Born New Year's Eve, 1959 in Bellflower, California and adopted shortly thereafter, Geri Reischl entered the entertainment industry at a young age. She appeared in two films as a child, Brotherhood of Satan (1969) and I Dismember Mama (1972), neither of which she was permitted to see for some years. She has appeared in a number of television shows, from Gunsmoke to The Interns. She has also performed musically in various venues. From 1974-1977, she fronted a pop band, Sand Dabs.

She remains most famous for replacing Eve Plumb as Jan Brady for The Brady Bunch Hour, a short-lived variety show spin-off of the original. She continued to appear as Jan with other members of the cast throughout the late 1970s, on variety shows and telethons.

Apart from the tongue-in-cheek movies, each of the Brady girls has a ringer. Leah Ayres played Marcia Brady in the short-lived The Bradys series, while Jennifer Runyon filled in as Cindy Brady in 1988's A Very Brady Christmas. Reischl ranks highest among the Substitute Brady Girls. Lisa Simpson's variety show replacement on the "spin-off" episode of The Simpsons resembles Rieschl. A Tiny Toons episode has a pet hamster die and be replaced; the pet's name is, of course, Jan Brady. Finally, an Illinois band named itself Fake Jan in honour of Reischl.

She married in 1979, and retired from show business to raise her children.

Update 2022: she is trying to re-enter it, with appearances at events and a website. The design is bizarrely dated, the unholy lovechild of the 1970s and Myspace.

The Brady Bunch Hour Website. http://www.bradyhour.com

Jeff T. Schell. The Brady Bunch Museum. http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/jarman/454/bbshow.html

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