So, I have finally gotten around to watching all five seasons of The Brady Bunch on DVD. It is 117 episodes of 1970s middle-class suburban comfort food. Watching them all in 2026 is an odd experience; one is forced to confront the fact that the show lives in a parallel universe where the most pressing matters of the day are who gets to go to the bathroom and who stole whose diary. There is no Vietnam, no Nixon, no inflation, just astro-turf and a healthy amount of orange interior paint.
For most, if you pick up the complete set, it is either for the nostalgia or the sheer curiosity of seeing how television sitcoms used to be made, or that sitcoms used to be a thing. As such, the set is straightforward, with no bells and whistles apart from the usual dynamic menus and a decent-quality remastering of the video. However, getting the set is a worthwhile experience, as it provides an unparalleled view of the transition from a realistic drama about a broken family to full-blown camp.
The first season sets up the whole affair. A widowed architect, Mike Brady, marries a housewife, Carol, with each bringing three children to the new household, which is overseen by the family’s housekeeper, Alice. The first season is, in fact, less silly than one might expect from the later seasons. There is an attempt to grapple realistically with the difficulties of merging two families, albeit only for 22 minutes per episode.
Speaking of which, the first season contains one of the best episodes of the whole series, “The Honeymoon.” With pets causing trouble, the wedding itself going sideways, and a general feeling of hysteria, it sets the tone for the Brady Bunch adventures. Another highlight of the first season is "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,", where Alice feels unwanted by the daughters and Ann B. Davis pulls out all the stops to demonstrate her extraordinary skill at delivering lines. Without her, The Brady Bunch would have indeed been a lesser comedy, unable to carry the sheer absurdity of the concept.
The second season is where the show starts to grow into its skin, becoming more focused on the children and their middle-class suburban problems. With them growing up, their clothing becomes louder, more colorful, and increasingly difficult to the modern eye. More importantly, the family is no longer a novelty; the children accept each other, and the show turns to exploring sibling rivalry.
“The Subject Was Noses” is, without a doubt, the highlight of the second season and perhaps the whole series. With Marcia’s nose injured right before the date with the neighborhood’s most eligible bachelor, the whole episode becomes an exercise in teenage melodrama, culminating in the legendary dialogue “Oh, my nose!” The other notable episode is “Will the Real Jan Brady Please Stand Up?” which showcases Jan’s desire to be more attractive than her older sister by wearing a black wig to a party. It is pure 1970s farce, capturing the desperation of a girl to fit in, which was apparently a thing back then.
The third season is the most notable for trying to elevate itself to a more ‘serious’ show. It is in the third season that the makers of The Brady Bunch realized that the kids could sing, and they began to feature musical numbers and recordings. However, the show’s very nature began to transform, turning from a character-driven comedy into something a bit more cynical.
“Getting Davy Jones” is the episode that encapsulates the third season perfectly; it is an exercise in fan service, with Marcia attempting to get the ex-Monkee Davy Jones to perform at her school’s dance by stalking him. It provides some interesting insight into the mind of a 1970s teenager obsessed with the fandom. Another notable episode is “The Kids Sing,” which contains a highlight of the whole series’ third season: the legendary song “Time to Change” and Peter’s cracking voice.
The third season is also where the show begins to turn towards increasingly absurd premises for episodes. For the first time, the whole family is sent to Hawaii for a three-episode arc, which was apparently a thing back then. In the Hawaii segment, they find the cursed tiki idol, Vincent Price almost kills Greg, and the entire family gets into an argument while drunk. It is utterly ridiculous and one of the most enjoyable episodes of the whole series.
Meanwhile, on the mainland, the family has its share of suburban adventures, with “The Pass-Along Pipe” being the one of the season. However, it is overshadowed by the legendary “Her Sister’s Shadow,” featuring the “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” line. It is yet another episode where Jan Brady is having a meltdown about her older sister, which is presented as normal behavior in the early 1970s. Yet, watching the episode, one cannot help but feel incredibly sorry for Jan, who had to live with her parents’ unrealistic expectations. She wanted to be as good as Marcia, a talented pianist, but instead, she was made to constantly measure up to her standards.
The fifth season is the culmination of all previous seasons’ efforts. It is the weakest link, as the show’s creators clearly did not know where to take the Brady Bunch anymore. The fifth season sees the introduction of Greg’s cousin Oliver, played by Robbie Rist, as a permanent cast member, which caused severe backlash from the fans. The producers felt that the Brady Bunch had outgrown the concept of a younger sibling and wanted to introduce a cute little brother figure to the mix. In hindsight, the decision was so desperate it provided the template for the “Cousin Oliver syndrome” of later television.
However, even the fifth season has its highlights, with the most notable ones being “The Howdershell Legend” and “Too Many Alice’s.” It is hard to deny that they are weaker than their predecessors, but “The Snooper-Phoodle” provides a uniquely strange look at the early personal computer bubble. The highlight of the fifth season, in my opinion, is “The Hair-Brained Scheme.” It encapsulates the weirdness of the show and demonstrates that not much has changed since the early 1970s. After buying a cheap tonic, Greg’s hair turns orange right before his high school graduation, which causes Robert Reed to refuse to do the episode entirely. If one looks closely enough, one would notice that Mr. Brady does not appear in the episode at all; it was that cringeworthy for the actor to film. In conclusion, the fifth season is the weakest, but it provides some much-needed weirdness for the fans of the series.
Overall, the set is a mixed bag, as one might expect from a 1970s sitcom. The show was a product of its time and is best enjoyed by watching the proceedings unfold with the detached eye of a visitor to another universe. In this universe, the most pressing problems are who stole whose diary, who gets to go to the bathroom first, and whether the family dog can open the door. Yet, The Brady Bunch was the comfort food for the people getting caught in the middle of the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the general malaise of the late 60s and early 70s. It provided a respite from the real world, which is precisely what the show was all about.
The Brady Bunch Complete Series DVD is available to own today!
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