Actress Eve Plumb recalls her time on ‘Brady Bunch,’ auctions off items from show

Eve Plumb, who played Jan Brady on “The Brady Bunch” and is auctioning off show memorabilia through Julien's Auctions, talks about her memories from the TV classic, how the phrase “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” was actually made famous by “Saturday Night Live,” and how fans thank her for being the “relatable” Brady.

Video Transcript

LYNDSEY PARKER: With the-- with this auction happening of all these artifacts, mostly from "The Brady Bunch," but some other things from your life, we should talk, obviously, about "Her Sister's Shadow" because when the term "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" became something that, like I said, is in the script up for auction, it became a catchphrase.

- Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

EVE PLUMB: That line actually wasn't famous when we did the show or after the show. It wasn't famous until it was in a parody sketch on "Saturday Night Live." So it wasn't because of that line that that got popular. It was only because it was in "Saturday Night Live" that it got popular.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Really?

EVE PLUMB: Yeah.

LYNDSEY PARKER: This is blowing my mind, Eve, because I just kind of feel like that was always, like, the catchphrase.

EVE PLUMB: Nope.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Were you cool with just this ongoing narrative that you were the, by comparison, the relatively awkward child?

EVE PLUMB: I don't think it was during-- at the time. It wasn't-- it wasn't-- I didn't feel that way. I didn't notice it. It wasn't part of it. You have to remember, "Brady Bunch" was really not popular or considered interesting at the time. So it's only after the fact that all of these themes and digging into it and discussing and figuring it out, all of that's happened. Before that, it was just the TV show, and we did it. And it either made good ratings, or it didn't.

It was not considered relevant. It was considered sacchrin. And there were things-- the concurrent shows were like "Mod Squad" and other hard-hitting TV shows. So we were just sort of filler. We were seen as filler. And I-- and I met very few adults who would admit watching it or would say-- the phrase I would hear a lot when I would tell them what I was doing was, "I don't watch television."

The thing that people talked about most or that was the biggest deal at that time was that the parents shared a bed. Because until then, parents had always had to have twin beds. So, yeah, it was-- that was the premise of the show was not shocking, but interesting and different, in my mind anyway. But there-- we're coming on the heels of a lot of '60s movies where, I mean, the standards hadn't changed yet. So a lot of that Doris Day/Rock Hudson stuff had to be very vanilla and safe. So a lot of things hadn't really opened up yet. So it was considered very safe. And I think that was our lane, and we stayed in it.

LYNDSEY PARKER: I was looking at some of the things that are available in this auction. And one of them is a "Los Angeles Times" article of the new shows that were coming out in 1969. And it basically said-- it panned "The Brady Bunch." It said it was like the worst show or one of them. And why'd you save that? Did it bother you what you saw there? Or did you save it so you could show them that they were wrong?

EVE PLUMB: It's like seeing-- there was a guy many years ago that was saying, you know, well, everything that could be invented has been invented. We can just stop worrying about that now. I think it's hilarious when a pronouncement has proved wrong.

LYNDSEY PARKER: That's a good point. It's a good point. Have you gotten-- the stuff I was just telling you, have you gotten a lot of feedback from either girls back then or women now or even girls who are watching the reruns now who have expressed to you the fact that they like how realistic-- or do you have any stories about fans saying, thank you, Jan, or thank you, Eve, for being the relatable Brady?

EVE PLUMB: Yes. Yes, I do have-- I do have people thanking me for it. And that's great. And this is what's great is the fans are always very, very nice, our "Brady" fans. And it's great to have been able to be part of their lives.