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{{work}}{{Needs Disambiguation}}
[[File:Brady DVD 5941.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|''Until the one day when the lady met this fellow
''And they knew it was much more than a hunch
''That this group must somehow form a family
''That's the way they all became The Brady Bunch
|[[Expository Theme Song]]}}
[[Sherwood Schwartz]] (previously of ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' fame) developed and produced the series. He was shopping the show around to networks for a year or so before it was picked up to capitalize on the success of ''Yours Mine And Ours,'' a 1968 feature film about another large blended family. (This was obliquely acknowledged by the makers of ''A Very Brady Sequel'' when they selected one of the stars of ''Yours Mine And Ours,'' Tim Matheson, to play Carol Brady's long-lost first husband...[[Spot the Imposter|sorta]]).
Never a huge hit in its initial network run on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], the show became inexplicably popular (perhaps through its [[Theme Tune]], and the songs they did?) once it [[Vindicated by Reruns|went to daily syndication]] in the late '70s, and a cultural icon (and eventual subject of vast quantities of nostalgia and derision in equal measure) for Gen-Xers. Over the years, the show gained two made-for-TV reunion movies and a couple of spin-offs. Moreover, the actors of the children have appeared in specials and game-shows numerous times.
In the years since the show's cancellation, various tidbits have come to light regarding the show and its cast: like its sister series ''Gilligan's Island'', the concept grated on several of the cast members (several actors were busy most of the time sending angry memos to the producers about the horrible scripts they had to work with). Also, there were behind-the-scenes romance stories between almost every member of the cast. Oh, and Tiger (the dog) was actually ''two'' dogs; the 'original' Tiger wandered off the set one day looking for a place to 'do his business' and was promptly hit by a truck.
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* [[The Brady Kids]]
* [[The Brady Bunch (film)]]
{{tropenamer}}
{{tropelist}}
* [[Absentee Actor]]: [[Robert Reed]] refused to appear in the original show's final episode, finding its plot (Bobby selling Greg a shampoo that turns his hair orange) to be too ridiculous.
* [[An Aesop]]
* [[Alliterative Title]]
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* [[Big Damn Movie]]: The first film involved them saving their neighborhood from being turned into a shopping mall.
* [[Bizarrchitecture]]: Requested by Beebee Gallini (she wanted Mike to design a cosmetics factory that looked like a perfume bottle, poo-poohing Mike's advice that such buildings would structurally fail).
** And let's not overlook the fact that the exterior of the Brady house (which spreads out side-to-side) doesn't jive with the interior (which spreads out from front to back). When [[HGTV]] bought the house used for exterior [[Stock Footage]] in 2018 and remodeled it to match the sets inside, they had to add a wing and do such odd things as putting Greg's attic room in the basement.
* [[Born in the Wrong Century|Born In The Wrong Decades]]: The eponymous family in the movies.
* [[
{{quote|'''Marcia:''' "He even wrote something in my yearbook in French! "''[[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Menage A Trois]].''" I bet that means "You're the most.""}}
* [[Brand X]]: Several examples, most famously with the brand of laundry soap the family uses – Safe, as viewers learn in "And Now a Word From Our Sponsor". This was the episode where a "hip" movie producer hires the Bradys to act in a TV commercial for Safe, but Mike – speaking for the family – will agree to do so only if Safe can beat their current laundry detergent. Before testing Safe against the family's current detergent, Best, Carol rattles off the names of the other soaps she and Alice have used: Champ the Dirt Fighter, Clear & Bright and Help.
** In a [[Truth in Television]] moment, Mike rolls his eyes as Carol explains the family's laundry detergent history. Indeed, Robert Reed, in his scathing memo about the episode, reprinted in Barry Williams' book "I Was a Teenaged Greg", said he was annoyed at the scriptwriter's use of one-syllable words for laundry detergent names (an "obvious writer's technique" that was clichéd and made Carol sound like a ninny, Reed contended).
* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: In ''The Brady Girls Get Married'', ''The Brady Brides'', ''A Very Brady Christmas'', and ''The Bradys'', nobody ever acknowledges the year the family spent as [[Variety Show]] stars in ''The Brady Bunch Hour''.
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: [[Eve Plumb]] was one hell of an artist, which made its way into a few episodes and eventually became Jan's major talent.<ref>Plumb ended up painting many of the reproductions of paintings from the show used in [[HGTV]]'s ''[[A Very Brady Remodel]]''.</ref> [[Florence Henderson]] was also known for her beautiful voice, which led to two episodes revolving around Carol singing.
** Florence Henderson also sang the theme to ''The Bradys''.
* [[Celebrity Star]]
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** Played straight in "Quarterback Sneak", from Season 5, where dishonest quarterback Jerry Rogers tries to steal Greg's playbook by lying to Marcia about his romantic interest in her, then actually stealing the playbook (check that, a fake playbook that Greg had created when he learned that his rival is resorting to stealing playbooks). Greg – who admittedly sometimes twists the rules to suit his own situation – admits what he did to his father, after Mike counsels him that by stooping to Jerry's level, he's actually harming the players of the opposing team who chose to play by the rules. In the end, Jerry is thrown off the opponent's team, and Greg quarterbacks his team to a big win.
* [[Christmas Episode]]
* [[Classically-Trained Extra|Classically
** Parodied in ''[[Grand Theft Auto
* [[Cooking Duel]]: Several, between the boys and the girls.
▲* [[Cousin Oliver]]: The [[Trope Namer]].
* [[Cowboy Episode]]: ''The Brady Bunch'' had a dude ranch episode.
* [[Crack Defeat]]
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** Also ''The Real Live Brady Bunch'', an early '90s stage show in which original episode scripts were performed word-for-word, but with a self-consciously [[Camp]] sensibility that anticipated the tone of the films.
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: What Robert Reed often accused the Schwartzes and various writers of doing with the scripts. In addition, Reed's criticisms have fallen in the bad writing and [[They Just Didn't Care]] tropes.
** In the Schwartzes' memoir about the series, Lloyd (son of Sherwood) refuted Reed's scathing critique of the infamous final episode ("The Hair-Brained Scheme") by contending [[Shown Their Work|there had been well-publicized real-life examples]] of people having their hair damaged by hair gels, and magazine "get-rich quick" advertisements enticing children to sell overstock of discontinued products. Reed refused to accept the
* [[Disco Dan]]: The entire family, in ''The Brady Bunch Movie'' and ''A Very Brady Sequel''.
** Ridiculously with Greg's "Johnny Bravo" facade.
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* [[Drunk with Power]]: Supposedly what happens to Bobby when he becomes hall monitor.
* [[Exact Words]]: To circumvent a severe punishment for insubordination, Greg gets his parents to agree to go by the letter of house rules and pre-stated agreements.
* [[Extremely Overdue Library Book]]: In the episode, title "The Private Ear", one of the [[Dark Secrets]] that Greg has was that he doesn't want anyone to know (save Marcia)...Until Peter lets his big brother know that the library won't be very happy, that he'd better pay the fine, and that he might eventually face the music with the folks.
* [[Expository Theme Tune]]: "And that's the way we all became the Brady Bunch!"
** Also a [[Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune]] (sung by the Brady kids) beginning in the second season.
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* [[Framed Face Opening]]
* [[Friends Rent Control]]: A stay-at-home wife, six kids, and a full-time housekeeper, all being supported by one staff architect's salary. Yet the kids all have their own bikes, they vacation in Hawaii, and nobody complains about wearing hand-me-downs except when it serves the plot for money to be tight.
** They didn't "vacation" in Hawaii. Mike was working on a new building in Hawaii and Mr. Phillips said to bring the whole family along because he was just
* [[Full House Music]]: Years before the trope namer was so much a twinkle in the eyes of Miller-Boyett, ''The Brady Bunch'' made liberal use of mellow or dramatic music cues, often at a dramatic point or (even more often) as Mike or Carol offered the [[An Aesop|moral]] for that particular episode.
* [[Game Show Appearance]]: Cindy (on a ''[[College Bowl]]''-type game).
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* [[Hearing Voices]]: Jan {{spoiler|and Cindy}} in ''The Brady Bunch Movie''.
* [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]]: The Dittmeyers, who lived next door to the Bradys. They were eventually shown in - and played a major role in the plot of - ''The Brady Bunch Movie''.
** We
* [[Homage]]: The subject of many.
* [[Identical Stranger]]: "Two Petes in a Pod".
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* [[Nuclear Family]]: Of the blended variety.
** Although after the first few episodes the fact that they're step siblings becomes rarely mentioned, if at all, to the point where the opening credits become the only indicator that they're not related.
* [[Obfuscating Disability]]: One episode had a plot where a man claimed to have been grievously injured after only a minor car accident with Carol. Mike proved the man was lying by throwing his briefcase on the floor while the man's back was turned; after the sudden slamming noise, the man rapidly turned in fright, [[Artistic Licence Law|and the judge immediately ruled]] in favor of the Bradys.
* [[Oh, Cisco]]
* [[Out-of-Character Moment]] / [[Conflict Ball]]: Carol's strong objections to Greg playing football in "click". While Carol was shown to worry about her kids' well-being, she'd never had any complaints about any of the boys playing on sports teams prior to the episode. Possibly justified by the fact that high school football ''can'' be tougher than other sports, and the fact that Carol once dated a football player and may have had to deal with him constantly getting hurt.
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* [[Reunion Show]]: The made-for-TV [[The Movie|movie]]s ''The Brady Girls Get Married'' (1981) and ''A Very Brady Christmas'' (1988).
* [[Revival]]: ''The Brady Bunch Hour'' (1977), a [[Variety Show]] produced by [[Sid and Marty Krofft Productions]]; ''The Brady Brides'' (1981), a sitcom following Marcia and Jan in their post-marital lives; and ''The Bradys'' (1990), which rather drastically reworked the show's premise as a [[Cerebus Syndrome|heavy drama]].
** Making the variety show variant funnier is that it was reportedly the
* [[Rewind, Replay, Repeat]]: Greg has become the photographer for the high school football team (after his injury makes him ineligible to play). During a crucial, contested touchdown he was taking pictures of his girlfriend, a cheerleader. But he manages to catch the foot of the player as he was making the catch in the
* [[Running Gag]]: Alice throwing her back out while doing tasks.
* [[The Seventies]]
* [[Shaped Like What It Sells]]: A client, Beebee Gallini, freaks Mike out when she asks him to design her makeup factory first in the shape of a powder puff, then a lipstick, and finally a compact, complete with hinged roof.
* [[Shoot the Money]]: Episodes took the Bradys on location to Grand Canyon and Hawaii.
* [[Shout-Out]]: In one of the movie adaptations that is a lighthearted parody of the show, it reveals who Mrs. Brady's first husband was: {{spoiler|The Professor from [[Gilligan's Island]]}}.
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* [[The Stool Pigeon]]: The theme for this trope is in the season two episode "The Tattle-Tale".
* [[Sudden Humility]]: A [[The Bully|bully]] is teasing Cindy for having a lisp, so Peter knocks his front teeth out. Now ''he'' has a lisp.
* [[Suspiciously Apropos Music]]: "Time to Change", in the episode where Peter's voice... changes.
** Not really suspicious. They were going to sing We Can Make the World a Whole Lot Brighter and then Peter's voice changed during a rehearsal. And taking a vote whether or not to keep Peter or dump Peter (which came out a tie since Cindy voted twice), Greg wrote Time to Change from scratch to allow Peter to sing with them.
* [[This Is My Side]]
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* [[Unexpected Positive]]: Carol lets the doctor check her tonsils to show Cindy that it won't hurt. Turns out Carol and Cindy ''both'' need their tonsils out.
* [[Vacation Episode]]: Season 3 started with a three-episode trip to the Grand Canyon, while Season 4 had a similar arc in [[Aloha Hawaii|Hawaii]]. A Season 5 episode takes them to [[Amusement Park|King's Island]] in Cincinnati.
* [[Very Special Episode]]: There was [[an
* [[Wangst]]: Eventually angst became middle daughter Jan's defining trait, as noted by Eve Plumb in the years since the end of the show.
* [[Wedlock Block]]: In one of the movies, the parents are reluctant to officially approve Jan's marriage plans because Marcia is single. Marcia explains this problem to a random male stranger she meets...resulting in a [[Fourth Date Marriage|Fourth Date Double Marriage]] with Jan and her beau.
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: A double example. The pilot introduced the boys' dog Tiger and the girls' cat Fluffy. Fluffy disappeared immediately
** Because a stage light fell down and damaged the AstroTurf at that point in the yard and the producers had to cover it up.
** The family literally wonders what happened to the mouse in an episode about practical joking.
* [[Would Hurt a Child]]: Humorously played in "Bobby's Hero", where Bobby
{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Seventies]]▼
{{Brady Bunch Franchise}}
[[Category:The Sixties]]▼
{{Best in TV: The Greatest TV Shows of Our Time}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:Dom Com]]
[[Category:The Brady Bunch]]▼
▲[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:Kid Com]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1970s]]
▲[[Category:The Seventies]]
▲[[Category:The Sixties]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brady Bunch, The}}
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