Product Details

• Actors: Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis, Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick
• Writers: Sherwood Schwartz
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Paramount
• DVD Release Date: March 7, 2006
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000CCBCHQ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,821 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Comedy > Television > The Brady Bunch

• For more information about "The Brady Bunch - The Complete Final Season" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 5 in The Brady Bunch Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Here's where the story of the lovely lady, a man named Brady and their six kids comes to an end. Aired from 1973-'74, The Brady Bunch - The Complete Final (Fifth) Season closes the chapter on one of the most fascinating and entertaining TV sitcoms of the 1970s. The highlights are pretty high, showcasing many classic Brady moments. "Adios, Johnny Bravo" guest stars playmate Claudia Jennings as the super foxy agent Tami Cutler who tries to sign Greg as the next American idol. There is a bit of sibling rivalry on display in both "The Driver's Seat," where Marcia and Greg get competitive over their road tests, and in "Marcia Gets Creamed" where Marcia, Jan and Pete duke it out for the top employee spot at Haskell's Ice Cream Parlor. In "Out Of This World," Greg and Marcia trick Bobby and Peter in thinking a UFO has picked their house for their new home. And who can forget the gang's trip to King's Island amusement park in "The Cincinnati Kids." Though this season includes many landmark episodes, looking at it as a whole one can't help feel that the time was right to end it. There are quite a few "Jump The Shark" moments that can't be ignored, particularly the introduction of Carol's nephew Oliver. Though not a perfect season, it is extremely nostalgic and still very enjoyable. It's easy to understand why this family became icons of seventies culture. --Rob Bracco

Product Description

A widower with three sons marries a widow with three daughters. It's a sitcom family for the ages, with plenty of warmth and fuzziness (and constant fighting for the bathroom). The series debuted Sept. 26, 1969, but in many ways was a throwback to the '50s. It originally ran for five seasons on ABC, has remained popular in syndication and inspired two theatrical movies.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A SOLID FINAL SEASON, March 1, 2006

By	Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Season Five of the Brady Bunch is here and it's bittersweet for me. On one hand it's the final season and it's the one that brought us Cousin Oliver...on the other hand, there were some very good episodes during season five and as I had a huge crush on Maureen McCormick, I must say that she had really become quite a looker in this last season and one that set this 12 year-old's heart (at the time) all a flutter! Music would play a role in several episodes during season five. In the opener, Greg is spotted by a talent agent and goes off to have a solo career as the legendary "Johnny Bravo", upsetting his family.

Other notable episodes from this season include:

Mail Order Hero - guest stars Joe Namath when Bobby lies to his friends telling them that he knows the football star.

Peter and the Wolf - Greg has to get Peter to double date with him and Peter has to pretend to be older wearing a horrible looking fake mustache. It all goes awry when they run into mom & dad at the same restaurant.

Quarterback Sneak - Marcia begins dating the quarterback from a rival high school but Greg is convinced he's only dating her to steal his team's playbook.

The Cincinnati Kids - Mike takes the family to King's island to close a business deal but then loses the plans he was supposed to present to his client. A Classic episode!

The Driver's Seat - When Marcia begins her driver's training Greg makes jokes about women drivers leading to a driving contest between the two.

Welcome Aboard - Cousin Oliver comes to stay with the Brady's...BOOOO!!!!!

The Hustler - The Brady's get a pool table and Bobby turns out to be quite a good player leading to a bit of a gambling obsession.

Hair-brained Scheme - Bobby begins selling hair tonic and sells one to Greg which turns his hair orange just before graduation.

All in all, cousin Oliver aside, Season Five has some very funny episodes and some true classics among the shows fiver year run. Say what you want but this show has stood the test of time and still goes strong in re-runs over 30 years after it ended.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Adios, Brady Bunch, May 14, 2006

By	Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The last season of the Brady Bunch (1973-1974) is either celebrated or maligned by TV viewers. However, the 22-episode season has some genuinely interesting offerings for general and hard-core `Brady' fans alike hidden amongst mediocre offerings.

First. Greg's family has to deal with his temporarily inflated ego when a talent agent wants to make `Johnny Bravo' a solo star ("Adios, Johnny Bravo"). What threatens to damage the family however is quickly-if too conveniently-resolved because this is Brady world after all.

Then, Bobby gets to deal with ethical issues of his own ("Mail Order Hero"). To bail him out of a fib that he knew Joe Namath, Cindy wrote a `sob story' letter to the football star. Guest-starring as himself in this episode, Namath does not appear mad at the kids-he is instead empathetic.

Ms. Popularity herself, Marcia Brady, becomes a working girl this season. To earn some money, she works in the local ice cream parlor ("Marcia Gets Creamed"). Marcia soon discovers a career leaves little time for dating---her once-boyfriend has the nerve to come in with another girl. She then faces another more serious issue when she has to fire her own brother Peter, whom she had recommended for a job at this same parlor. Instead of having an identical work ethic, he had blown off the job.

Bobby has a growing experience when the girl he has a crush on tells him she may have the mumps ("Never Too Young"). Like "Is There A Doctor In The House'" from the very first season, this episode was really poignant for a generation who did know what having the mumps was like. However, it doesn't translate well to mine-we have grown up with immunization from this same disease.

"Kelly's Kids" actually was a pilot attempt for a spin-off series which never materialized. After seeing how much `fun' Mike and Carol have raising their kids, the childless Kelly's decide they want to become parents too. So, they go down to the local orphanage and adopt Matt (who just happens to be Todd, Milke Lookinland's real-life brother!). However, Matt is lonesome for Dwayne (Billy Attmore) and Steve (Carey Wong) his absolute best friends---who just happen to be black and Asian respectively. Their arrival causes discord in `white bread' suburbia-presumably then still trying to adjust to interracial marriages. Because Sherwood Schwartz often gets maligned for producing too bland sitcoms, seeing where he could have taken a `family' sitcom which did manage to work in an Archie Bunker reference would have been very interesting. It is one of the season's strongest points.

Granted Robbie Rist only read the scripts and stage directions which were given to him by other people, but the addition of `Cousin Oliver' was completely unnecessary--and did drag the season down. Oliver is introduced in "Welcome Aboard'" as Carol's nephew who temporarily boards with the Bradys while his parents are off somewhere in South America. Still, Oliver does get one `lead' episode in "Top Secret" where he and Bobby are convinced that Mike Brady is working on a project for the FBI-and somehow Sam the Butcher (who has been a LONGTIME family friend!) will steal the project plans for the Russians if he is not stopped.

"Snooperstar" is another episode dealing with a `spy' theme which weakened the season. Fed up with Cindy's prying into her diary, Marcia plants a `story' that a talent scout (Natalie Schafer) is coming to the house looking for the next Shirley Temple. Certain that it will be her, Cindy comes decked out in full regalia, only to later learn that the visitor is really Penelope Fletcher, a client of Mike's who is only making a home visit. The episode is notable for both the famous guest star (Schafer was/is of course still remembered as playing Mrs. `Lovey' Howell on "Gilligan's Island" and a transparent suggestion the Bradys certainly can be really vindictive to each other. However, Cindy seems kinda old during this season both for snooping into other people's possessions and wanting to perform `the good ship lollipop'. Susan Olsen herself was embarrassed to have filmed this episode at this point in the series!

The series closes with "The Hair-Brained Scheme" where Greg's hair turns orange from a mail-order hair tonic which Bobby was selling, right before his high school graduation. The episode has been criticized by both series stars Barry Williams (`Greg Brady') and Robert Reed (`Mike Brady') for the tremendous implausibility of a status-conscious teenager putting an unknown product on his very-prized hair days before a very important event. It's obvious the Brady writers had either ran out of steam or just did not care their series was ending.

Especially with this being the last season of this series, there should have been extras-just because this particular show was on its last legs. Whatever uneven script quality this particular season has, the overall series now carries TREMENDOUS cultural significance throughout much of America. The studios should at least celebrate this.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite seasons, August 30, 2007

By	William (Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

There are mixed reviews on the final season. While it may have been the reason for the show being cancelled, I actually think it has a much more mature feel to it that previous seasons. The previous seasons were way too predictable with silly storylines at times. But by this season, everyone had grown up and I find the lines they said more believable and there is often a 'poking fun at ourselves' attitude through the episodes.

Overall, it depends on whether you prefer the Brady kids to be young or teenagers. To me, these episodes are more fun because teenagers do some pretty funny things.

Worth owning because it was the end snapshot of a great show.