What 'Brady Bunch' Star Barry Williams Has to Say to 'DWTS' Judges After Low Scores
Barry Williams
Barry Williams’ fans took to social media last week to complain after The Brady Bunch star and his professional partner Peta Murgatroyd only received 15 points out of 30—including a lowly 5 from Carrie Ann Inaba —for their cha cha to "Oye Como Va" by Tito Puente—one less than their score of 16 on premiere week of Dancing with the Stars. But Barry isn’t going to say anything that is going to offend the judges. It’s the last thing he wants to do.
“It is what it is, and they had their reasons for feeling that way,” he exclusively tells Parade. “Maybe they wanted to encourage me to work even harder. I don’t know. I did feel that I was scored pretty low, but then again, I’m probably the least objective person.”
Despite lower scores than he had hoped for—and it was his birthday so he had hoped for a nice birthday present of high scores—he and Peta did achieve their goal: They are back for week three.
“The goal that Peta and I had was to move onto next week, and we have,” he continues. “You go out, you give it everything you’ve got. I will say this about last week, I think that my performance technique was stronger in the dress rehearsal than it was in the final performance. But you can’t hang onto it, stuff happens. If you make it to the next week that is one-and-done, and you need to put 100 percent attention on what’s coming up and what’s to be done. That’s the only way you can survive all of this.”
Speaking of his birthday, Barry is the oldest competitor in the competition this season, having turned 69 on Sept. 30, but he says he’s not going to play the age card here. To compensate for having a few more years than his competitors, he plans to work a little harder.
“I do a full gym warm-up and rehearsal by myself before I go into rehearsal,” he says. “That’s part of it. It is staying warm, staying stretched. I’ve always been athletic, and the gym’s always been important, but I’ve ramped it up for this kind of demand because the workload is seven days a week. It’s four to five hours a day on your feet in practice. The only way to avoid injury is by doing everything you’re supposed to do to take care of yourself. That’s getting plenty of rest and giving your body a chance to recover and making sure that you’re ready to dance when it’s time to dance.”
Also, during our conversation, we talked to Barry about why it took him 17 years to join DWTS and how it was Florence Henderson who encouraged him to do so, and who he sees as his biggest competition.
You’ve been trying to get on Dancing with the Stars for quite a while now. Why did you want to do it so badly?
Well, this is a wonderful party and community and family. It’s a very exciting show to do. You learn a new skill. It has a lot of challenges and demands, so you’re really tested. I love to be outside my comfort zone and learning a new skill. It’s a fun challenge to meet. There are a number of reasons that it probably didn’t happen any sooner. Sometimes there were casting issues, or they might have wanted me but I was not available as I was touring and on the road. I moved to Branson. I’ve been doing my live musical variety show in Branson where I live now, called ‘70s Music Celebration. Those 140 shows a year left me without a lot of options for outside activities.
Now it comes at a very good time when I can completely focus on it. I cleared the schedule for three months in the hopes and anticipation that I’ll still be there right there at the end. I’m going for it.
ABC/Eric McCandless
You have a good shot at it. The Brady fans are very supportive.
They have been. That’s another thing. There’s a huge outpouring of support. This is a show that people can relate to, identify with, and actually rally around someone that they care about, or know, or are fans of. So, they can be an active participant.
This year the voting is very, very significant, very important, because they don’t have the Judges Save anymore. So, the voting is taking on another kind of priority. Doing the show is something you can relate to and rally around as it's different every week. Different characters to play, different costumes and different challenges to meet. I can’t imagine anybody wouldn’t want to do it.
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You’re the third Brady Buncher. I know Florence Henderson has passed, but did you ever discuss the show with her before she died? Or did Maureen McCormick give you any advice?
I was on it with Florence. They do what they call a package every week where they go into the rehearsal room and film the rehearsals, how it’s going and what have you. I was invited to come in for that, so I sat in through part of her rehearsal. I pretended to be jealous of her dance partner and tried to show her some real moves, not just all this ballroom dance stuff, but some Brady moves. So, we had a lot of fun with it and then I came and saw the show.
It was Florence who really encouraged me to become a part of the Dancing with the Stars family. Knowing my theatrical experience in musicals, etc., she thought I could do well. And she talked about her experience very highly. So, that has been an inspiration for me. Her spirit is with me every week.
Your wife Tina Mahina is a hula dancer. Does she help you with your moves at home?
She is a hula dancer. She doesn’t really help me with my moves, but she’s sure shown me a few. She has moves that I will never have.
Peta’s a great choreographer. How does she make you look good?
Well, it’s a collaboration. She has a lot of tools in her bag and so she’s looking to see what naturally comes for me. I show her things that I’ve done in the past, even though they’re not ballroom. And then sometimes she can improvise those things. Mostly she will offer choreography pieces, several bars and see how that looks. She can extract from that and then we’ll find something that seems to work pretty well and then we’ll start working to perfect it.
ABC/Andrew Eccles
What’s the most surprising part about being on Dancing with the Stars?
I expected this thing to be a cool, fun experience and it’s twice that. It is probably the most exciting thing I’ve been a part of on a television show. I’ve done lots of different things in my career, but this really stands at the top. It’s demanding, it’s challenging, it’s rewarding. And it’s a family atmosphere and it’s great to be a part of.
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Now that you’ve seen all the competition who do you see as your biggest competitor?
Well, I think in the men it would probably be Jason Mraz, I think moves very well. And with the women, boy, there are a few that I think are really, really dancing up a storm. I think Lele Pons is very strong. And I think Charity Lawson is strong. There are a lot of strong women.
Right, and Xochitl was pretty good this week, too.
Yes, and Xochitl, too. And Xochitl’s like 18. That’s why I say I can’t really throw the age card. We compete against who we compete against. I will say that due to a couple of changes in the rules that the fan base and support and the voting is very important. There’s the dancing, there’s the selling the song, there’s who wants it the most, which is me. And then there’s the fan base. People want to see people win, and that is a really important part.
I hope that the same support that I’ve been getting from people who have been watching The Brady Bunch for multiple generations now, in fact the 54th anniversary of the first airing of The Brady Bunch was our opening night, the premiere night of this season, September 26th. So, I want everyone who’s ever seen The Brady Bunch and watches Dancing with the Stars to vote for me, so I can take home the Len Goodman Mirrorball trophy.
Isn’t it nice that they named it after him? That’s such a nice tribute.
Do you know they have a star on the stage for Florence as being one of the first people to pass away that was on Dancing with the Stars?
I had no idea.
And there’s going to be another special honor for Len Goodman, as well.
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It’s really nice when they do honor the people, because they were such a big part of the show.
Huge, huge. Here’s something else for you. I don’t know what the exact percentage is, but based on the people that I know in production and that I touch and am around, I would say the majority—and I don’t even know how many people there are, more than 500 people put this show on— the majority of them have been with the show 10 years and longer, many from the very beginning.
That says something, doesn’t it?
Well, and it explains a lot, too. First, there’s a great core of people that know and like and count on each other. They’ve raised families over these last 20 years. And they get along. But they work together to create a very, very well-oiled machine. That’s what brings that quality of a project together. It’s great to be a part of that.
Dancing with the Stars simulcasts live across both ABC and Disney+ on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT and next day on Hulu.
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