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Florence Henderson had this theory about Carol's first husband

Sherwood Schwartz was inspired to create The Brady Bunch by a four-line article.

July 26, 2021, 4:11PM By MeTV Staff

'Till the one day when the lady met this fellow

And they knew it was much more than a hunch,

That this group would somehow form a family...

It's the opening to one of the most beloved family sitcoms in TV history. Everyone knows The Brady Bunch and the theme song sets you up right away with the plot. A single mother with three girls marries a single father with three boys. Add a housekeeper, move them all into one house, and hilarity ensues.

But how did Carol come to be a single mother with three kids before she met Mike? 

Creator Sherwood Schwartz knows why he chose to create a different kind of family. Schwartz said that, unlike many shows, he can point to the exact moment he got inspired to create The Brady Bunch.

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"It was just a four-line filler piece in the Los Angeles Times," Schwartz said. "Just a statistic. It said that year, 1965, 31 percent of all marriages involved people who had a child or children from a previous marriage. It was just a statistic, but to me it indicated a remarkable sociological change in our country."

That statistic led him to create one of the most famous blended families. But still, how did this family happen in the first place? Schwartz claimed in interviews that Carol was divorced, although it was never mentioned on the show. Divorce was still relatively taboo in 1969, when the show started, so it's likely that the network just sidestepped any mention of a polarizing topic.

But Florence Henderson had her own ideas. "No, nobody ever said [what happened to Carol’s husband]. I always said I just got rid of him."

Wait, "got rid of him"?

"I killed my husband," Henderson said in interviews. "I was the original black widow!"

Uh-oh, Mike Brady had better be careful!

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practicaljokerfan 9 months ago
A Tough TV TRIVIA Question
What does Moose (Barry GREENBERG)
From Happy Days have in common
With the Character Mr. Schump
From The Andy Griffith Show??!
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AnnieM 9 months ago
I was, I think, 5 years old when the Brady Bunch first premiered. I remember very clearly watching it, and being confused as to why the dad's first wife was living with them. Yep, for several episodes at least, I thought that Alice was Mike's first wife.
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ELEANOR 10 months ago
Yup, for their purposes, it worked to be very vague about the previous history of Carol and Whatshisface. And that worked well. So when you get together with your friends, do you have a detailed discussion about their family tree? And if the subject comes up, mumbling and staring at the floor is all that you need to know at the moment. So after one or two episodes about blendedness, the storylines, often ripped from dinnertime stories of the Schwartz's children, reflected normal family life.
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LalaLucy 10 months ago
Always appreciate the sense of humor the actors from this show have about their characters. They were all perfectly aware of the cheesy nature of the show and did not shy away from joking about it. 🙂
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LarryBell 10 months ago
Did anyone catch the special Dragging The Classics -The Brady Bunch? That was bizarre to say the least. It was like watching the Brady Bunch on acid. And no I’m not Transphobic, it was just weird to see is all
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LarryBell 10 months ago
I loved how in the movie she alluded to her hubby being the Professor on Gilligan’s Island lol
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Beatseeker LarryBell 10 months ago
...and gilligan's dad was a billionaire...!
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JosephScarbrough 10 months ago
Yes, divorce was still a very taboo subject to discuss, especially on primetime TV, which is one of the reasons why at the time, THE ODD COUPLE was actually a very controversial show that was always under a lot of network meddling and scrutiny.
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Andybandit 10 months ago
I would have liked to know about Carol's first husband, and Mike's first wife. I never understood why they needed Alice. Couldn't Carol take care of the house, and the kids have chores. Like I did when I was growing up.
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justjeff Andybandit 10 months ago
Hmmm... lessee... Carol's first husband was Edgar McInany, a clerk at the downtown department store where he and Carol met when they both got their first summer jobs there. However, years later, she found him spending way too much time in the ladies' lingerie department trying to get *too* helpful with the female customers while she was raising the girls and she dumped him.

On the other hand, Mike lost his first wife [Constance] to being a workaholic and not spending enough time with her and the boys...

I know this is a total false scenario, but what the hell... so is the actual show!
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Peter_Falk_Fan Michael 10 months ago
Here is the house where the Brady men lived in the first episode. Hollywood magic has them in the house that he designed in episode 2.

http://www.iamnotastalker.com/tag/mike-brady/
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LalaLucy Andybandit 10 months ago
I get that the premise for keeping her was that they couldn't bear to get rid of Alice but it irked me nevertheless since Carol didn't work. Just one of many plot contrivences to keep the show rolling in the direction envisioned.
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Andy Andybandit 10 months ago
And Alice was kept in a storage room off the kitchen, like the rest of the cleaning supplies.
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Michael 10 months ago
All we had in the sixties was one black & white "portable", a second one after my grandparents died in 1970. No color until 1980. I didn't know anyone with a tv set in their room, though the kid across the street had a set in the basement. I think the pafents must have had atv set elsewhere, but don't know. First time I saw Space Ghost was on that basement TV.
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lynngdance 10 months ago
I watched it! 😆 (And yes, I like his fruity name too lol)
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LoveMETV22 10 months ago
Lol! Love celebs and famous people with food in their name: Halle Berry, Ken Berry, Darryl Strawberry, there's others but just thought of those few with fruit. 🍋🍓
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10 months ago
This comment has been removed.
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Pacificsun 9 months ago
An RCA (1980's) that was still running in 2010. Ended up with another family.
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Coldnorth 8 months ago
I love body part last names. Many of them are pro athletes. Colon, cheeks, head etc
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MrsPhilHarris 10 months ago
I thought on the first or second episode Mike tells Bobby that he doesn’t want him to forget his real mother. I think he may have said the same thing about The girls’s father but I can’t be sure.

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LoveMETV22 MrsPhilHarris 10 months ago
That's a good question. I remember him saying that to Bobby. I don't know if he said anything to the girls about their father.
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MrsPhilHarris LoveMETV22 10 months ago
Maybe he was it jail. 😳
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practicaljokerfan 10 months ago
Carol Brady's cat vanished into the
SITCOM Zone and the name of the cat
Was FLUFFY .
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Peter_Falk_Fan practicaljokerfan 10 months ago
Maybe Chuck Cunningham from "Happy Days" bought Fluffy.
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practicaljokerfan Peter_Falk_Fan 10 months ago
That is right
After Chuck Cunningham 2 Randolph Roberts bought FLUFFY and then
Chuck eloped with Gloria (Linda Purl)
And Bag Zombroski (Neil J. Schwartz)
Eloped with Trudy (Tita Bell) and
MOOSE)Barry GREENBERG) eloped with The cute girl (Carey Williams)
That he was dancing with in the
Happy Days episode Guess Who's coming to Visit. And Marilee (Carol
Williams) changed her mind and
Decided to go on a date with Fonzie's
Friend STICKS (John Anthony Bailey).
I heard that Spike eloped with Jenny
Piccalo Cathy Silvers which made
Eugene BELVIN(Denis Mandel) very
Unhappy. Melvin BELVIN (Scott Bernstein) and Roger Phillips Ted McGinley asked WENDY (Misty Rowe)
To watch SPUNKY when Fonzie
Went on dates with DAPHNE (Hillary
Horan) and Paula Petralonga(Melinda
NAUD).
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practicaljokerfan practicaljokerfan 10 months ago
Also even though Bag eloped with
Trudy from Happy Days Marsha Simms
Had a crush on Bag and when Bag
Left Marsha for Trudy then Marsha
Was left " Holding the bag ".
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RedSamRackham practicaljokerfan 10 months ago
* B-b-b-but whatever became of Davy Gillis? ◘
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Michael 10 months ago
But just a few years before, there was "With Six you Get Eggrolls" and "Yours, Mine and Ours". Both about "blended" families albeit large blended families. I'm surprised neither had influence on the show. Or no mention here, when Doris Day and Lucille Ball had the mother roles.
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magnoliasims Michael 10 months ago
The oldest son, Mike, in "Yours, Mine and Ours" (1968) was played by Tim Matheson (as Tim Matthieson). Twenty-eight years later, Mr. Matheson played Carol Brady's (alleged) long-lost first husband, Roy Martin, in "A Very Brady Sequel" (1996).
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CarolKelley Michael 10 months ago
With Six You Get Eggroll and Yours, Mine and Ours both came out within months of each other with Yours, Mine and Ours the bigger hit. Lucille Ball wanted to buy the basis of YMO, Who Gets the Drumstick, when she read it in the early 60s but it took a few years for the production to come together. Sherwood Schwartz actually wrote the first script for The Brady Bunch long before either movie came out. In the films, both couples were widowed.
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Pacificsun Michael 9 months ago
Yeah, those were actually the originals that inspired the TV sitcoms (all versions of multiples in families).
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