Love to Love You Brady
The Bizarre Story of the Brady Bunch Variety Hour
Ted Nichelson, Susan Olsen and Lisa Sutton
ECW Press
ISBN: 978-1-55022-888-5
Buy at Amazon
File Under: Pop Culture, It's a Sunshine Day

The Brady Bunch holds a special place in American culture. Between the time I got home from school and my Mom got home from work the Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island were my baby sitter.

All heroes and legends have a dark secret and the dark secret of the Brady Bunch is the Variety Hour. The early to mid 70s had as many variety shows on tv as we now have reality shows. Guest stars would come and sing and dance and take part in cheesy skits with the the stars of the show. The Brady Bunch Variety show may have been what killed them off. It was that bad.

This book chronicles how so many good successful people could be associated with such a bad show. When you first get the book you will do as I did and flip through it marveling at all the color pictures of the Bradys in some groovy mostly jumpsuit outfits. Many books like this stop there, but Nichelson was relentless in tracking down people associated with the show and getting them to talk about what was more than likely the most embarrassing period in their career. Obviously Eve Plumb comes out looking like the smartest Brady because she didn't come back for the variety show and they had to get a replacement Jan.

Susan Olsen, AKA Cindy Brady, gives extended comments throughout the book. This quote from Susan I think sums up the whole variety hour "It's a fish out of water thing. You can't watch the Brady Bunch doing 'Shake Your Booty' without your mind screaming 'WHY?!' It's just so out of character. WHy are these people singing and dancing? It's like watching Lassie hump someone's leg. You just want to say 'No! Stop That!"

If you like the Brady Bunch, if you are a pop culture freak, if you find orange jumpsuits intriguing, you will like this book. I did. I will covet it and hope that someday they will release the variety show on DVD even though I doubt I will be able to sit through more than one episode.

Want a taste of the variety show? http://www.youtube.com/user/BBVHFan