49 Years Ago Today, TV's Strangest ‘70s Variety Show Was Canceled
It's been 49 years since The Brady Bunch said goodbye to their stage act. On May 25, 1977, ABC canceled The Brady Bunch Hour. The Sid and Marty Krofft-produced variety show, which debuted on November 28, 1976, as a primetime special titled The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, followed the beloved sitcom family, still in character, as they transformed into a singing and dancing group. The series aired just eight episodes-but boy, they were memorable.
Not only did the series feature dance troupe and synchronized swimmers, The Krofftettes and Water Follies, but it also introduced the world to "fake Jan" (Geri Reischl) after original Brady Bunch star Eve Plumb opted out of the spinoff due to other acting commitments.
Big-name guests turned up to hang with the Bradys for sketches and musical numbers, including Milton Berle, Vincent Price, Tina Turner, Donny Osmond, Redd Foxx, and then-couple Farrah Fawcett and Lee Majors. The clan's next door neighbor was played by Rip Taylor.
In an interview with The Television Academy Foundation, showrunners Sid and Marty Krofft revealed that they were approached to produce The Brady Bunch Hour by ABC boss Michael Eisner following their success with the Donny & Marie Show.
Marty Krofft recalled, "You know these people are talented, but to do variety and to sing and dance, you know, they wanted to do it bad. It was tough."
"I don't think the audience wanted to buy them as singers and dancers," Sid Krofft added. "And it had to be a variety show, so it was sort of a spoof that we did on them singing and dancing. They're hysterical if you see them now, you know, and that's what they were meant to be, but when they came out, it was right after The Brady Bunch series, and people weren't prepared for them to make a leap like that."
The Kroffts were right. In 2002, TV Guide ranked The Brady Bunch Hour the fourth-worst show in television history, according to Remind magazine.
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Several cast members were happy when 'The Brady Bunch Hour' was canceled
Some of the cast members were happy when The Brady Bunch Hour was canceled.
In the book Love to Love You Bradys, cast member Christopher Knight said the show went on too long for his liking. "This was the incarceration that was way too long. It should have been axed earlier," he said, per Remind.
During an appearance on The Magnificent Others podcast, youngest Brady, Susan Olsen, admitted she once said of the variety series, "Don't we all wish we had something better to do than this show?"
In addition, in his 1992 book Growing up Brady,Barry Williams, aka Greg Brady, described the series as "incredibly bad" and said it failed the airways and embarrassed the guests. "ABC had seen enough," he wrote. "Our plug was mercifully yanked, and the American viewing public was put out of its misery."
But more recently, Williams changed his tune about The Brady Bunch Hour. In May 2026, he told The Magnificent Others podcast that he "loved the variety show, which he noted was "the genre of the day."
"In the mid-70s kind of everybody had a variety show," The Brady Bunch star said. "Now, it was over the top, and it was campy, and it was silly and the costumes were completely overblown. I loved all of it!"
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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 6:04 AM.