This Is What The Brady Bunch Kids Look Like Today
On September 26, 1969, households across the United States turned on their television sets — yes, sets — and watched The Brady Bunch for the very first time. Produced by the same producer as Gilligan's Island, Sherwood Schwartz's new show centered around a remarried widow and widower, each of their three children, and their housekeeper.
According to history.com, The Brady Bunch demonstrated "a wholesome view of family life," instead of tackling controversial topics of the time. Although the show ran for 177 episodes, it never did reach "the top ten ranks of the Nielsen ratings," wrote the Museum of Broadcast Communications. Nevertheless, the show became firmly cemented into pop culture and perhaps found even more success after it ended and went to syndication in the mid-'70s. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the six child actors from the show.
Are you curious to know what they've all been up to? Here's a peek into the lives of the real Greg, Peter, Bobby, Marcia, Jan, and Cindy.
"Things have worked out just fine" for Greg
Barry Williams was cast to play the oldest Brady son, a somewhat girl-crazy and confident high school student named Greg. After the show's fifth season finale, Williams imagined his character going off to college and maybe even getting his very own spin-off show. "And then they pulled the plug," the actor told Closer Weekly in 2018. Just three weeks before production was set to begin on Season 6, The Brady Bunch was cancelled.
Williams said he found out the news on a Friday evening and drove to the set of the show to collect the things from his dressing room the following Monday. "I went in and I drove to my parking space. You know, that's where I parked, where my name was. And what I found was that my name had been painted over and replaced," he revealed. The former child actor said this moment was a "major wake-up call." He decided to put television on the back burner and pursue a career in musical theater instead. He insisted, saying, "Things have worked out just fine."
Peter has a very different career these days
Peter, played by Christopher Knight, is the second-oldest Brady boy. Unlike his charismatic older brother, Peter is a clumsy semi-introvert who often seeks alone time in his backyard treehouse. In an interview with Collectors Cafe in 2016, Knight said he considers Peter to be the "bent Brady." According to the former actor, he was the one that "took us down the path that might not have been, you know, the most noble to begin with and had to learn it."
Since his days playing Peter, Knight starred in the VH1 reality show The Surreal Life, where he met Season 1 winner of America's Next Top Model, Adrianne Curry. The two stars married and starred in their own reality show, My Fair Brady, which ran from 2005 to 2008. By 2011, however, Knight filed for divorce from Curry. As of this writing, Knight is not nearly as involved in the TV business and instead runs his own home furnishings company.
Bobby has become quite the handy man
If you have a little brother, Bobby likely reminds you of what it was like to grow up together. Played by Mike Lookinland, the youngest Brady son always seem to be stuck wanting to fit in with his siblings, while also always getting in their way.
Although Bobby may have faced many of the same challenges as other kids his age, Lookinland did not. Being a child actor didn't exactly afford him the opportunity to just be a kid. The former child actor revealed in an interview with Oprah: Where Are They Now? (via HuffPost), saying, "You should really try to live your childhood when you're a child, because if you do it when you're 26, it can be dangerous."
Lookinland struggled with alcoholism before eventually getting sober and went on to work in film production for two decades. Then one day, when his wife brought home a copy of How to Make Concrete Countertops, Lookinland made the rather rash decision to leave the film industry and — you guessed it — make concrete countertops: a career move he does not regret.
Marcia (Marcia, Marcia) has overcome her struggles
Maureen McCormick was cast to play the oldest Brady daughter, Marcia — the blonde, popular, perfectionist. Although getting braces may have been the worst dilemma McCormick's character had to face, the actress herself had some very real struggles.
"My mom and dad, they almost turned me into the cops," she told Us Weekly, At the time, McCormick had been secretly struggling with drug addiction. "But then I started messing up on jobs and so many things, so I'm sure everyone in the industry at the time knew that I was flaking out," she revealed to the publication. The actress went on to meet Michael Cummings who, thankfully, helped her get, and stay, clean. As of this writing, the couple has been married for 33 years. Since her Brady Bunch days, McCormick has also starred in the fifth season of Celebrity Fit Club and Season 23 of Dancing with the Stars.
Jan is still acting
Eve Plumb's character Jan is the second-oldest Brady daughter and one who has difficulty finding her place in her large, blended family. In the series, she's often jealous of the attention her older sister Marcia receives. Still, Jan is a kind-hearted and lovable member of the family.
Plumb can certainly relate to her character's desire to step out from under her sister's shadow. Though for the actress, she's under her own shadow, or rather, Jan's. "I'll always be Jan Brady to so many people. I can't escape it, but I can do other things," she said in an interview with Closer Weekly in 2018. She joked, saying, "Isn't [Jan] dead yet?"
Unlike many of her former costars, Plumb decided to stay in show business. She's starred in numerous tv shows, like That '70s Show, Army Wives, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. You may have also spotted her in Fox's Grease Live!, in which she played Mrs. Murdock.
Cindy became a... pot farmer?
Susan Olsen secured the part as the youngest Brady daughter, Cindy. Like Bobby, Cindy wants to fit in with the older kids and gets her feelings hurt when her siblings show little interest. Cindy embodied naiveté and innocence, but Olsen? Well, she ended up leading a much different life.
When Olsen grew up, she married "a [marajuana] grower." She explained to news.com.au, saying, "It was really fascinating and I've always been into 'gardening' and it's such a complicated, wonderfully fascinating plant. But that was one of the reasons why I did leave my husband, because it just bothered me too much that we were doing something so illegal."
These days, Olsen is an artist, designer and animal-welfare advocate, according to her biography. The former child actress also went on to host an Internet radio show, Two Chicks Talkin' Politics, for a time, but was fired in 2016 after going off on a lengthy Facebook rant against one the show's guests. Yikes.
The Brady Bunch together again
In September 2019, a brand new series, A Very Brady Renovation, will premiere on HGTV. While the show will feature Property Brothers' Jonathan and Drew Scott and Lara Spencer from Flea Market Flip, the title gives away who this show is really about: The Brady Bunch.
"All six of us are here, together again, after 15 years of not being together as a group," Maureen McCormick revealed in a promo for the show. Together, the cast of the popular series will renovate the home that was used for exterior shots of the Brady family's home. That's right — the exterior. Like other sitcoms, The Brady Bunch was filmed on a set, so they never were in the actual house.
The former cast of the popular sitcom, along with the HGTV gurus, will restore the 2,000-square-foot house — inside and out — to "its original '70s glory," according to the network. We can't wait to see what they come up with!