The Brady Bunch Aired: 1969 to 1974 Stars: Robert Reed (Mike), Florence Henderson (Carol), Ann B. Davis (Alice), Barry Williams (Greg), Maureen McCormick (Marcia), Chris Knight (Peter), Eve Plumb (Jan), Mike Lookinland (Bobby), Susan Olsen (Cindy) Premise: Here's the story...of the perfect, squeaky clean American family.

In the first episode of The Brady Bunch, Carol and Mike got married and blended their families (her three girls, his three boys and sassy housekeeper). Before the cermemony, Mike was understandably nervous. On the phone, his soon-to-be bride suggested he take a tranquilizer. When he said he'd already taken one, she brightly chirped, "Well, take another!" If that happened in a sitcom today, we'd know a "very speical" episode was coming: Mike in rehab.

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Joyce Boulifant was the first casting of Carol, but she was let go before the pilot was made, when Florence Henderson became available. The original premise called for Carol to be a big wisecracker, with comediane Joyce in the role. Florence's talents were inanother, gentler direction, so Ann B. Davis was brought on board to play housekeeper Alice as the comic character. Ann had previously played a funny photographer's assistant named Schultzie on The Bob Cummings Show. Joyce went on to a steady gig as Murray's wife on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and also played a role in the classic movie Airplane.

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Florence Henderson's birthday is February 14, Valentine's day.

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Mike was a widower and Carol was a divorcee. Carol's ex was never seen or mentioned on the show. In the first epiosde, a photograph of Mike's first wife was shown, but that was the last that viewers saw of her.

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Alan Melvin, who played Alice's butcher boyfriend, Sam, also played a character named Sam in a 1963 episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Alan was a prolific voice actor from the 1960s through the '90s. Among the parts he leant his voice to were: Sgt. Snorkle on Beetle Bailey and His Friends; Magilla Gorilla on Magilla Gorilla; Drooper on The Banana Splits Adventure Hour; and Bluto and Wimpy on Popeye and Friends.

He also had recurring roles in several other classic sitcoms including Barney Hefner on All in the Family and Sgt. Hacker on Gomer Pyle.

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Maureen McCormick (Marcia) was a little jealous of another TV clan: The Partridge Family. "When I was in school, I didn't think [The Brady Bunch ] was a hip thing to be on. The Partridges were a lot cooler. They had the guitars," she told TV Guide in 2001

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Carol's full name was Carol Ann Tyler Martin Brady. (middle name: Ann; maiden name: Tyler; first husband's last name: Martin)

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Some cast members have named their favorite episodes on their official websites:

• Florence Henderson enjoyed "Peter and the Wolf," in which Peter and Greg go on a double date and Peter tries to act older than he is.

• Maureen McCormick said, "My favorite episode was when I was doing a school play with Florence Henderson, and we got to dress up as hobos and we sang Where Ever We Go...' . It was really fun!"

• Barry Williams was happy while shooting the Hawiian episodes, because he got a chance to surf.

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Dark Shadows star Denise Nickerson played Peter's blind date in "Two Petes in a Pod" (in a time-honored sitcom tradition, Pete discovered he had an exact lookalike, who just happened to go to his highschool). In a fitting connection to Dark Shadows vampire Barnabas Collins, Peter wore a Dracula costume in the episode. Denise is probably best known for playing blueberry girl Violet in the classic kids movie Willy Wonka .

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BB creator Sherwood Schwartz originally had Gene Hackman in mind for the part of Mike Brady.

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Barry Williams appeared shirtless in a few episodes -- especially when the Brady clan vacationed in Hawaii. On his official website, www.barrywiliams.net , the actor said he didn't have a problem with modesty: "I grew up surfing and was always comfortable bare-chested." (Warning: Barry's website is pretty interesting and worth a visit, but it's graphic-intensive and there's a good chance it will cause your Internet browser to crash.)

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Carol's nerdy nephew Oliver came to live with the Bradys for their final six episodes. Since the original kids had gotten a little too old to play naive, childish actions sometimes required by the show's slightly silly storylines, producers brought in Robby Rist as Oliver. With his blond bowl haircut, wire-rimmed glasses, and froggy voice, he never quite clicked with the rest of the kids, and his presence may have contributed to the demise of the show. Rist also had a recurring role on another classic: He played Ted Baxter's adopted son on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

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All six kids, plus Florence Henderson and Robbie Rist, competed on the gameshow The Weakest Link in 2001. Christopher Knight won; Susan Olsen was the runner-up.

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Robert Reed died of colon cancer and AIDS complications in 1992, at the age of 59. While he had played the perfect, heterosexual TV dad for decades, Reed had hidden the fact that he was gay.

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The house used for exterior shots of the Brady home was located in West Hollywood. It doesn't appear to have a second story, but the inside of the house on the show (shot in a studio) had stairs and a second floor, where the bedrooms were located -- plus a full-height attic which Greg eventually turned into his own groovy pad.

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Some of the Brady cast members' attempts at serious drama had an inherent camp quality because of the squeaky-clean images they portrayed on the show:

• In 1976, Eve Plumb starred in the TV movie Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway .

• The same year, Robert Reed played John Travolta's dad in the made-for-TV Boy in the Plastic Bubble .

• In 1997, Maureen McCormick played country singer Barbara Mandrell in the television movie Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story .

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When she was a little girl, Maureen McCormick provided the voice for the original Chatty Cathy doll. On The Brady Bunch , Cindy's favorite doll was Kitty Carry-all, a knock-off of Cathy.

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Florence Henderson did a TV commercial for the wholesome softdrink Tang along with two of her real children. She also leant her upbeat persona and singing skills to the promotion of Wesson Oil, perkily singing, "The chicken's got a certain Wessonality!"

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A grave-stone-looking marker in Florence's hometown of Dale, Indiana, is engraved with the following: "The birthplace of Florence Henderson, Star of Television and Broadway -- Born on this site, February 14, 1934."

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Florence's first professional job was a small part in Joshua Logan's musical Wish You Were Here in New York while she was still a teen. She caught the eye of Richard Rodgers (of the legendary Rodgers and Hammerstein team) and was soon cast as the lead in the touring production of Oklahoma! Other early stage roles included Maria in The Sound of Music , the lead in The Girl Who Came to Supper (Noel Coward's last show on Broadway), and Nellie Forbush in the Lincoln Center production of South Pacific .

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Florence played Anna opposite Ricardo Montalban's King of Siam in a production of The King and I which inaugurated the Los Angeles Music Center. Ricardo later played the mysterious host of Fantasy Island, and Captain Kirk's evil rival in the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

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Long before Joan Rivers did it, Florence was the first female guest host of The Tonight Show. She was a cast member of The Today Show in 1959/60, and then a host of Later Today in 1999/2000.

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For nine seasons, Florence hosted the cooking/talk show Country Kitchen on the Nashville Network. Guests included Garth Brooks, Jim Nabors, Tammy Wynette, and Randy Travis. She wrote a cookbook called A Little Cooking, A Little Talking and A Whole Lot of Fun .