Latest news with #TheRealBradyBros
Fox News
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
‘Brady Bunch' kids reveal why the fate of Carol's first husband was never mentioned
"The Brady Bunch" was a huge hit in the 1970s, and it continues to enjoy success in reruns today, but there was one important detail the writers never clarified. The pilot episode of the series made it clear that Mike Brady, played by Robert Reed, had been widowed, but the show never specified if Florence Henderson's character, Carol Brady, had been widowed or divorced. "There was a whole discrepancy in the basis of the show, in the concept of the show that the network fought [creator] Sherwood Schwartz on, and that is the premise was a widower with three sons and a divorcee with three daughters, and the network felt a divorcee created too many problems for the series," Barry Williams, who played oldest son Greg Brady, said on his "The Real Brady Bros" podcast. Williams said executives felt custody details and the issues that would have led to the divorce would complicate the premise of the show. "We were playing to a very conservative country, so they wanted Carol to be a widow, and Sherwood never changed it. But they agreed to disagree, and it was left unhandled, which is why you never see in our pilot episode Carol's ex-husband or even referenced," he added. "We were playing to a very conservative country, so they wanted Carol to be a widow, and Sherwood never changed it. But they agreed to disagree, and it was left unhandled, which is why you never see in our pilot episode Carol's ex-husband or even referenced." He added that the show also never depicted any of the children being adopted by their stepparents, although Susan Olsen, who played youngest daughter Cindy Brady, noted the fact that the girls' last names were Brady implied they had been adopted by their stepfather. "What is interesting, as you mention, is that they leave it. They don't deal with Mr. Martin by reference," Christopher Knight, who played middle brother Peter and co-hosts the podcast, said, referring to Carol's first husband. "They do refer to Mrs. Brady, the previous Mrs. Brady, quickly in this episode in a really touching scene, and we'll review it, and [they] then never again reference it or deal with it." Olsen said she thought it was "kind of sad" the boys' mom was never mentioned again. She noted that Carol does say, "'Three years ago, I thought it was the end of the world, and now it's just the beginning,' and you wonder, 'Did he die, or did they split up?'" "I've felt that was through a divorce or two myself," Williams said. Knight added that Schwartz "left it so the audience can decide for themselves." Knight said he also took "offense" to the idea that the siblings never referred to the fact that they were stepchildren. "I thought that was the part of the show that really failed us as kids, and I was just 12 years old, thinking at that time, 'They're not really my sisters,' and I know growing up I would have said, 'You're not really my sister.'" He said he now realizes the reason for the show's success was because they didn't do that. "It was all about getting along," he admitted. "And in getting along, having mom's picture always up, referencing your real mom or your birth mom is only gonna be a wedge issue, a potential wedge issue, so it was completely put aside," he explained. Divorce was a sticky issue on TV at the time. The series ran from 1969 until 1974. Mary Richards on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," which ran from 1970 until 1977, was also supposed to be a divorcee when she decided to move to Minneapolis and work for a local news station, but again the show's network didn't like the idea. Allan Burns, co-creator of the show, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, "We had the idea that we would do the first divorcee on television. It's hard to believe, but in 1970 that was a controversial idea. Mary loved the idea, Grant loved the idea. Both of them were divorced and understood it, but the network had a sort of cardiac episode." He said he was "summoned" to a CBS executive's office, and divorce was replaced by a broken engagement.
Daily Mail
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Brady Bunch star makes heartbreaking admission about difficult thing she 'had to accept' about role on TV show
Susan Olsen has opened up about the one gripe she had with playing Cindy Brady on the beloved 70s sitcom The Brady Bunch. Appearing on The Real Brady Bros podcast this week, where she revealed she was gravely injured while filming the pilot, the 63-year-old star said she didn't appreciate playing a dumbed down character. Chatting with former co-stars Barry Williams and Christopher Knight, who played her TV brothers, she looked back on a scene from the pilot episode that illustrated Cindy's dense mind. In the episode, Cindy and sisters Marcia and Jan talk to their mom Carol ahead of her wedding. Carol says she feels butterflies, to which the youngest Brady replies, 'Are you sleeping with your mouth open, mommy?' 'That's just how my career was and it was something I had to accept,' Olsen said about her tendency to play dull roles. Appearing on The Real Brady Bros podcast this week, where she revealed she was gravely injured while filming the pilot , the 63-year-old star said she didn't appreciate playing a dumbed down character; pictured in 1969 Williams, 70, weighed in: 'Do you understand that you were the cutest person in the world? You're just adorable.' And 67-year-old Knight, 67, added that the former child star Susan had a 'doll face.' Williams also said that he and Knight were aware that Olsen was 'a little bit uncomfortable with the nature' of her character. 'You're so much smarter than the character and you're so much edgier than your character. But here it is right there. You're saying the most idiotic thing imaginable,' he observed. Susan's 28-year-old son Mike has even noticed that she was pigeonholed into a particular type of part, she shared. She once appeared in a Disney movie in which her character meets a British person and asks, 'Why does he talk funny?' Her on-screen siblings tells her he's English, to which she replied, 'What's English?' Recalling her son seeing the film, she shared: 'And my son said, "So you always play the stupid child." And I said, "Mike, you're right. I did." And he goes, "Wow. Do you think you had anything to do with that?" I'm like, "Well, I hope not!"' However, Olsen's mom had a positive perspective, finding her daughter's ditzy lines 'cute.' Olsen then quipped, 'She doesn't have a functioning brain, but she's cute.' Elsewhere in the episode the television star described being left with a swollen face after lighting equipment fell directly onto her while working on the Brady Bunch pilot. 'My eyes were black. I mean, I had two black eyes. My nose was swollen. My face was swollen,' the actress said as she looked back at the show's beginnings on the re-watch podcast. The incident happened the day before the cast gathered to film the pilot episode in 1969. Susan, just seven-years-old at the time, had been getting her makeup done when she was struck. 'The saddest news is that we didn't sue Paramount, because I would have made more off of that than the show,' Olsen said candidly.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Brady Bunch' Star Reveals She 'Almost Died' Filming Pilot Episode in 1968
A star from The Brady Bunch revealed she was seriously injured while filming the pilot episode of the ABC sitcom more than 55 years ago. During an appearance on The Real Brady Bros podcast, former child star Susan Olsen recalled a dangerous incident that occurred while she was shooting a scene for the episode 'The Honeymoon' in 1968 when she was 7 years old. While speaking with her co-stars Christopher Knight and Barry Williams, Olsen, who played youngest child Cindy Brady in the classic series, said the scary moment took place as she was getting body makeup applied to her legs. 'I got injured,' Olsen said. 'I almost died.' "I was standing on a makeup chair and something from the catwalk, where they keep all the lights and everything, fell," Olsen explained. "It hit the makeup man first, [bounced] off the body makeup woman, and hit me in the face." Olsen said her injuries are visible in the scene where her TV parents (Florence Henderson, Robert Reed) get married. "You can tell, if you look at the ceremony and you see the three girls on one side, if you were to zoom in really tight, you can see my face is quite swollen," Olsen said. "I look different. You can even see it in some of the early publicity shots.' Olsen also recalled that Henderson told producers, 'That hit that little girl really hard.' But everyone on set said Olsen was 'fine,' so she held back tears before being taken off set for medical treatment. "The saddest news is that we didn't sue Paramount, because I would have made more off of that than the show," she cracked on the podcast. Olsen said she reported to work the next day with a swollen nose and two black eyes. Makeup guru Hal King (I Love Lucy) was brought in as a "specialist" to cover her injuries with makeup. Olsen wasn't the only Brady to suffer an injury during filming. In 1972, Williams, who played eldest sibling Greg on the sitcom, wiped out while shooting a surfing scene for the infamous Hawaii episodes. In his book Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg, Williams revealed that he lost control of his surfboard and 'flew through the air' toward an exposed coral head. After he wiped out, his feet "got turned into hamburger meat,' Williams wrote. The real-life accident footage was shown on The Brady Bunch episode 'Hawaii Here We Come.'
Daily Mail
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Brady Bunch star reveals how she almost DIED while filming the iconic sitcom's pilot episode
Former Brady Bunch child star Susan Olsen has revealed that a grave accident could have killed her while she filmed the pilot for the iconic series in the late 1960s. Olsen, who played Cindy Brady, recounted being left with a swollen face after lighting equipment fell directly onto her. 'My eyes were black. I mean, I had two black eyes. My nose was swollen. My face was swollen,' the actress, now 63, said as she looked back at the show's beginnings on the re-watch podcast, The Real Brady Bros. The incident happened the day before the cast gathered to film the pilot episode in 1969. Susan, just seven years old at the time, had been getting her makeup done when she was struck. She shared the story with former costars Barry Williams and Christopher Knight, and she noted that she wished her family had sued the studio for the accident. 'The saddest news is that we didn't sue Paramount, because I would have made more off of that than the show,' Olsen said candidly. 'But I came to work the next day. Florence [Henderson] was the first one to see me. She's like, "You make sure everybody sees her." And my mom was like, "Oh, yes, I will." Because everybody was trying to say, "It didn't really hit her. She's fine."' The actress continued, 'I looked like I was in a horror film. And then everybody knew, yes, I had gotten hurt, and I had gotten hurt very badly.' To cover her bruised face for the pilot, Brady Bunch creator Sherwood Schwartz enlisted makeup artist Hal King, who had previously worked with Lucille Ball. Susan said, 'He was the specialist to cover up my black eyes. I loved Lucy. She was my idol. 'I was so thrilled to have him. And every day, my bruises would be a different color, and I'd say, "My bruises are purple today, Hal."' The now-retired actress starred as the baby of the Brady family on the beloved sitcom that ran from 1969 to 1974. She was cast in the role at age eight and appeared on the series throughout its entire run. In 2024 Olsen claimed that a 'woke' Brady Bunch reboot was axed over her conservative political views, revealing it would have had black and transgender characters. She also dished that her character Cindy would have been a Libertarian podcaster while Jan Brady, played by outspoken liberal Eve Plumb, would have a transgender child. The plans were nixed when CBS did a deep-dive on her social media accounts, which revealed she was a vaccine denier who opposed to Covid-19 vaccine and spoke out against vaccine mandates and opposed masking in general. Olsen was married twice. Her first marriage, to Steve Ventimiglia, lasted from 1988 to 1990. She later married Mitch Markwell from 1995 to 2004, and they share a son named Michael.
Fox News
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'Brady Bunch' star Susan Olsen 'almost died' during filming of first episode
Susan Olsen revealed she "almost died" while filming the first episode of "The Brady Bunch" as Cindy Brady. Olsen was joined by three of her co-stars — Mike Lookinland, Christopher Knight and Barry Williams — for a re-watch of "The Honeymoon." They discussed the first day of filming the iconic pilot episode that aired in 1969. "On the Culver lot, they were shooting something — I would assume, in the girl's bedroom — and I was getting body makeup on my legs," Olsen said during a podcast episode of "The Real Brady Bros." "I was standing on a makeup chair and something from the catwalk, where they keep all the lights and everything, fell." "It hit the makeup man first, [bounced] off the body makeup woman, and hit me in the face." "You can tell, if you look at the [wedding] ceremony, and you see the three girls on one side, if you were to zoom in really tight, you can see my face is quite swollen," Olsen explained. "I look different. You can even see it in some of the early publicity shots. You can tell my face is a little swollen." Florence Henderson, who starred as Carol Brady, was there to comfort Olsen and make sure everyone knew that the young actress had been injured. However, everyone else around insisted she was fine. Olsen recalled thinking at the time, "I don't want to be brave. In fact, I don't just wanna cry, I want to sob. I'm just gonna let go and forget all my pride and just sob because this hurts." She ended up putting on a brave face and held back her tears. Olsen's mom took her to the doctor, but the family chose not to take legal action. "The saddest news is that we didn't sue Paramount, because I would have made more off of that than the show," Olsen joked. "But I came to work the next day. Florence was the first one to see me. She's like, 'You make sure everybody sees her.' And my mom was like, 'Oh, yes, I will.' Because everybody was trying to say, 'It didn't really hit her. She's fine.'" "My eyes were black. I mean, I had two black eyes. My nose was swollen. My face was swollen," she said. "I remember loving it, because I looked like I was in a horror film. And then everybody knew, yes, I had gotten hurt, and I had gotten hurt very badly." Paramount brought out Hal King, the makeup artist who did Lucille Ball's makeup, to cover up her bruises. King also worked with Henderson for the entirety of filming for "The Brady Bunch." The cover-up of Olsen's injury must have worked great because her male co-stars didn't even notice. "Didn't know anything about that," Knight said during the podcast. "The Brady Bunch" aired from 1969 to 1974. The show starred Henderson and Robert Reed as the mom and dad, Carol and Mike Brady, who shared a blended family of three boys and three girls from previous marriages. The sitcom followed the family's life, showcasing adventures and more.
