Alex Carson
When The Brady Bunch premiered in 1969; it quickly became a hit with television audiences thanks to its novel premise and lovable cast of characters. The show would go on to last for five seasons. Though it lasts for a few more if it didn’t for some bad attitudes amongst the cast and crew. Most felt that it is time for the show to come to an end. Though it revived in the form of various spin-offs. The final episode of the series is called “The Hair-Brained Scheme. And it featured a plot so ridiculous that star Robert Reed refused to take part. Join Facts Verse as we explore the scene that took The Brady Bunch off the air.
The Brady Bunch, a hit sitcom that premiered in 1969 and revolved around the premise of two widowed parents; each with three children of the corresponding gender, getting married and forming a new, exceptionally large, family. Series creator Sherwood Schwartz claims his idea for the sitcom after reading a piece in the Los Angeles Times. Sherwood claims that the bit of text that inspires him for The Brady Bunch is only five lines long. But that it was enough for him to create a series that would go on to last for five seasons.
Upon its 1969 premiere, The Brady Bunch became a fairly big success with audiences. However, the show began waning in popularity slightly during its final seasons. Robert Reed was the actor who played Greg Brady, the patriarch of the Brady family. Robert had some ideas about why The Brady Bunch wasn’t faring so well in the ratings. And also had some ideas about how he thought the show should be run. Of all the cast members, Robert Reed was the pickiest when it came to his criticisms of the show’s scripts.
However, he’s far from the only cast member of The Brady Bunch that issues with the direction of the series. Several other of the show’s stars, including young Maureen McCormick; expressed their ire at the fact that the show seemed to be treading water creatively during its final seasons. Like Robert Reed, Maureen had some ideas about how the series might evolve in future seasons. However, the creative staff is not interested in their ideas.
Robert Reed and Maureen McCormick wanted The Brady Bunch to become more radical. Both prefer for the show to challenge audience members and incorporate more adult storylines as the Brady children got older. The creative staff of The Brady Bunch starts getting boredom with the direction of the series during its final years. They’re neither willing nor allow to shake things up as much with the show’s format as the stars will like.
Robert Reed’s distaste for the direction that The Brady Bunch gets bad that the actor is out of the series’ final episode. That final episode is “The Hair-Brained Scheme”. It features a plot revolving around the character of Bobby selling his older brother Greg a hair tonic. It turns the elder brother’s hair orange just before his high school graduation. Upon receiving the script, Robert balked at the notion that hair tonic could possibly turn someone’s hair orange. For his part, creator Sherwood Schwartz claimed that he had fact-checked the storyline. And found that it was indeed possible for a poor-quality hair tonic to turn someone’s hair a different color.
The final episode of The Brady Bunch is the 22nd episode of the show’s fifth season. And expects the episode to end up as the show’s last. It was the program’s 117th episode overall, and ratings were dwindling by the time that it aired. Besides Bobby and his hair tonic, the episode follows daughter Cindy as she attempts to breed a pair of rabbits. But it turns out that both of them are boys. Given the surprising nature of The Brady Bunch’s cancellation. None of the characters on the series are given ceremonious send-offs during the final episode.
If The Brady Bunch restarts for a sixth season, Greg will write off the show or Robert will recast. Robert’s distaste with “The Hair-Brained Scheme”. And the general direction of the series isn’t the only reason that The Brady Bunch didn’t reach five seasons. But the actor’s criticisms certainly didn’t help matters. There are also other reasons that the show ended up canceled. The main one was that the cast and crew had only signed on for five seasons. And the creation of a sixth would’ve entailed potentially costly renegotiations of all the stars’ contracts.
Given the fact that the show’s ratings weren’t what they’d been during its earliest years. The network decided that forming new contracts and continuing The Brady Bunch wasn’t worth it. If you’re enjoying this video so far, be sure to hit the like button to show your support! Also, subscribe to the channel if you’d like to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
Robert expresses his negative feelings towards The Brady Bunch’s final episode in a memo to show creator Sherwood Schwartz. Doing such things was a common practice for the star. As he had made a habit of being overly critical about the series’ various plotlines and generally stagnant trajectory of the show. When Robert sent his memo to Sherwood; he had likely expected that the creator was going to bend over backward and change the episode’s plotline to please him. However, by that point, Sherwood had grown tired of Robert’s increasing demands.
Once it became clear that changes not going made to the episode in order to make it’s plot more to his liking. Robert Reed had his agent call up Sherwood; and tell him that the star wasn’t planning on participating in the filming of the episode. With this, Robert was sure that he was going to get his way. However, Sherwood ended up simply writing the character of Greg Brady out of the episode instead of bowing to the demands. This reportedly led to some uncomfortable interactions on set. As Robert showed up to watch the show filmed even though he had no intention of taking part. According to Robert, he did this because he cared about the series and wanted to know how the episode was going.
When Robert Reed continued showing up on set even though he had refused participating in the filming of the final episode. There’s talk amongst the creative staff of The Brady Bunch of having the actor physically remove from the set. However, this choice of action ultimately decided against as it felt that such an event would’ve traumatized the child stars; who had come to view their on-screen father as a real-life father figure throughout filming the series’ five seasons. The creative staff ended up convincing Robert to leave on his own volition. With the actor having no idea that he had just missed out on taking part in The Brady Bunch’s very last episode ever.
Even though The Brady Bunch ended up coming to an end after the final episode of it’s fifth season. The series has lived on in the hearts of the audience, and has also revived in the form of various reboots and films. One of the first big revivals of The Brady Bunch came not long after the cancellation of the original series with The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. The Brady Bunch Variety Hour premiered in 1976, only two years after the end of the original series.
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour was technically an actual sequel series to The Brady Bunch, as it featured a plotline that took place in the same universe and continued the plot of the original series. Although the format of the show was simply musical and comedic sketches, the in-universe plotline followed the Brady patriarch quitting his job and taking his family to Hollywood to become stars. All of the original cast of The Brady Bunch returned for The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, with the exception of Eve Plumb.
While most of the returning cast from The Brady Bunch didn’t prove too fond of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, this ironically wasn’t the case for Robert Reed. Although Robert had begun to hate his time on The Brady Bunch by the series’ end, he took a much more favorable attitude when it came to filming The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. Robert had always preferred stage acting to acting on television, and the format of the variety series appealed to him much more than the format of the beloved sitcom that had inspired it.
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour only lasted for one season and didn’t perform all that well. Nowadays, the series is viewed as a cult oddity and is made fun of more often than it is enjoyed. Besides the variety series, The Brady Bunch also revived in the form of animated spin-off The Brady Kids; as well as the 1980s series The Brady Brides, which preceded by a made-for-television reunion film by the name of The Brady Girls Get Married. In more recent years, the films The Brady Bunch Movie and A Very Brady Sequel have helped love for The Brady Bunch carry into the future.
Although The Brady Bunch has gone down in history as being one of the most influential and successful television sitcoms of it’s time. The show cancelled after five seasons for a variety of reasons before revived in the form of various spin-offs and films. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that The Brady Bunch star Robert Reed had to be written out of the series’ final episode. And that the series may have lasted for a few more years if it hadn’t been for some bad attitudes amongst the cast and crew? As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!
