A Very Brady Christmas (1988)

On This Day in 1988: 𝘼 𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙔 𝘽𝙍𝘼𝘿𝙔 𝘾𝙃𝙍𝙄𝙎𝙏𝙈𝘼𝙎 debuted on CBS-TV!

This 1988 made-for-TV movie reunited almost the entire original cast of the 1969-1974 sitcom The Brady Bunch and was the second-highest rated telefilm that year. The movie follows Brady parents Mike and Carol with secret gift vacation plans for each other to Japan and Greece à la "Gift of the Magi." Instead, they decide to use the vacation fund to bring all of their children and their families home for Christmas.

The Brady children are each facing their own personal challenges: Greg's wife is spending Christmas with her own family, Peter is struggling with self-confidence at work as his fiancé is his boss, Bobby has dropped out of grad school to become a race car driver, Marcia's husband Wally was fired from his job, Jan is separated from husband Philip, and Cindy is lying about college issues and planning to go skiing. In the end, all of the children and their spouses are able to spend Christmas together and resolve their issues. The climax where Mike responds to a construction emergency invokes a classic early episode where Carol sang "O Come, All Ye Faithful", bringing forth a Christmas miracle.

This was the first time viewers revisited the Bradys since the 1981 debacle of The Brady Brides, but to the credit of the producers, story continuity from that short series was continued, bringing back Jerry Houser as Wally Logan, Marcia’s husband, and Ron Kuhlman as Philip Covington III, Jan’s husband. Unfortunately, Allan Melvin did not return as Sam the butcher, with that role filled by Lewis Arquette mostly covered by a Santa costume. (Mike read Sam's 'Dear Alice' letter, which was full of meat-themed double entendres, jarringly out of tone with the rest of the film.) All the Brady actors returned, with the exception of Susan Olsen who was on her honeymoon in Jamaica at the time. According to Olsen, producers only had to deliver five out of six kids returning for the movie to be greenlit-and in order to save on salary, considered Cindy’s character to be the most expendable and didn’t want to pay her on par with the other five. So she decided to head to Jamaica with her new husband. Jennifer Runyon replaced her. You might remember her from Charles In Charge or Ghostbusters.
𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒔𝒂𝒚…8 𝒐’𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌?

The telefilm was very well received (a 39 share!) triggering a dramatic series in the form of The Bradys in 1990, which continued the story of the now-adult children, in an attempt to emulate Thirtysomething. The show was quietly taken off the schedule and canceled after six episodes. However, Paramount Home Video released AVBC on VHS in 1992 - in limited quantities - as the special was largely critically panned. Over time, however, viewer nostalgia took hold as it was recognized as the final decent effort of the original Brady franchise, especially with the deaths of Robert Reed and Ann B. Davis. The demand for the video increased and it was a frequent rental at video stores.

Today, it is on DVD https://amzn.to/4gIiPCu and can be streamed free on Pluto TV.