It's the story...of a lovely MURDER!

Whilst watching John Travolta's classic t.v. movie from 1975- The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, this weekend, I started to think about some unanswered questions. Travolta's dad in the show was played by the guy who played Mr. Brady from the Brady Bunch show.

I blogged about the things they never explained in Toy Story a month or so back, and now I'm going to go to a dark place that holds more questions than answers...

THE BRADY BUNCH.

"Excessive uses of alcohol, physical, or verbal abusiveness are a few examples of reasons to lose child visitation rights" (Child Visitation Rights).

Throwing the silly movies aside, why was there never an episode (that I can remember) where the kids left to be with their other parent?

"Producer Schwartz wanted Carol to have been a divorcee but the network objected to this. A compromise was reached whereby no mention was made of the circumstances in which Carol's first marriage ended" (Wikipedia).

So we have two split families that become one... let's look at both sides and guess what MAY have happened.

Carol Brady and the Girls: In this case I'm guessing that the lack of child visitation rights comes from an abusive parent. Jan Brady is obviously dealing with some real issues throughout the series. My guess is that their biological father used to mistreat Florence Henderson and her brood. If violence was involved, this would explain the lack of visitations. They never make mention of him...maybe he was in prison? The show was canceled before the 6th season ever materialized and the internet is telling me it's 6-10 years for abuse of that kind. If the 6th season HAD come to pass we may have seen Flo Hender's Ex getting out of Folsom to stay with the family and spend time with his girls. The Ex waits til Mr. Brady is gone and attacks Flo Hender with a wrench. Tiger (the family's dog) bites the guy in the process and rips a major vein, causing the man to bleed to death on the shag carpeting.

Mr. Brady and the Boys: Whereas Flo Hender divorced an abusive guy, Mr. Brady and the boys lost their mother to...mysterious circumstances. That's right...It's the story of a lovely MURDER! Throw in some blackmail and you have a plausible reason why Alice the maid is still hanging around. Mr. Brady works, Mrs. Brady....does what? She's home all day, why do they need a maid? The truth is they don't need a maid. Alice is there, working for free, because if she EVER says anything about what went down on August 18th 1968, Mr. Brady would feed her to the dog. Mr Brady, master manipulator, began flirting with Alice. He knew that Alice had a huge crush on him and he used that to his advantage. Mr. Brady had tired of his current wife and had noticed Flo-Hender at the shopping center recently. He knew her situation, he knew she was vulnerable, and he wanted out of his current relationship. He manipulated Alice into believing that if she (Alice) could just get rid of the old Mrs. Brady, then they would hook up. Didn't happen though. Alice killed the old Mrs. Brady and came running to what she THOUGHT would be an excited Mr. Brady...only to find him aghast at what she'd done. "Alice...what have you done...why did you...sniff...kill her?" Alice panicked, but Mr. Brady comforted her. "Listen, I won't tell the police, but your paycheck just disappeared. You work for me now, forever and always. If you EVER leave, I'm telling the cops everything. So Mr. Brady got Flo-Hender, got rid of his old wife, and got free maid service for life.

And THAT's the way they became the Brady Bunch!