The Brady Bunch-Out of this world

1974

What’s this about?
Bobby and Peter meet an astronaut who claims to have seen a UFO. That gets saucers on their minds. Later at home they hear a whining noise, they look outside and see a red saucer shaped thingamabob floating out in the distance. Oh me garsh it’s a flying saucer it is! Or at least it looks enough like one to get this episode rolling. Peter and Bobby are thrilled by having seen this, but the rest of the family doesn’t believe them. So they decide they need evidence like a picture. Next thing they set up in their back yard with a camera prepared to see the UFO again. Eventually they do and get a picture. Also around this time Bobby has a dream where a UFO complete with red-afro wig wearing little aliens come and talk to him. After the dream the pictures are developed and show a saucer. The parents still don’t know what it is however an Air Force investigator is called in. Turns out that Greg was doing it all along to prank Bobby and Peter, but he didn’t intend for it to go this far. So he confesses and gets punished, no UFO, show is over.

The UFO-Greg explains earlier to Marcia that he hung a plastic sheet on a line between two trees like a movie screen. Then the saucer is a cutout on a flashlight that he shines on the sheet while blowing into a whistle thingie for the sound. Of course the saucer looks too good for what he says he did. While Bobby is always wanting to believe in things it’s not surprising he was duped. Peter however is like 15-16 here and should have known better.

Impact-I loved this one as a kid and still appreciate it for the UFO aspect and the hoax aspects.

Brady Bunch-Fright Night

1972

Just the regular cast, no guests in this one.

What’s this about? Mrs. Brady is doing a sculpture of Mr. Brady’s head and yes this really will be important later on so make note. Upstairs Cindy and Jan hear noises, they look outside and see…that’s a freakin’, honest to goodness, spooktacular ghostie or so they think. The ghost disappears, the parents run in, Marcia wakes up says she saw nothing because she’s just too good for ghosts or something like that. The parents look upstairs and find an open window and a rocking chair that could have made a noise, but Mr. Brady thinks the boys had something to do with it. Oh, those rebel rowzers. Eventually Marcia thinks the boys did it too so the girls go nosing around in the boy’s room and find a ghost slide that could have been projected outside. Aw man those abusers of early 1970’s technology. Well, that just won’t do at all. The girls plan revenge! They get the boys to agree to betting their allowance that they can’t stay in the attic all night. That night a voice comes out in the attic and then a ghost rises out of an old chest you know kind of like the Great Pumpkin rising up out the pumpkin patch except this ghost is made out of plastic and uh there’s no pumpkin patch around. Bobby and Peter get scared and run out of the attic, they lose the bet, Greg discovers the girls did it and the parents say no more scaring each other. Alice makes the mistake of saying she doesn’t get scared. Greg realizes his parents said the kids can’t scare each other, but they didn’t say anything about Alice. Oh, no a loophole can only lead to no darn good. The kids have the house alone and plan on scaring Alice when she comes back. The door opens and the kids let looses with a flashing skull (not that kind of flashing, gutterbrain), recorded screams and a bedsheet ghost coming down the steps. Oh, wait it wasn’t Alice it was the parents-uh, oh now they are in for it. Note again the parents have that head sculpture because they just returned from where Mrs. Brady won third place for it. Well they set it down in the living room and go out of there to turn on the lights so they can find the kids and give them what for. Now Alice comes into the darkened house, sees the clay head, says who’s there and when she gets no response she whacks it with her purse and smash it crashes on the floor. The parents finally find the lights and they and the kids come to see the head all over the blessed floor. See, see what scaring and frightening gets you? A fractured clay head that’s what. The kids are grounded and Mrs. Brady realizes they made a ghost out of her new sheets. Bobby and Cindy attempt to put the head back together and it looks fairly monsterous and crooked so good job kids. Then Mrs. Brady is back to sculpting again with Alice and modeling and they throw one last joke in so hahaha roll the credits.

The negatives-Not much from me, I’m a fan of the show and have been since I was like five. Although I do have to add that when Mike and Carol walk into the dark house you can clearly see Jan and Marcia letting the ghost so I would think the parents saw them and would just yell for the kids rather than both leaving and taking a long time to find the light switch.

The positive-This one had a huge influence on me as it showed kids using cheap stuff to scare other kids which always sounded fun. I like the things the kids use for scaring each other and Alice, but the girls plastic ghost on a fishing line is my favorite for sure.

This episode was originally shown four days before Halloween in 1972 and if you are watching on disc as I was this episode comes on the same side of the same disc that has the three part Hawaii episode. If you are not like me and have not seen every episode of this show 50 times like me then I’ll pass on that the third episode of the Hawaii trip has none other than Vincent Price in it. In a short period of time in the fall of 1972 the Brady’s had Vincent price in an episode and a ghost themed episode just a few weeks later. Pretty cool for ditzy kids show that couldn’t even show a toilet in the house.