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The “Brady Bunch” cast has revealed why the classic sitcom never explained what happened to Carol Brady’s first husband — despite being more forthcoming about Mike Brady’s first wife.
Christopher Knight, who played middle son Peter Brady on the beloved series, and Barry Williams, who played oldest son Greg Brady, opened up about the mystery on Tuesday’s episode of their “The Real Brady Bros” podcast.
The pair were joined by their former “Brady Bunch” co-stars Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady) and Mike Lookinland (Bobby Brady).
They re-watched and discussed the first-ever episode of the show, “The Honeymoon,” and why it established that Mr. Brady (Robert Reed) was a widower while Mrs. Brady’s (Florence Henderson) situation was left more ambiguous.
The show’s creator, Sherwood Schwartz, insisted that Mrs. Brady be a divorcee even though the network wanted her to be a widow.
“There was a whole discrepancy in the basis of the show, in the concept of the show that the network fought Sherwood Schwartz on, and that is the premise was a widower with three sons and a divorcee with three daughters,” Williams, 70, explained. “And the network felt that a divorcee created too many problems for the series.”
Some of those “problems” included why Mrs. Brady and her first husband divorced and what their custody arrangement looked like.
“We’re playing to a very conservative country,” he said. “So they wanted Carol to be a widow.”
Knight, 67, confirmed that Schwartz “never changed” Mrs. Brady from a divorcee to a widow like ABC wanted. Her ex-husband was never even mentioned in the show’s first episode.
“Sherwood never changed it,” Knight said, “but they agreed to disagree, and it was left unhandled, which is why you never see in our pilot episode Carol’s ex-husband.”
Still, some fans were left confused because it was established that Mrs. Brady’s maiden name is Tyler. However, she went by Carol Martin before changing her last name to Brady upon her marriage to Mike.
“What was interesting is, you mentioned, that they leave it,” Knight added during the podcast. “They don’t deal with Mr. Martin by reference even.”
As for Mr. Brady’s first wife, and the three Brady boys’ real mother, the cast acknowledged that there was a “really touching scene” in the first episode where Greg, Peter and Bobby talk about her – although she is never mentioned again.
“I think that’s kind of sad,” Olsen, 63, said before calling attention to one particularly vague line of dialogue said by Mrs. Brady in the premiere episode.
“Three years ago,” she said, “I thought it was the end of the world, and now it’s just the beginning.” It is unclear if Mrs. Brady said that because her first husband passed away or because they divorced, and the viewers were reportedly left to decide.
The lack of explanation about Mrs. Brady’s first husband ultimately led to the plot of the 1996 film “A Very Brady Sequel,” which followed “The Brady Bunch Movie” from one year prior.
“A Very Brady Sequel” saw Tim Matheson play Mrs. Brady’s alleged first husband, Roy Martin, who claimed to have suffered from amnesia and undergone plastic surgery.
Cindy and Bobby later discover that “Roy Martin” is actually a con man impersonating Mrs. Brady’s first husband. The film saw Shelley Long play Carol Brady, Gary Cole play Mike Brady and Christine Taylor as the oldest daughter, Marcia Brady.
In addition to discussing the mystery behind Carol’s first husband, Olsen revealed on Tuesday that she “almost died” on set while filming the pilot.
“The Brady Bunch” aired on ABC for five seasons from 1969 to 1974.
