newsday "fast chat": barry williams

Is there anyone groovierthan Barry Williams? Theerstwhile Greg Brady ofthat TV touchstone TheBrady Bunch and spinoffs,he went on to a career inmusical theater and stillturns up occasionally in suchtelefilms as Syfys MegaPiranha (2010) andBigfoot (2012). For a time,he hosted The Real GregBradys Totally 70s PopQuiz on Sirius SatelliteRadio. And now a realityshow, A Very BarryBranson, premieringThursday at 9 p.m. on GreatAmerican Country,chronicles his attempts tomake a success of hisBranson, Missouri, revue,70s Music Celebration!Born Barry William

Blenkhorn in Santa Monica,California, and raised innearby Pacific Palisades, hebegan acting at 11 in seriesincluding Dragnet, ThatGirl and Mission:Impossible (starring hisfamilys neighbor, PeterGraves) before Bunch.From 1990 to 1992, he

was married to former MissArizona Diane Martin, andfrom 1999 to 2005, toinvestment banker EilaMary Matt, with whom hehad son Brandon, 12.Williams, 60, also has adaughter, Samantha Rose,2, with girlfriendElizabeth Kennedy. Hespoke with frequentNewsday contributorFrank Lovece.

70sMusic Celebra-tion! began in 2013. Butyou moved to Bransonin 2011 to do LunchWith the BradyBunch.What wasthat?It was basically a

one-man show with alive band, multimediaand me doing covers ofvarious genres of musicand telling my story andhow I came to be there. Itwas a daytime show and ameal was served it wasincorporated into the per-formance and I would tellstories about Brady thingsand the like.

So was it a 70s lunch with,like, fondue?(Laughs.) No. I dont recall

what it was, but it wasnt a70s theme.

How long did the show run?A partial season, and

then I moved into a differ-ent show, A BradyBrunch. Everyone wastelling me, Brady. And Iwas like, Really? I dontsee that. Oh, yeah, its gotto be Brady because itsBranson and its fami-ly, and this is howeverybodyknows you. Sowith my part-ner at thattime, [comedi-an] YakovSmirnoff, wedevised thisthing in whichwed re-createthe character

roles Bobby, Marsha,Jan, Cindy, Peter hiredancers and singers, young-sters, and do a musical-vari-ety show. That lasted oneseason a full season isMarch through December.Then Yakov and I had a

parting of the ways, so I wasno longer encumbered withthis Brady thing and wasable to create a show Imreally comfortable and athome with and that I reallylike. Plus, the Brady showwasnt really succeeding in

terms of numbers not by a long shot.

Thats amazing tome, because theshow is such acultural touchstone.You would think

and I did think.But Ive also come tounderstand that peo-

ple who grew up

with the show in its originalform, when they try to makethe mental transition fromtelevision to stage, theyrethinking of something like akiddie show, rather than afull-blown musical experi-ence, which is what the showwas. So they didnt come. Wehad to cancel showssometimes for lack ofaudience.So I thought, OK, thats

fine. If thats not the rightdirection, then at least I wantto be doing what my passionis. Seventies music is what Igrew up with, what I love,and I could hire top-notchsingers and dancers andcreate a variety show. Andthen make thatmultimedia.

Hows the revue going?Well . . . lets just say this:

Im still spending moremoney on the show and itsmarketing than I am making.

Wow.Well . . . Im sure thereality show will help. I seeyour old Brady co-starMaureenMcCormick is aguest in one episode. Do youstay in touch with her andthe rest of the cast?All of them. We have

ongoing [fan] conventionand appearance opportuni-ties that bring ChristopherKnight, Michael Lookinland,Susan Olsen and metogether, so Ive seen them acouple, three times in thepast 12 months. Maureencame here [to Branson]. Iveinvited Florence[Henderson] to come andshe wants to do it,probably next fall. AndEve Plumb is in NewYork City [whichWilliams visits severaltimes each year to seehis son]. Shes on theUpper West Side.

Your show debuted 45years ago, and it andall its characters andsituations are still aswell known and recogniz-able as those of, I dunno,Star Trek. Do you everfeel like William Shatner?Well . . . a younger,

more handsome version!(Laughs.)

fastchat { BarryWilliams }

One of TVsvanishingtraditions is thelaunching of aseries at the conclusionof the Super Bowl.Nowadays, networks tryto keep all those eye-balls that had beenglued to the Big Gameby throwing up an epi-sode of one of its mostpopular series (like NBCairing The Blacklistafter Sundays contest).It may be too risky tolure viewers with abrand-new show, butthe strategy has provedsuccessful in the past as recently as five yearsago.

THE A-TEAM (Jan. 30,1983, following SuperBowl XVII) Thecartoonish action drama,which would make Mr. Ta pop-culturephenomenon, attracted21.9 million viewers.THEWONDER YEARS(Jan. 31, 1988, followingSuper Bowl XXII) TheFred Savage series isbeloved by baby boomers(28.97 million).HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THESTREET (Jan. 31, 1993,following Super BowlXXVII) The gritty,Baltimore-set cop dramapaved the way for TheWire (28.12 million).UNDERCOVER BOSS(Feb. 7, 2010, followingSuper Bowl XLIV) Thereality show is still on theair (38.65 million).

ANDY EDELSTEIN

Big gameas a lead-into big TV

GETTY IMAGES / ROBIN MARCHANT

TheWonder Years gotits start after the 1988Super Bowl.

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