They were everyone’s favourite blended TV family made up of six perfect kids and their perfect parents.
But off-screen, The Brady Bunch was anything but functional.
Here, New Idea reveals the darker side of the American sitcom, which ran from 1969 to 1974. From drug addiction to near-death experiences, on and on-set hook-ups, you won’t believe what the cast got up to when the cameras weren’t rolling.
Susan Olsen – Cindy Brady
Like most of her castmates, Susan has struggled to escape The Brady Bunch’s very large legacy. With Hollywood unable to see her as anything but pigtailed cutie Cindy, Susan eventually gave up acting, later explaining it was never really her passion to begin with.
“When I was younger… I really hated the fact that I was in such a wholesome show with American values and family values,” Susan once confessed.
“I think people generally are happily surprised when they find out that my tastes were not quite so wholesome.”
Susan did add that, with hindsight, she was now “so proud” of her involvement. Later in life, Susan, 64, started growing marijuana with her then-husband – though it “bothered” her that they were doing something illegal. Susan also once revealed that she and Mike Lookinland (aka Bobby Brady) used to “make out” in between takes!
She said they all led a “sheltered life,” so it was normal to date “our counterparts”.
Eve Plumb – Jan Brady
Although she played misunderstood middle sibling Jan to Maureen McCormick’s favourite child Marcia, Eve says she was “best friends” with her screen sister during the show’s run.
However, the actresses fell out years later, with their feud apparently so bad it derailed a 2010 reunion because they didn’t want to be in the same room!
In 2008, Maureen copped to some of the blame for their fight, explaining she had once joked on a talk show about sharing a kiss with Eve.
“I was having fun … and she didn’t take it that way,” she said. “I miss her very much.” About a decade later, they finally reunited for A Very Brady Renovation.
Aside from the co-star clash, Eve, 67, escaped the usual trappings of a child star. She says going back to a normal life after The Brady Bunch very much helped that.
Maureen McCormick – Marcia Brady
She played the oldest Brady daughter and ‘Miss Perfect’ Marcia, but real life was vastly different for Maureen.
As a teen, she battled body-image issues, and post-Brady Bunch, she fell into the seedy drug scene in Hollywood, which she wrote candidly about in her 2008 memoir, Here’s the Story.
“I sought refuge in seemingly glamorous cocaine dens above Hollywood,” she recalled.
“I spiralled downward on a path of self-destruction that cost me my career and nearly my life.”
The actress later spent time in a psych ward and was in and out of rehab for five years, but got her life back on track. Maureen, 69, has now been sober and healthy for 40 years.
