History Recap / TheBradyBunchS4E14LawAndDisorder

* ThrowItIn: Given how they couldn't do a ''third'' take of the driveway scene, we are treated to a stoned Barry Williams almost tripping over a bicycle pump and awkwardly delivering his lines with a ThousandYardStare.

Meanwhile, the family is preparing for an outing on the water. Mike had been given, as a gift, a boat shell from a client (whose boathouse he had drafted plans for), and much of the action here focuses on the kids helping Mike with the restoration. [[note]]The first scene, with Mike bringing home the boat, is the famous scene where Barry Williams (Greg) was reportedly stoned after having smoked a marijuana cigarette on what he thought was his day off ... shortly before being called to the Paramount set to reshoot the driveway scene. Williams' oddball behavior during rehearsals and to cast and crew members was noticed (as he had long suspected) and his involvement in the episode was reduced.[[/note]]

* TheStoolPigeon: At first, Bobby bemoans the fact he's become essentially this. But as he becomes more comfortable in the role of School Safety Monitor and begins aggressively asserting himself, he truly earns the reputation of being a "snitch monitor," ironically the very thing he complained he didn't want to be. (Neither at school nor at home.)

After Jan, Bobby was the second most insecure of the six Brady kids. Mostly it was about him trying to find his own talent, or being in shadow of his two older brothers, but the case was different, when he began enforcing his own "'''Law And Disorder'''."

Specifically, Bobby's insecurity is that he doesn't assert himself very well, but once he learns how to stand up for himself ... boy, watch out.

Even Cindy isn't immune when he turns her in (along with a group of other girls) for running in the hallway. When Cindy protests, Bobby threatens to cite her for arguing with a safety monitor. Sure enough, later that afternoon, as Bobby is kicking back enjoying a snack, an angry Cindy returns home and snarls at him. Carol sees what's happening, takes her aside and explains not letting nepotism interfere with work, using an example of Bobby being a police officer who tickets her for running a traffic light. When Carol tries to explain that she would expect that to happen (ergo, he'd not show any favoritism), Cindy retorts, "If my son gave me a ticket, I'd give him a spanking!"

* TheStoolPigeon: At first, Bobby bemoans the fact he's become essentially this. But as he becomes more comfortable in the role of School Safety Monitor and begins aggressively asserting himself, he truly earns the reputation of being a "snitch monitor," ironically the very thing he complained he didn't want to be. (And this is both at school and at home.)

* ShoutOut and ContinuityNod: Bobby uses a whole box of "Safe" in the washing machine scene. "Safe" was the brand of laundry soap the Bradys tried to do a commercial for in Season 3 episode "And Now A Word From Our Sponsor". While the commercial was not made, they still recieved 2,000 boxes of "Safe" as compensation.

After Jan, Bobby was the second most insecure of the six Brady kids. Mostly it was about him trying to find his own talent, or being in shadow of his two older brothers, but the case was different in "'''Law And Disorder'''."

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Barry Williams admitted that during his day off from the filming of that episode, he had just smoked marijuana, when he was recalled to the set because some scenes needed to be re-shot, and he ended up reporting to the set while stoned. This is visible in the scene where Mike arrives home with the boat, and Greg is seen stumbling over a bicycle pump with a glazed look in his eyes, and there is a stilted delivery of his lines. The producers were furious about it and as a result, Greg's part in this episode was reduced.

Soon enough, Bobby begins abusing his jurisdiction and believes that his safety monitor duties carry over at home. Planning to make a report for his parents at the end of the week, his siblings and Alice end up on the report for one reason or another. Jan -- who was nailed for not helping to set the table (she was studying for a test, and told Carol ahead of time) -- curtly reminds Bobby that he is safety monitor at school, not at home. Eventually, the other kids go to their parents and say they don't want to go on the boat outing if Bobby comes, too; when Carol gives an "of course he's coming," they give both her and Mike an earful about Bobby's tyrannic attitude of late.

When Bobby says there were a lack of volunteers and he was appointed, Carol reassures him by pointing out that his teacher thought he was mature enough to accept the responsibility. Mike adds that rules are important and tells him he thinks that he can be a good safety monitor.

Soon enough, Bobby begins abusing his jurisdiction and believes that his safety monitor duties carry over at home. Planning to make a report for his parents at the end of the week, his siblings and Alice end up on the report for one reason or another. Jan -- who was nailed for not helping to set the table (she was studying for a test, and told Carol ahead of time) -- curtly reminds Bobby that he is safety monitor at school, not at home. Eventually, the other kids complain to Mike about Bobby coming along on the boat outing ... and when Carol gives an "of course he's coming," they give both her and Mike an earful about Bobby's tyrannic attitude of late.

The youngest Brady boy has dressed in his good suit for a yearbook photo for the safety monitor organization. While on the way home, Bobby is met up by one of his classmates, a pretty girl named Jill, who is hysterical because her beloved pet cat got loose and ran into an abandoned house. Bobby is reluctant to go in at first, seeing the "no trespassing" sign clearly posted, but -- does he sense that he might get a date with a pretty girl? -- eventually relents. He is eventually able to find the cat inside a chimney and talk it out ... but as the cat flees, a cloud of soot spills over him. Bobby's hormones begin working overtime as Jill thanks him, but then his being majorly turned on quickly goes away ... once he realizes that if his mom sees that he had gotten his clothes dirty, he'll get yelled at.

Bobby has no choice but to confess what happened to his parents. Mike suggests that his actions call for punishment, but lets him off easy. Well, not in the least: "We always have to have rules and laws, but we also have to use them with reason and justice." So while he (somehow) lets Bobby off with also trespassing into an abandoned house, Mike and Carol continue by explaining why Jan, Greg and his other siblings seemingly were allowed to get away with household infractions. And then Mike makes it abundantly clear, parroting what Jan had tried to tell him earlier: Being a safety monitor at school gives him no such authority at home; Carol lets on that she had also gotten calls from school about Bobby abusing his authority.

If only his teachers and parents knew.

Even Cindy isn't immune when he turns her in (along with a group of other girls) for running in the hallway. When Cindy protests, Bobby threatens to cite her for arguing with a safety monitor. Sure enough, later that afternoon, as Bobby is kicking back enjoying a snack, an angry Cindy returns home and snarls at him. Carol sees what's happening, takes her aside and explains not letting nepotism interfere with work, using her example of Bobby being a cop who cites her for running a traffic light. When Carol said that she would expect that to happen, Cindy retorts, "If my son gave me a ticket, I'd give him a spanking!"

The youngest Brady boy has dressed in his good suit for a yearbook photo for the safety monitor organization. While on the way home, Bobby is met up by one of his classmates, a pretty girl named Jill, who is hysterical because her beloved pet cat got loose and ran into an abandoned house. Bobby is reluctant to go in at first, seeing the "no trespassing" sign clearly posted, but -- does he sense that he might get a date with a pretty girl? -- eventually relents. He is eventually able to find the cat inside a chimney and talk it out ... but as the cat flees, a cloud of soot spills over him. Bobby's hormones stop working overtime as he realizes that if his mom sees that he had gotten his clothes dirty, he'll get yelled at.

* ShoutOut: Bobby uses a whole box of "Safe" in the washing machine scene. "Safe" was the brand of laundry soap the Bradys tried to do a commercial for in Season 3 episode "And Now A Word From Our Sponsor". While the commercial was not made, they still recieved 2,000 boxes of "Safe" as compensation.

Not only is he being harsh at school...
..., but Bobby also starts abusing his jurisdiction, and starts practicing law at home, as he's making another report for Mike and Carol for the end of the week. Soon enough, his whole family winds up on the report - for example, Jan for not setting the table and Greg for arriving home at five to midnight, 25 minutes after the curfew. Also Marcia for borrowing one of Carol's bracelets without asking her, and even Alice for not throwing out spray bottles and cans separately from other garbage. And looks like he'll really keep going.

Well, no.
A few days later, Mike and the kids have fixed up the old boat, and as soon as they recieve the sail Mike had ordered, they can go sailing. Just the final touches to the boat are being applied, Bobby arrives, dressed in his good clothes, as there's a photoshoot at school for safety monitors. Mike and Carol, not knowing his reign of terror, just tell him not to get his clothes dirty, while Peter, Jan and Cindy all glare at him. As soon as he's gone, they tell their parents that if Bobby is coming sailing with them, they'll take a rain check. Mike questions them: "We haven't even launched the boat yet and we've got a mutiny?", and the kids spill the beans about Bobby's report.

Bobby had just finished the photoshoot, and is going back home, when his classmate, Jill, approaches him, her cat having climbed into an old house that will be torn down, asking him to save the cat. While Bobby still tries to adhere to the rules, Jill eventually ends up dragging him along. Bobby then goes into the house, and is able to find Pandora from the chimney. While Jill happily leaves with her cat, Bobby is not so happy with his good clothes dirty. "Mom and dad are going to kill me." He complains.

Well, not if he himself is wise enough. Arriving home, he reads Carol's note on the blackboard that everyone is out until 6 p.m. "What luck, I've still got an whole hour!" he lightens up. He dumps his dirty clothes into the washing machine, and also the whole box of laundry detergent. As he goes into his room and changes his clothes, and starts doing his homework, he doesn't notice that the washing machine is overflowing. And when he goes downstairs to retrieve the clothes, he is horrified to find out the whole laundry room covered in suds. And just as he thought it couldn't get any worse, Carol and Alice arrive home from a shopping tour, and come across the room covered in suds. Bobby explains that he was just washing his clothes, to what Alice answers: "You're supposed to take your clothes off before you wash them!"

By then, Mike (and possibly the other kids) have also returned home. After Bobby confesses everything to Mike and Carol, Mike suggests that it calls for punishment and Bobby agrees. However, not really: "We always have to have rules and laws, but we also have to use them with reason and justice." And thus, Bobby breaking the rules of going in the abandoned house (and getting his clothes dirty) is seen as reasonable enough because he saved the little girl's cat. However, "Other people have reasons for breaking rules too," such as Jan, as she didn't set the table because she was reading a book for the test next morning, and Greg came in late because her date had forgotten her house key, and with her parents not home, he didn't want her to wait for them alone at night. "He tried to explain it, but he said you wouldn't listen." Bobby is also reprimanded for abusing his jurisdiction. "From what we've heard, you have become the most unwelcome young man at Clinton Avenue Elementary School, let alone at home."

But Bobby still hasn't fully got his comeuppance. Next morning, while the family is preparing the boat for the sailing trip, at first he's nowhere to be seen, before he arrives in the same pants he wore yesterday when he went to the photoshoot, except that now they are soaked and "tighter than his skin" as Jan comments. In addition of using the whole box of laundry shop in the washing machine, he had also not bothered to check the signs "dry clean only" on his good clothes. And as he finally joins in to help the family lift the boat, he ends up splitting his pants.

After Jan, Bobby was the second most insecure of the six Brady kids. Mostly it was about him trying to find his own talent, or being in shadow of his two older brothers, but the case was different in "Law And Disorder".

At school, Bobby's peers are all shunning him, and he complains to Cindy that "his whole class hates him". As they get home, where Mike is fixing up an abused boat, that he got from a client for whom he had drawn plans for a marine addition. However, while Mike and Carol had expected that Bobby would have been the most excited of all kids, he instead goes to his room to sulk. They follow him there, and now we find out why his peers are shunning him - he had been made the hall safety monitor, as he shows them his "SM" armband. "Should stand for snitch monitor," he complains. When his teacher had asked for a volunteer, no one wanted to do it, and he ended up becoming one against his own will. However, Mike and Carol point out that the teacher might have picked him because she may have thought that he was responsible enough for that post. "You know, it isn't part of the police's job to like arresting people." Mike tells Bobby, and also explains him the importance of rules, and that if he really tried, Bobby could make a good safety monitor.

But Bobby really takes it too seriously.
Pretty soon enough, he is enforcing rules at the school. For example, upon seeing that a girl had thrown a piece of paper on the stairs, he doesn't even consider the possibility that she may have just missed the trashcan, even though she points it out, and uses his famous line from the episode: "Name please, last name first." He really takes his job too seriously, as one day, when Cindy returns home from school, where the boat is being painted and Mike asks about him, she mentions: "He stopped seven kids from running down the stairs and he was still trying to get their names when I left." And everything seems to be okay, but then she ends up being the one in trouble.

Another day as the safety monitor, Bobby comes across three girls running in the hallway. And sure enough, Cindy is one of them. And he's not even giving his family any passes, when he writes even Cindy's name down on his report. "You can't turn me in, I'm your own sister!" Cindy protests, but he threatens to cite her also for arguing with safety monitor. This time, Bobby comes home early, and is currently sitting at the kitchen table when Cindy comes in, having just been released from detention, and she sure is mad at him. She takes a slice of cheese from the fridge and slaps it on Bobby's plate, saying "All rats eat cheese!" before she complains to Carol. However, Carol lectures her about nepotism, pointing out that if she might have ran a red light, she would expect Bobby to give him a ticket. Cindy still is angry: "If my son gave me a ticket, I'd give him a spanking!"

At school, Bobby's peers are all shunning him, and he complains to Cindy that "his whole class hates him". As they get home, where Mike is fixing up an abused boat, that he got from a client, who was just about to deliver it to a junkyard, for whom he had drawn plans for a marine addition. However, while Mike and Carol had expected that Bobby would have been the most excited of all kids, he instead goes to his room to sulk. They follow him there, and now we find out why his peers are shunning him - he had been made the hall safety monitor, as he shows them his "SM" armband. "Should stand for snitch monitor," he complains. When his teacher had asked for a volunteer, no one had raised their hand, so he was made the safety monitor against his own will. However, Mike and Carol point out that the teacher might have picked him because she may have thought that he was responsible enough for that post. "You know, it isn't part of the police's job to like arresting people. They share a responsibility to enforce the rules, and rules are very important, they're made to protect people." Mike encourages him to see it in another light, and that if he really tried, Bobby could make a good safety monitor. But Bobby really takes it too seriously.

Pretty soon enough, he is enforcing rules at the school. For example, upon seeing that a girl had thrown a piece of paper on the stairs, he doesn't even consider the possibility that she may have just missed the trashcan: "That's what they all say. Name please, last name first." And he really takes his job too seriously, as one day, when Cindy returns home from school, where the boat is being painted, and Mike asks about him, she casually mentions: "He stopped seven kids from running down the stairs and he was still trying to get their names when I left." And everything seems to be okay, but then she ends up being the one in trouble.

Another day as the safety monitor, Bobby comes across three girls running in the hallway. And sure enough, Cindy is one of them. And he's not even giving his family any passes, when he writes even Cindy's name down on his report. "You can't turn me in, I'm your own sister!" Cindy protests, but he threatens to also charge her with arguing with safety monitor. This time, Bobby comes home early, and is currently sitting at the kitchen table when Cindy comes in, having just been released from detention, and she sure is mad at him. She takes a slice of cheese from the fridge and slaps it on Bobby's plate, saying "All rats eat cheese!" before she complains to Carol. However, Carol lectures her about nepotism, saying that if she might have ran a red light, accidentally, she would expect Bobby to give him a ticket. Cindy still is angry: "If my son gave me a ticket, I'd give him a spanking!"

Not only is he being harsh at school, Bobby also starts breaking his jurisdiction at home, as he's making another report for Mike and Carol for the end of the week. Soon enough, his whole family winds up on the report - for example, Jan for not doing setting the table, leaving it to Alice, Greg arriving home at five to midnight, 25 minutes after the curfew, Marcia for borrowing one of Carol's bracelets without asking her, and even Alice for not throwing out spray bottles and cans separately from other garbage. And looks like he'll really keep going.

Well, no. A few days later, Mike and the kids have fixed up the old boat, and as soon as they recieve the sail Mike had ordered, they can go sailing. Just the final touches to the boat are being applied, Bobby arrives, dressed in his good clothes, as there's a photoshoot at school for safety monitors. Mike and Carol, not knowing his reign of terror, just tell him not to get his clothes dirty, while Peter, Jan and Cindy all glare at him. As soon as he's gone, they tell their parents that if Bobby is coming sailing with them, they'll take a rain check. Mike questions them: "We haven't even launched the boat yet and we've got a mutiny?", and the kids spill the beans about Bobby's report. Bobby had just finished the photoshoot, and is going back home, when his classmate, Jill, approaches him, her cat having climbed into an old house that will be torn down, asking him to save the car. While Bobby still tries to adhere to the rules, Jill eventually ends up dragging him along. Bobby then goes into the house, and is able to find Pandora from the chimney. While Jill happily leaves with her cat, Bobby is not so happy with his good clothes dirty. "Mom and dad are going to kill me." He complains.

Well, not if he himself is wise enough. Arriving home, he reads Carol's note on the blackboard that everyone is out until 6 p.m. "What luck, I've still got an whole hour!" he lightens up. He dumps his dirty clothes into the washing machine, and also the whole box of Safe laundry detergent, probably still leftovers from the 2,000 boxes they recieved as a compensation for the failed commercial in last season's "And Now a Word From Our Sponsor". As he goes into his room and changes his clothes, and starts doing his homework, he doesn't notice that the washing machine is overflowing. And when he goes downstairs to retrieve the clothes, he is horrified to find out the whole laundry room covered in suds. And just as he thought it couldn't get any worse, Carol and Alice arrive home from a shopping tour, and come across the room covered in suds. "What were you doing?" Carol asks him. To his reply that he was just washing his clothes, Alice answers: "You're supposed to take your clothes off before you wash them!"

By then, Mike (and possibly the other kids) have also returned home. After Bobby confesses everything to Mike and Carol, Mike suggests that it calls for punishment and Bobby agrees. However, not really: "We always have to have rules and laws, but we also have to use them with reason and justice." And thus, Bobby breaking the rules of going in the abandoned house (and getting his clothes dirty) is seen as reasonable enough because he saved the little girl's cat. However, "Other people have reasons for breaking rules too," such as Jan, as she didn't set the table because she was reading a book for the test next morning, and Greg came in late because her day had forgotten her house key and with her parents not home, he didn't want her to wait for them alone at night. Also, Bobby is reprimanded for abusing his jurisdiction. "From what we've heard, you have become the most unwelcome young man at Clinton Avenue Elementary School, let alone at home."

* SelfFulfillingProphecy and NotHelpingYourCase: Bobby hates being a school safety monitor because the kids won't talk to him. When encouraged to embrace his new role, he goes on a power trip which only makes things ''worse'' when he starts busting his fellow students and even his own family members for minor offenses.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy and NotHelpingYourCase: Bobby hates being a school safety monitor because the kids won't talk to him. When encouraged to embrace his new role, he goes on a power trip which only makes things ''worse'' when he starts busting his fellow students and even his own family members for minor offenses.
* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Barry Williams, in his autobiography ''Growing Up Brady'', revealed that he was high – he had smoked a marijuana cigarette less than an hour beforehand – when filming a scene in this episode. (It was a driveway scene, where Mike came home with a sailboard and announced they were going to fix it up for a weekend at the lake.) Barry says that his offbeat behavior during rehearsals and his stoic delivery during filming were near giveaways that he was stoned.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy / NotHelpingYourCase : Bobby hates being a school safety monitor because the kids won't talk to him. When encouraged to embrace his new role, he goes on a power trip which only makes things ''worse'' when he starts busting his fellow students and even his own family members for minor offenses.

* CowboyCop: The School Safety Monitors are merely there to encourage their peers to follow the rules and, if necessary, to report rulebreaking ... not trample over their rights or be a by-the-book, stop-'em-for-going-56-in-a-55-mph-speed-zone type [=SSM=]. After he becomes comfortable in his new role, Bobby is the latter in spades, and quickly makes him intensely disliked at school.

* PictureDay: Bobby dresses in his best suit for a group shot of the school safety monitors – but this is merely to set up the crucial scene of him trespassing into an abandoned house to rescue a friend's cat. (Word has it the photo was re-taken, only without Bobby, who had been relieved of his Safety Monitor duties, although this is never stated outright.)