Question: Even though we know in the pilot that Mike was widowed, the show kept Carol's status a secret if she was widowed or divorced (though TV guides in the 70's labeled her as widowed). It seems obvious that widowed would be the answer since the girls never kept in touch with their father at all (or ever mentioned him). So the main question here is regardless if Carol was widowed or divorced, why were her 3 daughters' last names changed to Brady? Marriage would only change Carol's last name.
KeyZOid
18th Jun 2022
The Brady Bunch (1969)
Answer: It's implied that Mike Brady adopted Carol's daughters, which would result in their last name being changed to Brady as well.
10th Jul 2010
The Brady Bunch (1969)
Question: Two part question: Mike throughout the series is someone depicted as a person of intelligence. So when he puts both of his sketches into one cylinder and puts Jan's Yogi Bear poster in the now empty identical cylinder, why does he place them right next to each other under the table? More importantly why doesn't he check to see if he has the correct one when he leaves for the meeting? When he returns to the Manager's office to inform them he hasn't found the sketches, why does he carry the cylinder with the poster with him?
Chosen answer: Intelligence does not necessarily correlate to wisdom or common sense. He simply doesn't think to do these things.
Answer: Robert Reed, the actor playing Mike Brady, frequently complained to the writer (Sherwood Schwartz) that the "slapstick comedy" in many episodes was ridiculous and he could NOT perform some of the behaviors in a scene because of its absurdity. Reed was under contract, so ended up reluctantly playing his role against his better judgment (until the last episode when he was written out of the scene at the last minute because of his complaints and requests to change the script to something reasonable). In the movie "Growing Up Brady", the ongoing disputes between Reed and Sherwood were portrayed, as well as six-year-old Susan's ("Cindy") meeting with Sherwood when she asked him why Cindy had to be so stupid and how Cindy could forget her favorite sandwich was peanut butter and jelly. Susan said the kids at school were teasing her over this and asked Sherwood why Cindy could not be smart and funny. The basic answer to your questions is because the writer, Sherwood, thought the slapstick comedy was very funny and believed it was one factor that made "The Brady Bunch" a popular TV show that ran for many seasons. Mike Brady (Robert Reed) was merely following the script that he had no control over. Also in "Growing Up Brady", when Barry ("Greg") went for his audition/interview with Sherwood, he told him he loved "Gilligan's Island." Guess who wrote "Gilligan's Island"?
19th Aug 2019
The Brady Bunch (1969)
Question: There's a scene in this episode I haven't seen in over 30 years (edited out in more recent years) where the 4 kids upstairs are arguing (boys vs girls) and the kids continuously stamp their feet on the floor and then Alice is shown downstairs watching her cake in the oven. Periodically with all the stomping from upstairs, the cake gets flatter until very flat the end of the scene. Question is does anyone remember this scene and why does the cake in the oven get flatter every time a kid stomps from upstairs?
Answer: I think I remember that episode - but, more importantly, my mother always told me (and my siblings) to stop jumping/ stomping, running in the kitchen, and opening the oven door when a cake was baking... because these could make the cake fall. I believed my mother... and I, as a child, also caused a few "fallen cakes" because I didn't quite always listen (right away, anyway). I'm sure Alice's fallen cake episode was exaggerated, but cakes really CAN fall from stomps and opening the oven door too soon. Usually, it has something to do with the baking powder and how the air bubbles change during the baking process. Doing something that might cause the oven and cake inside to move/shake can suddenly change the air bubbles inside the cake and cause a collapse. I don't know all factors that have to occur for a cake to fall (collapse in the middle), but I've seen fallen cakes during my adulthood and... well... caused at least a few myself. Regarding Alice's cake falling each time one of the Brady kids stomped upstairs, I'm not sure if a series of falls could occur. IF it is possible, I think there would have to be way too much baking powder in the batter or some other inaccurate combination of ingredients that alter the chemical process during baking.
Answer: Realistically, a cake would not deflate in that way. There are some desserts, like delicate, airy souffles, that can deflate during and after baking, and that must be served almost immediately from the oven. The scene, broadly played for humor, is merely meant to show the argument's growing intensity gauged against the rate of the deflating cake.
Answer: I haven't come across a scene like that, but maybe over time what you remember got mixed up with episodes of other shows, so this is just a suggested episode. "Try, Try Again." In the episode, Mike is preparing a gourmet meal for Saturday. Jan is practicing tap dancing in the kitchen and his soufflé that he had spent 3 days preparing is knocked to the floor. While it is true soufflés can "fall" (meaning deflate), it's because the cooking time was wrong (or opening the oven door too soon) or the structure of the egg whites is too weak. Noises don't make them collapse.
This was not from "Try, Try Again" (though I do remember that scene too). That was in a later season when the kids were older. The one I was talking about was during the first season when all the kids were young. I know the scene in question were the 4 youngest kids and the scene started by each the boys and girls arguing that Greg/Marcia (running for student body president) doesn't stand a chance against him/her to win (boys for Greg, girls for Marcia).
That's "Vote for Brady", s01e11. I watched it and for some reason Carol tells Mike to be careful, after he makes too much noise, indicating noise will ruin the cake. Alice does keep checking on the cake with the oven light every time the kids make too much noise. However, the cake is always fine, and in fact getting bigger. Then, realizing the cake is fine, Alice is relieved and leans against the counter, knocking over the cutting board. The cutting board crashes to the ground, which this time does cause the cake to flatten. It seems like an exaggerated prop, I've never see a cake rise like that, it looks like how a muffin might rise. Then it's somehow deflated, as if it was hollow, like a puffed pastry, or too raw. If it was too raw, it shouldn't flatten in the oven. But the look of the cake doesn't remind me of any puffed pasty, which is made from a dough, not a batter and the cake looks like a batter cake to me. So, it just deflates for irony or comedy of error reasons.
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Answer: That the girls be adopted was for good reason - it would not be "proper" to have girls housed with boys (or a grown man) they were not related to, even if only by marriage. They may not be blood relatives after their adoption, but their statuses as step-sisters to the boys (or step-daughter to Mike, now their step-father) help clarify their roles and set appropriate boundaries (especially prohibited sexual behavior).
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