The Brady Kids

Infobox Television
show_name = The Brady Kids


caption =
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genre =
creator =
director = Hal Sutherland
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developer =
presenter = Filmation
Redwood Productions
Paramount Television
starring =
voices =
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country = USA
language =
num_seasons = 2
num_episodes =
list_episodes =
executive_producer = Sherwood Schwartz
producer = Norm Prescott
Lou Scheimer
supervising_producer =
asst_producer =
co-producer =
editor =
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runtime = 30 min. (with commercials)
network = ABC
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preceded_by =
followed_by =
related =
website =
imdb_id = 0068051
tv_com_id = 3540

"The Brady Kids" was an animated television series, produced by Filmation in association with Paramount Television and seen on ABC from 1972 to 1974. It was an animated spinoff of ABC's sitcom, "The Brady Bunch".

Overview

In 1972, Filmation Associates and "The Brady Bunch" executive producer Sherwood Schwartz adapted the popular live action TV show to animation, resulting in this ABC Saturday morning (and later syndicated) show. The original show's children voiced their animated counterparts (in the first season); however, as the series' name implies, the parents and Alice the housekeeper were left off the show. The six kids were often seen in their tree house.

The animated series also added some animal characters. Marlon was an intelligent, brown talking mynah bird and also a wizard (complete with stereotypical wizard's cap) who used his magic to help the kids out of jams. Marlon was also notable for his method of flight: He spun his tailfeathers like a helicopter rotor rather than using his wings, which were instead used as hands, often for grand gestures as he cast spells.

The Brady's dog from the live-action series, Tiger, was replaced by a dog named Mop Top (whose thoughts were voiced by Larry Storch). There were also twin panda cubs, Ping and Pong (named after the game ping-pong).

Also, there were three human characters created for this show: Chuck White was a boastful, self-absorbed teenager (about Greg's age) who wasn't above cheating to get whatever he wanted, Fleetwood was his easygoing sidekick and rounding out this trio was Babs, a cute redhead who was smitten with Greg. The three of them went to the same school as the Bradys, and Chuck was sometimes central to the plot as an antagonist.

Originally aired as a one-hour segment on "The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie" [http://www.tv.com/the-abc-saturday-superstar-movie/the-brady-kids-on-mysterious-island/episode/91011/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;0] , the pilot episode was split into two half-hour segments on "The Brady Kids". A total of 22 episodes were produced. [http://www.tv.com/the-brady-kids/show/3540/summary.html]

Two episodes of this series were released in The Complete Brady Bunch DVD 21 disc series.

Characters and voices

The Bradys

* Greg Brady: Barry Williams (season 1), Lane Scheimer (season 2)
* Peter Brady: Christopher Knight (season 1), David E. Smith (season 2)
* Bobby Brady: Mike Lookinland
* Marcia Brady: Maureen McCormick (season 1), Erika Scheimer (season 2)
* Jan Brady: Eve Plumb
* Cindy Brady: Susan Olsen

Other characters

* Marlon: Larry Storch
* Ping and Pong: Jane Webb
* Mop Top: Larry Storch
* Chuck White: Larry Storch
* Fleetwood: Larry Storch
* Babs: Jane Webb

Opening

The opening sequence featured the "grid" familiar to "Brady Bunch" viewers, but with the center column normally occupied by the elder Bradys and Alice removed; as the theme song (new lyrics set to the original "Brady Bunch" theme with similar music & and upbeat tempo) plays, Marlon flies up and down the center, "magically transforming" the live-action children into their animated counterparts.

Trivia

*The animated cartoon "", which starred the pop singer Rick Springfield, was the spin off of this series, as one episode featured the characters of "Miss Tickle", and her cat "Tut-Tut".

* The episode "It's All Greek To Me" [http://www.tv.com/the-brady-kids/its-all-greek-to-me/episode/57936/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;12] is notable for the first television appearance of Wonder Woman, a character owned by Time Warner through its DC Comics subsidiary. [http://www.wonderwoman-online.com/tvshow.html] Because of this, a potential DVD release may be complicated because of licensing issues.

*Superman and the Lone Ranger also appeared in "Cindy's Super Friend" and "Lone Gone Silver," respectively. Both Superman and Wonder Woman would appear the following year (1973) as regulars on Hanna-Barbera's series, "Super Friends".

*The Brady Kids played musical instruments in relatively the same positions as the Archies band: Greg and Peter on guitars, Bobby on drums, Marcia on tambourine and Jan on keyboards. Added was Cindy (in front of Greg) on a smaller guitar.

ee also

*List of Animated Spinoffs from Prime Time Shows

External links

*imdb title|id=0068051|title=The Brady Kids
*tv.com show|id=3540|title=The Brady Kids
* [http://www.geocities.com/brady_kids2001/index.html The Brady Kids site] A fansite with information about The Brady Kids cartoon and music