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The Brady Bunch Hour is an American variety television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in association with Paramount Television, which aired on ABC between 1976 to 1977.

The series stars the original cast members of The Brady Bunch, with the exception of Eve Plumb, who was replaced by Geri Reischl. The show began as a 60-minute special titled The Brady Bunch Variety Hour on November 28, 1976. This special led to eight additional 60-minute episodes produced and aired as The Brady Bunch Hour from January to May 1977.

The show's events are not included or mentioned in the later spinoffs and revivals.

Premise[link]

In this series, the Bradys move out of their familiar home and into a beachside home somewhere in Southern California, after they were chosen to star in a new variety series for ABC, which originates from their home. Mike Brady also leaves his architectural career, in order to become a full-time musician. Helping them out along the way is their new neighbor, Jack Merrill (Rip Taylor). In addition to the variety show are "behind-the-scenes" sketches of the Bradys at home. Some of these sketches connect to the variety show segments, while others are stand-alone. The entire cast took part in sketches and musical numbers.

The main stage for The Brady Bunch Hour had a swimming pool. While the pool was mostly used by The Krofftettes, who put on an Esther Williams-style performance during the opening credits, occasionally a Brady cast member would fall into the water fully dressed. Greg would sometimes shove Peter into the pool (where he would almost invariably scream "MOM!") and Greg would then introduce the musical guest. Greg would try to trick Peter, (in much the same manner Lucy would try to trick Charlie Brown with the football) to trust him, wherein he is shoved into the pool. In one episode, Greg and Peter pushed their father into the pool, who yelled "CAROL!"

Cast[link]

• Robert Reed as Mike Brady
• Florence Henderson as Carol Brady
• Ann B. Davis as Alice Nelson
• Barry Williams as Greg Brady
• Maureen McCormick as Marcia Brady
• Christopher Knight as Peter Brady
• Geri Reischl as Jan Brady
• Mike Lookinland as Bobby Brady
• Susan Olsen as Cindy Brady
• Rip Taylor as Jack Merrill

The Krofftettes and Water Follies

• Charkie Phillips
• Christine Cullen Wallace
• Susan Buckner
• Linda Hoxit
• Judy Susman
• Lynne Latham
• Dee Kaye
• Robyn Blythe

Rip Taylor's role[link]

Rip Taylor appeared in every episode of this series (except the pilot). He was billed as a guest on six of the episodes. Also, he played the Mr. Merrill role in both the variety show (where Mr. Merrill played various characters in the skits) and behind-the-scenes segments, yet he was introduced as Rip Taylor at the start and end of each episode. In many of the ensemble song-and-dance numbers, he was paired with Ann B. Davis.

Development[link]

The show came into being following the Bradys' appearance on Donny & Marie, on October 8, 1976. ABC president Fred Silverman had the Kroffts develop a variety show starring the Bradys, though without the approval or involvement of Paramount Pictures (the producers of The Brady Bunch) or Sherwood Schwartz (that show's creator). Both parties eventually gave their approval of the new series, mainly as a way to keep interest in the original series. The variety hour remains the only Brady project to not have Schwartz's involvement during production.

Scheduling[link]

The show was intended to air every fifth week in the same slot as The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, but was scheduled sporadically throughout the season, leading to inconsistent ratings. A promo was often shown with Mike and Carol stating, "The Brady Bunch Variety Hour won't be seen this week, but we will back again soon."

DVD release[link]

The first and fourth episodes were released on VHS and DVD in America on Region 1 DVD format.

[edit] The Brady Bunch Variety Hour in popular culture

• TV Guide listed the series at #4 in a 2002 compilation of the 50 worst television series in American history.
• The show is the subject of a 2009 coffee table book entitled Love to Love You Bradys by Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady). It was released in September, 2009 by ECW Press. In addition to many color photos and artwork, the book features over 100 new interviews including the Brady Bunch, Sid Krofft, Marty Krofft, Sherwood Schwartz, Bruce Vilanch, Rip Taylor, and Paul Shaffer.
• This show was parodied on a Season 3 episode of That '70s Show ("Red Sees Red"). The entire family, due to a forced curfew, is sitting around watching the show and each one leaves separately in anger (Red himself remarking that "This show is crud!"). Kitty then daydreams that her own family are the stars of a similar show.
• The show was also more directly parodied as part of "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase", wherein the Simpson family stars in a variety show spin-off of their show. It's noted during the show that Lisa Simpson had refused to participate (in much the same way Eve Plumb did), so she was replaced with a much older prom queen-type who also claimed to be Lisa.

Episodes[link]

Episode #1 (The Brady Bunch Variety Hour - TV special / pilot)

• Airdate: November 28, 1976
• Guests: Tony Randall, Donny & Marie Osmond

Episode #2

• Airdate: January 23, 1977
• Guests: Lee Majors, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Kaptain Kool and the Kongs, Rip Taylor

Episode #3

• Airdate: February 27, 1977
• Guests: Milton Berle, Rip Taylor, Tina Turner

Episode #4

• Airdate: March 4, 1977
• Guests: Vincent Price, Rip Taylor, H.R. Pufnstuf, Kiki Bird

Episode #5

• Airdate: March 21, 1977
• Guests: Charo, The Hudson Brothers, Rip Taylor

Episode #6

• Airdate: March 28, 1977
• Guests: Rich Little, Edgar Bergen, Melanie

Episode #7

• Airdate: April 4, 1977
• Guests: Redd Foxx, Robert Hegyes, The Ohio Players

Episode #8

• Airdate: April 25, 1977
• Guests: The What's Happening Kids, Rip Taylor, Rick Dees

Episode #9

• Airdate: May 25, 1977
• Guests: Paul Williams, Lynn Anderson, Rip Taylor

See also[link]

• The Mary Tyler Moore Hour (a similar variety series)

External links[link]

• Complete Guide to The Brady Bunch Hour
• Love to Love You Bradys: the bizarre story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

• BradyHour.com
• Retro Junk
• Interview with Geri "Fake Jan" Reischl at Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict
• Interview with Linda Hoxit
• The Brady Bunch Hour at the Internet Movie Database
• The Brady Bunch Hour at TV.com

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2010)

The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family. The show originally aired from September 26, 1969 to March 8, 1974 on ABC and was subsequently syndicated internationally.

In 1997, "Getting Davy Jones" (season 3, episode 12) was ranked No. 37 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.^[1]

Series overview[link]

Plot summary[link]

Mike Brady (Robert Reed), widowed architect with sons Greg (Barry Williams), Peter (Christopher Knight) and Bobby (Mike Lookinland), marries Carol Ann Martin (née Tyler) (Florence Henderson), whose daughters are Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb) and Cindy (Susan Olsen). The wife and daughters take the Brady surname. Producer Schwartz wanted Carol to have been a divorcée but the network objected to this. A compromise was reached whereby no mention was made of the circumstances in which Carol's first marriage ended. The blended family, Mike's live-in housekeeper Alice Nelson (Ann B. Davis) and the boys' dog Tiger settle into a large, suburban, two-story house designed by Mike. Their specific location is not explicitly stated in the series, though numerous indications suggest they reside in Southern California.

The theme song penned by Schwartz quickly communicated to audiences that the Bradys were a blended family. In the first season this blending figured prominently in stories. These episodes chronicled the family learning to adjust to its new circumstances and become a unit, as well as typical childhood problems such as rivalries and family squabbles. Over time the episodes focused more on issues related to the kids growing up, such as dating, self-image, responsibility, and puberty.

From the second season the blending and its particular tensions were less intrinsic to stories but would sometimes be casually mentioned in dialogue, often as part of a joke. Two episodes from the third season, "Not So Rose Colored Glasses" and "Jan's Aunt Jenny", mention that Mike and Carol had been married for just three years. "Kelly's Kids" in the final season explicitly recalled Mike and Carol's adoptions ("Either way, you adopted three boys and you adopted three girls, right?") when their neighbors, the Kellys, adopted three boys of different races.

It was not the first series to show a "blended" family (two series which debuted in the 1950s, Make Room For Daddy and Bonanza, had stepsiblings and half-siblings respectively), but came at a time when divorce and remarriage in America was seeing a surge.

Contemporary issues were sometimes explored. Season two's "The Liberation of Marcia Brady" explored the equality of women, as Marcia sets out to prove a girl can do anything a boy can. The boys challenge the idea and coerce Peter into joining Marcia's club, the Sunflower Girls, to make a point.

Episodes[link]

In 1971, due to the success of the Bradys' ABC Friday night companion show The Partridge Family (about a musical family), some episodes began to feature the Brady Kids as a singing group. Though only a handful of shows actually featured them singing and performing ("Dough-Re-Mi" in season 3, "Amateur Nite" in 4, and "Adios, Johnny Bravo" in 5), the Brady Bunch began to release albums. The LP records featured background vocals by the same session vocalists who were on The Partridge Family records. Though the kids never charted as high as the Partridges, the cast began touring the United States during the summer hiatus from the show, headlining as The Kids from the Brady Bunch. Only Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick stayed in the music business as adults. Christopher Knight readily admits he felt he could not sing and recalls having great anxiety about performing live on stage with the cast.

Main characters[link]

The regular cast appeared in an opening title sequence in which video head shots were arranged in a three-by-three grid, with each cast member appearing to look at the other cast members. In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, the show’s opening title sequence ranked #8 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.^[2]

Although many actors who become type-cast into the roles they played on a particular series resent this, the cast of The Brady Bunch express a contrary attitude. On a TV Land documentary, the actors revealed that they all remain close friends, and most have remained in regular contact with one another. On several episodes of Christopher Knight's reality show series, My Fair Brady, Florence Henderson made guest appearances, and gave advice on Knight's ongoing relationship issues. Knight also invited Barry Williams, Susan Olsen, and Mike Lookinland to a wedding party, during which most of his time was spent hanging out with them, away from the party. He said it was important his betrothed accept that his Brady Bunch friends are an important part of his life.

Recurring characters[link]

• Alice's boyfriend, Sam Franklin—A recurring character is Alice's boyfriend, Sam Franklin (Allan Melvin), the owner of a local butcher shop. (By the time of The Brady Girls Get Married, a made-for-TV movie in 1981, Alice and Sam were married.) Sam appears in only eight episodes, but they span all of the show's five seasons. He is also frequently mentioned in dialogue, and Alice occasionally goes on dates with him off-screen.

• The Bradys' dog, Tiger—The original dog that played Tiger was hit by a florist truck and killed early in the first season.^[3] A replacement dog proved problematic, so the producers decided the dog would only appear when essential to the plot. Tiger appeared in about half the episodes in the first season and about half a dozen episodes in the second season. In a parallel to the Partridge Family, whose dog Simone disappeared during their second season, Tiger vanished without an explanation and was not shown again after "The Impractical Joker", which aired in 1971. According to Barry Williams, the doghouse was retained as a prop to cover holes in the artificial turf caused by a falling stage light.

Robbie Rist as Cousin Oliver

• Cousin Oliver—In 1974, in yet another parallel to The Partridge Family who brought in a younger neighbor for six episodes of its final season, the producers added a younger character Cousin Oliver (9-year-old Robbie Rist), to fill the age gap left by the maturing Brady children. Susan Olsen, the youngest, was 12 during the show's final season. Robbie appeared in the final six episodes of the series.

Special guests[link]

• Herbert Anderson (known for playing Henry Mitchell, Dennis Mitchell's father in the 1960s sitcom Dennis the Menace) appears as a doctor who comes to treat the boys' measles in "Is There a Doctor in the House?" (season one)
• Desi Arnaz, Jr. (teen heartthrob son of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball) meets Marcia to whom she had written about in her diary in "The Possible Dream" (season one)
• Jim Backus (known for playing Mr. Thurston Howell, III in Gilligan's Island) appears three times in the series, twice in two of the three Grand Canyon episodes "Ghost Town U.S.A." and "Grand Canyon or Bust", plays the demented Zaccariah T. Brown who mistakenly thinks the Bradys are jumping his gold claim and locks them in a ghost town jail, and in "The Hustler" from season five playing Mike's second boss, Mr. Harry Matthews, who gives Mike a pool table as a "thank you gift"
• Imogene Coca (known for starring in Your Show of Shows) plays the Brady girls' Aunt Jenny, whom Jan fears she will grow up to resemble after seeing a childhood photo of Aunt Jenny in "Jan's Aunt Jenny" (season three)
• Don Drysdale (pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers) tries to inject reality into Greg's dreams of being a professional baseball player in "The Dropout" (season two)
• Don Ho (Hawaiian singer) meets Cindy and Bobby and serenaded Cindy in Honolulu in "Hawaii Bound" (part one of a three-part season four episode, filmed on location in Hawaii)
• Davy Jones (former member of The Monkees) performs at a music studio and then takes Marcia to her school dance in "Getting Davy Jones" (season three) (he also satirized his cameo decades later in The Brady Bunch Movie)
• Deacon Jones (defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams) encourages Peter's singing in "The Drummer Boy" (season two)
• E.G. Marshall (known for playing Lawrence Preston in The Defenders with Robert Reed [1961–65]—making this a reunion of the two) plays Marcia's school principal, Mr. J. P. Randolph, who keeps Marcia after school for an entire week in "The Slumber Caper" (season two)
• Brigadier General James McDivitt (NASA astronaut) signs autographs for Peter and Bobby after appearing on a talk show in "Out of This World" (season five)
• Joe Namath (New York Jets quarterback) visits Bobby because he thought that Bobby had a terminal illness in "Mail Order Hero" (season five)
• Wes Parker (first baseman for the LA Dodgers) meets Mike and Greg in Greg's math classroom, thus curing Greg of the crush he had on his teacher Miss Linda O'Hara (played by Gigi Perreau), Wes Parker's fiancée in "The Undergraduate" (season one)
• Vincent Price (horror film actor) appears twice in the series in two of the three Hawaii episodes, "Pass the Tabu", and "The Tiki Caves" from season four, playing the villainous Professor Hubert Whitehead, who holds the Brady boys hostage
• Natalie Schafer (known for playing Mrs. Lovey Howell in Gilligan's Island) is Mike's fussy client, Penelope Fletcher, who is charmed by Cindy's impromptu 'Shirley Temple' routine in "The Snooperstar" (season five)

Production[link]

American television producer Sherwood Schwartz conceived the Brady Bunch television series in 1966 and registered the idea that same year with the Writers Guild under the name "Yours & Mine" as a blended-family presentation. Schwartz then developed the pilot script to include three children for each parent, a widower, a mother whose marriage past was left open, and a housekeeper, each of whom would be introduced in the pilot in connection with the wedding between the parents. After receiving a commitment for 13-weeks of television shows from American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres in 1968, Schwartz hired film and television director John Rich to direct the pilot, cast the six children from 264 interviews during that summer, and hired the actors to play the mother role (whose maiden name was Taylor and first married name was Martin), the father role, and the housekeeper role. As the sets were built on Paramount Television stages 2 and 3, the production crew prepared the backyard of a home in Sherman Oaks, California as the Taylor home's exterior location to shoot the chaotic backyard wedding scene. Filming of the pilot began on Friday, October 4, 1968 and lasted eight days. The original show last aired on March 8, 1974.

Development[link]

In 1965, following the success of his TV series Gilligan's Island, Sherwood Schwartz conceived the idea for The Brady Bunch after reading in the Los Angeles Times that "30% of marriages [in the United States] had a child or children from a previous marriage." He set to work on a pilot script called Mine and Yours^[4] and passed it around the "big three" television networks of the era. ABC, CBS and NBC all liked the script but each network wanted changes before they would commit to filming and Schwartz shelved the project.^[5]

There are similarities between the series and the 1968 theatrical release Yours, Mine and Ours starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball. The original script for The Brady Bunch predated the script for the film. The success of the film was a factor in ABC's decision to order episodes for the series.^[4]

The Brady house[link]

The house used in exterior shots, which bears little relation to the interior layout of the Bradys' home, is located in Studio City, within the city limits of Los Angeles, California. According to a 1994 article in the Los Angeles Times, the San Fernando Valley house was built in 1959 and selected as the Brady residence because series creator Schwartz felt it looked like a home where an architect would live.^[6]

The real house is a Mid Century modern, split level. A false window was attached to the front's A-frame section to give the illusion it had two full stories during filming of the series' many establishing shots, all of which took place before the program debuted.

During season three, the living room of the Brady home was used as a villain's Hawaiian home in a season six episode of Mission: Impossible, "Double Dead" (both shows were produced by Paramount Pictures Television). The set was redressed with tropical plants and the staircase removed. All of the Brady furniture, including the television, remained in its usual place in the Mission: Impossible episode.

The address of the house in the series was given as 4222 Clinton Way. (As read aloud by Carol from an arriving package in the first season episode entitled "Lost Locket, Found Locket".) Although no city was ever specified, it was presumed from references to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Rams, and a Hollywood movie studio, among many others, that the Bradys lived in Southern California, most likely Los Angeles or one of its suburbs. In the 2002 TV movie The Brady Bunch in the White House, Cindy's map and Mike's speech state that the family lived in Santa Monica, California. The police officers depicted in the final act of The Brady Bunch Movie wore Los Angeles Police Department badges and their squad cars bore LAPD markings.

In the years since the show first aired, owners of the house have had problems with visitors trespassing to peep into the windows, or coming to the front door asking to see the fictional Bradys. As a result, the property has been extensively re-landscaped, so someone casually driving by most likely would not recognize it as the house shown in the TV show.

Contemporary establishing shots of the house were filmed with the owner's permission for the 1990 TV series The Bradys. The owner refused to restore the property to its 1969 look for The Brady Bunch Movie in 1995, so a façade resembling the original home was built around an existing house.

Robert Reed vs. the producers[link]

Robert Reed became increasingly jaded about appearing in the series, as he felt that his Shakespearean training would mean nothing if he became typecast in the "Mr. Brady" role. He frequently fought with producers to make changes in the show's scripts in order to remove what he felt were unbelievable scenes or dialogue. Despite his battles, he was allowed to direct several episodes, "The Winner" (1971), "The Big Little Man" (1972), "How To Succeed In Business" (1973) and "Getting Greg's Goat" (1973).

Reed did not appear in a 1972 episode, "Goodbye, Alice, Hello," and his absence from this episode has never been explained. By the final season, his arguments with the producers led to his absence from the series finale, "The Hair-Brained Scheme", because he believed a key plot point – Bobby selling hair tonic from a disreputable supplier that turns Greg's hair orange – was too implausible to be believed. In addition to "The Hair-Brained Scheme," Barry Williams' autobiography, Growing Up Brady, contains two of Reed's negative critiques of the episodes "The Impractical Joker" (1971) and "And Now a Word From Our Sponsor" (1971). Williams cited in his autobiography the likelihood that Reed's character would have been killed off, or at least have his absence explained as being away on an "extended project", had The Brady Bunch been renewed for a sixth season.

Despite these tensions, Reed went on to appear in all of the subsequent Brady reunion vehicles, including the critically panned variety series.

Reception[link]

U.S. television ratings[link]

The Brady Bunch never achieved high ratings during its primetime run (never placing in the top 30 during the five years it aired) and was canceled in 1974 after five seasons and 117 episodes. At that point in the story Greg graduated from high school and was about to enroll in college. Despite its less-than-stellar primetime ratings and having won no awards, the show would become a true cultural phenomenon, enduring in the minds of Americans and in syndication for decades. The series has spawned several sequel series on the "Big 3" U.S. networks, made-for-TV movies, and parody theatrical releases, as well as a touring stage show and countless specials and documentaries on both network and cable TV.

Critical reception[link]

When the episodes were repeated in syndication, they usually appeared every weekday in late-afternoon or early-evening slots on local stations. This enabled children to watch the episodes when they came home from school, making the program widely popular and giving it iconic status among those who were too young to have seen the series during its prime time run. The show's longevity in the public mind largely owes to that phenomenon, which was a unique aberration from the traditional norm of a previously run network program being sold to stations as schedule filler between network programming blocks^{[citation needed]}.

According to Schwartz, the reason the show has become a part of Americana despite the fact that there have been other shows that ran longer, rated higher and were critically acclaimed is that the episodes were written from the standpoint of the children and addressed situations that children could understand (such as girl trouble, sibling rivalry and meeting famous people such as a rock star or baseball players). The Bradys also comprised a harmonious family (in contrast to the likes of the Bunkers, the Bundys, the Simpsons, etc.), though they did run into problems occasionally when one of the children did not cooperate with his or her parents or the other children. In fact, anticipating the likelihood that some children might "act out" some plotlines, the producers had a form letter they sent to children who wrote stating their desires to run away from their own families and live with the Bradys^{[citation needed]}.

In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, the show’s opening title sequence ranked #8 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.^[2]

Awards and honors[link]

Syndication and distribution[link]

Since its first airing in syndication in September 1975, an episode of the show has been broadcast somewhere in the United States and abroad every single day of every single year through at least 2008. Reruns were also shown on ABC daytime from July 9, 1973 to August 29, 1975, at 11:30 a.m. EST/10:30 CST. The run was interrupted only once, between April 21 and June 27, 1975, when ABC ran a short-lived game show, Blankety Blanks, in that time slot.

The Brady Bunch has been a popular staple in syndication and on cable for decades. The show was aired on TBS starting in the 1980s until 1997, on Nick at Nite from 1998 to 2003, TeenNick (under the channel's former name The-N) from March to April 2004 and on TV Land from 2002 to 2010. The show made it's return to Nick at Nite on May 22, 2012.

Besides Nick at Nite, the show can also still be seen on some independent local stations, and nationally Me-TV airs a two hour block of episodes on Sunday mornings.^[7] The Inspiration Network (INSP) has also been airing the show since September 26, 2011.

DVD releases[link]

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) released all five seasons (and a complete collection of the series) of The Brady Bunch on DVD in Region 1 from 2005 to 2007, as well as in other countries.

A Complete Series box set was released in 2007, which includes the TV movies A Very Brady Christmas and The Brady 500, as well as two episodes of The Brady Kids animated series. The box art for the set features shag carpeting.

The first two seasons are also available on Region 2 DVD for the Nordic countries, with audio in English and subtitle choices in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or Finnish.^[8][9]

Seasons 1 and 2 have also been released in the UK.

Spin-offs, sequels, and other treatments[link]

Several spin-offs and sequels to the original series have been made, featuring all or most of the original cast. These include, another sitcom, an animated series, a variety show, television movies, a dramatic series, a stage play, and theatrical movies:

[edit] Kelly's Kids

A final-season Brady Bunch episode, "Kelly's Kids", was intended as a pilot for a prospective spinoff series of the same name. Ken Berry starred as Ken Kelly, a friend and neighbor of the Bradys', who with his wife Kathy (Brooke Bundy) adopted three orphaned boys of different racial backgrounds. One of the adopted sons was played by Todd Lookinland, the younger brother of Mike Lookinland. While Kelly's Kids was not subsequently picked up as a full series, producer Sherwood Schwartz would rework the basic premise for the short-lived 1980s sitcom Together We Stand starring Elliott Gould and Dee Wallace.

[edit] The Brady Kids

A 22-episode animated Saturday morning cartoon series, produced by Filmation and airing on ABC from 1972–74, about the Brady kids having various adventures. The family's adults were never seen or mentioned, and the "home" scenes were in a very large well-appointed tree house. Several animals were regular characters, including two non-English speaking pandas (Ping and Pong), a talking bird (Marlon) who could do magic, and an ordinary pet dog (Mop Top, not Tiger). The first 17 episodes featured the voices of all six of the original child actors from the show, but Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick and Christopher Knight were replaced for the last five episodes due to a contract dispute.

[edit] The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

A variety show called The Brady Bunch Variety Hour was spun off in 1977. It was canceled after only nine episodes. Eve Plumb was the only regular cast member from the original show who declined to be in the series and the role of Jan was recast with Geri Reischl. Produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, the sibling team behind H.R. Pufnstuf, Donny and Marie and other variety shows and children's series of the era, the show was intended to air every fifth week in the same slot as The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, but ended up being scheduled sporadically throughout the season, leading to inconsistent ratings and its inevitable cancellation. In 2009, Susan Olsen published a book, Love to Love You Bradys, which dissects and celebrates the Variety Hour as a cult classic.

[edit] The Brady Girls Get Married / The Brady Brides

A TV reunion movie called The Brady Girls Get Married was produced in 1981. TV Guide indicated the movie would be shown in one evening, but at the last minute NBC divided it into half hour segments and showed one part a week for three weeks, and the fourth week debuted a spin-off sitcom, titled The Brady Brides. The reunion movie featured the entire original cast; this would prove to be the only time the entire cast worked together on a single project following the cancellation of the original series. The movie's opening credits featured the season one "Grid" and theme song, with the addition of the "Brady Girls Get Married" title.^[10] The movie shows what the characters had been doing since the original series ended: Mike is still an architect, Carol is a real estate agent, Marcia is a fashion designer, Jan is also an architect, Greg is a doctor, Peter is in the Air Force, Bobby and Cindy are in college, and Alice has married Sam. Eventually they all reunite to see Jan and Marcia both marry in a double wedding.

The Brady Brides series features Maureen McCormick (Marcia) and Eve Plumb (Jan) in regular roles. The series begins with Marcia, Jan and their new husbands buying a house and living together. The clashes between Jan's uptight husband, Phillip Covington III (a college professor in science who is several years older than Jan), and Marcia's slovenly husband, Wally Logan (a fun-loving salesman for a large toy company, played by Jerry Houser), were the pivot on which many of the stories were based, not unlike The Odd Couple. Ten episodes were aired before the sitcom was cancelled. This was the only Brady show in sitcom form to be filmed in front of a live studio audience. Bob Eubanks guest-starred as himself in an episode where the two couples appear on The Newlywed Game.

In the 1990s, The Brady Girls Get Married, including the pilot of The Brady Brides, was rerun as a single two-hour movie on Nick at Nite, to celebrate the release of The Brady Bunch Movie in 1995.

Episode titles[link]

[edit] A Very Brady Christmas

A second TV reunion movie, A Very Brady Christmas, aired in December 1988 and featured all the regular cast (except Susan Olsen; the role of Cindy was played by Jennifer Runyon), as well as three grandchildren, Peter's girlfriend, Valerie, and the spouses of Greg, Marcia and Jan (Nora, Wally and Phillip, respectively).

Mike is still an architect and Jan has followed in his footsteps to become one herself; Carol is a realtor; Greg is a physician; Marcia is a stay-at-home mom with two kids; Peter works in an office; Cindy is in her last year of college; Bobby was in graduate school studying for business but dropped out to drive race cars.

After a series of pratfalls to get the family together, everyone comes home harboring various secrets (e.g., Jan and Phillip are considering separation; Wally is out of work again, having lost his job in a merger at his toy company; Greg's wife Nora wants to spend Christmas with her family; Cindy felt pressured to come home in lieu of a skiing trip with her college friends; Peter feels inferior to his girlfriend, who is also his boss; and Bobby hasn't revealed his leaving graduate school for a racing career). Alice, meanwhile, temporarily moves back in with Mike and Carol after her husband, Sam, runs off with another woman. (Allan Melvin did not reprise the role; he had retired from acting and was replaced in a single scene by Lewis Arquette.)

Even Mike has problems: Contractor Ted Roberts, wanting to save money on a downtown office complex project (at 34th Street and Oak) where Mike is the architect, demands that he redesign the building to omit important safety specifications. Mike advises against it and causes his firm to lose Roberts' services. On Christmas Day, the building crumbles, and Roberts, unable to contact anyone at the new firm he hired, must rely on Mike to find what caused the building's structure to become unstable. While inside, the building continues to crumble, trapping Mike and two security guards inside. Of course, everyone turns out to be okay, and Alice and Sam reunite.

The movie, which aired on CBS to high ratings, renewed interest in the Brady clan and set out the current careers and family situations which were continued in The Bradys.

The fact that this movie aired on CBS gave the Bradys a rare feat: the original show and reunions aired on all of the "Big 3" networks — ABC, CBS and NBC.

[edit] The Bradys

A six-episode dramedy series named The Bradys was produced in 1989 and premiered on February 6, 1990.

The theme music used an instrumental version for the (CBS) network run and a lyrical version for reruns. The theme lyrics no longer featured the "That's the way we all became The Brady Bunch" lyrics, and the theme was no longer sung by The Brady Kids—it was performed by the Brady mom Florence Henderson.

Specials, documentaries, and other revivals[link]

Actors Barry Williams, Christopher Knight and Mike Lookinland at the Big Apple Convention in Manhattan, October 1, 2010.

The Brady Bunch has met with a remarkable amount of television coverage, although most of this did not happen until the original series had been out of production for more than 20 years.

• The Brady Kids, ABC, September 1972 – February 1974 (22 episodes). Details above.
• The World of Sid & Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl; it originally aired in syndication on Thanksgiving weekend, 1973. The kids sing in the famous Los Angeles venue, while Robert Reed and Ann B. Davis watch from box seats.
• Donny & Marie, ABC, October 1, 1976. Florence Henderson, Maureen McCormick, Mike Lookinland, and Susan Olsen appear as their Brady characters on an episode of Donny and Marie Osmond's variety show, without permission of the Brady Bunch creators. They appear in several comedy sketches, and the kids sing Cole Porter's "We Open in Venice."
• The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, ABC, November 28, 1976. From the producers of Donny and Marie comes this special. It leads to The Brady Bunch Hour as a series on ABC.
• The Brady Bunch Hour, ABC, January–May 1977 (8 episodes). Details above.
• The Brady Girls Get Married, NBC, January–February 1981 (made for TV movie shown in three parts). Details above.
• The Brady Brides, NBC, February–April 1981 (7 episodes). Details above.
• The Love Boat, ABC, October 29, 1983. Although the name 'Brady' is not mentioned, Robert Reed and Florence Henderson appear in a cameo and talk about how they can take a cruise since the kids are all grown up. Other famous TV couples appear in the episode.
• A Very Brady Christmas, CBS, December 18, 1988. The highest-rated TV movie of the 1988–89 television season.
• Day by Day: A Very Brady Episode, NBC, February 5, 1989. Robert Reed and Florence Henderson reprise their roles as Mike and Carol in this episode of a short-lived sitcom starring Linda Kelsey and Courtney Thorne-Smith. Other Brady veterans appear, including (a then pregnant) Maureen McCormick. In the episode, a teenage boy in the family (Christopher Daniel Barnes) dreams he's Chuck Brady and escapes to the Bradys' world after he's yelled at for his poor scholastic habits (he was watching a Brady marathon); however, Chuck's dream comes apart when various Bradys begin repeating comments made only a few minutes earlier. Art came to imitate life when Barnes was cast as the new Greg Brady in the theatrical Brady Bunch movies in 1995 and 1996.
• Free Spirit: The New Secretary, ABC, December 10, 1989. Although the name Brady is never mentioned, Robert Reed and Florence Henderson play a couple seeking a divorce in an episode of this short-lived sitcom about a witch (Corinne Bohrer) working as a nanny to a widowed lawyer.
• The Real Live Brady Bunch stage show in the early 1990s featured re-enactments of series episodes. Andy Richter played Mike Brady, and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on November 9, 1992 almost a year before becoming the sidekick on Late Night with Conan O' Brien, Jane Lynch played Carol Brady.
• The Bradys, CBS, February–March 1990 (six episodes). Details above.
• The Brady 500, CBS, February 9, 1990. Bobby is injured in a car race and is paralyzed from the waist down. All original cast except for Maureen McCormick. This is actually the first two episodes of The Bradys and are also known as Start Your Engines. Most of the cast, except Robert Reed, promoted their new series on the Sally Jesse Raphael series. Their live Florida broadcast was interrupted by rain.
• Bradymania: A Very Brady Special, 1993. Based loosely on Elizabeth Moran's book Bradymania, this special was hosted by Florence Henderson and include clips comparing Brady behavior with that on other sitcoms.
• The Brady Bunch Movie, 1995. Theatrical release. It is a parody of, and tribute to, the original series. Several Brady veterans appear in cameos. Scenes with Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen were shot, but were cut from the final film. This interpretation makes no bones about the fact that the Bradys live in Los Angeles.
• A Very Brady Sequel, 1996. Theatrical release. Same cast as previous but with Tim Matheson playing a villain impersonating Carol's first husband.
• Brady Bunch Home Movies, May 23, 1995. During the original series run, Robert Reed gave each of the juvenile cast members an 8 mm movie camera. This special includes footage the Brady kids shot in those days and is their tribute to Reed. Susan Olsen was executive producer.
• Groovin' with the Bradys, a 1998 special produced by VH1.
• Attack of the Bradys, 1998. Another VH1 special.
• E! True Hollywood Story: The Brady Bunch, June 6, 1999. Members of the cast retell their anecdotes for the benefit of this E! Network series, including an extensive discussion of Robert Reed's homosexuality.
• Unauthorized Brady Bunch: The Final Days, May 16, 2000. A made for TV movie looking at the making of The Brady Bunch focusing on the final season which was marred by dissension among the cast pertaining to their business arrangements and the creative direction of the show.
• Growing Up Brady, May 21, 2000. A made-for-TV movie of Barry Williams's hit 1992 book.
• Pop-Up Brady, VH-1, July 18, 2001. Several episodes of The Brady Bunch with textual commentary added in the form of on-screen balloons.
• The Weakest Link, NBC, September 24, 2001. All members of the Brady cast, except Reed and Davis, compete on this game show, including Robbie Rist, who joked during introductions, "I hope I don't kill this show, too!" Topics included Brady trivia.
• The Brady Bunch in the White House, November 29, 2002. Made-for-TV movie parody in the mould of The Brady Bunch Movie but with a mostly new cast.
• The Brady Bunch 35th Anniversary Reunion Special: Still Brady after All These Years, September 29, 2004. Reunion special featuring entire surviving cast, hosted by Jenny McCarthy.
• My Fair Brady, 2005. A reality TV series starring Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry (The first America's Next Top Model Winner) and their relationship post a stint on VH1's The Surreal Life. Barry Williams, Florence Henderson, Susan Olsen and Mike Looklinland all appear in the series as well.
• Coming Together under One Roof, 2005. Sherwood Schwartz narrates this documentary about the creation of The Brady Bunch for the DVD release of the first season.
• Biography: The Brady Bunch, A&E Network, June 24, 2005. A&E's popular documentary program, having earlier profiled both Florence Henderson and Robert Reed, devotes an episode to the series.
• The Brady Bunch Cast Back in Hawaii, 2005. Florence Henderson, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland, and Susan Olsen go back to Hawaii and meet up with Don Ho.
• On June 6, 2008, a stage musical debuted in Los Angeles called A Very Brady Musical. The show was written by Sherwood Schwartz's son Lloyd J. Schwartz and daughter Hope Juber (who also appeared in four episodes of the original series as Rachel, Greg's girlfriend). The music was written by Hope and Laurence Juber. Lloyd Schwartz directed the production.^[11]
• A Very Brady Reunion August 31, 2008. Barry Williams, Susan Olsen, and Mike Lookinland return to Kings Island for a 4 show special of song, dance, and Brady Bunch stories.^[12]

Cultural references[link]

This "In popular culture" section may contain minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivial references. (May 2012)

• Will Smith took a swipe at this series in his 1988 rap hit "Parents Just Don't Understand". During a back-to-school shopping trip at a mall, Smith expresses his disappointment with his mother's choices for back-to-school clothing: "please put back the bell-bottom Brady Bunch trousers!"^[13]

• Sesame Street has parodied the theme song twice; one in a segment called "Telly's Lunch", which was set to the tune of The Brady Bunch theme, and a segment called "The Braid-y Bunch", which was a segment about girls braiding their hair (this segment featured a very young Lindsay Lohan as one of the girls)^[14]

• Call of Duty: Black Ops put a replica of the Brady Bunch home on the map "Nuketown"

• T.U.F.F. Puppy did the spoof of the theme song in the episode "Share-a-lair" making the title say "TUFF and DOOM" instead of The Brady Bunch

• In one episode of The Amanda Show, there was a segment called "When Bradys Attack", showing the Brady kids giving innocent people a beating and singing a parody of "Keep On"

• In the X-Files season nine episode "Sunshine Days", Agents Dogget, Reyes and Scully are investigating two bizarre murders, surrounding the house of Michael Emerson, an obsessive fan of the show, who is owner of psychokinetic powers, powerful enough to turn his house in the scenery of the The Brady Bunch

• CoreBrand, a marketing agency, uses themes and life lessons from the show as inspiration for "Five things The Brady Bunch can teach us about branding." ^[15]

Merchandise[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

See also[link]

• It's a Sunshine Day: The Best of The Brady Bunch
• Tam Spiva, a Brady Bunch script writer
• Christmas with The Brady Bunch, an album released by Paramount Records in 1970.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Brady Bunch

• The Brady Bunch at the Internet Movie Database
• The Brady Bunch on TV Land
• Encyclopedia of Television
• Love to Love You Bradys (book by Susan Olsen)
• Susan Olsen's Official Web Site
• The Brady Bunch Shrine (fan site)
• Danielle's Brady Bunch House (fan site)
• Bradyworld.com (fan site)
• The Unofficial Brady Bunch Home Page (archive of fan site)
• Interview with Barry Williams on "The Greg Brady Project"
• The Brady Bunch Cast:Where are they now? (2010, carries some editorial errors)

Farrah Fawcett
Fawcett in a publicity still as Jill Munroe in Charlie's Angels[1][2]
Born	Ferrah Leni Fawcett[3] (1947-02-02)February 2, 1947 Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Died	June 25, 2009(2009-06-25) (aged 62) Santa Monica, California, USA
Cause of death	Anal cancer
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park
Residence	California
Nationality	American
Other names	Farrah Fawcett-Majors
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1969–2009
Television	Charlie's Angels
Spouse	Lee Majors (m. 1973–1982; divorced)
Partner	Ryan O'Neal (1979–1997; 2001–2009, her death)
Children	Redmond O'Neal (b. 1985)

Farrah Fawcett (February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009)^[4] was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976. Fawcett later appeared Off-Broadway to critical approval and in highly rated and critically acclaimed television movies, in roles often challenging (The Burning Bed; Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story; Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story; Margaret Bourke-White) and sometimes unsympathetic (Small Sacrifices). Fawcett was a sex symbol whose iconic poster, released the same year Charlie's Angels premiered, broke sales records, making her an international pop culture icon. Her hairstyle was emulated by young women in the 1970s and 1980s.

Early life[link]

Ferrah Leni Fawcett was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, the younger of two daughters.^[3] Her mother, Pauline Alice (née Evans; January 30, 1914 – March 4, 2005), was a homemaker, and her father, James William Fawcett (October 14, 1917 – August 23, 2010), was an oil field contractor.^[5] Her sister was Diane Fawcett Walls (October 27, 1938 – October 16, 2001), a graphic artist. She was of Irish, French, English, Choctaw Native American, and Lebanese Arab ancestry.^[6][7][8] Fawcett once said the name "Ferrah" was "made up" by her mother because it went well with their last name; she later changed the spelling.^[1][6]

A Roman Catholic,^[9] Fawcett's early education was at the parish school of the church her family attended, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Corpus Christi.^[6] She graduated from W. B. Ray High School in Corpus Christi, where she was voted "Most Beautiful" by her classmates in 1965. For three years, 1965–68, Fawcett attended the University of Texas at Austin,^[10] living one semester in Jester Center, and she became a sister of Delta Delta Delta Sorority.^[1] During her sophomore year, she appeared in a photo of the "Ten Most Beautiful Coeds" from the university, which ran in Cashbox magazine. A Hollywood publicist saw the photo, called Fawcett and over the course of a year urged her to move to Los Angeles, which she did the summer following her junior year, with her parents' permission to "try her luck" in Hollywood over the course of the summer.^[6] She did not return.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Fawcett appeared in television commercials for consumer products, starting with her selection as a Breck Girl for Breck Shampoo, and moving on to other products including Noxzema face cleanser, Ultra Brite toothpaste, Wella Balsam shampoo, and the 1975 Mercury Cougar.^[11] Beginning in 1978, after achieving television stardom, she developed her own brand of hair care products, marketed by Fabergé, for which she appeared in a series of commercials and print ads.^[11]

Fawcett's first television series appearance was a guest spot on I Dream of Jeannie in the 1969–1970 season, followed by guest appearances in Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law and The Partridge Family.^[6] She later guest-appeared in four episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man with husband Lee Majors,^[6] The Dating Game, and a recurring role on Harry O alongside David Janssen.

She appeared in a bit part as a lesbian lover to Raquel Welch in the critically panned/box office flop, Myra Breckinridge (1970), along with the legendary Mae West. Her next movie appearance was in the well-received and the box office success science-fiction movie, Logan's Run in 1976.

In 1976, Pro Arts Inc., pitched the idea of a poster of Fawcett to her agent, and a photo shoot was arranged with photographer Bruce McBroom, who was hired by the poster company. According to friend Nels Van Patten, Fawcett styled her own hair and did her make-up without the aid of a mirror. Her blonde highlights were further heightened by a squeeze of lemon juice.^[12] From 40 rolls of film, Fawcett herself selected her six favorite pictures, eventually narrowing her choice to the one that made her famous. The resulting poster, of Fawcett in a one-piece red bathing suit, was a best-seller; sales estimates ranged from over 5 million^[13] to 8 million^[6] to as high as 12 million copies.^[1]

[edit] Charlie's Angels

On March 21, 1976, the first appearance of Fawcett playing the character Jill Munroe in Charlie's Angels was aired as a movie of the week. Fawcett and her husband were frequent tennis partners of producer Aaron Spelling, and he and his producing partner thought of casting Fawcett as the "golden girl" Jill because of his friendship with the couple. The movie starred Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Fawcett (then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors) as private investigators for Townsend Associates, a detective agency run by a reclusive multi-millionaire whom the women had never met. Voiced by John Forsythe, the Charles Townsend character presented cases and dispensed advice via a speakerphone to his core team of three female employees, whom he referred to as "Angels." They were aided in the office and occasionally in the field by two male associates, played by character actors David Doyle and David Ogden Stiers. The program earned a huge Nielsen rating, leading the network to air it a second time and approve production for a series, with the pilot's principal cast except David Ogden Stiers.

The Charlie's Angels series formally debuted on September 22, 1976. Fawcett emerged as a fan favorite in the show, and the actress won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Performer in a New TV Program.^[14][15] In a 1977 interview with TV Guide, Fawcett said: "When the show was number three, I thought it was our acting. When we got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra".^[16]

Fawcett's appearance in the television show boosted sales of her poster, and she earned far more in royalties from poster sales than from her salary for appearing in Charlie's Angels.^[13] Her hairstyle went on to become an international trend, with women sporting a "Farrah Do" or "Farrah Hair." Iterations of her hair style predominated American women's hair styles well into the 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

Fawcett left Charlie's Angels after only one season and Cheryl Ladd replaced her on the show, portraying Jill's younger sister Kris Munroe. Numerous explanations for Fawcett's precipitous withdrawal from the show were offered over the years. The strain on her marriage due to her long absences most days due to filming, as her then-husband Lee Majors was star of an established television show himself, was frequently cited, but Fawcett's ambitions to broaden her acting abilities with opportunities in films have also been given. Fawcett never officially signed her series contract with Spelling due to protracted negotiations over royalties from her image's use in peripheral products, which led to an even more protracted lawsuit filed by Spelling and his company when she quit the show.^{[citation needed]}

The show was a major success throughout the world, maintaining its appeal in syndication, spawning a cottage industry of peripheral products, particularly in the show's first three seasons, including several series of bubble gum cards, two sets of fashion dolls, numerous posters, puzzles, and school supplies, novelizations of episodes, toy vans, and a board game, all featuring Fawcett's likeness.^{[citation needed]} The "Angels" also appeared on the covers of magazines around the world, from countless fan magazines to TV Guide (four times) to Time Magazine.

The series ultimately ran for five seasons. As part of a settlement to a lawsuit over her early departure, Fawcett returned for six guest appearances over seasons three and four of the series.^{[citation needed]}

In 2004, the television movie Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels dramatized the events from the show with supermodel and actress Tricia Helfer portraying Fawcett and Ben Browder portraying Lee Majors, Fawcett's then-husband.^[17]

Dramatic roles[link]

Farrah Fawcett with Craig Nevius.

In 1983, Fawcett won critical acclaim for her role in the Off-Broadway stage production of the controversial play Extremities, written by William Mastrosimone. Replacing Susan Sarandon, she was a would-be rape victim who turns the tables on her attacker.^[14][18] She described the role as "the most grueling, the most intense, the most physically demanding and emotionally exhausting" of her career.^[18] During one performance, a stalker in the audience disrupted the show by asking Fawcett if she had received the photos and letters he had mailed her. Police removed the man and were able only to issue a summons for disorderly conduct.^[19]

The following year, her role as a battered wife in the fact-based television movie The Burning Bed earned her the first of her four Emmy Award nominations.^[18] The project is noted as being the first television movie to provide a nationwide 800 number that offered help for others in the situation, in this case victims of domestic abuse.^[20] It was the highest-rated television movie of the season.^[18]

In 1986, Fawcett appeared in the movie version of Extremities, which was also well received by critics, and for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.^[14]

She appeared in Jon Avnet's Between Two Women with Colleen Dewhurst, and took several more dramatic roles as infamous or renowned women. She was nominated for Golden Globe awards for roles as Beate Klarsfeld in Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story and troubled Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton in Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, and won a CableACE Award for her 1989 portrayal of groundbreaking Life magazine photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White.^[14] Her 1989 portrayal of convicted murderer Diane Downs in the miniseries Small Sacrifices earned her a second Emmy nomination^[21] and her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination.^[22] The miniseries won a Peabody Award for excellence in television, with Fawcett's performance singled out by the organization, which stated "Ms. Fawcett brings a sense of realism rarely seen in television miniseries (to) a drama of unusual power".^[23]

Art meets life[link]

Fawcett, who had steadfastly resisted appearing nude in magazines throughout the 1970s and 1980s (although she appeared topless in the 1980 film Saturn 3), caused a major stir by posing semi-nude in the December 1995 issue of Playboy.^{[citation needed]} At the age of 50, she returned to Playboy with a pictorial for the July 1997 issue, which also became a top seller. The issue and its accompanying video featured Fawcett painting on canvas using her body, which had been an ambition of hers for years.^{[citation needed]}

That same year, Fawcett was chosen by Robert Duvall to play his wife in an independent feature film he was producing, The Apostle. Fawcett received an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Actress for the film, which was highly critically acclaimed.^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, she worked with director Robert Altman and an all-star cast in the feature film Dr. T & the Women, playing the wife of Richard Gere (her character has a mental breakdown, leading to her first fully nude appearance). Also that year, Fawcett's collaboration with sculptor Keith Edmier was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, later traveling to The Andy Warhol Museum. The sculpture was also presented in a series of photographs and a book by Rizzoli.^[20]

In November 2003, Fawcett prepared for her return to Broadway in a production of Bobbi Boland, the tragicomic tale of a former Miss Florida. However, the show never officially opened, closing before preview performances. Fawcett was described as "vibrating with frustration" at the producer's extraordinary decision to cancel the production. Only days earlier the same producer closed an Off-Broadway show she had been backing.^[24][25]

Fawcett continued to work in television, with well-regarded appearances in made-for-television movies and on popular television series including Ally McBeal and four episodes each of Spin City and The Guardian, her work on the latter show earning her a third Emmy nomination in 2004.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Fawcett was married to Lee Majors, star of television's The Six Million Dollar Man, from 1973 to 1982, although the couple separated in 1979. During her marriage, she was known and credited in her roles as Farrah Fawcett-Majors.

From 1979^[26] until 1997 Fawcett was involved romantically with actor Ryan O'Neal. The relationship produced a son, Redmond James Fawcett O'Neal, born January 30, 1985 in Los Angeles.^[27] In April 2009, on probation for driving under the influence, Redmond was arrested for possession of narcotics^[28] while Fawcett was in the hospital.^{[citation needed]} On June 22, 2009, The Los Angeles Times and Reuters reported that Ryan O'Neal had said that Fawcett had agreed to marry him as soon as she felt strong enough.^[29]

From 1997 to 1998, Fawcett had a relationship with Canadian filmmaker James Orr,^[30] writer and producer of the Disney feature film in which she co-starred with Chevy Chase and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Man of the House. The relationship ended when Orr was charged with and later convicted of beating Fawcett during a 1998 fight between the two.^[31]

On June 5, 1997, Fawcett received negative commentary after giving a rambling interview and appearing distracted on Late Show with David Letterman. Months later, she told the host of The Howard Stern Show her behavior was just her way of joking around with the television host, partly in the guise of promoting her Playboy pictoral and video, explaining what appeared to be random looks across the theater was just her looking and reacting to fans in the audience. Though the Letterman appearance spawned speculation and several jokes at her expense, she returned to the show a week later, with success, and several years later, after Joaquin Phoenix's mumbling act^[32] on a February 2009 appearance on The Late Show, Letterman wrapped up the interview by saying, "Joaquin, I'm sorry you couldn't be here tonight" and recalled Fawcett's earlier appearance by noting "[w]e owe an apology to Farrah Fawcett."^[33]

Fawcett's elder sister, Diane Fawcett Walls, died from lung cancer just before her 63rd birthday, on October 16, 2001.^[34] The fifth episode of her 2005 Chasing Farrah series, which was generally panned by critics, followed the actress home to Texas to visit with her father, James, and mother, Pauline.^[35] Pauline Fawcett died soon after, on March 4, 2005, at the age of 91.^[34]

Cancer[link]

Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006,^[36] and began treatment, including chemotherapy and surgery.^[37] Four months later, on her 60th birthday, the Associated Press wire service reported that Fawcett was, at that point, cancer free.^[38]

Less than four months later, in May 2007, Fawcett brought a small digital video camera to document a doctor's office visit. There, she was told a malignant polyp was found where she had been treated for the initial cancer. Doctors contemplated whether to implant a radiation seeder (which differs from conventional radiation and is used to treat other types of cancer).^[39] Fawcett's U.S. doctors told her that she would require a colostomy.^[40] Instead, Fawcett traveled to Germany for treatments described variously in the press as "holistic",^[41] "aggressive",^[42] and "alternative".^[43] There, Dr. Ursula Jacob prescribed a treatment including surgery to remove the anal tumor, and a course of perfusion and embolization for her liver cancer by Doctors Claus Kiehling and Thomas Vogl in Germany, and chemotherapy back in Fawcett's home town of Los Angeles. Although initially the tumors were regressing, their reappearance a few months later necessitated a new course, this time including laser ablation therapy and chemoembolization.^[9] Aided by friend Alana Stewart, Fawcett documented her battle with the disease.^[40]

In early April 2009, Fawcett, back in the United States, was hospitalized, with media reports declaring her unconscious and in critical condition,^[44][45] although subsequent reports indicated her condition was not so dire.^[46] On April 6, the Associated Press reported that her cancer had metastasized to her liver, a development Fawcett had learned of in May 2007 and which her subsequent treatments in Germany had targeted. The report denied that she was unconscious, and explained that the hospitalization was due not to her cancer but a painful abdominal hematoma that had been the result of a minor procedure. Her spokesperson emphasized she was not "at death's door", adding "She remains in good spirits with her usual sense of humor ... She's been in great shape her whole life and has an incredible resolve and an incredible resilience."^[46] Fawcett was released from the hospital on April 9, picked up by longtime companion O'Neal, and, according to her doctor, was "walking and in great spirits and looking forward to celebrating Easter at home."^[47]

A month later, on May 7, Fawcett was reported as critically ill, with Ryan O'Neal quoted as saying she now spends her days at home, on an IV, often asleep.^[48] The Los Angeles Times reported Fawcett was in the last stages of her cancer and had the chance to see her son Redmond in April 2009, although shackled and under supervision, as he was then incarcerated. Her 91-year-old father, James Fawcett, flew out to Los Angeles to visit.

The cancer specialist that was treating Fawcett in L.A., Dr. Lawrence Piro, and Fawcett's friend and Angels co-star Kate Jackson – a breast cancer survivor – appeared together on The Today Show dispelling tabloid-fueled rumors, including suggestions Fawcett had ever been in a coma, had ever reached 86 pounds, and had ever given up her fight against the disease or lost the will to live. Jackson decried such fabrications, saying they "really do hurt a human being and a person like Farrah." Piro recalled when it became necessary for Fawcett to undergo treatments that would cause her to lose her hair, acknowledging "Farrah probably has the most famous hair in the world", but also that it is not a trivial matter for any cancer patient, whose hair "affects [one's] whole sense of who [they] are". Of the documentary, Jackson averred Fawcett "didn't do this to show that 'she' is unique, she did it to show that we are all unique ... (T)his was ... meant to be a gift to others to help and inspire them."^[49]

The two-hour documentary Farrah's Story, which was filmed by Fawcett and friend Alana Stewart, aired on NBC on May 15, 2009.^[48] The documentary was watched by nearly nine million people at its premiere airing,^[50] and it was re-aired on the broadcast network's cable stations MSNBC, Bravo and Oxygen. Fawcett earned her fourth Emmy nomination posthumously on July 16, 2009, as producer of Farrah's Story.^[51]

Controversy surrounded the aired version of the documentary, with her initial producing partner, who had worked with her four years earlier on her reality series Chasing Farrah, alleging O'Neal's and Stewart's editing of the program was not in keeping with Fawcett's wishes to more thoroughly explore rare types of cancers such as her own and alternative methods of treatment. He was especially critical of scenes showing Fawcett's son visiting her for the last time, in shackles, while she was nearly unconscious in bed. Fawcett had generally kept her son out of the media, and his appearances were minimal in Chasing Farrah.

Death[link]

Farrah Fawcett's grave

Fawcett died at approximately 9:28 am, PDT^[52][53] on June 25, 2009, in the intensive care unit of Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, with O'Neal and Stewart by her side.^[54][55] A private funeral was held in Los Angeles on June 30.^[56] Fawcett's son Redmond was permitted to leave his California detention center to attend his mother's funeral, where he gave the first reading.^[57]

The night of her death, ABC aired an hour-long special episode of 20/20 featuring clips from several of Barbara Walters' past interviews with Fawcett as well as new interviews with Ryan O'Neal, Jaclyn Smith, Alana Stewart, and Dr. Lawrence Piro.^[58] Walters followed up on the story on Friday's episode of 20/20. CNN's Larry King Live planned a show exclusively about Fawcett that evening until the death of Michael Jackson several hours later caused the program to shift to cover both stories. Cher, a longtime friend of Fawcett, and Suzanne de Passe, executive producer of Fawcett's Small Sacrifices mini-series, both paid tribute to Fawcett on the program. NBC aired a Dateline NBC special "Farrah Fawcett: The Life and Death of an Angel" the following evening, June 26, preceded by a rebroadcast of Farrah's Story in prime time.^[59] That weekend and the following week, television tributes continued. MSNBC aired back-to-back episodes of its Headliners and Legends episodes featuring Fawcett and Jackson. TV Land aired a mini-marathon of Charlie's Angels and Chasing Farrah episodes. E! aired Michael & Farrah: Lost Icons and the The Biography Channel aired Bio Remembers: Farrah Fawcett. The documentary Farrah's Story re-aired on the Oxygen Network and MSNBC.^[60]

Larry King said of the Fawcett phenomenon,

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said "Farrah was one of the iconic beauties of our time. Her girl-next-door charm combined with stunning looks made her a star on film, TV and the printed page."^[62]

Kate Jackson said,

In March 2010, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences caused controversy when Fawcett was excluded from the "In Memoriam" montage at the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, along with fellow television stars Bea Arthur, Gene Barry and Ed McMahon. Michael Jackson, not primarily known for film roles, was among those memorialized in the montage, adding to the controversy. In addition to Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, friends and colleagues of Fawcett publicly expressed their outrage at the oversight, including actress Jane Fonda and film critic Roger Ebert.^[63] AMPAS executive director Bruce Davis cited Fawcett's recognition at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards for her "remarkable television work," and said of all the exclusions: "There's nothing you can say to people, particularly to family members, within a day or two of the show that helps at all. They tend to be surprised and hurt, and we understand that and we're sorry for it."^[64]

She is buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.^[65]

Cultural icon[link]

The red one-piece bathing suit worn by Farrah in her famous 1976 poster was donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (NMAH) on February 2, 2011.^[66] Said to have been purchased at a Saks Fifth Avenue store, the red Lycra suit made by the leading Australian swimsuit company Speedo, was donated to the Smithsonian by her executors and was formally presented to NMAH in Washington D.C. by her longtime companion Ryan O'Neal.^[67] The suit and the poster are expected to go on temporary display sometime in 2011–12. They will be made additions to the Smithsonian's "popular culture" department.

The famous poster of Farrah in a red swimsuit has been produced as a Barbie doll. The limited edition dolls, complete with a gold chain and the girl-next-door locks, have been snapped up by Barbie fans.^[68]

In 2011, Men's Health named her one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time", ranking her at No. 31.^[69]

Filmography[link]

Theatrical film appearances[link]

Television appearances[link]

References[link]