The Brady Bunch Characters With The Best Storylines, According To The Sitcom's Stars

Along with "Gilligan's Island," "The Brady Bunch" is one of the seminal Sherwood Schwartz sitcoms, and its cultural perseverance might even outclass its outlandish, castaway-themed sibling. The show ran for five seasons from 1969 to 1974, and its depiction of a father of three boys, Mike Brady (Robert Reed), and a mother of three girls, Carol Martin (Florence Henderson), navigating life as heads of a vast blended family enticed the viewers more than enough to endow the show with the laurels of a cultural icon. 

"The Brady Bunch" got a lot of spin-offs you probably don't know existed, and films like "Cheaper By the Dozen" have gone on to channel those famous Brady Bunch vibes. Though the show ended five decades ago, the fact that many of its stars were kids at the time means that some major "The Brady Bunch" actors are still alive. Just like anyone who holds the show close to their heart, they're also fond of discussing its inner workings, such as the characters who got the best story arcs. On the podcast "The Real Brady Bros" (via Entertainment Weekly), Barry Williams (who played Greg Brady) argued that the juiciest storylines went to Eve Plumb's Jan. As Williams said: 

"Jan had more depth, she was more troubled. She was a middle child in the classic kind of sense. You know, a little bit sisterly toward Cindy [Susan Olsen], but kind of competitive with Marcia. She always seemed to have a lot of angst, which I think gave her some depth in the show. Marcia [Maureen McCormick], she was, like, the ultimate California beach girl — cute and nice and popular. And Cindy, you know, kind of eavesdropping, tattletale, not very bright through most seasons — character-wise, not person. So Jan, I think, had interesting waters to navigate."

Christopher Knight, who played Peter Brady, also appeared on the podcast. While he agreed with Williams' assessment about Jan's storylines, he did note that the same applies to his own character. The gist of his argument was that since both Jan and Peter are middle children, they weren't shackled as clear "eldest" or "youngest" archetypes. "Using that same logic, Peter would have the same or a similar sort of breadth, if you will, and I think the reason for that is, it's pretty easy to define what the youngest is supposed to be and write kind of cliché to that, the tattletale, and the oldest, the leaders," he explained. Knight continued: 

"And in so far as both Marcia and Greg played that leader role, Bobby and Cindy were the young kids that were cute. In the middle, there's no definition. You can go any number of ways, so by there not being a cliché definition of what middle actually is — although I think they tried with the Jan character by throwing in all that angst about not knowing who she was, they also threw it to Peter."

There's something to be said about this logic. "Middle child syndrome" — that is, the middle child's proposed psychological development as an even-keeled in-betweener who never quite feels like the favorite child — has been explored by science, though its validity remains unproven. From a storytelling standpoint, it makes sense that Jan and Peter would have more freedom of movement on the show than their older and younger siblings. It's up to the viewer to decide whether Knight and Williams are correct ... and what better way to determine this than yet another rewatch of "The Brady Bunch?" 

"The Brady Bunch" is available to stream on Paramount+.