Here’s the story…of two young ladies…who liked to hang out with our favorite clan…Even though they really were…never Bradys…I’ll get them when I can. Yes my love of all things Bradys has extended from the kids in the original series, to the fake actresses who replaced some of the girls, to the spin-off series, to the re-tooled films, and now to the supporting cast. To have starred in an episode of The Brady Bunch makes you a desirable commodity in my estimation.
Upon entering the Hollywood Show on August 4, 2012, I had no idea I’d be coming out with two such encounters under my belt. Oddly it wasn’t long before the announcement that Debi Storm would be appearing at the show, I had just been browsing the internet looking for information on her. She had portrayed Molly Weber in the 1972 episode My Fair Opponent. She was the homely classmate that Marcia helped make over into a beautiful swan, who then rose up and challenged Marcia to be the hostess for a senior banquet.
I had found online where she had made a public appearance at some show, and I longed to have my own opportunity to meet her. Then miraculously I saw that she had been scheduled for the Hollywood Show – but for Sunday only. So I was quite surprised to see her there on the day that I attended on a Saturday.
I expressed this excitement to her and purchased one of her photos, which unfortunately was a collage of four photos instead of just one big one. But the beggar wasn’t a chooser in this case and I was happy to just have met her.
Then as I wandered over to the section of the show where three of Paul McCartney’s former bandmates in Wings had set up shop, I noticed a Brady Bunch photo on the table of drummer Laurence Juber. I instantly recognized the girl in it with Greg, as his date Rachel from the episode Greg Gets Grounded, although her name – Hope Juber, wife of Laurence – didn’t ring a bell. But of course, without question, I purchased this signed photo as well.
It was only I left that it all came together in my head. Hope Juber was actually Hope Schwartz (and billed in Brady appearances as Hope Sherwood). She was of course the daughter of series creator Sherwood Schwartz. I regretted not knowing this, as there were so many questions I could have asked her about her dad, and even her brother Lloyd.
But obviously I was more enchanted than annoyed by this ‘surprise’. How cool to have been in the family of the creator of The Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island, and then to marry one of Paul McCartney’s Wings bandmates (as seen below). And lest you think that she didn’t do much on her own, she appeared in three episodes of The Brady Bunch, one episode of The Bradys, and co-wrote The Brady Bunch in the White House with her father and brother.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to meet all of the surviving members of the main cast (that darn Jan and Marcia, Marcia, Marcia), but somehow meeting some of the other co-stars has been, and hopefully will continue to be, just as fun.
Celebrities of the Summer 2012 Hollywood Show will continue…
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