Here's A Story...

Combine two single-parents, their six combined children, a maid and a dog together in a Los Angeles suburb and call it a show.

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The Brady Bunch cleverly used the shotgun approach in reaching the broadest demographic possible.

Single-parenting was becoming a mainstream idea when The Brady Bunch first aired in 1969. Mike Brady's (Robert Reed) former wife had died, and he is left to raise 3 sons. It was intended that Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) had been divorced, but ABC wasn't comfortable with that idea at the time.

The Brady kids, three boys to Mike, three girls to Carol, gave children in the viewing audience, ranging from ages 4 to 17, someone to identify with.

Over the 5 year run of the show, the youngest Brady kids, Bobby (Mike Lookinland) and Cindy (Susan Olsen) lost much, if not all, of their cute appeal. For the final season, the producers added Oliver (Robbie Rist) as Carol's nephew in an attempt to fill that void. Except that kid was nothing but annoying.

The show even attempted to appeal to the 50+ demographic with Alice (Ann B. Davis) and her boyfriend, Sam The Butcher (Allan Melvin).

Though it never attained a Neilson rating above 25, the show produced four spin-offs, "The Brady Kids," "The Brady Bunch Hour," "The Brady Brides" and "The Bradys" and a TV movie, "A Very Brady Christmas."

Sherwood Schwartz created the show five years after he created Gilligan's Island.

Robert Reed died in 1992 of colon cancer.

Florence Henderson became almost as famous for her Wesson Oil commercials as for her role of Carol Brady. She also had five appearances on The Love Boat.