A Very Brady Post: 6 Secrets from The Brady Bunch Vault

Here's the story of how a show started as a typical formulaic sitcom, but grew into a syndicated monster. From the time Greg Brady got high to the reason Cindy Brady started balding, here's a quick rundown of all things Brady you probably didn't know.

1. In real-life, Jan gave Marcia the complex

2. Barbershop of Horrors: Why Cindy started balding

3. Gene Hackman almost Played the Lead

4. Greg Brady liked to get high

5. The Brady Bunch might never have made it without Lucille Ball

Back in 1965, producer Sherwood Schwartz was browsing through the Los Angeles Times when a sidebar caught his eye; it was a "filler piece" statistic box that stated 31% percent of all marriages at that time included a child from a previous relationship. He grabbed a notepad and started scribbling ideas "“ the types of sibling rivalries that could emerge in "blended" families, the problem of a parent showing his "natural" children favoritism, etc. From his notes he developed a concept for a TV series he called Yours and Mine. He shopped his script to the three major networks and was turned down each time. Three years later, United Artists released a film called Yours, Mine and Ours, starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda, which told the story of a widow with eight children who married a father of ten. The film did well at the box office, and suddenly ABC was interested in Schwartz's script (then called The Bradley Brood).

6. Robert Reed's Hard Life

If you have any unanswered Brady questions, I'm always amenable to a Part Deux!