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Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1614
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 5:49 pm: | 
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OK, big existential question of massive proportions, which is currently bedeviling my two young children who have just started watching reruns of The Brady Bunch pretty consistently (we DVR them and save them up): What the heck happened (in the context of the show, of course) to the original mom of the boys and the original dad of the girls?
My kids, whose parents (me and their dad) are divorced, have asked me. And I haven't got a clue. On the show, they don't EVER mention what happened to Greg's, Peter's and Bobby's mom, nor Cindy's, Jan's or Marcia's dad. And the kids call Mike and Carol "dad" and "mom" respectively, regardless. Are we to think that Mike is a widower and Carol a widow? Or was there a divorce?
Help, please, solve this mystery.
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Soparents
Supporter
Username: Soparents
Post Number: 2537
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 5:52 pm: |
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I thought both were widowed.
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critter
Citizen
Username: Critter
Post Number: 68
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 5:57 pm: |
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They're widowed. I think the very first ep addresses it. If I recall correctly, one of the boys feels guilty about having a photo of Mom, but Mike tells him it's OK. But then I think the photo and all discussion of the deceased parents disappear. |
LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 2198
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 5:59 pm: |
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Widowed on both sides. I believe in the first episode, when Carol and Mike are telling their respective children they're getting married or maybe it's the episode that they do get married (could be the same episode), I do remember seeing a picture in a frame in the background of at least one of the deceased.
Hmmm.....I'm going to have to look this up. |
LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 2199
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 6:02 pm: |
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Actually, it looks like they were going to make Carol divorced, but ABC balked at the idea and they just never explained it.
http://www.tv.com/the-brady-bunch/show/528/summary.html?full_summary=1&tag=shows pace_links;full_summary |
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1615
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 6:04 pm: |
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Wow! That was fast. I guess that about sums it up (do we have a MOL quorum?) I know I saw the first episode once a very long time ago, but I couldn't remember if they ever addressed it. It is odd in today's TV framework ---- you know, with "very special episodes" that deal with touchy-feely stuff ---- that the BB never did mention the real mom and dad again. But then again the BB really is a departure from real life and it's very refreshing to sit back and enjoy it purely for its hokyness. My kids (ages 6 and 4) love it, and don't have a clue how outdated it is. And I dig it because I grew up with it. Plus it's nice for them to see a family that's "blended," since we are divorced and my significant other's kids (two teenagers) are getting to know my kids better and better. |
LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 2202
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 6:15 pm: |
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That's so cool they're watching the BB. I visited my sister in AZ a few months ago and she has two teenage daughters who like watching The Monkees. I couldn't believe it but they have a DVD of the Monkees episodes and we watched an episode together. |
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1616
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 6:26 pm: |
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Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? A friend told me that her 7-yr-old was loving the BB, so I tried my kids on it, and it's like their favorite show right now. I mean, we're watching the early episodes right now from 1969 (so we may get that first episode yet, unless they're totally in order), and yet they totally love it. It's timeless. I was 2 years old when these episodes aired, so I grew up on BB reruns too. So I can actually sit and watch this with the kids and not tune out. I think I might actually buy some DVDs of it too. THere's really nothing objectionable in the show that is inappropriate for kids this age. It's actually pretty wholesome. |
cody
Citizen
Username: Cody
Post Number: 1097
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 6:53 pm: |
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Here's something from a Brady Bunch website:
Q. What ever happened to Mike and Carol's first spouses, the children's other biological parents?
A. We learn in the first episode that Mike's wife passed away. However, the absence of Carol's first husband remains a mystery. Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of the show, wanted her to be divorced. The network wanted her to be a widow, thought being divorced was too risque for the times. The compromise was that it was never addressed one way or the other. |
sbenois
Supporter
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 15459
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 7:15 pm: |
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Carol's first husband was murdered. It was adressed in the episode with Davy Jones and then subsequently taken out when syndication caused 2-4 minutes to be cut from every show. |
Parkbench87
Citizen
Username: Parkbench87
Post Number: 5010
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 7:46 pm: |
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S,
I think you are mistaken. Carol's first husband was murdered but the culprit was Cousin Oliver who committed the murder as a rite of gang initiation. This was revealed in Episode 101 "Cousin Oliver and the Crips" If my memory serves me correctly Alice and Sam the Butcher were charged as accessories but in lieu of testimony against Oliver were given probation. |
sbenois
Supporter
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 15463
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 8:33 pm: |
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Well that's a nice fantasy but it's not true. They never revealed who was behind the murder but they did say that the body was hacked up. This, by the way, is why they came up with the name "Sam the Butcher". It was an inside joke on the set that Alice's boyfriend chopped up the body. But, they never said anything like this on the air.
Nice try though. |
ess
Citizen
Username: Ess
Post Number: 2915
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 8:43 pm: |
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Sorry, but you are all wrong.
It was the 60s. Carol never married the girls' father. He wound up moving to a pot-smoking commune in Seattle, and left no forwarding address. That is why the producers never wanted to address it.
There was a nod to this later in the series, when Alice was visiting a relative in Seattle....and Cindy uttered the now-famous, "Who's Attle?" line.
Nothing more sinister than that, I'm afraid. |
Parkbench87
Citizen
Username: Parkbench87
Post Number: 5013
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 8:49 pm: |
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What a bunch of lame lies. You people should be ashamed of yourselves. I remember when they found the murder weapon inside Cindy's Kitty Karry All doll.
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Soda
Supporter
Username: Soda
Post Number: 4064
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 9:58 pm: |
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THE BRADY BUNCH:
-s. |
pcs81632
Citizen
Username: Pcs81632
Post Number: 90
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 10:02 pm: |
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I thought that Mike and Carol were happily married to their respective spouses when they learned that the same spouses were engaged in a long term affair.
Mike and Carol joined forces, caught them en flagrante delecto, and hacked their spouses bodies into little pieces.
Alice (the only witness to their crime) took the body parts and baked them into meat pies.
Oh, wait a minute, that's 'Sweeney Todd'.
Never mind.
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Parkbench87
Citizen
Username: Parkbench87
Post Number: 5017
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 8:41 am: |
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Any post where the term "en flagrante delecto" is used has to carry some validity. |
Hoops
Citizen
Username: Hoops
Post Number: 1758
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 8:46 am: |
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The widow thing is just a cover story for the kids, they actually ran away with each other after the couples swapped wives.
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LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 2205
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 8:58 am: |
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Actually. Tiger killed Carol's husband in order to get her together with Mike. The whole "Bobby's allergic to Tiger" episode was actually Tiger's plot to get the family to let him go before they ever found out what really happened. Unfortunately, the clever Bradys figured out the allergy was just caused by the laundry detergent and foiled Tiger's plot. |
Parkbench87
Citizen
Username: Parkbench87
Post Number: 5019
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 9:02 am: |
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Mike's wife died when Peter and Bobby were playing ball in the house and Peter hit his mom with a baseball bat. Hence the episode years later when Bobby admonished Peter with the phrase "Mom always said, never play ball in the house" |
sportsnut
Citizen
Username: Sportsnut
Post Number: 2524
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 9:21 am: |
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I thought Mike's very attractive (ex)wife was Carol and hubby's nanny. |
Parkbench87
Citizen
Username: Parkbench87
Post Number: 5020
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 9:37 am: |
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Mike didn't have a wife. He used Alice as a surrogate to carry all three Brady boys |
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1617
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 10:22 am: |
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OK, so much for the wholesome aspects of the Brady Bunch!!! You guys crack me up. I'll try to preserve my daughters' innocence and shield them from the more sordid theories....
But thanks! |
notehead
Supporter
Username: Notehead
Post Number: 3656
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 10:31 am: |
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Little-known fact: Mike's first wife was Hawaiian, and -- unbeknownst to Mike -- was descended from the individual whose spirit caused so much trouble for the Brady's when they went to Hawaii.
Alice didn't actually carry the Brady boys. That's just a rumor based on the fact that Mike used her for "stress relief". But then Mike married Carol, and by the time he found his true sexual nature and started going to gay bars, Alice was desperately missing the regular action and ended up having trysts with Carol. Sam only set up shop in the neighborhood to be closer to his lover -- Mike. It's the ultimate irony that this led to his meeting and marrying Alice, who was merely looking for some good sausage, and this caused Mike and Carol to re-examine and rekindle their own relationship. |
Parkbench87
Citizen
Username: Parkbench87
Post Number: 5021
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 10:38 am: |
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And all of that happened in the first two episodes |
Phenixrising
Citizen
Username: Phenixrising
Post Number: 1821
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 11:10 am: |
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You are all wrong about Carol's Husband.
She never married. In Carol's early days she lived in one of those hippy communes where "free love" was in. Actually, the girls all have different Dads. Hence, ABC avoiding any "Baby Daddy” drama, they decided not to reveal Carol’s past. This WAS a wholesome family show. God forbid if this was revealed. 
I always wondered why these girls never resembled with the exception of the blond hair. And poor Cindy's lisp.
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LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 2208
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 12:09 pm: |
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Jan (without the black curly wig) always reminded me of one of my sisters....sort of anyway. This sister is also the "middle" child (but we didn't have a housekeeper like Alice to give her the little bear locket).
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Phenixrising
Citizen
Username: Phenixrising
Post Number: 1823
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 3:19 pm: |
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WOW! All she had to do was part her hair in the middle. That first pic does look like Jan. |
pcs81632
Citizen
Username: Pcs81632
Post Number: 91
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 - 9:05 pm: |
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And, really, what was the deal with Alice??
You never saw her clean a damn thing. And did she ever make anything in that fabulous post modern, circa 1969 kitchen besides chocolate cake and pork chops? She didn't even make her own applesauce. She probably sent that brat Cindy to the store to pick it up with that damn Kitty Carry All.
And don't get me started on the smutty double entendres with Sam the butcher while she went on and on about his, well, meat.
Ann B. Davis: The first Martha Stewart.
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Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 1618
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, August 3, 2006 - 10:05 am: |
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Alice cracks us all up. She's always standing there stirring something mysterious in a pot. But she's my kids' favorite character so far. |
Camnol
Citizen
Username: Camnol
Post Number: 435
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, August 3, 2006 - 10:09 am: |
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Well, the fact that I know this off the top of my head is just incredibly pathetic, but LillB, it was Jan who was allergic to Tiger, not Bobby.
If only I could free up some of that brain space so that I could stop calling my youngest son by the dog's name! |
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