Love to Love You Bradys: the bizarre story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour is a 2009 coffee table book

Coffee table book

A coffee table book is a hardcover book that is intended to sit on a coffee table or similar surface in an area where guests sit and are entertained, thus inspiring conversation or alleviating boredom. They tend to be oversized and of heavy construction, since there is no pressing need for...

 written by The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...

actress Susan Olsen

Susan Olsen

Susan Marie Olsen is a former American child television actress and current animal welfare advocate. Olsen is best known for her role as Mike and Carol Brady's youngest daughter, Cindy Brady, on the 1970s television sitcom The Brady Bunch for the full run of the show, from 1969-1974.-Early...

, with Ted Nichelson and Lisa Sutton.

In Love to Love You Bradys, Olsen investigates The Brady Bunch Hour

The Brady Bunch Hour

The Brady Bunch Hour is an American variety television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in association with CBS Television Distribution, which aired on ABC between 1976 to 1977....

. The book asserts that the spinoff is noteworthy in television history for being 'spectacularly bad' (as Olsen states) and in 2002 was ranked in the top five worst shows of all time by TV Guide

TV Guide

TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

. Nichelson details how the Brady Bunch franchise was taken over by the ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 network in 1976 and the rights were awarded to Donny & Marie

Donny & Marie (1976 TV series)

Donny & Marie was an American variety show which aired on ABC from January 1976 to January 1979. The show stars brother and sister pop duo Donny Osmond and Marie Osmond...

producers Sid and Marty Krofft

Sid and Marty Krofft

Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft , are a sibling team of television producers who were influential in children's television and variety show programs in the USA, particularly throughout the 1970s and early 1980s....

 (without the knowledge or permission of creator Sherwood Schwartz

Sherwood Schwartz

Sherwood Charles Schwartz was an American television producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, and created the television series Gilligan's Island on CBS and The Brady Bunch on ABC...

) to produce an all-new variety show starring The Brady Bunch. Olsen also reveals behind-the-scenes accounts of the actors' private lives during this period of time, including Maureen McCormick

Maureen McCormick

Maureen Denise McCormick is an American actress, celebrity and recording artist. She is most widely known as a child actress who played Marcia Brady in the television series The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974.- Early life and career :...

's drug abuse and her failure to show up for taping of the show.

The book features previously unpublished photographs, and interviews, including those with Barry Williams

Barry Williams

Barry William Blenkhorn , known professionally as Barry Williams, is an American actor best known for his role as Greg Brady in the ABC television series The Brady Bunch.-Early life and career:...

, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight, Geri Reischl

Geri Reischl

Geri Lee Reischl is an American actress and singer, known for her work as a child actor in the 1970s, most notably on the variety show The Brady Bunch Hour and various television commercials.-Acting:...

 ("Fake Jan"), Mike Lookinland

Mike Lookinland

Michael Paul "Mike" Lookinland is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the youngest brother Bobby Brady on The Brady Bunch from 1969 until 1974.-Early life:...

, Ann B. Davis

Ann B. Davis

Ann Bradford Davis is an American television actress.Davis achieved prominence for her role in The Bob Cummings Show for which she twice won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series...

, Sherwood Schwartz, Lloyd Schwartz

Lloyd Schwartz

Lloyd Schwartz is an American poet who is Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston...

, Sid and Marty Krofft, Rip Taylor

Rip Taylor

Charles Elmer "Rip" Taylor, Jr. is an American actor and comedian.-Early life:Taylor was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Elizabeth, a waitress, and Charles Elmer Taylor, Sr., a musician. As a young man, Taylor served in the Korean War while in the U.S...

, Bruce Vilanch

Bruce Vilanch

Bruce Vilanch is an American comedy writer, songwriter and actor. He is a six-time Emmy Award-winner Vilanch is best known to the public for his four-year stint on Hollywood Squares, as a celebrity participant; in the entertainment industry he is best known as head writer for the show...

, and Paul Shaffer

Paul Shaffer

Paul Allen Wood Shaffer, CM is a Canadian musician, actor, voice actor, author, comedian, and composer who has been David Letterman's sidekick since 1982.-Early years:...

. Additional memories by Florence Henderson

Florence Henderson

Florence Agnes Henderson is an American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for her role of Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974...

, Robert Reed

Robert Reed

Robert Reed was a prolific American character actor of stage, film and television. In his first big break, he played Kenneth Preston on the popular 1960s TV legal drama, The Defenders, alongside E. G. Marshall. But he was best remembered for portraying the father, Mike Brady, on the popular...

, and Eve Plumb

Eve Plumb

Eve Aline Plumb is an American actress and painter. She is best known for her portrayal of Jan Brady in the iconic television sitcom The Brady Bunch.-Early career:...

are also included.