Yesterday's news of the passing of Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of a few of my favorite classic TV shows, has had me thinking about one of the most iconic houses in TV Land — the Brady house.
When I read that Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, and other television favorites passed away at the age of 94 this week, I was immediately nostalgic. Growing up, I spent many after school hours watching reruns of The Brady Bunch. Even now, I can close my eyes and describe the Brady's house — the layout, the color scheme, and even the vase that got broken when the boys played ball in the house. And I'm not the only one. The Brady's house was #2 in a reader poll of Best Nostalgic TV Homes.
My own homes growing up were always traditional, lower-middle class Midwestern spaces so, even as a kid, I was in awe of the Brady's house. That big staircase that led up to the kids' bedrooms always held a special fascination for me. My family had almost always lived in smaller homes so the fact that the Brady kids got to live in this huge home with a gorgeous modern staircase to ascend on the way to their stylish, color coordinated bedrooms seemed so glamorous. And then there were the bedrooms themselves — the girls' pink room and the boys' wood paneled, blue room, connected by an adjoining bathroom that all six kids shared. Oh yeah! It was my fascination with the boys' bedroom that led me to rally for a bunk bed from my parents. I did get the bunk bed but I will admit that it wasn't nearly as cool as Peter and Bobby's blue and red bed set. Seriously, those Brady boys had the most patriotic color theme going on in their room!
And then there's the kitchen. Oh how I wanted to dine with the Brady's at that little orange table! How I wished that Alice and Mrs. Brady would whip up breakfast for me, surrounded by the dark wood cabinetry, avocado green appliances, and orange Formica! I was also completely enamored with the brick wall ovens in that kitchen — not to mention the little back doorway that apparently led to Alice's room. Poor Alice, relegated to a room behind the kitchen.
I was just young enough when I first started watching The Brady Bunch that the line between fiction and reality was still a bit blurred. I remember daydreaming about walking into Mr. Brady's den and asking for fatherly advice. What a guy! Remember when Mr. Brady let Greg turn his den into a bedroom?
I had many dreams about potato sack racing with the clan in their astro-turfed backyard. I wanted to join the Brady family so badly that I was often unbearable in my judgement of my own home life. So, as you can imagine, when Oliver joined the Bunch in a later season, I was more than a little peeved. I was way cuter than that kid! Why didn't they let me join them?
Images: ABC, The Terrible Cat's After Me, Mad Dog in the City, The Haunted Closet, OV Guide, The Greg Brady Project.
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My sister and I watched Brady Bunch re-runs all the time when we were growing up in Australia. I remember visiting our grandparents in Sacramento and thinking their street and house (the outside, at least) looked like something right out of the Brady Bunch! It all seemed so glamourous to us...
We had that same orange formica in our 70's basement rec room. Groovy.
Mark Bennett did a series of architectural blue prints for several fictional tv homes, including the Brady residence.
http://www.westcollection.org/images/mbennett2517.jpg
Super fun! He did plans for several others, including The Jetson's, Bruce Wayne, Dick Van Dyke, Gilligan's Island, Ricky Riccardo and the Addams Family:
http://blog.buildllc.com/2010/06/the-floor-plans-of-mark-bennett/
If you're nostalgic for some Brady awesomeness come for a visit! My 1967 place still has the original kitchen and it's full blown Brady (except the original Formica is Harvest Gold). So want to update, so want to keep.
When I lived in LA, I drove out to Sherman Oaks to see the exterior of the Brady house (the inside was all studio, but the actual house does exist!). I couldn't believe how small it actually is in real life. There is no way the Brady interior could exist in the real home.
I've been house-shopping, and yesterday found a house with orange Formica counters and back-splash. My FIRST thought was: could my buds at Apartment Therapy help me overcome a faux "Mediterranean" kitchen with orange counters!
The Brady house was OK, but I intensely disliked that open staircase. Those slanted balusters gave me vertigo. I always thought it was a terrible design flaw (but I was oddly sanguine about orange Formica!).
I loved that house and every grooovy detail. Great style lives on forever.
Six children sharing one bathroom I always found that to be a problem.
When we were house hunting in Nowhere, Ohio, our realtor had no idea what mid-century modern meant, no idea what I was talking about when I said I wanted a "Palm Springs-kinda-Rat-Pack" house." I asked him if he had ever seen The Incredibles; he hadn't. The only way he had the faintest idea of what we were looking for was when I said "I want the Brady Bunch House!"
Love that house. Sigh... :)
We had a swingset just like that. I would LOVE one of those now for my own kids. And I loved that house too. Our own kitchen was the same as theirs but in the avocado green version (countertops/matching appliances).
Also - interesting design aspect: limey/avocado green fridge with the orange...green cabinets under orange countertops. green placements on orange table & green coffee pot...
Mom always said, don't play ball in the house.
Did anyone see that episode of The X-Files where there were mysterious murders in a house that looked exactly like the Brady Bunch house? That guy (played by Michael Emerson!) was REALLY nostalgic.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751209/
I was always fascinated with the fridge that had a built-in ice dispenser. It was like something from the Jetsons!
(Also, that psychedelic lamp in Greg's attic bedroom looks like you could now get it at IKEA.)
awesome in it's awfulness..:-)
Even as a kid, it drove me crazy that the inside of the house didn't work with the outside. Walking in the front door, the stairs are to the right, yet form the outside, the upper level is clearly on the left.
Nothing awful about it it was the style of the times and I loved the show as a kid. Thanks for posting.
I loved their house as a kid!
lovely lovely..i used to watch brady bunch as a kid in the early 90's( that was when it was telecast in india!!)...and then decided that would be my house..bt with another bathroom :)
what s not to love about the whole time line, house and the beauty that is mcm -70s
I loved that house as well. I saw the sketches Mark Bennett did as mentioned before & the X-Files episode. Plus I've been by the real home. I love everything about it: the kitchen, the staircase, but especially all the wonderful textures and finishes used like stone, brick, Formica, wood, Terra cotta and more. That is what I'm trying to bring tastefully into my home as I work to improve it. Fans check my buddy's page: Brady House Historian on Facebook to see CAD renderings and video tours of the house; they are very good and acurate and he is very passionate about his work!
Those were the days my friend....
Which kid didn't love the Brady house back i the day? now that style it practically extinct! (but I can't say I miss it).
@ Sherri J. You wrote EXACTLY what I was going to write. The disparity between the exterior and interior has always been so obvious to me. Nevertheless, I did have my photo taken in front of the actual house once, and got the picture made into "From Our House to Your House" photo Christmas cards with a pre-printed signature line listing me along with every Brady name...
I'm right there with everyone else. I thought the Brady house was amazing. I love the staircase, and the ovens in the kitchen, too!
11222 Dilling Street
North Hollywood, CA 91602
Still standing, but there's a fence in front. :(
Just the other night I found myself wide awake at 3am and thinking about the Brady Bunch house, the layout, etc.! I always loved those stairs.
Here's a recent pic of the front of the house:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2002854
We just received the dvd set for the Brady Bunch and started watching it with our kids - and I was immediately enamored with that beautiful house! So fun to then read this post - just what I had been thinking about!
It seems a little obvious to point this out now with all the comments about how the outside doesn't match the inside layout (and the streetview on google maps) but I had this little known fact stored for years: that the window on the left side of the facade of the house was not really a window and was put there by the producers just for filming the outside shots.
My sister and I were just talking about this the other day. Alice's kitchen was the first place I'd ever seen wall ovens and I think my desire (still unsatisfied) for double wall ovens stemmed from that time. Even though I didn't really like cooking and baking when I was a kid!
Still love it. And don't forget how they tried to update the color palette in the shortlived primetime drama, "The Bradys". The open staircase still worked in a neutral scheme!
I was reading a magazine layout of the youngest girl on the show Cindy? had built a small home with the same design downstairs and in the photos by the garage she had a small station wagon i assume she drove as well. it was tastefully done by someone in Malibu during an $800,000 rentavation with hand carved and red granite counter tops which looked great.
The Partridge Family was so much cooler. Nicer house too. And they wore the best clothes!
My goodness, I'm old.
k, I need more interior photos
@LisaLisa, I don't think the Brady house is Mid Century Modern. I think it's 60s/70s Split Level crap. Like Split Levels and some Ranches from that era, they had *huge* living areas and small bedrooms. Maybe some people like that, but I don't.
i loved the brady bunch. as a blended family also, we call ours the brandy bunch. though we aren't quite so large and are all girls. as we go through our MCM remodel, i think of this house often as inspiration, but not quite a blueprint. and man, do we need an alice!
Ah, the headband on Greg, the cool lava lamp,..makes me want to stand up and sing We Can Make The World A Whole Lot Brighter!
I just love the bedspreads that the Brady girls had in their bedroom. I think they were a prettty shade of mauvey-pink, with gently scalloped edges, and they folded back and made a sort of pocket to put your pillow in. I wish I could find something like that now!
I LOVED the Brady Bunch house! I would totally love to live in that style of home. I grew up in the 60's-70's during the Brady Bunch era, and my Dad wallpapered the bedroom I shared with my two sisters in pink, orange, and yellow flowered wallpaper just like the Brady girls room! Very groovy!! :)
"Here's a recent pic of the front of the house:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2002854"
What would make them put that hideous fence up? The palm tree is cheezy and the yard is completely overgrown. Even the bland car in the driveway bothers me. I switched to decaf today, so I'm taking this very personally!
The current picture of the house is such a disappointment. Besides the things mentioned above, the driveway is missing a wood-paneled station wagon.
If Mr. Brady were such a good architect, how could he design a house that puts six kids in two small bedrooms with a Jack and Jill bathroom?
I loved that house then and I love it now!
@YoNella - That is exactly my point. That is how far I had to reach for our realtor to get MCM. And that 60/70s "Split Level Crap?" I got that house, and it has great size bedrooms. For the record, we love it.
But, thanks for being snarky, and generalizing, a know-it-all and generally being grumpy. :) Hope you have a wonderful day!
re: the house today
I loathe those fences. People here in Southern California seem to install them as a way to "fancy up" older tract homes. But the owners are probably tired of looky-loos coming to snap photos out front. Still. That fence is ugly.
In "The Brady Bunch Movie," there's a running gag about how all of Mr. Brady's designs look like the house, whether he's designing a gas station, a shopping center, a corporate headquarters...
when watching some episodes recently, i was trying to figure out what is going on to the left of the built in ovens. stovetop? but there is one on the island. oven? but there are two next to it. thoughts? grill? i'm stumped.
I loved the Brady house too. But I was a little disappointed that their furniture was not as modern as their architecture would suggest -- for example, the kids' rooms and the living room didn't have the sort of furniture that I thought should be there.
Loved design in the '70s! It was so cool! We lived in a community of much smaller houses, but they were just as architecturally interesting, and people did cool stuff. I remember one of my friends at the time had a purple -- PURPLE -- and white living room. Way cool.
Darn You! Why didn't I think of writing this post! Bravo! ;)
living in nyc, where $400K gets you a 650 sq ft 1 bedroom co-op (complete with $1K/mo maintenance fee,) i'd take the brady house any day... (tho i'd prob seal off the orange formica kitchen - who cares, we live on takeout anyway :)
My heart sings...
Oh, and Mark Bennett is a genius - I've had his book of TV house plans for years!
The Brady Bunch was so intertwined with my childhood that the line between reality and fiction is completely blurred. My younger sister and I had a contest every episode... The one that called Marsha first was Marsha for the whole episode :( Poor Jan.