It was 1981. The world had moved on from the bell-bottoms and AstroTurf of the early seventies, but television executives weren't quite ready to let the Brady family go. Enter The Brady Brides. Most people remember the original series or perhaps the kitschy variety hour, but the ten The Brady Brides episodes represent a very specific, very strange moment in sitcom history. It wasn't just a sequel; it was an attempt to turn a childhood staple into a modern "odd couple" sitcom.
Honestly, the premise sounds like something a fan-fiction writer would drum up after too much caffeine. Jan and Marcia Brady—sisters who spent five years sharing a room and bickering over trophies—decide to have a double wedding and then, for reasons that only make sense in a 22-minute script, decide to buy a house together. With their new husbands. It’s a lot. If you grew up watching the reruns, seeing Eve Plumb and Maureen McCormick as adults in 1981 feels like a fever dream.
The Pilot That Was Actually a Movie
Technically, the whole thing kicked off with a TV movie titled The Brady Girls Get Married. This is where the confusion about the episode count usually starts. When it was later chopped up for syndication, this movie became the first few The Brady Brides episodes. In the movie, we find out what the girls are doing. Marcia is a high-fashion designer in New York (very glamorous), and Jan is an architect in Boston. Wait—an architect? Yeah, they gave her Mike’s profession. It's a nice nod to the original, though Jan still seems to be carrying that "Jan, Jan, Jan" chip on her shoulder.
The conflict of the series is baked into the husbands. Marcia marries Wally Logan, a fun-loving, somewhat irresponsible guy who works in sales. Jan marries Philip Covington III, a stuffy, traditional college professor. Think about that dynamic for a second. You have the "perfect" Marcia and the "neurotic" Jan, now paired with men who are polar opposites. It was a classic 80s setup.
Ranking the 10 The Brady Brides Episodes
You've got to look at these episodes through a vintage lens to appreciate them. They weren't high art. They were comfort food.
The first official episode after the wedding, "Living Together," sets the stakes. The two couples buy a massive Victorian house because neither can afford it alone. It’s a trope we see today in the "co-living" trend, but in 1981, it was presented as a hilarious necessity. Watching them try to split the kitchen space is pure sitcom gold, or at least, silver-plated bronze.
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In "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Murder," the show tries its hand at a mystery. The girls think they witnessed a crime. It’s light, breezy, and reminds you of those old episodes where the kids thought the house was haunted or that they’d found a cursed tiki. The chemistry between McCormick and Plumb is the only thing keeping the ship afloat here. They genuinely feel like sisters who have spent a decade tolerating each other's quirks.
Then there’s "The Siege." This one is weird. The house gets burglarized, and the family ends up trapped. It’s meant to be a bottle episode, focusing on the character dynamics under pressure. You see the husbands, Wally and Philip, trying to "protect" their wives, which feels incredibly dated now but provides a glimpse into the gender roles TV was still clinging to back then.
Why Alice Was Essential
You can't talk about The Brady Brides episodes without mentioning Ann B. Davis. Alice Nelson returns, because of course she does. She isn't the full-time maid anymore, but she pops in to save the day when the domestic chaos hits a breaking point. Her presence provides the literal bridge to the original series. When she’s on screen, it feels like the Brady Bunch. When she’s gone, it feels like a generic 80s pilot that happens to star Marcia and Jan.
Florence Henderson also made appearances as Carol Brady. Robert Reed showed up too. But let’s be real: without the kids (the boys and Cindy/Bobby), the house felt empty. The show struggled to find its identity. Was it a show about young professionals? Or was it a legacy act?
The Canceled Reality
The show didn't last. After those initial ten episodes, NBC pulled the plug. It’s a shame, really, because the "odd couple" dynamic between the husbands had potential. Jerry Houser (Wally) and Ron Kuhlman (Philip) were actually quite good at playing off each other. But the audience didn't want a "new" show. They wanted the old one back. They wanted the stairs, the blue bunk beds, and the Astroturf.
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Interestingly, the show was filmed in front of a live studio audience. You can hear the genuine cheers when the guest stars from the original cast walk through the door. It was nostalgia before nostalgia was a billion-dollar industry.
A Closer Look at the 1981 Aesthetic
If you watch these episodes today, the fashion is the first thing that hits you. The hair is bigger. The colors are muted earth tones—lots of browns and oranges that somehow followed us out of the 70s. Marcia’s wardrobe is particularly fascinating because it’s so "New York chic" for 1981, which mostly means silk blouses and very high-waisted trousers.
The house itself is a character. Unlike the mid-century modern masterpiece Mike Brady designed, this house is a cluttered, Victorian mess. It represents the transition from the structured, clean lines of the 60s/70s to the more eclectic, somewhat chaotic 80s.
Where to Find These Episodes Now
Tracking down The Brady Brides episodes can be a bit of a hunt. They aren't on Netflix or Hulu. Occasionally, they pop up on networks like MeTV or Catchy Comedy during "Brady Marathons." Most fans end up finding old VHS transfers on YouTube or specialized DVD sets like The Brady Bunch: 50th Anniversary Collection.
It’s worth the hunt if you’re a completionist. You get to see a version of Marcia and Jan that isn't just a caricature. They have jobs. They have sex lives (implied, this was still 80s TV). They have real-world problems that don't involve a lost silver platter or a broken vase. Well, mostly.
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The Legacy of the Double Wedding
The double wedding ceremony itself—which spans the first few episodes—is arguably the peak of the series. It was a massive TV event. Seeing all the "kids" grown up was the draw. Even if the subsequent episodes didn't live up to that hype, those wedding scenes are burned into the memories of Gen X-ers everywhere.
It also marked the last time the cast felt truly "together" in that specific sitcom format before the much darker, dramatic 1990 series The Bradys (often called A Very Brady Misery by fans because of its shift to a soap opera tone). The Brady Brides was the last gasp of the "pure" sitcom Brady energy.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often conflate The Brady Brides with The Brady Bunch Hour or the 90s reboot. They are very different animals. The Brady Brides was a genuine attempt at a multi-cam sitcom. It wasn't a variety show with dancing bears, and it wasn't a depressing drama about alcoholism and paralysis (looking at you, 1990 reboot).
It was a show about two sisters trying to grow up without growing apart.
Practical Steps for the Retro TV Fan
If you're looking to dive into this niche corner of television history, here is how you should approach it:
- Watch the Movie First: Don't skip The Brady Girls Get Married. It’s the foundation. Without it, the house-sharing arrangement in the series feels completely insane.
- Focus on the Jan/Marcia Dynamic: Pay attention to how Eve Plumb and Maureen McCormick evolved their characters. There's a lot of nuance in their performances that gets overlooked because of the laugh track.
- Check the Credits: Look for the names behind the scenes. Lloyd Schwartz and Sherwood Schwartz were heavily involved, ensuring that the "Brady DNA" remained intact despite the new format.
- Join Fan Communities: Sites like the Brady Bunch Reviewed blog or various 80s TV Facebook groups are the best places to find high-quality scans of old TV Guide listings and promotional photos from the show's brief run.
The show may have been short-lived, but it remains a fascinating cultural artifact. It captures a family in transition, mirroring a society that was trying to figure out what the 1980s were going to look like. It wasn't perfect, it wasn't always funny, but it was definitely the Bradys. And for many of us, that's more than enough.
To truly understand the evolution of these characters, your next step should be comparing these episodes to the 1988 Christmas movie A Very Brady Christmas. You’ll see that many of the plot points established in the Brides series—like the husbands' personalities—were tweaked or ignored entirely to fit the next iteration of the franchise. It’s a masterclass in how TV continuity used to be a very loose suggestion rather than a strict rule.