to help me fall asleep.

Mike Brady was a DILF.

I would totally love to read a tell all about Robert Reed's personal life through all the Brady years (right up to 'The Bradys')

But I'm sure his daughter/family would never sign off on that kind of book ......... and I'm not sure who else could write it. I've never heard any talk of a long time boyfriend/lover/partner.

[quote]Really, can you imagine any show from recent years which you would love see the actors return to sing and dance?

Are you kidding? Hell, yes! Pick ANY show with a decent sized cast and imagine them singing and dancing in character. Hilarity! If anyone has the power to greenlight "The Law & Order: SVU Variety Hour" please do so NOW!

[quote]Are you kidding? Hell, yes! Pick ANY show with a decent sized cast and imagine them singing and dancing in character. Hilarity! If anyone has the power to greenlight "The Law & Order: SVU Variety Hour" please do so NOW!

[quote]Are you kidding? Hell, yes! Pick ANY show with a decent sized cast and imagine them singing and dancing in character. Hilarity! If anyone has the power to greenlight "The Law & Order: SVU Variety Hour" please do so NOW!

I went to a Paley center event for "That '70s Show", after the first season. Before screening the pilot episode, the host explained that the producers of T7S wanted us to watch some footage from 1976 -- to remind us (and educate others) what things were like, back then.

The auditorium darkened....and an opening number from "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour" burst onto the Paley center screen. I don't remember what they were singing, only that the place going NUTS, everyone was laughing hysterically. (I could barely breathe; had not seen the Variety Hour, which I watched faithfully, since it originally aired).

Loved the BBVH parody/homage in the early 3rd Season T7S episode, "Red Sees Red." (Watch from 7:45- 13:00)

Is this cannon? Were the events that happened here really considered cannon as to what happened to The Brady Bunch?

Do you mean 'canon'?

I just ordered the book. Only 3 left at Amazon. In homage to the 70s not available in kindle format, dammit.

I think the Roseanne Variety Hour could have been terrific!

Fake Becky could have paralleled Fake Jan!

Lots of sitcoms used to have variety-type shows/scenes in them -- Laverne and Shirley, One Day at a Time, the Dick Van Dyke show, etc. But it would be fun if they did it with some of the dramatic shows.

[quote]Is this cannon?

Only in the sense that Sid and Marty Krofft should have been shot out of one.

At least this show was better than [italic]Pink Lady and Jeff[/italic]. That was just painfully bad and not funny at all, and they did the same lousy recurring sketches every week. And I can't believe Larry Hagman would turn down SNL and do that.

[quote]Only in the sense that Sid and Marty Krofft should have been shot out of one.

Does anyone believe them when they insist [italic]HR Pufnstuf[/italic] wasn't a pot reference? I don't.

[quote]Does anyone believe them when they insist HR Pufnstuf wasn't a pot reference?

As a long-time fan of HR Pufnstuf I can firmly assure you that . . . . wait, what were we talking about?

I wish Luchino Visconti had lived long enough to have directed an episode of this show.

Others who should have directed episodes were Ken Russell and Bob Fosse.

No, R27, the "events," such as they were, in The Brady Bunch Hour are not canonical. They were never mentioned in future Brady shows.

R26 I had never seen an episode of That 70s Show. It was as painfully unfunny (with an overbearing laugh track) as the Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

So, if they were going for that: well done!

The Brady Bunch Hour is only canonical in the sense that it was a nightmare Alice had after a good pounding from Sam's tube steak, and a generous helping of the mushrooms found in Rob Martin's luggage.

And that would be the episode Ken Russell directed.

Yeah I can't imagine the Brady Bunch having hard feelings about a show beating it in the ratings. Considering they never won their time slot, they would've had to have hated every show airing concurrently. It was just a humble, little, low-rated, kiddie show. The cast found out when they demanded a raise (citing their recording success) and Sherwood Schwartz promptly cancelled it.

MeTV is showing HR Pufnstuf every weekend.

R27 the events portrayed in The Brady Bunch Hour were NOT canon.

The original premise was that in 1976, two years after we'd last seen them, the Bradys were contracted by ABC to produce a variety show, and they moved to Malibu.

In 1981, for The Brady Girls Get Married, the Bradys are back in their old house, as if it never happened. No reference is ever made to "Remember that time we moved to Malibu and did a variety show" in any subsequent reunion (A Very Brady Christmas or The Bradys). Also, Greg had become a doctor by 1981 so presumably in 1976-77 he still would have been in medical school.

At some point Sherwood Schwartz outright stated that the events depicted in the Variety Hour never happened in the timeline of the show.

Yeah, and they completely forgot about ME!

We were getting ready to do a "Facts of Life" variety show, but suddenly none of the girls wanted to put on their tights for the dance routine. I'm not sure why.

In the musical numbers, the mix makes Flo Henderson's voice louder than the other seven put together. Greg, Marcia and Fake Jan are the only others who can be heard.

Even the commercials -- God! Ken Berry in a white suit dancing around a mall like The Music Man for a cheap chain shoe store! Vicki Lawrence pushing Carnation powdered milk!

[quote] In the musical numbers, the mix makes Flo Henderson's voice louder than the other seven put together. Greg, Marcia and Fake Jan are the only others who can be heard.

There's a damn good reason for that.

[quote]Even the commercials -- God! Ken Berry in a white suit dancing around a mall like The Music Man for a cheap chain shoe store! Vicki Lawrence pushing Carnation powdered milk!

I bet the accountants are just lovin' this!

Take a quart of Carnation Instant Non-Fat Dry Milk. Add a quart of whole milk. Mix. Chill. And serve! You get two quarts of great-tasting low-fat milk. And make a real savings on your milk bill!

Did anyone ever say "make a savings" in the '70s? Was that an actual commonly used expression?

[quote]The original premise was that in 1976, two years after we'd last seen them, the Bradys were contracted by ABC to produce a variety show, and they moved to Malibu.

Why would ABC contact a random family to host a variety show??

[quote]Why would ABC contact a random family to host a variety show??

Mormon Family! I said Mormon Family! I wanted the fucking Osmonds, not a family of morons!

Because of their winning performance as The Silver Platters on the "Pete Sterne Amateur Hour"! That's why!

As a 6 and 7 year old, the notion of a Brady Bunch Variety Hour filled me with such joy and glee. I remember the first episode aired, and then it was off for a long time. I would always look for it.

Then it came back a few months later. I guess I somehow knew it wasn't as good as The Brady Bunch but I didn't care. I LOVED it.

Now, of course, it's completely unwatchable. And... I understand it when I see it because I remember it in context. That garish, campy show did not seem to garish or campy back then. But I wonder about people who watch it now who weren't alive in the '70s. It must seem like something from another planet to them.

[quote]Mormon Family! I said Mormon Family! I wanted the fucking Osmonds, not a family of morons!

Well, we DID give you the King Family, Freddie.

Amazon has about 20 used copies available through its used book dealers affiliates, starting at $6.66 plus $3.99 shipping, and going up to $125.

Get down and get FUNKY!!

I didn't think it was such a bad show.

Another TV turd from the vaults...

Florence Henderson was the best part of that show, RIP.

[quote]Robert Reed probably had to wear a panty liner to keep all the KTLA-studio-adjacent hustler spooge from leaking out of his ass.

Now that's something I didn't need to know.

[quote] Hollywood doesn't make television shows like this anymore -- taking characters from a decades old sitcom, pretending they're a real family and then giving them their own variety show.

They weren't decades old at the time, it was only two years after the original ended.

R57's clip - as already mentioned, Fake Jan actually had a really good singing voice, probably the best of the cast. And Christopher Knight is REALLY packing those polyester pants.

I know it's corny, but I'm sad our culture no longer produces things as upbeat and corny as this.

bump