The Best And Worst Things About A Very Brady Christmas
https://www.looper.com/681414/the-best-and-worst-things-about-a-very-brady-christmas/
Best: The characters never changeshare
What makes "The Brady Bunch" so lovable and re-watchable is how you can always depend on the two parents, six children, and one housekeeper to be nothing but their amazing selves. Sure, lessons are learned, everyone grows up a bit, and some things change – but Mike, Carol, Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby, Cindy, and Alice always stay essentially true and pure.
Fourteen years may have passed, but Mike is still doing what's right and helping where he can, like getting son-in-law Wally a new job. Mike and his forever perky wife Carol are always aiming to please and solve any problem thrown at them or their children.
Their kids are no longer kids, but you can tell they inherited their parents' values and do-goodness. Also: Marcia's still a catch, Greg's still standing tall, Jan's still a bit of a Bitter Betty, Peter's love life is never simple, Cindy is still never taken seriously, and Bobby is still going out on a limb (and perhaps losing one).
As for Alice? She straps on that old blue uniform for the first time in ages and it's as if time has never passed. Even Sam the butcher hasn't changed — he's still a giant meathead.
The tone of the movie rightly matches that of the original show, and feels like a warm hug from an old friend you haven't seen in years.
Worst: They replaced Cindy
One doesn't have to do much of a double take to notice that one of the original Brady cast members didn't come home for Christmas. Viewers long accepted as fact that Susan Olsen, who played Cindy, couldn't participate, according to The News and Observer, because her "elaborate wedding-honeymoon plans couldn't be changed." Turns out Olsen "wasn't exactly superduper cooperative [sic]" to begin with. In 1989, Olsen admitted to the Cincinnati Enquirer that she got a little greedy, saying, "I did ask for a lot, but it wasn't nearly what the other girls were asking. I wasn't going to do it for crumbs" (via Cincinnati Enquirer).
Stepping in for the youngest one in curls was Jennifer Runyon of "Ghostbusters" and "Charles in Charge" fame. Runyon was "nervous" about joining the Brunch, saying in a 2014 podcast episode of "Flashback with Carey Fisher," "These people have all been together for so long, and who am I to come in?" Though Alice at first couldn't figure out who she was when picking her up at the airport, Greg noted how different she looked, and she was forced to eat at the kids table, the cast, including former "Another World" soap opera boyfriend Christopher Knight, welcomed her with open arms.
While Olsen may have been sour on the movie, calling it "A Very Barfy Christmas," she holds no ill will against her replacement. She told Runyon on that same 2014 podcast, "You did me proud. I was so relieved, I was really happy when I saw that they cast you. I was like, 'Oh, what a big celebrity ... so pretty. They'll think I turned out good.'"
Best: The Brady's significant others
It was pretty hard being a kid in the Brady household, but each one of them did a good job standing out from the bunch. Imagine being one of their partners entering an already crowded family picture. Luckily all the fresh faces only add to the family fun!
We first got to meet Marcia and Jan's polar opposite husbands when "The Brady Girls Get Married" TV movie turned into a single-season 1981 show "The Brady Brides." Marcia's fun-loving, toy-selling hubby Wally Logan (Jerry Houser) and Jan's more buttoned-up professor Phillip Covington III (Ron Kuhlman) return for "Christmas," although with baggage — not just the suitcase kind. Luckily Mike and Carol are there to help set things right. Houser said in an interview with Brady World, about entering the famed family, "I felt like I had been sucked into my TV."
Greg and Peter never got a "Brady Grooms" show, but they at least got someone to love by "Christmas" ... what a gift! Greg's a doctor married to family focused nurse Nora (Caryn Richman, aka "The New Gidget"), and Peter's sweetheart is also his 9-5 boss, Valerie Baxton (Carol Huston). The boss situation has Peter worried about her being breadwinner, even though he's the boss from 5-9. The two ladies actually look similar and make for solid matches for our Brady boys. Richman enjoyed her time with her in-laws so much, she relayed to Brady World, "We joked that we should have a spinoff called 'The Brady Spouses.'"
Sadly, Bobby and Cindy weren't gifted partners. Bobby's love interest is car racing and Cindy's is skiing in Aspen with her college friends.
Worst: Sam the butcher cheated on Alice (and they replaced the original actor too)
Sam "the Butcher" Franklin was never much of a Romeo (he was more of a bowler), and even though he owned Alice's heart, she always felt like an afterthought. Apparently some things never change. We learn early on in "Christmas" that Sam walked out on her.