More than five decades after The Brady Bunch premiered — entering the TV pantheon forever — Barry Williams and more cast members still feel like a family.
“Well, I can hardly imagine a more impactful event than being on a popular television series in the early ’70s,” Williams, 69, exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the show’s 55th anniversary. “It shaped me in many, many different ways, including dealing with being a recognizable person. And I really owe a lot to [my TV mom] Florence Henderson about that and helping give that a perspective and a respect and an understanding that I might not have had without her guidance.”
The experience was transformative for Williams, who played Greg Brady on the original series and on several of its spinoffs and TV movies. “It shaped [me] in a very profound way, but I think in a very positive way,” he told Us. “Because what I chose to do for a living so very early on — and I started [acting] well before The Brady Bunch — I’m still as excited to do today as I was then.”
The Brady Bunch aired from 1969 to 1974 on ABC and has lived on in syndication and streaming ever since.. The wholesome, oh-so-70s sitcom followed the blended family of Mike Brady (Robert Reed) and his three sons — Greg, Peter (Christopher Knight) and Bobby (Mike Lookinland) — and Carol Brady (Henderson) and her three daughters — Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb) and Cindy (Susan Olsen).
Reed and Henderson died in 1992 and 2016, respectively, but their onscreen children still make an effort to stay connected. “We do feel the presence of Florence and Bob,” Williams told Us of his late costars.
Williams identified Knight, 66, as his “closest” friend from the cast — the pair cohost “The Real Brady Bros” podcast, which launched in 2022 — but he has fond memories with each of his fictional siblings. “We’re always in touch, you know, either a picture or a text away,” he added.
Knight echoed Williams’ sentiments in a separate interview with Us, noting that while they’ll have small reunions here and there, “it took about 20 years” for all six Brady siblings to get together again, he said. (The group last appeared in a four-part series on HGTV titled A Very Brady Renovation in 2019, where they returned to the real-life Brady Bunch home.)
“It was nice having all the original cast members in one place, something I was shocked to actually see happen,” Knight told Us. “It was a gift.”
Knight was younger than Williams during the heyday of The Brady Bunch, which gave him a slightly different perspective on the experience. “It contorted [my teen years],” he admitted. “I mean, I don’t know if my teen years were like everyone else’s. … I was recognizing that I was treated like I wasn’t normal, and I really just wanted to be normal during that phase.”
Knight confessed that getting his brush with fame at such a young age was “brutal,” adding, “Maturity takes some of that brutality away.”
When it comes to his most cherished memories from the show, Knight said, “This adventure has mostly been one lived in the rear view mirror,” he told Us. “The importance of the show [is] growing just simply because of its longevity and the fact that it’s transitioned or transformed from what it was originally, which was entertainment, to something of a cultural touchstone. [I’m] honored to have been part [of it] and very lucky.”
Plumb and Williams, meanwhile, both loved getting to travel for the show. “[We] did episodes in the Grand Canyon, Hawaii and Six Flags,” Plumb recalled. “I have always loved to travel and continue to do it as much as possible today.”
For Williams, filming surfing scenes in Hawaii is a memory that still sticks with him today. “The production company had rented the entire beach for three days, and it was all about, you know, getting the shot and … my job was to catch the biggest, the best waves I could and wear the tiki at the same time,” he recalled. “The important thing was to make the wipeout look real.”
Williams achieved that goal. “I actually hit a coral head underneath the water, which could have been very serious,” he told Us. “But I hit it with my feet instead of my head, and that also made it quite memorable.”
Another moment he’ll never forget? Filming the pilot episode. “I remember thinking, ‘My gosh, this is really the beginning of an entire chapter,'” he told Us. “We were just learning [about] each other, our personalities and who we were, and how it fit in, and how this whole television show was going to work, right? It was exciting and it was exactly what The Brady Bunch was about. It was about us learning about each other and getting together.”
As for where their characters would be today, the Brady siblings have high hopes. According to Williams, Greg would “probably” be a hospital administrator after pursuing a career in medicine. Peter, meanwhile, would be in the tech world, with Knight drawing comparisons to Elon Musk. Plumb predicted Jan would likely end up as “a successful architect and designer.”
The Brady Bunch left its cast with “enduring friendships” that they still hold near and dear more than 50 years later. “I mean, we were a family,” Williams told Us.
With reporting by Sarah Jones
