5 in-your-face details you never noticed in The Brady Bunch ''The Subject Was Noses''

Did you catch these ties to The Sound of Music, Gunsmoke and recycled wallpaper?

Oh, my nose! Who could forget that moment? Certainly not Marcia Brady, who got smacked square in the schnozz by a football. 

"The Subject Was Noses" stands as fan-favorite from The Brady Bunch, thanks to much of the plot turning up again in The Brady Bunch Movie (1995).

But did you catch these little details? They were right there in your face. Let's take a closer look at some fun facts to be found in this classic!

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1. Marcia's crush was a von Trapp kid from 'The Sound of Music'

 

The hunky Doug Simpson — star quarterback for Westdale High — asks Marcia out for a date. Did you recognize him from eight years earlier? Nicholas Hammond, the actor in the orange letterman sweater, was none other than Friedrich von Trapp, the second-oldest child, in The Sound of Music.

2. Marcia's friend was in the final episode of 'Gunsmoke'

 

In that opening scene, when dreamy Doug pops the question to Marcia, take note of the actress by Maureen McCormick's side. Her name is Lisa Eilbacher, and most people might recognize her as the female lead in Eddie Murphy's action-comedy blockbuster Beverly Hills Cop. She also happened to turn up on Gunsmoke. The Western ended its legendary two-decade run in 1975 with "The Sharecroppers." Eilbacher had a significant role as Lailee in the finale, her second appearance on the show.

3. This wallpaper had been seen on The Brady Bunch before

 

The drama obviously centers Marcia's swollen snout, but "The Subject Was Noses" features a significant B-plot for other characters. Mike and Carol and renovating their bedroom! That means looking through a bevy of bright, bold Seventies wallpaper samples. Alice unspools a busy pattern dotted with lime and aqua hexagons. This wallpaper was a favorite for Brady set decorators! It was covering the wall behind Jennifer Nichols' bed in "Greg's Triangle" earlier that season!

4. Charley starred in one of the most Seventies movies of the Seventies

 

There's just one catch when Marcia books a date with Doug — she has to break off a prior engagement with Charley. Stuart Goetz played the freckled redhead. A few years later, he headlined a notorious sex comedy that packed about every 1970s youth-culture cliché into one drive-in movie. The Van (1977), like it said on the tin, told the story of a van — a sweet conversion van.  The yellow dodge sported a groovy "Straight Arrow" design on the side, along with a giant porthole window. Naturally, there was a waterbed inside. "Bobby (Goetz) couldn't make it… till he went fun-truckin'!" the poster declared. This corny, cult precursor to stuff like Porky's also featured Danny DeVito and the minor hit song "Chevy Van" by Sammy Johns. (Even though the van in the movie was a Dodge.)

5. We got a rare glimpse at Mike and Carol's fourth wall

 

The "fourth wall" in filmmaking is that hidden wall where the camera is. For the most part, this part of a soundstage set goes unseen — if it even exists at all. As you know, most interior sets are just three walls sitting in a studio. But Mike and Carol's bedroom did indeed have a fourth wall facing the bed, where we the audience typically stand as the viewer. It had brick. We get a rare glimpse of it in the redesigning project. Look over Mike's shoulder. See that family portrait? It is the same photograph the family snapped together one season earlier in "The Not-So-Rose-Colored Glasses."

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26 Comments

JeffBaker 31 months ago
OMG! We had that wallpaper in the 70s!!!!
Whitechapel 40 months ago
Lisa also played the friend of Frank and Joe Hardy on the Hardy Boys series. She worked for their father as his secretary/assistant. Very pretty girl!
Jon 48 months ago
Stuart Getz (Charlie) also had a place in tv history as half of a brother-sister pair who appeared in the last episode of FLIPPER in 1967. The siblings were supposed to take over as "Flipper's New Friends" (the episode title) if FLIPPER had been renewed for another season. His sister was played by Chris Charney, Paula from "The Slumber Caper", who for some reason has been mistaken for Christine Baranski (who was much too old to play the part in that episode).
JustGeri 48 months ago
Lisa Eilbacher is in one of my fav scenes of Officer and a Gentleman ...when she’s trying to get over the wall and Gere’s character gives up chance to break record to go back to help her get over the wall.
Jon JustGeri 48 months ago
So she played that character. Hers was my favorite character from the movie, the female cadet who kept trying until she succeeded. I remember when their drill sgt. had to salute all of them at the end, since they now outranked him. She tells him, "Thank you, Sir!", and he says "That's Sergeant, Ensign".
LisaMiller 48 months ago
The Van? I'd like to see a show of hands of how many people heard or remember that one?
RetroMountaineer 48 months ago
Nicholas Hammond played Spidey in the 70’s live action series AND Lisa Eilbacher was also a costar in the pilot episode. Wish MeTV could air these, great fun!
WordsmithWorks 48 months ago
Nothing much to add except this was a really interesting deep dive. I didn't recognize Lisa Eilbacher from "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Officer and a Gentleman" at all. The Nicholas Hammond "Sound of Music" and Jennifer Nichols wallpaper connections were cool. I remember reading somewhere that her character wore the same outfit when she met "Greggy's" parents that Marcia did in an earlier episode. Anyway, great job, MeTV.
OldTVfanatic 48 months ago
Nicholas Hammond also was the second actor to play Spider-Man, 25 years BTM (before Tobey Maguire).
bradyguy OldTVfanatic 21 months ago
Hmmm..."play"?? Are you counting the V/O guy from the 70s??
UTZAAKE 48 months ago
2. Lisa Eilbacher was also featured in ABC's The Hardy Boys Mysteries and An Officer and a Gentleman.
MrsPhilHarris 48 months ago
I could never understand Marcia going nuts over Doug Simpson. I thought he looked like a dork. Charley looked like you might have a laugh with him.
OldTVfanatic MrsPhilHarris 48 months ago
Maybe his dorkiness was a front, much like the Peter Parker role in Spider-Man.
LisaMiller MrsPhilHarris 48 months ago
He was dorky, you're right. And no sex appeal either. I guess he fit the blonde hunk type they thought would pass as being appealing to young girls.
MrsPhilHarris LisaMiller 48 months ago
Looks like a bad wig on his head.
texasluva 48 months ago
I had never seen or heard of The Van. I know it was mostly shown in Drive-in Theaters. By 1977 many of the Drive-in theaters and craze had started to die out. With a peak of 4,000 in the 50's and 60's today there are only 300 left. We had 4 in the San Diego area back in the 60's. The Van has a rating of 4.6 which alone might stop one to think before buying. I have never seen it advertised on TV. Ones that have seen it might give us an inkling what it was like. Below is one of the last Drive-ins in my area (closed in 1983). Campus Drive-in.
MrsPhilHarris texasluva 48 months ago
I don't recall The Van either.
MichaelGrossman texasluva 48 months ago
One of the most iconic and wonderful neon signs ever made. Too bad it's not still around.
texasluva MichaelGrossman 48 months ago
Guess what............ It lives inside the mall which replaced it. 46 foot high Indian parading and twirling a baton. It opened in 1948. With spaces for 900 cars Sadly though closed in 1983. Probably the late 70's last time I went inside to watch a movie. When you drove by one side of it you could see the huge screen and movie playing.
Featherfetch texasluva 48 months ago
Im lucky enough to have a 2 screen Drive-in behind my house. Its been there since at least 1960. Still stays busy.
ELEANOR 48 months ago
A lot of times, the direction given in a script makes for much innovation. How to throw a football at Maureen McCormick's nose without injuring it while at the same time, making it look injured demanded a very careful toss by someone with a precise arm.
They didn't have to make Maureen's nose look injured, it actually was. Maureen had been in a car accident the week before they shot the "Oh my nose!" scene, and that's how she broke it So they didn't have to be careful to not injure it, they had to be careful not to cause reinjury to it. Oh, and that wasn't Christopher Knight who threw the football, he took aim, but was told to stop, because he had to go to school. Sherwood Schwartz's son and producer Lloyd threw the football.
cperrynaples 48 months ago
Love that Van poster! And really didn't most of us think the phrase was Trun-[BLANK]in' as they would say on Match Game...LOL!!
daDoctah 48 months ago
Nicholas Hammond got a series of his own a couple of years later. He was Spider-Man!
OldTVfanatic daDoctah 48 months ago
Yep, 25 years BTM (before Tobey Maguire)
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