"It's all going wrong! Why couldn't I have been one of the Waltons?" - Geri Reischl as Jan Brady
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
The Brady Bunch Hour is perhaps one of the strangest follow-up series ever created. This becomes evident the second that its kazoo version of the Brady Bunch theme song kicks in. The world of the show has many planes of reality, each of them bizarre. In it, the clan from the sticky sweet sitcom The Brady Bunch sells their iconic home, moves into a beach house, and performs in a variety show written by youngest son Bobby.
Apparently their new home is very, very large, as it accommodates an oversized pool (complete with the aquatic ballet performers The Water Follies) and a studio audience (or make that a "living room audience" since their living room rolls right onto the stage so that the Bradys can interact with the audience during "at home" segments of the show). After all, this is not merely a variety show featuring characters from an old sitcom. It is instead a variety show featuring characters from an old sitcom putting on a variety show AS characters from an old sitcom. The conceit circles back upon itself so many times it is almost headache inducing.
This show puts the "high" back into "high concept." Who can resist the Bradys singing a disco medley of "Baby Face" and "Love to Love You, Baby"? Or Donnie and Marie - as "Donzie and Marie" - singing "Splish Splash" with the Bradys while rollerskating their way through a lame Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley parody? Or Florence Henderson dressed as a clown in a circus-style "firefighting clowns" act.set in the pool?
These production numbers alternate with scenes set in the Brady's house. The home segments tend to be a little off tone-wise. Everything comes across as a bit too heavy. When Greg announces that he is moving out of the house, he is met with a reaction usually reserved for news of a terminal brain tumor. The actors all seem a little uncomfortable in these scenes, probably because they were dealing with similar themes as their original series but were employing a different filming style.
Geri Reischl replaces Eve Plumb as Jan in this series. In the first episode, Jan is fatalistic to the point of absurdity. She literally uses the word "dead" (or some form of it) in every sentence, except, of course, during her "Shake Your Booty" solo. This is actually so weird that it is amusing, but this quirk is dropped in subsequent episodes. All of the other original actors return to their roles. This allows viewers the sublime pleasure of watching Susan Olsen's Cindy lisp even while lip syncing and Robert Reed struggle to sing and dance. (Here's a fun game: count how many times he is shoved to the side in production numbers so that he can easily be cut out of the frame).
Hour was produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in their usual subtle, understated style. In addition to a gratuitous visit from H.R. Pufnstuf, viewers can look forward to gaudy colors and sequins covering everything in sight, including, in one segment, Florence Henderson's hair.
The Kroffts were also responsible for the early '80s variety show abomination Pink Lady. Unlike that series, Hour is able to transcend its awfulness and be entertaining. The fact that it is terrible becomes an asset rather than a liability. It is too bad that Rhino chose to release the entire run of Pink Lady in a DVD boxed set while only these two episodes of The Brady Bunch Hour have been offered up thus far.
The Brady Bunch Hour ran sporadically on ABC from January to May of 1977. With the current rise in "meta" entertainment, like Spike Jonze's Adaptation, maybe the show was simply ahead of its time. The entire Brady oeuvre is practically a study in meta. The clan has appeared in many forms over the years. The original series was followed by an almost hallucinogenic cartoon series called The Brady Kids, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, The Brady Brides (2/81 - 4/81), a sitcom in which the two eldest daughters marry in a double ceremony.and then share a house, The Bradys (2/90 - 3/90), a "realistic" drama, The Real Life Brady Bunch, a stage spoof using scripts from the original series, and two campy Brady feature films. Each incarnation has been more knowing and self aware than the one preceding it.
Two episodes are included on this DVD. The episodes are labeled "Volume 1" and "Volume 2." With its extensive setup of the show's concept (and a different version of the Brady home than in the other episode), Volume 1 appears to be the first episode of the series. Based on some of the dialogue, however, Volume 2 does not seem to be the actual second episode of the series.
Guests in these two episodes include Ann B. Davis as Alice, Donny & Marie Osmond, Tony Randall, Rip Taylor, Vincent Price, and H.R. Pufnstuf. The Kroffetts dancers also appear. T-shirt wearing, Hollywood Square-ing human Muppet Bruce Vilanch was a writer on the show.
The DVD is housed in a keepcase. The back of the case gives a plot synopsis of the episodes along with a list of the stars and guest stars. Each episode is divided into eleven chapters, and a single-sheet insert lists the chapter shops for each episode.
The menu design is simple yet fun. The background features a reedited version of the show's opening credits and the accompanying kazoo-heavy theme song. Menu options include playing Volume 1 or 2, viewing combined chapter stops for both, or an interview with Susan Olsen and Michael Lookinland. Upon choosing either chapter stops or the interview, the menu breaks into a revamped version of the tic-tac-toe opening of the original series.
