A Very Brady Christmas

A Very Brady Christmas
CBS
December 18, 1988
TV-Movie
DVD
C+

Sherwood Schwartz and his son Lloyd wrote this reunion, while director Peter Baldwin helmed seven episodes of Bunch, as well as The Brady Girls Get Married  (and incidentally The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island and twelve episodes of The Bob Newhart Show).  And to some extent there's continuity with the original series, and with Get Married.  But there are also inconsistencies, including but not limited to:

• I can accept Fake Cindy (Jennifer Runyon, of Charles in Charge and a guest shot on Who's the Boss?), but why is she still in college seven and a half years after she started?  There's no implication that she's taken time off to work or travel or what have you.  At least they let Bobby progress to grad school.
• Conversely, it doesn't seem like enough time has passed for Marcia to have two kids that old.  (In Get Married, she denied to Jan that she was pregnant, but maybe she was.)  And Greg has managed to meet Nora (played by "new Gidget" Caryn Richman), get married, and have a son who looks about seven.  (Zachary Bostrom, who plays Kevin, was almost eight.  He would be an unrelated Kevin on Who's the Boss?)
• Alice could never drive on the old show, and yet she goes to meet the visitors at the airport, then they come home separately, while Alice gets there last, with all the luggage!

Other than that, the writing is hokey and implausible, even by Brady standards, partly because serious, complex issues like adultery, divorce, and unemployment are brought up and then solved easily.  (Consider that such dilemmas as braces, dating scheduling mix-ups, and disagreements with teachers used to get twenty minutes each.)  On the other hand, when Mike has a conflict with client Ted Roberts (Phillip R. Allen, not chewing gum like he did as his psychatrist characters on The Bob Newhart Show and Bosom Buddies), it ends with Mike trapped in a building as Runyon flashes back to Susan Olsen's Christmas memories.

Ann B. in glasses and some random people in the back row

On the plus side, you do get to see everyone (except Olsen) reuniting.  More dubiously, you get Peter saying "hell," some of the "kids" smooching their respective romantic partners, and the Brady house in blander, '80s colors.  This is preferable to the Gilligan reunion movies, in that the regular cast interact to some degree, but I'd rather watch the Day by Day parody/homage of Bunch, which is truer to the spirit of the series.

Due to the overstuffed cast problem, worse than on the original series, I obviously can't tag everyone, but Jerry Houser and Ron Kuhlman are back as the husbands of the Brady brides.  Keep an eye out for Selma Archerd (2nd PTA Lady on Bunch and the Queen of Diamonds in the 1985 Alice in Wonderland TV-movie) as Mrs. Crane, Gerry Black (Ron on What's Happening!!) as the Police Chief, Bart Braverman as Bobby's Mechanic friend, Barbara Mallory (Helen on What's Happening!! and Cindy Smith in Rescue from GI) as Mrs. Powell, and Nick Toth (later Capt. Johnson on Roseanne) as Mr. Powell.  When Sam shows up at the end, dressed as Santa, he's played by Lewis Arquette, who was a Judge in Rescue from Gilligan's Island.