I never realized this until like a year and a half ago when I looked up Wikipedia's article about The Brady Bunch to see what the final episode was and then found out that this famous show that has never been off the air and holds a place in the annals of pop culture only ran from 1969 to 1974. Surprised me, because I always assumed that the show ran for much longer because of how old the Brady kids looked at the end of the show's run. Hold on, I think some visuals will help here:
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| Season One. |
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| Season Five. |
It's surprisingly difficult to find pictures of the famous 3x3 grid, but these will work. As you can see, the Brady kids grew fast in those five years. No idea how old he really was, but Barry Williams (Greg) looks like he's somewhere in his twenties. I think fashion also had a hand in making the show's run seem longer. The first season, their clothes are traditional white bread style and closer to Leave It to Beaver attire. Then as the show progressed into the 70s, the wardrobe changed to what was hip at the time. I mean, damn, Mike went from straight hair to curly! Another factor is that I've never watched every episode of The Brady Bunch and especially not in the order they aired, so going from straight-laced to groovy, I just figured that it was on TV for more than five years.
In case you're wondering, by the way, the final episode of The Brady Bunch is the one where Bobby tries to make money by selling hair tonic and it turns Greg's hair orange when he uses some of it. Yup, they ended the show on a high note.
Except for a two month sojourn in 1975, it’s never been off the air since 1969.
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