A very “Brady Bunch” indeed…
Eve Plumb revealed she once went on a failed date with her on-screen “Brady Bunch” brother Christopher Knight.
After the sitcom ended, Plumb, who played middle sister Jan Brady, and Knight, who played middle brother Peter Brady, tried to go on a date, but it turned into an amorous bungle.
“It was sweet,” the actress, 67, told Page Six in a recent exclusive interview. “It was fun, but we were really already by that time just too good of friends to make that transition into being romantic partners.”
In her upcoming memoir, “Happiness Included: Jan Brady and Beyond,” the actress writes that “any attempts at making out that evening ended with laughter and resignation that we’d always be sister and brother, even in real life.”
And that “sibling” bond continues.
“We’ve stayed friends to this day,” she shared.
So much so that Plumb and her husband have a monthly Zoom call with Knight and his wife.
“We’re due for one now,” Plumb noted, explaining that it started during the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued.
Plumb was already a seasoned child actress when she won the role of Jan in the sitcom, which ran from 1969 to 1974 and spawned a spate of TV spinoffs, specials and two movies.
Jan’s “middle-child” issues, like feeling overshadowed by older sister Marcia (played by Maureen McCormick), which prompted the now-famous whiny, petulant catchphrase, “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” made her character maybe the most memorable of the six siblings.
Plumb did not appear in the short-lived spinoff series “The Brady Bunch Hour,” which ran for only nine episodes. Geri Reischl filled in for Jan, leading many fans to believe Plumb disliked being associated with the sitcom — something she said is not true.
“At the time, I was shooting [the TV movie] ‘Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway,’ and decided that I would continue to try other avenues,” she revealed.
Although, she did take part in the short-lived sitcom, “The Brady Brides,” which saw Jan and Marcia sharing a house, both as newlyweds.
Plumb acknowledged that, as a child actress, she was lucky to have a stable home life and parents who encouraged her and meticulously looked after her earnings.
She said she earned “enough” from the sitcom, “but it wasn’t ever a lot of money, and so it was invested, and I didn’t have to get a day job, which was fortunate.”
Plumb has continued working and also has another career as an accomplished painter, which has spawned a lifestyle brand.
The “Brady Brides” alum said she likes painting because “it’s something that I have complete control over about when I do it, what I’m doing, how I do it, and it’s fun!”
