I had a hard time relating to my elementary school peers, back in the late ’80s. While my female classmates were obsessed with ponies and princesses, my fellow males’ more destructive focus was on dinosaurs and pro wrestling. I, on the other hand, enjoyed cars (duh), watching the evening news and classic sitcoms. I was a little kid who wanted to play with adult toys and one show which spoke to these ambitions was The Brady Bunch. Other kids would go home and watch Care Bears or Ninja Turtles, but I’d turn on TBS just to admire the Brady’s ultra-modern house and the gigantic cruisers parked behind it.
Even when originally broadcast, the show was criticized for being too tame, but as a child of five or six, I had no such complaints. If anything, I learned a fair amount about late sixties and early seventies design and fashion. I like to think that even the furniture and clothes displayed in scenes without cars said something about what people wanted on four wheels during the period.
To that end, I can really see shades of Fuselage styling in the two eldest daughters’ super straight hair and simple jumpers. ABC apparently agreed as Mopars were the most prominently featured cars on the show.
Mike Brady must have been a successful architect, because Carol had hired help, did not work and always drove a brand new Mopar wagon. Maybe I’m just jumping to conclusions; she could have been living off her dead ex’s life insurance. They never did reveal just how he kicked the bucket.
The first of Carol’s wagons was this ’69 Satellite. I always admired the slight sweep at the trailing edge of the back door, at the bottom of the window.
The other Plymouth parked in the garage is the second of Mike’s cars during the first season alone–a ’69 Fury.
His first car was this ’68 Polara convertible. It only featured in the pilot episode. Perhaps it reminded him too much of his first wife; obviously, she was a terrible person, as she was never mentioned again. The point was, Mike and Carol were happy together, so there was no reason to either mention past lovers (or show any toilets during bathroom sequences).
Clean living was the name of the game, and that’s why Carol Brady always played it safe, as shown by staying the course and choosing a 1970 Satellite wagon as her second car.
After a year of brutal Southern California driving, however, it would have to be replaced, especially since the family planned to drive it to the Grand Canyon. An all-new 1971 version replaced the 1970, with clean lines to match Marsha and Jan’s hair.
Meanwhile, Mike Brady began trading cars more than wives (well, we all know about Robert Reed), as a 1970 Fury convertible–note the loop bumper–replaced the 1969, making for a grand total of three cars used by Mike during the first season.
The second Fury stayed on for the second season, as Mike’s bank account needed to recover, but the two year itch had set in by the third season, when this beautiful 1971 Barracuda replaced it.
…but what’s this ’72 doing here? I’m confused.
Alas, Mike was also, so he switched teams and went for this big bruiser of a 1972 Impala for the third season.
For the fourth season, he made the shocking decision of choosing a red (oh Mike, you devil, you) 1973 Caprice convertible to replace it.
For the fifth and final season, this was replaced by a darker red ’74 with a black interior. This was famously used for the episode in which Greg and Marsha face off to see who is the better driver:
Carol, ever faithful, remained with Plymouth until the show’s end, replacing her ’71 wagon with a darker brown ’72, which got bashed in during an episode covering another of the family’s travails. That trim panel on the tailgate provides perfect relief to the car’s otherwise stark lines.
Compare that with the fussier trim on the ’73, used in the show’s final season.
The conspicuous absence of Ford products was remedied in the hilarious 1995 and 1996 spoofs, in which Carol drives a Montego Villager. Did Paramount think I wouldn’t notice the use of this different car? Who did they think they were fooling?
Perhaps they weren’t trying to fool anyone. Maybe the use of this more cynically styled Mercury, complete with raised white letter tires, was used to further the caricature of a family stuck in the wrong decade, much like the following scene:
Obviously, it’s more likely that viewers wouldn’t notice or care. Most people didn’t tune into the show or watch the movies to analyze the cars used, although such considerations were still important in terms of product placement and set design. Today, thanks to the internet, those of us with such specific interests as mine can share their passion at Internet Movie Cars Database.
All in all, despite the kitsch and sentiment, it’s fun to watch shows like The Brady Bunch to see what the mood of the lowest common denominator was during the period. It’s very interesting to see how different everything was before the effects of the fuel crisis and post-Vietnam politics were felt. Whether the show holds up to my adult sensibilities is a different matter, of course, but since I loved it as a child, it remains fun to watch today.
Wow, I had no idea this was being posted when I included the pic of the house behind my car in today’s COAL. Great article, I love the Bunch!
*high five*
Evidently, a handful of 1971 Barracudas had their tail light panels swapped to 1972 to provide a current year convertible for TV use. This was necessitated, of course, by the fact that Ma Mopar built no converts at all after 1971, at least until the ’82 Lebarons.
I’m pretty sure Mannix drove of one these one-offs (or 2 or 3 offs), and I seem to recall Chad Everett on Medical Center wheeled one as well.
You are correct, sir. Definitely for Mannix, and I assume the same for Chad Everett. Also, Mannix’s Dart GT convertible was a lightly customized version, by George Barris.
Brilliant style move by Mike, going to a male perm, coinciding with the switch to the Impala.
Being born in the late 1980s I had no idea kids were that into Dinosaurs back then. I figured it was a 1990s thing with We’re Back and the Jurassic Park movies.
Growing up in (somewhat) impoverished, (somewhat) liberal, decently rural, kind of diverse, and quite agricultural Central New York, TV shows like this weird me out and I have trouble suspending disbelief to a point I can watch more than an episode or two. Why is no one drinking beer while mowing the lawn or cleaning the house? Where are the farm animals wandering around your yard and assorted junk? What is with the lack of a vegetable garden in the back yard? All these new vehicles are weird, did they score big at a Native American Casino or was their Marijuana patch very successful?
Though the 1971 Barracuda and 1971 Satellite are quite a site to behold.
Simply put, Mike was a hard-working, professional man made who made a good living. Not uncommon. Today is a somewhat different story however. Housing prices, wage stagnation, job losses, etc.
Glad to see a Brady post! I’ve thought about mentioning it’s a great show to catch classic cars (as well as the Dukes of Hazzard which has been re-airing again on CMT) as well. For those who’d like to catch some reruns, TVLand and Hallmark have been playing them recently. Great show! I too flew home after school to catch the re-runs back in the day; you aren’t alone!
I think we could use a little more tact like the show had. No toilets on air? I like that. One thing that annoys me looking at housing pictures online is when they show the toilet with the lid up. Who wants to see inside a toilet?!
I remember that 72 Impala, from the show. I thought, it was everything I wanted in a car. My buddy thought the same way about Marsha.
Some years ago I read in Mopar Collectible Guide that the actual ’70 Fury III convertible used had been found and restored by a mopar collector.
In the final season of The Beverly Hillbillies, an identical ’70 Fury convertible was driven by the storyline’s character Matthew Templeton who was a suitor for Elly Mae. The same metallic blue, power windows, tilt-a-scope wheel, etc. I wonder if the same car was sent to both Paramount for The Brady Bunch and to Filmways for The Beverly Hillbillies? EIther that or there were two identical, loaded-up Fury convertibles in Hollywood at that time.
Mr. Bill
Hamlet, NC
You were lucky,we had rubbish like The Doubledeckers for kids TV,though I’m sure The Brady Bunch turned up on UK TV a few years after it finished in America
I remember The Doubledeckers was shown stateside on Saturdays – around 1971. I even remember the theme song “Come on Board”. Why I remember that, I don’t know.
Mr. Bill
Hamlet, NC
My apologies for inflicting America with The Doubledeckers
Mr. Bill, I’m so happy that I’m not the only American who recalls The Doubledeckers. I mentioned them to some friends about a year ago, and no one knew what I was referring to!
Except now I have that damn song stuck in my head…
Doesn’t help that you can find some episodes and the opening and closing theme on You Tube – but I didn’t tell you that!
Mr. Bill
Hamlet, NC
I also remember the Doubledeckers from my Saturday morning TV youth. It was on ABC, if I remember. Another Brit import that I also remember watching when I was a kid was the Marty Feldman show, which was a summer replacement series circa 1971.
As for the Brady Bunch, I watched it when it was first on as well as the rest of the linup that ABC had on Friday nights, such as Room 222, the Odd Couple & Love American Style.
Ack! A 69 Fury. My dad had one of those…a lemon of alarming proportions.
Neatest show from a Curbside Classic standpoint is Magnum PI. Seems they didn’t have a single manufacturer paying for product placements, so the show has a wide variety of sleds on screen. Not only the signature Ferrari, Audi and Jimmy, but a herd of Fairmonts, a Rabbit convert, an Alliance convert, 72 Ford police cars that could have been Hawaii Five-O leftovers. I watched an episode yesterday that had a early 80s Dodge Colt 5 door playing a taxi. One ep has the guest star driving a Honda AN600.
Best family sitcom for my money: “Leave it to Beaver”. Didn’t watch it when I was a kid because there wasn’t an ABC affiliate in the area. Started watching reruns a couple years ago, and, when the reruns ended, I bought the DVD set. Best show ever. Everything that happens to Wally and the Beav either happened to me, or narrowly missed happening to me. Ward started out with a 57 Ford, but later seasons always had him at the wheel of a Plymouth. while Lumpy wheeled around in a 40 Ford convertable.
Not to mention the Island Hoppers Vanagon and Ricks silver 450SL…
Having been born in 1963, I’m old enough to remember watching The Brady Bunch when it wasn’t in reruns (on a 23″ Admiral black and white TV, no less). I always paid attention to the cars they drove, and I was also surprised when Mike Brady switched from Mopar to GM convertibles. As an adult I’d find the show a little hard to stomach, but it’s still an interesting (if somewhat unrealistic) snapshot of life in the early ’70’s.
Marcia………!
Oh! My nose!
Greg Brady’s short-lived first car ($100 purchase price):
Greg Brady’s short-lived first car ($100 purchase price):
Wally never got his first car running at all. Ended up parting it out, paid the junkyard to haul the carcass away and turned a profit on the deal.
One of my favorite shows also (alongside Andy Griffith, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, etc.). Very happy to have TVLand and would love to have the other classic channels out there. Great escapes!
Does anyone remember how the horn on Greg’s car sounded–it was HILARIOUS! But the instant before it started acting up, it sounded EXACTLY like the one on my grandparents’ ’88 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. GM must have used the same horn tune on nearly all its cars from the ’50s to the middle of the ’90s (the car was a ’56 Chevrolet Bel Air). And boy was it LOUD! Yes I watched & still watch reruns of The Brady Bunch.
Great post! I’ve been casually watching the Brady Bunch more on TV Land the past few months, and have always wanted a complete chronology of their cars.
With 2 adults, 6 kids, and Alice, I was always surprised that Carol didn’t drive a full-size wagon (Fury Sport Suburban or Town & Country, maybe?). But I guess they thought natural-tone Plymouth Satellites were less ostentatious.
I also must add my amazement that one of the fuselage wagons had the rare POWER WINDOWS! I’ve always seen these optional in brochures, but rarely see an actual example with them.
Well, at least you’ve gotten to see a few in person; I’m still waiting for my chance.
Also, I don’t know if the B-bodies were officially Fuselage cars, but since the styling theme is much the same…
Mike Brady went back to Mopar later when they brought back the Bradys for a Christmas movie in the ’80s. He was driving a LeBaron convertible.
Mopar family in another time frame.
I loved Married…With Children! I watched it regularly when it was on the air…Sunday night at 8:00 as I recall.
Al’s Duster! Early in the series Peggy had a car too, she had a 79-80 Pinto, I think you only see it once in the series.
I don’t remember that, but funny to hear. This weekend I caught the show on tv (I really hardly ever watch tv!), and laughed for 5 minutes straight. What hilarious disgusting trash!
Although a Duster, if I’m not mistaken, Al Bundy always called it a Dart. For some odd reason, calling it a Dart seemed more appropriate.
In the title it says Astro Turf. Here’s Al with an Astro Van.
What a relief, the Bundy family after years of that übercorrect Cosby Show.
[Al on the phone with insurance company after his car is stolen]
$50? For a Dodge? What about my mental suffering? Oh, you say that’s a major part of the $50?
In the late 80s, I would come home from middle school and watch Brady reruns…every once in awhile, I’ll still catch one on TV. They’re cheesy, but still kind of fun.
In my opinion, the best show for old car watching is Adam-12, because they’re always on the road.
Fun post Perry! We watched the Brady Bunch religiously growing up but I thought the cars were a disappointment compared to the CBS and NBC shows.
Colombo, on NBC, was one of the best. The murderer was always some rich guy so there were plenty of Lincolns, Cadillacs and Mercedes. Johnny Cash and Jack Cassidy both drove Eldorados. I loved the special guest stars on Columbo, you don’t see that anymore. If you were a famous actor in the early 70s you killed someone on Columbo. They even made Dick Van Dyke a murderer!
CBS was a leader from as early as ’55 when Ricky Ricardo bought that Pontiac Star Chief for the cross-country trip to California. Remember how at first they thought a used ’23 Cadillac Touring could work for the trip? Then there was the hatchet murderer and her ’49 Dodge Wayfarer and finally the ’57 Fords when they moved to the country.
Haha @ “If you were a famous actor in the early 70s you killed someone on Columbo. They even made Dick Van Dyke a murderer!” 🙂
But afterwards they sent you on the Love Boat for rehabilitation !
Speaking of the Love Boat there was a Columbo episode that was filmed on a cruise ship with Robert Vaughn as the murderer. That would seem like an odd location for a show as car centric as Columbo but fear not because Vaughn’s occupation was — car dealer.
I remember a sketch, many years ago, with two English comedians (Hugh Laurie being one of them I believe) who discussed weird names of famous persons.
“…Dick…Van…Dyke”….They concluded there was just no way that it could be a real person, it was clearly a fake name.
Given his roots I would say the man’s name is Dik van Dijk.
Van Dijk, a very common name here, given all our dijken (or dykes).
Keep on walking, nothing to see here, no need to start a fight like on TTAC a while ago. (involving Subaru wasn’t it ?)
It’s generally spelled Van Dyke in America, and Dick is a nickname for Richard. Some people are just silly (or ignorant). Are you familiar with Hans Brinker who “put his finger in a dike”? Takes all kinds! What part of NL do you hail? Part NL-ZE here!
Hi there Yanns ! I’m west of the city of Nijmegen, in a region called “Land van Maas en Waal”. Part of the river delta from the Dutch-German border to the Rotterdam region. I’m right inbetween two major rivers, so without the dikes I would have drowned approx. 25 times I guess.
I forgot about Hans Brinker. Here’s a photo of what we call “high water”.
At the right the river (De Waal in this case), at the left my habitat. The dike in the middle, as you can see there’s a road on top of it.
Now lil’ Hans can put his finger wherever he wants….won’t stop the water though when something goes wrong here.
Impressive picture. Looks dangerous! I feel safer bij de Zee!
Most memorable to me about Robert Reed is what he was smoking in the 1974 tv movie Pray For the Wildcats . If that was supposed to be a cigarette he sure had a funny way of holding it . Evil Andy Griffith killed in this movie about a motorcycle trip to Baja !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq5QRIuNaVo
Mike Brady, Captain Kirk and Sheriff Griffith being all bad-ass together! What the hell?
So what is this “Brady Bunch” you speak of? I must have missed something; hopefully, not too terribly important.
The only similarity to the Niedermeyer Bunch is in the Mopars. My mother drove the Dodge version of the station wagon at the time, but my father was not driving convertibles, by any stretch. A stripper Dart two door.
Of the ’66-’70 generation or the following? Did she like it? Did you like it?
A ’73 Coronet wagon, to replace the ’65. She liked it. I had left home by then, but drove it a few times when I came home to visit. It handled better than the ’65, and scooted along nice enough.
The classic American sitcom depicting the challenges of growing up. If you have TVLand, it’s on right now (or will be shortly, not sure of West Coast differences). It aired ’69-’74. Reruns have been showing every single day since then (fact)!
Just watched Amish Paradise by Weird Al on YouTube (forgive me, former Menno here). Carol Brady was featured in it. Surely you’ve heard of the Brady’s!!!!!! Apple Pie, Chevrolets, Baseball, and the Brady’s…
I have certainly heard of that famous family. But seriously, I have never watched an episode; maybe just snatches here and there. I watched the embedded youtube video about the car driving contest, and it brought home to me why I hadn’t. 🙂
Let’s just say that in the early 70s, I was twenty or so, and a bit outside of the mainstream culture. Quite a bit.
But it’s a different story about shows of the 60s, when I was a kid. Loved tv then! Bonanza was maybe my favorite, in part because Chevy was the big sponsor. Nothing like Hoss selling me on the latest Chevy!
Do you feel you’ve ever returned to mainstream culture? I exited “orbit,” so to speak around age 16, and I keep straying further and further. I don’t want to return but fear it may be necessary.
Why would it be necessary for you to return? Exodus can be great. I recently realized how outside the realm I was from my upbringing. It wasn’t intentional, but I slowly left my religion…this past week I ordered my (church school) transcripts. My god, no wonder I had problems. What liberation since. Do as ye please, sir. (Albeit waiting for Paul’s response).
Define “mainstream culture”. That was a lot easier once upon a time. Does it still even exist? I guess, maybe, sort of. I stopped worrying about that a long time ago 🙂
But in the 80s, I re-entered it with a vengeance. It didn’t take, though.
Big question; not easy to answer in a comment. But keep looking and asking the right questions. And don’t draw rigid boundaries about what’s inside or outside “the orbit”. Ultimately, it’s all in the same orbit; there’s just also a lot of space junk in that orbit too.
Even though I was of the right age, for whatever reason I have never seen an episode of “The Brady Bunch.” I don’t remember specifically avoiding it, so it may have been on a different channel at the same time as some show I watched instead, like maybe “All in the Family”, or “Maude”, or “Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser.” This is why when the “Brady Bunch” movies came out in the ’90s when I was working as a film critic, I had to tell my editor “You should probably assign this one to someone else to review, because I’d be going in cold and won’t get any of the references.” I know I resent it when I read reviews of something I’m knowledgeable about written by someone who obviously is a know-nothing the subject, so I recused myself and let someone more Brady-savvy do those. Based on what little I do know about the show, it doesn’t look like I missed out on a whole lot. I can’t say I feel deprived for not having the Bradys in my life. My grief is manageable.
That said, some nice cathode-ray cars on view here. The “1972” ‘Cuda convert with the round taillights is certainly special, and by “special” I mean “non-existent”. This may have been a first for the industry: product placement of a product you can’t actually buy.
I have to admit, I’ve never really watched an episode either, not my thing, I was always more a detective show fan anyway…..
The only Brady cars that caught my eye were the ‘Cudas. However, as a young wannabe architect and fan of mid-century modern, I had a huge beef with the house. From the exterior elevations the second floor was depicted to the left of the front door, but in the interior shots the stairs were clearly to the right of the door as you entered. Drove me nuts lol.
It’s actually worse than you imagined. That window does not exist in real life. It’s just a wall and the window was either comped up by the production staff or removed at some point which would be even stranger. Currently there is a large tree that disguises it from street level. When we drove by during high school every once in a while it was kind of strange looking without a window or tree.
It was rigged to make the house look a bit more “normal,” but the actual house is a lot cooler without it. As you probably know now, the actual backyard is a canal.
The house was rigged with the fake window to look like it had a second floor, to “match” the interior. The actual house is a ranch with no second floor.
I’m not sure there’s ever been a tv house interior that matches its exterior, ZK. I know it’s just television, and it doesn’t have to be realistic, but as a young wannabe architect like you, I’ve paid attention to it (as well as tv cars!) since childhood.
There is a cool book called “TV Sets” by Mark Bennett that recreates floor plans of at least a couple dozen classic tv show homes — though it makes no particular attempts to reconcile the plans with exteriors, which is in most cases impossible; the Bradys’ home being a perfect example.
We have at least a few fantastic neighborhoods of mid-century moderns here in Denver. I like to drive through them occasionally to admire the style, and remind myself how nice it is to not have a flat roof to deal with.
Back to cars — I was sad to see Mike switch from Mopar to GM.
OT but a relative of mine’s house in LA was used for exterior shoots in a now-defunct sitcom. The producers thought the house and yard had the right “Midwestern” look for the teenage lead character’s family’s suburban home.
They’d shoot scenes in the front yard of actors walking up to the front door and so forth, then they’d cut to a sound stage built from photographs they took of the inside of the house. The entryway and front family room area was actually a close resemblance, because they wanted it to correspond to the real house’s front exterior shots I guess; but the rest of the fictitious house was totally different.
All he had to do was keep the yard and the front of the house maintained and looking the same; they paid him very good $.
TV houses were never true to the exteriors and that use to bug me more then anything
Good news to you all–5 years after this article was originally posted, the house has been renovated to its original Paramount-studio-style settings as seen on the show. HGTV bought the house for $3.5 billion and reunited the 6 Brady kids to help with the project on their new show “A Very Brady Renovation.”
Here’s more proof with the interior of the living room, including the iconic angled staircase that now DOES lead to an actual 2nd floor. It was certainly not an easy project, but the end result was well worth it.
My vote goes with the ’74 Caprice convertible. Prefer the big grille more than the ’73’s.
Didn’t Mopars end up on TV a lot whenever Chrysler was in sales trouble? I seem to remember heaps of Mopars in “The Blues Brothers” too.
BTW the Brady movie was the best thing ever for someone who grew up hating the TV series!
“HEAPS of Mopars in the Blues Brothers movie”
What is that, some kind of pun? 😉
Lol didn’t even think of that!
When it came to TV cars The Beverly Hillbillies had some of the best
Cool! While I did watch this show on TBS as an ’80s kid, I was far more interested in The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show when they appeared on Nick At Nite back in the early ’90s.
They remain favorites of mine to this day.
Really liked MTM Show on Nick at Nite also. And Patty Duke even older yet. Does Nick at Nite even exist anymore? It was great to have Nick at Nite and TVLand simultaneously!
Perry, you may be interested to know that Hot Wheels did a 1/64 model of the Satellite wagon recently. It’s not very accurate, with a Shaker hood and giant rear wheels (with whitewalls!), but I still couldn’t resist buying one. Here’s a picture of it, alongside my Johnny Lightning Aspen R/T:
Excellent. Complete with ’72 rear trim panel.
A lot of these shows are appearing on over the air channels. Since I dumped pay TV 2 or 3 years ago, a lot of the shows mentioned plus many more are now back on. I enjoy many of the older ones, especially the 50’s and early 60’s ones. The cars are eye candy for sure, and the price is right. The thing that annoys me are the end of life insurance, adult diapers, I fell panic button, reverse mortgage,etc! Makes me feel old! And I never watched The Brady Bunch… so… who was hotter, Jan or Marcia? (OK so I lied).
Jan never got enough credit.
“Jan never got enough credit.”
She sure did whine about it…
“Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”
Lol. Agreed (and I’m NOT old!). What surprised me even more was how young Mike, Carol, and Alice actually all were! Crazy, ain’t it?
I lived for every episode and was raised in a Mopar family at the time, so I knew every car. I simply cannot imagine a childhood without the Bradys.
My grade schoolers are loving the show as well in reruns today. Its timeless.
Perry, you would have fit in better if you were born 20 years earlier. I was born in 62 and **every** boy was in to cars. Hot Wheels were the new, cool thing. We would have looked at the Turtles about how you probably looked at Barney.
I’ve always been a bit of an old soul; maybe that wouldn’t have been the case if I were fifty and not thirty.
I had a wicked crush on Marcia. Sadly my LA-based cousin couldn’t hook me up. Then the restraining order took care of the rest.
Sadly my family never measured up to the Bradys.
If some of you are lucky enough ( in the U.S. ) check and see if you get the ME-TV
network ( Memorable Entertainment Television) ,it’s classic car watching heaven.
Just a few examples – Perry Mason, Adam-12, Car 54 Where Are You, Emergency (great for CC’s in the background), Dragnet, Columbo and many more.
For real horsepower,Bonanza,Rawhide,Wanted Dead or Alive and F-Troop
In W.Michigan I get on Charter cable and over the air (antenna) on sub-channel from a CBS station
Go to Wikipedia and find the link to the program list,old TV show heaven. Hoping some of you can get it. Enjoy!!!
P.S. Paul, thanks for having this as ” Big Rig Week”. 40yrs. and 3.5 million miles, oh my aching butt, and now retired.
When I started driving at 15.5, Mom drove a 72 Lesabre Estate and Dad a 73 Bonneville coupe.
I just remembered that another early 70s Mopar that featured in a TV show was Det. Lt. Frank Drebin’s Satellite in Police Squad!
That shows around 1980. Was real funny. I have 1 like his car.
Being a Chevy fan, was glad to see the ’72 Impala show up in season 4. The 5th, final, season saw both ’73 and ’74 red Caprices, though.
There were 3 episodes that took place in a Drive In, with Greg borrowing Dad’s ragtop for a date, with hilarous circumstances. Cuda had Bobby put a hole in top, the ’72 Impala had frogs left in it, and the ’73 had Peter double date as an ‘older guy with stach’.
Although I was of the age, I never watched the Bradys a lot for some reason. I preferred the cop and detective shows. A nice sampling of Bradymobiles, though.
Are we sure that the front of that 71 Satellite wagon is not the 72? A 71 ought to have the same wheelcovers as the 71 Barracuda, but those are correct for a 72.
There is one TV family’s car that nobody has mentioned yet:
That’s nice, but the older and richer neighbor “The Colonel” drove an Avanti that you would see on the show from time to time
I doubled checked–it’s a ’71. The ’72 has a different grille, not quite a split grille, but with a narrow vertical bar in the middle.
I will confess that I have never paid attention to 71 v 72 grilles on these.
Great post – and glad I found it. Time for a CC Cinema Section!
What I always found curious about the Brady’s cars was that Carol always got the mid-line satellite wagon – never the top end Sport Satellite or later Satellite Regent, the fuselage model with the odd wood trim on the lower half – my parents almost bought one of those in ’72 but went with the more conventionally di-nocd Coronet Crestwood instead.
That and the fact that although Mike’s cars changed color all the time, everyone of the Satellite wagons in the show was that less than appealing mustard gold color. Very odd.
I’ll add one more to the excellent list of car sitcoms above: Hazel. Big Ford show – they Baxters always had an early 60s Country Squire, and Mr. Baxter drove a series of full- and mid-sized convertibles, IIRC. His client Mr.Griffin usually had a Lincoln Continental sedan, and his snooty sister drove a Thunderbird.
Mercurys were conspicuously absent, but Mustangs and Falcons were abundant, along with lots of F-100 pickups and Econolines.When Don Defore and Whitney Blake left the series for the last (1965-6) season, I think his aunt and uncle drove a Galaxie 500, possibly an LTD by the end of the series – trailblazers for the Brougham epoch, no less.
I liked the Hawaii episodes. They arrived at the hotel in a light green 1972 Dodge Coronet station wagon. Like this picture, minus the fake wood paneling.
I’m assuming that Paramount had connections to Chrysler and GM—it was the same in Mission: Impossible, with no Ford products for the most part (other than the first few seasons). No surprise some wound up in Mannix as well.
Does anyone notice the red wagon Mike is pushing out of the way in the scene with the ’71 Barracuda in it? It made several appearances throughout the show’s run. I have one at home that is almost physically identical to it. Internet research shows both appearing to be 1960s REX Jets but without the lettering on the side like the one below; everything else is the same. I actually OWN something that appeared on the Brady Bunch! 🙂
I saw your comment on Mike Brady’s 1971 and 1972 Plymouth Barracuda convertibles. it was confusing, but Mike did buy almost the same car both years, but there is an explanation from Wikipedia:
“Additionally; the convertible model was dropped; though a few late build 1971 convertibles were built with 1972 grills and back end panels and provided to Paramount Studios for TV and movie work; being seen on Mannix, The Brady Bunch and other shows.”
One of the late model 1971 Barracuda’s was also used on The Doris Day Show. By the way, I own the 1969 Plymouth Barracuda convertible Doris Day drove on The Doris Day Show during Season 2. It was also seen on the opening credits during Seasons 2 through 5. 🙂
Photos 1969 Plymouth Barracuda convertible from The Doris Day Show.
The ’72 Impala was season 4. Then they had both maroon ’73 and ’74 Caprices in final season 5.
I was in high school by the time the Brady Bunch aired, and I was ‘too cool’ to watch the program, but my first new car was like Mike’s, a ‘73 Chevy convertible. Fun memories! Too bad the Chicago winters rusted out the floorboards a decade later!