Before becoming involved with A Very Brady Christmas, I had had
some minor success with various story ideas. I had even helped with the
movie Nightmare On Elm Street - Part 3 : The Dream Warriors, but all
that would not prepare me for what was to come.
During the fall of 1987, at the Presbyterian Center at Georgia
Tech, I first began the story idea of what later became A Very Brady
Christmas. Even I did not know how successful it would be. At the
time, I was just a Freshman. Many faternities had turned me down, a
girl I finally got enough courage to ask out also turned me down, and I
was in danger of being dropped from Georgia Tech due to poor grades.
The Presbyterian Center was one of the few places offered comfort for
me.
There I told the people around me of my desire for simpler times
and how I could use an old fashioned miracle. One of them, a graduate
student named Suzanne, was a fairly tallented writer. After telling her
about my previous Hollywood experiences, we teamed up and created a few
skits together.
Not seen by anybody, I could play anything I wanted from Cindy
Brady to Freddy Kruger. (We both liked the Brady Bunch.) Somehow the
Brady Bunch episode "The Voice of Christmas" came to our attention. I
don't remember if I saw it, read about it in a Brady Bunch book, or if
someone mentioned it while I was impersonating Cindy. (An interesting
note, Barry William visited a college in Georgia in the fall of 1987 and
I remember some of the other students talking about it.) Whatever the
case, I remembered my idea about a miracle and decided to help make a
Brady Bunch Christmas Reunion.
The title came from a Charlie Brown Christmas (or A Charlie Brown
Thanksgiving). Charlie Brown has one theme, always loosing yet somehow
surviving, the Bradys have another, togetherness.
The two of us and a male about Suzanne's age started planning A
Very Brady Christmas. The Christmas Miracle where everyone sings "Oh,
Come All Ye Faithful" was planned first. Then we added a subplot
involving each of the Bradys that would somehow be "miraculously solved"
at Christmas. Some of the subplots were based on real events. For
example, Bobby's decision not to go to graduate school was similar to
the situation I was in when I dropped out of Georgia Tech. Another
example is when Peter wants to marry his boss but is too worried about
his self-image.
If I helped with the story idea why am not famous? I did not
actually write the script, only helped with the story idea. (Besides,
with a few rare exceptions, writers are not that famous anyway.) Most
of what I did involved role playing various scenes to make sure they ran
smoothly. My actually involvement lasted about a week. The finished
product was considerably longer that what we did. Other parts were
changed or omitted. However some of the inside jokes remain intact.