You can consider The Brady Bunch a genuine example of classic TV in that the show has never been off the air since its original ABC run from 1969 to 1974, and it’s constantly being discovered by new generations. Also, and pretty amazingly, unlike a lot of other shows featuring kid actors, the cast did not slip away into obscurity or find themselves on paths of self-destruction they couldn’t recover from.
That’s particularly true of Barry Williams, who played oldest son Greg Brady, and who just happens to be the subject of the second episode of CloserWeekly.com’s Classic TV & Film Podcast. Listen to our exclusive interview with Barry in the podcast above!
“There are a couple of things that differentiated us from many of the other sort of, what you’d call, child stars of the day,” Barry reflects in this exclusive interview. “Chief among them is there were six of us as opposed to one or two in the show. And that creates a whole different dynamic because it’s not just the kid trying to figure it out. There’s six of us trying to figure out what’s going on, and what all this attention is about, and the workload, the responsibilities, the people coming up to us, adjustments in school, adjustments in public, being recognized, traveling — all of that kind of thing. And so we could lean on one another. I don’t know if Mr. Schwartz [series creator Sherwood Schwartz] knew this at the time, but every one of our cast members, the kids, came from nuclear families. There were no divorces prior to or during the time of filming The Brady Bunch, which means that we all had these families, real families, that we went back to and were stabilizing forces in our world. I think that contributed heavily to our ability to mature and grow up in public, and ultimately adjust to being adults.”
And adjust Barry did, taking many of the things he learned about show business — some good, some bad, some technical, some practical — and parlaying them into a career far beyond the astroturf of the Brady family’s backyard.
And be sure to check out episode one of CloserWeekly.com’s Classic TV & Film Podcast, where we talk to author Kelsey Miller about her new book, I’ll Be There For You: The One About Friends.
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