A Very Brady Christmas

Plot

Mike and Carol Brady have a savings account, which both spouses planned to use to bankroll a vacation for the other; Carol wanted to take Mike to Greece, while Mike wanted to treat Carol to a trip to Japan. When they realize their ideas collide, they use the money to try to reunite the entire family for Christmas by paying for airline tickets for their children, grandchildren and their in-laws. Mike and Carol are also thinking of selling the house to buy a smaller condo as they are now empty nesters who no longer need such a large home.

However, all of the Brady kids are facing personal obstacles that might keep them from enjoying the festivities: Greg's wife Nora is spending Christmas with her family; Peter is romantically involved with his boss Valerie and his inferior position and salary is affecting his self-confidence; Bobby has dropped out of college to become a race car driver but has not revealed this to his parents; Marcia's husband Wally was fired from his job at a toy company; Jan is separating from her husband Philip and Cindy is fighting for her independence since she is the youngest and still gets treated like the baby of the family. Cindy is currently a college undergraduate and in an issue similar to Bobby's, Cindy lies to her parents about overwhelming college student issues, when in actuality she plans to go skiing in Aspen with her roommates.

Even their former housekeeper Alice is dealing with a serious issue: her husband Sam has recently left her for another woman. Through each child deciding to spend the holiday and eventually opening up about their issues, Mike and Carol are able to help them out. Nora arrives to surprise Greg. However, the family's Christmas dinner is disrupted when Mike learns that a ruthless businessman he designed a building for has cut corners, resulting in the building collapsing and trapping two security guards inside. Mike manages to free the trapped employees, but an aftershock results in Mike getting trapped in rubble himself.

In the end, Mike gets out of the debris after Carol and the entire family sings "O Come All Ye Faithful" (a nod to Carol singing it in the original series' episode "The Voice of Christmas"). After returning home, the family's dinner is again interrupted, this time by a man at the door dressed as Santa Claus. The kids ask where his bag of presents is, but he tells them that he only has one present, for Alice; it turns out to be Sam, in disguise, who has seen the error of his ways and pleads for Alice's forgiveness. After she takes Sam back, the family invites him to stay for dinner, and the film ends with everyone singing a chorus of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

Cast

Impact

When the movie first aired, it was the highest rated TV movie of the season with a 25.1 rating and a 39 share but ultimately finished as the second highest rated TV movie of the season. Thanks in large part to the movie's success, CBS and Sherwood Schwartz created a new television series in 1990, The Bradys, based on the characters' adult lives; only six episodes were produced. However, since the tone of the new series dealt with adult issues the former Brady kids had to deal with, it was nicknamed "Brady-something", after the TV Show Thirtysomething which dealt with similar issues.

After The Bradys was cancelled, two theatrical films were made later in the 1990s: The Brady Bunch Movie in 1995, and A Very Brady Sequel in 1996. A second sequel, The Brady Bunch in the White House, aired as a made-for-television film on Fox in 2002.

Video release

A Very Brady Christmas was released on VHS by Paramount Home Video in 1993 and has long been out of print. On April 3, 2007, the film was included as a bonus feature on The Brady Bunch: The Complete Series 21-disc DVD set by CBS and Paramount.

CBS/Paramount has announced that A Very Brady Christmas will finally be released as a stand-alone DVD on October 10, 2017.