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Season 2 of The Brady Bunch is the season with the least amount of episodes missing from streaming. In fact, it's only missing one episode! Episode 23, "Alice's September Song," involves a person from Alice's past, so it could be there were rights issues involving the performer in the episode. I don't actually know and I'm just speculating, but that is my guess.
The third season is missing five episodes from streaming, and I think one of them is really weird.
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I can be kind of a lazy human sometimes. Despite owning The Brady-est Brady Bunch TV & Movie Collection, I didn't want to walk over to the TV to put my DVD in when I have the Paramount+ app right there on my smart TV. Don't worry; I only reviewed "The Honeymoon" in this way and I verified that the version on the DVD is the exact same as the one on streaming since then. What I did notice, though, was that episodes were missing from season 1. In fact, there is at least one episode missing from every season.
At the time I compiled this list, which was in December 2021, there was only one season of The Brady Bunch on Hulu - the first season. The rest was already off of the service, possibly because of CBS owning the rights and moving it to Paramount+, which they also own. I did confirm, however, that the season 1 episodes missing on Hulu were the exact same episodes that were missing on Paramount+. The reason these episodes are missing are due to not having the necessary rights secured to stream these episodes - after all, how could they have predicted in the 70s that they would need to secure streaming rights for everything? You can see these episodes in syndication, which is usually edited from the original for time, or you can see them unedited on DVD.
So let's get into these missing episodes.
All 5 seasons of Brady Bunch theme songs unless they get removed.
Season 1
Season 1 of The Brady Bunch is missing a total of 8 episodes from streaming. Those episodes are:
- Episode 5 "Katchoo"
- Episode 6 "A Clubhouse Is Not a Home"
- Episode 9 "Sorry, Right Number"
- Episode 10 "Every Boy Does It Once"
- Episode 13 "Is There a Doctor in the House"
- Episode 15 "54-40 and Fight"
- Episode 17 "The Undergraduate"
- Episode 22 "The Possible Dream"
There has been some controversy surrounding "Is There a Doctor in the House," as some people have claimed the episode was pulled for spreading anti-vaxxer propaganda or something else equally asinine. This is not the truth. It has never been available on streaming. While rights issues can be related to things such as not having the streaming rights to certain music, or not having the right contract for certain performers, I'm actually stuck on why "Katchoo" or "A Clubhouse Is Not a Home" isn't available. Granted, at the time of writing this I have not yet rewatched episodes from "Every Boy Does It Once" on, but particularly for "Katchoo" or "A Clubhouse Is Not a Home," I can't think of any non-standard Brady music and both episodes only feature the main 9.
Season 2
Season 3
- Episode 1 "Ghost Town USA"
- Episode 7 "Juliet Is the Sun"
- Episode 12 "Getting Davy Jones"
- Episode 21 "Cindy Brady, lady"
- Episode 22 "My Fair Opponent"
"Ghost Town USA" isn't just the season 3 premiere - it's the first part of a three-part episode. The other two episodes are available on streaming. This helps me narrow down that there is something specifically in the first episode that isn't in the other two episodes that ViacomCBS/Paramount does not have the rights to, but it's still weird that anyone who is watching The Brady Bunch on Paramount+ will have to start with the second part of this trilogy of episodes.
Season 4
The fourth season of The Brady Bunch is only missing three episodes; however, much like season 3, one of the missing episodes is really weird.
- Episode 1 "Hawaii Bound"
- Episode 7 "The Show Must Go On??"
- Episode 21 "You're Never Too Old"
Replace "Ghost Town USA" with "Hawaii Bound" and "season 3" with "season 4" with what I said before, and you have why it's weird that season 4's premiere episode is missing. Why is this an actual trend?
Season 5
The Brady Bunch's final season is missing a total of five episodes from streaming. Those episodes are:
- Episode 1 "Adios, Johnny Bravo"
- Episode 3 "Snow White and the Seven Bradys"
- Episode 4 "Never Too Young"
- Episode 18 "Two Petes in a Pod"
- Episode 20 "The Snooperstar"
I don't know what The Brady Bunch was doing in its season premieres that 60% of them are not available for streaming, but here we are. Also, the part of my brain that is tickled by patterns thinks it's interesting that both season 4's "You're Never Too Old" and this season's "Never Too Young" are unavailable, given their similar naming styles. I will 1000% guess that Disney is the reason behind "Snow White and the Seven Bradys" not being available, as I do recall this episode and if I'm remembering correctly, the Bradys use the names of the dwarfs in their play but those names were never in the fairy tale.
The Summation
This list is accurate, double checked, and triple checked as of December 2021. If any other episode appears to not be streaming that isn't on this list, it was pulled. Let me know if you notice that happen! I want to investigate if it does. Also, anybody who does exclusively watch The Brady Bunch on streaming these days - how do you feel about seasons 3 and 4 starting with the second of a three-part episode?
I will see you next week with actual episode reviews!
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