Here’s the story of a man named Robert Reed, who was very different than the father of six he played on The Brady Bunch.
While he played the quintessential father on the 1970’s sitcom, Reed, who portrayed Mike Brady, was known to be dismissive of scripts and difficult to work with.
Reed, born John Robert Rietz Jr., developed a love for Shakespeare and theater while growing up. He studied drama at Northwestern University before moving to London where he furthered his craft at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the University of London.
He made his Broadway debut in Barefoot in the Park in 1964. Two years later he accepted a job offer from Paramount to appear in a television version of Barefoot in the Park.
Unfortunately, the idea was shelved. However, the studio offered Reed the part of Mike Brady on their new show, The Brady Bunch.
Even though a sitcom wasn’t his first choice, he needed the job.
“He wound up on a show that he didn’t want to do in the first place, and it became more and more difficult for him,” series creator Sherwood Schwartz said. “His idea of a show was based on the Encyclopedia Brittanica.”
Reed took issue with how unrealistic the show could be at times.
According to Kimberly Potts, author of The Way We All Became the Brady Bunch, there was a particular episode in the series’ fourth season Reed had trouble with.
In “Jan, the Only Child,” Carol, played by Florence Henderson, and housekeeper Alice, played by Ann B. Davis, compete to see who can make the best strawberry preserves.
Reed was supposed to walk into the Brady house and say it smelled like “strawberry heaven,” but he refused because after some research he did not believe strawberries produced a smell when cooked.
Schwartz and Reed went back and forth over the validity of the statement.
Reed showed Schwartz what he read in the encyclopedia, while Schwartz brought Reed on set and cooked a pot of strawberries to demonstrate that they in fact produced a scent.
They were able to reach a middle ground, and Reed agreed to say he “died and gone to strawberry heaven.”
But that wasn’t always the case. Sometimes, Reed stuck to his guns, even if that meant being completely written out of an episode.
Those who have seen the series finale of The Brady Bunch may notice that Reed didn’t appear in the final episode. At the time you may have wondered why, but now you may be able to guess.
There was something in the script he didn’t agree with.
During the finale, Bobby Brady attempts to sell tonic to make money. His brother Greg tried out the product, but it turned his hair a different color.
In an effort to get ahead of Reed, Schwartz contacted the hair care company Clairol to confirm the validity of their script.
“Before even talking to him, I had called Clairol,” he said. “And they said one of the biggest problems, they have lawsuits every week from somebody whose hair turns orange or turns green or turns black. That’s what hair does; different hair reacts differently to their hair dyes.”
But Reed wasn’t sold. He contacted Schwartz the morning of the show, calling it an “outlandish story, unbelievable, [and] ridiculous,” and informed the series creator he wouldn’t film the episode.
As a result, Reed was written out of the final episode.
If you enjoyed this story, you might like to see what the iconic Brady Bunch house looks like today!
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Robert Reed sure was difficult to work with. It’s unfortunate that he couldn’t let it go that The Brady Bunch was a fictional sitcom.
