A Very Brady Christmas

I absolutely love the Brady Bunch and so does my daughter now ( she's 14). We love this movie.

It was great seeing the whole Brady clan together- except for the orig Cindy. I've always loved Florence Henderson she still looks beautiful in this movie.

Of course there are some corny scenes and just annoying characters. Marcia's husband Wally is a nerd who doesn't want anyone to know he lost his job. Their son is a bratty red head who's mean to Greg's kid. You seriously want to punch the brat in the face.

When bringing in the tree, the Bradys break out into a cheesy Christmas song which no normal family actually sings.

When Peter and Bobby talk in the middle of the night, Peter is wearing a nightgown. What guy actually wears that?

Look for a big goof decorating the Christmas tree. Some bad audio. Hard to believe that wasn't caught during editing.

Cheesy Christmas fun I watch every holiday.

Christmastime just isn't complete for me without watching this movie. The Brady family reuniting for the holidays always produces warm fuzzies for me. The original show was cheesy and so is this reunion movie, but it is also surprisingly well acted by every member of the ensemble cast and hits upon some real truths about family togetherness. Jennifer Runyon seamlessly fills the shoes of Susan Olsen in this yuletide gathering, Maureen McCormick is as beautiful as ever, and Florence Henderson is still the sunniest and most perky television mom around. A TV movie can get away with being sappy if it's focused around Christmas, and this movie succeeds on every level as a feel-good holiday reunion film.

The lack of a laugh track on this, even though it's a feature length movie, made it a LOT less enjoyable. As most here, I've seen every episode of the Brady Bunch and loved it! It was nice to see almost the entire cast back in action, but the plot and some characters **cough** Marcia's little butt hole kid, Mickey **cough** left a lot to be desired. Part of what made the Brady Bunch sitcom special was its lighthearted and comical approach to more complex problems in life, but the tone of this movie is kind of a downer. Sure, the ending ties everything together, but it has little of the charm that made the sitcom so enjoyable. I realize that the kids are adults and now have adult problems, but it was a jarring change of style and pace from what we are used to seeing.

Back to the lack of a laugh track; The movie relied heavily on quirky expressions by Alice and one liners from Carol and Mike that would normally result in thunderous laughter from the laugh track. Instead, we are treated with awkward silence and pause from the other cast members. This could be forgiven if it was once or twice, but it happened a lot. Definitely questioning Sherwood Schwarz' decision making on nixing the laugh track and making it so dramatic.

One final complaint. If you are going to make the movie dramatic, at least take the time to roll out the problems and allow for a little conflict to occur to spice it up. The films spends the first 30-45 minutes unloading all the problems of each kid and their respective spouse, which are interesting. The problem is that the problems are quickly and neatly solved with hardly any conflict, which was a bit boring. I think this could have been pretty good as a limited TV series so that the problems could be given a little more depth and character development.

I am more than likely over analyzing a made for TV movie which serves as nothing more than a reunion episode, BUT I really enjoyed the sitcom and was hoping for more from this.

A Very Brady Christmas (1988)

** (out of 4)

Instead of going on a vacation to Greece, Carol and Mike Brady (Florence Henderson, Robert Reed) decide to instead invite the six kids and their families to a Christmas dinner. What the parents don't fully know is that all six are facing certain issues that will come out over the holiday. A VERY BRADY Christmas is a pretty silly and pretty stupid little picture but fans of the original TV show should still find it entertaining. I remember watching the show as a kid and enjoying it even though it certainly didn't represent any sort of real life that I knew. This film once again offers up the basic idea of the series, which is that everyone faces a problem but at the end the father will give a speech that makes everyone see things the correct way. I think the biggest thing working against the movie is that they just have so much to do in such little time and this makes for some pacing issues. We basically see Mike and Carol. We then are introduced to the six kids and their problems. Everyone comes together and one by one the problems are solved. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but it was still a fun way to get the original cast members to return (with the exception of Cindy) and fans should enjoy seeing them together. Both Henderson and Reed haven't missed a beat in their parts and the kids all do fine as well. Ann B. Davis, on the other hand, is pretty annoying here but this is certainly the fault of the screenplay more than anything else. A VERY BRADY Christmas isn't good enough to watch on a regular basis but it's still got enough bad charm that makes it worth watching just to see the cast members back in action.

This is a movie that is really only going to be tolerated by true "Brady" fans. We never really took them seriously as a family, but we loved watching them. The Brady's are, in deed, a non-existent family, but that makes them even more fun to watch- Escapism !!

And now, the whole family (minus the original Cindy) is back together again in a less-groovy, updated surroundings, for a Christmas gathering, in Brady fashion. The whole house is full of Brady's and more Brady's (they've multiplied). Alice doesn't live here anymore, but she's got problems of her own and shows up at just the right moment- to help with Christmas dinner.

A Very Brady Christmas is less than average t.v. fare if you were not a Brady fan. To those who watched faithfully every Friday night, you're gonna love seeing 'em in all their unbelievable camp, once again.