CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Falconeer Of course it's an iconic TV show, and we ALL watched at one point. But watching as an adult it becomes obvious how timid the writers of "The Brady Bunch" really were. It's as if they were terrified that they might offend ONE viewer somewhere in the Bible Belt. Because of this, nothing of substance ever happens to the Brady family. They wasted so many opportunities to tackle important subjects like drug usage, teen sex, or even a subject like lying to your parents. Considering this was the 1970's, I believe this lack of reality, alienated a lot of viewers, who preferred more honest fare like "Welcome Back Kotter" and "All In the Family." This show actually comes across as a product of the 1950's, which wasn't an appealing thing to 70's audiences. Because of this, most of the episodes are frustrating and forgettable. The show does improve with each passing season, as the kids get older, and the writers are forced to create something more believable, as nobody would accept the idea that Marsha and Greg were sexless plastic dolls. Looking back, the most memorable episodes were the edgiest ones. The final episode, when Bobby becomes the pool hustler, actually got it right; still sweet, but something that actually approached "being cool" to anyone over the age of 10. And I was amazed recently, while watching old reruns, to come across an episode that I had NEVER seen before. The subject matter was "bullying." The episode had a very un-PC message; that the way to handle a bully is to knock his teeth loose! And Peter does just that while defending Cindy against an older boy. He is actually praised for doing it as well, and regarded as a hero. I'm sure that is the reason that they NEVER show that episode. All in all, watching the "Brady Bunch" remains a nice way to pass time..but it could have been a lot more.

alv790 This was a sitcom that became a household name in reruns, after it was already canceled. It was innocent fun from a different time, very tame by modern standards, and did not bother with heavy topics. Nostalgic, innocent and feel-good, it became a model of family series. Other series would borrow from it or rebel against it. It has also become ingrained in popular culture. Those six kids and two parents, along with a live-in maid, who "must somehow form a family", will forever be part of the history of TV in the US.Several generations of children grew with the Brady kids and envied them for having such a large family, where something fun was always going on.

WakenPayne Architect Mike Brady marries beautiful young Carol, who has three girls to care for. Likewise, Mike's previous wife's death has left him to raise his three boys all alone. In no time this amalgam becomes the ideal average American middle class family. Of course, raising such a large family isn't easy, so live-in housekeeper Alice Nelson is always there to lend a hand.I Cannnot Think Of A Show Worse. This Is Me Being As Honest As I Can Be (Because I Can't Swear) For This Review. My Mother Loves This Show And I Was Subjected To It Then. Say What Anyone Else Can Say But This Show Is Cheezy & Pointless As It Is Famous. Some Jokes Can Go Like This: One Of The Girls Is Juliet In The School Play & The Role Has Gone To Her Head & After The Parents Find Out & She Leaves The Mother Says "If An Actress Can Be Judged By Her Temper Then She's Ready For An Oscar". *I Split My Sides Guys In The Writing Chair, No Keep Making These Scripts As Long As You Want, No Seriously You Are The Greatest Comedy Writers Ever*.If you thought I was being sarcastic then you are absolutely right and I think that those laughs you hear would be the studio showing them something that is worthwhile and recording the laugh there while The Brady Bunch was playing (I think the same thing about the show Full Frontal). The rating 6.9 overrates it by far, it should be in the 4 point something section (I am so generous).Overall I Think I've Said It: Weak Jokes, Terrible Acting & At The End Of Every Episode Everything Is Back To Normal, I Don't Mind Shows Like That But It Gives The Audience No Character Development For Anyone.

classicalsteve The idea that "The Brady Bunch" portrayed a "realistic" suburban family has its roots in TV fantasy-land, similar to the silliness of "Happy Days" and "Leave It to Beaver". Most of the situations in this show were ridiculous contrivances that had little basis in reality whatsoever. The seed of the show was conceived from a newspaper article stating that something like 40% of families had children from other marriages. I guess if you can take a statistic and make it into a TV show, you can do anything. You can also throw spaghetti against the wall and hope it sticks.The shortcoming of the entire show was that the writer-producers did not seem to base any of the episodes upon real-life incidences, which is where the real human drama resides, and where some of the funniest material comes from. I have always believed the best story material can't be made up; it comes from seeing real people doing ridiculous things you could never imagine. That's why shows like the Dick Van Dyke Show are so well-written and ultimately hilarious because it was based on the writers' experiences. Even the Partridge Family was based on a real-life singing family. Not the Brady Bunch whose scripts were strictly drummed out of thin air, which is always the least effective way to write if the intention is to be "realistic".The contrived situations seemed at odds with the issues with which young people were facing in the late 1960's and early 1970's. For a time resplendent with social issues and social change, the Brady Bunch relied on the banal. (In fact, the father of the show played by Robert Reed was an in-closet gay man. Wouldn't that have made the show interesting?) But no, the Brady's situations were mainly trivial. Playing ball in the house. Bobby is falsely accused of doll-napping. Cindy makes it a habit to tattle-tale. Rather silly stuff. They never dealt with death, prejudice, love, hate, race relations, or politics.I was slightly younger than the Brady Bunch kids (I grew up in the SF Bay Area suburbs in the 1970's and 1980's), and yet I never knew anyone who had the kinds of "situations" that the Brady's did. I'll confess that I did watch the show in reruns, but there were a lot of episodes that, even as a kid, I thought were rather stupid. One of the kids having an "identity crisis" was a recurring theme throughout the show. I never knew anyone, among my family or my friends, who engaged in this kind of behavior. In one episode, Peter Brady adopts the personality of Humphrey Bogart. In another Jan Brady wears a wig. In yet another, Bobby tries to make himself tall by hanging from a swing set. Or when Marcia becomes stuck on herself as a "star". Maybe one of the few episodes that had a spark of realism was when Jan was jealous over Marcia's success at school. Of course, Marcia wins every award you could imagine. And when Marcia enters an essay contest in which she describes her relationship with her father, of course she wins first prize. It would have been far more interesting and real if she hadn't won but still felt the same way about her father. The fact that she wins somehow loses any modicum of interest the episode might of had. But of course, this is American television, 1970's style. She HAS to win.Probably the stand-out of the show was Eve Aline Plumb as Jan. Despite a lot of the mediocre writing, Plumb brought a sensibility to her character that was lacking in a lot of the rest of the cast, including the parents, who were probably the least-interesting of the whole family. The parents, Mike and Carol seemed like know-it-all busy bodies who were near-perfect but lacked any real emotions, not to mention any shortcomings. I would have like to have seen a little more blood-feuding between them. That's what happens in real families. But again, not the Brady Bunch. Even the cook-housekeeper Alice was a bit more interesting than the parents.Overall, a mediocre show at best and a contrived somewhat intelligence-insulting program at worst. I think the Brady Bunch tells us more about perceived sensibilities and prescriptive norms of Americans in the 1970's than being a realistic portrayal of the 1970's, much the same as "Leave It to Beaver" in the late 1950's to early 1960's. And maybe that's the problem. The Brady Bunch never showed what it was really like but instead tried to show us what we were supposed to be like.