What Is The Brady Bunch's Barry Williams Doing Now?
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"The Brady Bunch" was only on the air for five years, but it's stood the test of time as one of the most beloved and endlessly watchable sitcoms in TV history. The show featured a blended family of eight navigating relatable dilemmas like a measles outbreak, dating woes, and sibling jealousy. (Who doesn't know the line "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"?) Following its final season in 1975, "The Brady Bunch" went on to spawn a number of spinoffs and tributes, including a variety show called "The Brady Bunch Hour," two TV movies, and a cartoon featuring the kids, a magic bird, and two pet panda cubs. You heard us.
Though some of the cast members opted out of the post-"Bunch" projects for various reasons, one of the stars who remained consistent was Barry Williams. The actor played Greg, the eldest Brady and an all-around total sweetheart. Sure, he had his missteps — careless driving, stealing a high school mascot, and his Johnny Bravo stint — but at heart, Greg was the kind of big brother everyone wished they had. Williams' final bow in the role was in the 1990 series "The Bradys." This time, the clan tackled much tougher issues like alcohol abuse and disability, but audiences weren't thrilled, and the show was yanked after six episodes.
Williams has enjoyed a richly varied career away from the familiar ranch house. But he still holds fond memories of his time there, and recent years have found him returning to his Brady roots in very entertaining ways.
Barry Williams is a Broadway veteran and bestselling author
Like his alter ego Greg Brady, Barry Williams' heart was always in performing. After the series wrapped, he launched a successful stage career. Per his professional website, Williams was cast in the title role of "Pippin" for the show's first national tour. From there, he went on to a number of other productions on- and off-Broadway, including "The Music Man," "Oklahoma!", and "Grease." Some years ago, he showed off his singing chops on Rosie O'Donnell's talk show, offering a few bars of "Corner of the Sky" from "Pippin."
Williams' credits also include numerous TV guest appearances on shows such as "Scrubs," "According to Jim," and "That '70's Show," along with a memorable role as con man Hannibal on "General Hospital" in 1984. Still, he knows he'll always be remembered for his most famous role, and he capitalized on that in 1992 with the publication of his bestselling memoir. "Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg" spills the tea on Williams' experiences on the set. Did you know he and his TV sister Maureen McCormick had a serious crush on each other? Or that TV dad Robert Reed used to fight with the show's producers about the scripts' plotlines? Can you guess which episode Williams filmed while he was (gasp!) stoned?
More recently, Williams wrote, produced, and starred in a long-running variety show in Branson, Missouri, called "70's Music Celebration! — Starring Barry Williams." We're guessing colorful fringed jumpsuits with bell bottoms were involved.
Williams helped renovate the famous house
In 2019, the six original Brady kids reunited for the HGTV series "A Very Brady Renovation." The show saw them remodeling the iconic Brady property, which served as the house's exterior on the show, to look just like the familiar kitschy 70's-style interior sets. HGTV described it as "one of the biggest programming events" the network has ever had, according to Country Living.
The aim of the massive project was to honor the TV home's most memorable traits, from its floating staircase to the wood-paneled living room. They even turned the finished basement into Greg's ultra-hip attic bedroom (adding an attic would have drastically changed the house's profile). Williams featured in the second episode of the four-part series alongside former co-stars Mike Lookinland, Eve Plumb, and Susan Olsen (Bobby, Jan, and Cindy), and "Hidden Potential"'s Jasmine Roth. Pop Culture notes the trio had some fun remaking on-screen patriarch Mike Brady's den from the existing kitchen, even if they accidentally built one of the walls around Williams himself.
Though the former castmates enjoyed the experience, it was also bittersweet as they mourned the loss of Brady parents Robert Reed and Florence Henderson, as well as Ann B. Davis, who played housekeeper Alice. "We remembered them every day," Plumb told Entertainment Weekly. "As we went back and forth during the remodel looking at old scenes, they were there with us." As a permanent memento, Henderson's daughter Barbara Chase donated a paperweight belonging to the actress. It now sits in the re-created master bathroom.
Williams runs a podcast with a Brady brother
Hollywood has no end of stories of actors who meshed well on-screen but who loathed each other when the cameras were off. Happily, that wasn't the case for the brothers of "The Brady Bunch." Over the years, Barry Williams has often reunited with younger "sibs" Christopher Knight (who played middle son Peter) and Mike Lookinland (little bro Bobby). They all reprised their roles in the short-lived drama "The Bradys," as well as the holiday TV movie "A Very Brady Christmas."
Knowing their fans just can't get enough of their favorite TV family, Williams and Knight joined forces once again in 2022 to create a podcast called "The Real Brady Bros." Every week, they discuss a particular episode of the show: the plot, their behind-the-scenes memories, and "how each show resonated with the viewers," as the description explains. Their guest stars have included Lookinland, Eve Plumb, and Lloyd Schwartz, son of series creator Sherwood Schwartz.
It's a gig that allows Williams the freedom of working from home. Since 2019, the actor has made his home in Branson, Missouri, where he lives with his third wife, Tina Mahina, a professional hula dancer. He has a 20-year-old son, Brandon, from his second marriage, and an 11-year-old daughter, Samantha, from a rocky relationship with Elizabeth Kennedy.
Williams won hearts — but not the mirrorball — on DWTS
A generation of '70s kids collectively swooned when "Dancing With the Stars" announced its fall 2023 season would feature Barry Williams as one of the celebs partnering with a professional dancer. He was actually the third "Brady Bunch" alum to compete for the coveted mirrorball trophy. Florence Henderson, then 76, appeared in 2010; six years later, Maureen McCormick showed her moves for the judges. Neither one made it to the finals, but Henderson urged her oldest TV son to go on the show. Williams recalled to People, "Being familiar with my theatrical background, she felt that I could do very well. ...[N]o Brady has taken it all the way to the end. So I'm hopeful that I'm going to be that person."
He and partner Peta Murgatroyd were a popular pair, and fans were especially thrilled when they did a foxtrot to a cover of the Bunch's famous number, "It's a Sunshine Day," Alas, Williams' hopes fell short. He and Murgatroyd were eliminated in Week 8, despite a lively salsa performance in which he ripped open his shirt. (Johnny Bravo would have been proud.) Yet the actor was gracious and expressed no regrets. "This has been the most wonderful experience of my life," he declared (via Entertainment Weekly). "Everyone here has made this a complete delight, and I knew I won after the first night."
As long as Barry Williams is there to entertain us, it will always be a sunshine day.