6.2 /10 1 Votes
5.8/10 TV Country of origin United States Final episode date 6 October 1973 Number of episodes 22 | 6.8/10 IMDb First episode date 9 September 1972 Number of seasons 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Voices of Barry WilliamsMaureen McCormickChristopher KnightEve PlumbMike LookinlandSusan OlsenLarry StorchJane WebbDavid E. SmithErika ScheimerLane Scheimer Network American Broadcasting Company Cast Similar The Brady Bunch, The Bradys, The Brady Bunch Hour, A Very Brady Christmas, The ABC Saturday Superstar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Brady Kids was a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series and a spin-off based on the ABC live-action sitcom The Brady Bunch, produced by Filmation in association with Paramount Television. It aired on ABC from September 9, 1972, to October 6, 1973, and also spun off another Filmation series, Mission: Magic!, starring rock star Rick Springfield. The series was distributed by CBS Television Distribution.
Contents
- The brady kids intro
- Background
- Characters
- The Bradys
- Other characters
- Production
- Trivia
- DVD release
- References
The brady kids intro
Background
In 1972, with the live action sitcom The Brady Bunch preparing for the start of its fourth season, show creator and executive producer Sherwood Schwartz approached Filmation about the creation of an animated series featuring the Brady Kids. Filmation agreed, and Lou Schiemer and Norm Prescott (creators of other Schwartz properties Gilligan's Planet and The New Adventures of Gilligan) headed up the project.
Characters
The original show's six children (Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight, Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen) voiced their animated counterparts in the first season. As the series' title implies, the parents and Alice the housekeeper characters were omitted from the show. At the end of the first season, Filmation asked the kids to continue on their existing contracts for another five episodes in a second season. The kids' original answer was no, prodded on by their agent Harvey Shotz. Filmation threatened both to sue the children over breach of contract, and to continue the show without their voices. Lookinland, Plumb, and Olsen agreed to the extended Filmation contract, while Williams, Knight, and McCormick did not. Williams's and McCormick's voices were replaced by the children of producer Lou Schiemer (Lane and Erika Scheimer, respectively), while Knight's voice was replaced by David E. Smith.
The animated series also added some animal characters. Marlon (voiced by Larry Storch) was an intelligent, red, talking mynah bird and also a wizard who used his magic to help the kids out of jams. Marlon was also notable for his method of flight: he spun his tail feathers like a helicopter rotor rather than using his wings, which were instead used as hands, often for grand gestures as he cast spells.
The Bradys' dog from the live-action series, Tiger, was replaced by a dog named Mop Top (also voiced by Storch). There were also twin panda cubs, Ping and Pong (voiced by Jane Webb), named after the game ping-pong. The pandas only spoke in a Chinese-like gibberish.
There were three human characters created for this show: Chuck White (Storch) was a boastful, self-absorbed teenager (about Greg's age) who was not above cheating to get whatever he wanted, Fleetwood (Storch) was his easygoing sidekick and rounding out this trio was Babs (voiced by Webb), a cute redhead who was smitten with Greg. The three of them went to the same school as the Bradys, and Chuck was sometimes central to the plot as an antagonist.
The Bradys
Other characters
Production
While Schwartz originally intended to hand off full editorial control to Schiemer and Prescott, he eventually returned to become an active part of production, reviewing scripts and advising on creative input.
An enormous amount of animation for this series was copied over from another popular Filmation series, The Archie Show. Walk cycles, profile pictures, and scenes where the Brady kids play in a band were all frame-by-frame replacements for looped frames originally seen of The Archies on The Archie Show. Many of Moptop's poses were copied from the Archies' character Hot Dog. Fleetwood's poses and walk cycles were often copied from Rudy of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
Originally aired as a one-hour segment on The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, the pilot episode was split into two half-hour segments on The Brady Kids. A total of 22 episodes were produced. Season 1 aired Saturday mornings from 10:30 to 11:00 AM, and season 2 aired Saturday mornings from 11:00 to 11:30 AM. Season 1 contained 17 episodes, and season 2 contained 5. Season 2 was specifically created by Filmation with the intent on 5 episodes to bring the total count of episodes to 22, the minimum required for syndication. Like most 1970s-era Saturday morning cartoon series, The Brady Kids contained an adult laugh track.
The opening sequence featured the fourth season "grid" familiar to The Brady Bunch viewers, without the center column that is normally occupied by the adults (Mike, Carol and Alice). Near the end of the theme song (featuring new lyrics set to the original Brady Bunch theme with a 70's style beat), Marlon flies up and down the center, "magically" transforming the live-action children into their animated counterparts. Another intro features Marlon flying up and down the center of an empty blue background to reveal the Brady Kids.
Trivia
The characters would re-appear in animated form during a musical sequence in A Very Brady Sequel. The only differences were that Jan never wore glasses unlike she did in the cartoon, her hair was brown, and she wore braces on her teeth.
DVD release
On April 3, 2007, the two-part episodes "Jungle Bungle" were released as bonus features on The Brady Bunch: The Complete Series 21-disc DVD set by CBS and Paramount.
On February 16, 2016, CBS Home Entertainment released The Brady Kids: The Complete Animated Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.