The Brady Bunch

THE BRADY BUNCH
 
 
The Brady Bunch  is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz that aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC.  The series revolves around a large blended family with six children.  Considered one of the last of the old-style family sitcoms, the series aired for five seasons and, after its cancellation in 1974, went into syndication in September 1975.  While the series was never a critical or ratings success during its original run, it has since become a popular staple in syndication, especially among children and teenaged viewers.  The Brady Bunch’s success in syndication led to several television reunion films and spin-off series.  The durability of the show has resulted in it becoming widely recognized as an American cultural icon.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
The Under Appreciated Rock Band of the Month for June 2016 is the Gynecologists, a truly wild, truly outrageous punk rock band from Indiana whose bandleader Tommy Afterbirth “came up with the idea of recording and pressing the vilest gross-out novelty record EVER”. Which of their 30-some songs he meant is difficult to know for certain – probably it was the one about The Brady Bunch that he was already working on, “Sex Orgy with the Bradee Bunch” (the misspelled name was probably used to avoid potential lawsuits). The boys used the record label name Vomit Productions for their first release, where the front cover included a photo of Tommy Afterbirth’s own dog’s poop.
The best info on the band comes from the voluminous liner notes written by John Barge for the compilation CD, Hoosier Psychopaths (2007); Barge had been in a punk rock band called the Panics. The original version of the liner notes – including the quote given above – appears on a website on Indiana music called www.musicalfamilytree.net .
 
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The Brady Bunch has an unusual premise for a sitcom: A man with three sons marries a woman with three daughters. I don’t know whether this was intended originally, but the males and females are not related to each other, so it wouldn’t really be incest for any of them to have sex with each other – not even within the context of the show, never mind in real life. Wikipedia never brings it up, but this was a definite undercurrent in the show that was on a lot of (dirty) minds. As notoriously randy as actors and actresses are, it is not surprising that plenty of rumors and scandals have seen the light of day.
 
(June 2016)
Last edited: March 22, 2021