Alice (top right) with the Brady Family

What happened to the Bradys? Well, Mike Brady retired and got elected to the City Council [with 13,119 votes]. (For a short time in the late 1970s Mike Brady moved the family to a beachfront home and gave up his career as an architect so that the family could star in their own TV variety show.) Carol earned a living as a real estate agent [working for Willowbrook Realty and Advantage Properties]. The oldest son, Greg became a doctor, married Nora, a nurse and had a child named Kevin. Jan followed in her father’s footsteps and became an architect and eventually took over her dad’s business. Jan and Marcia had a double wedding and shared a house with their new husbands. Jan married uptight chemistry professor, Phillip Covington III. Marcia married Wally Logan, an easygoing toy designer for Tyler Toy Company [later Prescott Toys]. They had two children: daughter, Jessica and son, Mickey. Marcia studied fashion design, worked for Casual Clothes, and sadly developed a drinking problem. Peter joined the Air Force and later became his father’s assistant on the city council. He had a girlfriend named Valerie Thomas. Bobby went to college and took up race driving a career [and got paralyzed from the waist down in an accident]. He married a girl named Tracy. And Cindy became a radio disk jockey at KBLA and hosted the show “Cindy at Sunrise.”  And the "bunch" goes on.

TRIVIA NOTE: The Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook (Rutledge Press, 1994) inspired by the Brady family housekeeper Alice Nelson features a variety of recipes relating to characters and instances drawn from the original series. Some examples: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia Muffins; Davy Jones' Fan Club Sandwich; Kitty Karryall Cocoa (named after Cindy's beloved but ugly doll); Alice's Famous Whole Wheat Buttermilk Waffles; and Sam the Butcher's Favorite Sandwich (liverwurst, red onion cheese, mustard, and butter on rye). In the book's acknowledgment section Ann B. Davis confesses "Personally, I can't cook...Ron and his wife Diane Smolen did all the gathering choosing, checking, testing" to create the recipes in the cookbook. Ms. Davis did, however, contribute her secret ingredients for the "Ann Bs One and Only Beef Jerky" recipe (on page 218).

The Alice Nelson character reprised her role as the Brady's housekeeper as the Brady franchise continued through the millennium. The spin-off series included  THE BRADY KIDS cartoon, THE BRADY BUNCH HOUR, THE BRADY GIRLS GET MARRIED (When Alice married Sam); THE BRADY BRIDES, A VERY BRADY CHRISTMAS, THE BRADYS, BRADYMANIA, and BRADY BUNCH HOME MOVIES. The TV series even made it to the stage in the form of a spoof production entitled "Real Live Brady Bunch." starring Conan O'Brien's longtime sidekick Andy Richter and former "SNL" regulars Melanie Hutsell and Beth Cahill. Later, in the film spoofs The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996) Alice Nelson was played by look-alike actress Henriette Mantel and then by Tannis Burnett in the 2002 FOX TV movie The Brady Bunch in the White House (where Mike becomes president of the United States).

Ann B. Davis made a cameo in the first Brady film as a truck driver named Schultzy who counseled would-be-runaway Jan Brady. The Schultzy character was an homage to an earlier character that Ann B. Davis portrayed on the TV sitcom THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW (a.k.a. LOVE THAT BOB) from 1955-59 on the CBS network. On the show, Davis played Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz, the loyal, love-struck assistant to playboy photographer Bob Collins who was constantly surrounded by beautiful women. Schultzy, though not as attractive as the models that flooded through the studio, still had a crush on her boss and yearned for some of same affection that he so lavishly showered on such resident models as Collette, Mary Beth, Shirley and Ingrid. Ann. B. Davis won two Emmys - and four nominations - for her role as Schultzy. In between the THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW and THE BRADY BUNCH Ann appeared as Miss Wilson, a teacher at a San Francisco School for girls on the sitcom THE JOHN FORSYTHE SHOW/NBC/1965-66. Davis also appeared as herself in the film Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) and endorsed "Miracle White" laundry spray in TV commercials. Click Here for an Ann B. Davis picture archive.

Born Ann Bradford Davis on May 5, 1926 in Schenectady, New York, Ann B. Davis (who has a twin sister named Harriet) studied at the University of Michigan in the late 1940s until the acting bug lead her to Los Angeles in 1954 where she got her big start in the role of Schultzy on THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW. Since acting in a number of "Brady Bunch" vehicles, Ms. Davis, a born-again Christian, has devoted her life to doing charitable works and helping the homeless. According to TV LAND's Brady Bunch website, Ann presently lives in semi-retirement in Pennsylvania. Other sites say she lives in San Antonio, Texas. Ms. Davis' notoriety has also inspired an academic popular culture/sports quiz bowl known as the Ann B. Davis (Trash) Tournament held annually at the University of Michigan. On March 3, 2003, Ms Davis attended the ABC 50th Anniversary Celebration - After Party held at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, California. God bless you, Ann and long may you wave.