You're Fired! The Episode That Got Robert Reed Thrown Off The Brady Bunch

welcome to best steps a peak behind the scenes of TV's most famous and Infamous episodes so here's the story of a man named Brady Robert Reed who starred in all but two episodes of The Brady Bunch so here's the real story of a man named Brady who was furious with his Show's Direction and got banned from the set for in his mind trying to make it better let's dive into the Brady Bunch episode that broke Robert Reed and led to a grudge between Reed and Creator Sherwood Schwarz that lasted until the days they died it's hairbrain scheme next on best [Music] apps so Sherwood Schwarz never even wanted Robert Reed for the part of Mike Brady he wanted Jean Hackman who in 1968 was just starting out but Paramount bed at Hackman because despite a small part in Bonnie and Clyde he wasn't yet a household name the studio instead wanted Shakespearean trained Reed who was a household man having starred for Four Seasons In The Defenders on ABC but more importantly was still under contract with Paramount Studios Schwarz almost instantly regretted casting Reed who needed the money but possibly thought the concept of a blended family in 1969 with parents who share a bed no less was more groundbreaking than Schwarz was going for maybe Reed should have known better 5 years earlier schs created a light-hearted sitcom that was a dis failure Gilligan's Island still years away from success in after school syndication so instead of a keen treaties on a modern family Reed was Chagrin as The Brady Bunch became Gilligan's ranch house but by all accounts from various sources Reed treated his TV kids like gold while treating Schwarz and the other producers like garbage these producers and writers included his brother Elroy and his son Lloyd said Lloyd in 2000 I don't believe Bob should get any credit for anything about his kindness toward the kids when he would do things for them he was really trying to buy their affection because what he was really doing in my opinion was fighting for control of the family throughout the run of the show's 117 episodes Reed would write pages long memos to the head of Paramount Studios der writing shorts of scripts as unrealistic and factually incorrect I'm sure Bob used to read a scene with the script in one hand and the Encyclopedia Britannica in the other sure would Schwarz wrote in his Memoir in 2010 during production of the Season 2 Episode Impractical Joker Reed got into an argument with Lloyd schz that almost came to blows after Reed sent a six-page memo demanding changes to the episode's tag scene a scene he wasn't even in he objected to the premise that Alice wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a joke Ink Spot and a real one later when changes weren't made to the scenes he found implausible he filmed his scenes drunk so they would be unusable though at least one shot of a Tipsy Reed did make it into Impractical Joker according to Barry Williams in his Memoir growing up Brady the show turned out to be Gilligan's Island with kids Reed told TV Guide in 1970 at first I went along and decided to do the best I could now I argue on the set so this was in season two of a five-year run and things only went downhill to the point where Schwarz only talked to Bob through his agent Meritt Blake the thing is though Bob Reed followed a piece of advice Mike Brady might give to his kids he never gave up over the next three seasons shortz's office was flooded with memos and phone calls from Reed trying to explain why the episode on the floor would not work the actor straight up refused to appear in the season 4 episode goodbye Alice Hello not only because he was a semi-regular on manx at the time but primarily because he thought it ludicrous for Alice to leave the bradies based on a silly misunderstanding in his mind he was only trying to make the show better by grounding it in reality in my mind Reed might have been frustrated with other aspects of his life namely his inability to come out as publicly gay and his watching Jean Hackman get Oscar Glory from The French Connection whatever reads motives neither Sherwood nor Lloyd Schwarz were having any of it and things finally came to a head in January of 1974 during production of hairbrain scheme an unremarkable episode notable only for the fact it would be the show's [Music] last look out the Brady Bunch is back with a full hour's worth of fun and problems right now Marsh is convinced that she's Dracula's daughter that makes me Dracula catch TV's funniest Family when they get together for an hour of double fun the minute the script for episode 117 hairbrain scheme came out of writer Charles Stewart's typewriter Sherwood Schwarz knew that Bob Reed would be ready to complain about it so he prepared himself the script has to do with Greg's hair inadvertently turning red on the eve of graduation so Schwarz said he proactively called the clear all company to ask whether a product could inadvertently turn someone's hair red in such a short amount of time oh sure the company spokesperson allegedly told him that's why we have a floor full of lawyers armed with this knowledge Schwarz sent the script out to the cast but as predicted when Reed read it he derided Schwarz for how unrealistic it was Schwarz told Reed it was perfectly plausible and explained why so Robert Reed suddenly found he had to change Tac he went home and pounded out yet another long memo attacking not the hack deed nature of the storyline but instead offered an essay on the differences between good and bad comedy he cited mash the Paul ly show Batman and The Beverly Hillbillies in his examples this episode he argued was too many styles of Comedy thrown together the most generic problem to date in The Brady Bunch has been this almost constant scripted inter transposition of comedic Styles Reed wrote and he later accused Schwarz of recycling this story from Gilligan's Island I mean he's not wrong Gilligan's classic 1966 episode Hair Today Gone Tomorrow does bear some striking similarities but then Reed signed off this memo by writing quote I can't play it for some producers that line would cause panic but for Lloyd report s it caused relief as he told msnbc's Headliners and legends in 2000 he came back at Reed with a reference of his own the dictionary he said defined K as quote physically unable to and according to Reed's contract if he was physically unable to perform he could be removed from the show and not paid so Sherwood wrote Mike Brady out of hairbrain scheme the episode where his oldest son graduates from college too bad your father is out of town and had to miss Carol laments lamely that's pretty awkward and the filming of the episode grew even more awkward when Reed showed up on the set and stood lurking and scowling 20 feet away on his podcast the real Brady Bros Barry Williams revealed that during this scene where Bobby dumps hair tonic on Greg Reed was standing just off camera and it did make Williams a little bit nervous and this incensed Sherwood Schwarz he demanded Reed leave Sound Stage five at Paramount so as not to distract his actors Reed's response The Brady Bunch is my show and I'm interested in what goes on on my show when a non-nonsense Paramount TV exact Hank Coleman got window of this he offered to send two security guards to forcibly remove Reed from the lot Over My Dead Body Sherwood Schwarz said I don't like this man but I like the kids and I don't want them to see this happening right in front of them eventually Reed gave up and went home on his own and the rest of the episode was filmed without incident uh to be honest I think it's kind of a fun episode but I've always been a sucker for storylines involving kids trying to make money by getting a side hustle anyway hairbrain scheme aired on March 8th 1974 but it only got 10.5 million viewers compared to NBC sford and Son which got 17.6 million and this episode never won any awards and I don't think it lends on any lists as far as season finales go it's about as unremarkable as it gets but then shortly after this episode was filmed ABC's VP of prime time Barry Diller called to talk to wood Schwarz and Diller admitted right up front that he was not a fan of family shows and Schwarz had to admit right up front that creatively the show was kind of grinding down cousin Oliver anyone nope that's John Denver cousin Oliver anyone to compound that after five seasons a renewal of the show would have also have meant renewals of all nine actors contracts and everyone in the cast including Robert Reed had dollar signs in their eyes still Diller asked Schwarz what would be done about Reed should he get picked up for season 6 and Sherwood Schwarz was quick to say that Robert Reid would not be asked back as Mike Brady instead he had an eye on recasting the role with Robert Foxworth now given all this Diller opted not to pick up the Brady Bunch for his sixth season and hairbrain scheme ended up being the series finale perhaps an ignominious end to a Now TV classic but after the cancellation Reed went public with his gripes telling one gossip columnist that the happiest part of the cancellation was that his ulcers might now get better and he called the show quote a piece of fluff that gets pretty old after a while particularly when it isn't good fluff now perhaps surprisingly Robert Reed's career actually blossomed post Brady more than anyone else in the cast over the next three years he landed three Emmy nominations one each for the miniseries Roots and Rich Man Poorman and one for playing a transitioning transgender doctor in the episode of medical center that is still considered today one of TV's most controvers episodes amazingly however the cancellation of The Brady Bunch wasn't the end of either the show or Robert Reed's association with it in 1976 Michael Eisner commissioned Sid and Marty Croft to create a variety show starring the Brady brood in character and Robert Reed agreed to sign on to play Mike now perhaps because Sherwood Schwarz would be no way involved in the variety show but also perhaps because Robert Reed had always secretly wanted to be a song and dance man Even though this was not his Forte as morine McCormack wrote in her Memoir here's the story he sang and danced without caring that he was lousy and the show itself was worse his inner Dorothy had found her calling later Reed would bury the hatchet with Schwarz a few more times appearing in further iterations of The Brady Bunch including the Brady girls get married A Very Brady Christmas and even an episode of The Love Boat as Mike Brady but according to a number of sources he maintained his prickly ways while on those sets as well after his contentious exchanges with Reed on the set of the 1-hour reboot the bradies in 1990 Sherwood Schwarz realized that things could never really be patched up between the two he hated everything short said in 1999 and since I represented in his mind everything he hated me the most when Reed died of AIDS and colon cancer in 1992 Sherwood Schwarz refused to attend his funeral recalled Lloyd Schwarz I always wanted to Shake him and say Bob Mike Brady is a nice guy people like him why don't you just be like Mike Brady Robert Reeds scathing memos were reprinted verbatim in Barry Williams seminal Memoir growing up Brady but upon reading the book shortly before his death Reed reportedly asked a friend was I really that difficult [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Best Eps

Views: 137,563

Keywords: 70s sitcoms, Brady bunch, Documentary, TV, TelevisionHistory, brady bunch behind the scenes, documentary, maureen mccormick, robert reed, sitcom, the brady bunch, the brady bunch episodes, the brady bunch full episodes, tv secrets

Id: k0lkUVKdiOM

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024