Why did Carol Brady need Alice as a maid? She had a job? Young children? I don't know.

[debm55]

Can come up with reasons why Alice did all the cooking and cleaning. My guess is was a relative. what's yours? And what was Carol doing all this time?????? Saw a post where the house is being sold for over 5 million.

[lisa58]

1. The show needed Alice as a personality...

My mother had seven of her own children and did everything- never had an Alice

[debm55]

2. But what was Carol doing all that time??? My grandmother had 7 kids --no Alice.

[The Blue Flower]

3. Brady Bunch?

[no_hypocrisy]

4. When Carol married Mike,

she also got as a package Greg, Peter, Bobby . . . . and Alice. She was the guys' surrogate mother figure before the marriage.

More or less the same thing happened to my parents. When they bought their house in 1955, they also got the owner's medical practice and his maid, who was 88 years old. She took care of me until I was 2. I called her Baba, which is Czechoslovakian for Grandma.

[debm55]

6. Oh like a package deal.What do you think Carol was doing all that time. I would be bored.

[no_hypocrisy]

27. PTA, fundraisers, on the phone with Martha, selecting new curtains.

Stuff women did before feminism took hold.

[lisa58]

7. That's right - thank you for reminding me...

Alice was already a ‘member’ of the Brady family- good recall

[debm55]

11. Called my grandmother Baba, too.

[sanatanadharma]

5. Marsha and Greg needed full-time chaperones

Marsha and Greg needed full-time chaperones.

[debm55]

8. Why? Something is strange, very strange.

[rsdsharp]

9. They were, how shall I put this,

into each other.

[debm55]

12. 24/7???????

[rsdsharp]

14. Not even kids have that much stamina.

[debm55]

16. So what did Carol do all day?? Shop, do volunteer work, do crafts? Help me people!!

[rsdsharp]

18. Probably plotted to get her architect husband

to redo that God awful kitchen. Orange AND avocado?

[debm55]

21. I know--------

[samnsara]

10. didnt Alice come with the family..kinda like Hazel?

[debm55]

13. I very vaguely remember Hazel. Did she come with the family?

[rsdsharp]

15. She came with Missy, when she married Mr. B,

who used to live next door to Ozzie and Harriet.

[debm55]

17. Who the heck is Missy? Also. what was the dog's name? Maybe Carol took him to dog shows???

[rsdsharp]

20. Hazel was Shirley Booth, starring in her own show as the maid of the Baxters.

Don DeFore played George Baxter, Whitney Blake was his wife, Missy. Bobby Buntrock was their doughy son, Harold.

[debm55]

22. And what was Missy doing when Hazel did all the work????

[rsdsharp]

25. Making herself beautiful for George, of course.

[BlackSkimmer]

34. I loved Hazel.

I could only see that show if I stayed home from school. Same with Bewitched.

I loved those shows lol.

[MuseRider]

30. Hazel!

Wow, that was a deep dive. I had totally forgotten her show. I LOVED it as a kid but it was gone from memory. Now I remember and it makes me smile. Shirley Booth?

[debm55]

39. wasn't Hazel looking for the little dog, Sheba.? We now know the Brady's dog was Tramp. Thank you

BlackSkimmer

[MuseRider]

40. I simply do not remember

but I did love that show. I do not think I was old enough to put it all together. I do remember Mr. B. The dog I cannot remember.

[debm55]

41. I hated the steps up to the 2nd floor-they had open backs. Did Mick design the house, if so the

steps were an accident waiting to happen. Mike needed to fix them.

[Freddie]

19. Wasn't Carol a realtor?

Maybe that was in later seasons.
Probably doing volunteer work and PTA mom, what bored housewives did back then. I vaguely recall June Cleaver had a maid too.

[debm55]

24. I remember an episode where June Cleaver was running the sweeper in a dress, heels and pearls. I

don't think she had a maid.

[cyclonefence]

23. She sold her prescription drugs at the playground

It takes longer than you think to repackage Miltowns. Then the hours spent lurking and luring.

No time for cooking, cleaning or courting Sam the butcher (well, somebody had to do it; otherwise the Bradys would have starved. Teenagers are bottomless gorges when it comes to food).

[debm55]

26. What a Miltowns? Are they mother's little helper? Are YOU saying Carol or Alice was a druggy. Shame

on you. Do you remember the dog's name?

[cyclonefence]

28. Yep. I think they were speed, essentially, or maybe Valium?

[Alpeduez21]

33. Tiger

Then the dog disappeared. If memory serves I remember scenes of Carol looking through catalogs and organizing the shopping list. She did a hell of lot less than Alice that's for sure.

[debm55]

36. She could have been reading the erotic book 50 Shades of Avocado and eating bon,bons.

[BlackSkimmer]

35. Tramp. nt

[debm55]

37. Was that the dog? Didn't he ruin their wedding cake?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

29. Better question: Why did the Baileys (It's a Wonderful Life) have a maid & how did they afford her?

Pa Bailey's business was a "cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan," money was tight, and Ma Bailey only had 2 kids to raise.

[BlackSkimmer]

31. Well, it was a fictional sitcom, but the backstory is that Mr. Brady was raising three boys on his

own; he was all alone. (you can sing that)

He was a busy and well-off architect, and he hired Alice to take care of the boys.

When one day he met this pretty lady, and he knew that it was much more than a hunch...he decided to take Alice with him to help with the day they all became The Brady Bunch!

The funniest thing is that Mr. Brady and Alice were both gay in real life. Can't make this shit up.

[debm55]

38. I knew Mr.Brady was, didn't know Alice was gay.

[Beautiful Disaster]

32. Wasn't Alice Mike's maid that he brought with him?

Would make sense since he was a single father.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

42. That show used to drive my mother crazy!

And the fact that Carol Brady had a maid was one of the main reasons that she hated that show.

When she happened to see a bedroom scene with Mike and Carol (while I was watching a rerun in the 70's, after school), she said something like, "Oh, so that's what she does! She well-rested for another night of sex!"

Mom mostly just yelled at me to "turn off that garbage" whenever I watched it, especially if she happened to hear the opening song from the kitchen.

My mother was strictly a housewife at that time (later getting a job when I was a little older), but she stayed busy doing it. Our home was like an operating room, it was so clean and sanitized. And every evening was like Thanksgiving, with all of the food on our table.

Representative Tony Hall was invited inside our home during dinner, as he was campaigning for Congress by actually knocking on doors, and it looked like his eyes were about to bulge out of his head when he saw so much food! He asked if he was interrupting a special occasion for our family, but Mom and Dad said it was just dinner time. Then Mom insisted that Tony Hall sit down and eat with us, grabbing an extra plate from a cupboard. He paused and acted very tempted, but then said it was projected to be a close race and he couldn't afford to lose any time requesting votes in our neighborhood. Mom was disappointed, but hugged Tony and promised that he had my family's votes.

We were probably the most "food rich" family for miles around, but poor in other ways. I usually wore clothes bought at garage sales, for example. It's because Mom's parents were so poor during the Great Depression that she often went to bed hungry. Maybe a small potato and some milk for the whole day, many times. So food was always her priority in later years.

Anyway, she indeed despised the Carol Brady character in particular!

[debm55]

43. Your mom sounds a good mother. The opening song was a little cheesy. And with all the work your

mom did to feed your family, I can see the disliked Carol Brady.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

45. Yeah, she was.

She was kind of Puritanical, especially in regard to work, but that's not such a bad thing.

She was demanding with me, always expecting me to excel at school. But with no help, unlike other kids who I know received help from their parents on various school projects. And she drove me to apply for a paper route when I was only 7 years old. (That's when I first got my Social Security card too, with Mom thinking it might be required for the job.) I was hired, and the man who gave me the paper route acted like I must be a real go-getter to want a paper route at that early age. I felt like saying, "I'm only doing it because Mom insists on it!"

Whenever I got straight-A's in school, or performed well at anything, Mom would then be upset if I seemed proud of myself. So she was kind of impossible to please. On the other hand, it seemed to keep me motivated to keep improving. I generally had low self-esteem, but it's not like it really hurt me... except I'd be a misfit in some business atmosphere where "projecting confidence" is seemingly emphasized more than just doing the work (if any).

Edit: Perhaps the afternoon paper route was a reaction to me watching "The Brady Bunch" one too many times!

[LudwigPastorius]

44. "what was Carol doing all this time??????"

With six kids?

Probably drinking heavily.

[GenThePerservering]

46. When I was a kid girls would get jobs as

'mother's helpers' - i.e., work 8 hours a day for 50 cents an hour doing the drudge work around the house. What a racket.