Brady Bunch’s Version of Suburbia

Theirs is a uniquely San Fernando Valley story. A lovely lady. A man named Brady. Three very lovely girls. Three boys of his own. And Alice, the housekeeper.

Although it lasted just five unremarkable seasons on ABC from 1969-74, “The Brady Bunch” has become a love-it-or-hate-it icon of blissful middle-class suburbia with roots deep in the Valley.

“It deals with stories that were true 100 years ago and that will be true 100 years from now,” mused series creator Sherwood Schwartz on the show’s 25th anniversary in 1994.

On television, the Bradys lived in an unnamed Southern California city. Sharp-eyed Valleyites, however, can spot numerous clues in the sitcom’s 117 episodes--from glimpses of Dixie Canyon Avenue elementary school and Valley Drug to the North Hollywood home used as the Brady residence, a 1959 split-level once owned by a descendant of the family that built portions of the East Valley in the early 20th century.

“After we used it, it became a focal point for a lot of people’s visits to California,” Schwartz said of the ranch-style home. “We didn’t want it to be too affluent, we didn’t want it to be too blue-collar. We wanted it to look like it would fit a place an architect would live.”