brady-bunch-how-creators-daughter-inspired-some-storylines

‘The Brady Bunch’: How the Creator’s Daughter Inspired Some of the Storylines

Being a teenager is hard. And having your problems played out on television each week on one of the biggest television shows at the time isn’t going to help. That’s what happened to Hope Juber, daughter of “The Brady Bunch” creator Sherwood Shwartz.

Juber opened up recently about some of the behind-the-scene details regarding the show. She was a teenager at the time and her dad would mine her life for storylines on the show. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

“I was in a unique position regarding the show, and I was going through my own teenage girl angst at the time,” Juber told MeTV. “From my perspective, there was, all of the sudden, six other kids in the middle of my family. When things I considered private showed up on the screen, I wasn’t always happy about it.”

She didn’t say which episodes were based on her life, however.

Juber even appeared in four episodes of the show That includes the memorable “Greg Gets Grounded” episode. She has a frog land on her head while on a date with Greg.

This also wasn’t a career highlight, she said.

“That scene was crazy! It was filmed in a sound stage and there was a sort of platform rigged up that went over the car where Barry [Williams] and I were sitting. There was indeed a ‘frog handler’ who was lying down with a sack of frogs… The guy would drop a frog on my head at the appropriate time, but they were slippery and often just slid right off onto my lap. So they would have to stop, redo my hair and try again.”

It was so unpleasant, the cast and crew gave her “First Annual Frog Award,” which she still has, as a prize after it was over.

She’s Stayed Close with ‘The Brady Bunch’ Cast Ever Since

But it wasn’t all bad, she said.

Juber and the cast have stayed close over the years, especially Maureen McCormick and Barry Williams — Marsha and Greg. Her close friendship with McCormick began after Juber appeared in “The Slumber Caper” episode. Marsha invites her over for a sleepover. The two started having actual sleepovers as teenagers thereafter, she told WeTV.

Juber’s also taken part in several “The Brady Bunch” reunion specials and movies over the past four decades, according to IMDB.

She even wrote a musical about the show with her husband, Laurence Juber. They created the “A Very Brady Musical” as well as the “Gilligan’s Island: The Musical” with her brother, Lloyd Schwartz