About book Growing Up Brady: I Was A Teenage Greg (2000)
I was the target audience when the first episode aired. I was ten. I was ashamed of myself for watching it then. In adult life I was ashamed to be reading Barry Williams's (really pretty good) account of his times on the set of a show about a horribly clean family brought together by the union of two previously divorced adults. No mistaking this: Mrs. Brady was no widow. Mr. Brady dumped that first Mrs. Brady. No back story was needed beyond the theme song. The second Mrs. Brady's daughters and the sons of Mr. Brady were not related to each other. I posit that Alice (the loveable maid) was the one who gave the testimony which caused the court to refuse visitation rights to the first Mrs. Brady.What made THE BRADY BUNCH a success was its subliminal message that not only did divorce have no consequences, it could lead to blissful family life. Two families, each one consisting of a parent and three children, became a family of two parents, six children and a servant.No pets.Barry Williams's book is interesting. He makes the case that the actor who played Mr. Brady was the anchor of the show. (I'm sure I'm the target audience of the original broadcast, because I'm too old to remember the actor's name.) [Note added January 15th, 2007: A friend has reminded me that it was Robert Reed who played Mr. Brady. I'm amazed I forgot.] With the making of each episode he [Reed] would argue point by point with Sherwood Schwartz about the script. (Schwartz was the show's creator, whose earlier landmark sitcom, GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, also had a theme song setting up the premise of an entire series.)Like STAR TREK, THE BRADY BUNCH, as stuck in time as it is, does NOT, somehow, look dated. It was a strangely optimistic program. Also like STAR TREK, it became a much bigger hit in syndication. The people who are obsessive about THE BRADY BUNCH weren't even born when the show was being made. THE BRADY BUNCH always aired back to back with THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY on Friday nights on ABC. That network had a lock on the nineteen-seventies. It was the age of the giant color TV on the shag-rug carpet in the living room. Swimming pools were visible beyond sliding glass doors just to the right of the TV. I wonder if Nixon ever watched THE BRADY BUNCH. He is conspicuously absent from its worldview. A couple channels down, on ALL IN THE FAMILY every Saturday night, "Nixon" was every other word.
I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I actually read this book, but I am a HUGE Brady Bunch fan. Even though I am a 90′s child, I watched re-runs of the show on Nick at Nite and TV Land growing up. I did not read this book to be entertained and put into a story, rather, I wanted to find out some tidbits about one of my favorite shows.The book was ok. It kept me entertained and I laughed at a few parts, but it was nothing mind blowing. I did find Chapter 17 (entitled “One Toke Over The Line”…I’ll let you figure that out) to be hilarious and found the clip in question on YouTube. I was surprised to find out how much tension and disagreements there was on the set between Sherwood Schwartz and Robert Reed.It was a fun, quick read and I know that I will never watch The Brady Bunch again in the same way! If you like The Brady Bunch and have a little time to read, then pick up this book. Otherwise, just pass on it and move along.
Do You like book Growing Up Brady: I Was A Teenage Greg (2000)?
Interesting if not very insightful book about what went on behind the scenes on The Brady Bunch. Which Bradys hooked up? Who didn't get along? And whatever happened to that dog Tiger?The book is short anyway, but a full 50% of the book is dedicated to describing every single Brady Bunch episode in detail. And several of the remaining chapters talk about Barry Williams' life before he got the part of Greg Brady. Perhaps there are people out there who are interested in how many made-for-TV movies Barry acted in; I really didn't care. So out of 300 pages, only about 100 pages was really about the behind-the-scenes Brady Bunch antics.It's not worth the money to buy the book new, but if you're a Brady fan and you can pick it up cheap, it's worth flipping through.
—Heidi
In the early 90’s, I like so many others of my generation, went on a huge 70’s pop culture nostalgia fest, the centerpiece of which was The Brady Bunch, a ridiculously idealized and out of touch family sitcom even in its heyday, which also happened to be hugely entertaining (well, I thought so). The squeaky-clean adventures of the Bradys bore absolutely no relation to reality whatsoever but that was part of its charm. Of late I have become nostalgic for my early 90’s version of early 70’s nostalgia – funny how that happens – and when a copy of this became available on Paperback Swap I couldn’t wait to read it again. Barry Williams, aka Greg Brady, strikes the appropriate tone here, a sort of bemused, faux-embarrassed affection, and his recounting of the behind the scenes shenanigans and backstage intrigue is fun and informative. He’s not a bad writer either, though he can come off as rather smarmy, especially when detailing his lust for Maureen McCormick, aka Marcia Brady; his penchant for calling her and other attractive women "babes" is annoying. But overall, his sense of humor is winning and the book is very fun for Brady fans. It was published just a little before Robert Reed’s death from AIDS and later revelations of Maureen McCormick’s problems with drug addiction, etc., so it remains a breezy read rather than a depressing expose, which is really what we wanted in the end – for the Bradys to remain in their happy little bubble, immune to the very real problems and tragedies of the world.
—Robert
I admit it... I have problems. There was one thing my sister and I agreed on as kids and that was our love of all things Brady. This book gives an interesting glimpse "behind the scenes" of the show, the numerous variety shows/attempted spin-offs (we all remember "The Brady Brides), and the too horrible for words TV movies. The world may never know if Barry Williams was really telling the truth about him and Florence Henderson, but don't worry about the authenticity of the stories and simply enjoy a fun read.
—L
