November 22, 2024 • 50 mins
Here’s the story, of a man named Peter Brady!
Will and Sabrina sit down with Christopher Knight inside the Brady House in Los Angeles for a very special interview.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
Well, thank you everybody so much for joining us on
a very very special episode of Magical rewind Sabrina. Where
are we?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
We are at the Magical Brady Bunch House. We are
this is wild, will Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It really is because you walk in, it's been completely redone.
It looks exactly like it did on the show. But
it gets even cooler than that because we're not here alone.
An amazing special guest with us. Christopher Knight is here,
Peter Brady himself is here.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I come with the house. Yes, perfect, I'll never leave
home again.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Now we have to jump into the house first before
we get to you.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
We since we're here. Absolutely no, it deserves it's it's
it's due, right.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, you're responsible for a lot of this happening recreation.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, Discovery HGTV is responsible for it actually happened because
they were the ones with the wisdom and the money
to make it happen. And and I was very upfront
with the idea that it couldn't be done really in
terms out we each one of us has had experienced
building and this it's a very there's a lot of
(01:27):
volume here. I mean that's there. It's an and it's
iconic and everyone knows what it's supposed to look like
at the end. How do you make that happen when
you have a split level house elevation from the street
without destroying the street elevation. Yeah, and that they were
we're able to do it because yeah, it looks like
it's us because we're carrying the story on the show,
(01:48):
but you know, it's there's a lot of work that
we're not doing that's being done by individuals hired by
HGTV to make it happen. Like for instance, the floor
was dug down. One step uh is missing from the stairs,
so it's not quite as tall, but we needed more
space to fit that volume, and so most of the
(02:10):
house that was here is gone and parts that were
left then needed to be dug out and new foundation
board underneath. So it was it was more than a remodel,
I'll say, but without changing that that street elevation, because
which is amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
But you know, you're you're getting the the You're in
the age of the internet where you know there's people going,
excuse me, but there's one stare missing.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I'm one of those on our podcast, we watch our
show and I'm and I'm seeing what people have been
seeing for years, and it's just like there's no continuity.
We'll have to talk about that, because it's been a
revelation where we have come when we produce product now
from that day when there was no concept that these
things would be watched.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
A million times every episode in a row and loved.
The reason why people pick up on those details is
because they love the show and they watch it so
many times.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I guess people are crazy. And then I mean Iam
Shatner the story he tells me about somebody telling him
about how did you get from here? Because the you know,
engine room is down and he said it was a
television show. You know. I mean, this guy has in
his head built the enterprise and had questions like, in
(03:26):
all fairness spent that time the engineering.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Room on the NCC one seven oh one was very
far away from uh.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I'm just saying it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
You know there they had to pass the holidays.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
You've had some time with them.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I'm not going to get into it now. When you
and HGTV, when you all got together and decided to
do this, was there anything you were adamant about?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
This has to be this one's thing has to be
done or this has to be perfect, or you can't
skimp on.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
This, right, No, and it wasn't. I mean, frankly, I
had these great ideas of doing the Brady House with
modern materials, and I didn't understand why we we'd replicate
a sixties kitchen in sixties materials. Yeah, I got it
with for Mica, it sort of didn't make any sense
to me until we did it, and then I then
(04:16):
I then I got it. So I was like one
of those who was not as aware of how faithful
not only they were choosing to be, but that they
needed to be. Yeah, and I'm glad for it. I
mean it was to the point where some of the
furniture that couldn't be found was recreated. I wanted to
do the horse that became an episode because to me,
(04:37):
that's like an eleventh character on the show. It is so.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And you have your own home furnishine line.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yes, which I used, the horse is the is the icon?
I mean it's it's more of a Phoenician is.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The house that's like directly from the line at all?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Or No? I mean there's nothing that we sell that
is of this era, right, However, all that shot it.
I mean, that's why we couldn't we couldn't buy current furniture,
find that television, that refrigerator. You know, this is why
this house really can't be lived. And refrigerator doesn't work, the.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Wonderful avocado fridge from the safeties.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Something years old. So you know, but you know, we
get to live forever in this time zone when we're here, Like.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Ron, I was very shocked that we're not sitting on plastic.
I was ready to like not move during this podcast, thinking.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
There was my grandma's house, or you would forgive it,
it would be this house.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
This is the place exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I think this was like fabric that they were able
to print. They literally inked it and printed it. I
know that's the case with the day beds in the
family room.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
That oh my god.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Well, I mean, anybody who's who's watched the series, you
walk in and you're every so we're sitting here, just
to give our dear listeners a kind of visual of
where we're sitting. We're sitting here and the front door
is directly ahead of us, and every single producer person,
everybody who's walked in the front door just explode like
a giant smile.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
And walked in and we did as well. I mean,
we were working on bits of the house, and then
they kept us from the final reveal, I mean until
it was ready to reveal to us because they really
wanted our honest reactions, and it was it was breathday, literally,
because this is a space that we grew up in,
(06:33):
and it's better than the space we grew up in,
and which was odd. The whole reason for doing it
is because forever people have been taking photos of the
house from the outside, mostly you know, baby boomers. You
know that in the day, either watched it on at
prime time or you know through it's it's it's arc
and syndication, knowing that we were actors, but over time,
(06:57):
with enough familiarity, it's like, no, we're a family and
lived in this house, like we worked in this house,
and that we didn't. I didn't know where this house
was ninety four, like twenty years later, I didn't. And
what's interesting, I didn't think to ask, I mean Lloyd
and Shore up until recently sure was around to ask.
Certainly they knew, and I did. I asked Lloyd some
(07:17):
somewhere in the early nineties, where you know where was
the Brady House. Yeah, and it was around the corner
from where I used to live, loud and I never
knew it was here, and I didn't think to ask.
And I'm not the only one, apparently every single one
of us had no idea and didn't care to ask.
So it was a much important, much more important article,
if you will, in the show to our audience, and
it was to us, Yeah, and it's because it represented
(07:40):
what we worked in. But this was a set, you know,
at stage five at paramout slot that we've recreated here.
Luckily I was wrong and we were able to do it.
And when you that seat that you're sitting and looking
out that front door and that that window, that was
a window that didn't have any real sunlight, right, yeah,
no sky, it's a much better view.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
We've had a chance to interview quite a few celebrities
from movies that they've done on the Disney Channel, and
one of the things that they talk about being a
young actor in just this giant you know space, you're
just working and you're kind of just a kid that's
like living this dream and you're not really thinking of
the aspect of actually working or being bigger to somebody else.
(08:24):
You're just having so much fun doing it because of
the age that you're at, hopefully and well, it's that
we've been lucky enough to mainly talk to and do interviews,
and it's it's like they're growing up on camera. It
just was ending up being who you were working with
was family, and you know, they just it was all
(08:44):
about good memories and stuff. Was it was.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It was about a really and and that's another point
of our existence that is a little bit different from
what has been told, is the story of Hollywood and children.
It was a really wholesome environment. It was a betterronment
than the environment I had at home. Matter of fact,
it paralleled it. And it gave me a counterpoint like
how it could be. I know it's not real, but
(09:07):
you could aspire to it, which is exactly what the
show is about. And I don't know how I kind
of tapped into that at eleven or had that kind
of awareness, but I knew that there was something wrong
at home that we could do better trying to be
like the Bradys, because what's the harm in that? And
my mom had a whole different take on family than that,
(09:28):
But that is what the show really was primarily about
about like the working together as a family, and some
do it naturally and some need a lot of lessons,
and our family needed lessons in my family at home.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So what now? I'm so interested in this because, as
anybody who knows me knows, I'm a television junkie, a
television history I love everything about TV. It was my
best friend growing up. It really was what was being
a child actor in the seventies, like compared to you know,
the we started in the nineties, late eighties. I mean,
it was the process I had to imagine was the same.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Completely different, really really completely different for insidious reasons that
you can't see. Today. Attitudes about the industry have changed.
The importance of the industry has grown. The treatment of
children and professional children is completely different. Certainly and probably
(10:28):
repeating myself, but the focus on celebrity is totally different
today than it was back then. The focus on entertainment
as a financial engine an industry. I mean, these were
the visions of conglomerates, and the other parts of those
conglomerates were bigger than the movie and television industries, you know,
(10:53):
so there was far less focus on entertainment specifically for kids.
It was like kids. It wasn't a kids medium. Matter
of fact, there was no judging of any of the
product by from the point of view of it being
a children's program. They got we got slaved, you know,
by by critics for being banal and simple, and truthfully,
(11:17):
it was because it was a very primary show, because
it was about kids and family andes and done in
a in a very straightforward, digestible, simple way. You know,
it was the blocking and tackling of life in a home,
and to be criticized for that was them not understanding
who was aimed at. Really, I mean, because today, if
(11:39):
somebody's reviewing a Disney show for kids, they have different
glasses on than when they're then than when they're doing
you know, any you know pinter, you know, reviewing you know,
what's considered to be literature. But then our television has
become our new literature. So it was at a time
when people didn't regard anything on television, especially as important,
(12:07):
and certainly our show was on the tail end of importance,
so you know, it was it was scoffed at because
it was so simple, and my family were artists and
they picked up on that scoffing and believed it to
be true. But that's not as it's turned out in
looking back what the show was about. Sure, So yeah,
(12:29):
kids in the industry weren't. It wasn't. It wasn't an
industry for kids. It was an exception to have kids
in it. And when we're coming you know, we're still
in coming out of it, but we're in the midst
of that. Children should be seen and not heard. Yeah,
you know, era, and we didn't have parking. They didn't
give us parking. Really, we didn't have our own dress rooms.
(12:50):
We shared a dressing room in the first all of
you all yoys, they didn't go that far. So for
the first year, the three of us and we were small,
so I guess we would fit. We shared, we each
shared our The three of us shared one dressing room,
the boys and the girls shared another. And it wasn't
I think until the well it was it might have
been done two years. Everything's foggy. It's like, yeah, five
(13:13):
years ago, and then we got dressing rooms, and but
our dressing rooms were like off the set.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
We didn't have parking until the fifth year on on
the lot, and the parking we had was off lot
that we had to pay monthly for. It wasn't part
of our deals. So, I mean, the the the the
power that a child walks into a show with today,
ever since Gary Coleman sort of you know, broke the
(13:41):
bank on his show, I'm like a first child to
do so it was a recognition that the child is
perhaps the star of the show and should get the
line chair. It wouldn't have been that way because most
children aren't going to have been a star other than
Shirley Temple, uh, you know, coming into a product like that.
(14:01):
I mean, Patty Dupe was an adult when she was
doing the Petty.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I mean, even David Cassidy was the only reason he
signed his big contract is because the network didn't care
enough about him to realize he was seventeen when he signed.
So he signed a crappy contract at seventeen, and it
was his agent who went, you can't sign that you're underage.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So at all, his parents didn't sign his contract for him. No,
did your your parents signed your contract for us? It
was it was valid. It wasn't as you could get
out from under it because you were you signed it
when I was you know, ten or eleven. That was
I don't frankly know whether or not my hand hit
the page. It probably was a parent signing for you.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Do you remember how many hours you would work on set?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah? Absolutely, we I mean I think that hasn't changed
because that's and that's here in California, different in other states.
But it is eight hours a day, one hour for lunch.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So and that was.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Good for the for the crew, right because we all
know and it's not changed that that hours can be
long in this industry, endless le long. Not for our show,
very cheap show. One of the reasons I believe the
network bought it is it could be done really cheaply.
But for shows that aren't with kids, you can work
(15:15):
well into the night and you know, have you turn
around issues and so farth you called in the morning
and pay all those penalties. Well, on our show, we're
not going to pay any penalties. And we have kids,
which there isn't a right to hold after the hours,
and we have a welfare worker looking after our best interest.
So they're told when they're running right up against the clock,
she's right there, getting closer and closer to the ad,
(15:38):
you know, tapping her wrists saying that we got a poem,
got a pom, get it in this shot. This is
your last shot. So at that point that welfare worker
has that that authority to pull us off the set,
so you know, they have to struggle to get done.
So they do all the parent stuff after we're gone.
So you know, get a nine o'clock call, we got
to be out by six. It's an eight thirty call.
We got to be out by five thirty. The crew
(15:59):
loved it, that part of the crew that wasn't looking
to make extra money in overtime because they could. They
they could manage their life right. They could get home
to a family that they had and not have to
you know, you know, I have no idea what time
getting home tonight. They knew too, they were getting done.
So but because of that we we had you know,
we had thirty pages, thirty five thirty six pages to
(16:21):
do in three days.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
And and with six kids. That's why the table scenes
were you can't do those too often, yeah, because they
take forever. Yes, so big group scenes and that's why
you also don't go out of the house a whole
lot because it's contained and controllable. Lighting was so much
different back then, and that's what took all the time.
(16:44):
I mean, I mean to take a half an hour
forty five minutes to set up a shot. I mean,
this was a big volume to have the light. And
you notice the backyard, which is not something we could
faithfully replicate because it's but you can see it when
you watch it, like you had fourteen hundreds. When you
go out back, there's a place in your mind you
(17:04):
go to. You immediately are assessing it's fake, but it's okay. Yeah, yeah,
you allow it, you allow you allowed like I'm good.
You know that trees moving around ever being in the
same place, it's just as well. But the lighting took
so long to light up because there was so much
the films was so much slower. There was a filmy,
(17:26):
and we didn't ever have outtakes. Really going back to
that budget thing and making sure that we were an
economical show. They would never print any film that wasn't necessary,
and there was nothing ever printed of any of the
stuff that would be fun to watch today.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Do you remember like going Obviously you've got great memories
of things, but do you remember when was there a
moment where you as a cast kind of looked and went, wow,
there's like a switch that has been flipped on. We
have hit the next level with this this show. While
you were filming, was it a specific season that you
felt the difference on set.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Or we went to Hawaii well before we went to
Grand It was the first time in front of in
front of an audience, you know, you know, it's a
it's interesting when you're eleven years old, you're you can't
even forecast how your life is going to be impacted
by this. But it was very strange. I mean, the
idea that people you don't know think that they know
(18:27):
you makes a little difficult, you know for new people
that you're meeting at school because they think that you
think that you know, you're better than them. And you know,
it's just a weird place to be and and and
kids hate that which is different. Like you know, there's
a nature of horrors, Mars revolution. You know, they accept evolution, right,
(18:48):
it's just the way you know, raise birds and when
you start seeing what the pecking order actually is in
real life, dinosaurs are pretty nasty. You know, what your
idea is, get rid of that thing that's different because
it's taking resources. And so if mom doesn't kill it.
This my brother will. So that is the way. I mean,
(19:09):
there's some part of that that's natural. We're supposed to
have evolved beyond it. But tendencies are there, and then
you're and you're that you're the the odd duck and
so but you can get I learned how to get
past it. It's just you know, all of a sudden
you're getting that kind of attention. But interestingly, we were
(19:29):
you know, sixty nine through seventy four there was there
were only three networks, and not in all big cities
there might be two. So if anybody and everybody did
watch television, that was like other than I mean, nobody
watched during primetime local very few. So that's one hundred
(19:49):
and fifty one hundred and eighty million people at the time,
all divide it up watching television over three channels. So
so you get like thirty million, you were just in
the top thirty. You needed forty and fifty million to
get into the top ten. Up to about twenty four.
You're guaranteed you're getting picked up when you're over twenty four,
(20:10):
even though you got thirty million eyeballs on you, you know,
it's not me and maybe we got picked up only
one year for the whole year. Wait, we were always
there for thirteen episodes and then the back ten and
so we'd have to wait for that pickup. Wow, So
it was old time except for one year, except for
the fourth year, so even in the fifth season. But
you realize that, I mean, there's a time stamp on
(20:31):
this show because it's about kids, and the kids are
growing up. So it kind of got a little awkward
at the end there, and you recognize that if it's
not canceled, maybe it should be. Because it's not, it
doesn't work the same way anymore. And Barry and I
have discovered in watching these shows that the better crafted
shows were the shows done in the first two seasons,
when well, that was that was its strength about those
(20:54):
kind of simple lessons that you teach kids between you know,
six and fourteen. As soon as you get into the adolescents,
you're in a whole different trip, and you know, those
kind of simple lessons are a lot more complicated and
and not necessarily covered as well in this in this space,
in this format. So it had it had a it
had a a born on and you know, an exit
(21:17):
date that was that was approaching. So in that fifth
year we all had five year contracts, it was pretty
well assumed we probably weren't coming.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Back fifth years. Oliver, Right, that's when they start bringing Yes, yeah,
well I mean to see, that's what they're trying to do.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
It's fine to bring on the someplace a raft to
jump onto.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
When Brian Bonsall comes on to Family Ties, they're like,
it's probably tying to the show up.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, Oliver was before there was jumping over the shark.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah. Now, I just going back to you getting started.
Did you want to be an actor as a child.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
No, I mean no, I was too shy to ever
want that or even think about it matter. I thought
it was weird when I was on the show and
people would be writing me like fan mail. Right, It's like,
who is this president? Why are they I don't know them, Well,
they see you on television. I go, and they knew
enough to write and knew how to get.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
It to me. I go.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I would have never thought of that. I never even
thought that. I know they're real people, but I never
thought of them as real people. So I was assessing
myself against those who were actually watching from the other
position and thinking they're a lot smarter than I am
that they even thought that through. I mean, life was
rather immediate for me, you know, it was just something
to consume in the moment, and I never took any
(22:34):
of that and embraced it as fully as fans were
at that point.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
It was, I know, what was your question, A just
if you wanted to be an actor, if this was
something you were you were hoping to do.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Or it was something my parents my dad, you know,
first generation here, so his parents are here, but they're
you know, very European and old school, you know, family
members worked to support the family. So my dad's idea,
he was an actor. And that's an interesting story right there,
the idea of television. Who was a stage actor. That's
where real actors worked because there were artists and the
(23:07):
only people who did television or sell outs movies were okay,
you know, but still acting was done on you know,
on stage on stage. Hard to make money there, but
you could be excused from your peer group if you
had a family and needed to feed them doing television.
Otherwise you don't needed an excuse to when he starts
(23:28):
having kids and he has no way of affording them.
Living in New York City. His father had already moved
out here to retire for the weather, and we drove
cross country. This is before the highway, well fifty nine.
The highway system was you know, getting put in, you know,
from the early fifties, so it was barely done. We
drove cross country to do Thanksgiving with his dad, that
(23:51):
was the idea, and then we're going to drive back.
We never went back because he had an agent in
LA which or an office. His agent had an office
in LA from New York and there was this thing
called television you could make some money at. He was
coming out here and not only do things, get me
to check out the opportunities might be in this relatively
(24:11):
new industry television. Not that he wanted to do it,
but he had his family had to support. And it
reminded me. I remembered that when all of a sudden
this thing called reality television started and people at the
front end of that arc were thinking that this was
a blip, it was a change that was going to die.
It was a fad. It was you know, when you
(24:31):
look at the economics of producing reality television, it's like
it's not a fat this is this is a new
genre of television, a new type of television, and it
too was scowled upon, you know when it first began,
and I was a big business and no one would
do it initially, sort of like television. That was the
age when he was coming into television. Was that feel
(24:54):
of television was the similar feel that we as actors
had about reality television when it started.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Do you remember your audition?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
No, No, I cannot recall. Well. I mean I had
I had no experience, really had no talent. But it
was hard for me. It's hard for me to speak.
I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I mean, like I because of your nerves, because you
were shy.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Well would turn out I mean freaking a d d
uh and and dyslexia, so I couldn't cold read. But no,
it's like instead of a sentence coming out, like like
all bullets had to come out at one time, and
then they would you know, blurted out. It's like you know,
it was it was it wasn't natural, you know, I mean,
(25:40):
it wasn't something that was studied. It was again my parents,
you know, do commercials, and then the commercials you know,
grew into this and and though I love the environment,
I mean I really because it was an environment that
was supportive of us, you know, and it was a
safe arbor, and it was one that also required our
partnticipation in our participation.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
H was.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Valued, Yeah, I mean really necessary. And and you were
a needed cog and that was a different kind of feeling,
you know, other than being sort of in the way
and a burden possibly, you know. And and in a
world that we were, nourishment or just stuff is not
an abundance all of a sudden, you have this place
(26:27):
where there is an abundance of care and oversight. And
I needed that. So for me, this whole idea of
television being a bad place for kids, it's like, yeah,
I can't disagree, but in my case, was kind of
saved the day.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah. No, it all depends on the set, because our
set was the same way. Our set was a really wonderful, safe,
nurturing kind of place to be and what you're going
to do next.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
And coming back to that, that's what Sure was looking
for in children. He didn't want actor kids. He wanted
kids who could act or at least remember the line,
but that were real and and I brought that in abundance.
I mean, I think Our interviews were just you know,
some toys on a desk, you know, and you come
in and and you know, just interact with them. I
(27:13):
don't believe there was a test because go back then,
they would have had to have done that somewhere where
there's a camera, yeah, you know, and I don't remember
going to a stage for any of that. There might
have been, there had to have been, but I don't
recall and there was never any you know, acting as
part of the process. It was just a personality give
(27:33):
and take, you know, like you're in a sandbox.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Did you all get along right from the start, all
kids or was there some getting to know your time?
Speaker 3 (27:49):
It was it was an exceptional group. I remember I
thought that Barry was a dick because but you know,
so the pilot we're doing the so firstly, that's the
other thing, you know, never experienced anything where you didn't
leave and never see those actors ever again, right, because
that's I mean, there's a reason why actors are very
(28:11):
personable and friendly and approachable, because it's it's all it's
an immediate it's a it's a learned response, and maintaining
those friendships has becomes you know, something that either difficult
or impossible because you're just meeting too many new people
all the time. But that could end up being, you know,
(28:32):
an unexercised muscle. And then you end up with casts
that I've known my entire life, and that's incredibly unique.
And so this would be the first cast that I
number one worked for over two weeks, and secondly that
there would be this idea of coming back to see again.
So I remember that doing a pilot, you know, the
(28:54):
shoot was two weeks or something like that, and and
I remember again sharing the same dressing room. We're doing
this one mostly on location. I remember the tuxedo scenes.
We had to get out of our tuxedos at lunch.
We had to get out whatever worder where we were
in at lunch. Could They didn't trust us as ten
year olds to the letter to eat properly, So remove
(29:16):
your clothes before you go eat, put them back on.
So I remember Barry, he was always an adult. He
was the youngest in his family, two older brothers, so
he pretty much probably wanted to be them, and he
would be. He was always with his hand in his
pocket with that little tuxon, clicking something. And I'm just
this kid, you know, wide eyed everything it's all new,
(29:38):
you know, and just reacting to it. You know, I'm
looking at his you know, his pocket or him and
he says, looks down at me. At one point he says,
you know what that is? And I said, you know,
and he's he's older, so he's intimidating at this point.
Don't know him well enough right to, you know, to
be buddies with him. And he says, well, I want
you to guess what this is by the end of
the day. That's was something I had to do, right
(30:02):
because he said I had to do it. He's older
than so like instead of just pissing on the ground,
I mean, I'm gonna figure out what it is. At
lunch there were his pants in the in our dressing room,
which was like, you know, a star wagon at the time. Perfect,
So could it be that? Is that whatever that was
that was in his pocket is still there? Sure enough
it was, and sure enough he'd find he'd come in
(30:25):
right as my hand was in his pocket of his
pants and I'm grabbing a lighter and I don't know
what it is now, but yeah, I reached into your
pants to get you know, pants were off. I mean,
but it was like, you know, and it's like, so, so,
you know, I'm ten years old. This was September October
of sixteen eight. We do the pilot, we're gonna know
(30:46):
about a pickup, and that's something you know. I'd never
done a pilot, so you know, I didn't really know
what the process was. But sometime in spring we'd find
out whether or not you got picked up. But clearly,
you know, mom, Dad's idea was never gonna get picked up,
so don't worry. But then a phone call comes, you know,
and I remember at the time, I was trying to
figure out how to do a backflip. I didn't know
(31:06):
how to do it, and you know, funny things you remember.
Because the phone call came and it was like you
got picked up, and I was like, oh, I wish
I know I did do a backflip. Do a backflip
right now, And I thought, oh, no, I'm gonna have
to see him again. That was the first thought I had,
you know, because it's kind of like kind of left it,
(31:28):
kind of like I don't think that was the last
state it might have been, you know, the whole Lighter incident,
and I just felt like a fool and it's like,
I'd like to leave that behind, but I also kind
of liked what we did, and it'd be nice to
see some of those people again, you know. So I
didn't know where it would pick up, you know, I
was you know, there's a lot of stuff going on
underneath that you know, X stair at the time and
(31:51):
so but but Barry was it was was right from
the get go. From that point forward was friendly, if
you will. Yeah, and then and then and and and
it's because of all the parents around us and that environment.
It just we became you know, we modeled what we were,
what we were saying, you know, or behaving like on
(32:13):
the show. We were just like, you know, be supportive
of one another, you know. And and it was, I mean,
in this world now, in this new world, everybody looking
at us, we were you know, we all had the
same experience.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
That's really amazing. So you're you're coming up together on
a show.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Are you.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Realizing that the show is becoming something as.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
You're on the show. Well, that's the long answer to
that question, because half an hour ago you asked it. Well, no,
because we weren't sure how successful we were, right, we're
kids in reviews on a show, a show that my
mom says, shouldn't he be on the air? And so yeah,
we go to Hawaii. We get reactions from people, nice,
warm reactions, and the show is a big enough success
(32:56):
to last five years, yea, and it probably and back
then shows other than Bonanza and gun Smoke didn't last
you know, five years was a good run, I mean,
you know, and we were going to time out, so
there was some feeling that it was a success, but
not an overwhelming feeling like how many people we we affected.
(33:19):
So part of this experience has been living in you
know it with life in the review mirror. It's changed,
not just a view of it, but it's changed it.
Its value has changed over time because of its length,
and so it's only gained more and more audience over
the years. And probably you know, I mean generation it's
(33:41):
the second most watched television series of all time, you know,
after I Love Lucy's is an esteem place to be.
And I say it's transcended its original intent. You know,
it was entertainment, and it has become a touchstone and
representation and if you think about it's like the last
of its genre of you know, there's been other family shows.
(34:02):
But if you try, if you look back, if you
tried to do what we did today, you couldn't because
I mean, I don't know if the cat's out of
the bag or life is just never going to be
that simple again. Can't people trade that way unless it's,
you know, a cartoon, because what we've learned too much
we come to I don't know. I mean, I just
don't know how you would do it with that kind
(34:22):
of sweetness, And.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah, I don't think it would. You almost it's it's
kind of like the Brady Bunch movie where you almost
had to parody it nowadays.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Well in that ya, that's a fish, that's a fish
out of water. Well I thought through the eyes of
some seven year old that I was I think made
aware of by a fan who brought their daughter to
the movie at the time and who had wanted to
go because they watched the show and they were so
disappointed in a movie. So for a that's an adult
(34:52):
view of their of their childhood, of their simple, their
simplistic view of themselves at the time, laughing at themselves.
So that's what the movie is. It's it's the Brady's
as these well portrayed as sort of bumbling mister mcgoo's superheroes.
But really what it is is looking back on your
(35:13):
childhood with adult eyes, you know, laughing at how simple
you used to think it was. And but that doesn't
work for the seven year old, right, that's a whole
different story. It's not the spirit of the show. But
it wasn't. That wasn't for the kids watching the show.
It was for the kids at the time.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
It was.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
It was for the kids who used to watch the show,
who have grown up and you've left that behind.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
It.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
It's like a size that like putting on old pants
that you know they don't fit anymore. Look at how
silly this is. You know, look how small my shoes were,
and you're just kind of like tickled by it. Yeah,
that's what the show, That's what the movies were.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Now. I was always curious whose idea. I mean, do
you remember do you remember the discussion that ever took place,
or did they come and talk to you about the
fact that the Bradys were now going to kind of
move in a music direction? I mean, how did how
did this come about? It was this because the Partridge family,
I mean, what happened well.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Conspiring parties, probably the dominant parties were Barry and my
mom really of all people. So we had some difficulties
reconciling that after the show. Is because I have no
musical talent whatsoever, and unlike most people, I don't you know,
(36:28):
I don't believe people should sing who can't sing? Right?
I mean, what in the hell would I do? What
would be fun about going to a karaoke bar? Even
if I didn't have to sing? Why do I want
to be there? You know, there's enough people with talent,
let them do the freaking singing, you know, and not
everybody can sing. I mean, if there's that that statement
(36:50):
I got the music in me, well, then at the
other end of the spectrum is that person that doesn't
have the music in them right? And let them be
you know. Well, now we're a little tree. Well yeah,
so my mom has a business mind, you know, watching
you know the Osmond's and the Jackson's and and the DeFranco's,
and you know, and then you know, Bobby Sherman and
(37:10):
David Cassid and everybody. You can make money selling albums.
We should do the same.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
It probably dawned on her or the idea took hold
one one, you know, the third ye or fourth year,
because Florence was doing a show, a live show, and
she approached my mom, the mom's the boys she wanted.
She had an idea about maybe having the three boys
(37:37):
be a small segment on of her show. It never
worked out, but somehow that idea kind of took hold,
and the next thing, you know, we're doing a Christmas album. Wow,
and you know, I mean a rhythmic and tone deaf.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
It was.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
It was humiliating, and then the music starts coming into
the show itself and and I know, sure, what is
his has? What did share that that he that was
being forced on? He didn't really want that. That was bearing,
you know, and and our moms and and trying, you know,
(38:16):
forcing a career after this thing. And I hated every
I didn't want to do that. I mean, it's like
I didn't want to be I just made me. And
then that those albums we recorded more, and then we
did concerts and I couldn't do a solo. You know,
there's no way in the world. So it was like
what am I doing here? It was like, you know,
(38:38):
my mom's you know, literally just looking at it as business.
It's like, Mom, if you really wanted to be in music,
maybe we would have had music at home, you know,
and and lesson and it was and then I took
a really strident kind of attitude. Again, it polarized me
against music, you know, as an enemy of sorts. So
but that's the reason, because it was, you know, Barry
(39:00):
wanted to be Tom Jones from the early stage, you know,
and and that was it, and and and this show
was a vehicle to get there.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, So you've now talked about Barry a few times.
Did you say that you you both are doing a
show where you're watching The Brady Bunch.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Again, Right, that'd be fun to actually watch it together.
But we can't obviously watch it with and then broadcast
that that because that would be even that'll be over
the top.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
But so we do.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
We've we watched the episode separately. He's and we do
our podcast separately. He's in Missouri. But there's a lot
of lessons in watching. You know, we haven't watched these
episodes for fifty years.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Had you watched them since they aired?
Speaker 3 (39:50):
No? No, no, I seem to recall so that there
was an episode I missed you know that I didn't
see in its primetime. I don't remember what episode that
might have been, but it doesn't really matter at this point.
I don't remember any of the episodes because that was it.
That's what I watched. And then if I, you know,
change in channels run across it, I don't. I don't
watch anything I do. I mean, that's far enough away
(40:13):
now that I can watch it and actually with some distance,
you know, see it objectively. So this is that that
this approach, when we did this show and found our
you know, people photographing the house, even forgetting that we
were actors, think we lost time. When they've asked us
this question, what's your favorite show? And our responses is
always Hawaii? But our response is why because we got
(40:34):
to go to Hawaii? Is that the question they're asking
It might be a favorite show of theirs too, but
they're asking us, which show do you enjoy watching? It's like,
we don't have an answer for that. So this was
that this was getting caught up with our audience. What
if they've been watching, what's compelled them to watch it,
you know, repetitively over all these years, so that its
(40:57):
success only has grown and that's when now there's a
new appreciation for the message that was there, because the
message is really simple and seemingly as primary as it
is one that we consistently need to relearn, and that
is just how to get along.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Were you happy with the product? I mean, as you're
watching it again, is it giving good vibes as you're
watching it again and laugh?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Definitely?
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Definitely?
Speaker 1 (41:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
I mean I still have some problems watching myself because
some of that is really raw, and but I can
laugh at it because it's like, you know, I have
to watch that show like the time to change, which
is you know, my voice cracking. That was the lowest
week of my life because I thought they were actually
(41:43):
pointing to me saying, see he can't sing.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
That's what that.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
It's like, do I want music on the show?
Speaker 1 (41:49):
No?
Speaker 3 (41:49):
And I this is the reason, and now you're going
to make fun of me. That's how I took it
and didn't explain that to anybody, but that's what I've
worn and felt about music and that moment this time, No,
I watch the show and a crack crack, I crack
up like everybody else.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Funny.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
It's like, you know the things that go through your
head as a kid.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Yeah, right, Do you have any like of the special
guests that that came in that really is a big
memory for you to meet somebody who you were excited
about or you knowerience in general.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
The second year. I just think it was a second
year when Deacon Jones came on because I was a
big RAMS fan, and that's during the Fearsome foursome, you know,
so and and he's a giant individual, you know, and
then sadly like things like Joe Nammouth was obviously you know,
a hero as well. But I didn't work with them. Yeah,
and I'm in school, so I don't. I don't get
(42:41):
this man anytime, you know, just shake his hand, meet him,
but not work with them. And that's and that is
part of that, you know puzzle. And looking back on
our show, I do these do these are recaps? We
watch them and I'm wondering, why don't I have any
recollection of X y Z. And it's like, huh, probably
because then I go back and I look when we
filmed that, that's during his school year. And if you
(43:02):
didn't have any scenes with that person, you were not
sad you weren't there with them interacting, there was no
there was no memory. And and then also like, why
wasn't I aware that he had another show before this
that I was a fan of with he was a ventriloquist,
but he was on The Brady Bunch as the director.
Come on, he's a very famous and he was on
(43:23):
our show. And now I'm going anyway, and it's like
I'm reading when we're doing the podcast, I'm reading like
beyond you know, my recognition, recognition of him being the
the puppeteer and and and star of Winchell Mahony Hour,
that he was also an inventor and invented the artificial
heart and he was on our shows.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Somebody, somebody, the guy who invented the artificial heart was
also a puppeteer for a children show. Okay, yeah, I'm sorry,
take them. You need to google because that's insane.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Paul Winchell, he really yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
He played a director on an episode.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yes, he played an episode the best I don't know
if we have in the house. I'm sure that if
we don't, Tina, we'll get it. The ubiquitous bottle of
Best Soap or was it Safe Soap? There was a
battle between Best and safe, and we ended up with
like you know, cartons and cartons of safe soap. And
throughout the that was the only consistent article or prop
throughout all the years from that day on, every time
(44:29):
there was soap being used, there was this box of
safe or best I think it was safe safe. There
you go, that's it. And and that was the episode.
He's a director, uh, directing us in that commercial or
safe soap. And apparently and now watching it also see
(44:51):
commentary coming from Sherwood because there was some this was
later I think it was four seasons, you know, some
issues between the legendary now between him and Bob. And
I didn't know any about anything about that because we
as kids that would happen after we went home, and
their difficulties were kept from us. Very very classy. Yeah,
it was what was most important. It was about that
(45:14):
the kids environment wasn't wasn't soil but apparently got tense
and and so this episode there's a director, you know,
who's directing us, and none of the family knows how
to act. So they go to a friend who's an
acting coach, and they start then acting badly, you know,
in front of the camera. And he's wondering what the
hell happened to these my my my natural family wanted
(45:35):
us to be all just natural. They have learned to
act because some taught them about motivation and he had
you know this, these are all bad things for actors
to know about. Was like, hmm, it's interesting, that's.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
A you know it.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
At the time, when had any clue as to really
where some of that energy was coming from, These ideas
were parked.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
All right, So all these years later as you're rewatching,
what's the one thing you hope the fans take away
from the show.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Well, it's I think turn it around. It's I'm glad
that now I'm able to take from the show because
I've been watching it myself, and it's what they have
been taking from it, even if they're not conscious of
it's a we all yearn to get along. Yeah, and
and and and family is the first place. These walls
are the first place. As a kid you learn your place,
(46:28):
and with six it becomes highly structured in where your
place is. But it's a wonder. I mean, as a kid,
that's what you're fighting for. You know, your identity is
is is reflective of your environment and where you fit
inside of it, and so where we fit starts here
(46:49):
at home.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
And and and.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Getting along helps you fit.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Everything you guys have accomplished with this house is just unable.
Like we said, everyone that is another show that you
know of.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Show you a photograph of every single room in this
house and you'll know where it's from.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
I don't think there was another television show.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
That even has maybe one room.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
I mean, I mean maybe the bar Cheers the bar,
other than that, like an actual house, but no, this
is this is arguably the most iconic television house in history.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
In the backyard, Patty, I mean all of it. It
was like when doing it was recognizing that which is
your favorite room, It's like, oh, well, kitchen. You know
I kind of dressed for the kitchen. So yeah, it's
just like it's remarkable and and it it would be
how you still want to live in and it was
built in the late sixties, so it's it's kind of wild. Yeah,
(47:43):
it's amazing timeless, and I don't think if it if
it didn't and wasn't still timeless, I don't think we
would be now.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
It's also true neighbors to the Boy Meets World House,
which is not too far from here, and we were
both on Friday.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Nights, so it's safe children.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
I feel a kinship.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
I feel a kinship with you. People think we grew
up on the same street, you know, with Danny Bonducia
next door neighbor.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
I think, well, you know, Marion Ross is my next
door neighbor in real life.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Yeah, she's a doll. She's the doll's So yeah, we've
got it.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
We've got him everywhere. But thank you again so much,
Thank you time. And what's the name of your podcast?
Speaker 3 (48:19):
The Real Brady Bros? Like this house. We weren't real,
but we were depicting ourselves as the real Brady Bros.
Because there was brothers named Brady doing a podcast out
of Boston. Interestingly enough, so we're the real Brady Bros.
Because we're not really real, but to you we are, yes,
the real Brady.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
Bro Well, everybody please go and check that out.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
And I am certainly going to do that. One other thing.
We're really important. We're in the house. Tina Treyhan who
owns this house now and by virtue for buying the house,
the house will continue to be a part of my
life and I can't thank her enough. For that for
allowing us access to the house. She is also recognized
that there's a lot of people driving by taking pictures
of this house, said to be the second most photographed
house in America after the White House. So how do
(49:03):
people because the real magic's now inside the house, not outside,
how do you let people in the house? And so
she has started a sweepstakes called the Brady Experience for
a chance to win a tour of the house and
brunch with some of the Bradys like myself included sometime
next year. And it's running right now. So yeah, you can.
(49:24):
You can enter to win an opportunity a ticket out
if you don't live in LA for yourself and a
guest and a tour of the house.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Wow, awesome.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Where you can enter is the Bradyexperience dot com.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
That is correct, perfect, and that is going to be
a pretty awesome experience all the way around. I can't
thank you so much for being here with us, and
of course, dear listeners, thank you so much for joining
us on yet another journey.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Join us next time.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
When we watch a Disney Channel movie, we don't know
which one it's going to be because we don't know
where we are in the pecking order, but chances are
it's gonna have something to do with a dog that
doesn't talk or cheetah girls. That's saying we don't know,
we'll figure it out when we get there. Tooth fairy
that can't really fly, thank you everybody, and we will
see it next time.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
Bye.
Well, thank you everybody so much for joining us on
a very very special episode of Magical rewind Sabrina. Where
are we?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
We are at the Magical Brady Bunch House. We are
this is wild, will Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It really is because you walk in, it's been completely redone.
It looks exactly like it did on the show. But
it gets even cooler than that because we're not here alone.
An amazing special guest with us. Christopher Knight is here,
Peter Brady himself is here.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I come with the house. Yes, perfect, I'll never leave
home again.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Now we have to jump into the house first before
we get to you.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
We since we're here. Absolutely no, it deserves it's it's
it's due, right.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, you're responsible for a lot of this happening recreation.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, Discovery HGTV is responsible for it actually happened because
they were the ones with the wisdom and the money
to make it happen. And and I was very upfront
with the idea that it couldn't be done really in
terms out we each one of us has had experienced
building and this it's a very there's a lot of
(01:27):
volume here. I mean that's there. It's an and it's
iconic and everyone knows what it's supposed to look like
at the end. How do you make that happen when
you have a split level house elevation from the street
without destroying the street elevation. Yeah, and that they were
we're able to do it because yeah, it looks like
it's us because we're carrying the story on the show,
(01:48):
but you know, it's there's a lot of work that
we're not doing that's being done by individuals hired by
HGTV to make it happen. Like for instance, the floor
was dug down. One step uh is missing from the stairs,
so it's not quite as tall, but we needed more
space to fit that volume, and so most of the
(02:10):
house that was here is gone and parts that were
left then needed to be dug out and new foundation
board underneath. So it was it was more than a remodel,
I'll say, but without changing that that street elevation, because
which is amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
But you know, you're you're getting the the You're in
the age of the internet where you know there's people going,
excuse me, but there's one stare missing.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I'm one of those on our podcast, we watch our
show and I'm and I'm seeing what people have been
seeing for years, and it's just like there's no continuity.
We'll have to talk about that, because it's been a
revelation where we have come when we produce product now
from that day when there was no concept that these
things would be watched.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
A million times every episode in a row and loved.
The reason why people pick up on those details is
because they love the show and they watch it so
many times.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I guess people are crazy. And then I mean Iam
Shatner the story he tells me about somebody telling him
about how did you get from here? Because the you know,
engine room is down and he said it was a
television show. You know. I mean, this guy has in
his head built the enterprise and had questions like, in
(03:26):
all fairness spent that time the engineering.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Room on the NCC one seven oh one was very
far away from uh.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I'm just saying it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
You know there they had to pass the holidays.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
You've had some time with them.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I'm not going to get into it now. When you
and HGTV, when you all got together and decided to
do this, was there anything you were adamant about?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
This has to be this one's thing has to be
done or this has to be perfect, or you can't
skimp on.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
This, right, No, and it wasn't. I mean, frankly, I
had these great ideas of doing the Brady House with
modern materials, and I didn't understand why we we'd replicate
a sixties kitchen in sixties materials. Yeah, I got it
with for Mica, it sort of didn't make any sense
to me until we did it, and then I then
(04:16):
I then I got it. So I was like one
of those who was not as aware of how faithful
not only they were choosing to be, but that they
needed to be. Yeah, and I'm glad for it. I
mean it was to the point where some of the
furniture that couldn't be found was recreated. I wanted to
do the horse that became an episode because to me,
(04:37):
that's like an eleventh character on the show. It is so.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And you have your own home furnishine line.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yes, which I used, the horse is the is the icon?
I mean it's it's more of a Phoenician is.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
The house that's like directly from the line at all?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Or No? I mean there's nothing that we sell that
is of this era, right, However, all that shot it.
I mean, that's why we couldn't we couldn't buy current furniture,
find that television, that refrigerator. You know, this is why
this house really can't be lived. And refrigerator doesn't work, the.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Wonderful avocado fridge from the safeties.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Something years old. So you know, but you know, we
get to live forever in this time zone when we're here, Like.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Ron, I was very shocked that we're not sitting on plastic.
I was ready to like not move during this podcast, thinking.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
There was my grandma's house, or you would forgive it,
it would be this house.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
This is the place exactly.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I think this was like fabric that they were able
to print. They literally inked it and printed it. I
know that's the case with the day beds in the
family room.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
That oh my god.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Well, I mean, anybody who's who's watched the series, you
walk in and you're every so we're sitting here, just
to give our dear listeners a kind of visual of
where we're sitting. We're sitting here and the front door
is directly ahead of us, and every single producer person,
everybody who's walked in the front door just explode like
a giant smile.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
And walked in and we did as well. I mean,
we were working on bits of the house, and then
they kept us from the final reveal, I mean until
it was ready to reveal to us because they really
wanted our honest reactions, and it was it was breathday, literally,
because this is a space that we grew up in,
(06:33):
and it's better than the space we grew up in,
and which was odd. The whole reason for doing it
is because forever people have been taking photos of the
house from the outside, mostly you know, baby boomers. You
know that in the day, either watched it on at
prime time or you know through it's it's it's arc
and syndication, knowing that we were actors, but over time,
(06:57):
with enough familiarity, it's like, no, we're a family and
lived in this house, like we worked in this house,
and that we didn't. I didn't know where this house
was ninety four, like twenty years later, I didn't. And
what's interesting, I didn't think to ask, I mean Lloyd
and Shore up until recently sure was around to ask.
Certainly they knew, and I did. I asked Lloyd some
(07:17):
somewhere in the early nineties, where you know where was
the Brady House. Yeah, and it was around the corner
from where I used to live, loud and I never
knew it was here, and I didn't think to ask.
And I'm not the only one, apparently every single one
of us had no idea and didn't care to ask.
So it was a much important, much more important article,
if you will, in the show to our audience, and
it was to us, Yeah, and it's because it represented
(07:40):
what we worked in. But this was a set, you know,
at stage five at paramout slot that we've recreated here.
Luckily I was wrong and we were able to do it.
And when you that seat that you're sitting and looking
out that front door and that that window, that was
a window that didn't have any real sunlight, right, yeah,
no sky, it's a much better view.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Well.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
We've had a chance to interview quite a few celebrities
from movies that they've done on the Disney Channel, and
one of the things that they talk about being a
young actor in just this giant you know space, you're
just working and you're kind of just a kid that's
like living this dream and you're not really thinking of
the aspect of actually working or being bigger to somebody else.
(08:24):
You're just having so much fun doing it because of
the age that you're at, hopefully and well, it's that
we've been lucky enough to mainly talk to and do interviews,
and it's it's like they're growing up on camera. It
just was ending up being who you were working with
was family, and you know, they just it was all
(08:44):
about good memories and stuff. Was it was.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
It was about a really and and that's another point
of our existence that is a little bit different from
what has been told, is the story of Hollywood and children.
It was a really wholesome environment. It was a betterronment
than the environment I had at home. Matter of fact,
it paralleled it. And it gave me a counterpoint like
how it could be. I know it's not real, but
(09:07):
you could aspire to it, which is exactly what the
show is about. And I don't know how I kind
of tapped into that at eleven or had that kind
of awareness, but I knew that there was something wrong
at home that we could do better trying to be
like the Bradys, because what's the harm in that? And
my mom had a whole different take on family than that,
(09:28):
But that is what the show really was primarily about
about like the working together as a family, and some
do it naturally and some need a lot of lessons,
and our family needed lessons in my family at home.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So what now? I'm so interested in this because, as
anybody who knows me knows, I'm a television junkie, a
television history I love everything about TV. It was my
best friend growing up. It really was what was being
a child actor in the seventies, like compared to you know,
the we started in the nineties, late eighties. I mean,
it was the process I had to imagine was the same.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Completely different, really really completely different for insidious reasons that
you can't see. Today. Attitudes about the industry have changed.
The importance of the industry has grown. The treatment of
children and professional children is completely different. Certainly and probably
(10:28):
repeating myself, but the focus on celebrity is totally different
today than it was back then. The focus on entertainment
as a financial engine an industry. I mean, these were
the visions of conglomerates, and the other parts of those
conglomerates were bigger than the movie and television industries, you know,
(10:53):
so there was far less focus on entertainment specifically for kids.
It was like kids. It wasn't a kids medium. Matter
of fact, there was no judging of any of the
product by from the point of view of it being
a children's program. They got we got slaved, you know,
by by critics for being banal and simple, and truthfully,
(11:17):
it was because it was a very primary show, because
it was about kids and family andes and done in
a in a very straightforward, digestible, simple way. You know,
it was the blocking and tackling of life in a home,
and to be criticized for that was them not understanding
who was aimed at. Really, I mean, because today, if
(11:39):
somebody's reviewing a Disney show for kids, they have different
glasses on than when they're then than when they're doing
you know, any you know pinter, you know, reviewing you know,
what's considered to be literature. But then our television has
become our new literature. So it was at a time
when people didn't regard anything on television, especially as important,
(12:07):
and certainly our show was on the tail end of importance,
so you know, it was it was scoffed at because
it was so simple, and my family were artists and
they picked up on that scoffing and believed it to
be true. But that's not as it's turned out in
looking back what the show was about. Sure, So yeah,
(12:29):
kids in the industry weren't. It wasn't. It wasn't an
industry for kids. It was an exception to have kids
in it. And when we're coming you know, we're still
in coming out of it, but we're in the midst
of that. Children should be seen and not heard. Yeah,
you know, era, and we didn't have parking. They didn't
give us parking. Really, we didn't have our own dress rooms.
(12:50):
We shared a dressing room in the first all of
you all yoys, they didn't go that far. So for
the first year, the three of us and we were small,
so I guess we would fit. We shared, we each
shared our The three of us shared one dressing room,
the boys and the girls shared another. And it wasn't
I think until the well it was it might have
been done two years. Everything's foggy. It's like, yeah, five
(13:13):
years ago, and then we got dressing rooms, and but
our dressing rooms were like off the set.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
We didn't have parking until the fifth year on on
the lot, and the parking we had was off lot
that we had to pay monthly for. It wasn't part
of our deals. So, I mean, the the the the
power that a child walks into a show with today,
ever since Gary Coleman sort of you know, broke the
(13:41):
bank on his show, I'm like a first child to
do so it was a recognition that the child is
perhaps the star of the show and should get the
line chair. It wouldn't have been that way because most
children aren't going to have been a star other than
Shirley Temple, uh, you know, coming into a product like that.
(14:01):
I mean, Patty Dupe was an adult when she was
doing the Petty.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
I mean, even David Cassidy was the only reason he
signed his big contract is because the network didn't care
enough about him to realize he was seventeen when he signed.
So he signed a crappy contract at seventeen, and it
was his agent who went, you can't sign that you're underage.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So at all, his parents didn't sign his contract for him. No,
did your your parents signed your contract for us? It
was it was valid. It wasn't as you could get
out from under it because you were you signed it
when I was you know, ten or eleven. That was
I don't frankly know whether or not my hand hit
the page. It probably was a parent signing for you.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Do you remember how many hours you would work on set?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah? Absolutely, we I mean I think that hasn't changed
because that's and that's here in California, different in other states.
But it is eight hours a day, one hour for lunch.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So and that was.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Good for the for the crew, right because we all
know and it's not changed that that hours can be
long in this industry, endless le long. Not for our show,
very cheap show. One of the reasons I believe the
network bought it is it could be done really cheaply.
But for shows that aren't with kids, you can work
(15:15):
well into the night and you know, have you turn
around issues and so farth you called in the morning
and pay all those penalties. Well, on our show, we're
not going to pay any penalties. And we have kids,
which there isn't a right to hold after the hours,
and we have a welfare worker looking after our best interest.
So they're told when they're running right up against the clock,
she's right there, getting closer and closer to the ad,
(15:38):
you know, tapping her wrists saying that we got a poem,
got a pom, get it in this shot. This is
your last shot. So at that point that welfare worker
has that that authority to pull us off the set,
so you know, they have to struggle to get done.
So they do all the parent stuff after we're gone.
So you know, get a nine o'clock call, we got
to be out by six. It's an eight thirty call.
We got to be out by five thirty. The crew
(15:59):
loved it, that part of the crew that wasn't looking
to make extra money in overtime because they could. They
they could manage their life right. They could get home
to a family that they had and not have to
you know, you know, I have no idea what time
getting home tonight. They knew too, they were getting done.
So but because of that we we had you know,
we had thirty pages, thirty five thirty six pages to
(16:21):
do in three days.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
And and with six kids. That's why the table scenes
were you can't do those too often, yeah, because they
take forever. Yes, so big group scenes and that's why
you also don't go out of the house a whole
lot because it's contained and controllable. Lighting was so much
different back then, and that's what took all the time.
(16:44):
I mean, I mean to take a half an hour
forty five minutes to set up a shot. I mean,
this was a big volume to have the light. And
you notice the backyard, which is not something we could
faithfully replicate because it's but you can see it when
you watch it, like you had fourteen hundreds. When you
go out back, there's a place in your mind you
(17:04):
go to. You immediately are assessing it's fake, but it's okay. Yeah, yeah,
you allow it, you allow you allowed like I'm good.
You know that trees moving around ever being in the
same place, it's just as well. But the lighting took
so long to light up because there was so much
the films was so much slower. There was a filmy,
(17:26):
and we didn't ever have outtakes. Really going back to
that budget thing and making sure that we were an
economical show. They would never print any film that wasn't necessary,
and there was nothing ever printed of any of the
stuff that would be fun to watch today.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Do you remember like going Obviously you've got great memories
of things, but do you remember when was there a
moment where you as a cast kind of looked and went, wow,
there's like a switch that has been flipped on. We
have hit the next level with this this show. While
you were filming, was it a specific season that you
felt the difference on set.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Or we went to Hawaii well before we went to
Grand It was the first time in front of in
front of an audience, you know, you know, it's a
it's interesting when you're eleven years old, you're you can't
even forecast how your life is going to be impacted
by this. But it was very strange. I mean, the
idea that people you don't know think that they know
(18:27):
you makes a little difficult, you know for new people
that you're meeting at school because they think that you
think that you know, you're better than them. And you know,
it's just a weird place to be and and and
kids hate that which is different. Like you know, there's
a nature of horrors, Mars revolution. You know, they accept evolution, right,
(18:48):
it's just the way you know, raise birds and when
you start seeing what the pecking order actually is in
real life, dinosaurs are pretty nasty. You know, what your
idea is, get rid of that thing that's different because
it's taking resources. And so if mom doesn't kill it.
This my brother will. So that is the way. I mean,
(19:09):
there's some part of that that's natural. We're supposed to
have evolved beyond it. But tendencies are there, and then
you're and you're that you're the the odd duck and
so but you can get I learned how to get
past it. It's just you know, all of a sudden
you're getting that kind of attention. But interestingly, we were
(19:29):
you know, sixty nine through seventy four there was there
were only three networks, and not in all big cities
there might be two. So if anybody and everybody did
watch television, that was like other than I mean, nobody
watched during primetime local very few. So that's one hundred
(19:49):
and fifty one hundred and eighty million people at the time,
all divide it up watching television over three channels. So
so you get like thirty million, you were just in
the top thirty. You needed forty and fifty million to
get into the top ten. Up to about twenty four.
You're guaranteed you're getting picked up when you're over twenty four,
(20:10):
even though you got thirty million eyeballs on you, you know,
it's not me and maybe we got picked up only
one year for the whole year. Wait, we were always
there for thirteen episodes and then the back ten and
so we'd have to wait for that pickup. Wow, So
it was old time except for one year, except for
the fourth year, so even in the fifth season. But
you realize that, I mean, there's a time stamp on
(20:31):
this show because it's about kids, and the kids are
growing up. So it kind of got a little awkward
at the end there, and you recognize that if it's
not canceled, maybe it should be. Because it's not, it
doesn't work the same way anymore. And Barry and I
have discovered in watching these shows that the better crafted
shows were the shows done in the first two seasons,
when well, that was that was its strength about those
(20:54):
kind of simple lessons that you teach kids between you know,
six and fourteen. As soon as you get into the adolescents,
you're in a whole different trip, and you know, those
kind of simple lessons are a lot more complicated and
and not necessarily covered as well in this in this space,
in this format. So it had it had a it
had a a born on and you know, an exit
(21:17):
date that was that was approaching. So in that fifth
year we all had five year contracts, it was pretty
well assumed we probably weren't coming.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Back fifth years. Oliver, Right, that's when they start bringing Yes, yeah,
well I mean to see, that's what they're trying to do.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
It's fine to bring on the someplace a raft to
jump onto.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
When Brian Bonsall comes on to Family Ties, they're like,
it's probably tying to the show up.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, Oliver was before there was jumping over the shark.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah. Now, I just going back to you getting started.
Did you want to be an actor as a child.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
No, I mean no, I was too shy to ever
want that or even think about it matter. I thought
it was weird when I was on the show and
people would be writing me like fan mail. Right, It's like,
who is this president? Why are they I don't know them, Well,
they see you on television. I go, and they knew
enough to write and knew how to get.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
It to me. I go.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I would have never thought of that. I never even
thought that. I know they're real people, but I never
thought of them as real people. So I was assessing
myself against those who were actually watching from the other
position and thinking they're a lot smarter than I am
that they even thought that through. I mean, life was
rather immediate for me, you know, it was just something
to consume in the moment, and I never took any
(22:34):
of that and embraced it as fully as fans were
at that point.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
It was, I know, what was your question, A just
if you wanted to be an actor, if this was
something you were you were hoping to do.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Or it was something my parents my dad, you know,
first generation here, so his parents are here, but they're
you know, very European and old school, you know, family
members worked to support the family. So my dad's idea,
he was an actor. And that's an interesting story right there,
the idea of television. Who was a stage actor. That's
where real actors worked because there were artists and the
(23:07):
only people who did television or sell outs movies were okay,
you know, but still acting was done on you know,
on stage on stage. Hard to make money there, but
you could be excused from your peer group if you
had a family and needed to feed them doing television.
Otherwise you don't needed an excuse to when he starts
(23:28):
having kids and he has no way of affording them.
Living in New York City. His father had already moved
out here to retire for the weather, and we drove
cross country. This is before the highway, well fifty nine.
The highway system was you know, getting put in, you know,
from the early fifties, so it was barely done. We
drove cross country to do Thanksgiving with his dad, that
(23:51):
was the idea, and then we're going to drive back.
We never went back because he had an agent in
LA which or an office. His agent had an office
in LA from New York and there was this thing
called television you could make some money at. He was
coming out here and not only do things, get me
to check out the opportunities might be in this relatively
(24:11):
new industry television. Not that he wanted to do it,
but he had his family had to support. And it
reminded me. I remembered that when all of a sudden
this thing called reality television started and people at the
front end of that arc were thinking that this was
a blip, it was a change that was going to die.
It was a fad. It was you know, when you
(24:31):
look at the economics of producing reality television, it's like
it's not a fat this is this is a new
genre of television, a new type of television, and it
too was scowled upon, you know when it first began,
and I was a big business and no one would
do it initially, sort of like television. That was the
age when he was coming into television. Was that feel
(24:54):
of television was the similar feel that we as actors
had about reality television when it started.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Do you remember your audition?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
No, No, I cannot recall. Well. I mean I had
I had no experience, really had no talent. But it
was hard for me. It's hard for me to speak.
I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I mean, like I because of your nerves, because you
were shy.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Well would turn out I mean freaking a d d
uh and and dyslexia, so I couldn't cold read. But no,
it's like instead of a sentence coming out, like like
all bullets had to come out at one time, and
then they would you know, blurted out. It's like you know,
it was it was it wasn't natural, you know, I mean,
(25:40):
it wasn't something that was studied. It was again my parents,
you know, do commercials, and then the commercials you know,
grew into this and and though I love the environment,
I mean I really because it was an environment that
was supportive of us, you know, and it was a
safe arbor, and it was one that also required our
partnticipation in our participation.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
H was.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Valued, Yeah, I mean really necessary. And and you were
a needed cog and that was a different kind of feeling,
you know, other than being sort of in the way
and a burden possibly, you know. And and in a
world that we were, nourishment or just stuff is not
an abundance all of a sudden, you have this place
(26:27):
where there is an abundance of care and oversight. And
I needed that. So for me, this whole idea of
television being a bad place for kids, it's like, yeah,
I can't disagree, but in my case, was kind of
saved the day.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah. No, it all depends on the set, because our
set was the same way. Our set was a really wonderful, safe,
nurturing kind of place to be and what you're going
to do next.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
And coming back to that, that's what Sure was looking
for in children. He didn't want actor kids. He wanted
kids who could act or at least remember the line,
but that were real and and I brought that in abundance.
I mean, I think Our interviews were just you know,
some toys on a desk, you know, and you come
in and and you know, just interact with them. I
(27:13):
don't believe there was a test because go back then,
they would have had to have done that somewhere where
there's a camera, yeah, you know, and I don't remember
going to a stage for any of that. There might
have been, there had to have been, but I don't
recall and there was never any you know, acting as
part of the process. It was just a personality give
(27:33):
and take, you know, like you're in a sandbox.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Did you all get along right from the start, all
kids or was there some getting to know your time?
Speaker 3 (27:49):
It was it was an exceptional group. I remember I
thought that Barry was a dick because but you know,
so the pilot we're doing the so firstly, that's the
other thing, you know, never experienced anything where you didn't
leave and never see those actors ever again, right, because
that's I mean, there's a reason why actors are very
(28:11):
personable and friendly and approachable, because it's it's all it's
an immediate it's a it's a learned response, and maintaining
those friendships has becomes you know, something that either difficult
or impossible because you're just meeting too many new people
all the time. But that could end up being, you know,
(28:32):
an unexercised muscle. And then you end up with casts
that I've known my entire life, and that's incredibly unique.
And so this would be the first cast that I
number one worked for over two weeks, and secondly that
there would be this idea of coming back to see again.
So I remember that doing a pilot, you know, the
(28:54):
shoot was two weeks or something like that, and and
I remember again sharing the same dressing room. We're doing
this one mostly on location. I remember the tuxedo scenes.
We had to get out of our tuxedos at lunch.
We had to get out whatever worder where we were
in at lunch. Could They didn't trust us as ten
year olds to the letter to eat properly, So remove
(29:16):
your clothes before you go eat, put them back on.
So I remember Barry, he was always an adult. He
was the youngest in his family, two older brothers, so
he pretty much probably wanted to be them, and he
would be. He was always with his hand in his
pocket with that little tuxon, clicking something. And I'm just
this kid, you know, wide eyed everything it's all new,
(29:38):
you know, and just reacting to it. You know, I'm
looking at his you know, his pocket or him and
he says, looks down at me. At one point he says,
you know what that is? And I said, you know,
and he's he's older, so he's intimidating at this point.
Don't know him well enough right to, you know, to
be buddies with him. And he says, well, I want
you to guess what this is by the end of
the day. That's was something I had to do, right
(30:02):
because he said I had to do it. He's older
than so like instead of just pissing on the ground,
I mean, I'm gonna figure out what it is. At
lunch there were his pants in the in our dressing room,
which was like, you know, a star wagon at the time. Perfect,
So could it be that? Is that whatever that was
that was in his pocket is still there? Sure enough
it was, and sure enough he'd find he'd come in
(30:25):
right as my hand was in his pocket of his
pants and I'm grabbing a lighter and I don't know
what it is now, but yeah, I reached into your
pants to get you know, pants were off. I mean,
but it was like, you know, and it's like, so, so,
you know, I'm ten years old. This was September October
of sixteen eight. We do the pilot, we're gonna know
(30:46):
about a pickup, and that's something you know. I'd never
done a pilot, so you know, I didn't really know
what the process was. But sometime in spring we'd find
out whether or not you got picked up. But clearly,
you know, mom, Dad's idea was never gonna get picked up,
so don't worry. But then a phone call comes, you know,
and I remember at the time, I was trying to
figure out how to do a backflip. I didn't know
(31:06):
how to do it, and you know, funny things you remember.
Because the phone call came and it was like you
got picked up, and I was like, oh, I wish
I know I did do a backflip. Do a backflip
right now, And I thought, oh, no, I'm gonna have
to see him again. That was the first thought I had,
you know, because it's kind of like kind of left it,
(31:28):
kind of like I don't think that was the last
state it might have been, you know, the whole Lighter incident,
and I just felt like a fool and it's like,
I'd like to leave that behind, but I also kind
of liked what we did, and it'd be nice to
see some of those people again, you know. So I
didn't know where it would pick up, you know, I
was you know, there's a lot of stuff going on
underneath that you know, X stair at the time and
(31:51):
so but but Barry was it was was right from
the get go. From that point forward was friendly, if
you will. Yeah, and then and then and and and
it's because of all the parents around us and that environment.
It just we became you know, we modeled what we were,
what we were saying, you know, or behaving like on
(32:13):
the show. We were just like, you know, be supportive
of one another, you know. And and it was, I mean,
in this world now, in this new world, everybody looking
at us, we were you know, we all had the
same experience.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
That's really amazing. So you're you're coming up together on
a show.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Are you.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Realizing that the show is becoming something as.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
You're on the show. Well, that's the long answer to
that question, because half an hour ago you asked it. Well, no,
because we weren't sure how successful we were, right, we're
kids in reviews on a show, a show that my
mom says, shouldn't he be on the air? And so yeah,
we go to Hawaii. We get reactions from people, nice,
warm reactions, and the show is a big enough success
(32:56):
to last five years, yea, and it probably and back
then shows other than Bonanza and gun Smoke didn't last
you know, five years was a good run, I mean,
you know, and we were going to time out, so
there was some feeling that it was a success, but
not an overwhelming feeling like how many people we we affected.
(33:19):
So part of this experience has been living in you
know it with life in the review mirror. It's changed,
not just a view of it, but it's changed it.
Its value has changed over time because of its length,
and so it's only gained more and more audience over
the years. And probably you know, I mean generation it's
(33:41):
the second most watched television series of all time, you know,
after I Love Lucy's is an esteem place to be.
And I say it's transcended its original intent. You know,
it was entertainment, and it has become a touchstone and
representation and if you think about it's like the last
of its genre of you know, there's been other family shows.
(34:02):
But if you try, if you look back, if you
tried to do what we did today, you couldn't because
I mean, I don't know if the cat's out of
the bag or life is just never going to be
that simple again. Can't people trade that way unless it's,
you know, a cartoon, because what we've learned too much
we come to I don't know. I mean, I just
don't know how you would do it with that kind
(34:22):
of sweetness, And.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Yeah, I don't think it would. You almost it's it's
kind of like the Brady Bunch movie where you almost
had to parody it nowadays.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
Well in that ya, that's a fish, that's a fish
out of water. Well I thought through the eyes of
some seven year old that I was I think made
aware of by a fan who brought their daughter to
the movie at the time and who had wanted to
go because they watched the show and they were so
disappointed in a movie. So for a that's an adult
(34:52):
view of their of their childhood, of their simple, their
simplistic view of themselves at the time, laughing at themselves.
So that's what the movie is. It's it's the Brady's
as these well portrayed as sort of bumbling mister mcgoo's superheroes.
But really what it is is looking back on your
(35:13):
childhood with adult eyes, you know, laughing at how simple
you used to think it was. And but that doesn't
work for the seven year old, right, that's a whole
different story. It's not the spirit of the show. But
it wasn't. That wasn't for the kids watching the show.
It was for the kids at the time.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
It was.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
It was for the kids who used to watch the show,
who have grown up and you've left that behind.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
It.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
It's like a size that like putting on old pants
that you know they don't fit anymore. Look at how
silly this is. You know, look how small my shoes were,
and you're just kind of like tickled by it. Yeah,
that's what the show, That's what the movies were.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Now. I was always curious whose idea. I mean, do
you remember do you remember the discussion that ever took place,
or did they come and talk to you about the
fact that the Bradys were now going to kind of
move in a music direction? I mean, how did how
did this come about? It was this because the Partridge family,
I mean, what happened well.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Conspiring parties, probably the dominant parties were Barry and my
mom really of all people. So we had some difficulties
reconciling that after the show. Is because I have no
musical talent whatsoever, and unlike most people, I don't you know,
(36:28):
I don't believe people should sing who can't sing? Right?
I mean, what in the hell would I do? What
would be fun about going to a karaoke bar? Even
if I didn't have to sing? Why do I want
to be there? You know, there's enough people with talent,
let them do the freaking singing, you know, and not
everybody can sing. I mean, if there's that that statement
(36:50):
I got the music in me, well, then at the
other end of the spectrum is that person that doesn't
have the music in them right? And let them be
you know. Well, now we're a little tree. Well yeah,
so my mom has a business mind, you know, watching
you know the Osmond's and the Jackson's and and the DeFranco's,
and you know, and then you know, Bobby Sherman and
(37:10):
David Cassid and everybody. You can make money selling albums.
We should do the same.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
It probably dawned on her or the idea took hold
one one, you know, the third ye or fourth year,
because Florence was doing a show, a live show, and
she approached my mom, the mom's the boys she wanted.
She had an idea about maybe having the three boys
(37:37):
be a small segment on of her show. It never
worked out, but somehow that idea kind of took hold,
and the next thing, you know, we're doing a Christmas album. Wow,
and you know, I mean a rhythmic and tone deaf.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
It was.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
It was humiliating, and then the music starts coming into
the show itself and and I know, sure, what is
his has? What did share that that he that was
being forced on? He didn't really want that. That was bearing,
you know, and and our moms and and trying, you know,
(38:16):
forcing a career after this thing. And I hated every
I didn't want to do that. I mean, it's like
I didn't want to be I just made me. And
then that those albums we recorded more, and then we
did concerts and I couldn't do a solo. You know,
there's no way in the world. So it was like
what am I doing here? It was like, you know,
(38:38):
my mom's you know, literally just looking at it as business.
It's like, Mom, if you really wanted to be in music,
maybe we would have had music at home, you know,
and and lesson and it was and then I took
a really strident kind of attitude. Again, it polarized me
against music, you know, as an enemy of sorts. So
but that's the reason, because it was, you know, Barry
(39:00):
wanted to be Tom Jones from the early stage, you know,
and and that was it, and and and this show
was a vehicle to get there.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, So you've now talked about Barry a few times.
Did you say that you you both are doing a
show where you're watching The Brady Bunch.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Again, Right, that'd be fun to actually watch it together.
But we can't obviously watch it with and then broadcast
that that because that would be even that'll be over
the top.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
But so we do.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
We've we watched the episode separately. He's and we do
our podcast separately. He's in Missouri. But there's a lot
of lessons in watching. You know, we haven't watched these
episodes for fifty years.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Had you watched them since they aired?
Speaker 3 (39:50):
No? No, no, I seem to recall so that there
was an episode I missed you know that I didn't
see in its primetime. I don't remember what episode that
might have been, but it doesn't really matter at this point.
I don't remember any of the episodes because that was it.
That's what I watched. And then if I, you know,
change in channels run across it, I don't. I don't
watch anything I do. I mean, that's far enough away
(40:13):
now that I can watch it and actually with some distance,
you know, see it objectively. So this is that that
this approach, when we did this show and found our
you know, people photographing the house, even forgetting that we
were actors, think we lost time. When they've asked us
this question, what's your favorite show? And our responses is
always Hawaii? But our response is why because we got
(40:34):
to go to Hawaii? Is that the question they're asking
It might be a favorite show of theirs too, but
they're asking us, which show do you enjoy watching? It's like,
we don't have an answer for that. So this was
that this was getting caught up with our audience. What
if they've been watching, what's compelled them to watch it,
you know, repetitively over all these years, so that its
(40:57):
success only has grown and that's when now there's a
new appreciation for the message that was there, because the
message is really simple and seemingly as primary as it
is one that we consistently need to relearn, and that
is just how to get along.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Were you happy with the product? I mean, as you're
watching it again, is it giving good vibes as you're
watching it again and laugh?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Definitely?
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Definitely?
Speaker 1 (41:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
I mean I still have some problems watching myself because
some of that is really raw, and but I can
laugh at it because it's like, you know, I have
to watch that show like the time to change, which
is you know, my voice cracking. That was the lowest
week of my life because I thought they were actually
(41:43):
pointing to me saying, see he can't sing.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
That's what that.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
It's like, do I want music on the show?
Speaker 1 (41:49):
No?
Speaker 3 (41:49):
And I this is the reason, and now you're going
to make fun of me. That's how I took it
and didn't explain that to anybody, but that's what I've
worn and felt about music and that moment this time, No,
I watch the show and a crack crack, I crack
up like everybody else.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Funny.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
It's like, you know the things that go through your
head as a kid.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Yeah, right, Do you have any like of the special
guests that that came in that really is a big
memory for you to meet somebody who you were excited
about or you knowerience in general.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
The second year. I just think it was a second
year when Deacon Jones came on because I was a
big RAMS fan, and that's during the Fearsome foursome, you know,
so and and he's a giant individual, you know, and
then sadly like things like Joe Nammouth was obviously you know,
a hero as well. But I didn't work with them. Yeah,
and I'm in school, so I don't. I don't get
(42:41):
this man anytime, you know, just shake his hand, meet him,
but not work with them. And that's and that is
part of that, you know puzzle. And looking back on
our show, I do these do these are recaps? We
watch them and I'm wondering, why don't I have any
recollection of X y Z. And it's like, huh, probably
because then I go back and I look when we
filmed that, that's during his school year. And if you
(43:02):
didn't have any scenes with that person, you were not
sad you weren't there with them interacting, there was no
there was no memory. And and then also like, why
wasn't I aware that he had another show before this
that I was a fan of with he was a ventriloquist,
but he was on The Brady Bunch as the director.
Come on, he's a very famous and he was on
(43:23):
our show. And now I'm going anyway, and it's like
I'm reading when we're doing the podcast, I'm reading like
beyond you know, my recognition, recognition of him being the
the puppeteer and and and star of Winchell Mahony Hour,
that he was also an inventor and invented the artificial
heart and he was on our shows.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Somebody, somebody, the guy who invented the artificial heart was
also a puppeteer for a children show. Okay, yeah, I'm sorry,
take them. You need to google because that's insane.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
Paul Winchell, he really yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
He played a director on an episode.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yes, he played an episode the best I don't know
if we have in the house. I'm sure that if
we don't, Tina, we'll get it. The ubiquitous bottle of
Best Soap or was it Safe Soap? There was a
battle between Best and safe, and we ended up with
like you know, cartons and cartons of safe soap. And
throughout the that was the only consistent article or prop
throughout all the years from that day on, every time
(44:29):
there was soap being used, there was this box of
safe or best I think it was safe safe. There
you go, that's it. And and that was the episode.
He's a director, uh, directing us in that commercial or
safe soap. And apparently and now watching it also see
(44:51):
commentary coming from Sherwood because there was some this was
later I think it was four seasons, you know, some
issues between the legendary now between him and Bob. And
I didn't know any about anything about that because we
as kids that would happen after we went home, and
their difficulties were kept from us. Very very classy. Yeah,
it was what was most important. It was about that
(45:14):
the kids environment wasn't wasn't soil but apparently got tense
and and so this episode there's a director, you know,
who's directing us, and none of the family knows how
to act. So they go to a friend who's an
acting coach, and they start then acting badly, you know,
in front of the camera. And he's wondering what the
hell happened to these my my my natural family wanted
(45:35):
us to be all just natural. They have learned to
act because some taught them about motivation and he had
you know this, these are all bad things for actors
to know about. Was like, hmm, it's interesting, that's.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
A you know it.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
At the time, when had any clue as to really
where some of that energy was coming from, These ideas
were parked.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
All right, So all these years later as you're rewatching,
what's the one thing you hope the fans take away
from the show.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Well, it's I think turn it around. It's I'm glad
that now I'm able to take from the show because
I've been watching it myself, and it's what they have
been taking from it, even if they're not conscious of
it's a we all yearn to get along. Yeah, and
and and and family is the first place. These walls
are the first place. As a kid you learn your place,
(46:28):
and with six it becomes highly structured in where your
place is. But it's a wonder. I mean, as a kid,
that's what you're fighting for. You know, your identity is
is is reflective of your environment and where you fit
inside of it, and so where we fit starts here
(46:49):
at home.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
And and and.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Getting along helps you fit.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Everything you guys have accomplished with this house is just unable.
Like we said, everyone that is another show that you
know of.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Show you a photograph of every single room in this
house and you'll know where it's from.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
I don't think there was another television show.
Speaker 3 (47:08):
That even has maybe one room.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
I mean, I mean maybe the bar Cheers the bar,
other than that, like an actual house, but no, this
is this is arguably the most iconic television house in history.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
In the backyard, Patty, I mean all of it. It
was like when doing it was recognizing that which is
your favorite room, It's like, oh, well, kitchen. You know
I kind of dressed for the kitchen. So yeah, it's
just like it's remarkable and and it it would be
how you still want to live in and it was
built in the late sixties, so it's it's kind of wild. Yeah,
(47:43):
it's amazing timeless, and I don't think if it if
it didn't and wasn't still timeless, I don't think we
would be now.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
It's also true neighbors to the Boy Meets World House,
which is not too far from here, and we were
both on Friday.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Nights, so it's safe children.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
I feel a kinship.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
I feel a kinship with you. People think we grew
up on the same street, you know, with Danny Bonducia
next door neighbor.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
I think, well, you know, Marion Ross is my next
door neighbor in real life.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Yeah, she's a doll. She's the doll's So yeah, we've
got it.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
We've got him everywhere. But thank you again so much,
Thank you time. And what's the name of your podcast?
Speaker 3 (48:19):
The Real Brady Bros? Like this house. We weren't real,
but we were depicting ourselves as the real Brady Bros.
Because there was brothers named Brady doing a podcast out
of Boston. Interestingly enough, so we're the real Brady Bros.
Because we're not really real, but to you we are, yes,
the real Brady.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
Bro Well, everybody please go and check that out.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
And I am certainly going to do that. One other thing.
We're really important. We're in the house. Tina Treyhan who
owns this house now and by virtue for buying the house,
the house will continue to be a part of my
life and I can't thank her enough. For that for
allowing us access to the house. She is also recognized
that there's a lot of people driving by taking pictures
of this house, said to be the second most photographed
house in America after the White House. So how do
(49:03):
people because the real magic's now inside the house, not outside,
how do you let people in the house? And so
she has started a sweepstakes called the Brady Experience for
a chance to win a tour of the house and
brunch with some of the Bradys like myself included sometime
next year. And it's running right now. So yeah, you can.
(49:24):
You can enter to win an opportunity a ticket out
if you don't live in LA for yourself and a
guest and a tour of the house.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Wow, awesome.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Where you can enter is the Bradyexperience dot com.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
That is correct, perfect, and that is going to be
a pretty awesome experience all the way around. I can't
thank you so much for being here with us, and
of course, dear listeners, thank you so much for joining
us on yet another journey.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Join us next time.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
When we watch a Disney Channel movie, we don't know
which one it's going to be because we don't know
where we are in the pecking order, but chances are
it's gonna have something to do with a dog that
doesn't talk or cheetah girls. That's saying we don't know,
we'll figure it out when we get there. Tooth fairy
that can't really fly, thank you everybody, and we will
see it next time.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
Bye.
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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