1969 was a very important year for me. I began kindergarten. The Mets won the world series. The Brady Bunch appeared on ABC.

8pm. Friday nights. Reruns or not, I was glued to the TV. The Brady Bunch was the show of my youth. I wanted to be Marcia. I wanted a big brother like Greg. I wanted to sit around the kitchen table and have Alice bring me pork chops and applesauce….

Last year, HGTV (another favorite of mine) bought the “Brady” house, the house that was used for the exterior shots during the filming of the TV series. Their plan was to restore the house to its Brady glory. I was excited at the very thought of this. Apparently. I was not the only one excited for this renovation. The premier of “A Very Brady Renovation” was the highest rated premier in HGTV history.

What is it about the Brady’s that gets the hearts of middle aged people pumping? Makes us sing along to the words to the theme song even though 50 years have passed?

Does it remind us of the innocence of our youth? To a time when breaking Mom’s favorite vase was the worst tragedy that could befall us? Does it just remind us of how young we once were?

The Brady kids have aged- the men are all grey now, no longer the dark brown of their youth. The middle row of the tic tac toe board have all passed. The youngest one doesn’t have any curls. But I watch them renovating the house, and once again I am five years old, sitting in the basement of my parents starter house, my stuffed cat Bootsie in my lap. I see “Greg” walk into the room that has been replicated to match his “Dad’s” den, and a tear comes to his eye: something preserved on film has been recreated to the smallest detail, and how can you not become flooded with memories? How can we all not remember all the promise of out youth? The good and the bad of a life lived?

As for the actual renovation of the house…if you’re an HGTV geek you must watch it. The show was filmed on a set, and the inside of the house was nothing like the TV Brady house. To see how the HGTV stars have rebuilt the house, found or created the décor…..it’s truly extraordinary. They have created wallpaper, crowd sourced accessories…it’s mind blowing to watch how it all happened and  what they have done.

So here’s the story….I get to take a little trip down nostalgia lane for a little while this fall, and it has been a blast. If only the Mets could win the world series…..

35 thoughts on “A Very Brady Remembrance”

  1. I LOVED watching that transformation! And it’s funny, because we all had the idea the Brady Bunch house looked just like that, without considering the fact they were really on a set and were just using that facade. I was fascinated by how they had to ‘build’ down in order to get the stairway in there. I just loved the whole thing.

    I started watching the Brady Bunch all over again when my kids were little. Never got old for me, never will. It’s like the Honeymooners and I Love Lucy. I could watch them over and over again.

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  5. I watched the Brady Bunch but I don’t watch much TV anymore and have not seen the renovation show. It sounds very cool. I did see some of it online. Nice that all the kids got together again. I know some of them have had their problems. I have “Growing Up Brady” by Barry Williams on my shelf to read.

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  6. I remember watching The Waltons. I loved the Little House on the Prairie series…Remember how they all said “Good night?” We didn’t have tv when I was in kindergarten but eventually I caught as you and i are in the age bracket.

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  8. I was the youngest, so I had no vote on what we watched. We liked the Brady’s, but for some reason my sibs and I were more Partridge than Brady; at least if lunch box and notebook choices were any barometer. But as family sidekicks it was really no contest in the Alice vs. Rueben war. Alice by a mile.

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  9. I have been watching that too and it is a trip down memory lane. I too wished what you wished for. Last year in vegas they a brady theme slot machine. I sat there for an hour playing and remembering. Our childhood was definately a different time…

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  13. I used to watch the Brady Bunch even though I felt they were corny. But I loved that California, open vibe that the show projected. They lived in a cool house and I always felt that they were very connected to the outside world as well as the world inside the house.

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