The Brady Bunch: The Complete First Season

Review By: Alexis Tuminello
AlexisTuminello@TheCinemaSource.com

Why is it that I happen to review every television series season DVD that has an addictive theme song that you can never get out of your head? Never! The Brady Bunch is no exception. In fact I think it might be the most addictive tune of all. Everyone across the world knows The Brady Bunch theme song. The sitcom has been syndicated ad nauseam to every corner of the globe. And now the first season of The Brady Bunch is available for all those Nick-At-Nite junkies to own.

I can’t believe that the Brady’s were ever this young! At this juncture I can’t believe Greg slept with his mom. The Oedipal fantasy fulfilled but that’s beside the point. I must have missed this season during one of the countless times it was aired on television because I only knew one or two of the episodes. But it doesn’t matter; they’re all the same anyway. They follow the classic television show outline; problem, problem solved, and all the better for new life knowledge acquired. How many TV sitcoms have succeeded by sticking to that one, two, three formula? I really wish that the episode when Marcia breaks her nose was in this season but, alas, it’s not. I love that one! Its classic!

The Brady’s are the all-American family. You know the one next door with six kids, a cat, a dog, and a house keeper. Come to think of it I know a family quite like that – minus the pets and housekeeper. But after the marriage they didn’t suddenly call the new parent ‘mom’ or ‘dad’. Even in 1969, when the show first aired, I doubt real families adjusted so easily. I know The Brady Bunch is considered corny and plastic when compared to today’s television melodramas but you have to consider that this show was created to be exactly was it was – an over the top sugary sweet Norman Rockwellesque family program.

Even though I missed this season all the episodes seem familiar. Perhaps that’s because essentially they are all the alike, just substitute a new kid in trouble each time. I’ll just recount some of my favorites for you from The Brady Bunch’s twenty-five installment debut, merely to refresh your memory. First there is episode 1.6, ‘Eenie Meenie Mommy Daddy’, when Cindy (Susan Olsen) gets the lead role of Fairy Princess but can only choose one parent. Granted Cindy with her blonde curls, blue eyes, and little girl list wears your nerves constantly but in this episode her usual annoyances are affable. (Her eyes are so blue that I am skeptical that they are even real.) Next there’s episode 1.8, ‘Father of the Year’, when Marcia (Maureen McCormick) nominates her dad for the much sought after award ...