Ever since A Very Brady Renovation wrapped on HGTV in 2019, the question on viewers' lips has been, “What happens next to the famed Brady Bunch house?” Last week HGTV answered that question with news that the completely renovated home is going back on the market. The series featured all six original Brady kids -- Susan Olsen (Cindy), Mike Lookinland (Bobby), Eve Plumb (Jan), Christopher Knight (Peter), Maureen McCormick (Marcia) and Barry Williams (Greg) -- teaming up with stars from a number of HGTV shows to turn the actual Studio City, CA, home used in exterior shots throughout The Brady Bunch to a fully functioning replica of what was originally created on the Paramount Studios lot.
A Very Brady Renovation marked the first series to reunite all the Brady kids since 1981’s The Brady Girls Get Married, and fans lapped it up to the tune of 28 million viewers, making it one of the most successful series in the network's history. When the home originally hit the market in July of 2018, it was the first time in 50 years the then-owners had done so. Purchased in 1973 for $61K, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home was originally listed for $1.885M and drew major interest from potential buyers like Lance Bass of N’Sync fame. However, it was HGTV who would close the deal after a production meeting. “A member of our team suggested we purchase it,” revealed HGTV Senior Vice President of Development and Production Loren Ruch during the series. “It was one of those lightbulb moments and we knew we had to.” They did so for a cool $3.5M, way over the asking price.
That “lightbulb moment” turned out pretty well for the network ratings-wise, and the further $1.9M invested to turn the original 2,500-square-foot split-level home into a 4,000-square-foot two-story exact replica of the Brady home was money well spent. Everyone involved in the series worked tirelessly to meticulously outfit the house in authentic detail, sourcing vintage Formica for the kitchen countertops, and even going to the extreme of having replica floral fabric and wallpaper custom printed to cover the living room couches and bedroom walls. The results were incredible and experiencing them was something you had to do to believe it was actually real.
Beyond a competition at the series’ conclusion to spend a weekend in the house, and some organized tours by HGTV, the house has since sat under watchful security and gone largely unused. Unlike other memorable television homes of yesteryear, namely the Bewitched and The Partridge Family homes (to name just two) located on the Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, it’s doubtful the Brady Bunch house will meet their unfortunate fate. Sadly, in a recent development expansion, both of those home facades recently met a wrecking ball, reducing them to rubble. With a current $5.5M listing price, it just wouldn’t make sense to destroy another piece of beloved television history.
"Well, it's officially the end of an era," wrote Brady Renovation Design and Build Manager Dylan Eastman on his Instagram page. “In 2018 we embarked semi-secret on a one-of-a-kind renovation that had to match something that only existed in our memories. I hope the next owners treat it like we did. We were tasked to put Stage 5 inside a house that was half the size and laid out 90 degrees differently. Although it's false to say the two houses had nothing to do with each other, it is true that we didn’t inherit what you saw in the show. The work we did is beyond description. I was codesigning while we built. Figuring out the next important item. There were terabytes of screengrabs of every object by season and episode, so I could figure them out and find them in time. It was an honor to work with the Bradys themselves, some old friends, and many new friends.”
Eve Plumb responded in Eastman's comments. "It is the most amazing thing!" she concurred. "Thank you, and everyone involved."
On a high note, HGTV is planning to use a portion of the sales proceeds to help provide up to 250,000 meals for Turn Up! Fight Hunger, an initiative that helps kids living with hunger in the U.S. through No Kid Hungry. And many of the curated contents, including those customized green floral living room couches and the custom-built credenza with a 3-D printed sculpture of the famed Brady horse, will be available for sale beginning this month.
HGTV’s next pop culture-inspired series, Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge (premiering in the summer), will see a Southern California home transformed into a replica of the iconic toy house inspired by the famed Mattel fashion doll Barbie®. Given that home has no real walls, that should immensely reduce production costs.