The Brady Bunch - Series 1 (DVD)

...have seen or heard about the Brady Bunch are the film parodies. This is the pure, unadulterated family TV show aimed at families. Actually, it is aimed at the CHILDREN in families, and is told from the children's point of view. This was a pretty radical concept at the time, and as a result it did merely okay in the ratings when it ran its first five year course on prime time TV. When it went into syndication however, and landed the late afternoon ...
...its stride and quickly became the iconic show that was so well beloved, it just HAD to be parodied, all in good fun of course!

The premise of the show was quite simple. In 1965, divorce levels were rising to previously unprecedented levels, and more and more families were being blended. TV producer Sherwood Schwartz had a current comedy hit with American broadcaster CBS, Gilligan's Island, and previous experience writing for Ozzie ... more

Forget what you think you know, especially if all you have seen or heard about the Brady Bunch are the film parodies. This is the pure, unadulterated family TV show aimed at families. Actually, it is aimed at the CHILDREN in families, and is told from the children's point of view. This was a pretty radical concept at the time, and as a result it did merely okay in the ratings when it ran its first five year course on prime time TV. When it went into syndication however, and landed the late afternoon slots that meant children coming home from school and needing a vegging out break caught it, it hit its stride and quickly became the iconic show that was so well beloved, it just HAD to be parodied, all in good fun of course!

The premise of the show was quite simple. In 1965, divorce levels were rising to previously unprecedented levels, and more and more families were being blended. TV producer Sherwood Schwartz had a current comedy hit with American broadcaster CBS, Gilligan's Island, and previous experience writing for Ozzie and Harriet, so he was a hot property. Seeing a newspaper article about the rising levels of divorce and how now nearly 40% of families had at least 1 child in it from a previous relationship, he conceived the idea of a sitcom about a blended family and all the issues that came with it. Network executives at all three networks wanted to tinker with his pilot script, so he decided to hold onto it and wait as he refused to compromise his vision of how it should be. he was rewarded for this when networks took a second look after Lucille Ball and Tom Bosley scored a direct hit with the hearts and minds of the cinema going public with the based upon a true story film of a large blended family with Yours, Mine and Ours in 1968. ABC bought the series unchanged, and production of the Brady bunch went ahead. So it was we came to meet the Brady's, father Mike, an architect, with three sons, and housewife Carol, with three daughters.

As one might expect, the blending of a family led to conflicts between the parents as well as the siblings, some because of the very blending, and others over normal family issues, like someone hogging the bathroom. Personal insecurities, first crushes, new glasses, bullies and more were all explored, with gentle humour and sensitivity. This was the home that millions of children longed to come home to and be a part of, and that others saw echoes of in their own home life. Clean, wholesome, funny, it was and is yet relevant to the everyday issues facing kids trying to grow up, get along with their family, and get on with school and friends. Acting wise, you might expect a show with six children and a dog to be sugary and a bit wooden. Forget it, casting was well thought out, and while the kids were cute to look at, it was never played for schmaltz nor was the awwwwww factor used to hide terrible scripts and a distinct lack of talent. The Brady children and their friends who appeared from time to time were three dimensional and played realistically enough that children even today recognise themselves, which is a rare feat.

Compared with TV today aimed at children, it is definitely much higher calibre, and with a daughter row not quite 7 now going from CBeebies and Nick Jr to more "big kid" TV, I found we were having trouble finding something she wanted to actually watch as the quality of most shows for her age group are simply too dire for words, or her age group is lumped in with preteens, and the shows actually unsuitable for her age and development, being rather "old" for her. Knowing she loves watching Bewitched and The Andy Griffith Show, particularly identifying so easily with Tabitha and Opie, this show then sprang to mind. With children on the show ranging from about 6 to 12, I knew that she would be within the target age group and recalled nothing inappropriate for her age in it at all. So, Amazon vouchers in the email box, I sat back and ordered this box set.

It was given the acid test the very afternoon after it arrived and she looked at it suspiciously. Being nearly 7. she has developed a healthy suspicion of anything someone tries to sell her on, but as usual, she was game to have a sit down and watch an episode. I left her to it, and her little brother was in the other room playing his PC game. An hour and half later I realised all I could hear was the sound of the TV, and was happy to see said children happily sitting together, watching the second episode. "Mummy, are you sure this is really old? The kids are just like us..." I think it says it all really.

Production value wise, the series is very well made. It looks and feels like a real house and not a set, and locations are used wisely. Scripts are generally well written, though this being the first season, it's not as jelled together yet as it could and would be a season or two down the line. The dreaded laugh track sadly is there, but this is an affliction so typical of the era. Every single punchline is greeted with uproarious laughter and giggles from the virtual audience, until it actually is quite easy to tune it out. It simply seems to disappear as it overused so much and becomes just part of the ambience much like it did on the also so afflicted Gilligan's Island and The Munsters.

The transfer from film to digital media was done with great care. Master prints were used, so all the episodes appear here completely unedited, as they would have first appeared. Colour has been restored to correct any fading and the mono soundtrack cleaned up so its free of any distortions. Paramount also exercised some sensibility by not cutting up the prefacing studio logo by removing their old style logo, instead keeping it completely authentic with its original one. It's a little thing, but authenticity is much appreciated! The episodes are also presented in their correct broadcast order, which seems logical to most people, unless you work at Time Life or a similar outfit who often released things out of order and seemingly at random. So we get 25 episodes across 4 discs, and no extras.

This is a bit of a shame really, as being such an iconic TV show, interviews, documentaries, and more abound. Still, these would be more of a watch once out of curiosity sort of thing for me, while the children I got this for would not be even remotely interested in watching. And watch it they do, as being a region 2 release, it doesn't need a region free player, so she can take it to her bedroom to watch on her PC, and often does now before bed. Now that was money well spent. 

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