The Brady Bunch

The girls were Marcia, Jan, and Cindy; the boys were Greg, Peter, and Bobby.

The actors playing them were

• Marcia: Maureen McCormick
• Jan: Eve Plumb
• Cindy: Susan Olsen
• Greg: Barry Williams
• Peter: Christopher Knight
• Bobby: Michael Lookinland

The mother was Florence Henderson, the father was Robert Reed, the housekeeper Alice was Ann B. Davis, and the scripts were by Harold Pinter, okay I made that last one up.

The first episode, "The Honeymoon", was shown on 26 September 1969, and the last show went out on 8 March 1974, a total of 117 episodes. There was a variety special made in 1977, featuring H.R. Pufnstuf and many other famous singers and suchlike. This led to more of the ghastly things, then various new follow-up series where they get married, get old, die, get buried, and so on, none of which had any of the charm (Footnote 1) of the original series.

Footnote 1. You watched it and enjoyed it when you were young same as I did. I'm not saying I'd watch it now. If you want the full monty see www.bradyworld.com.

Okay, I did have this fairly serious thing for Maureen McCormick. Who didn't? Second favourite, only: no-one could displace Susan Dey in the Partridge Family, the thought of whom still makes me melt and bubble.

The Brady Bunch was created by the legendary Hollywood TV producer Sherwood Schwartz, whose other smash hit situation comedy was Gilligan's Island. The show was a major moneyspinner for the underwriters of the project, the ABC network in the USA.

The show's premise was the new-for-the-time concept of the blended family (this one being the product of a widow and a widower, rather than the still looked-down-upon divorce). Writeups above this one fill out the character's details, with the notable excepton of the family's pet dog, Tiger!

The Brady Bunch featured terrific acting from the actors listed in the writeups above, and also featured excellent character actors for bit-parts outside of the Brady residence, such as Alice's long-time boyfriend Sam the Butcher (played by Allan Melvin).

The less-well received followup productions were:
The Brady Bunch Hour (1977)
The Brady Brides (1981)
The Bradys (1990)

Research sources include TV Tome, Sitcoms Online, and TimVP.com