The Real Reason Why Florence Henderson Almost Didn’t Become Carol Brady
When The Brady Bunch premiered on September 26, 1969, Florence Henderson stepped into living rooms across America and made Carol Brady one of the most beloved TV moms of all time. It is hard to imagine anyone else in that role — yet Henderson nearly skipped the audition for the role entirely, and had a conflict that nearly removed her from filming the first season.
Before The Brady Bunch, Henderson was already an accomplished stage actress who had starred on Broadway in productions like Fanny and South Pacific, and was raising her own family of four. She lived in New York and felt content with her busy career there — so when her agent called with word of a new sitcom filming in Los Angeles, her response was simple. “I don’t want to do a series. I live in New York,” she later told the Archive of American Television.
Her agents eventually persuaded her to meet with producer Sherwood Schwartz and director John Rich while she happened to be in California. Henderson admitted she had no idea who they were at the time. She did a quick screen test on the Star Trek set, then flew straight to Houston for a singing engagement. Before she could even unpack, she learned she had been offered the part of Carol Brady. She convinced the Houston venue to release her from her contract, promising to return if the show became a success.
Everett Collection
Even after signing on to the show, Henderson’s schedule continued to create obstacles. She had already signed on to star in the film musical Song of Norway, which was supposed to wrap before The Brady Bunch began production. Delays stretched the shoot into months, leaving Schwartz with a tough choice. Instead of replacing Henderson, he filmed around her absence during the first several episodes, trusting that she was the right fit for the part. “It was really a chaotic time. They were screaming for me to leave the movie,” Henderson recalled. “I had to fly back and go right to L.A.”
Once Henderson caught up with the production schedule, she quickly proved him right. She brought her experience as a mother into the role, insisting that Carol feel real to audiences. She refused to be written as a background figure in an apron and pushed for moments that made Carol relatable to young mothers at home. She also added touches of glamour, arguing that Carol should wear stylish nightgowns since she and Mike Brady were one of the first married couples shown sharing a bed on television.
In time, Henderson became the steady heart of the show. She bonded with her six young costars and often had them over to her home, while her own children spent time on set. “In a way, I became sort of the stability of the show,” she said. Looking back, it is remarkable how close Henderson came to walking away from the audition and how easily another actress could have been cast in the role. Instead, she embraced it and carried Carol Brady through five seasons, countless reunions and even The Brady Bunch Movie. As Henderson herself once put it, “The rest is TV history.”
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May 2022
Celebrate top TV moms from the ’50 to the ’90s including 8 things you didn’t know about Donna Reed plus weird and wacky TV moms.
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