Bobby Brady

Template:Infobox character

Robert Eric "Bobby" Brady (born ca. 1960-1961) is the youngest boy (and second youngest child) of the Brady Family who appears on The Brady Bunch TV series. The part of Bobby is played on both the TV series and the subsequent made-for-TV films, specials, and spinoff series (with the execption of the 2002 FOX TV movie The Brady Bunch in the White House where he's played by Blake Foster) by Mike Lookinland.

Mike Lookinland's natural hair color was strawberry blonde, so for the role of Bobby Brady during the original series, he had Clairol #43 applied to his hair.

Bobby Brady in early episode of "The Brady Bunch", with darker hair

About Bobby

Bobby, the second youngest Brady child, is very close to his sister Cindy.

Though they often fight; they love and stick up for each other. The two youngest Brady kids bonded early on while lost in the Grand Canyon and became inseparable after their attempt at beating the teeter-totter record. He's close to his older brothers too, though because of the age difference, Greg and Peter sometimes mock him for his "immature and childish" ways.   

Bobby's life has been steered by his insecurities. After Jan, he was probably the next Brady with the most insecurities and self-worth issues. Mostly they were about him being left out of his older brothers' activities or him trying to find his own talent. In season 1 episode Every Boy Does It Once, Bobby becomes concerned that Carol, Marcia, Jan and Cindy hate him due to him being a "step" to them, after seeing Cinderella, and decides to run away from home. However, Carol soon clears up to him that the only "steps" in the Brady house are on the stairs.

In season 2 episode What Goes Up..., after falling from Peter's treehouse, Bobby develops a fear of heights. However, it is cured when he tries to rescue his pet parakeet. In another episode from Season 2, The Drummer Boy, after he is overlooked for the school glee club in favor of Peter, Jan and Cindy, he becomes convinced that he isn't musical. He takes up drums, which drives his family crazy. He isn't really interested in playing them, but keeps doing it to please his parents. However, Mike and Carol remind him that Bobby shouldn't pretend to like doing something just to please other people. In later episode from the same season, The Winner, after Cindy comes home with a trophy and Bobby discovers that all his older siblings have trophies as well, he starts to feel useless. After trying to win a trophy at a magazine-selling and ice cream-eating contest, failing at both, his siblings present him with a trophy for his persistence and trying hard.

In season 3 episode, Big Little Man, Bobby becomes sensitive about his short height after nearly falling off a ladder. After Sam (Alice's boyfriend) calls him a "shrimpo", Bobby gets really upset, until Sam comes to apologize and reveals that he had the height problem himself as a child, but eventually would grow half an inch in a year, it gives Bobby motivation to attempt to stretching himself taller on a bar, which doesn't work. His sisters try to cheer him up by lowering his height bar to make him think he grew, but only succeed in upsetting him when Cindy inadvertently spills the beans (and Jan and Marcia follow suit). After picking a fight with a boy twice his size at school, Carol suggests that while Bobby would be physically short, he could be mentally great and suggests him to develop his intellect instead, which with Bobby's lack of self-esteem still doesn't work. However, after Bobby manages to save himself and Greg from Sam's meat locker, he realizes that being short does have its advantages. (In real life, Mike Lookinland would outgrow his older TV sisters Maureen McCormick and Eve Plumb, and grow to be just an inch shorter than his older on-screen brother, Christopher Knight - both standing at 5'8" and 5'9", respectively.)

Bobby is constantly in competition with one of his older brothers -- though he can certainly hold his own. He is better at doing chin-ups than Greg, and is quick enough on his toes to save Peter from being knocked out by a falling flower pot. Bobby's complexes often get the better of him, making him a bit of a trouble maker. He wants to win so badly, whether it's being the best pool player or hall monitor, that he often sabotages himself. He dreams of racing cars and lies to his friends about knowing Joe Namath. 

Bobby's personality is usually easy going, fun-loving, and mischievous. He spent much of his time daydreaming about adventurous careers such as being an astronaut, a skiing champion and even a cowboy.

Later, in a spin-off TV movie, "The Brady Girls Get Married", Bobby was in college baseball team. However, by the next movie "A Very Brady Christmas", he had dropped out of college and became a race-car driver. But in the next spin-off series The Bradys his racing career ended abruptly when he crashed and ended up paralysed from the waist down, making him a wheelchair user in the series. Going through rehabilitative therapy when he marries his former college girlfriend, Tracy (played by Martha Quinn), who ironically had left him when he became a racecar driver, because she considered auto racing to be too dangerous. Bobby resumes his originally intended career path and joins Peter in a business venture.

Age

In late season 2 episode "The Liberation of Marcia Brady" (airdate: February 12, 1971), Greg and Bobby are both ineligible to join Marcia's Sunflower Girls group for ages 10-14 (in retaliation for Marcia joining Greg's scouting organization), with Greg being 15 and Bobby not being 10 yet, so the task is handed to Peter.

In season 3 episode The Teeter-Totter Caper (airdate: December 31, 1971), when Bobby and Cindy get newspaper coverage for their attempt to break the teeter-totter record, Bobby is said to be 10 (and Cindy 9 1/2) in the newspaper.

In season 4 episode Greg Gets Grounded (airdate: January 19, 1973), Bobby says he is 11.

In early season 5 episode Mail Order Hero (airdate: September 21, 1973), when Cindy writes a letter to Joe Namath, pretending to be Bobby and "very sick", she writes that Bobby is 12.

It is unknown if Bobby had his 13th birthday before the Brady Bunch final episode aired on March 8, 1974.

In 2012, a Brady Bunch reimagination by Vince Vaughn called for Bobby Brady being an adult divorcee with children, who married another divorcee also with children of her own, yet they would also have a child together.

1/27

References

<references>

<references group="note">