For some reason I was on a “Brady Bunch” kick the other day. I’ve dug up the following YouTube clips of various latter-day Brady TV show openings.
First, here’s the opening to one of the episodes of “The Brady Bunch Hour,” the legendarily awful variety show from 1977 (with fake Jan).
Next, here’s the opening of the 1981 TV movie, “The Brady Girls Get Married.” This aired when I was in first grade. I was already a “Brady Bunch” fan by then, and I can’t tell you how excited I was when I first saw this movie. Visually, the opening is basically the same as the original series, but the instrumentation has been funkified.
The movie kicked off the short-lived 1981 TV series, “The Brady Brides,” which focused on Jan and Marcia and their husbands. I was so into this series. This opening has new footage and new lyrics.
From 1988, here’s the opening to “A Very Brady Christmas,” which I never saw because we were living overseas at the time. First comes a promo, and then the actual opening (about 30 seconds into the clip), and then the first scene, which gives you an overview of the totally remodeled Brady house.
Finally, the ultimate in cheese. From 1990, here’s the opening to the short-lived dramedy (remember dramedys?), “The Bradys” (with fake Marcia). The music in this one is sung by Florence Henderson, and the lyrics and her delivery are so schmaltzy, I want to drown myself in Wesson Oil. We were still living overseas when this aired, so I’d never seen this until two days ago.
Wow. I haven’t thought about TBB in ages — deliberately :-)
I liked earlier episodes, but once everyone got funky — with Mike and Greg sporting afros — I really just couldn’t watch it any more.
Have you heard about Marcia’s lesbian fling with Jan? Supposed to come out in a new book by Maureen McCormick. The Brady saga will never end!