I Choose...A Brady Bunch Childhood Dream
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Hi, this is Jenny Garth from the I Choose Me podcast. If you're managing a challenging mental condition, weekly therapy can sometimes feel like it's not enough. You may be looking for a way to spend more focus time on you. That's where Amend Mental Health Treatment Center comes in. I recently took a tour at Amend in beautiful Malibu, California, and the facility is so gorgeous and serene.

The dedicated team of doctors and therapists with deep clinical expertise were amazing. Designed to give you the time and space you need to have that breakthrough. They have two unique locations in Malibu that surround you in natural beauty and pure calm. Find out more at amendtreatment.com slash start. The following ad is sponsored by Pets Best Insurance Services. Your pet is your bestie.

Your therapist, your preferred match. It's easy to love them, even when they sneak your snacks. It's easy to protect them, too, with pet insurance coverage from Pets Best.

Because it's all fun and games until they chew on something they shouldn't. With perfect timing, Pets Best helps protect your furry friend and your budget from this imperfect world. Get up to 90% on eligible vet bills for less than a dollar a day. Find your perfect match at PetsBest.com. Pet insurance products offered and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services LLC are underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company or Independence American Insurance Company. For all terms, visit PetsBest.com backslash policy.

You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garth. Hi, everyone. Welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is all about the choices we make and where they lead us. I have a really fun episode for you today. Something that is so great about this podcast is that I get to take you listeners with me for fun and interesting conversations. And today, I choose to live out one of my childhood dreams. I'm going to talk about

Because you guys, I'm recording this episode at the Brady Bunch house. Yes, that's what I said. The Brady Bunch house. My guest today is known for playing the beloved Peter Brady and in recent years has made appearances on shows like The Masked Singer and A Very Brady Renovation. And outside of acting, he's also an accomplished entrepreneur. Please welcome Chris Knight to the podcast. Thank you very much. Oh my goodness. This is such an honor. Are you tripping?

Well, yeah, I've tripped here already. You've tripped. I'm tripping right now. Yeah, you'll come out of it eventually. It's now real. So it is a trip, but not as poignant as it was when we first completed it. Right, because we're sitting here in this house that you all have redone to look exactly like what was the set of the interior. Better than the set, as it turns out, because it's real now. This is a real house.

A pretend place. You know, it is really in Ohio. I just went to the bathroom in your parents' bathroom. And that had a toilet. It worked. Yeah. And they work everywhere. I was very excited. Essentially, it's a real house and it has to have an occupancy permit. Okay. Well, I occupied it. Couldn't faithfully replicate that part. No toilets.

You know why we didn't have a toilet on the show? On the show? We didn't. Why? Because you weren't allowed to show a toilet before nine o'clock. That was standards and practices at the time. Not that anybody was going to be wanting to use a toilet before nine o'clock. The toilet itself. Yeah, it wasn't there. There's a tub and there's something missing. That's right. Obvious article in every bathroom. Not that there was...

but one bathroom that was really featured on the show. Wow. When did that change? Do you think? Cause we had toilets on 90210. Well,

Well, good for you. We really stepped it up. Well, we were built of different material back in the 60s. They must have decided that toilets are okay to show on primetime. Someone read through the manual and said, you know, we've got to update this. These are real people. I don't know. You know, times change things. I mean, you know, do my podcast on our show. We're watching the show for the first time in 50 years. And it innocuous as the Brady's is.

there's quite a few episodes where we'd have to change some of the dialogue. I'm going to ask a question about that. You're rewatching the show from the very beginning. Is that something that you had ever done before? Never. Had you ever watched one full episode? Well, when they were first on, on Friday nights in primetime, uh, other than that, no. So, um,

kind of avoided it, you know, stumbling through the channels and there it is. If it's TV land or whatnot, I wouldn't watch it. You know, I don't watch my own work, you know, and though it's, you know, somewhere around 40 years afterward, it was distant enough to be able to be watched objectively. I'm an adult and there's nothing there for me, you know, as to consume. I didn't think, but in doing this house in the, in the HGTV project, um,

It became apparent that so many people over the years have driven down the street and taken photos of this house that was sort of utilized to become the house and that it could much to my surprise. Yeah. It now gives this 10th character an opportunity to exist in perpetuity. And Tina who owns it has been gracious enough to allow, um,

Well, podcasts like this to occur here, limited productions here and us access to the house. And it's very comforting because it really was a special place. And, you know, it's just it's remarkable that it's still that we were able to do it to this kind of detail or that HGTV kept at it so that this detail was faithfully reproduced.

You said that the tripping would pass, but it hasn't passed yet. I'm staring at you with the biggest smile on my face. I'm talking to Peter Brady, you guys. This is crazy. Never left home. No, I used to watch your show every day. I lived on a farm way out in the country in Illinois. And I would come home and sit in front of Central. Central, Illinois. I would sit right there in front of the big TV with the wood around it.

And I would watch. Did you have a remote control? No. You had to turn the dial. Yeah, to actually get up. Don't turn that dial. I sat close enough to turn the dial like this. Well, of course we all did. That wasn't bad for my eyes. Right. And I was supposed to like, don't watch television like that because it'd do something to your teeth. I don't know. It was a bunch of wives tales, you know. Oh, but this is just surreal. I think television will rot your brain. You know, all that stuff. That's what my mom always said. They were born in the same era. I think I connected with the show on such a deep level because I was from a

blended family. Were you? And if I'm not mistaken, I think the Brady Bunch was one of the first shows, at least to my recollection, that ever really spotlighted a blended family on television. Purposefully so. Because if you look at Sherwood, Sherwood had two shows that are, you know, wildly popular, Gillian's Island and the Brady Bunch. He had a third that only lasted 13 weeks. But oddly, I can still remember the

theme song from, which is one of the things that Sherwood is very famous for. Theme songs you can't forget. And that was, it's about time. It's about time. It's about space. It's about time in the human race. And all three are the same premise. And that is disparate people learning to get along, forced to get along. So on Gilligan's Island, they were forced because they were stuck on the island. Yep. And, and in it's about time, it's about space. Last only two astronauts stuck in space. Yeah.

Don't know how that would have lasted over years, but okay. Being forced to get along in a very small space. And then the Brady's is this, this idea of new family being zippered together and now watching it and getting caught up to where the audience has been with it.

It's clear what, you know, the vision that Sherwood had on the show in those first two seasons. But those, you know, first 20, 30 shows are about a family that is coming together and not easily being having, but then learning the benefits of getting along. And then by the, by the second or third year, there's, you know, there's never any mention of you're not my sister.

Ever, which probably isn't real, but getting to that place is so important because that really then is the family. When, when, when it doesn't matter where you're from, that you are my sister. Right. It was his and hers and it became ours.

Well, there was a movie like that, His, Hers and Ours, right? His, Mine and Ours. Yeah, I was, my family was His, Hers and I was the Ours. So basically I was Tiger in your family. I mean, if you break it down. Were you part of,

Were you not the blend? Were you the biological child? I was the blend. You were the biological child of the two that had his and hers. So they came together and then they had me. So you're the next evolution of what we were. Yes. You'd have been Oliver born to Carolyn. Oh my God, Oliver. Forgot about Oliver. That's a whole flip on that because he wasn't. So he's the inside out version of you. He's the cousin though. The cousin that wasn't even part of this. Wasn't even on the radar screen. Yeah.

Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, a cherub found on the street. I think that that's what's so cool because I know being on a show in the nineties, your show really represented the seventies and being on a show that represented the nineties, you're sort of forever frozen in people's minds at, as a certain image, you know, like the, I'm sure people look at you and stare at you the way I'm staring at you right now with that look of like, I,

I can't believe what I'm seeing. And I know people, I, I've, it's weird. I'm tripping out because I'm, I'm experiencing it. I'm doing it to you, but I'm, I've experienced it as you're doing it to me, but seeing yourself do it to me. Yes. That's deep. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I should have a doctorate in psychology to be here right now. But how does that, I mean, I know how I've dealt with it over the years and, and what a role,

my show and the significance of my show played in my life. What would, what is the significance that the Brady Bunch played in your life? Like on overall, would you say? Pretty significant. I mean, it's pretty much, um, unlike your shows where you sort of became an adult, a young adult before the intersection of that celebrity, um,

um, we were kids. I mean, those formidable years, um, you were 10, 10 to the pilot, but just, just about 11 and then 11, 12 in the first season, but then ended at 16. So, you know, kind of all that kind of childhood years. Yeah. So you're forming yourself, you know, you're, you're forming an idea, an idea of self. You're,

Do you think it's a realistic when you're in that bubble? Do you think that who you're forming is a realistic? Well, I think in my case, it was very helpful because it wasn't, it, it offered exactly what the show offers people watching it. But for me, it was in 3d. It was around me. I mean, it was more than just,

through the script, it was lived in this environment. It was a really wholesome environment. And I do laugh at it because it's not exactly, I wouldn't, if I had kids, I would try to keep them away from show business until they're 18. I don't think there's any success of consequence to anybody in this industry, you know, as a child that will help as an adult. And the chances of you falling apart in the process, making that leap is,

Let me do it either way. You successful as a kid being successful as an adult, you know, is difficult because you're going to have to, it's a whole different person then. And no success leaves you then with what? So either way, you're kind of setting yourself up. And isn't that your parents job to work? Not you. Cause having a childhood is. Why did you work as a child? Well, because my dad was an actor and he had access to getting us agents and

And my brother, who's a year older, 13 months older, we got an agent at the same time. I was seven. He was eight. I immediately started working much to my mom's surprise because she thought he was the outgoing one. I was the introverted one. He had no idea what went on inside that room, right? Because moms don't go in the room with you when you're going on your interview. And we didn't go in together. You know, we were just so close in age that we would be up for the same commercial together. That's wild. I got the first interview, the third interview, and it just kept working.

And he never did. And she thought he would be the one working because of her relationship, you know, with him and his outgoingness in my quiet, you know, reserved sort of soul and self wasn't anything she thought would sell inside of a room. And so she was quite surprised. I didn't learn about that until I was an adult. What was your secret? What'd you do in that room? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I think what I did is I, is I lit up because I,

In my environment, it was hard to even, you know, take a breath. And so this is what the Brady's provided, you know, the stuff that I wasn't getting. Similarly in that room, I was getting stuff I wasn't getting because of the environment. I had an older brother, you know, pecking order being what it was who, who,

He even laughs at it. I was literally trying to kill me when we were one and two. And I guess it's not unusual or impossible when you live in an environment that is chaotic and not abundant when survival is...

You know, my dad even said to me at one point or told my mom when because he's an actor, an unemployed actor raising two kids in New York City. It was like, you know, there's not we don't have enough milk to feed the kids. He said, feed them every other day. His environment from the old world. I mean, it's like not all not all your kids lived. That was his mindset might be, you know.

He had a brother that didn't make it, you know, like a lot of, it's really a jungle law, you know, a lot of the fittest, um, survival of fittest. And so Brady's is not that Brady's probably was an extension again of that interview, which is if somebody is asking me my, uh, asking me questions, asking me about something that doesn't happen at home, at home, it's that you're talked to and you know, you're just in the way. And, and, um,

So you kind of recede, you know, you don't want to buck that. So, but an interview, all of a sudden you can come out. So that's probably where that began. And then here, I really felt it. I mean, I remember one episode Bob Reed directed and we were very inexpensive show.

and you got six of us. And so we got a director coming in. He's going to do this scene with six of us in, you know, maybe seven, eight of us in the scene. So you three stand there, you come up, you stand here and we'll do the scene like the static. So nothing organic about it, but he's trying to get done by the end of the day. And how else are you going to block this thing? And then here's Bob Reed first thing in the morning. It's a show that, you know, I'm featured in. And he says, so how do you see this blocking? How do you see this work? And it was like, wow,

I'm valued. I have an idea, but no one's ever asked me my idea to that degree before. And that's where that developed, you know, and that probably wouldn't have happened at home until I,

Did it for myself in some rebellious kind of way. And so it shaped me. It shaped me and it gave me an idea of how family can be cooperative. My mom was dead set against even believing that families could be. Really? Yeah. So it sounds like, much like myself, you found the Brady Bunch sort of like a safe space, a sanctuary. Yeah. And I didn't know how safe it was until...

You know, it was gone. And then, well, I was an adult at that point. I was 16. But I realized that the space that I was left in, like at home, was like, I need to escape this so that I can go make something closer to that for myself. That's a really interesting story. Yeah. And so deep. And my mom and I, we'd have, I mean, it wasn't like...

We were close friends when she passed away, but because we discussed it all, you know, that she had different ideas based on her experiences in life and the hardships that she was under and the, you know, difficulties that were day to day confronting her. And she did the best that she could. And, but the result of that was,

These reverberations were, you know, a need to create something different. Did your mom go to work with you? Yeah. Since you were a minor? She came every day. Every day. I mean, I have a brother seven years younger. I'm 11. Did he come? Who was taking care of him? No, he's left home with my sister who's three years younger. So it's like, you know, he's being raised by a seven-year-old.

Wow. Yeah. And I, you know, I didn't get to witness that, but, you know, talking to my sister, you know,

You know, that's tough. And that's why when, when friends say, Oh, my kid is so cute. He should be in show business. And I said, do you realize what would happen if like, say they live in Ohio and they want to come out for pilot season and get a pilot. You know, you're successful. What about the other kids? Where are you going to live? What are you doing to the family? You know, it shouldn't, I mean, work for, you know, and support your kids and then let them do what they want at 18.

Hi, this is Jenny Garth from the I Choose Me podcast. If you're managing a challenging mental condition, weekly therapy can sometimes feel like it's not enough. You may be looking for a way to spend more focus time on you. That's where Amend Mental Health Treatment Center comes in. I recently took a tour at Amend in beautiful Malibu, California, and the facility is so gorgeous and serene.

The dedicated team of doctors and therapists with deep clinical expertise were amazing. Designed to give you the time and space you need to have that breakthrough. They have two unique locations in Malibu that surround you in natural beauty and pure calm. Find out more at amendtreatment.com slash start. The following ad is sponsored by Pets Best Insurance Services. Your pet is your bestie.

Your therapist, your preferred match. It's easy to love them, even when they sneak your snacks. It's easy to protect them, too, with pet insurance coverage from Pets Best.

Because it's all fun and games until they chew on something they shouldn't. With perfect timing, Pets Best helps protect your furry friend and your budget from this imperfect world. Get up to 90% on eligible vet bills for less than a dollar a day. Find your perfect match at PetsBest.com. Pet insurance products offered and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services LLC are underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company or Independence American Insurance Company. For all terms, visit PetsBest.com backslash policy.

I became emancipated when I started working. I think I was 16. So you can't get emancipated earlier than that, right? I think 16 is when you first can be emancipated. I believe so. So you could drive. I could drive. I drove myself. I went to work just like an adult. Like I didn't have my mom with me. Barry got himself emancipated because for a time, my mom would be on set and his mom wouldn't. And she would be his guardian for that day until he got emancipated. His mom was there mostly in the first year. I think that was the second year.

Because he didn't really need or want his mom around, but he legally was needed to have someone there looking, an adult looking after him until that happened. Did they sequester the parents away from the set? No, no, they were very much part of the entire program. Because Sherwood's idea was that what first he wanted, you know, I don't know how much he actually took in to account parents.

When he was casting us, but I'm sure he had some eye out for that. He didn't want actors. He wanted kids who could act. So he wanted kids. He wanted, he wanted people that, uh, they were people first person persons first before actors. And, and,

I'm sure part of that process in looking for that was not just what he got from the interview in the room, but somewhere along the way there must have been. But it is tough because you're not interviewing parents. Right. So how do you know what you're getting with the parents are like? So, yeah, it's a tough question. I've really not thought about it. I couldn't have known too much about how the parents worked out. And luckily, yes.

It worked out. You know, we had distinctly different kind of parents. Like Maureen's, she lived not too far away, but her mom couldn't drive. Her dad was a school teacher. So, and she was the youngest in her family. Her brothers were older. She had one brother who's special needs.

Mom had some eye condition, tunnel vision or something, so couldn't drive. We drove. We drove. I mean, that gave me an extra couple hours every day to be like a quasi-brother to Maureen growing up in the back of a car. But it worked. I mean, the parents weren't the typical... None of them were the typical... Set parents. Set parents or, you know, pushy kind of like... Stage mom. Stage mom. That's what they called me. It was an ensemble. Now...

where at times it would just, it would show itself in defense of those things that were important to that person. Like Eve's hair, she had this incredibly long, gorgeous hair, but to keep it like that required a lot of brushing. Mom was constantly brushing and brushing because it wasn't an, I mean, again, light, lightly budgeted. It wasn't like we had an abundance of hair and makeup people. So they were probably, you know,

giving it a couple, couple of strokes before taking care of Florence. It was, it was, it was Eve's mom constantly on her brushing her hair right up until, right. I have just such a vivid imagination of what that was like, but she did that. Her hair looked amazing by the way. That's why now we know. Takes a lot of brushing. Well, thank God for moms. Right. Right. So stage momming is important to some extent. Yeah. So,

Do you feel as if you're frozen in time when you walk around today? I've had a lot of years to reconcile this. You know, they say about electrons, they don't really have a place. They can be in two places at once. And that is kind of what happens when this occurs, right? We did something long ago. It still exists. It still lives. And then I exist now. So, yeah.

I have two existences. I'm not really frozen in time, but I understand that somebody could see me frozen in time. That's what's fun about doing the podcast is I go back and learn what people have thought about me and why by watching the show, you know, and I'm amazed that we're both are about how much we were gaining from watching it. Right. Isn't that the case? Yeah. We always get the same question, right? What is your favorite show?

But it dawned on me that that wasn't a question. We were answering it without regarding the question as it was being asked. We always said, why? Because we had to go to Hawaii. That would be our favorite experience, not necessarily favorite show. So all of our answers are about the experiences of doing a show. Well, I mean, I'm thinking going in that my favorite shows were those when I was older, right? Cause that's when all of a sudden you're, you're more conscious, making conscious decisions. Um,

And I watch the show. The shows are not nearly as good as the first couple of years because the show had a structure in those first couple of years that kind of untethered as the show, as we got older. Because it was, it's, it's power, Ellie, if you will. It's, it's real strength was in that, you know, six to 12, 14 year old kid realm. And as soon as you get 15, 16, your issues are, are, are,

not as simple to conclude as they are or as they can be. They're not as primary. And like the colors on the show, the issues that we dealt with best were very primary issues. You know, getting along, telling the truth. You know, just it's a parable. Modern parable. But it made life so simple. Like for those of us watching it. Yes. Well, life for a kid should be simple. It gets more complicated out that front door. Oh, yes. So the more reasons, you know, like...

You don't, I mean, if there's, if there's like Vietnam was, it was in parallel. I mean, I was like a year from being drafted, um, doing the show. And so there was all that, you know,

tumult you know around us and we're doing the show it already felt like it was out of time and if you think about it the brady's as this kind of family was already a throwback in the late 60s to the families of the late you know reminds me of leave it to beaver right you know as a you know a blended leave it to beaver like family and that was late 50s you know and really hasn't been done and i don't know if you can i mean i think that like i don't know

you can cycle back to that kind of, that kind of innocence. Again, it, you'll just laugh at it. And that's why the movies laughed at it. Right. Because it's like when you're an adult looking back at yourself as a child and the ways that you thought you, you laugh at how simple things were for you, but they're purposefully simple. Like,

If you're 10 years old or 11 years old, I'm not sure your parents want you watching the news of the war that's going on and the body count and stuff like that. Keep you in a different space because you'll have enough time to deal with that as you get older. That's the thing with kids these days. Now you can't keep them from seeing everything all at once everywhere. Which is troublesome. Yeah, I don't know how you... Yeah, everything all at once is not...

necessarily good. I did well to just take my Brady Bunch followed by my happy days and then my Laverne and Shirley. You did it naturally for yourself. Yes. Yes. When did you when you left the show when the show was over how did you feel like did you feel. I well I was happy. You were happy. At least initially because I wanted to go to school.

It wasn't my idea to be an actor, though I was getting so much from it and very much appreciated it. I hadn't decided on what I wanted to do with my life. And I knew that you were only 16, right? When it went off, I was halfway through 11th grade. So just turning. Yeah, 17, just about 17. I was 16. You're right.

I was 16, but high school was only, I only had a year and a half left to high school. I hadn't gone to my real high school yet. We went to a private school, 10th grade. So we can do these, the singing, dancing concert stuff that I didn't really want to do, but I'm part of this group and being sucked along by it. And so now the show's going off and I'm, it's like the 20th week of,

in going up to the second semester of 11th grade. And finally I get to go to the high school. It's right down the street. And the friends in the neighborhood, they go there and I hadn't gone yet. Brother goes there. I was big into science, but there was no science being taught. Labs, you know, biology and chemistry and physics. All the stuff that interested me were stuff that I couldn't get unless I went back to my high school. And luckily I got just, I got out just in time to start catching up on some of that. Did anybody ever pick on you?

Well, that happened. Well, I was in seventh grade. It's a new school. The first season of the show was out. You were still in school, regular school. The only year was 10th grade when we went to private. We finished, we start the day, the Monday that school got out. And we were all in public schools. We were all in the same system. And they did that so that they could keep, so they didn't have to work you certain hours in the school. They could work us seven hours, right? They could work us, well, that's it.

It's eight hours to seven as opposed to just, you know, four. Because once the school starts on that day that school begun, we were in our classroom when we weren't, you know, around the camera or in front of the camera. Matter of fact, they had to invent rules like, you know, putting us into school and taking us out five minutes later is useless for school.

So you have to leave us there for at least, I think it was 15 minutes or 20 minutes. And then because we'd be featured, our welfare worker was this brilliant, classic, school marmish, wonderful woman, Frances Whitfield. And she was our welfare worker and our teacher. And she was accredited up through eighth grade. So there was another teacher for us when we got beyond eighth grade. Yeah.

Hi, this is Jenny Garth from the I Choose Me podcast. If you're managing a challenging mental condition, weekly therapy can sometimes feel like it's not enough. You may be looking for a way to spend more focus time on you. That's where Amend Mental Health Treatment Center comes in. I recently took a tour at Amend in beautiful Malibu, California, and the facility is so gorgeous and serene.

The dedicated team of doctors and therapists with deep clinical expertise were amazing. Designed to give you the time and space you need to have that breakthrough. They have two unique locations in Malibu that surround you in natural beauty and pure calm. Find out more at amendtreatment.com slash start. The following ad is sponsored by Pets Best Insurance Services. Your pet is your bestie.

Your therapist, your preferred match. It's easy to love them, even when they sneak your snacks. It's easy to protect them, too, with pet insurance coverage from Pets Best.

Because it's all fun and games until they chew on something they shouldn't. With perfect timing, Pets Best helps protect your furry friend and your budget from this imperfect world. Get up to 90% on eligible vet bills for less than a dollar a day. Find your perfect match at PetsBest.com. Pet insurance products offered and administered by Pets Best Insurance Services LLC are underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company or Independence American Insurance Company. For all terms, visit PetsBest.com backslash policy.

I want to know, like, when you go out in public and people stop you, as I'm sure they do a million times.

What goes through your mind? Depends on what just happened. Like what they're interrupting? Because sometimes I have no hope for humanity. Like what? When would you have that reaction? No, I'm with my brother who we've always had, like I said, a relationship that's on an edge. A little competitive. Right. And he, oh, I never closed on that. So we'd go on these same interviews for two years and he never worked.

Oh, that must have really caused a rift. He never worked. And then finally said, why am I wasting my time? We lived in Woodland Hills. We had to drive into, I mean, that's like an hour or two hours, you know? And it's like, why am I going on this? I don't want to go anymore. So he didn't have to. At that point, I'm now doing, you know, by that point, just about doing the Brady Bunch. Okay. So you're at lunch with your brother now as grown men and someone comes up to you and says, oh my God. Well, this is, this is the thing about humanity.

My brother and I. So somebody recognizes me. This is some years ago. I mean, 10 years ago. And then turns around, are you somebody? And it's like, I don't even want to look him in the eye right now. I didn't do it. It's not my fault. I'm not going to, you know, and it's like, hey, you know, what do you say to this person? You know, and what do you say to your brother? You're not going to say anything to your brother because hopefully, you know, he'll, you know. Handle it. Yeah. And it's just like...

But I knew at a young age, too, why are people asking for autographs? What are they going to do with that? You thought that through for them. They're going to put it in a drawer and it's going to disappear forever. It's a handshake. It's their way of interacting. Before cell phones, it's a way of, but they don't know that they're wanting to just say, you've intersected my life positively or I liked your work. Can I just say hi? Thank you.

They want your autograph. It takes a real adult to do that, but until not everybody ever gets to be a real adult to handle it that way. So mostly it's just doing what somebody else has done, which is asking for an autograph. But, you know, it's really just to interact. When I figured that out, then cell phones make it so much better. Just take the selfie because now I'm a life-size collectible. But it doesn't bug you. You're a life-size collectible. Yeah. I love that. Yeah.

And it's so much easier. I don't have to sit down and write. I have terrible handwriting. You know, and what's your name and how do I spell that? It seems though that you have such a deep appreciation for the show and its significance in television history and in so many people's lives. I know this. I know I had a

really contentious relationship with my mom growing up, um, that predated the Brady Bunch and, and, you know, and we worked that out as adults. So we had, we had a little problem as adults. Uh, we were a family that shared, um, exactly how we were feeling, which has, has a good side and can have a bad side. Um, chaotic and, um, independent, uh,

can be desperate, can be loud. Yeah. So that relationship wasn't something I thought was healthy, but I felt whatever we were doing here was. It was a depiction of it. And it set me up to realize that, you know,

There are good things that can come from this. Although we were derided in the press. I mean, as a show reviewed that we're banal and you know, just because that's what we were. There wasn't anybody reviewing from the point of view that the show was trying to deliver on. Cause there was no children's programming per se. I mean, there was Disney, but people didn't look at Disney. It wasn't really trying to provide entertainment for children at that. But,

But they didn't review children's programming separately than you reviewed any other kind of art. With the same reviewer, he'd be doing theater and doing television. So we were kind of like, what the hell is this doing on television? Television itself was derided as being a...

entertainment below art form. Below. Yeah. Keyword. Yeah. So later in life, you pivoted to business, entrepreneurship. I pivoted right in high school. When I left and went into high school, it was like, that's, this is it. You know, because I was happy, you know, just...

I was getting my sciences and I'm now going to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. And I didn't know that I had a learning disabled. I was learning disabled. I kind of got buried in all my other stuff. I had this dyslexia and I had what turned out to be ADD. But I had a real difficult time with subjects I didn't care about. And I then went off to UCLA and realized that I was going to get buried

I had no problem in any of the sciences, but as soon as I went into lit and English and NS, I was going to get buried. And it's like, how am I going to finish this? And then right at that same time, here comes the entertainment industry back asking me to do something I don't want to do, which is music. But I said yes to it. And that was the variety show because I realized as well, half my friends at UCLA were North campus students.

you know, studying theater and cinema. And it's like, I'm, and I'm just dropping that and whatever, whatever advantage I had in that industry, I'm just disregarding and say, perhaps I need to leverage that. Maybe I need to look at that again. So I use that as the entree to get back into it. And that would last for a number of years. And then I found myself just drifting into, into the realm of computers when, you know, just naturally just got, um,

attracted to him and ended up in a career in the computer industry for 25 years. When the cast came back together to do the renovation show for the house on HGTV, how was that? Was that a good time? Oh, yeah. We got back together. The gang was back together. It was just odd the way that it all came. We, like everybody, Lance Bass included, read that the house was for sale. It was in the USA Today.

And then a few days later, agents are getting contacted about this house that HGTV or Discovery bought. Wanted to know if we could meet with them. It's like, okay, we had no idea really what this was about, but it was for them to tell us that they had bought the house and that they were looking at doing something with it.

And then we told them about the history of the house and they didn't even know. They had no idea. It was just because it came up on the market and somebody was reading it during a production meeting or some development meeting. We should buy the Brady house. And then somebody said, yeah, we should. And within two days they're making an offer on the house. They didn't know it was the 50th anniversary.

It all came together. And it just kind of came together. It's like, well, that's a present to us. You know, if they're going to have us involved, I don't know what it's going to be. But hey, you know, making that, doing something at the house is like a way to acknowledge the 50th anniversary. And it turned out to be much more than that. And a way to, you know, resurrect this 11th cast member. Right. I love that. Well, speaking of the 11th cast member, we've got to bring in Tina Trahan, who is the owner of this beautiful, iconic home. Tina.

Hi. How are you? I'm well, thank you. How are you? I'm good. I need to know why you bought this house. Were you a fan of the show? Well, I watched it every day after school. Yes. Growing up. So when I heard the house was for sale, I just knew I had to buy it. I did not know why. I knew I wanted nothing to happen to it. I didn't want it to get torn down or anything like that.

What I didn't know is what I was going to do with it. HGTV, I bought it from them. So they had already done the edition and made it just like the show.

So what I did, I just added a bunch of things. I've added over 300 things. I've lost count from the show, like Kitty Cariol. I saw her upstairs. She's sleeping. Right. And the cars. So I did a lot that way. And I turned the garage into a carport just like they had without a permit. So I got a violation. Oh, no. That didn't make the news. Good. So-

What Tina has, to all of us, obviously, it's a museum. It's a museum. But you can't make it a museum. No. First of all, I heard a rumor that you have slept in this home. Have you slept overnight here? I have. A few of my friends have come out to L.A. and they wanted to sleep in the house. Wait, whose room did you sleep in? Well, they slept in Carolyn Mike's and I slept in the girls' room. Can I have a sleepover with you? Absolutely. Amy and I will be right over.

You guys are having a really incredible event here. So can you tell me about that? Yes. We partnered with No Kid Hungry and we're doing a sweepstakes where five people and they each get to bring a guest, get round trip airfare, hotels, ground transportation and meals. And but what's going on at the house, it's we're calling it the Brady Brunch. So

So you have brunch with Brady cast members. And yes, we are serving also pork chops and applesauce. The one I buried in the backyard. Yeah. Buy someone dressed like Alice. Oh my gosh. Are you going to be here? I didn't know about the Alice part. Yes, I plan to be here. So we don't know the date that it's going to be, but it's based on professional availability. I will work. However, I...

As hard as I can to make certain that I am one of those. I am local, so I don't have to be flown out. I know that Barry has shown interest and Eva has shown interest and Mike has shown interest. And whether or not they can be here on the date that is selected will have to be determined. But there'll be a Brady here.

A. Brady. At least. You. At least. Okay. Right. That's enough for me. Well, and I'll take, I'll bring, I'll bring my version of Tiger. Before I let both of you go, I'd like to ask you both, what was your last I choose me moment? What was the last time you chose yourself? It's endless. I choose me all the time. I think more important for me is my first I choose me.

And that's when we were doing the singing and dancing. We were literally doing concerts for our albums and I hated it and I couldn't sing. And I thought we shouldn't be doing it or this one shouldn't be doing it. And my mom was like the business manager. She was kind of the, she put it together. It's like. And you didn't want to have anything to do with it. I got no musical. I should be kept as far away from a microphone as possible.

And I just kvetched a lot. And she finally said, well, if you don't want to do it, you should quit. I go, I will. So we got to write a letter to brag. I wrote two sentences. I quit. And that was the beginning of me doing things for me. Cause I didn't, this industry, you end up getting caught up and doing stuff that others make you feel you have to do. And I realized, no, no, if you're going to, you got to do what's right for you. I love that so much.

And that was it. I was at seven, 16. That's early. That's great. Good for you. So Tina, what was your last I choose me moment? My last I choose me moment was when I bought this house because so many people were like, what are you going to do with it? Why are you buying the house? And some days I did question, wait, why am I buying?

But I chose me and I bought the house. And didn't you get a response recently from somebody who saw that you were running the sweepstakes and they had something positive to say to you, some member of the family? Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes. My daughter's father died.

His mother. That's kidding. Your ex-mother-in-law? Yes, yes, yes. Sorry. She was one of the people that thought I was nuts. As mother-in-laws do. Exactly. So after she saw the Today Show, she sent me two very nice text messages that said, oh my gosh, I thought you were nuts. And now I see all the good you're doing because we've done other charity things here at the house. So she was proud of me, she said, which...

was a big deal you chose you in buying the house but really it was a choice for other people too yes how do people get in on the sweepstakes oh so you enter at the brady experience.com okay you heard it here people straight from the brady house you can come here too thank you for being you can have your own brady experience you can have your own just like it is trippy it is a trip

That was fun getting to live out one of my childhood dreams today. Oh my gosh, I want to thank Chris and Tina for being a part of it. And we'll be sure to put all of the info in our show notes for how to enter that incredible brunch they're hosting. I think I'm going to enter myself.

As we continue to choose ourselves each week, I want to encourage you this week to tap into your own childhood feel-good memories. What did you love as a kid? A certain kind of food or a song, a type of music, a specific board game? There are things from our childhoods that still bring us joy to this day as adults and sometimes as

It's fun to act like a kid. So this week, take some time to relive your own childhood memories for a little bit and see how much fun you have doing it. Thanks for listening to I Choose Me. You can check out all of our social links in our show notes. Make sure to rate and review the podcast and use the hashtag I Choose Me anytime you feel like it. I'll be right here next week. I hope you choose to be here too.