The Brady Bunch Episode #15

Hello! Thank you for being here to read my thoughts on The Brady Bunch Episode #15 which is called “54-40 and Fight”. This show originally aired on January 9, 1970. I wish I could go back to the 70’s. Those were good times.

The show opens with Greg, Marcia, Peter, and Jan at the kitchen table pigging out. Alice walks in through her special door with groceries. The kids start digging through the bags looking for cookies and chewing tobacco and canned air to huff. Marcia finds the trading stamps and claims they’ve been saving them since they were little kids. Greg says the boys have been saving them too. Uh oh. Alice whips out her stash of trading stamps (a whole drawer full) and the kids get very excited. The boys want a row boat and the girls want a sewing machine.

The DVD I’m watching cuts to a scene where Alice is washing Tiger. That scene is from a different episode. It’s from the one where Jan is allergic to Tiger’s new flea powder. (Episode #5 called Katchoo.) Mmmm…..I wonder why they put that scene in this episode. Odd. Maybe they cut something else out and needed a filler.

Lick It

They show all the kids licking stamps. That’s so gross. Do they know how much mouse poo and other stuff is on that adhesive? Why wouldn’t they use a sponge? I guess people licked anything back in the 70’s.

The kids decide to combine their trading stamps and get something groovy for the whole family. The girls have 40 books and the boys have 54 books (hence the title of this episode). Cindy says “that maketh theventy eight bookth”. Smart. Stay in school, Cindy.

The kids can’t decide on anything so they want their parents to decide for them. Carol thinks they should get a grandfather clock. Are you stupid? What kid wants that? Mike thinks they should get a pool table. I think that’s a great idea, but Carol says the girls don’t know how to play. So? Why can’t they learn? Stupid. BTW, they do end up getting a pool table in the final season.

Tragedy strikes the next morning when Alice reads an article in the paper about Checker Trading Stamps going out of business. They only have 30 days to cash in their stamps. Oh no!

Winner Takes All

Since nobody can decide what to get, Greg and Marcia come up with the idea for a contest where winner takes all. They come up with contests involving weight lifting, swimming, hopscotch, running, ping pong, and other dumb things. Alice finally suggests building a house of cards. Alice to the rescue once again.

They start building their house of cards and Thindy says she should go first. When Bobby asks why she should go first, she says “Because I’m a lady”. When Bobby tells her she’s full of crap, she says “I AM a lady. If you say I’m not, I’ll bop you”.

The house of cards quickly grows as the kids get more and more tense. Marcia is wearing this stupid charm bracelet that keeps getting in the way and almost knocking the cards over. Uh…..why not take it off? As they start their tenth floor of the house of cards, they show Marcia having lots of trouble because of the bracelet. I don’t understand why she didn’t take it off. Oh, yeah, I guess the writers needed suspense. It’s Greg’s turn now. Just as he’s putting his card on the tenth floor, Tiger runs in and jumps on him. He falls into the cards and everything topples over. Haha.

The Prize

Carol drives the girls to the store to get their sewing machine. The store is closed but they see a man sweeping the floor. Carol says “Perhaps he’ll take care of us” and they start pounding on the door. Did stuff like that really happen in the 70’s? The store is closed. Go away and come back the next day. The guy lets them in because Cindy puts on her sad face and she’s so darned cute. The store has two different sewing machines and the women can’t decide which one to get, so they end up getting a color TV instead. That way the whole family can enjoy it. That’s great and all, but why couldn’t they figure that out to begin with? Was the color TV not listed in the catalog they went through? I guess the whole story wouldn’t have worked if they had agreed on something in the beginning of the episode. Okay. Whatever. The end.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my stroll down memory lane with The Brady Bunch Episode #15. I hope you’ll come see me again! Click here to check out my other Brady Bunch reviews.