 This is the SF Productions podcast network When a dollar went a long way and so did 24 hours The 60s in the 70s growing place of a lost generation We who grew up in this era had no real heroes our role models came from the imaginations of others Our meager lives were formed by and revolved around weekly installments of our favorite TV programs Welcome to a place that your parents didn't understand A place that exists somewhere between the forefront of Recollectible memory and the edge of everyday thought Welcome to the vast wasteland Welcome home. Good evening and welcome to another exciting episode of vast wasteland I'm your host Mark Schmidbar along with Wilbert Neal and Marty Wiley. We're here to talk about the 60s and 70s television and The last few months we've seen something on today's television that certainly reminds us of those classic days of 70s television It's that new Brady series. We've all been very excited about and it and by the time you see this actually as we tape this the show has already been canceled. There's only on five shows and Since it's been on and died we want to discuss things like why didn't it work and Not only the Brady's another show that was brought back and it seems to be working is to leave it to beaver So this week it's the Brady's versus the cleavers and I'll turn the Proceedings over to Wilbert for this first question of the evening. Well by golly, you know the Brady's they actually started in the 50s And then by the time the cleavers Start again They actually started back in the 50s and by the time we Well, I can say by the time I actually saw them. Well, let's see right here They first aired on October 4th of 1957 the last show aired September 12th 1963 so it counts. It counts. It does count. Yes by golly. They don't write in and so they would have Just been syndicated syndicated forever since then so they're still actually being shown We're still actually seeing old shows now and then here within the last what would you say last year the year before last? Oh, no, it's about three years since they started the The revival the new leave it to beaver. Well, didn't they start with like a movie or two first? I think I think there was a movie that I remember where beaver came back home divorced with his kids with little Kip and little Oliver and I can't remember exactly while he was living next door to mom then or not I don't think he was married yet. Some sort of deal I'm not sure but I Think that kind of since it was successful it kicked on in gave of mr. Turner in Atlanta a great idea Oh, let's bring it back. Let's go for it Ted Turner the keeper of old shows as hey Let's renew this would go everybody's still around most also people are still around. Let's do a new show They all still know each other What's so nice about the new one is June has a life now way Basically Ward kicked off June went to college What else she do City Council, right mayor, right? President next probably your president grandma Wasn't a real estate agent at some point. No Maybe it was a standard occupation for widowed housewives Automatically, I don't know Carol's doing it. She's not aware yet on the Brady, right? But it seems like as soon as the kids move out. That's like they all go to real estate college and come back out and Starts I'm not sure She was into real estate or not. I just remember the city council the following gun repair Did the real estate or whatever so then she went on into politics and now she's the mayor of the whole darn place We're just well. That's interesting too. Carol now has a career, right now that the kids are out of the house She's like she did anything anyway. Yeah Like she did anything besides I didn't solve problems Alice did all the real work around so Carol matriarch. Yeah Solve your problems oh young children of ours. She wasn't a brownie leader. I mean she what did she do? What did she do with all her time? Executive wife Professional wife I mean really I just keep the logistics of the whole thing. I think pretty much was she did kind of help in the kitchen Right, right help the hired help. Mm-hmm. She was a homemaker that doesn't mean she was a home doer He would supervise Everybody they're chores and watch them mess up, right? Exactly and then Alice would have to come in to straighten it up. They don't have the dog anymore either Pretty darn good chance. He couldn't come back neither could say I'm they both died We've noticed in the new in the new series of course now you can't find this out because it's now lost to oblivion We're talking about the Brady series Yeah, the new Brady series is that the actor that played Sam the butcher, which I can't remember his name offhand No, it was the actor who played that so, you know, we figured well Alice will be a widow. No, no, no, no, no Sam's still around but he's never on camera. She just talks to him on the phone Yes, it yes, Sam. I'll be home a little while over at the Brady's You know, it's like that one twilight zone episode where they kept talking to somebody on the phone And you you go and find out where the phone line goes and it goes straight into the grave there, but anyway That type of thing yeah, and it's funny Alice is still calling her. Mrs. Brady. Mr. Brady after all these years Can you call him couldn't call her Carol come on? Yeah, it's like you've known her for years for goodness sakes She doesn't like those names Carol and Mike She's got sermon died as well. I've been a sermon to all my life. Yes, my lord Notice how readily she became she wanted to be the babysitter for the the grandkids Just a gleam They got Alice try to cat burglarize their house Go after the Brady jewels So work for us for the rest of your life or we'll send you to jail Even when you don't work for us just come over all the time No, we always call us Mr. and Mrs. Right We are not your friends. We are your employee Never address us as my arm But the thing is what you know, you look at the the Beaver and you look at the new Brady show and it's like one show worked in the show didn't and what's the difference Why did one show work near the show didn't well? I think it was that I'm leaving to be I can't really I can't really speak a lot for either show because I was never really an avid watcher of either one But from the the aura the mystique that each show gives we can look and say that the leave it to be for show dealt with Real more realistic things Well, I'll be at a comedy. I mean, you know and so much for comedy and then it's in Hollywood or wherever It's a show so you can't deal with every problem and they weren't really necessarily Problems, right? They were like a warm at ease situation. Yes. They were situations They're childish situations too because it was basically the kids that did every did the that's the key to the The new show you still see beaver Wally lumpy eddy but the new show kind of centers on the the next generation Because a lot of the new show revolves around Kip and Oliver the little girl whose name I can never remember now The new baby who grew up like six months to three years, right? Well, that's a real TV kid Situation comedies. It's like hey, it's like we can do about four or five episodes about the other kids being Being jealous of the new kid and then it's like hey, he's dead waiting till he can talk We got to get him till the point he can talk and then we can slow down his aging a little bit But it's like all it's it's still centers on the kid, right and the kids still go like they did in the old show They always went it always wound up to to ward the wise Well beaver Wally you screwed up again It always comes down to the kids have to go to one of the adults usually whichever one is their parent or it's a Wise old grandmother cleaver right and find a solution. Yeah, and like then like the new show though. It's the the beaver the the Brady show You have new people you have new cast members But you never see a scene with just them and they're not and they're not at all the center of attraction The new characters and the Brady series is kind of like yeah, they're there and they're in the background And most of the spouses or grandkids or something But it's really that the show is not about them and there's never a scene with just them It's always got to be it's got to be at least one Brady in there one original one original Well, they don't have the original Marsha. I think that's heard of yeah, but they didn't write that again They've never had yeah, they've never I mean for years we had the had Susan Olson the renegade Brady He refused to come back and play Cindy and now finally she's doing it and and now Marie McCormick No, no, I'm now I'm not gonna do it. So and then when they had well, let's look here They had the Brady bunch hour. They had a different Jan that was a very variety hour. That's true The break much variety It's like a law of the universe if you have more than three or four children. They become a singing group Here here earlier in the 80s there were the Brady brides where you had both Marsha and Jan there But no Cindy at all. No, we won't have a Cindy That was one of the things where she didn't want to come back there It's true. They have some men listed here, but none of the guys dad wasn't there. Well, that's true Well, it's the Brady brides. Oh, it's like some wedding, huh? Brady group wedding the Brady bride That's what they should have done. They should have the Brady group wedding every one of them find a spouse Preferably all the boys marry somebody else a group of sisters all the girls could have married a group of brothers It could have really gone on I mean, there were so many things if you watch the new Brady series It just didn't make any it was corny of things It just it's like this was a big mistake like the first episode when they when they started talking about this publicity wise They said that said well, we're gonna go it's gonna be 60% drama and 40% comedy big mistake right there Well, so they did that for like one episode and they and they got rid of the other voice of the left track and And they tried it for one episode and it's obviously didn't go over well So like during the next week some frenzied editor dropped a laugh track into the second episode Laugh track. We've got one here. It's a very important need left track. This was one of the staple comedies We're looking at the 70s. We've got a laugh track Comedy without laugh track. This is a new character the TV executive The man who makes the decision TV executive guy So and so right by the time they got to the third episode they had said that That's it this draw this whole drama bit is not working. So we're going straight back into the comedy You know this wacky situations and I wasn't the first episode or the second episode where Who's it Bobby had the big accident first episode Bobby had an accident. Okay, I started out with drama At least they they got that other way Those who haven't watched it and that probably would be most of you because it's gone You got to understand Bobby in the first episode is a was a racecar driver And he got in an accident and now he's in a wheelchair and he's married to Martha Quinn. Yeah, we're not sure why but and We don't know if that would be for after an accident, right? right No, I did happen after the accident. That's it really yeah Because he got married that the same episode. No, well I got there recuperation There's girls all over him. He's all happy. He gets the loving cup He drops the little the lucky the lucky horseshoe thing it braced. Oh, that was my good luck I'm sorry. Yeah, he gets up there and runs around the track again. Boom And then he marries Martha Quinn down the tube down no luck for him anymore and his hair turned blonde Yeah, well he was starting to do that as he got older on the series. Okay, and then he's all blonde. Well, yeah He's totally blonde now But but his hair was always lighter than the other one. Greg loses his hair. Yes, isn't that scary? He's the only one that kept his hair. Greg is Robert Reed's clone. Peter's going through the the the the the check-off Grayson thing. He just gets a bigger version of himself. His hair stays the same Yeah, but he still looks like But he still looks the like oh, yeah, he just grew up scary So you see you got so you got You got Bobby and then you've got Jan Jan's the alcoholic now. No Marsha was the alcohol Marsha is the alcohol. Yeah, it's still pretty much looks like Jan. Yeah, Jan is Jan. Jan became an architect. That's right Marsha in I think it was like the fourth episode Was starting to have problems because she didn't feel like she was doing anything useful and so bam She's an alcoholic turning into her mother Instant alcoholic and he said oh, I'm gonna go for some some training or treatment some treatment and Yeah, it was like in the last 10 minutes of the show. They said I'm gonna go for treatment The next show there's no reference to it So we figure a month of gone by or the hell of a treatment Shock therapy or something for people So so by by the fifth episode it's just got completely One the first and the second when they were continuation, right Okay, Brady's tradition is you have a problem and you solve it in a half an hour, right? The beaver the beaver cleavers that group they're still solving their problems in a half an hour, right? They they get it done And the Brady's trying to drag it out. Oh, we've got problems now. We're grown Mr. Executive again He's got the Brady's the Brady's were on from 69 to 74 Five years here five five big years here and not once was there a continuation You know, but um, we got a half hour show here five five years and we've got several incarnations We've got we've got the Brady brides here from 81 Well February 81 to April of 81. That's not a long time, right? Well, we've got a well, hey this Brady bunch hour from January 77 to May of 87 that didn't last long It was the it was a cartoon actually. Yeah, the Brady kids this animated cartoon spin-off from the Brady bunch and In and and I think this was the only this was the only Spin-off that actually included the all the kids no all the real kids all just voices but Except for for some reason The the parents have disappeared. No, there's the kids From 72 to August of 74. We've got a whole two years. Yeah, that was a big show there two years for big seasons and For some reason panda bears are involved It's a cartoon yeah You know they have no I don't think they don't have any animals the cleavers never had any animals Well, that's the cleavers. I mean you got a kid named beaver. What do you mean? You got you got you got funny because they all still look like themselves, too. You got a Eddie Haskell He's pretty much a weasel anyway You need no animals you got lumpy Here's another animal age we don't need animals on the show we've got kids That's too bad though the Brady's they they lost their dogs. They've lost their show But they still got Alice well, they yeah, don't always be Hey mom was supporting the pool layer do so Yeah, she and Alice must be seeing the same hairdresser. I think so I think so Right mom's hair was all white wasn't it great? It's like these kids I think one reason that the Brady's didn't work and The cleavers work the cleavers was always better show anyway Okay, well Let's see we're looking at okay. Look you got the Brady Bunch. You got six kids in one house. They never fight No I don't like you You're seven of families no good And they're going oh, oh you dark boys you oh you boys stay out of our rooms forever Thought it's psychological or torture going on my clothes I mean except for this last is this last episode That will hopefully be the last episode They never had a fight like that before That's true. It was never it was always boys against girls. It was never Brothers against brother I mean the girls might have had their spats, you know Did the girls ever try to go up with the same guy? Did they ever happen? No, no Okay, that would have happened and yet did they ever try out both of them trout for cheerleader and Oh, I'm sure that Oh, of course we had the middle child show where Jan being the middle child all of a sudden had her middle child crisis Martian better cuz she's older and Cindy's better cuz she's a baby and I'm just Jan went out and bought the black wig And wore the share hair for an episode Oh, yes, now we remember okay, I mean you haven't seen these I guess I'll have to say I studiously avoid her I'll turn to Brady I'll still watch the old leave it to beaver and I'll watch the new leave it to beaver Because even though they're a little bit corny. They're more It's that nuclear family thing. It's all perfect. It's kind of unreal in that sense, right, but Yet it was more realistic. I think it's that it's like it was the corny-ness that that kept it going I think it was the corny-ness that kept the original brady series going It was it was it was schmaltzy, but it was corny Oh, they had they had wonderful things happen like davie jones came to their house after his career was over, but It's like, oh, yes, I'm the president of davie jones fan club. He will come and do our prom. Yeah But he did but he did yes, you know Those shows never they I've never I've yet to see a comedy show like that where They promise where somebody's going to come to their show and they don't show up I've never seen that happen. They always somehow work it out where that person. Well, you see you see it You've seen it a couple times in the 80s, but now you know, it's like Now this all this social relevance has to be in every sitcom. Well a very special episode of my two dads Break I think that's I think that's kind of one of the things that killed the brady's too Their shows were fun, but they never really had to be relevant But now they need the relevance and I think the relevance. Well, they think they need the role It was mr. Exactly. Yeah, mr. Jackie is the relevance We've got to make it just like the relevance, but a laugh track right where the new cleaver show is still in the same little hometown The problems are little home town problems. I mean, you know, I think the worst thing that's ever happened was Kip the oldest son got mono He bounced back about the hometown that's that's another thing that they It's in the new brady show is the fact that there's like no attention to continuity at all In that the first episode they established that the kids have moved all over the country Yeah, and then like by the third episode, they all seem to live in the same town la. Yeah, it's like wow How did that happen? I'm confused, you know, because well, I mean State agents. Well, I mean the obvious thing is that the is that the producers said, you know This is going to be really tough to dream up a reason to have them dry You know or fly from all over the country every episode every episode. So well, that was probably a dumb idea to have them all over the country let's just forget we did that and We'll just blow that off You know, they probably would have done better if they had left the kids all over the country and zoomed in on one family a week And said, oh, let's see what Greg's doing this week Because you could always keep in touch with long distance In the coveted brady christmas movie They did that a lot Only near the end did they all come to the same place because they were doing all this so Oh, uh, you know, they wanted to get all the kids together For christmas and they went oh dad I can't go I got this and that and the other and and but there was actual Some information as to what was happening in their lives there, which they've just kind of Everything has to take place, you know, I think there's just too much near the brady house There's just too many people on the brady show. It's like you got to get a scorecard. I'm sitting there going like Yeah, it is. Who's he married to? Which one? That is true And who married to her and and I thought it was funny that little cindy Who painfully lists through every brady show was a disc jockey This doesn't make any sense to me Face your fear and don't disappear and she went further than facing it by golly Yep, you're right and that's and what's greg a doctor. I could not figure out ever what peter was doing He is a swinging kind of guy. Hey, I'm going out with uh Yeah All the kids are like Upstanding young adults and he's like a sleaze. Well, he can't stand I'm sitting he sits up straight. Yeah, he was walking in here. That's true. Yeah, he was at the at the terrible dinner party Yeah, but uh, well, we were talking we were talking about About martha quinn what the deal was with her and I had heard the theory that That the reason they got martha quinn because they needed somebody short enough So it wouldn't be awkward with bobby in the wheelchair. So I need a really short actress martha quinn. There we go They did want somebody a certain height they were looking for um, oh like there's nobody else that small Five feet tall, you know, and she went out for the for the casting call and she just I mean There were a bunch of other other people there, but she was the one in them getting them PB cage, you know I think the main problem with the brady shows there's two They try to get everybody in every episode right now. You don't see everybody on Believe it's beaver show You're mainly dealing with The second the kids right you've got a little freddy haskell who's almost as slimy as eddie Then there's boomer who shows up every once in a while from military academy whose eddie's other son Um, you've got, you know, uh, oliver kip the little girl and her little brother Wally's kids the little girl little brother than beaver's kids and two boys and that's really all you're dealing with them and The parents were needed right And not where with the brady's it was like keep a scorecard because oh now let's see how many we can fit into one scene There's jen there's cindy just never just see cindy in any family scenes really She's always at the radio station floating with the station manager. What was it k b Well k blah K blah radio Broadcasting from los angeles k blah Under what do you say what that is k brady l. A I guess um all this laughter and merriman we're about running out of time. Here we are. It's incredible Well next episode of vast wasteland. We're gonna be talking about all the uh, live action superhero shows So you want to stay uh Just tune in for that whenever we're on the next time and we're just not sure when for all of us here at vast wasteland We'll uh, see you later. Yeah