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A Brady Bunch Star Just Explained What Sudden Fame Felt Like Before Social Media

Barry Williams was 14 when The Brady Bunch turned him into everyone’s big brother, a job that came with bell-bottoms and the very analog version of going viral.

“We went from being who we were in our lives and then doing something that we all enjoyed doing, but was professional and focused and concentrated, and then went out into public,” the ’70s teen idol told Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan on the May 20 episode of The Magnificent Others. “And our lives were changed dramatically by that, because that’s a very profound experience to assimilate with growing up and being a teenager.”

At its peak, The Brady Bunch was pulling up to 45 million viewers a week, which is the kind of number that makes today’s streaming charts blink twice. Netflix’s No. 1 global show last week, The Roast of Kevin Hart, drew 13.5 million views. Different era, different metric—but still. Williams and the rest of the Brady clan had blockbuster reach without a single selfie, sponsored post or PR rollout.

“The large majority of the people that are like famous now or influencer people now … they’re not going to be able to sustain,” the actor told Corgan. “You’re not going to be watching these things in reruns over and over and over again.” He’s got a point. The Brady Bunch has basically never stopped rerunning since 1969. In internet years, that’s practically immortal.

And that kind of fame doesn’t really wear off, either. Williams says strangers still slide into his booth at his favorite breakfast spot and start chatting like they’ve known him forever. Which, honestly, is both sweet and a little surreal. It’s the kind of permanent, low-grade celebrity that existed long before social media figured out how to manufacture parasocial relationships by the hour.

Williams, now 71 and happily settled on a lake in Missouri, knows a thing or two about fleeting stardom. After all, this is the same guy who once played Greg Brady’s short-lived alter ego “Johnny Bravo,” a bubblegum pop star created almost entirely because a talent scout thought he looked good in a matching suit.

Cut to today, he’s the one being interviewed by an actual rocker. The best advice he had for Corgan? “Get on a ride. Stay on the ride. Love the ride. It’s the only one we get.”

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Sources:

  • The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan: “Barry Williams: From The Brady Bunch to Branson – A Hollywood Legend’s Story”
  • People: “‘The Brady Bunch’ Siblings’ ‘Lives Were Changed Dramatically’ Once People Started Recognizing Them”
  • Netflix Tudum: “The Roast of Kevin Hart Heats Up to No. 1 in This Week’s Top 10”
  • TV Insider: “Barry Williams”

The post A <i>Brady Bunch</i> Star Just Explained What Sudden Fame Felt Like Before Social Media appeared first on Reader's Digest.



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