From 1969-1974, “The Brady Bunch” graced television screens everywhere with good, clean family comedy. The Brady family and their misadventures are an iconic piece of American TV history. The show came in the early years of widespread color TV adoption, and the new technology made for an exciting era of programmed entertainment. But the days before digital cameras were limiting. One drawback to film cameras was the lack of extra footage they could capture.
In today’s modern era, many of us take digital cameras for granted. We can capture silly moments at the tap of a finger and quickly upload them for all to see. Back when Barry Williams was playing Greg Brady on “The Brady Bunch,” however, camera technology was more prohibitive.
In a recent interview with MeTV Tampa Bay, Williams explained why there is a lack of outtake footage from his days on “The Brady Bunch.”
“The difference was, film was expensive. They didn’t save it, and they didn’t waste it. So, I’m sure there were good outtakes but it just was not something we’d do,” Williams said. “We’d move on- you’d get the scene done and get it edited and move on. So no, we don’t have a lot of outtakes from the show.”
It’s not like the show demanded perfection from the Brady family actors. They were plenty of bloopers and mess-ups, as Barry Williams admits. But the cost of the film itself and the editing process on top of it made it so that compiling outtakes didn’t make much sense.
And while we may not have many outtakes from “The Brady Bunch” in character, the video below shows a collection of home movies from the cast behind-the-scenes.
Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick on ‘The Brady Bunch’
As the eldest Brady children, Greg and Marcia shared a lot of time on screen. This meant that Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick were spending a lot of time together. And it’s no secret that the pair had an on-again-off-again type of relationship in their personal lives. But in his 1992 autobiography, “Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg,” Williams elaborated on the dynamic between the two.
“She’d play hard to get, I’d play hard to get, and we’d ignore each other until one of us gave up and gave in,” Barry wrote.
He even described an occasion when the entire cast went on a cruise together, and he made an attempt to set up Peter Brady actor Christopher Knight with Jan Brady actress Eve Plumb. He did this with the intention of sealing the deal with Maureen.
But apparently, his attempt was shot down. And it marked the beginning of a true friendship between the two, which has endured for decades.
