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7 very '80s things from A Very Brady Christmas
Big shoulder pads, bigger hair, and one sweet mustache.
In 1988, A Very Brady Christmas gave us a chance to catch up with TV's favorite family 14 years after The Brady Bunch ended. Carol and Mike, now empty nesters, try to get the whole family (plus Alice) back in the same house for Christmas. Not an easy task, since the kids have all gone their own ways over the years. But do the parents succeed in getting everyone back for a nice TV special Christmas? Would it be a Brady show if they didn't?
The made-for-TV movie also turned out to be a time capsule of some very boss '80s fashion, trends, and tropes. Let's take a look at some of the most '80s things from A Very Brady Christmas.
1. The kitchen remodel
The orange Formica countertops are OUT, blond wood and pastels are IN. This is a kitchen made for drinking New Coke and eating Mr. T cereal. The living room could also count — those throw pillows just scream '80s.
2. Getting tangled in the phone cord
Before cell phones, and before cordless phones became the new norm, dealing with the cord during a conversation used to just be a part of life. Conversations just hit different when you were absentmindedly playing with the cord while a friend gave you all the gossip. Of course, cords also meant that sometimes if you were moving around, you ended up wrapped in it instead.
3. Greg's mustache
There are a few mustaches in his movie, but none is more '80s than Greg's Magnum P.I. looking lip hair.
4. Cindy's outfits
There's a lot of good '80s fashion in this special (more later in this list, even!) but Cindy, as a cutting-edge college senior, gets some of the best looks. With this off-shoulder oversized jersey, glittery belt at the waist, tights, and chunky tennis shoes, Cindy looks like she could have stepped out of a Cyndi Lauper video.
5. Everything about this office
The Pepto-Bismol pink flooring and walls. The marble desk. The glass brick windows. It feels like '80s Harrison Ford is going to walk into this office at any moment.
6. Meeting people at the gate at the airport
In the '80s, there was no better way to show that you cared about someone than meeting them at their gate at the airport. Or if you really cared, maybe you'd even get a dramatic montage of rushing to their gate before the plane takes off so you can make an impassioned speech.
7. The shoulder pads
Yes, we mentioned the fashion already, but the shoulder pads in this special needed a separate item. In the '80s, shoulder pads meant that you were a classy, independent woman who didn't want romance without finance. And boy, are there a lot of them over the course of this holiday tale.
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65 Comments
It was typical BB...sometimes silly...a bit corny...and we loved every minute of it!!
Apparently, many other viewers did too; it was the second-highest-rated TV movie of 1988; often mistakenly cited as THE highest...it was not.
Yes, Susan was on her honeymoon with her first husband.
She re-married in 1995...the same year I married my wife. I had been looking at several engagement rings in downtown L.A...but I was taking my sweet time. When I finally decided on the one I (we) wanted...I found that my jeweler had sold it to Susan's fiance. It still makes me giggle to know that the engagement ring I wanted for my wife was on the finger of one of my earliest TV crushes!!
I was a teenager in the 80's, and I HATED shoulder pads! Still do. If shoulder pads ever make a comeback, I'm not going to wear them. They made one look like a football player. It didn't look good at all.