A Brady Bunch Secret

You probably aren't going to believe this, but I have come across something that could rock the world of fans of classic 70's TV. 

I cannot say where I found this on the internet nor who told me about it. But the picture below is quite alarming. 

Let me explain what it is. Of course it's a still shot from the classic sit-com The Brady Bunch. But you may have never seen this shot before. 

This is from an episode that was partially filmed (17 out of 22 minutes) but never aired. The title of the episode was "Toil In Trouble." 

The story for this show involved the two older Brady girls becoming fed up with their three brothers teasing and picking on them. 

They confide in a teacher who tells them they can find the answer to changing their brothers' behavior in a book in the library. 

Following their teacher's recommendation Jan & Marcia check out "Witch Hazel's Darkest Secrets." It's a book of really corny magic spells that are supposed to change people's behavior. 

From there the episode takes a "Harry Potter" type turn. Using magic wands, some elixirs and herbs they got from the local natural food store, and a miniature  black cauldron, they perform an incantation ceremony to cast a spell on Greg, Peter, and Bobby. 

But the ceremony goes bad when Marcia puts into action something she read in the spell book but Jan did not. 

In order to get the captain of the football team and cutest boy in school, Terry Johnson, to fall madly in love with her, Marcia must make an extreme sacrifice. 

Terry's attention and the popularity that comes with are things the vain teenager wants more than anything. 

So Marcia in order to get the blood shed demanded in the extreme spell, begins to quarrel with her sister. She then surprises Jan by stabbing her in the chest with a sharpened tip of her magic wand during the subsequent physical attack. This is the scene you see in the picture above. You can see Marcia smiling as her sister screams in terror at what's happening.  

The scene was shot on a closed set, on a day when the rest of the cast except for Eve Plum and Maureen McCormick had the day off. The production crew was sworn to secrecy.

Once this scene was filmed and producer and writer of the script, Sherwood Schwartz, saw it during the viewing of the "dailys" he was not happy. The episode was supposed to be a light satirical treatment appropriate to be aired as a Halloween show. 

The director suggested to Schwartz that they add an extra scene to the show to make it look like the ceremony sequence was part of a dream. The producer wanted nothing to do with the scene in any context. 

Production on the episode stopped immediately and the film locked away in Schwartz's personal archives. 

With his death almost 3 years ago Schwartz's  archives, including the film of the unfinished episode, were sold as part of his estate to cover taxes and debt. Many prospective buyers observed the archives prior to a public auction. That's how the still shot of this unseen episode eventually came to be. 

Since there is no copy of the script known to exist there is no telling how the episode was supposed to conclude in the usual light-hearted manner and the accompanying corny punchline as usual. 

But the rumor that has surfaced is that the producers of the show were not happy with Eve Plumb and her character. There was a good chance she would have been let go at the end of that season. This episode may have been a way to make Jan "disappear." 

But, of course, she was not let go and stayed with the show until it's cancellation. There are hints as to what the reason for this was. It seems that the potential backlash from making public the blatant mistreatment of and disregard for the young actress and her mental well being in the production of "Toil In Trouble" could have caused lots of problems for the show and the ABC network. 

As a means of making the "unhappiness" coming from the scene go away; Plumb was allowed to stay a Brady. But there is no "official confirmation" that is what happened. 

So there you have it. A dark secret that's hard to accept about one of the most beloved sit-coms of all time. 

After all this time and now it comes out. All I can say is that I'm glad Ann B. Davis never found out about this.