The Brady Bunch is a situation comedy created by Sherwood Schwartz, who also created Gilligan's Island. The Brady Bunch follows Mike Brady (Robert Reed), a widowed architect with sons Greg (Barry Williams), Peter (Christopher Knight) and Bobby (Mike Lookinland). Mike marries Carol Martin (née Tyler) (Florence Henderson), whose daughters from her previous marriage are Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb) and Cindy (Susan Olsen). The wife and daughters take the Brady surname, and they all move in together into Mike's home in southern California. The cast is rounded out by Mike's live-in housekeeper Alice (Ann B. Davis), and the boys' dog Tiger.

The series was produced by Paramount Television in association with Redwood Productions, and premiered on ABC on September 28, 1969. The series ran for 5 seasons, with all 117 episodes originally airing on Fridays. The series ran in the 8 p.m. time slot, with the exception of season 2, which aired at 7:30 p.m. The show also featured a number of famous television and sports stars of that era.

Throughout its original run, The Brady Bunch received mostly negative reviews, and never broke the Nielsen ratings top ten. Even with negative reviews, The Brady Bunch managed to maintain within the Nielsen top thirty. Ratings however, began to dip, and in order to boost the ratings of its much-needed younger audience, Schwartz introduced a new character: the Bradys' cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist) late in the fifth season. Schwartz's plan failed, and The Brady Bunch was canceled before the start of the 1974 fall season. However, since its original run, The Brady Bunch has seen success in syndication, having aired uninterrupted from its original run to at least the early-90's.