The Cincinnati Kids

The Bradys run a relay race, but they all arrive at roughly the same time! Marge leaves her booth without a replacement! Some random kids from Southern California are allowed to handle the park's animal outfits! Alice is walking around on a ride looking for plans when the mischievous operator begins operations without securing her! Truly one of the most glorious and absurd episodes of the lot.

Fascinating to compare the geography of the park then to now. Maybe 1/4 of the structures in the episode still exist. Racer coaster, International Street, and log flume ride are still around. Eiffel Tower is used in filming the early park shots, but its hulking structure is conspicuously absent from view.

Needless to say, a bona fide classic.

The best thing about this episode is the plaid pants worn by Jan, the middle girl. Those pants should be in the Smithsonian Institution! I loved that fashion in those days! Okay, enough about the pants.....haha.

Okay, we all know the plot. The family goes to an amusement park (on both business and pleasure) and Jan buys a poster of Yogi Bear. Then she puts the poster in her dad's tube. The tube he's using to carry his plans. Her dad has two tubes, by the way. One with his plans and one with Jan's poster. And guess what? They get mixed up!!!!!! What?!! You mean?!! Yes!!! What a riot!!! Now that's great comedy writing!!!! Brilliant!!!!

Okay, so it's basically a lame set up for an episode, but it's really not about the plot it's about looking at all the goofy people in the 1970's. By the way, there's one girl about 12 years old who keeps trying to get into the shots. It's pretty funny. Her mom probably mad her do it. They should have chased her away with a stick! Just kidding, she's actually adorable.

Did I mention the plaid pants? Yep, I love those plaid pants. They are a work of art. If not for those pants and the goofy looking background people I would give this episode a 3. But as such I give it a 6. Which I think is fair. God I miss the 1970's. It was the last good decade in America. This country has been a mess ever since. Alas.

The Brady Bunch is usually good for a fun half hour, but this episode really could have been five minutes long.

The plot is simple (of course), Mike gets to take the family on a business trip to an amusement park (King's Island), gets his vital plans mixed up with Jan's Yogi Bear poster, and there's a race to the deadline to find the missing plans in time.

There is a LOT of padding in this episode with scenes of the family on rides, and also running. It must have been a very big deal for the crowd, as the Brady Bunch was pretty popular especially with kids, and sometimes you can see the crowds watching the action unfold.

I did read that the crowds were angry with the cast because they were allowed to cut to the front of the ride lines. That may have been when they were not filming too. Darn Bradys!

Greg also tries to pick up a chick working one of the game booths. She's friendly but makes him work at it pretty hard.

A few strange things here were, when Greg and Peter were racing with the plans to meet the deadline, they passed the plans to Carol to finish the run? Also, Jan refers to her poster as "the bear" poster - but it's Yogi Bear! Who calls Yogi Bear "the bear?"

It is pretty cool to see the real 70's crowds all over the park, in a spectacular display of the fashions, hair, and lack of tattoos. Not one of the better episodes, but you gotta see every Brady show at least once anyway.

The premise of this episode might be suspect but it's a great way to view mid-'70s America. The crowd scenes makes me laugh looking at the striped shirts, plaid shorts and black socks. We were reeling from Vietnam, Watergate and the energy crises. It's nice to see Americans persevere.

Most episodes of The Brady Bunch are pretty believable. The predicaments the kids and sometimes the adults get into bring back those "Oh no, how'm I gonna get outta this?!" memories we all have. But a responsible person such as Mike Brady losing important plans at an amusement park? Then there's only 30 minutes to search the whole park for them, and the family members happen to keep running into each other to set up the Pony Express relay run scenes? Cute but kinda lame.

I gotta say though that Ann B. Davis had a good set of wheels. She was around 47 when this episode came out in 1973 when running and other exercise programs weren't too popular with people her age. But she puts in a good sprint, even leaping over a couple low chain barriers. Bravo Alice!