If you were watching ABC on Friday, March 8, 1974, you didn't know you were witnessing the end of an era. There was no massive "Farewell" marketing campaign. No tearful retrospective. Just a half-hour sitcom about a high schooler with orange hair. It's honestly bizarre when you think about it. The Brady Bunch series finale, titled "The Hair-Brained Scheme," is one of the most anti-climactic endings in television history. There was no graduation, no wedding, and nobody moved out of that famous suburban Los Angeles house. It just... stopped.
Most people don't realize that the show wasn't even "canceled" in the traditional, dramatic sense while filming was happening. The cast didn't know it was the absolute end. Robert Reed, who played the patriarch Mike Brady, wasn't even in the episode. He hated the script so much that he got written out of the finale entirely. Imagine that. The lead actor of a show that defined 1970s Americana skipped the final episode because he thought the plot about a bumbling kid and some bad hair dye was too stupid. It's a legendary bit of TV trivia that perfectly encapsulates the tension behind the scenes of a show that looked perfect on the surface.
What actually happened in the Brady Bunch series finale?
The plot is incredibly simple. Bobby Brady, the youngest son, decides he wants to get rich quick by selling "Neat & Natural" hair tonic. It's a classic sitcom trope. He sells it to his older brother Greg, who is just days away from his high school graduation. Greg, played by Barry Williams, uses the tonic and wakes up with bright orange hair. The stakes? He has to figure out how to fix it before he walks across the stage to get his diploma. That’s it. That is the final story of the Bradys.
While the kids are dealing with the orange hair disaster, Mike Brady is nowhere to be found. The script explained his absence by saying Mike was "at the office" or away on business. In reality, Robert Reed had sent a multi-page memo to creator Sherwood Schwartz detailing everything he thought was logically wrong with the script. Reed was a classically trained actor who took the "art" of the sitcom very seriously—maybe too seriously. He argued that hair dye couldn't work that fast and that the "science" of the episode was insulting to the audience's intelligence. Schwartz finally had enough of Reed’s constant complaining and told him to stay home. He even intended to replace Reed if the show got a sixth season.
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It never did.
The ratings for Season 5 weren't great. They weren't terrible, but the show was expensive to produce, and the kids were getting older. Greg was heading to college. Marcia was close behind. The "cute" factor that made the show a hit in 1969 was evaporating. ABC pulled the plug after the season wrapped, turning a mediocre episode about hair tonic into the accidental Brady Bunch series finale. It’s kind of funny that a show about family unity ended with the father figure literally refusing to show up for work because he was mad about a bottle of fake dye.
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Why the show survived despite a lackluster ending
You'd think a flat finale would kill a show's legacy. It didn't. In fact, The Brady Bunch became a cultural phenomenon only after it went off the air. Syndication is what saved it. Because there were 117 episodes, local stations could air it every day after school. That's where the "Brady" brand was built. Kids in the late 70s and 80s watched those episodes on a loop. They didn't care that the finale was a dud; they just liked seeing Peter's voice crack or Jan crying about "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia."
The lack of closure in the Brady Bunch series finale actually made the subsequent TV movies and spin-offs feel more necessary. Fans wanted to see the kids grow up because the original show never gave them that satisfaction. We eventually got The Brady Girls Get Married, The Brady Brides, and the surprisingly dark 1990 dramedy The Bradys.
The Robert Reed factor
Reed’s absence in the finale remained a sore spot for years. He actually showed up on set the day they filmed it, despite being written out. He wanted to watch the filming and hang out with the kids, but Schwartz reportedly told him to leave because his presence was distracting. It’s a sad detail. Despite his frequent clashes with the producers, Reed loved the child actors like they were his own family. To have him missing from the final frame of the original series remains a glaring hole for any hardcore fan.
Sorting through the "Lost Season" rumors
Every few years, a rumor pops up on social media or old forums that there was a "lost" sixth season or a different filmed finale. That’s not true. There was a script for a premiere of Season 6 where the family would have traveled to another location—similar to their trips to Hawaii or Grand Canyon—but it was never shot.
The reality is much more mundane. The show ended because it ran its course. By 1974, the world was changing. The Vietnam War was ending, Watergate was in the news, and the "sugar-sweet" vibe of the early 70s was giving way to the grittier, more cynical late 70s. The Bradys felt like a relic of a simpler time that didn't really exist anymore.
Actionable ways to revisit the Brady legacy today
If you want to experience the Brady Bunch series finale and the surrounding history with fresh eyes, don't just re-watch the episode. There’s a whole ecosystem of media that fills in the gaps left by that abrupt ending.
- Watch 'A Very Brady Renovation': In 2019, HGTV bought the actual house used for the exterior shots in Studio City and brought all six "kids" back to renovate the interior to match the sets. It’s the closest thing to a "real" finale the cast ever got. It’s incredibly emotional and shows the genuine bond they still have.
- Read 'Growing Up Brady' by Barry Williams: If you want the real dirt on the finale, this is the source. Williams goes into detail about the orange hair, the Robert Reed drama, and what it was like to realize the show was over.
- Track the Spin-offs Chronologically: To get the closure the finale missed, watch The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (if you can handle the camp), then The Brady Girls Get Married, and finally the 1988 Christmas movie A Very Brady Christmas. The Christmas movie was a massive ratings hit and serves as a much better "ending" for the characters than the hair tonic episode.
- Visit the House (From the Sidewalk): You can still see the house at 11222 Dilling St, North Hollywood. Just remember it's a quiet neighborhood—don't be the person who tries to walk up to the front door.
The Brady Bunch series finale might have been a fizzle rather than a bang, but it didn't matter. The show was never about the plot anyway. It was about the comfort of knowing that no matter how much hair tonic you spilled or how many footballs you threw at your sister's nose, things would be okay by the time the credits rolled. Even if Mike Brady wasn't there for the very last one, his "lessons" lived on in syndication for the next fifty years.