The day Anv Davis missed her hair appointment, she was already gone. On May 31, 2014, the actress who played Alice the housekeeper on The Brady Bunch died unexpectedly after falling in her bathroom. She was 88 years old. The final adult figure from the show’s fictional household had passed away, closing a chapter on one of television’s most enduring programs.
Behind the wholesome image of the 1970s sitcom was a far messier reality. The show was inspired by a late-1960s article revealing that nearly a third of American households included children from previous marriages. Producer Sherwood Schwarz turned that statistic into a series about a blended family, interviewing 264 child actors before narrowing the search to 12 finalists. He had a clear vision: one blonde parent, one brunette, and six kids who would become television icons.
The casting process was not without complications. Schwarz wanted Anv Davis for the housekeeper role, but she had already committed to a stand-up comedy tour in Seattle. Producers bought out her entire contract to secure her. There was one problem: Davis had no experience with children, despite playing a character who was supposed to be great with them.
The role of the father also came with friction. Robert Reed got the part partly because he wasn’t considered too handsome, while Jeffrey Hunter was passed over for being too attractive to play a suburban dad. Creator Schwarz had his own doubts about Reed, thinking his head was too small. He would soon discover that Reed’s ego was considerably larger.
Reed, a trained Shakespearean actor, frequently considered the show’s storylines beneath him. He constantly submitted script notes, some helpful, others outlandish. In one scene where the family made strawberry jam, Reed insisted on changing the line about loving the smell of strawberries because his research showed the scent cooks away. Davis, who believed the cast should be grateful for steady work, struggled to contain her frustration.
When Reed refused to let his character slip on an egg for realism reasons, and then slipped on it himself during filming, Davis reportedly felt a quiet sense of satisfaction. One of Reed’s complaints, however, may have saved lives. When the cast visited a theme park, producers mounted a camera to a roller coaster. Reed refused to let his on-screen children ride until a safety test was conducted.
The camera broke free and flew off. Had the kids been on the ride, they could have been seriously injured. To viewers, Reed was the perfect father. Off camera, he was often unhappy.
Reed was gay and concealing that fact took a heavy toll. He eventually struggled with substance use and sometimes performed while intoxicated. He wasn’t the only one. Barry Williams, who played Greg, admitted that after smoking cannabis on a day off, he was called into work and can be seen acting while under the influence in one episode.
The show made its young cast famous, but not everyone enjoyed it. Susan Olsen’s father, who played Cindy, hated the attention and tried to bribe her to quit with a horse and riding lessons. She refused. Her classmates, however, ostracized her after she played a tattletale on screen, unable to separate the character from the actress.
Olsen later admitted she really was somewhat of a tattletale. Years after the show ended, Olsen claimed that the Brady kids hooked up with each other during the run of the series. She said she and Michael Lookinland shared a moment in the doghouse. Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia, later revealed she had actually dated Barry Williams, her on-screen brother.
The relationship became awkward when they had to play siblings while seeing each other. Series creator Schwarz recalled a scene where Greg and Marcia had to talk on a bed, noting it was obvious the two teenagers were attracted to each other. Williams had another crush, one far more controversial. He developed feelings for Florence Henderson, who played his TV mother.
The two had dinner together, which Henderson insisted was completely innocent. Williams didn’t even have a driver’s license at the time, and his older brother drove him to the restaurant. Henderson was married with four children. In 2007, another rumor surfaced.
While promoting her memoir, McCormick was reported by the New York Post to have written about a relationship with Eve Plumb, who played her younger sister Jan. Plumb was reportedly upset and accused McCormick of fabricating the story to sell books. NBC canceled a planned Brady Bunch reunion on the Today Show because of the tension. The feud between the two actresses was nothing new.
The writers had noticed their real-life bickering and used it as inspiration for the on-screen sibling rivalry between Marcia and Jan. McCormick claimed Plumb had a flatulent problem and would sometimes walk around the set naked. By the end of the show, Reed had had enough. He refused to appear in the season 5 finale and was written out entirely.
Schwarz was thrilled and planned a season 6 where the father would die, but ABC canceled the show instead. Both men seemed happy to be rid of each other until the network asked Reed to appear in The Brady Bunch Variety Hour and five other Brady-related shows. He agreed. Henderson faced her own struggles after the show.
In the early 1980s, she dealt with stage fright and depression. She turned to a hypnotherapist and eventually married him. McCormick struggled more than most. She developed substance abuse issues and realized she was in real trouble when she showed up for a major audition under the influence.
She couldn’t perform and lost the part. The audition was with Steven Spielberg for Raiders of the Lost Ark. She became sober in 1985. Plumb seemed to have the most serious acting career after the show, appearing in dramatic roles like Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway and NBC’s Little Women.
She famously refused to appear in The Brady Bunch Hour but joined castmates for later reunions. Michael Lookinland also declined the variety hour, asking for double his offer. When producers agreed, he was shocked. In 1991, Reed learned he had cancer.
He reached out to Henderson and asked her to tell the rest of the cast. He passed away a few weeks later. The public had no idea Reed was gay, and the news that he died from complications related to HIV shocked the country. It was difficult to accept that the perfect sitcom dad had lived a secret double life.
Lookinland believed the show cost him his childhood. He turned to substance abuse and in November 1997 rolled his Ford Bronco on a Utah highway. He was over the legal alcohol limit, served brief jail time, and completed community service. He later became sober and took up making concrete countertops, a profession he described as far removed from his artificial TV childhood.
Olsen went into the shoe business, designing a glow-in-the-dark Converse sneaker. She also faced a rumor that she made adult films. The truth was she recorded spaceship noises for an adult film called Love Probe from a Warm Planet, but never appeared in front of the camera. The Brady kids appeared on numerous reality shows over the years.
In 2019, the house used for the exterior shots of the Brady home went up for sale. HGTV bought it for $3. 5 million and brought the cast together for a seven-episode renovation miniseries. All the kids showed up, and more than 28 million viewers tuned in.
Some reunions were private. In 1985, McCormick, about to marry Michael Cummings, invited her Brady siblings into the honeymoon suite for a champagne celebration. In 2016, she competed on Dancing with the Stars. Henderson attended the taping to cheer her on, but died of heart failure just days later.
It was her final gesture to her TV family. With Davis gone, all three Brady parents had passed. The legacy of the show rests not only on what happened on screen, but in the complicated lives of those who played the family. The show presented a simple, comforting version of family life that resolved neatly in 30 minutes.
The reality for its cast was far more difficult, and for many, the line between character and identity never fully disappeared.