Brady Bunch Bros

Iconic TV siblings Greg, Peter, and Bobby Brady were the perfect example of brotherly love in the 70s. Decades later, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, and Mike Lookinland still feel like family. From pork chops and apple sauce to dating your sister! 

They are forever bonded by their time on the beloved American sitcom.  The OG Brady Boys reveal which brother wasn’t the friendliest, how the show affected their real-life siblings, family rifts that never healed, and why there could be more Brady family fun in the future!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am Kate Hudson and my name is Oliver Hudson.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
We wanted to do something that highlighted our.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Relationship and what it's like to be siblings. We are
a sibling railvalry.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
No, no, sibling. You don't do that with your mouth, Vely,
that's good. Over, Oliver Hudson, my brother.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I've been watching Love Island.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I know, but I just want to explain over. I
don't think I've ever called you that on the show,
and that's over is what I've always called was how
I would say Oliver when I was little.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
So every once in a while I'll just.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Be like, that's true. That happens, and I get like,
I'm like, but I feel like insecure kind of because
it's like too it's like too vulnerable or something that
maybe it brings back, like.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
It brings back like shame.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, yeah, because probably when you were calling me that,
I was rejecting you you were and I don't you're yeah,
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Welcome everyone, this is I mean, we're so excited. This
is uh, you know, we're a new season at Sibling
Revelry that.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Bigger, better, stronger, more episodes. You know, we're just we're
injecting steroids into this.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Podcast well, and also it's exciting because we're you know,
we've we really wanted to like get it going and
get some momentum and always have our podcast available throughout
the week. And we've got some really new fun things
that we're doing, Like we have our episodes with siblings
or whether they be siblings that are on television or

(02:00):
siblings that we hear about in the news, or siblings
that people know, celebrity siblings. But we're also doing our
revelant episodes that are my favorite.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, where it's kind of like you and I have
certain people that we revere or that we want to
get to know more interested in that interest us.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, or who could be a great have a great
story that.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
We want to kind of yeah, And each week we
sort of trade off a little bit, you know what
I mean, Like you do your revel in it, then
I'll do my revel in it. And as similar and
as connected as we are, we both have some very
different guests. You could probably guess who Mine are and
Kates are without even telling you.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
We could just tell people what they do and why
and people be like, oh, that's definitely an oll of
our revel Yeah, no doubt, but we are so excited
to be back, and we are also looking forward to
your correspondence with that.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
We're always listening, so check in with us. And you
know we we we loved it. We love to hear
any ideas too, If you have any good ideas, I'd
love to hear it.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
And then for me, for me personally, I just need
to know how I'm doing because I seek validation. So
if you're going to write in, you know, write in,
you can give us ideas, you know all that, but
definitely I need an analysis of how I'm doing exactly.
You know, let's just let's just move on to Love Island.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Oh tell me, I know it's nothing.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
I just I'm like upset with myself, you know, because
what are loving it so much? Yeah? Because I have
my morning and then I do my like work, I
can get my coffee and then I'll go out and
do something and then I come home and I have
like maybe forty minutes between things, So I make some
food and I sit down at my TV and I
just put on something mindless and I won't give a

(03:55):
shit about and I put on Love Island and all
now I'm like eight episodes deep, like and it's such
mindless horse crap.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
You know, but you love it.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
I love it. I love it, and it's really.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
No, it's okay. I think it's okay to love these shows.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
I think, look, sometimes as long as you have perspective
on them, I just think it's weird. And people love
them so much they want to be on them. Like
then you're like, wow, that's intense. That's like a that's
like like what, like, could you imagine actually making the
decision to go on a show like Love Island.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well, imagine me at like forty seven, like coming down
the stairs Oliver hotsit and with my shirt off. People
would like literally start vomiting. You're like, oh Jesus, whoa man?

Speaker 1 (04:41):
No, But I'm like all four of those kinds of shows, and.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
I love you know, I've seen everyone.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
It's I mean, look, you know there's a lot of
people who think, like, oh, the Bachelor and like what
it stands for all stuff, And I don't know, I
think it just already is just relaxed.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Oh god, the ultimatum. I love Love is Blind. I've
seen Love Island, Boy Island.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
I like love is Blind. Love is blind is a
really interesting social experiment. To me, It's great, yeah, because
you're sort of like, wow, you know, yeah, what would
it be?

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Like?

Speaker 3 (05:15):
I mean, and then my favorite is just when they
finally see yeah, oh god, because.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
The moment where someone's so excited and you can just
see in their face like, oh no, I how do
I get pass that I'm not?

Speaker 5 (05:32):
You know?

Speaker 3 (05:33):
And I also think like the pheromone thing is interesting
because you're taking the science part out of it. You
can't smell the person, and like the pheromone. The pheromone
is directly connected to like I guess I'm gonna I'm
gonna butcher this right now, but there's something about the
pheromone that's directly connected to your your a you're mating.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Ability right your penis and vagiant.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
I could have totally made that up, Yeah, but I
think that's what it is.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
It sounds good, but it just proves love is not blind.
I mean, yeah, you get to know each other personality,
but like physical.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
And I think it proves that love is love is smelly.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, love stinks.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Love. Love is a smelly business.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
And Allie, Allie, I'm really excited to talk about our
new guests.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Our next guest.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
I think they're in the guests. I love that we
have a waiting room and that's what we call it.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
I know, I know, well, most people who do zooms
have waiting rooms.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
We should call it. It's more of a green room,
you know what I mean, because we do provide snacks
and drinks at their perspective homes.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
That's actually really funny. We should do that. We should
actually send them like a little like yeah, usually five
to fifty minutes late.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
So yeah, but this is really fun. This is the
first time we've done something like this where our sibling
episodes are not actual siblings. No, they're show.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Siblings, very famous shows.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
From an iconic television show that's right, called The Brady Bunch,
The Brady So we have Barry Williams, Chris Knight, Mike
Luck and Land waiting to talk to them about this experience.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
I'm excited, Allie because.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
My big question that I want to make sure that
I ask is like, how does that affect your own
relationships with your siblings?

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Like you know what I mean, if you're young and
you're on a.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Show, great question, by the way, Yeah, if you're on
a show, thinks if you're on a show. I think actually,
I think I think Hannah might have come up with
that question our producer.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
But I but.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
It was my favorite one. Yeah, but I.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Feel like it kind of got me thinking, like, imagine
if I was, you know, I don't know, eleven, twelve
years old and that for those five years was on
this big iconic show, and then my siblings were like,
I don't know, I would feel like it would kind
of mess me up, mess everything up.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
No, I think it's a great question. And you know,
these guys have been doing this interview process for one
hundred years and I bet you they've never been asked
that question. So it's definitely Remember.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
But Barry and Chris have a podcast, yep. They Their
podcast is I mean where they basically go through episode
to episode of The Brady Bunch and and.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Break it talk about it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
I know, but I'm excited. I'm excited to talk to
these guys.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Let's do it. Hey, Hannah, bring these bastards in.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Open the door. Open the door. Don't say that that's
a terrible thing to say.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Oh I thought that they might, you know.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Ready, open the Oliver, Annah and the door to the brain.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
In same jump, welcome boys. We're here to talk about birds.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
Now. It all started the birds and the bees and
the birds and the bees Christopher and Mike Christopher.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Do you like Christopher Chris Chris Chris.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah. So before we get into anything, hold on, we
were we were talking about, you know, before we were
in the lobby where all talking before on the air,
and Chris is a major bird man. We got into
the whole bird talk and it was quite fascinating. The
man knows more about birds than probably bees.

Speaker 5 (10:11):
I didn't bring up the birds. Mike brought up the
birds because he had has a parrot apparently that had
to vacate the room. And then you shared that, in fact,
you grew up with a macaw for a short time,
right cause are serious business.

Speaker 3 (10:24):
They really are.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Maxine her name was Maxine, and yeah, and she would speak,
she would I would talk to her and she'd talk
back all the time.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
She was she was so great.

Speaker 5 (10:38):
But she didn't like infants.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
No, she didn't why.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
It was born. And then Maxine went crazy and all
of a sudden she starts saying fuck you whyt No
one taught no one even taught her that. It just
sort of came naturally.

Speaker 6 (10:57):
I'm that sort of fit saying with the theme of
our show.

Speaker 5 (11:02):
Today, Yeah, I just get along.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Hey, you guys, do you do interviews often where the
three of you are chatting together still?

Speaker 3 (11:13):
And do you go and do events and things like that.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
We're individuals and not really a family. So though we
will one of us get called and by somebody who
expects us to pull it all together like we were
our real family. So no, not not together individually. Perhaps
so as soon as you add another and another, it
gets progressively more difficult to rally everybody at the same time.

(11:39):
And Barry and I are doing our podcast, so we
have at times, you know, invited Mike on and we've
had that opportunity and you know, on our show to reminisce.
But other than that, it's it's rare. Mostly the times
that we get together, you're watching it because it's somebody
else pulling us together.

Speaker 7 (11:56):
There's a critical mass that we can reach. And you
know that happens at six if you get if you
get all six, oh boy, but three boys is a good.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Start, right right, Well, this is really fun for us
because sibling revelry. Obviously we have siblings on. But I
think you're the first where we're doing show siblings. Yes,
you know we've done this before.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
It's also really interesting because you know, well, let's let's
start this. How old were you when you started the show?
All of you and and and obviously you know older brother,
middle brother, baby brother and the show?

Speaker 3 (12:37):
But how what? What was the age range?

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Fourteen to twenty? For me?

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Fourteen to twenty?

Speaker 5 (12:43):
I mean, oh yeah, and I started. Are you taking
fourteen yet? The pilot barrier? Fourteen first year?

Speaker 4 (12:49):
What modes?

Speaker 5 (12:50):
So, pilot's okay? So ten, ten to fifteen, fifteen and
a half?

Speaker 6 (12:55):
Yeah, I was nine to nine to fourteen? Wow?

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Eight?

Speaker 6 (13:00):
Actually in sixty nine I was eight.

Speaker 5 (13:02):
You were eight?

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah? Yeah, quickly, because I'm sure it can be a long,
long story, especially for all three. What was the casting process, like,
you know, were you all actors initially with some of
you not. Did you go in and read multiple times?
Did your screen test? Did you have any inkling that
it was going to be an iconic show in any way?

Speaker 5 (13:21):
What do you remember?

Speaker 4 (13:22):
Because well we might we might might have different stories
about this because I think the process was different for
each of us. But initially there was a there was
a cattle call it's referred to with when everybody pack
an agent, you know, comes in. I had been acting,
I've been active. I've done a lot of episodic television
like Run for Your Life, Dragon, FBI, Invaders, Mod Squad,

(13:45):
Gomer Pyle, That Girl, Mission Impossible, Marcus WELLBMD, it takes
a thief, you know, a lot of stuff. And so
there was mountains of people and Sherwood was our producer,
was trying to weed that out. There are some eleven
hundred kids that came in over the course of time,

(14:05):
and then we would come back. Those were just straight interviews.
Then there was a follow up interview, and then there
was a screen test where they actually had the camera
and the director in them. I had a little bit
of a leg because, well, you had to fit the
suit right, to use a great Brady term because the
ages and looking alike and that kind of thing. But

(14:27):
the director, our director who directed the first seven episodes,
had directed me in Gomer Pyle and That Girl, both
of which were on Paramount, so he knew me. He
was familiar with me, and the network knew me as
well as the studio, so that I think was helpful.
And then there was a screen test and then script rived.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Who was cast first? Susan Olsen.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
Okay, Susan Olsen was cast ahead of the adults.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (14:59):
Sherwood short fell in love with her and she walked
in and and and uh, he was eating out of
her hand. It was it was just it was just instant, instant.
She had a couple of choices. She was up for
another series two which I maybe one of you know
which one it was, Uh, gun Smoked, possibly, I think

(15:20):
it was gun Smoke. They were gonna have a character.
And she said that she wanted to do The Brady
Bunch because then she'd have all these brothers and sisters.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
To our choice. Yeah, Mike, Mike, do you recall because
I get asked this and I have very little recollection
of the casting process.

Speaker 6 (15:37):
Oh, Bobby was the last cast member to be chosen.

Speaker 7 (15:43):
But do you remember the process? I mean, well, it
was different for me. It was very different for me.
My story is kind of the opposite of berries. Up
until I got cast for The Brady Bunch, I had
done two parts. I had been on two television commercials,
one for band aid AIDS in which I was just
wrestling in a playground.

Speaker 6 (16:03):
And you couldn't pick me out.

Speaker 7 (16:04):
And the other was a paper towel commercial in which
you only saw my hands. That was my entire resume.
And they looked in they they had everybody else, and
of course they had the adults out of the you know,
the core nine people, including Alice, and they had trouble

(16:26):
finding a Bobby, and so they looked in other markets,
mainly New York, and they came back to LA and
according to Sherwood, I got cast well, not only because
I could look I you know, I looked acceptably like
Robert Reid and you two guys, we could be brothers.
But also it's it's in their book that they sat

(16:48):
me down, and I mean, we're just talking about little
children here, you know. They sat me down and and
uh carried out an interview with me with a coffee
table full of toys. And I didn't go and I
didn't go for the toys. I paid attention to what
was happening with the grown ups. And so that was

(17:14):
sort of one of their one of their tests. I
did not get a screen test, but I remember it's
very you know, we were the boys and the girls
were step brothers and sisters, right, And it was very
much kind of that situation where we each had our
own families, of course, and we all have have a

(17:35):
siblings and real siblings. And I was walked into a room.
I picture it being nighttime, like it was evening, and
all the other cast members were there and I was
holding my mother's hand and they walked me into this
room and they said, Mike, here's your new family. And

(17:59):
it was sort of a moment giving you away.

Speaker 6 (18:02):
Yeah, and you know, we'll see where that goes.

Speaker 7 (18:05):
You know, I have no idea what you mean by that,
but but you know, off we went, and there was
a lot there was a pretty big gap in the
calendar between the pilot and and the shooting of episode
one of the first season. Back in those days, Back
in those days, you made the pilot and then you
shopped it around a finished product to you know, to

(18:28):
see he would buy it.

Speaker 5 (18:29):
Yeah, we shout. We shot the pilot in September and
October sixty eight. I mean we weren't back together until
June sixty nine. Yeah, so I think we got to
pick up in April or no, almost six months.

Speaker 7 (18:41):
So when you're when you're eight years old, you know,
six months that's a big chunk of time.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
When you all met for the first time or when
you started the process. Was it like, did you feel
an instant connection or did it take a while. Did
it take like a couple episodes or a year, you know,
or was it kind of like you guys all were
excited and ended up immediately connecting.

Speaker 5 (19:03):
It's like any other job, that's the first week, you know.
I mean, if it's only a week long, you never
really get beyond that. I think it was a ten
day shoot, and I don't think we really had anything
to do any any interaction with the girls except for
the wedding scene itself, so we really hardly got to
know who they were, if I recall correctly, and my my,

(19:25):
my casting experience, what I remember is similar to MIX.
I don't remember a screen test, and they didn't have
portable cameras in the time, so I don't and I
believe it was just in Sherwood's office and Mike I think,
I mean, I have the same experience with It's a
personality test. It wasn't an audition of any type, right,
so sure wasn't aware that I couldn't read a line.

(19:47):
We're gonna we got a lot of.

Speaker 7 (19:50):
Weight on these kids and hopefully have a hit show
on our hands, and we want to see if they
can handle it.

Speaker 5 (19:55):
I only played with the toy, right, you played with
the toys.

Speaker 6 (19:58):
See they were looking.

Speaker 4 (19:59):
One of the Michael you want to want to amplify
a little bit is Uh. It was a hair issue
with Michael not conforming all right to both Christopher and I.

Speaker 6 (20:11):
I had, right, I had.

Speaker 7 (20:13):
I had real blonde, strawberry blonde hair and freckles, which
at the time in the movie business was like solid gold.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
You know.

Speaker 6 (20:19):
I ended up. I ended up.

Speaker 7 (20:21):
Over the years getting dozens and dozens of spots on commercials.
But they had chosen, Uh, they had chosen Uh darn it.
What was the show not seven Brides for seven brothers?

Speaker 6 (20:36):
Uh? Anyway, they they had here come the Brides.

Speaker 7 (20:41):
Yeah, they had chosen the kid who was my age,
who who ended up being in Here come the Brides,
And they they said to my agent and my parents,
you know, we we like Mike better.

Speaker 6 (20:52):
We you know, we'd like.

Speaker 7 (20:54):
To cast Mike, but he's got to have black hair.
And at the time it seemed like a big deal.
I mean, you wouldn't think twice about it. Now you'd
have green skin if if it was you know, if
that was what the part called for.

Speaker 6 (21:06):
But at the time it seemed like a big deal.
So we said, okay, I have black hair.

Speaker 7 (21:10):
And Barry you might not know I was cast as
Eddie and courtch Of Pavetti's father. Yeah, and uh, Tony Tony,
which was our our common agent.

Speaker 6 (21:22):
We all did the same agent. Tony said, yeah, Tony said, you.

Speaker 5 (21:28):
Imagine, no, I know the four of you, You, Susan, Barry,
and we.

Speaker 6 (21:35):
All end up with the same agent.

Speaker 5 (21:36):
And then we all ended up but even I had
different agents.

Speaker 7 (21:40):
Uh Tony, Tony Kellman said no to to my family.
You know you're up for these two roles. Courchu of
Pavetty's father has come in first offering you the job.
I don't want you to take it. I want you
to to pass it up and hope we get this
other one. And the other one turned out to be
the Brady Bunch.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Well, wow, hell.

Speaker 5 (22:00):
Did you ever ask her why she made that call?
Because Courts Viti's father on paper, my family lore.

Speaker 6 (22:07):
Says that Tony Tony told.

Speaker 7 (22:11):
My mom, I don't like quote the people.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Were your parents very involved in this process and then
moving forward into the series just because they had to
be on set obviously.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, and I have I wonder because at the time,
I mean we were talking, you said, sixty eight sixty nine,
Like were there even like did they have the same regulations,
Like did you have to have school on set? Were
there certain hours you could work?

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Was it?

Speaker 5 (22:41):
Did they already Jackie Coogan law was in place, you had,
you had the child welfare laws that haven't changed at
all since then. You know, eight hours a day, one
hour lunch.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
So you were all in school together.

Speaker 5 (22:55):
Yeah, yeah, Well they started conveniently when we started the
production in itself. We started the Monday after school got out,
and we were all in public school, so we were
all on the same school calendar. So that Monday that
La Public Schools was out for summer vacation was the
first day of production. And they did that every year.

(23:21):
Oh great, so that at least at least they get
as many days as possible with us not having to
have that three hours of school.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Got it. So as we're moving through the series or
in the first season, you know, at what point did
you guys start to connect understandably? Ten days you know,
shooting the pilot, six months between that.

Speaker 5 (23:50):
It was as you know, it's something about having met
some I don't know what happens, but you've met somebody,
don't get to know them very well, but they're a
known entity, and then you reconnect and it's almost as
though you connect at a different level than you left
it the last time, or it seems like it immediately

(24:12):
connects more deeply. I think also you recognize that there's
a trepidation on any project because you're really not going
to see these people probably ever again. On most projects. Now,
when you're casting a series, you recognize you're going to
be working together for a while, and there's a little
bit more investment. I don't know if it's conscious. I
maybes I'm eleven years old here as the series is

(24:36):
in production. I don't think I was thinking like that,
but it feels like that in retrospect that the friendship
that I felt was almost immediate. I know it had
to take some days to get going, but by the
end of the first week it's, you know, like we're
all friends.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
You say friendship, right, and of course your brothers right,
And there's obviously the age gap. So Barry, did you
older fifteen six sixteen? Getting your car, girls, this, this,
and that. I mean, how did that affect your relationship
with the younger boys. Did you feel like an older
brother in any way or was it just you know,
oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
I think I think we all brought our own skills
set in from our from our nuclear families, as as
Michael pointed out, we all had brothers, sisters. I had
two older brothers, being the youngest of myself, and so
I was using the techniques from my older brothers that
they used on me, which was not very kind to

(25:35):
either Chris or Michael. And so I would, I would,
I would tease them, I would play jokes on them,
I would, you know, sometimes put them into compromising positions
because that's what I loved and that's what I knew,
and I didn't realize I was actually terrifying, you.

Speaker 6 (25:52):
Know, he did.

Speaker 5 (25:53):
So so the story and I always heard this ad
nauseum and I repeat it every time because it's sort
of foundational. And you've asked the question. So when we
were doing the pilot, and it was during the production
of the wedding scene where we were on location and
we had a shared wagon win a bagel or something
that we all changed it, and even we'd carry on

(26:14):
that sharing of dressing rooms beyond just this pilot and
went on location. We shared the same dressing room for
the first year when we were on the lot. But okay,
so this first experience on location in a shared environment, Barry,
you know, Barry was I mean, and he wasn't warm

(26:37):
to us or I didn't feel that way. And he
always he was very mature for his age, Like I
think I assumed he drove to you know, to the location,
but he had his hand in his and he smoked,
and he smoked. So he's an older kid already, and
he had this thing in his pocket. He kept clicking
it clickick, click, click click. And I'm just a little kid,
that's just you know, trying just to stand on my

(26:59):
mark and noticing. And he's noticing I'm noticing the click.
And he tells me to guess what it is. Now
I'm thinking that I'm told that I got to guess
what it is. Okay, we're you know, the age we are,
and they don't trust his sat our lunch and our wardrobe.
So our wardrobe is off at lunch.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
Let's let's play kN kay, I'll do it, and you guess,
and you guess what would be clicking in my in
my light.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
I want to do what I want to do?

Speaker 4 (27:25):
Yes, yes, yes, go ahead, all right.

Speaker 5 (27:27):
I had no clue, so but but I was industrious.
I saw his pants at once, sitting right there. I'm
either looking at it or putting it back in his
pants pocket, the door open in its hand, and I'm
and I'm and I'm caught, you know, like like I
don't remember what Barry at that moment thought said or

(27:51):
what the look was on his face, because it didn't matter.
Everything inside of me looked backward at me and just melted.
And I never wanted to see him again after that.
That is a humiliating moment. And I remember when we
got picked up so and I believe tell me if
I'm wrong. I think the wedding stuff was sort of
at the last stuff we did in the production, so

(28:15):
that was near the end, right, might have been the
last day of production. It was like, oh, I hope
I never have to see him again. I humiliated myself,
I guess. And I don't think Berry did anything to
compound it, right, I think he laughed or something. But
you know, I but when we got the call and
the show had been picked up from pilot two series.
I remember wishing I knew how to do a backflip.

(28:36):
This is because I was trying to learn how to
do a backflip, and then you didn't get together, and
I go, this would be a time I would do
a backflip. I knew how to do a backflip. And
then as I'm all excited about that, I'm realized, oh,
I got to see him again. And that was my
feeling going back into this. But when we started, the

(28:57):
excitement of starting and now you know, i'll all have
this place to report to, I never had that feeling
from him again. I mean, I don't know what it
was on the pilot that day or those days that
Barry gave off that feeling, but it wasn't there when
we started in the summertime.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
My favorite part of those is Barry was smoking. It's
like a picture like, you know, all right, kind turned
the cameras around, Barry's like, I'm gonna go have a smoke.
He's like fifteen. The image of that is hysterical.

Speaker 6 (29:32):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
It is really fascinating to me.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
You know, when you're young and your like like yet
to be young and on a hit show. But like
it's like there were so many of you, so I wonder,
like when you start, well, I guess my question is
when when did you realize that you were on a
hit show or that it was like a hit.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
When we started traveling and doing promotion, ABC was our network,
and they would send us out to do promotional junkets.
We had a Christmas album early on, and we would
go out and do personal appearances. And when we started
doing personal appearances, I think it became pretty apparent because
we were inside the cocoon of the studio and our

(30:21):
sound stage for the first year or so, and then
after that when we were meeting meeting people who were
watching our show, when we're fans of our show, we
began to understand the impact of it. And that's where
I think we really started the bond as well, because
we all, you know, we all had our roles in
being responsible for doing things, and I did assume a

(30:42):
big brother kind of role, and I was protected, particularly
of Susan, because of what we were subjected to. We're
moving logistics are you know, enormous. We're flying in planes,
we're driving in cars, were arriving in buses and so
so we worked together quite a bit as a unit
and learn how to rely and depend on one another
probably what saved us.

Speaker 5 (31:02):
I think that that's interesting in the way that you've
asked the question, when did you know you were on
a hit series? I don't think we ever thought we
were on a hit series. I never felt we were
on a hit series. We were never picked up. Well,
we were once picked up for an entire season. We
always had to earn our back end. We were right
on that kind of top thirty CUSP back in the day,

(31:24):
you know, the top twenty eight shows got picked up,
and anything beyond that, you know, was you know maybe, and.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
We were.

Speaker 5 (31:34):
Like always wondering if we're going to get picked up again,
or this is going to be the end. But it
doesn't matter to be on a hit show or not.
The difference between not being known by anybody and then
being on a series. It doesn't have to be a
hit or not. All of a sudden, you're in front
of millions of people, and maybe as a child you
just don't recognize what that is going to mean in

(31:54):
your life. You're not prepared for that reflection of you.
I mean, all of a sudden, people know who you
are before you're there, and that's not something that happened
prior to that.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
How did each of you deal with that sort of fame,
you know, going from the youngest to the oldest. Barry,
You've had some experience. You were on TV, I guess,
you know, But was it intoxicating? Was it scary? You
guys are just kids really at the time. You know,
I loved it.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
I loved every minute of it. I thought, which is
the coolest thing in the world to be recognized and
you know, meeting people and having fun. I felt a
bit self important. I had access to a lot of
cool things too, Like, you know, my first car was
a Porsche, and I had the greatest stereo system happening,

(32:41):
you know for the day, and my JBL speakers and
my do All turntable and a record collection that went
on for you know, like three Wallsworth and it was
you know, so I just.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Do I hope you still have that record collection.

Speaker 5 (32:55):
Well, you Berry, you you knew going on in because
you really were purposeful about your career, even at fourteen,
this is what you wanted to do. You had an
awareness that if you were on a series or a
hit series even more so that people would recognize you,
would empower you in some way. I mean, in other words,

(33:16):
you were anticipating it, right, Yeah, okay, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
I don't know many actors that like you get get
into the business to go unnoticed.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
Well that's my point. So, you know, we're kids not
intending to be in show business and all of a
sudden there's this flood of attention that you're not at
all prepared for.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
So was this more of your parents who were sort
of wanted you to be like acting or in the
industry or commercial work.

Speaker 5 (33:44):
It's simply an old world way to pay the bills.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
Yeah, very different. You know, you're hitting on a really
interesting subject, which is I guess loosely called stage mothers
stage parents, but particularly stage mothers because they're usually charged
with the responsibility of being a guardian for their kids
when they're on the set. As you well know well,

(34:09):
stage mothers really is a term that is applied to
basically mothers of children who want to live their lives
through them. And that's that becomes really challenging me and
that's not something we had to deal with very much. Certainly,
my mother was not that and by the time I
was sixteen, my mother gave chrisper Chris's mother authority to

(34:35):
be my sort of quote guardian, but she really wasn't
taking care of him all. I kind of had free
rateing out.

Speaker 5 (34:42):
That there was no guardian Berry.

Speaker 4 (34:45):
I'm wandering off the gun smoke set and climbing up
in the facades of those of the of the town,
the western town, and smoke in my cigarettes.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
And then Mike, what about you like?

Speaker 7 (34:59):
Barry was very much too cool. He was he was
miles out of my league. So I had to use
Chris as sort of like an interim, you know, to
get to get anywhere near as cool as Berry. I
had to kind of ride Chris's coattails.

Speaker 6 (35:13):
I learned to.

Speaker 7 (35:15):
I what one thing we did to entertain ourselves off
off camera was rip on Maureen McCormick. So so uh
so I learned, or at least they did. I was
mostly a spectator, but yeah, we uh you know, they
they would tease Maureene relentlessly and I found that hilarious.

Speaker 5 (35:37):
But uh, and that's why we did it.

Speaker 6 (35:40):
Yeah. The my my family, my family's in my.

Speaker 7 (35:45):
Family was was uh singer entertainers from from when I
was a young child, and uh, the the but what
we would do is we'd go as a family to
who knows what, you know, rotary clubs or or something
and sit and sing. And you know, my mom went

(36:07):
to autoharp and me and my sister on stools and
my little brother like literally baby in arms, and we
would sing, we do a little show. So so I
had I had entertainment, you know, I had experience being
in front of people, uh, from when I was just
a toddler. But my parents, Uh, my story about getting

(36:32):
into the TV business is a.

Speaker 6 (36:35):
Dad's family photo on the desk thing.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (36:39):
Someone, you know, everyone in La works in the movie business, right,
they might have a they might have a real job
to make money, but everybody's in the business.

Speaker 6 (36:48):
So so anyway, my.

Speaker 5 (36:49):
Dad, you're perpetuating a myth.

Speaker 6 (36:52):
Yeah right, no, we.

Speaker 7 (36:55):
Yeah, But see, I I can say in retrospect, that's
what you might that my you know, Barry said he
loved every minute of it. I certainly enjoyed it and
and and love the fame and the recognition. But given
the opportunity, I can say now that my flight to

(37:17):
Utah when I was seventeen was just that it was
an escape to get that far away from LA from
and from agents and from casting directors and freeways.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Yeah, it's not for everybody.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yeah, and sometimes it takes like I think there's a
lot of younger actors that have been and had experiences
that just walk away from it and go, that's not
going to be my life.

Speaker 7 (37:50):
And being and being the youngest one. You know, I
was still a kid when when we were done. I
you know, it wasn't something my childhood wasn't something I
looked back on. I lived my childhood with with money
and cars in my twenties, things you wouldn't normally have

(38:12):
when you were ten years old.

Speaker 6 (38:15):
And that can be dangerous.

Speaker 7 (38:16):
I tell I tell people that if every man, woman,
and child had had a high deff camera in their
pocket when I was seventeen, my life would have been ruined,
you know, a wild Yeah. I yes, But these guys,
he listen, listen, here's here's one. These guys have over

(38:38):
the years gotten gotten into calling me the normal one.

Speaker 6 (38:43):
I'm you know, out of the six of assigned.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
To normal one.

Speaker 6 (38:46):
Oh they have they have no.

Speaker 5 (38:48):
No, I don't think I never called you the normal one. Yeah,
you knew better well one second case, because I want
to mention something that we've known each other for fifty
six years, Barry, did you know that he was family
was like the Coutles. We're learning something new here. I
never knew that. I never knew that about.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
My dive into it real quick. When you say wild,
like I was wild, I mean I did crazy ship.
But what are we talking about? I mean we're talking
about drugs, fast cars. Girls.

Speaker 6 (39:15):
You wouldn't stuff you wouldn't I got.

Speaker 7 (39:19):
I want to tell your mama or your grandma about
uh yeah yeah, drugs and alcohol and uh and just
general general of you know, all around breaking of the law.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Oh yeah, Oh now we're opening this.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
A lot of psychedelics, A lot of psychedelics.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
I married one one.

Speaker 7 (39:45):
I am actually I've been playing the rock star lately.
I'm in a I'm in a Grateful Dead cover band.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Oh wow.

Speaker 7 (39:54):
In fact, in fact, Barry, you guys should see a long.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Oh there you go.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
You're so happy. Wait where do you live?

Speaker 7 (40:04):
I live in Salt Lake City. It's been snow and
so so all you should come. Come go skin you too.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
I'm going I'm gonna be I'm going to be in
Snowbird on MLK day. I'll be in Snowbird ski Okay,
I'll see you then that's where I good.

Speaker 6 (40:20):
You see my snowbird hat right here?

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Yeah? No, I for my first time, uh last year,
and we got inter lodged. It was a big snow
was it was The snow was so good as all
my life. It was some of the greatest skiing that
I've ever done.

Speaker 7 (40:35):
After lodging is you're not You're not allowed to leave
the building. There's so much snow and there's so avalanche danger.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
Yeah. Crazy.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
I called Oliver on FaceTime and I was like, where
are you because it was so different, Like we grew
up in Colorado, which you know, so I knew he
wasn't there. It couldn't have been a more different kind
of terrain. But it looked amazing.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
It's crowd Oh, I love it.

Speaker 7 (41:00):
Yeah, it's terrain wise, it's beautiful here. And if I
need to go to la hey, Barry, you do you
want to tell everybody why I was growing my hair long?

Speaker 4 (41:11):
That uh not stright?

Speaker 5 (41:13):
I no, No, you can't mutter that yet.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Why Oh he's oh you're growing mushrooms in your hair?

Speaker 7 (41:21):
No, No, it's I think. I think, I think the
we might have one one good Brady show left in US.
Maybe strikes over, Hello, CBS. We might it just might,

(41:41):
We just might have one one more left in US.

Speaker 6 (41:45):
Well, there's been like sixteen reunion shows.

Speaker 7 (41:48):
It's not like it's not like saying seventeen is going
to be like big, big news.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
When you guys started to get on the routine of
doing all your promotion together and being together all the time,
how did it affect your other relationships with your siblings.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
Well, that's a good that's the million dollar question. Yeah,
I don't think. Well I didn't. I didn't really understand
this because I was so busy trying to hang They
used to call me tag along my brothers, and because
I just I wanted to do everything they did and
just and be there, be in the room. You know,
whatever they were doing was cooler than what was going
on in my life. Even as the show, well as

(42:37):
the show progressed, then that not so much anymore, because well, frankly,
what I was doing was way cooler. But there's this
inordinate amount of attention that comes our way. There is
so much there's publicity and their team magazines. At this
time you know, going on television, people know you and

(43:00):
the siblings can get lost easily in that mix. And
I didn't realize that. I just I felt them distancing
themselves from me. But they were older, you know, they're
like seventeen and twenty, I mean eighteen and twenty, so
they were distancing. But as adults, I came to understand

(43:22):
that that had a very very serious impact on their
development and on their relationship with our parents. And they're
I would say, perhaps dislike.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
For me, just envy envy. Wow. And has that been reconciled,
I mean, or had it been reconciled over the years. No, wow,
that's so interesting.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
Right then, it isn't.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
I mean, I think that we you know, we've interviewed
a lot of celebrities with siblings that have been various.
Is also a very different generation.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
A lot of the younger, you know, siblings or you know,
hawk things out differently, I guess.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
But there's also a lot of times where you know,
we ask certain people to come on and they just
will not do it because they their relationship with their
sibling is too trying, you know, and so that's you know,
that's really understandable.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Well, No, I totally. But when you have love between
a family, yes, there's jealousy, there's envy. You know, I
subject myself to it, and I say myself because I'm
the one who creates it. Granted I have a great career.
But you've got Kate, You've got Mom, You've got Kurt,
now you've got Wyat. I mean, they're all movie stars
for the most part. And I'm not crying myself a river,

(44:49):
but there is envy. There is like, oh I wish
I could do that, or I want to be that
or whatever it is. But at the end of the day,
it's all love. Because we're siblings, you know what I mean,
We're a family. So I just wonder, especially with multiple siblings,
how that doesn't get sort of I guess a dressed
or figured out because it seems pretty surface or petty.

Speaker 5 (45:09):
Well I can't you might be petty. I mean in
my case, I don't have Barry's experience. We all have
our individual experiences. But when you take into account what's
really going down with a family, I'm sure Mike and
Barry get asked the same question, you know, by their friends.
They have a cute daughter or a cute son, he

(45:30):
should do commercials. He should do modeling, you know, and
my what do I think? I think never? You know,
when they're eighteen, they can decide to be in the industry.
There's no there's no success they can have now that'll
be consequential to the success that they'll have as an adult.
Matter of fact, it might even create, you know, barriers

(45:50):
to becoming a success as an adult because reality is
is that there's multiple kids in a family. I mean,
I'm just a year and a half younger than my
older brother. I've got a sister three years younger and
a brother seven years younger, and my mom ain't with
him for half the year. What what do they get?

Speaker 7 (46:09):
That's my story exactly. The Brady Bunch took my brother
and sister's mother away from them. Wow, she had a
full time job, which was to be with me on
the set, and your right, it certainly had an effect

(46:31):
on the you know, uh, on the family. The thing is,
though you don't, you don't like I was going. I
knew what what was required to me know your lines
hit your mark, you know, uh it was it was.
It was impressed upon me and all of us very

(46:51):
clearly that sure have fun be kids we want that
we you know, we want that to come through in
the in the characters on the show.

Speaker 6 (46:59):
But this is a job well you expect.

Speaker 7 (47:02):
And you're expected to do it, and you know, uh
don't you know, there's no there's no margin for for
screwing this up. And uh so that so that was
my focus, you know, my my little brother's focus was
Mom's gone, you know, uh, you know, so so yeah,

(47:25):
but it's it's hard to know that you're living in
an extraordinary experience, especially as a child, while you're in
the middle.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
Of doing it.

Speaker 5 (47:34):
Well, you know, but you know that your life is
a little bit different. We were the only six kids.

Speaker 7 (47:38):
In a in a in a big in a big
studio filled with grown ups.

Speaker 6 (47:44):
All day long.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
Here's another way to look at it. My dad was
a provider, and he has certain expectations of his wife
and my brothers and my mother. One of them. Most
have dinner on the table at six o'clock, so, uh,
with the shop, with the grocery shopping done. And sometimes
we would work past six o'clock and then we're in
Hollywood and have a fifty minute drive home. So everyone's

(48:07):
sitting around going wha, wha, wha, whall, Well, where's dinner? Oh,
moms with Barry, Moms with Barry.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Oh right, And a.

Speaker 5 (48:17):
Lot of this hasn't been discussed upfront or negotiated beforehand.
You know, it's not like, Okay, this is what's going
to happen, and this so dinner's going to be late.
It We're gonna, you know, adapt to it later, like.

Speaker 6 (48:28):
Yeah, how do all you feel about that? You know,
none of that and there's so nice how you feel
about it?

Speaker 5 (48:33):
Yeah, it's going to happen, right.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Wow, that's so interesting. I never looked at that that way.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
You think the girls had similar experiences.

Speaker 5 (48:40):
I don't think Susan did, because Susan was the youngest
by a long shot. Well now she had an older sister,
but being the youngest meant that. I know, my older
brother probably had less of a problem with my mom
not being around at fourteenth then my four year old brother,
you know, my three year old brother who is being
raised by my you know, seven year old sister because

(49:04):
my dad you didn't have those skills, you know, nor focus,
so he was I don't know how they survived.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
I remember, Kurt, you know, our parents never worked at
the same time. They had the privilege to be able
to choose and schedule when they worked. And when we
got a little bit older, I was about sixteen, almost seventeen,
and they were like, listen, you know, we can't fix
this one.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
You're just we're not going to beat I was going
to be working nights. You're on your own.

Speaker 4 (49:36):
And I was.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Too sad. Yeah, yeah, Like a cut to a full montage,
which is a montage of Kate getting ready with like
playing with the Boys theme song going on in the background.

Speaker 6 (49:51):
My god, that's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
I wanted to say one thing, hold on about this
for people who you know, I think I think there's
sometimes this sort of misconception that when people aren't in
the industry or see it from the outside in, that
it's not an incredibly time consuming job, when in fact,
it's like the most unglamorous and time consuming job when

(50:14):
you're on the job. Like, when you're on the job,
you're working. I mean, obviously you guys were on set,
but in other circumstances, you're working in insane places at
insane hours, sometimes at night, somebody's working through the night,
and when you have a family, it really messes with
a traditional family dynamic. It just it's one of the

(50:35):
hardest jobs to have to raise a family in. So
it's such an interesting perspective to hear it. Here you
guys are portraying like this this melded family, and then
on the on the on the riot flip side of it,
it was probably actually really affecting so many families.

Speaker 5 (50:59):
You know, obvious the it's obvious that it does, and
the obvious becomes a surprise when it should have been
obvious to families that you know, if you're living in
Ohio and you want one of your children to be
in the industry and you're out here for pilot season,
it's like and you got other kids, It's like, who's
who's not thinking of what's going on? I mean, like

(51:19):
how does that work? I mean, so you're dreaming of
this child to become a huge success. Now what if
they are? Now you're never all you know so and
then you know so, what's the other half is that
they're not a success. Why do you want to drive
them into that? I just don't get it. I mean
I I you know, there's times for you to go

(51:39):
plow the field.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
How many years were you on the on the air
five five seasons.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Five seasons, which is crazy because that's not a lot.

Speaker 5 (51:51):
Yeah, well, because the show has always been more successful
in the rearview mirror than it ever was. That's why
when you said hit and I don't be we were
in the hit that. We now look at the show
as because it's done something since it was in, you know,
on Friday nights on prime Time that very few shows

(52:13):
have ever done. Through the years being watched by as
many eyeballs as it has been around the world repetitively,
it's reached a different level of a strata because of it.
Compounding its success a year over year.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
Also every few years had a little Brady reminders. We've
always been doing reunions, we've been doing specials, we've been
doing TV movies, and the movies came out. We did
the Variety Show almost immediately after the Brady Bunch went off.
We had a very Brady Christmas. We had the Brady
Brides of.

Speaker 8 (52:49):
Very Brady Christmas, which braves me to this too, Barry,
what with all of the singing and the singing numbers, Like,
what was your guys relationship to that was something you
were excited by or was this like a.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
Ship Okay, well I'll start because you know, I tell
you that I've always loved it and I wanted more
and music was part of it. So I was at
a cheerleader for getting the songs on the Brady Bunch,
getting choreography, get dressed up and hold the microphones, going
on concert, doing albums. I was, I mean, it was
this to me was just like too good, you know,

(53:25):
TV and a rock star too. To find out I
should have checked with everybody else A little bit funny.

Speaker 7 (53:36):
I've always I've always been very adept at carrying out
other people's plans. Tell me, I'm goal, I'm I'm results oriented.

Speaker 6 (53:45):
Tell me what you know? What's the goal? Okay, what's
my part in that? Okay, let's do it. Boom boom boom.

Speaker 5 (53:52):
Well, how but but how convenient you're a council sorts right.
I trained in it.

Speaker 7 (53:58):
I could see I could hold my part and three
part harmony vocal harmony when I was three years old.

Speaker 6 (54:05):
According to do you.

Speaker 5 (54:06):
Have any do you haven't? Do you have any phobias?

Speaker 6 (54:09):
Pitch you know, but it's pretty close.

Speaker 5 (54:12):
Yeah, So Mike, do you have any phobias? You have
any phobias? Whatsoever? That you're aware of phobias.

Speaker 6 (54:19):
I know where he's going with this. You like heights?

Speaker 7 (54:21):
No, I don't have any real like tight holes, like
like get really uptight about spa.

Speaker 6 (54:29):
But but no, no phobias.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
No, what do you get up about.

Speaker 5 (54:32):
He's not he's not fighting what I'm challenging you on.
Figure out what your phobia is and be asked that
that is the thing you have to accomplish. Right, oh right,
goals oriented? Yeah right, but if it happens to be
you're not. You don't don't like heights, and the goal
is to build a building on an I beam, you know,

(54:52):
a quarter mile in the air.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
No be torture, Yeah, yeah, you go on when they're
living in torture or you were living in torture.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
I'm going to ask a totally random question because it's
something I I have all my questions that I want
to get through before we have to end this and
but and say goodbye. But but there's so many things
that I want to ask and we like haven't even
touched them. One of which is does anyone know who
came up with the blue boxes?

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Was that like a just like a like a marketing department?

Speaker 5 (55:33):
Marketing was or we had to tell a story. No,
I don't think it was a Maria and there was
probably someone in it.

Speaker 4 (55:38):
Was it the writer?

Speaker 7 (55:39):
You know, the story is in the song, the the
it explains everything in the song, and it had to
be there had to be a way to present the
visuals with the song.

Speaker 5 (55:49):
And your answer is, we don't know, you don't know.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
It's so interesting to take something that was so iconic.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
There's so many iconic moments on The Brady Bunch, but
that was such a brilliant, you know, iconic, uh, introduction
to all of these characters.

Speaker 5 (56:07):
Well, I think it's kind of uh what do they
call it? Parallel creation or parallel invention? You know, two
different evolutions arriving at the same the same place. Zoom
discovered the same thing that Sherwood and whoever was creating
this front end of the Brady Bunch did that When

(56:28):
you have a cast of nine, how do you present them?

Speaker 3 (56:32):
And Zoom boxes they probably Yeah, someone should be getting
a cut.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
Did you guys? Did you guys get along with the girls?
Was it a was it a family that way?

Speaker 6 (56:45):
Or I was in I was in very close with
Susan Olsen. We both have a real.

Speaker 7 (56:51):
Kind of off off kilter sense of humor, and for years,
for years we had sort of a virtual endeavor which
was to make the other one laugh, to make the
other one laugh.

Speaker 5 (57:05):
One of the benefits, maybe in the brilliance of Tony
Kellman choosing the Brady Bunch over Courtship. Vetti's father of
this show for us was that there were other kids there,
and it was an environment that Surewood wanted to make
certain was was healthy for these kids because he wanted
us to remain kids, well, the five of us, not Barry.

(57:30):
So it was I mean, of all environments to work in,
it wasn't It wasn't a corrupted one. I mean, I
look back on it. I'm my salvation was supplied by
having the idea of what a nuclear family is through
the show, because it wasn't at home.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Did anyone Did anyone get too big for their breches?

Speaker 4 (57:50):
No?

Speaker 5 (57:50):
I don't think we could have with with the amount
of parents we had around.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
Us, and of wrecked that family dynamic when it started
dating Marine however.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Oh really, yeah, how did that work?

Speaker 4 (58:03):
It really didn't work.

Speaker 5 (58:04):
Moreen's mom couldn't drive and so but you had to
be with her. They didn't live too far. So for
all five years we drove in. We drove Moreen in
on occasion maybe when I had a hold, which was
very rare, certainly not on any days that were school.
If Susan was working they didn't live too far, they'd
drive in or Moreen and her mom would drive in

(58:24):
with Susan, but mostly with me and I had those
two hours because then it was about an hour we
lived in the West Valley to get to the studio
and back to listen to Maureen. And I had already
probably you know, heard from Barry that day about Maureen.
So I was this intermediary between their blood dance, their attraction,

(58:48):
they're repelling. It was just the oddest did Barry were you?
Just like Barry was just like right, you know, I mean,
how did that flourish.

Speaker 4 (58:59):
Well start going out and you get a little closer
during the photo shoots and suddenly there's an arm around
somebody just as big brands, and then there is the
come on over to my house and we'll swim naked.
Let it take a natural course.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
I So, so do you guys have like a is
there like a Brady Bunch group chat?

Speaker 2 (59:25):
Is there?

Speaker 3 (59:25):
Like are you guys on one chat, No we have.

Speaker 4 (59:28):
We have a podcast Chris was talking about called The
Real Brady Bros. And basically episodic recap. So we take
an episode each week and we both watch it, we
take notes, we exchange notes, and then we get together
in a very similar fashion to this and talk about

(59:49):
the show and with our perspectives on it now and
thought about it. But the most interesting part about it,
aside from deepening our own relationship because of that consistency
and we're really pulling from our past, is we remember
things like we're in two completely different situations, the age difference,

(01:00:10):
him being three years younger than I, and I'll go
on about, well this happened, and this happening, well this,
and and you'll get come up with a different story sometimes.
And it's fascinating to how we each interpreted our experiences
and how you know, with the with the hindsight, you

(01:00:30):
know that they can kind of, you know, formulate differences,
big differences of opinions. It's fascinating and fun.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
That's really that you know that they Obviously, perception is
a very interesting topic because most people have very different perceptions.
Then when you get in a family dynamic Alli and
I talk about it all the time, like I'll have
a completely different memory of something amazing and relationship than
he does in the exact same circumstance.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):
I would I'd like to use as an illustration. Something
came up in this podcast from Michael. He said that,
you know, I was I was too cool for him,
and you know I was. I was busy being you know,
kind of full of myself. I don't have that impression. Yes,
I tried to carry myself as being cool, but I
wanted to be an adult. So I was just gravitating away.

(01:01:19):
I was hanging out with the people that were hanging
the lights or running the camera. I was trying to
talk to the director. I hung with Robert Reid a
lot because he was an actor, and Florence because she
had the musical side, and that's just where my attention went.
So I really didn't have time for like an eight
year old or a nine year old, And so I

(01:01:41):
can see how that would affect him now, but at
the time I didn't think anything of it, and I
certainly wasn't, you know, it just it just wasn't in
my radar.

Speaker 7 (01:01:50):
I would like to point out how our family dynamic
which developed over the years has continued over the decades.
When upon being in vice onto their podcast, I assumed
that my role was to come on and goof around
and just you know, just goof off, because that's that's

(01:02:10):
kind of been like my place. And uh so I
listened to their podcast, and I thought to myself, Man,
these guys are taped.

Speaker 6 (01:02:18):
These guys are serious. They're taking this very seriously. This
is a real nuts and bolts.

Speaker 7 (01:02:24):
Analysis of this episode with all the historical perspective, and
so upon upon learning that I I, upon upon realizing
that that that these guys were taking this very seriously,

(01:02:46):
I figured my role was to come in and goof
around even more.

Speaker 6 (01:02:50):
Mm hmmm, right, And that's and that's what I did.
These guys need a little levity in their in their life.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
Did What was it like after the show ended?

Speaker 5 (01:03:01):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
I mean, was it a bittersweet? Was it sad? What
was the experience from coming off a show that became
so iconic and probably was in the moment.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
A quick story on this that happened for five years.
We're driving onto the lot. We have our own parking spots,
we got our own dressing rooms, we have home, which
was our sound stage five at Paramount and were I
got noticed that we were canceled on a Friday. On Monday,
I drove to the lot to pick up the things
out of my dressing room and I was stopped by

(01:03:37):
the same guard Fritz that I saw every morning. Good morning, Fritz,
Say good morning Fritz. And he said, Hey, Gary, what
are you doing. I said, I'm going in to clear
out my dressing room. He says, oh, do you have
a drive on pass?

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
God?

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
No, He said, okay, we'll pull over there and i'll
call this if I can, you know, get your one,
which he did. Then he directed me to some other
place on the lot that was too far to carry things.
So I went to my parking space. And I got
to my parking space and between Friday and Monday morning,
at nine o'clock it had been painted over and it
had a new name on it exactly. Oh, oh, so

(01:04:15):
we've been canceled, canceled, and I felt canceled, and that
was that was my reaction to it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:04:21):
Two, I mean, there's two different there's two different reality.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Mean, it's certainly.

Speaker 5 (01:04:26):
As the show was going on, it was losing its
its ability to connect you know, in a real organic
or on it's kind of way. I mean, it mostly
fit for a twelve thirteen year old kind of psyche,
and as you're now pushing seventeen, it it was harder
to well connect with what was on the page and
you could imagine that, Okay, this isn't going to change,

(01:04:48):
this is probably it's probably time to leave. We all
had five year contracts, so there was some expectation on
my part that it probably would get canceled. So when
it was maybe that was just me anticipating ply and
was helped me prepare for that. But there was you know,
so I and I was happy because I was in
the middle school and wanted to continue my my school

(01:05:08):
and the one thing we couldn't get in those three
hours a day is any kind of lab classes. And
I'm big with science and there was no labs for
me until I could get back to my high school.

Speaker 6 (01:05:17):
So I got that in.

Speaker 5 (01:05:19):
I mean, it was good timing, it was perfect time.
It last minute timing for me. But then what it
took me a couple of years after that, in trying
to find my new place in the world to realize
what I had as a home that wasn't there anymore interesting?
Wasn't immediate Chris.

Speaker 7 (01:05:38):
Chris pointed out earlier that we didn't. Our show really
didn't become like that American iconic touchstone, you know that
it that it did for until we were in syndication
for years, and so, so as soon as the show's canceled,

(01:05:59):
we start looking for new new work. I got the
job on The Towering Inferno within a couple of weeks,
and we filmed The Towering Inferno that that entire summer.
That would have been season six of The Brady Bunch.
So I had I had a job at twentieth Century
Fox doing something insanely completely different. That was Irwin Allen

(01:06:22):
was directed that movie.

Speaker 6 (01:06:23):
It was awesome.

Speaker 7 (01:06:25):
Paul Newman carried me out. I got to tell you, guys,
Kurt Kurt Russell used to come to my house in
San Pedro. He was no My little brother was in
a series with him. I think I think my brother
played his nephew in The New Land. You remember a
series called The New Land.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
He's done so many of those.

Speaker 6 (01:06:46):
Yeah, Well, he'd come in.

Speaker 7 (01:06:47):
His El Camino and do push ups in the living
room with my brother sitting on his back and I remember,
I remember. My mother was was quick to point out
that that his the entire like passenger compartment of his
blue El Camino was filled with empty beer cans.

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
I didn't even know Camino.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
I did, I for sure did, like he's always talked about.
Oh yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 6 (01:07:17):
So thanks for letting me, Thanks for letting that's our
one degree of separating. I love that.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
Well, listen, we're not going to keep you longer.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
We love to do our rapid fire and I have
to start with a couple of them because I have
you know, I'm very I'm going to start with you
because I know you did Dancing with the Stars, and.

Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
What was your favorite dance?

Speaker 4 (01:07:43):
The tango. It's a great dance and it's very moody,
and it's very dramatic. If you don't know people that
don't understand the roles of the dance, the male is
typically the matador Victoria d'Or, and the woman plays sometimes

(01:08:06):
the cape, sometimes the bull, and then sometimes the object
of desire. It was fabulous.

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
Are you still dancing?

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
Oh yes, yeah. In fact, I have booked a cruise
for my birthday next year. It would be my seventieth birthday.
That I know in the Greek Isles, starts in Athens
and goes to over to Spain, and it has a
dance floor on it. So my wife and I routines
and go out there and tear it up.

Speaker 3 (01:08:39):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
Okay, Next, what I want from each of you? You
had some amazing guest stars on the Brady Bench. Who
was the guest star that you were most excited about?

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
Jama Speaking Jones, Vincent Price.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
I mean, it's crazy how many people were on this show. Yeah,
and all three of those are.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
So Wow, Joe name it. That's pretty ra pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (01:09:06):
Paul was cool too.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
Paul Winchill helped invent the artificial heart, cried out loud.
He's like an inventor as well.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
If you could swap lives with one of your siblings
on the Brady Bench, what would it be if you
had to, not if you wanted to. If you're including
including all siblings, all siblings, girls, all of us all.

Speaker 3 (01:09:30):
If you were like.

Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
Ny for sure, because she always gets more.

Speaker 5 (01:09:38):
Just a siblings, not other cast members.

Speaker 3 (01:09:41):
No, just to say, well, no, just the siblings.

Speaker 5 (01:09:46):
I'll do, Maureen, just so I can figure it out.

Speaker 6 (01:09:53):
Man, you got me on that one, Kate, I don't know.
I wouldn't trade. That's my answer.

Speaker 5 (01:10:00):
We got a trade, Okay, I love it.

Speaker 7 (01:10:02):
Then it's then it's uh, it's three for three Maureen McCormick.
I'm not even gonna say why, but only but only,
like you know, half a day.

Speaker 6 (01:10:22):
Yeah, that would be enough to figure it out.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
If you could do one really amazing thing with the
cast again, anything, what would it be.

Speaker 5 (01:10:33):
Are we talking a project or just go go go
go fishing?

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:10:38):
Anything updated a series that is as current sensibilities.

Speaker 7 (01:10:44):
I like it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:45):
Doing the HG TV project was was pretty remarkable. I
mean because you know, we got to all participate and
take something that was never real and make it real.
And the house itself turns out to be one of
the characters that we all recall remember, and I mean

(01:11:07):
it's timeless for a house that was from the late sixties,
you know. I mean, so I know we might have
already done the project that day.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:11:15):
I was going to say, are you saying we've already
done it?

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:11:19):
I uh, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Well.

Speaker 7 (01:11:22):
The number one question that I've been asked by just
random people over the years is do you still keep
in touch with with the other, the other people. You know,
it's a perfectly valid question. People are interested. The answer
is yes, and and I would just say, i'd you know,
like that to uh continue.

Speaker 5 (01:11:43):
Day. Yeah, I'll think about it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:46):
Your bands. I want to hear your death.

Speaker 7 (01:11:48):
We're the pranksters. You can live stream pranksters.

Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
Okay, great, we actually don't suck.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
We're not.

Speaker 6 (01:11:55):
We're not, We're not.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
Think you did.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
Thank you, guys. This has been really really fun.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
So much fun. I'm I'm I'm grateful that you came
on and to meet you is wonderful. So thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
Thank you guys.

Speaker 4 (01:12:12):
Thanks Oliver, thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:12:14):
We'll see you again sometime bright now, we'll see you boys,