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''There is no rivalry between 'The Brady Bunch' and 'The Partridge Family,''' says Barry Williams
The inside scoop is different from public perception.
"Comparison" may be the thief of joy, but it's also the fuel for a lot of speculative media writing. Whenever there are two properties, or stars, with a lot in common, we naturally want to contrast them. It's so easy to put The Addams Family and The Munsters side by side and figure out what's the same and different. Or, when we read about James Arness and his brother, Peter Graves, we want to know everything there is about their shared upbringing and how it may have set them on the course to stardom.
But, sometimes, all this interest creates a false narrative, pitting two amicable parties in opposition. For instance, the Gabor sisters had to go on record to dispel rumors of a supposed rivalry. Or, perhaps more fiercely, there was the alleged competition between The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family.
The two shows were easy to compare. Both were sitcoms on ABC, and they aired concurrently for four years. Both shows were family-based, with a cast of child stars and their grownup guardians. In the case of The Brady Bunch, there were six kids and two parents. The Partridge Family had Keith, Laurie, Danny, Chris, and Tracy, all under the watchful eye of mom, Shirley, and band manager Reuben. There was even the commonality that both shows featured a family dog who mostly disappeared as each series progressed.
But, take it from a guy who was there: Barry Williams went on the record stating that there was decisively not a rivalry between the two family sitcoms. At least, that's the way he told it in a 2000 interview with the Asbury Park Press.
At the time, Williams was riding high on a wave of nostalgia that made what was once popular a viable commodity once again. His memoir, Growing Up Brady was successful enough to justify a TV movie.
Unfortunately for Williams, two earlier TV movies beat him to the punch, as similarly-themed Partridge Family projects debuted that same year. Both Come On Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story and The David Cassidy Story aired before The Brady Bunch alum had the chance to set his record straight.
However, Williams said he saw both of the earlier Partridge movies and claimed his approach was different.
"The thing that I invested a lot of my time, effort, and energy in was in not making Growing Up Brady a cartoonish, one-dimensional look at what went on," said Williams.
"There were different scenes in the other (Partridge-themed) movies that I think were uncalled for. There is no rivalry between The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family, for instance. The Bradys have been goofed on so much through the movies and through cultural references. This is not that story. This is about the real people. It's about what really happened. It's what happens in the world of child stardom."
Barry Williams would trade blows with supposed not-rival Danny Bonaduce just two years later on FOX's Celebrity Boxing.
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