{"id":7060957,"date":"2026-09-19T09:20:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T09:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-january-16-2026-the-boob-tube-in-the-60s-70s-the-brady-bunch\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T09:20:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T09:20:52","slug":"americanstudies-january-16-2026-the-boob-tube-in-the-60s-70s-the-brady-bunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7060957","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: January 16, 2026: The Boob Tube in the 60s & 70s: The Brady Bunch"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[This week marks the 60th<\/sup> anniversary<\/a> of the
\ndebut of the Batman<\/i> TV show & the 50th<\/sup><\/a> of The
\nBionic Woman<\/i>. So I\u2019ll AmericanStudy those shows & three others from the
\n60s & 70s, all of which happen to start with the letter \u2018B\u2019! I\u2019d love your
\nresponses and other TVStudying thoughts for a crowd-sourced weekend post that
\nneeds no \u201cApplause\u201d sign.]<\/p>\n

On how the iconic sitcom avoided controversy, how it got closer to
\nthe line, and a secret third thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Brady Bunch<\/a><\/span><\/i> only
\naired for five seasons, from September 1969 through March 1974, which boggles my
\nmind when I think about how often I watched its reruns as a kid (and, yes, how
\nlarge its shadow looms in the TV world<\/a>
\nas well as our broader cultural
\nconsciousness<\/a>). But I can\u2019t imagine a more fraught social and political
\nmoment in which those five seasons could have been located, from the deepening
\nVietnam War and its
\nprotests<\/a> to almost the entire unfolding of the
\nWatergate scandal<\/a> (Nixon resigned just five months after the show\u2019s run
\nended). And while of course a sitcom wouldn\u2019t necessarily dive deep into those
\nkinds of issues, it\u2019s pretty striking how fully The Brady Bunch<\/i> avoided
\neven the barest whisper of them. For example, oldest child Greg (Barry Williams)
\nwas certainly of the age where he would have been thinking about the war and
\nthe draft, but such questions were never mentioned; nor, for another example,
\ndid any of the show\u2019s strong female characters (no, not even Alice<\/a>) ever refer
\nin any direct way to the second-wave feminist movement. Its rough contemporary All in the Family<\/a><\/i>
\n(1971-1979) The Brady Bunch <\/i>was definitely not.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are different ways to push the envelope, though, and while
\nthe Bradys didn\u2019t generally do so through overt plotlines or dialogue, that
\ndoesn\u2019t mean that the show wasn\u2019t without its controversial elements. One of
\nthem was controversial enough that it never got overtly mentioned: while Mike
\nBrady (Robert Reed) was a widower, Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) was intended
\nto be divorced<\/a>, and the subject was still taboo enough that her first
\nhusband was simply never
\nmentioned at all<\/a>. But another controversial element was present on screen
\nin many of the episodes: the fact that Mike and Carol shared a bed, and were frequently
\ndepicted talking about
\nthe show\u2019s events<\/a> while getting ready to go to sleep in that single bed. This
\nwasn\u2019t the first TV
\ncouple<\/a> to do so, but it was without question the most prominent
\nsuch early instance<\/a>, and I\u2019d say that specific detail reminds us that the show\u2019s
\noverall premise, its presentation and exploration of the challenges and joys of
\na blended
\nfamily<\/a>, was itself at least a bit controversial (or at least unusual) and
\nworth celebrating. <\/span><\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s what was unfolding behind the scenes for the show\u2019s
\nactors. In that hyperlinked post I highlighted what we\u2019ve learned in the 50
\nyears since the show ended about Robert Reed\u2019s closeted
\nsexuality<\/a>, his eventual tragic
\ndeath from AIDS<\/a>, and most relevantly to this post, what those layers to his
\nidentity meant about his experience making this particular show. I quoted in
\nthat post and will quote again here Florence Henderson\u2019s<\/a>
\nthoughtful perspective: \u201cHere he was, the perfect father of this wonderful little
\nfamily, a perfect husband\u2026He was an unhappy person\u2026I think had Bob not been forced
\nto live this double life, I think it would have dissipated a lot of that anger
\nand frustration.\u201d There shouldn\u2019t be anything controversial about an actor\u2019s
\nsexuality, but the fact that there would have been had Reed been honest about
\nhis identity reflects the limits of even the most progressive portrayals of
\nfamily on 1960s and 70s TV. <\/span><\/p>\n

Crowd-sourced post this weekend,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. So one more time: what do you think? Other 60s and\/or 70s TV
\nyou\u2019d highlight? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This week marks the 60th anniversary of the debut of the Batman TV show & the 50th of The Bionic Woman. So I\u2019ll AmericanStudy those shows & three others from the 60s & 70s, all of which happen to start with the letter \u2018B\u2019! I\u2019d love your responses and other TVStudying thoughts for a crowd-sourced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[9874,1851,13299,194167,5535,21470,3805,2947],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7060957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","tag-60s","tag-70s","tag-americanstudies","tag-boob","tag-brady","tag-bunch","tag-january","tag-tube"],"yoast_head":"\nAmericanStudies: January 16, 2026: The Boob Tube in the 60s & 70s: The Brady Bunch - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7060957\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AmericanStudies: January 16, 2026: The Boob Tube in the 60s & 70s: The Brady Bunch - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[This week marks the 60th anniversary of the debut of the Batman TV show & the 50th of The Bionic Woman. 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