HGTV Made One Major Change to 'The Brady Bunch House' That Even Superfans Probably Missed
When it was all said and done, Barry Williams couldn’t help but admit that HGTV paid too much for The Brady Bunch house—with a winning bid of $3.5 million offer—but he also wasn’t shy about sharing his admiration for the network’s dedication to bringing all of the Brady kids back together for A Very Brady Renovation. For him, that may be the most special part of tackling the remodel.
“The entire project was an evolution of discoveries,” the actor, who played the eldest son, Greg Brady, tells House Beautiful. “The idea that the home would be recognized by its sentimentality and HGTV considering an extremely challenging concept was daunting; I couldn’t see how it could happen. But there was another chemistry that took hold when we all got together, and it was very familiar.”
On September 9, HGTV premiered A Very Brady Renovation, a limited TV series that follows the Brady Bunch kids as they renovate the Studio City house famously used for exterior shots in the show. Of course, Barry and the other five cast members weren’t alone, working alongside eight HGTV stars to make the concept a reality.
Barry teamed up with Hidden Potential’s Jasmine Roth and Mike Lookinland (aka Bobby Brady) to create a replicate of their TV father's den. The transformation is showcased in the second episode, titled “Here’s the Second Story,” in which the trio pulls it together, one nail at a time. When asked what it was like recreating the space used by the Brady patriarch, Barry’s candid about the emotions he felt during the renovation.
“The obvious missing characters are Mom, Dad, and Alice, but as the rooms were taking shape, their presence was felt by all of us—in particular, Mike’s den,” he explains. “It was where Dad did all of his drafting, but it was also where he had his more serious, one-on-one life lesson talks.”
He continues: “So, when we had found a drafting table and made it to almost perfectly resemble the original one and the space was finished, I was able to float to the memories, recollection of some of those talks and relive them emotionally.”
Fifty years after its premiere, The Brady Bunch continues to be viewed and loved by millions around the world, regardless of when it was first seen. The Property Brothers’ Drew and Jonathan Scott watched it while growing up in Canada, Restored by the Fords’ Leanne and Steve Ford watched it in the ‘90s on Nickelodeon, and Flea Market Flip’s Lara Spencer caught re-runs of the show after school in the ‘80s.
“Viewers know the show is very impactful, in terms of nostalgia, taking you back to the time when you were watching the show, whatever age that was or whatever period that was,” Barry says to us. But the 64-year-old actor explains that the nostalgia goes beyond having flashbacks of scenes and actually stirred up memories of the filming process.
“It took me right back to that experience but in a really rounded way,” he shares. “It wasn’t only showing up to a house that was instantly recognizable to us but the whole process of arrival: of getting up early to get to the studio, of changing wardrobe, and doing the scenes that were lined up for that day. It was a fully immersive nostalgic experience.”
Despite any reservations Barry may have had in the beginning, the eldest son of The Brady Bunch crew declares the end result is 99.99 percent identical to Paramount’s Stage 5 set, but there’s a major difference he knows everyone will appreciate, especially future guests.
“The largest difference is everything works!” he explains. “The oven is hot, the refrigerator is cold, you turn on the sink and there’s water, you flip the light switch and there’s light.” Not to mention, all the rooms are where they’re supposed to be, as opposed to being on different parts of a sound stage on the same level.
“As you step into the house and glance at the artwork, the hardware, the rocks in their formation, the curtains, the wallpaper, the staircase, the wood, colors—everything is identical and it's pretty specular,” Barry says.
Catch new episodes of A Very Brady Renovation on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on HGTV.
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