‘Brady Bunch’ Star Barry Williams Was ‘Looking for the Exit’ From Show When This Character Arrived

When The Brady Bunch alums Christopher Knight, Barry Williams, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen reunited for a recent panel, one audience member had a pressing question that many fans have wondered about: “What was the deal with Cousin Oliver?”
According to Olsen, the Robbie Rist character — cast in The Brady Bunch’s fifth and final season — was the “shark jump” for the 1970s sitcom, per People.
“Every time a show is starting to get a little bit lower in the ratings, they start to add in the cute kid,” Olsen said at the panel, held at The Chocolate Expo at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, earlier this month.
According to the actors, Rist arrived as many of the original stars were contemplating a life after Brady. Knight said that he and the original Brady Bunch kids “were getting a little old for the premise of the show” when producers added Oliver to the mix.
Williams added, “I was looking for the exit when we saw Oliver walking through the front door.”
Olsen agreed, saying that while Rist’s casting was a bid to keep The Brady Bunch on the air, she was done with the show. “I loved him,” she said. “I love Robbie Rist, but I didn’t want to go through puberty on TV.”
For his part, Rist reflected on the Cousin Oliver hate in a 2023 interview with Cracked.
“For the people who say I killed the show, well, Oliver killing The Brady Bunch is as ridiculous as Yoko killing the Beatles,” he said. “But the truth of it doesn’t matter to some people — it’s ‘print the legend.’ If you really think that a 9-year-old child had the capability to bring down a popular American television show, then I say, ‘Believe that and enjoy.’”

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