CBS Developing 'Brady Bunch' Reboot

[Enterprise is Great]

Hollywood Reporter

The network has given a script commitment to a reboot of The Brady Bunch from executive producer Vince Vaughn and CBS Television Studios, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

The multicamera comedy about the famed TV family would revolve around the youngest of Mike Brady's boys, Bobby Brady, as a divorced dad who remarries and starts a new family.

Raising Hope's Mike Mariano will pen the project and executive produce alongside Lloyd Schwartz, son of the late Sherwood Schwartz, who created the original ABC sitcom that ran from 1969-74. Vaughn, Victoria Vaughn and Peter Billingsley will also exec produce through the actor's Wild West Picture Show Productions shingle.

The original Brady Bunch revolved around the blended family of Mike (Robert Reed) and Carol (Florence Henderson), but their former spouses were never depicted and rarely mentioned. (Carol was divorced, while Mike's previous wife had died.) The CBS effort would include Bobby and his new bride's exes and, like the original, feature their kids from previous marriages, along with the couple's shared child.

That was pretty inevitable. Just about anything with a nostalgia factor is going to be rebooted eventually.

[Trekker4747]

CBS: Making face-palming decisions since 1927.

[Admiral James Kirk]

I'm assuming that the part of Bobby Brady will be recast. I don't see them casting Mike Lookinland since at 52 he may be considered a little long in the tooth for what they're trying to do.

[Captaindemotion]

I've never actually seen the original show but I think that the two movies they made with Gary Cole, Shelley Long and a young Christine Taylor were hilarious. I'd definitely watch something like them but I don't imagine that this will stick to the premise of the Bradys still acting like its the 1970s, while the rest of the world has moved on.

[Admiral James Kirk]

I don't get the impression this will be a send up like the movies. Of course I also wonder how involved the Schwartz family will be with the writing of this series. I remember they were the ones who revived The Brady Bunch as a thirtysomething style dramady back in 1990.

The Schwartz's wrote the series and... a dramady it was not. The writing was too simplistic to work as drama and the stories were too serious to work as comedy so The Bradys was a whole lot of meh. There's nothing weirder than a bunch of sitcom stars trying to play their goofy characters straight.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Brady Bunch is so dependent on 70's sensibilities that I am not sure a reboot would work.

Unless it's a period piece.

[sojourner]

I bet they'll go with a "comedy of life" drama similar to the old Eight is Enough.

[Enterprise is Great]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

---

Brady Bunch is so dependent on 70's sensibilities that I am not sure a reboot would work.

Unless it's a period piece.

No, it appears to be modern day. I suspect that they're just using the name, basic concept and one of the characters and making the typical modern day sitcom.

[Sheep]

Enterprise is Great wrote:

---

No, it appears to be modern day. I suspect that they're just using the name, basic concept and one of the characters and making the typical modern day sitcom.

So a Modern Family clone with the Brady Bunch name attached to capitalize on that show's success?

I only wish I was kidding.

[Ar-Pharazon]

Admiral James Kirk wrote:

---

I'm assuming that the part of Bobby Brady will be recast. I don't see them casting Mike Lookinland since at 52 he may be considered a little long in the tooth for what they're trying to do.

Not necessarily.

If he's been married long enough to have kids, then get divorced or widowered, then get re-married to a woman with kids, 52 is not that far out.

[CorporalCaptain]

The CBS effort would include Bobby and his new bride's exes and, like the original, feature their kids from previous marriages, along with the couple's shared child.

This passage is unclear.

To clarify, in the original, there was no shared child. The three sons came with Mr. Brady, the three daughters came with Mrs. Brady, and that was the extent of the family. Well, except that Alice was part of the family too. (And Cousin Oliver. And Sam the butcher.)

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I am hoping that the Brady reboot will not do to the original what nuBSG did to original BSG. 'Cause you know "dark and gritty" is still all the rage.

[Owain Taggart]

I don't see this ending well, really. It had its place in the 70's, but could it really hold its ground today? I really don't think so. Besides, we kind of already do have a modern Brady Bunch. It's called Modern Family.

[Trekker4747]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

---

I am hoping that the Brady reboot will not do to the original what nuBSG did to original BSG. 'Cause you know "dark and gritty" is still all the rage.

Well, they tried that in the late 80s/early 90s with a "gritty sequel" to the Brady Bunch. Bobby was a paraplegic, Jan was an alcoholic divorcée, Greg was in a broken marriage due to infidelity of the wife's part, stuff like that. It took the bright, cheeriness of the original series and dumped a big-load of 90s melodrama sludge on it and made the entire family a bunch of sad sacks.

Looking up:

Mike was beginning a political career.
Bobby is made paraplegic after a racing-car accident.
Peter breaks up with the fiancee he proposed to in a telemovie.
Jan and her husband are unable to conceive a child and adopt.
Marcia is a stay-at-home alcoholic mom and her husband is recently unemployed they and their two children move in to the Brady home.
Cindy is in a relationship with her widower boss who is 10 years her senior.

[Admiral James Kirk]

Ar-Pharazon wrote:

---

Not necessarily.

If he's been married long enough to have kids, then get divorced or widowered, then get re-married to a woman with kids, 52 is not that far out.

I would love for them to cast Lookinland but I see them casting some thirty year old hunk in the part.

Trekker4747 wrote:

---

Well, they tried that in the late 80s/early 90s with a "gritty sequel" to the Brady Bunch. Bobby was a paraplegic, Jan was an alcoholic divorcée, Greg was in a broken marriage due to infidelity of the wife's part, stuff like that. It too the bright, cheeriness of the original series and dumped a big-load of 90s melodrama sludge on it and made the entire family a bunch of sad sacks.

Looking up:

Mike was beginning a political career.
Bobby is made paraplegic after a racing-car accident.
Peter breaks up with the fiancee he proposed to in a telemovie.
Jan and her husband are unable to conceive a child and adopt.
Marcia is a stay-at-home alcoholic mom and her husband is recently unemployed they and their two children move in to the Brady home.
Cindy is in a relationship with her widower boss who is 10 years her senior.