Well, this was one that baffled the interns–but some of us insist on honoring the 57th (gulp) birthday of Maureen McCormick. Yes, we’re seeing Marcia Brady heading into retirement age. That helps explain why we had to explain to the interns that Maureen was once one of American’s most beloved kiddies. In fact, The Brady Bunch ran on for so long (1969 to 1974) that Maureen ended up as one of America’s most beloved teenagers. Thanks to constant cable reruns, though, it didn’t take much to remind the young’uns that The Brady Bunch was the story of a lovely lady bringing up three lovely girls who met a man named Brady with three boys of his own. Then the two got married, merged their families, and that begat the sitcom of The Brady Bunch. [photo by Kristian Dowling/Getty Images]
It was a lasting baby-boomer payoff, too. It led to 1976’s The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (as rightfully parodied on The Simpsons) and a dramedy called The Brady Brides in 1981. Then there was a TV-movie called A Very Brady Christmas in 1988. That would lead to the kitschy big-screen Brady Bunch remakes in the ’90s. And through it all was Maureen McCormick as the blonde cheerleader Marcia. The actress tried to break out of the typecasting with turns on The Love Boat and Fantasy Island (we’ll explain those to the interns later), and Maureen even had a short stint on the soap opera Passions. We all remember Passions, right? It was that soap opera with the nurse that was an orangutan and the doll that came to life.
Well, we certainly remember Marcia Brady–whether she was getting hit in the nose with a football or driving her younger sister Jan crazy by being so perfect. No matter what was going on, we knew that the entire situation would be resolved by the closing credits. After all, that’s why it’s called a sitcom. The “sit” stands for situation. Maureen has certainly kept herself in some wacky situations, including a stint on a reality-television show where she managed a rustic inn with fellow showbiz veterans Carnie Wilson and Bobby Brown. She’s also published an autobiography that could’ve spared us some shocking details. Still, we’re very happy to celebrate Maureen’s weird career–with, of course, this classic clip…
