In 1954, the actor, Robert Reed, married Marilyn Rosenberg. They were divorced, after a daughter, years later. Reed went on to have a rather undistinguished but durable career in the entertainment industry. If you think that means he had talent, you should try getting a first novel published. You never know.
Robert Reed, of course, was Dad Brady, the head of the most wholesome reconstituted family on television.
He was also gay, and he died of AIDS.
You know why it is so ironic that “The Brady Bunch” is one of the favorite shows of the Christian Right, don’t you?
Because it displays wholesome values?
Because none of the characters ever swear or have premarital sex?
Because it subtly but directly supports capitalism, in it’s wholesome evocation of all-American values like thrift and employment?
No. Actually, none of those values are particularly ironic, in this context.
No, it’s because Mike Brady and his wife never, ever spanked their kids. Never. Not once. Never ever ever.
Think about it. Isn’t it really strange that the most wholesome family show in the history of television sitcoms never shows the parents spanking their children? Yet, a lot of conservative Christians go absolutely ballistic at the idea that they should not beat their kids. And they adore “Brady Bunch”.
Would it bother them to see Reed flip little Cindy over his knee, drop her britches, and give her a good whopping? How do fundamentalists feel about spanking on the bare bum? Is that going too far? But if we decide that spanking on a bare bottom is going too far– well, isn’t that just the thin edge of the wedge, the start of the slippery slope, leading to tolerance and relativism and feminism and then…. gasp!
Homosexuality!
It’s too late!