How Australia helped Christopher Knight reclaim his inner Brady

When Christopher Knight made his first visit to Australia in 1992 in his post-Brady Bunch career in the computer industry, he had been trying to shrug off his years as a teen actor.

But long after its 5 seasons and syndication, the sitcom’s enduring popularity refused to die.

“I didn’t even get through Customs and I was being recognised,” he tells TV Tonight.

“And they asked me, ‘Are you going to the premiere?’ I say, ‘The premiere? The premiere of what?’

‘The Real Live Brady Bunch!’

“And I’m thinking, ‘You gotta be kidding me. I’ve already avoided this in two cities and I’m coming to Australia and it’s here?'”

The stage play was the brainchild of Jill Soloway (Transparent) and her sister Faith, who made a US campus hit of actual Brady scripts given new subtext. It would become so successful, Paramount would eventually morph it into several hit films.

But while Knight (aka ‘Peter Brady’) had avoided attending the play in the US, a young entertainment reporter named Angela Bishop tracked him down and dragged him to the Footbridge Theatre in Sydney. There was so much love in the room that Knight would rethink his entire outlook, joining the cast on stage for a standing ovation.

“I had no idea…  Australians had this affinity for The Brady Bunch”

“I had no idea the show was still on or that Australians had this affinity for The Brady Bunch. I had avoided twice being part of an audience watching The Real Live Brady Bunch, in Los Angeles and Chicago. I was really trying to get away from the Bradys.

“But there was a warm, welcoming feeling, knowing that people here, a half a world away, already knew me and wanted to applaud me. So seeing the show and then having you guys give me a standing ovation …it was just a very unique experience of saying ‘This is something that you should regard with love and not run from.’

Most recently Knight has reunited with his former co-stars for A Very Brady Renovation -an inspired lifestyle renovation show which saw HGTV purchase the original exterior house in Los Angeles, and renovating it to replicate the studio sets. Such is the pop culture popularity of the show that there was much publicised over who purchased the property, when former N-Sync star Lance Bass thought he had closed a deal.

Knight says that very nearly backfired on HGTV.

“When they were cast in that in that dark light by Lance Bass, there was some panic at the corporate head because it’s like, ‘Wait a second, how do we find ourselves now with such bad publicity when we bought the Brady house?’ So they had offline conversations with Lance Bass, who when he learned HGTV had nothing but positive Brady-ness with the house, he then posted positive things about them,” he explains.

“I didn’t know where that house was until 1998.”

“We also had friends texting us, telling us we should individually buy the house, thinking that we had a connection to it, but not realising we had never worked there.

“I didn’t know where that house was until 1998. I didn’t think even to ask. It wasn’t a curiosity for any one of us Brady kids, because we knew we didn’t work there.”

Luring all 6 remaining cast members to help renovate the show was a masterstroke, backed up by a meticulous eye for detail and ’70s decor. Seeing all 6 Brady kids together guaranteed the project’s success.

“As Eve (Plumb) made it very clear during the Upfronts in Los Angeles, she wasn’t being asked to play Jan, which is not something she would do again,” Knight continues.

“Maureen (McCormick), on the other hand, has different reasons for being reluctant. They were able to overcome whatever that is. And lo and behold, we’re all there and happy to be there.

“It was going to be a tentpole project, not just for HGTV, but for all of Discovery for 2019.”

“It was pretty evident in the contract, it was going to be a tentpole project, not just for HGTV, but for all of Discovery for 2019.

“And that probably made sense because it was the 50th anniversary of the Bradys. But therein lies the rub. We had not worked for Discovery so what they’re doing is essentially leveraging Brady, for their own purposes.”

The Brady house is widely recognised as the most popular house in the US after the White House. But now the location has been ‘restored’ to true Brady-ness, Knight can’t confirm what its future holds. Given it is in a residential area, there are big problems about accommodating ongoing crowds. He recalls one incident he witnessed with the previous owner, that gives a sense of how intrusive fans can be.

“At one point the woman who owned the house came out of the house to turn on her sprinklers. She opened the door and carried in her hand, a big picket sign with nothing on it… like a whiteboard that she stood behind as she came out of the house, bent over and turned on her sprinklers and went back in.

“This is how she’s living. So obviously it’s a comment on how many people were always around taking photos.

“So what can they do at this point? Not really much other than use it for as long as they own it, before they need to sell it. I would recommend to them that they find somebody like Lance Bass to then purchase it.”

“There’s a holiday, we dress it up,… we celebrate by having a 70 style Christmas”

First there is another special, A Very Brady Renovation: Holiday Edition in which the six cast join with lifestyle presenters to decorate the house and serve up a feast.

“It’s a continuation now the house is done. There’s a holiday, we dress it up, and then we celebrate by having a 70 style Christmas,” says Knight.

Whether in reunions, specials or even renovation shows, the Brady phenomenon is one Knight has made peace with, aided by a visit to a stage play in Australia in 1992.

“It was that experience, from your production and the feeling I had being there, that led me to embrace whatever Brady was and that recognise it might never go away.

“And that I should just love it the way that others do.”

A Very Brady Renovation: Holiday Edition Monday 23 December at 7:30pm on TLC.