I’m not sure why I watched The Brady Bunch so much when I was younger. Maybe it was because my family was pretty much the complete opposite of the Brady Bunch. In any case, I remember watching the show a lot when I was younger. It didn’t matter how many times I had seen that particular episode-I just couldn’t seem to get enough Brady Bunch reruns.
Of course, I’ve started collecting the series on DVD, and I’m quite excited to have the whole Brady Bunch series as part of my home video collection. I’ve recently been surprised just how many classic TV clips are on the video-sharing site YouTube.com, so I decided to do a quick search for Brady Bunch clips. I found lots and lots of good stuff, but here I’ve compiled a list of my favorite 5 Brady Bunch video clips on YouTube.
5. The Brady Bunch Theme Song – Arguably the most well-known television theme song ever written, the creators of the show certainly hit the nail on the head when they wrote the lyrics for this tune. In less than 30 seconds, the theme song provides the entire back-story for The Brady Bunch, succinctly explaining just how the family came to be. In this version of the song on YouTube, the Brady kids themselves are actually heard singing the theme, having replaced the “Peppermint Trolley Company” singers that were heard during the first season.
4. Name Mix-Ups During Trampoline Scene – All shows have their on-screen mistakes and continuity issues, and The Brady Bunch is no exception. One of the biggest series of on-air mistakes came during this trampoline scene when a couple of the actors refer to other characters by their real name. First, Carol Brady can be heard calling Peter by his real name “Chris.” A minute or so later, Greg calls Jan by her real name of “Eve,” not once but twice. Apparently, no one caught these mistakes until after filming had wrapped up, so the editors left in the footage, figuring that most people wouldn’t notice.
3. Brady Bunch Spoof on Family Guy – In this clip from Fox’s popular animated series, baby Stewie compares himself to Bobby, the youngest boy from The Brady Bunch. The scene goes on show the Brady family with a newly-arrived Cousin Oliver and is actually quite funny. The fact that a currently popular show is taking jabs at this series from the 60’s just goes to show you what a prominent place in pop-culture The Brady Bunch holds.
2. The Brady Bunch Variety Hour – After the original series was cancelled, some of the cast went on to produce a show called The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, which has been described as one of the strangest shows ever produced. Just from watching this clip of the show’s opening, it’s not hard to see why. (Also on YouTube is this clip from The Simpsons – a hilarious animated parody of the Brady’s “Variety Hour”).
1. The Bradys Go To Hawaii – When I talk to people about The Brady Bunch, the one set of episodes that everyone seems to remember is when the Brady family takes a vacation to Hawaii. If you’ll recall, the boys find a bad-luck “tiki idol” which must be returned to the appropriate burial ground to end its curse. Watching this clip now, I can’t imagine why I was so enthralled by this show when I was a kid. But these Brady Bunch clips on YouTube are sure to take any Brady fan back to the days of bell-bottoms & mini-skirts – when everything was “groovy.”
