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| Here's the story of a forgotten Brady... |
In the weeks leading up to June 1, 1998, Nick at Nite was excited to add a hit classic series to its lineup. Having been a syndication hit and having two relatively recent and successful theatrical releases based on the series, Brady Fever was holding strong. The Brady Bunch, however, deserved more than just a typical marathon to celebrate its addition to the Nick at Nite Family.
It deserved an expose. It deserved a cast member nobody got along with. It deserved…
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| Phoebe really wanted the girls to win. |
Phoebe Brady.
Phoebe Brady was just as terrible as her actor, Fanny McNeal. Fanny didn’t get along with the rest of the cast, except for Sam the Butcher, who fed the child’s thirst for violence and mild depravity. She especially didn't get along with Tiger or Cousin Oliver. Fanny was often playing tricks on the cast that would lead to them being injured, and since she often ad-libbed and generally didn’t follow directions, she shaped the character of Phoebe in the vain of The Bad Seed’s Rhoda, except somehow meaner despite the lower body count.
During the first week of The Brady Bunch’s run on Nick at Nite, the network had a top 40 marathon, but they also toted lost footage of old episodes featuring Phoebe, the Lost Brady. Phoebe was between Jan and Cindy in the birth order of Carol’s girls, and unlike her sisters had red hair. Most of the surviving cast at the time - minus Ann B. Davis, Maureen McCormick, and Eve Plumb - did interviews talking about how horrible of a character Phoebe was and how her actress wasn’t any better. In Susan Olsen’s clips, she had the opportunity to joke about how often Phoebe was almost fired from the show. In Mike Lookinland’s clips, he humorously reminisces about the Phoebe-heavy episodes that had to be cut when she was edited out, such as the firecrackers episode or the time that the Bradys went to Las Vegas. I honestly would have loved to see a Brady Vegas adventure, but c'est la vie.
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| Phoebe was always the odd one out. |
Interestingly enough, some young viewers who happened to see these segments when they aired on Nick at Nite believed Phoebe Brady was real and that she had been cut out of the episodes. However, the whole thing was just a fun marketing gimmick to entice people to watch the marathon. When these clips played on Nick at Nite, I poured over them, amused by the the faux skeleton in the Brady closet. We all have that relative, and isn't it better when you don't have to wish to be a Brady because you can totally relate with the Bradys? I did a lot of research to see who was the young actor portraying Phoebe in these clips, and I found literally nothing. Commercials don’t have credits or IMDB entries, and any search for Phoebe Brady just leads to those promos and not the child behind them. Somewhere out there, however, is a 30-something who knows they had a small but fun impact on pop culture.
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| And then Phoebe broke Marcia's nose, just because she could. |
What are your experiences with Phoebe Brady? Were you afraid you were making this up and you’re now very glad to learn it’s all real? Do you know who played Phoebe Brady? Tell me!
I will see you real soon with episode related content. I hope you all have a good holiday season!
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