Film / The Brady Bunch

They're back to save America from The '90s.

The Brady Bunch never reached the top 30 during its original network run, but earned a large following in syndication. In 1995, this fame led to the release of The Brady Bunch Movie, the first of three Affectionate Parody-films of the original sitcom. The Bradys have become a bunch of Disco Dans, engaging in 1970s fads and activities despite moving to the 1990s. The film follows their efforts to raise $20,000 in order to save their home (and, by extension, their neighborhood) from a Corrupt Corporate Executive (Michael McKean) who wants to convert the area into a shopping mall.

A Very Brady Sequel followed in 1996. A man identifying himself as Carol's first husband, Roy Martin, returns from a several-decade absence, and causes friction among the Brady household. Unbeknownst to the Brady Bunch, their visitor is actually a smuggler named Trevor Thomas (Tim Matheson of Animal House and Burn Notice), seeking to steal their horse statue for Dr. Whiteman, a rich man living in Hawaii. Trevor uses the Bradys' cluelessness to carry out his plan, as well as openly insult them throughout the film.

Paramount Television and Fox hoped to continue the success of the two theatrical films with a 2002 Made-for-TV Movie, The Brady Bunch in the White House. In it, Mike Brady becomes President of the United States.

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Tropes featured in the movies:

All Movies

• Art Shift: The cinematography and compositions become more theatrical whenever someone leaves the Brady house.
• Better than a Bare Bulb: The movies absolutely love lampshading and playing with the various Brady Bunch tropes.
• Brainless Beauty: Marcia, especially A Very Brady Sequel:
  Marcia: "He even wrote something in my yearbook in French! 'Menage A Trois]].' I bet that means 'You're the most.'"
• Call-Back: Quite a few scenes and subplots reference iconic Brady Bunch episodes.
• Casting Gag:
  • Tim Matheson, who played Roy/Trevor, previously played one of the children in Yours, Mine, and Ours, a movie that partly inspired the original Brady Bunch series.^note Sherwood Schwartz adamantly maintained that he conceived The Brady Bunch before Yours, Mine, and Ours came out, but the series had become a bit of a Spiritual Adaptation of it by the time it hit the air
  • Christopher Daniel Barnes, who played Greg, previously starred in "Day by Day", one episode of which was a special Brady Bunch episode based on the original series, guest-starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis, Maureen McCormick, Chris Knight and Mike Lookinland.
• Celebrity Paradox: In the first film, a girl says Peter is a babe in a Gilligan sort of way. Peter later tells her she's Mary Ann and Ginger combined. In A Very Brady Sequel Carol's first husband is the professor and a character mentions his son Gilligan has disappeared.
• Character Exaggeration: The films slightly exaggerated the characters' personalities, such as Jan's jealousy towards Marcia and Cindy's tattling (and Mike admonishing Cindy for tattling ... even though she was trying to tell him she had witnessed Mr. Dittmeyer stealing their mail, a federal crime), but true to the show. They were the characters from the later seasons stuck in the 1990s. The TV film The Brady Bunch in the White House made them unloveable parodies, such as Marcia crying when she got promoted to captain of the cheerleading squad and the vote wasn't unanimous.
• Cool Teacher: Jan respects her guidance counselor Mrs. Cummings (RuPaul) enough to ask her advice both during and after the school year.
• Depending on the Writer: The three movies have three different sets of writers, and there's a noticeable difference in tone between them all. The Brady Bunch Movie was partly written by 3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show creators Bonnie and Terry Turner, and there's definitely a skewed sitcom feel to it. A Very Brady Sequel was partly written by the team of Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, who also did Can't Hardly Wait, and it has more of an edgy teen comedy style. The Brady Bunch in the White House was written by two of Sherwood Schwartz's children (son Lloyd and daughter Hope), and harks back to the sillier style of the original series.
• Double Entendre: Too many to list here. Most come courtesy of Mike and Carol.
• The Film of the Series: The film of the Brady Bunch.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: The Brady family is hopelessly stuck in The '70s despite the world having moved on long ago.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Vain Marcia and nerdy Jan, big time.
• Hair Flip: Jan swishes her hair side to side whenever she walks. Marcia does some arrogant hair flipping, too.
• Literal-Minded: The Bradys won't understand certain phrases that exist outside of their early 1970s sitcom bubble.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: Although Christine Taylor (Marcia) and Jennifer Elise Cox (Jan) both agreed to stay in character between takes to maintain the tension between them, Taylor later admitted that she felt bad for "picking on" Cox so much in character. (Subverted, of course, in that she wasn't really picking on Cox, Marcia was picking on Jan.)
• Meaningless Meaningful Words: Mike gives fatherly speeches that are redundant, tautological, rambling and unnecessary but nevertheless the whole Brady family respond to them like what he said makes perfect sense.
• Recurring Character: The only characters to appear in both films, other than the main nine, are Jan's counselor Mrs. Cummings (Ru Paul) and Mike's boss Mr. Phillips (Steven Gilborn).

The Brady Bunch Movie

• Actor Allusion: Ann B. Davis' cameo role as "Schultzy" the truck driver who is named for Davis' character on The Bob Cummings Show.
• Adaptational Villainy: Doug Simpson, who asks Marcia out, is much worse in the movie then in the original series. In the series, he was simply shallow, breaking his date with Marcia when she disfigured her nose. In the movie, he's abusive to his girlfriend, who he dumps for Marcia. While he doesn't break their date over her nose, it's revealed that it's because he's trying to sleep with her.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: invoked In this movie's universe:
  • Jan develops her jealousy of Marcia out of mental instability. (In the original series, it was envy, fueled by Jan's teachers constantly boasting about Marcia.)
  • Marcia is much more of a narcissist and a bully in the movies, so Jan's feelings toward her may be more hostile as a result of that.
  • Greg is a complete geek and socially clueless loser, and "BMOC" wannabe, unlike the original series where Greg was one of the Big Men on Campus.
• Big Damn Movie: The Bradys' race to save their suburb gives the movie higher stakes than their show usually had.
• Bowdlerise: At the end of film, Grandma (Florence Henderson) cures Jan of her inner voice by shaking her and shouting, "Jan! Cut the crap!" In the original theatrical version, however, she yelled, "Jan! Cut that shit out!" (Maybe that was too much for the video-watching audience.)
• Butt-Monkey: Mr. Dittmeyer, rightfully so.
• Chekhov's Gun: The "Search for the Stars" contest.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Davy Jones.
• Comically Missing the Point: Due to the Bradys' being stuck in the '70s, this is not surprising.
• Contrived Coincidence: A talent contest that has a $20,000 prize, the exact amount the Bradys' needed to pay off their tax bill.
• Cover Version: During the school dance scene, Greg performs "Till There Was You", which was performed by the original Greg in Season 2's "Where There's Smoke" (Barry Williams' first vocal solo in the original series).
• Dance Party Ending: The ending shows the Bradys dancing around in their grid, while also engaging in miscellaneous gags (e.g., Marcia simultaneously appearing in her spot and Jan's, Carol inviting Mike to go kinky with her and some vegetable oil, Alice dancing in lingerie, Mrs. Dittmeyer being flirtatious with Mike).
• Deconstruction: Played off how warped the Bradys looked in comparison to real life (specifically, the idealized early-Seventies Bradys against the grungy mid-Nineties Los Angeles) for all its worth.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: After Jan runs away from home, Cindy becomes confused over whether or not she should "tattle" on her. When she asks her parents if she can tattle when something urgent is happening, they tell her to wait until the morning, so she blurts out, "But Jan could be dead by then!"
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Jan asks this after Marcia steals her suggestion to enter a talent show, and put the prize money towards saving the house.
• Fake Static: Used by Mr. Dittmeyer while talking with his boss in the opening scene.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: At the very beginning of the Talent Show scene there's a brief exterior shot of the High School, then a colorful bus drives by with "The Partridge Family" on the side. Doubles as Five-Second Foreshadowing.
• Gilligan Cut: When Marcia tells Doug Simpson in his car that she doesn't French kiss guys she goes out with, she then says she hopes it won't sour the rest of their date, only for the scene to immediately cut to Doug leaving her stranded on the side of the road.
• Groin Attack: Eric Dittmeyer accidentally steps on a mic stand, comeuppance for a guy that had been tormenting him at school.
• Hearing Voices: Jan and Cindy in The Brady Bunch Movie.
• Here We Go Again!: At the end of the film, Jan (with help from her grandmother) manages to banish the inner demons that turned her against Marcia, but then Cindy develops a jealousy of Jan.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: When Marcia and Jan do model tryouts, the casting director picks Marcia and tells her that she'll need to cut her hair, lose thirty pounds, cap her teeth and get breast implants, Marcia responds by giving him a Bitch Slap and only turns it down at the thought of cutting her hair.
• Jerkass: The Dittmeyer family. Also Doug Simpson foists his schoolwork onto his girlfriend, then ditches Marcia when she refuses to sleep with him.
• Mythology Gag: When the Bradys are at Sears, they recreate the Brady Bunch grid with camcorders.
• Middle Child Syndrome: Mrs. Cummings diagnoses Jan with this during their counseling session. She tries to help Jan cope with it by suggesting "a new look", resulting in Jan wearing a huge afro to the dance, and by giving her a free self-help book and cassette set.
• Mind Screw: Many of the original cast members of the show make guest or cameo appearances, but the most noteworthy example is the music producer who rejects Greg's song "Till I Met You", as said music producer is played by none other than Barry Williams, the original Greg Brady.
• "Mister Sandman" Sequence: Hey, folks, it's The '90s!
• Nobody Poops: Lampshaded. The Bradys' neighbors wonder if this is the case for them, after one neighbor Mr. Yeager admits that he couldn't find a toilet in the Bradys' house with nine people. Also in reference to a toilet never being seen on the show.
  • Played with in a scene where Mr. Dittmeyer is seen at Sears carrying a toilet (which the Bradys' distraction cause him to drop on his foot).
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Due to the writers' ignoring the previous spin-offs (except The Brady Kids), none of the main characters have aged since the fourth season of The Brady Bunch.
• Not His Sled: In the classic series episode "The Subject Was Noses," Doug Simpson calls off his date with Marcia when he sees her swollen nose, using the same excuse she made to break her date with Charlie. Here, he doesn't break the date, assuring her "It's not your nose I'm after," but then dumps her during the date because she refuses to have sex with him.
• Oblivious to Love: Marcia is so unaware that her female friend Noreen is in love with her—thanks to gay people not existing in the '70s—that not even the girl grabbing her and kissing her passionately clues her in.
• Opening Shout-Out: While visiting Sears, the Bradys and Alice use demo camcorders and monitors to form the grid seen in the show's opening and ending credits.
• Parental Neglect: Mr. Dittmeyer is too obsessed with work and his wife too busy being an alcoholic lush to realize (or care) that their kids are obnoxious little assholes.
• Present Day: The premise of the movie was to bring the Bradys into the current world of the 1990s, including alternative music and Seattle as the center of the music world, carjackings, Sears, "her"story, red meat being bad for you, etc. A Very Brady Sequel has Mike dismissing cable TV as a hoax.
• Rearrange the Song: The updated instrumental version just before the end credits.
• Remake Cameo: Florence Henderson, Christopher Knight, Ann B. Davis, Barry Williams, (in deleted scenes) Mike Lookinland, Maureen McCormick and Susan Olsen. Also, Davy Jones revisits his original episode appearance, and by extension, fellow Monkees Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz.
• The Runaway: Jan eventually feels so neglected by her family, she tries to ditch them by hitchhiking onto a truck driven by Ann B. Davis.
• Running Gag: Mr. Dittmeyer's constant bad luck blindly caused by the Bradys, Mike's life lectures, Greg's constant rejection from girls/lack of musical talent, Peter's cracking voice, Jan's clumsiness/the voices in her head, Cindy's tattling.
• Slut-Shaming: After Marcia is dumped by Doug during their date, at the school dance he calls her a slut after seeing her with Charlie.
• Shopping Montage:
  Mike: "Put on your Sunday best, kids; we're going to Sears!"
• Shout-Out: The vegetable oil Mike and Carol use in the Dance Party Ending serves as a nod to Florence Henderson's "Wessonality" commercials.
• Slasher Smile: Whenever Jan's jealousy flares up.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Greg, who thinks he's a real ladies man, an all-star athlete and the next big rock star ... except that no self-respecting girl wants anything to do with him except to tell him he's a geeky loser. Contrasted with the original Greg, who was truly one of the Big Men on Campus. Additionally, film!Greg fully embraces "Johnny Bravo" – in the high school dance scene, where he is quickly booed offstage less than two bars into his song "Til There Was You" – whereas the TV Greg rejected the concept as a manufactured marketing gimmick that would also have eliminated his creative input. (Ironically, Williams did later record an album of songs under the "Johnny Bravo" umbrella.)
• Talent Contest: The Bradys sing in one in hopes of winning enough money to save their house. With the Monkees judging, the Bradys end up winning.
• Talking to Themself: Jan does this whenever her inner voices feed her insecurity.
• Traumatic Haircut: Jan dreams of giving one to Marcia. Unfortunately for Jan, Marcia still looks nice afterward.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Mike's design submissions for the three big clients are all exactly the same. Even more hilariously, it's the same design as for the Bradys' house.

A Very Brady Sequel

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Invoked on the writers' part when Greg asks some girls visiting the concession stand if they'd like a hot wiener.
  • Later, Cindy tells Mike that Marcia's "getting lei'd by those Hawaiian boys."
• Accidental Misnaming: Trevor tends to get the Bradys' names wrong (even the girls, who are supposed to be his own children), fibbing early on that he has amnesia.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Dr. Whiteman offers Trevor a macadamia nut, in reference to when actor John Hillerman was the spokesperson for Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts. In addition, it's not the first time Hillerman has been seen hanging around a Hawaiian mansion.
  • Matheson played another adventurer in Jonny Quest.
• Advertising Campaigns: Dr Whiteman's macadamia nuts and Carol's Aquanet references commercial campaigns featuring John Hillerman and Florence Henderson.
• Almost Kiss:
  • Jan attempts to smooch a mannequin she refers to as her imaginary boyfriend, George Glass, but its head falls into an ashtray.
  • Flirty Stepsiblings Greg and Marcia lean forward for a kiss while in the attic together, but the other kids storm in. Greg tries to cover up his and Marcia's act by saying they were making shadow puppets.
• Amateur Sleuth: Bobby helps Cindy find her missing Kitty Carryall doll. They also find a photo proving "Roy" as an impostor.
• And You Were There: Trevor says this after waking up from a Brady Kids-inspired hallucination.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • First we see Marcia invoke this trope when the Bradys are following the trail of yarn Carol has left them in Hawaii, once it has seemed to end in the middle of nowhere.
    Marcia: Now we'll never find Mom. She'll be lost forever, we'll have to cancel the wedding, and no one will get to see my new barrette.
  • Later, Mike invokes this trope more seriously and emphatically at Dr. Whitehead's mansion, after Roy insists he doesn't need a gun to "kick [Mike's] Brady BUTT." The entire family gasps at his remark, Cindy exclaims, "He said the B-WORD!", and apparently, as far as Mike is concerned, that, alone, is far more egregious than everything else Roy has done put together, as it's the final insult that sets Mike off the deep end. Or rather, it induces Mike to set Roy off the deep end….by punching him right into the pool!
    Mike: Mister, you deceived my family, stole our horse and kidnapped my wife. But when you use language like that in front of my kids, you've crossed the line.
• Bad Liar: Jan can't trick Marcia into believing that she has a boyfriend named George Glass, until it comes true. Best demonstrated when Marcia walks in on Jan making a Phoney Call to "George" on a sex hotline, resulting in Jan fabricating outlandish explanations for Marcia not hearing the phone ring (Jan detected with ESP that George would call at that time), and "George" warning Marcia that it would "cost extra" for him to fly from New York to the Bradys' home (the "very continental" George is on vacation in New York); Marcia's doubts in George's existence only intensify when she finds the sex hotline's business card next to the phone.
• Blatant Lies: Trevor's explanation for why he doesn't look or sound anything like Carol's former husband is that an elephant stomped on his face in Kuala Lumpur, he was stretched on a rack in Singapore adding half a foot to his height and his voice changed because he was sad for so long. Being very trusting people, all of the Bradys buy it.
• Bouquet Toss: The movie ends with Carol doing this at her and Mike's vow renewal. Marcia, Jan, Cindy and Alice all gather to catch it with Alice putting on a baseball catcher's mitt to increase her chances. The bouquet is instead caught by Jeannie who claims to be Mike's first wife, causing Carol to faint in shock.
• Broken Pedestal: At first, Peter idolizes the worldly "Roy," to the extent of accepting his Obviously Evil advice on how to solve problems. However, after Peter learns of Trevor's crimes, he loses all respect for him.
• The Bus Came Back: Tiger and Cousin Oliver, two infamously short-lived Brady Bunch characters, appear very briefly at Mike and Carol's anniversary party.
• Call-Back: Quite a few scenes and subplots reference iconic Brady Bunch episodes. One scene references Marcia's broken nose, which already received one in the first film.
• Casual Kink:
  Greg: (thinking) Marcia looks great in those ropes.
• Catapult Nightmare: Mike and Carol do this after an Imagine Spot about having to share their bed with "Roy".
• Comically Missing the Point: When Trevor snarks that Jan could only get a boyfriend if she made one up, Jan doesn't feel insulted at the jab towards her awkwardness, but rather thanks Trevor for giving her an idea on how to make herself sound cool.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • In Hawaii, Jan just happens to meet a real boy named George Glass, and he miraculously falls in love with her back. Assuming that Jan wouldn't have noticed him if his name didn't already sound familiar to her, it seems that the only way for her to get a boyfriend really did involve making one up.
  • Also, Carol just happens to stumble upon Dr. Whiteman while running away from Trevor, and he just happens to have a son, Gilligan, who disappeared on the exact same boat ride that took Roy Martin away from Carol.
• Cover Version: The new cast performs three songs from the original series: the theme song, "It's Time to Change" and "Good Time Music".
• Creative Closing Credits: Featuring animation inspired by The Brady Kids. (Doubles as a Call-Back to Trevor's Mushroom Samba)
• Crossover Couple: invoked In this movie's universe, Carol's original husband was Professor Roy Martin, and Mike's original wife was Jeannie.
• Drives Like Crazy: Jan driving Roy to the auction; after her contact pops out, they end up crashing into a fountain.
• Epic Fail: Peter's attempt to sketch the Brady House ends up making the place look like the Eiffel Tower instead.
• Faint in Shock: Carol faints dead away when Trevor shows up, then again at the end when Jeannie claims she's Mike's wife.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Lampshaded when Trevor calls them, "decade impaired."
• Fish out of Water: Trevor's cynicism contrasts with the Brady Bunch's unending cheer and naïveté.
• Flirty Stepsiblings: Greg and Marcia start growing romantically attracted, and finally kiss near the end of the film. Doubles as Real Life Writes the Plot: The original Greg (Barry Williams) and Marcia (Maureen McCormick) had a romance while working on the show.
• Genre Savvy: After Dr. Whiteman and Carol tell Trevor about how Dr. Whiteman's son and Carol's husband happened to disappear on the same boat ride, Trevor raises the possibility that the people riding the boat got stuck on a deserted island.
• Have a Gay Old Time: Twice. First, when Carol's kidnapper rents a jeep, Carol wishes she could "be gay again", and comments that she would be if Marcia, Cindy, Jan and Alice were around. Later, the rental man asks Mike whether he knows his wife wants to be gay, so Mike exclaims that's what the entire Brady Bunch wants to be.
• Here We Go Again!: At the end of the film, Jeannie visits the Brady Bunch, claiming to be Mike's wife.
• Intoxication Ensues: After Alice makes some spaghetti sauce with some hallucinogenic mushrooms she found in Trevor's bag, Trevor has a SERIOUSLY freaky trip. The mushrooms make Alice become so high, she stuffs herself in the refrigerator, just to see if closing the door really does turn off the light.
• It's All My Fault: Almost every Brady, as well as Alice, and even Cindy's doll, blames himself or herself for letting Trevor kidnap Carol.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Played With. "Roy" has successfully conned the Bradys into thinking he's Carol's first husband, but in the meantime, he has to put up with the Bradys' weird antics. Needless to say, his con eventually gets foiled.
• Killed Offscreen: In the final scene, a gag ends with the implied deaths of Cousin Oliver and Tiger the dog in a car-pedestrian accident. Bobby and Cindy witness the crash … and go on like nothing happened.
• Line-of-Sight Alias: How Jan comes up with the name of her "boyfriend", George Glass. When she first sees the glass, it has some orange juice in it, so she claims to have a boyfriend named, "George Tropicana." She changes the last name after Carol asks, "Is he Cuban?"
• Logo Joke: The Paramount mountain fades into one of the mountains on the island where Roy and Trevor found the horse.
• Makeover Montage: Hairstylist Sergio (David Spade) and his coworkers try to give Carol a new hairdo. Her hair proves too stiff to restyle, so she still looks exactly the same at the end of the montage.
• Ms. Fanservice: Marcia at the pool. And yes, it is lampshaded.
• Mushroom Samba: After Roy/Trevor ate the spaghetti that Alice made for him, he finds out the one of the ingredients were the "mushrooms" from his room. This caused Roy/Trevor to hallucinate a trippy Animated sequence. Doubles as a Shout-Out to The Brady Kids.
  Roy/Trevor: "My room? My mushrooms? Oh, no."
  Carol: "Roy? Is something wrong? Roy?"
  [Roy/Trevor then sees flowers popping out of Carol's dress.]
  Roy/Trevor: "Oh my god... I'm tripping with the Bradys!"
• Never My Fault: Unlike her siblings, Alice, or Kitty Carryall, Marcia doesn't blame herself for letting Trevor kidnap Carol. Instead she thinks, "This is all Jan's fault."
• Never Trust a Trailer: Entertainment Weekly expressed disappointment at the fact the Brady Bunch did not spend as much time in Hawaii as the ads seemed to suggest; for instance, the one-sheet poster/cover shows the whole Bunch surfing together.
• Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: A Very Brady Sequel certainly makes an odder name than The Brady Bunch Movie 2, especially since "Brady" isn't usually an adjective (though this marks neither the first nor last time that Paramount would use it as one).
• Only Sane Man: Trevor Thomas, who is a thief impersonating a widow's dead husband to steal a priceless artifact, is obviously more rational than anyone else.
• Palette Swap: The Brady Kids buy Trevor a jacket that looks like one of Mike's, but with a different color scheme; both men lampshade the resemblance.
• Papa Wolf: Mess with Mike's kids, and you will have some serious answering to do....especially if you use any "foul" language in their presence.
• Plot Device: Remember that little horse statue sitting in the Brady Bunch's living room? Apparently, it's a valuable artifact.
• Product Placement:
  Carol: Thank goodness I use Aquanet!
• Quiet Cry for Help: Carol is kidnapped and taken to Hawaii by the man posing as her first husband. As they check into a hotel, she tries knitting a plea for help.
• Refuge in Audacity: The entirety of the Flirty Step Siblings subplot. The writers drive the point home by having "If Loving You is Wrong" in the background during their flirting.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!:
  • This is why Mike declines Dr. Whitehead's offer to pay him $10 million for the horse, with nary a second thought.
  • Same with why Whitehead won't accept or pay for the horse from Trevor: he cut the fuel line of the ship he shared with seven other people as a means of getting the horse.
• Sequel Hook:
  • Unless she moves on from Mike immediately, Jeannie arriving and revealing she's Mike's long lost wife opens up a whole new plotline.
  • The fact that it's strongly implied the real Roy Martin and the other six people he was on the Minnow with are probably alive on a desert island means the same plot begins for real—minus Trevor's greed and maliciousness—the moment Roy and the others are all rescued and return home.
• Sexy Silhouette: In the attic, Greg and Marcia each have one when they change clothes on opposite sides of the curtain.
• Shopping Montage: The Brady Kids and a reluctant Trevor break into one while buying an anniversary present for Carol.
• Shout-Out:
  • An auctioneer alludes to Marcia's and Jan's original actresses, and also to one of the most iconic Brady episodes, as she thanks Mrs. McCormick and Mrs. Plumb for donating their mom's favorite vase.
  • Signs at the construction site are marked REED DESIGN, in honor of the original man named Brady.
• Similar Squad: Mrs. Cummings' daughters are amazingly similar to the Brady Girls in looks and behavior, except that they're black. When the middle girl whines, "Everybody loves Moesha! Moesha, Moesha, Moesha!", it helps explain how Mrs. Cummings previously provided Jan with so much material on how to cope with Middle Child Syndrome.
• Some Nutty Publicity Stunt: When Marcia and Greg date each other's rivals at the same cafe, Jan schedules a date with George at the same time, by carrying a mannequin into the cafe. It falls apart more easily than she expects, resulting in onlookers reacting to the date as a performance arts piece.
  Jan: (embarrassed) Oh George, pull yourself together!
• Status Quo Is God: Peter's voice is squeaky again, after changing at the end of the first film.
• Surprise Party: Carol gets one on hers and Mike's wedding anniversary, in which everyone relives the wedding.
• That Reminds Me of a Song: While Mike, Alice and the Brady Kids fly a plane to Hawaii, Cindy asks if anyone knows how to feel better about Carol's kidnapping. Greg then pulls a guitar out of Hammerspace, and all the Brady Kids start dancing in the aisles, performing "Good Time Music". Downplayed that the other passengers express annoyance and the flight attendant to proceed to tell them in the middle of the song to sit down and shut up. Although their singing wasn't hated by everyone (in addition to obviously Mike and Alice liking their performance, a nun enjoys it, even playing a tambourine at one point), the average person will not be happy to have their flight be interrupted.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Jan acquiring a much longed-for boyfriend who's as awkward and dorky as she is. Plus, Marcia stops playing the bitchy older sister and is genuinely happy for her.
• Took a Level in Badass: Mike punches Trevor after rescuing Carol.
• Trail Of Breadcrumbs: In Hawaii, Carol's family reunites with her after following a trail that starts with some yarn that fell out of her bag, and continues with her footprints. This was purely accidental on Carol's part.
• The Unfavorite: Jan, to the extent where Marcia offers her up as a kidnap victim.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Trevor Thomas was the associate of archaeologist Roy Martin, Carol’s first husband. Trevor resorted to cutting the fuel line to their boat and leaving Roy and the six others on board to die (though from the sound of things, they may have been stranded on a desert island instead). He later poses as Roy to get into the good graces of the Bradys and resorts to kidnapping Carol and threatening people with a gun to get what he wants, which is their antique horse valued at about $20 million.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • Marcia's voice drops to a sultry-sounding octave when Greg arouses her, but only temporarily.
  • Cindy's lisp disappears after she outgrows Kitty Carryall.

The Brady Bunch in the White House

• Big Damn Movie: The Brady Bunch must save the world from an asteroid.
• Karmic Jackpot: The Brady Bunch get invited to the White House as a reward for the strong honesty they practiced while helping someone find a winning Lottery Ticket.

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