My Fair Opponent

Marcia tries to help a shy student Molly in a contest for hostess at Banquet Night.

A good Marcia episode. Molly has glasses, hair pulled back and is clumsy and awkward. The kids at school nominate her as a joke. Marcia is so angry that she helps Molly with poise, fixes her hair and puts her in a mini skirt, inspired by 'My Fair Lady". A good twist to the story is Marcia ends up as Molly's opponent in the contest, Marcia wants to drop out but she stays in when Molly turns into a big headed mean girl. There is an astronaut who will be at the Banquet, not a real one but played by an actor (William Wellman Jr, son of the famous movie director).

Okay first I will address this, which has annoyed me for a long time. I also attended a Junior High (back in the olden days). So, in my Junior High we just said what grade we were in. We did not say things like "Senior" of Junior High. In my experience a "Senior" is a person in the 12th grade in High School. This show is set in California so maybe it was different there? Nor did we have a banquet to mark the end of Junior High, the best we could do is the teachers might let us eat a bag of chips and drink a Sprite. Now, on to the main plot. I always enjoy "make overs". It is fun to see how make up and clothes can make a change. But I am interested in addressing the issue of Molly's parents. How did they feel about having to shell out money for all these new clothes? And if the parents could afford nice clothes, why did she dress as she did at the beginning? Did she borrow all the clothes from Marcia? I will also bring up this. Why is Mike home on two occasions in this episode. He is suppose to be at work but he is hanging around at home in the middle of the afternoon when the kids return from school? Is he working at home in this office? I like the Brady Bunch normally. But I was not wild about this one.

One of the other reviewers was wondering why this episode isn't available to stream. It's almost certainly due to the use of an instrumental version of the popular song "Moon River" in the scene where Mike is teaching Marcia to waltz. My guess is that our friends at Paramount aren't willing to shell out for the streaming rights to that song, so the episode is excluded. They could just cut the scene, or put some generic waltz in, but I guess it's not worth the trouble for a 50-year-old episode. You can still catch this episode on MeTV, though - Paramount must have locked up the song for broadcast.

This episode is a little silly, the way Molly goes from mouseburger to popular girl to total B in about a week. I wish they had done a sequel episode where Marcia turned Molly back into a nerd. But the Brady Bunch was never big on returning guest stars. Or retribution, for that matter.

This was the only episode written by comedy writer Bernie Kahn, and its one of the most poignant, yet Brady Bunch goofy. It also shows what a cool sister Marcia is.

Ultra shy Molly (played by Debbi Storm) is nominated by the high school "powers that be" to run for senior banquet hostess, and Marcia thinks its just a dirty trick because she has no chance of winning.

So what to do about it? Carol and Mike suggest she come to the aid of her friend -- and Marcia goes all out. She gives Molly a complete (and we mean complete!) makeover and Molly is transformed into the next high school beauty queen. Actually, actress Debbi Storm was very pretty, but hidden beneath lots of makeup and a frumpy dress.

As Brady luck would have it, Molly's ego grows larger and larger and soon she thinks she's a movie star, leaving Marcia miles behind in the dust!

How revolting, and you really feel sorry for her.

Watch how this all turns around. It's a classic story, and with some great dialogue.

Yes, I agree, the tv rerun print (for the last 50 years!) does show Mike teaching Marcia to waltz, the background song being "Moon River," then he dances with Alice. There's probably some copyright red tape for this episode and the famous song. The question is, how did Paramount acquire the song in the first place?

Notes; Debbi Storm auditioned for the part of Jan in the series, but lost to Eve Plumb because she did not have blonde hair! Also look for William Wellman, Jr., playing the colonel. Wellman is the son of the legendary film director, who appeared in tons of movies and tv shows.

Writer Bernie Kahn, who passed at age 90 in 2021, was one of the long time writers for BEWITCHED.

Super stuff from SEASON 3 remastered Paramount dvd box set. Classic green box cover.

This episode by far is my favorite episode in BB history. It seems to be excluded from every streaming service I own. Is it considered controversial? I'm not signing up for overpriced cable service just to be able to watch this episode.