The other morning on the TODAY show, they were interviewing some of the kids from The Brady Bunch (Barry Williams who played Greg is now 70 years old) and I couldn’t help but stop what I was doing to watch.
They were helping raise money for the charity No Kid Hungry with a contest: for the price of a $25 ticket, you’ll be entered into a drawing. Five winners will be selected, and those winners (and their guests) will be flown to Los Angeles for a tour of the Brady Bunch house recreated by HGTV, followed by brunch with the Bradys in the house.
What’s on the menu? Pork chops and applesauce, of course. Hotel accomodations and meals are included in the prize.
I know a lot of bad things are happening in the world right now, this country included (more like this country ESPECIALLY); but as someone who grew up with this show, I’d love the chance to see that house in person.
Having lunch on the premises with the kids, including Eve Plumb (who played middle daughter Jan)? That’s the icing on this groovy cake.
I’ve shared this story too many times to count, but will just once more; the night this show premiered in September 1969, I watched it with my family on our new Zenith Colormatic console tv. Afterwards our mom said to Dad “What I want to know is, who do they think is going to watch this #%^&?”
Dad pointed down at the floor, us 3 boys and 2 girls and said “Them.”
(A few years later when Mom gave birth to our sister Courtney, we’d be just like those Bradys, kids-wise. Three boys, three girls.)
If you don’t already know, five years ago the owner of the real home (used for filming exterior shots on the show) passed and her son put the house up for sale. Several celebrities stepped up with offers, but HGTV got the house for 3.5 million dollars.
They spent an additional 2 million dollars ripping out the interior and recreating an exact duplicate of the Brady house, right down to the vintage… everything. It was a summer-long series on HGTV, and the most-watched HGTV show in the history of the channel.
Say what you will, but I dig this pad just as much now as I did 50 years ago; if they handed me the keys to the house, I wouldn’t change a thing here!
After the renovation series ended, HGTV put the house on their website where you could study every square inch of the interior if you so desired. I’m sure many of those obsessive fans did just that and hey, do you know I spent over 3 hours on there and could find only one clock in the entire house? A small alarm clock on Alice’s nightstand in her bedroom off the service porch. Isn’t that crazy? The one clock I mean… cough
I guess I should include the website where you can buy your own tickets, click here. I’d say good luck, but you know I wouldn’t mean it.
Perhaps they needed only one house clock since just about everyone wore wrist watches back then. I agree, it is a very pretty setting! No Kid Hungry certainly sounds like a good cause, and should you win -- BONUS!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Florence! 🙂
DeleteWell...I hope you've got the golden ticket, friend, because if you do, we'll all be having a virtual tour!
ReplyDeleteThank you Debby, and boy you've got that right. PS So happy to see your comment here 🙂
DeleteThat's amazing! The stairway is so dangerous but very '70s. :) Hope you win, Doug! I too was a devoted watcher of The Brady Bunch.
ReplyDeleteThank you Margaret! Just when I thought I couldn't like you any more... :^)
DeleteOh no. Another column I know nothing about.
ReplyDeleteI’m with your mum on that show, although who am I to judge as I’ve not seen a single episode?
I don’t think I was the target audience. By 1969 I had already graduated from university and been working several years.
By 1974 I had quit that job, moved to San Francisco (well, Berkeley to be exact) where I lived on a yacht for some time, travelled round America and across Canada, returned to Melbourne, got married and then divorced.
Not much time to watch the program.
One thing my place shares with theirs is that I don’t have a clock. A good watch is all.
Peter, you've certainly lived a full life! Well, I have a clock or two in every room--I don't know how it is outside the United States, but here I believe that's the norm :^)
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