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‘The Brady Bunch’: The Clever Trick Creator Sherwood Schwartz Used During Auditions for Kids’ Roles

The Brady Bunch is an iconic show that ran for five seasons, from 1969-1974. During the show’s run, it enjoyed a decent amount of success. Today, though, it enjoys arguably a much greater fanbase. One reason could be because creator Sherwood Schwartz used a trick in the kids’ auditions to get a perfect cast.

So, as many people know, the show is about a woman raising six kids under one roof. The plot is simple enough, but there are numerous lessons that The Brady Bunch and its creator draw out. Additionally, there are countless laughs throughout the show from its characters.

Because The Brady Bunch has continued to enjoy so much success since its inception in the early 70s, there is a lot to unpack. The cast, in particular, is one of the main reasons that the show has done incredibly well so many years later.

The Brady Bunch Auditions Were Certainly Unique For the Kids

Delving into how the cast was chosen is one of the most interesting things about the show. The Brady Bunch truly does owe much of its success to the assembling of the cast. Schwartz came into the show with prior knowledge of how to cast for a television show. Certainly, he used this to his advantage.

More importantly, though, Sherwood Schwartz is the mastermind behind the success of the show. Schwartz also was the main proponent of using a simple technique when the kids were auditioning. The six spots on the show were going to be incredibly demanding.

So, to properly assess the kids’ ability to deal with how demanding, distracting, and frustrating the set would be, Schwartz set up a simple distraction during the audition.

During the auditions, he put toys on his desk which were meant to distract the kids. He would make notes of the kids that didn’t look at the toys and mark them down.

He figured that the children who weren’t distracted by the toys would be able to work well on the show. Schwartz also assumed that by not looking at the toys, the kids would be able to handle the strain of being on set.