the-brady-bunch-susan-olsen-fans-expect-her-still-have-pigtails

‘The Brady Bunch’: Susan Olsen Said Fans Expect Her to Still Have Pigtails

Susan Olsen has never aged in some fans’ minds. The Cindy Brady actress said she still gets asked about her pigtails by “The Brady Bunch” fans who recognize her from the iconic show, even at age 59.

In a podcast for The Hollywood Reporter last year, Olsen shared her experience with the enduring fame of being a child star. She said fans still rib her about Cindy Brady’s curly pigtails.

“They usually just go, ‘Where are your pigtails?’ I’m like, ‘I’m 59! Why would I wear pigtails?!’” Olsen said.

‘The Brady Bunch’ Stars Reunited for 50th Anniversary Special

For the show’s 50th anniversary, the six child stars from “The Brady Bunch” joined forces to renovate the original house that had been used for exterior shots of the Brady home. (The interior shots all took place on stage five of the Paramount Pictures lot.) HGTV had bought the house and wanted the stars to redo the interior to look like the sets as part of a reality TV special.

The resulting four-part special, “A Very Brady Renovation,” received an Emmy nomination for best unstructured reality program. And it drew over 28 million viewers, many of them fans of “The Brady Bunch.”

“One thing that they [HGTV] knew in the back of their minds was something that 100 million Americans understand,” Bobby Brady actor Mike Lookinland told THR. “And that is that that house is as much of a character in that show as any of us. I mean, think about it: the orange countertop, Mike’s den, the staircase. It’s an iconic American touchstone — but it didn’t exist, it wasn’t real!”

Show’s Stars Swapped Stories

On the THR podcast, the child actors commiserated over the trappings of fame. For example, like Olsen, Marcia Brady actress Maureen McCormick said she still gets recognized by fans who remember her character from “The Brady Bunch.”

“People come up to me and they say a line and it makes them happy,” McCormick recounted. “And I’ve heard it a million times, but to see them saying it, and their pure enthusiasm in saying it, makes me happy, because they’re happy. It brings them happiness.”

They also shared stories about themselves that their co-stars had never heard before. Jan Brady actress Eve Plumb seemed to find the discussion novel even though she’d known the assembled actors and actresses since her childhood.

“I’ve gotta say, I love hearing everybody’s stories,” Plumb said. “You know, we’ve known each other our whole lives, but yet I’m finding out really interesting things!”

The same was no doubt true of “The Brady Bunch” fans, who may not have realized that the interior of that iconic house had looked different from the sets, or that the actors and actresses find their nostalgia so charming.