The Brady Bunch Episode #14

Welcome to my review of The Brady Bunch Episode #14. This was one of my favorite episodes as a kid. It’s about Marcia crying a lot. It’s also about her nominating her new dad for Father of the Year. Marcia has to sneak around and climb out windows in the middle of the night to make this all work. She gets caught and gets grounded. She gets pissed off and cries a lot and doesn’t get to go skiing with the family. Boo hoo. But as in true Brady style, everything works out in the end. This episode is called “Father of the Year” and originally aired on January 2, 1970. Enjoy.

The show opens with Mike on his way out the door to give a speech. Marcia runs up whining. “Daddy! I need help!” You can say that again, sister. Marcia needs help with math and I guess Carol is too stupid. Mike tells Marcia that he needs to be at a meeting. She gives him an ugly ass pouty face and Mike decides to stay. Yeah, right.

Father of the Year

Marcia is cleaning up the newspapers in the family room when she notices an article about Father of the Year. Cut to Thindy waking up in bed late at night. She gets out of bed and wakes Jan to tell her that Marcia isn’t in bed. They decide to go looking for her. Jan and Thindy sneak into the kitchen where they find Carol and Alice ironing. They suspiciously go over and get a drink of water. When Carol asks if the faucet upstairs isn’t working, Jan tells her the water downstairs tastes groovier. Thupid Thindy says “It’s wetter”.

Jan and Cindy continue their search for Marcia and finally locate her in Mike’s den. Cindy bursts in and says “We’re not thuppothed to play in here!” Marcia wasn’t playing. She was writing a sappy Father of the Year letter. Jan and Cindy try to get the letter Marcia is writing away from her (they think it’s a love letter to Felix Brown) and hilarity ensues.

Mike walks into his office and slams the door. Uh oh. Mike sends Jan and Cindy back to bed and starts asking Marcia questions. She told Mike she was in his office without permission because it was the only place she could find privacy. Uh….what about the bathroom? Marcia starts to walk out of the office all pouty when Mike reminds her of their slogan. “A wise man forgets his anger before he lies down to sleep.” Mike then knocks over the bottle of white out Marcia was using and it goes all over the place. He’s not happy.

Sneaking Out

Mike assigns a bunch of extra chores as punishment for Marcia. She doesn’t do any of them because she’s busy working on her letter for the contest. Mike gets tougher with her and grounds her for a week. Marcia doesn’t like that and crumples up her letter and throws it away. While lying awake at night, she has a change of heart. She gets out of bed and takes the crumpled letter out of the trash and continues writing. She finishes the letter and then reads the newspaper article again. It turns out the letter has to be mailed now! Oh my gosh! Marcia climbs out the window and I guess goes to a mailbox. I don’t get that. It’s not going to get postmarked that day. The mail would have already been picked up. Maybe she went down to the Chronicle building. Whatever.

Mike and Carol are headed to bed and decide to check in on the kids before doing so. They discover Marcia is missing. She could have been going poop. Oh wait, there was no toilet. They wake Jan and ask if she knows where Marcia is. Marcia then pops her head in the window and says, “Here I am, Mommy.” Mike really punishes her this time. The whole family is going skiing over the weekend and Marcia doesn’t get to go. So there!

The Winner

Cut to a bunch of suits at the Daily Chronicle trying to decide which letter to pick for Father of the Year. They’ve narrowed it down to three people. How come Marcia’s letter isn’t all crumpled up when they show it? It’s nicely folded in thirds. She crumpled it all up before sending it. Mmm…….

Marcia sadly watches from her bedroom window as the kids teach Alice how to ski for the upcoming ski trip. Marcia looks like a sad puppy dog. The kids are having fun because Alice is such a goof. Marcia starts crying. I think she may be the ugliest person crying ever. I don’t think she’s an ugly person, but her cry face is bad.

Jan and Cindy try to cheer Marcia up. Jan tells Cindy ahead of time not to mention the ski trip. The first thing Thindy says (in her super short dress) is “Too bad you’re not going thkiing”. Marcia runs into the bathroom to cry (or poop). Jan says to Cindy “Do you know who’s got the biggest mouth in the whole wide world next to you? Nobody!” Way to tell her off!

Happy Ending

The crew from the local television station (KTRY) arrives at the Brady home. The only info they’ve given is that Mr. Brady has won an award. Hamilton Samuels from the Daily Chronicle presents Mike with his Father of the Year plaque. When it’s revealed that Marcia is the one who entered the contest, Mike starts to realize that all the acting out she did was for this. I still get goosebumps when that happens. Robert Reed looks gorgeous in this episode. Father and daughter hug. Mike declares that Marcia is now his favorite child. The end.