The Brady Bunch

Creator Sherwood Schwartz conceived the show in 1966 after reading in the Los Angeles Times that 30% of marriages in the US had a child or children from a previous marriage, and initially developed the pilot under the working title 'Mine and Yours', later 'The Brady Brood'.

Schwartz always intended Carol Brady to be a divorcée, but ABC objected due to conservative attitudes toward marriage in 1969, so the show never directly revealed whether Carol was widowed or divorced, leaving her first husband's fate unaddressed.

The show's premise had similarities to the 1968 films Yours, Mine and Ours and With Six You Get Eggroll, but the original Brady Bunch script actually predated both movie scripts; the box-office success of Yours, Mine and Ours nonetheless helped convince ABC to order the series.

For the role of Mike Brady, Schwartz originally cast Bob Holiday, known for playing Superman on Broadway, but network executives overrode this due to his lack of on-camera experience; Gene Hackman was also considered but was largely unknown at the time, so the role went to Robert Reed.

Comedic actress Joyce Bulifant was nearly cast as Carol Brady and had already done screen tests with child actors; Eve Plumb was cast as Jan partly because of her resemblance to Bulifant, but once Ann B. Davis was cast as the wacky housekeeper Alice, producers decided a more grounded mother was needed, leading to Florence Henderson's casting instead.

Six child actors were chosen from 264 interviews conducted during summer 1968, with Schwartz keeping in reserve three blonde and three brunette boys plus three blonde and three brunette girls until the parents' actors were confirmed, since the parents' hair colors were intended to contrast.

Filming of the pilot episode began on Friday, October 4, 1968, and lasted eight days, with sets built on Paramount stage 5 next to the H.R. Pufnstuf stage, while the chaotic backyard wedding scene was filmed at a real home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles.

The original dog playing Tiger died early in season one; a replacement proved problematic, so producers decided the dog would only appear when essential to the plot, and Tiger vanished from the show entirely after the episode 'The Impractical Joker', though his doghouse remained visible in the backyard for the rest of the series.

The show's famous three-by-three grid opening title sequence used the then-new 'multi-dynamic image technique' created by Canadian filmmaker Christopher Chapman, filmed by visual effects pioneer Howard A. Anderson Jr.; a version of the same technique had appeared in the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, and the effect became so associated with the show it was dubbed the 'Brady Bunch effect' in the press.

The interior Brady house sets were reused for other Paramount shows filming concurrently, including twice for Mannix and once for Mission: Impossible, where the actual Brady furniture was also used on screen.

In the middle of the final season, producers added young cousin Oliver to fill the age gap left by the maturing Brady children, but fans disliked the character, and the failed attempt is now referred to as 'Cousin Oliver Syndrome' when shows add a new character to try to stave off cancellation.

The house used for exterior shots in Studio City was originally built in 1959, and had little resemblance to the show's interior sets until it was gutted and renovated in 2018 to actually match the soundstage layout, with HGTV outbidding buyers including NSYNC's Lance Bass to purchase it for that renovation.

Despite never placing in the Nielsen top 30 during its original five-season run and receiving no major awards until 1989, The Brady Bunch became a massively popular syndicated staple, and the episode 'Getting Davy Jones' was later ranked number 37 on TV Guide's list of the 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.