Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: A & E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: May 2, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000067J65
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,390 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Behind the Laughter, November 15, 2008

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Biography: Robert Reed [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The cheerful, All-American dad on TV was a secretive, mercurial man in real life.

This documentary was a study in contradictions. It said he treated the Brady actors like family, yet he signed away the parental rights to his biological daughter. Neither his mother nor daughter attended his funeral. It said he hated being tied down to Mike Brady, yet he signed on for every Brady TV reunion. It implies that his career went downhill post-Brady, but he won Emmys for his performances after that series.

This work says he never had a long-term lover. You would think that fame would garner that for men, even rainbow flag men. You'd even think that some seek fame to catch prestigious romantic partners, but that didn't happen in Reed's case. Maybe this is one example of how fame doesn't necessarily buy happiness. Like Liberace, this work said Reed wouldn't want to be remembered for his cause of death.

This work only talks about "The Brady Bunch" twenty minutes into it. It really only makes up one-fifth of the program. I have read several articles by David Ehrenstein, but it was great to see him finally on camera and get to hear his voice. Please realize that viewers who saw "The Brady Bunch" before syndication are middle-aged now. I think they can deal with the serious matters that this documentary exposes.

Guess what Gary Coleman is always known for? What about Carrie Fisher? My sister said Ed O'Neill, aka Al Bundy, played a serious role in a film and had to be edited out because test audiences couldn't take him seriously anymore. "One-hit wonder" applies to music, but maybe someone should coin the term "One-show wonder." I thank the Biography series for releasing an episode on this pink triangle man and famous TV father.