Brady Bunch Comes Back to Its Roots

The San Fernando Valley’s squeaky-cleanest family, the Brady Bunch, is back in town. But home never seemed so foreign.

Never mind that their North Hollywood house has been replicated on a lot at Paramount Studios because the one used in the early 1970s TV series has been altered. Or that no one else drives a mud-brown station wagon any more.

It’s the people in the Valley who’ve really changed.

“Hey, groovy chick,” actor Christopher Barnes, who plays Greg Brady in the upcoming film, said to a politically correct high school girl of the ‘90s on the set at Taft High School Monday.

“Do I look like a yellow, fuzzy, baby bird to you?” the young actress asked, giving Barnes the brush-off.

The filming of a loosely adapted version of “The Brady Bunch” for the big screen--taking place around the Valley until early September--includes dozens of such scenes in which the archetypal Bradys, who haven’t changed in two decades, collide with contemporary culture.

At a butcher shop in Northridge, a friend asks Carol Brady if she is “still eating red meat.” Greg and Marcia are approached by a would-be carjacker at a mini-mall in Canoga Park, but can’t understand what the man wants.

In a North Hollywood alley, a neighbor plotting against the Bradys describes the family to an accomplice: “Polite, trustworthy, still believe in the good of humanity. Real freaks of nature.”

The TV series first aired on ABC from 1969 to 1974, featuring the late Robert Reed and Florence Henderson as Mr. and Mrs. Brady. There were also the six kids and Alice, the maid.

Reruns of the series are still shown, and the show has recently inspired a stage production, several books, a collection of vintage songs by the Brady kids and a cult following of mostly retro-fashion twentysomethings.

The film, scheduled for release in early 1995, puts the Valley family in the role of a walking museum piece.

“That’s who they are: Middle America 20 years ago,” said co-producer Jenno Topping. “But they’re totally oblivious to the fact that everything has changed, and now they’re different from everybody else. The mushy part is when the movie sort of yearns for the Bradys’ naivete.”

Carol and Mike Brady are played by Shelley Long and Gary Cole, and the roles of the children are filled by lesser-known actors cast largely for their likenesses to the originals.

“I’m still the same Marcia,” said Christine Taylor, who plays the oldest Brady girl. “Wide-eyed, innocent. I’m the Valley Girl of the ‘70s.”