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 headed up the project.
Characters
The original show's six children 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, while Knight's voice was replaced by David E. Smith. The animated series also added some animal characters. Marlon 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. There were also twin giant panda cubs, Ping and Pong, named after the gameping-pong. The pandas only spoke in a Chinese-like gibberish. There were three human characters created for this show: Chuck White was a boastful, self-absorbed teenager who was not above cheating to get whatever he wanted, Fleetwood was his easygoing sidekick and rounding out this trio was Babs, 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.
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. Much of the animation for the series was copied over from another 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 Mop Top'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 as well as The Brady Bunch show itself, 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. Near the end of the theme song, 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.
Episodes
Season 1 (1972)
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Season 2 (1973)
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Home media
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. On June 4, 2019, the complete series was re-released on DVD by CBS/Paramount as a part of The Brady-est Brady Bunch TV & Movie Collection to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original series.
