The Brady Bunch wasn’t exactly a hit when it originally aired, neither with audiences nor with critics. The show never cracked the top 30 in …
The Brady Bunch wasn’t exactly a hit when it originally aired, neither with audiences nor with critics. The show never cracked the top 30 in the Nielsen ratings during its five seasons. The show may’ve been doomed from the start with critics due to its connection with Sherwood Schwartz, the mastermind behind the critically reviled (but modestly successful) Gilligan’s Island. Even though The Brady Bunch totally defined the era with its questionable hairstyles and even more questionable fashion, the show was also completely out of touch with its era. Nixon’s presidency and Vietnam both ended after The Brady Bunch was canceled—but LOL if you think the show ever addressed either all-consuming issue. Still, The Brady Bunch was an instant hit with kids and enjoyed a second, wildly successful life in syndication—one that led to two revival series, a made-for-TV movie, and a pair of pitch perfect theatrical parodies that are hella meme-able (“Sure Jan”). It’s also not a stretch to say that The Brady Bunch redefined the family sitcom, shifting it from being mostly about the parents to mostly about the kids. You can clearly see the show’s unique marriage of slapstick and schmaltz in pretty much every TGIF sitcom. The Brady Bunch endured and became one of the most iconic sitcoms of not just the ’70s, but of all time—critics and ratings be damned. But ’70s sitcoms weren’t just about groovy lessons taught by families with record deals. The format took the progress made in the 1960s by shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show and Bewitched and ran with it, pushing the medium further than ever. Maude, All in the Family, Sanford and Son, M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, The Odd Couple—these shows were made for adults, full stop. And the ones that weren’t constantly pushing political boundaries were at least written and performed with critically-acclaimed care. That of course includes The Mary Tyler Moore Show, an unapologetically feminist show about a woman (played by Mary Tyler Moore, duh) who put her career and friendships above romance at a time when TV housewives were still the norm. More so than in the ’50s and ’60s, the sitcoms of the 1970s were deeply divided between fluff like The Partridge Family and grit like Barney Miller—and that’s the vibe that WandaVision Episode 3, “Now in Color,” goes for. That’s evident right from the get go, as the opening credits—y’know what? I’m gonna say it—beautifully merge the aesthetics of The Brady Bunch and The Mary Tyler Moore Show’s openings. The logo fans out in a technicolor rainbow just like MTM’s did, before segueing into the stacked picture boxes (or hexagons, in this case) that are recognizably Brady. The Brady Bunch opening just kept chucking heads in blue boxes at you. MTM’s opening showed Mary out on the town, shopping and waving hello, hanging out with her gal pals. That’s what we see Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) doing in these credits, when they aren’t grooving to this very Partridge Family-esque theme song. The episode opens in Wanda and Vision’s now completely Brady-fied abode, mere hours after the events of Episode 2. As Dr. Nielsen (get it? Nielsen ratings?) reports to the happy-yet-baffled couple, Wanda is now four months pregnant even if, as Vision worriedly points out, she’s only been with child for 12 hours. Dr. Nielsen (Randy Oglesby) doesn’t hear these concerns (remember, real world anxiety has no place in a 1970s family sitcom!) and instead uses a fruit metaphor so that the “little lady” can understand how big her baby is inside her tummy. Wanda does a side-eye take after hearing this clearly insulting bit of sexism that is very reminiscent of Mary Richards, like when Mary learned that her predecessor was paid way more than her. This is definitely not a reference to Carol Brady. Seriously, The Brady Bunch has an entire episode that casts the girls as reluctant, skeptical feminists and all the boys as aggressive MRAs. It’s… not a fun watch in 2021. On his way out, Vision takes Dr. Nielsen aside and asks him to keep Wanda’s condition a secret. After all, it’s hard to fit in as a totally normal couple if your wife goes from zero to four months pregnant overnight. But maybe Vision shouldn’t be so concerned about seeming odd, because his neighbor Herb (David Payton) is trimming his hedges as well as the cement barrier between their yards. It’s unsettling, and another hint that things are definitely not what they seem. Vision quickly forgets about that—ahem—Lynchian sight when he steps foot back in his home, because Wanda is somehow even more pregnant than she was before. She’s so pregnant that she knocks some of that sexist fruit off the table, and “proud papaya” Vision catches it.
