The Way We All Became the Brady Bunch

December 15, 2019
Potts pays tribute to the beloved sitcom, The Brady Bunch, in this fond look back at the show and its enduring legacy. Readers not intimately familiar with the history of the show, which followed three sisters and three brothers who became part of a blended family when their parents wed, might be surprised to learn it wasn't a hit in its original run (1969-74), either in the ratings or with the critics. The Brady Bunch thrived in syndication over the next several decades, which led to all sort of attempts at recapturing the magic of the original series, from a variety show to a wedding special to a drama reboot. None of them fared well, though a Brady Bunch movie in the mid-1990s with a new cast playing the iconic characters made a splash. Potts digs into some of the behind-the-scenes drama?most notably the ongoing feud between showrunner Sherwood Schwartz and Brady patriarch Robert Reed, who made no bones about his distaste for the material?but for the most part this is a cheery, warm-hearted look at a cherished TV classic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)