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Robert Reed wasn't afraid to speak up about his Brady Bunch criticisms
Reed had a few opinions about the writing on The Brady Bunch.
Robert Reed, as Mike Brady, was the iconic father of six during his time on The Brady Bunch. His character quickly became one of America's favorite TV dads. Mike Brady was able to instill many life lessons in not only the Brady kids but also the kids watching The Brady Bunch at home.
Although Reed was on The Brady Bunch for a total of five seasons, he wasn't always happy with the final product.
According to a 1972 interview with Courier-Post, Reed had a lot to say about his series, primarily discussing how he wished certain aspects of the series could change.
"The ineptitude of the scripts can be overpowering," Reed said. "You get a script that's ludicrous. Sometimes the pages don't even match. It could be a good show, but we're operating at 30 percent capacity, I think."
Although Reed said the writing and writing process had gotten better from season to season, he still wasn't happy with how it was going. But he also wasn't afraid to speak his mind about it either.
"They want ratings and money... Their attitude is not caviler," Reed said. "They think it's good. The others are not going to raise a fuss. I'm called a bad boy because I want to improve it."
According to the interview, Reed wanted The Brady Bunch to be renewed for a new season but was unsure if he could commit himself to another season. He had love for all of his Brady co-stars, and stated: "The role, apart from the ninny writers, is terrific."
"These are the finest kid actors I've ever worked with," Reed said. "There's never an argument or friction. The fact that they're good and pros is exciting to me. And Florence and Ann are the nicest people you can be with."
It's good to know that the Brady family off-screen was a lot like the Brady family on-screen, too. The series' primary audience was young adults and kids, but Reed thought the appeal to the youth wasn't intentional by the writers.
"When they offered me this part, I asked them if the show was going to be Gilligan's Island with kids," Reed said. "They said 'Oh, no' it would be full of portent and meaning... They toss it all together like anagrams. There isn't the meticulous care that there was in Father Knows Best."
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However, your inclusion of the BB as a "silly" show is shortsighted and mistaken. The other four you mention (along with My Mother, The Car...The Munsters...and The Addams Family) were all products of the mid-60s "fantasy"/high-concept era, and though I wouldn't consider them all "silly", they were absolutely of a very specific "mini-genre" in sitcoms. By the time the BB premieres in 1969...that era was long gone. For better or worse, the BB was little more than a basic family sitcom, albeit one with a family we had never seen before. "A man with three boys of his own marries a woman with three daughters..." Not EXACTLY high-concept...but a bit higher than normal.
Oh, and The Love Boat doesn't belong on that list at all. It was 10-15 years later...was NOT a sitcom, and, arguably dealt with many, many, very serious issues, including rape, child abuse, immigration, mastectomies, criminal behavior, unwanted children and adoption, kidnapping, drug and alcohol abuse, anorexia, numerous life-threatening diseases...and LOTS of adultery.
But yeah, it could be pretty silly too!
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But your point is one that we've all pondered for years. If he was so unhappy with Schwartz, his experience on the BB, and the (lack of) quality of the show...then why did he keep coming back over and over....and over...?
The answer for the BBVH is fairly simple; Sherwood Schwartz had nothing to do with it. So, to Reed, it offered him an opportunity to reunite with his beloved TV family (sans Eve) without having to deal with his prickly former EP. He was also quoted as saying he loved to sing and dance, though he considered himself accomplished at neither.
As for the other three (Reed/Mike doesn't appear in The Brady Brides) "reboots" - all of which had Schwartz as EP...you're guess is as good as mine. Again, his desire to work with his TV family must have outweighed his resentment of Schwartz and their previous encounters. And don't forget about the $$. We all love Reed...but after his heyday of the early mid-70s with some respected TV work (Roots, etc.) and Nurse in the 80s, nobody was really knocking down ol' Bob Reed's door to star in anything anymore. (He did a LOT of guest spots...he was essentially a "working" actor.) The prospect of that steady paycheck for The Bradys probably cannot be overstated...