September 8, 1999

"Brady Bunch" superfan Laura Nachman of Ardmore has
been maintaining a website devoted to her favorite TV  family
since 1998.  The show will be marking its 30th anniversary Sept. 26.

Ardmore Woman's hunch launches "Brady" fan website
By Betsy Gilliland
Main Line Life Staff

     Here's the story/of an Ardmore lady/who has tracked the Bradys all her life.

     Since launching the website "Brady Residence" in 1998, Laura Nachman, 34, has provided fans of "The Brady Bunch" with an endless supply of trivia about the television family.

     A lifelong fan herself, Nachman has seen every episode of the series which ran from 1969 to 1974.

     With 124,620 hits on the website since June 1, 1998, Brady enthusiasts have logged on to the website to follow the Brady timeline, test their knowledge of Brady lore with "Sam's Trivia Questions," or croon the lyrics of "The Brady Bunch" theme song.

     Furthermore, through Nachman's critical analysis of "Marcia vs. Jan," Brady fans can settle once and for all which of the two blonde sisters can stake her claim as the ultimate in goodness and virtue.

     If the website's guest book gives any indication, "The Brady Bunch," which will celebrate its 30th anniversary Sept. 26th, has spawned a new generation of "Bradyophiles."  

     While visitors to the guest book vary from age from 2 to 76, the majority of guest comments have come from fans who fall within the adolescent age range.  Unofficially, a preponderance of 10-year-olds have shared their comments about the television family.

     "I enjoy looking at the guest book and meeting other Brady Bunch fans and seeing how old they are," noted Nachman.

     Following in her mother's footsteps, Nachman's 5-year-old daughter Macy has also become a Brady Bunch fan.

     As a junior camp counselor, Nachman made her young campers answer "The Brady Bunch" trivia questions to earn extra juice and cookes. In junior high school, she had "Marcia cry-alike" contests with her friends. 

   "I've always been a huge "Brady Bunch fan," confessed Nachman.  And I never really thought about it and analyzed it until I got to college.  

     Interviewing series creator Sherwood Schwartz, she originally planned to write a book about "The Brady Bunch" in 1988.  However, she had no success with her manuscript.  

     Working as a website designer since 1997, the Temple University graduate finally found a way to combine her collection of Brady material with her talents through the creation of the website.

     "I tried to make it unique," Nachman said.  "It creates a life of its own."  

     In addition to encountering other fans over the Internet, Nachman has also met two of the actors from the television series - Florence Henderson and Barry Williams.

     She met Florence Henderson, a.k.a. Carol Brady, at the opening of a Target store in Springfield last year and Barry Williams, a.k.a. Greg Brady, at the Bucks County Playhouse in 1993.

     "He's probably the kid who embraces it the most" noted Nachman.

     "Some of the other kids have tried to get away from (their Brady identity)."

     To accompany her collection of Brady memorabilia, she has taped every episode of the television show.

     "It's the only series...that's been on three different networks," noted Nachman.

     In honor of the show's 30th anniversary, Nachman said, Brady fans can watch for a People magazine cover story and a television special on the Fox network later this month.

     Noting the show's success, the Ardmore resident believed "The Brady Bunch" offers fans a nostalgic look at their own childhoods.

     It's the idea of what a family can be, Nachman added.  "There are male and female counterparts and a range of ages."

Main Line Times
September 9, 1999

30 Years later, she still adores Brady Bunch
Want Brady trivia?  Try this web site

By Bill Marshall
Staff Writer

     ARDMORE - It's the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls.  It's the story of a man named Brady, who was bringing up three boys of his own.

     That story began 30 - yes, 30 -  years ago this month.

     Thanks to people like Ardmore resident Laura Nachman, the Brady Bunch is still aired regularly and gaining fans as the years fly by.  

     Nachman, a Web designer, founded an award-winning Brady Web site a year ago that has amassed 120,000 hits since its debut.  She said the Brady Bunch is the planned cover story of a People Magazine due out later this month and that there will be at least one television special about the show.

     Nachman was four years old when the show first aired Sept. 26, 1969 on ABC, the fall following a summer which saw the moon walk and Woodstock.

     "I only started watching it in reruns," she said.  "All my friends used to watch it."

     In elementary school, they'd watch the show and talk about the episodes.  As they grew into teens, they began to do things like have "cry like Marcia" contests and imitate other characters.

     "It kind of kept evolving," said Nachman.

     Nachman said the show's appeal stems, in part from its broad demographic.

     "Because there are six kids, there's always an age a kid can relate to," she said.  That and the story lines draw viewers.

     "The themes of it are so simple," said Nachman.  "It doesn't matter what decade it is, you can always relate to getting your driver's license, being teased at school, or going to an amusement park."

     For some, there's the appeal of watching a family in which six siblings are supportive and the parents genuinely like each other.

     "I can sit down and watch it anytime," said Nachman.  "It will put me in a good mood.  It reminds adults of being kids."

     While Nachman may sound like a no-holds barred Brady booster, her Web site www.geocities.com/televisioncity/5283 features her at her wittiest.

     The site, much of it based on an unpublished book Nachman wrote in the 1980s has such links as "Alice Uncovered," which lists the times Alice, the Brady's housekeeper, appeared out of uniform ("Episode #99 - Never Too Young - Alice in 1920s garb as the family practices the Charleston), "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, Brady Style," which links Florence Henderson to Steve Guttenberg from "Shakes the Clown," to "Diner," and "Jan vs. Marcia," which Nachman shows was a greatly exaggerated conflict.  Both the site shows, suffered similar setbacks in their youths. 

     The site also supplies an ample history of those in and behind the show, what's happened to the characters and show since it ended in August of 1974 ("The '80s were difficult.  We went through a seven-year dry spell"), and for music buffs, lyrics to all six Brady songs.

     The Brady's didn't stop with the original series.   Later efforts, such as a dramatic series and a variety show, ended with unsuccessful, at times laughably bad, results.

     In spite of her love of the show, Nachman is quick to point out that it doesn't control her life.   While her husband's name, Brad is close to "Brady," he is not a fan of the show and their four-year-old daughter's name, Macy is a far cry from "Marcia."

     Macy is, however beginning to take an interest in watching Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby, and Cindy as they wind their way through the 1970s and their youth.