The Big Picture

• The Brady Bunch was groundbreaking for depicting a blended family in the late 1960s.
• The family tree includes fun connections like Carol's husband being the Professor from Gilligan's Island.
• Additional Bradys like cousin Oliver and beloved housekeeper Alice enriched the Brady family lore.

"Here's the story of a lovely lady..." To this day, those seven words that begin the iconic The Brady Bunch theme song still put a smile on people's faces, people only too happy to carry on with the rest of the tune. That theme song summarizes the entire premise of the show perfectly: a woman with three girls meets a man with three boys, and they form a family. The show was groundbreaking at the time, as shows about blended families simply weren't made in the late 1960s. As recalled by famed TV producer Sherwood Schwartz, “Television was loaded with happily married couples, and single widows and widowers, but there wasn’t any show that revolved around the marital amalgamation of two families.” The Brady Bunch became the first, and the two families grew into one, one that planted a family tree that lasted well beyond the series' initial five-season run with The Brady Bunch movies and various spinoffs.

'The Brady Bunch' Family Tree Begins When a Lady Met This Fellow

Mike Brady (Robert Reed) is a widower and father to three boys: Greg (Barry Williams), Peter (Christopher Knight), and Bobby (Mike Lookinland). Single mother Carol Martin, née Tyler (Florence Henderson) has three girls: Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb), and the youngest one in curls, Cindy (Susan Olsen). Now the fate of Carol's husband, Daniel Martin, was never revealed on the show. Schwartz claims Carol was a divorcee, but execs weren't keen on the idea. For her part, Henderson jokingly stated, "I killed my husband. I was the original black widow! I always said I just got rid of him." However, in A Very Brady Sequel (which Reddit claims as the superior of the two films), Carol (Shelley Long) says her husband was the Professor, aka Roy Hinkley (Russell Johnson) of Gilligan's Island. That assertion, which links The Brady Bunch with Schwartz's other big sitcom, is certainly much more fun to believe, so for our purposes here? Sorry, Daniel Martin, we want to run with the Professor as canon.

Little is known about the branches above Mike and Carol, however. Henderson's fun cameo in 1995's The Brady Bunch Movie saw her play Carol's mother, whose name isn't disclosed. In the Season 4 episode "You're Never Too Old," we're introduced to Carol's grandmother from Kentucky, Connie Hutchins (Henderson), a feisty, free-spirited woman, and Greg's grandfather, retired judge Hank Brady (Reed). Marcia and Jan play matchmaker for their great-grandparents, and they elope in Las Vegas, which turns Mike and Carol into cousins, thrice-removed, or something of its ilk. Eww.

'The Brady Bunch' Kids Have Kids of Their Own

The Brady Brides, which arose from the TV movie The Brady Girls Get Married, was the first to extend the Brady tree, with the family gathering together for the double wedding of Marcia and Jan. Jan marries Philip Covington III (Ron Kuhlman), an uptight, conservative college professor (not George Glass, sadly). Marcia marries Philip's odd couple antithesis, the slovenly toy company sales associate Wally Logan (Jerry Houser). That series follows the misadventures of the couples as they navigate living together in a shared home. Not the original Brady home, which somehow had room for a housekeeper, six kids, a large master bedroom and a home office, but if you want that one, it was up for sale as recently as 2023.

A Very Brady Christmas sees Mike and Carol use the money from their savings account to fly the entire family home for Christmas, a family that has grown since the last time we saw them. Greg... sorry, Dr. Greg Brady is married to Nora Brady (Caryn Richman), and they have a son, Kevin (Zachary Bostrom). Peter is engaged to Valerie (Carol Huston), while Marcia and Wally have two children, Jessica (Jaclyn Bernstein) and Mickey (G.W. Lee). The Bradys, a failed attempt in 1990 to revamp the family within the dramedy genre, introduced new members to the Brady family tree. Bobby, left paralyzed after a race car accident, is married to Tracy (Martha Quinn), Cindy, a radio host, is seeing her station manager, Gary (Ken Michelman), who has two children of his own, and Patty (Valerie Ick) is the adopted daughter of Jan and Philip, from Korea. Greg and Nora are still married, but Peter separated from his fiancée (see one fan's assessment here).

Let's Not Forget the Additional Bradys

We would be remiss if we didn't mention the "Bonus Bradys," the characters that have long been associated with the family, and it would be an outright sin not to mention America's favorite live-in housekeeper, Alice (Ann B. Davis). She has been with the family since day one, offering sage advice, cleaning, cooking pork chops and apple sauce, and hilarious comic relief. In The Brady Girls Get Married, it's revealed that she married long-time beau Sam (Allan Melvin), who left her for another woman, but came crawling back, dressed as Santa, in A Very Brady Christmas, asking for a second chance (she gave it to him... it is a Brady Christmas, after all). The Brady Kids cartoon introduces a new dog, Mop Top (Larry Storch), (different from their first dog, Tiger, who tragically died in real life) twin panda cubs Ping and Pong (Jane Webb), and Marlon (Storch), a smart, talking, red mynah bird who just happens to also be a wizard.

Then there's the infamous black sheep of the Brady family tree: cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist), the son of Carol's brother Jack and his wife Pauline. His appearance on the show was memorable, but not in a good way. Oliver is ground zero for the very real TV trope, the "Cousin Oliver Syndrome," which is when TV series introduce a child character into a well-established cast simply to extend the life of the series and "shake things up." He's never mentioned again, he isn't invited to Marcia and Jan's double-wedding, and isn't flown in for Christmas. Long story short, we have no idea about his situation after the series ends. Maybe he married fellow syndromee Stephanie Mills (Danielle Brisebois) from All in the Family. Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) on the same family tree as Mike and Carol Brady? Now a series with that family tree would be something.

The Brady Bunch is available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S.

Watch on Prime Video