Barry Williams chose The Brady Bunch over his social life

Barry Williams didn't need a girlfriend as a young man, he was already in love with The Brady Bunch.

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Barry Williams played the role of the oldest member of The Brady Bunch kids, Greg Brady, for the show's entire five seasons.

With his dreamy blue eyes and charming smile, Williams became one of TV's biggest heartthrobs. You may have even had a poster of Barry Williams on your bedroom wall, and you're not alone.

Wherever he went during his time as Greg on The Brady Bunch, young women, teens and adults alike, did whatever it took to get an autograph from the young star. But with all the attention from fans, Williams still preferred his alone time.

Despite being a high-demand date, he wasn't all that interesting in dating. His only love at the time was his acting career and The Brady Bunch.

According to a 1973 interview with The Tampa Tribune, Williams took an interest in acting at a young age. Even as a toddler, he would beg his mom, who was resistant for some time, to let him start acting. When he was 11, she finally agreed. 

"When I play a part, myself is a tool, my resource," Williams said. "If I don't have part of the character in me, I do research to find out more about him."

At the time of this interview, Williams was 19 and attended Pepperdine University in Malibu. School and work took up most of his time. He would attend classes in the mornings, and would spend his afternoons working on-set of The Brady Bunch.

To add even more to the young star's plate, he would spend another three days attending singing, dancing and acting classes.

According to the interview, Williams said his biggest trouble as a young man was meeting people as himself, Barry Williams, not Greg Brady.

"I have trouble with preconceptions," Williams said. "People either think I'm like Greg Brady, or they assume I'm going to be a snobby star type. And when I say 'hey, look, let's drop all that,' they think that's a put on too."

Williams admitted to missing having a normal childhood, but with the perks that come along with having an acting career, it's hard to want to strip it all away. The compensation alone was enough for Williams to have no regrets.

"Acting is my life, and it's more important to me than a social life," Williams said. "Like recognition, it has its advantages and its disadvantages. I may get a better table at a restaurant, but my meals are interrupted by people wanting autographs."

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40 Comments

Antenna2 2 months ago
Good story of a young professional actor, and what he said is also how our FB group of amateur fiction writers feel - a person has to put themselves into the character to make it work, or study how to make it work. Truth, I never was into the show that much though the age of the older kids during its run. I was more of a Patridge Family fan. Still, I did like the story recently about Susan Olsen almost being permanently lost to Gunsmoke in 1969 after being in two episodes of that show - my guess she probably smiled when they filmed the western ghost town episode of the BB and perhaps even said, "This reminds me of Dodge City."
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LoveMETV22 20 months ago
Think the Darrin Bewitches Endora clip would have been sufficient.
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LalaLucy 21 months ago
Read "Growing Up Brady" by the man himself. He didn't have to stray from the cast for love interests though from what I recall, nothing really ever came to fruition...
JHP 21 months ago
I got a notion that Barry HAD a older girlfriend on the set already - (Hubba-Hubba:))
LoveMETV22 JHP 21 months ago
LOL! Of course I had to look up the full cast/crew credits. Wow the crew side of things was predominantly male. A few women there in scripting/make-up/hair. I'm sure Sherwood Schwartz had a few assistants that may have been women. Maybe close to Barry's age.
JHP LoveMETV22 21 months ago
well - of course everything on the net is granite solid - but I read (haha) him and Florence were playing footsie
bradyguy LoveMETV22 20 months ago
Schwartz' assistants were not likely "close to Barrys' age" as he was 14 when the show started filming...
LoveMETV22 bradyguy 20 months ago
LOL. Obviously. Good thing there's a emoji.
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JHP 20 months ago
Priceless and timeless humor
Adanor 21 months ago
Let's look at how Barry Williams became an actor. First, he had the desire, even as a very young child. And he even took advice from Peter Graves who was incidentally a neighbor. And with the help of acting lessons, an agent, and a growing list of roles, when the Brady Bunch came along he was ready. So what was the one thing that that he did to become successful? He always knew his lines. And that's important.
LoveMETV22 21 months ago
Well, maybe Greg would have stood a chance on the dating scene. Not so sure though if he had Marcia with him.
LoveMETV22 21 months ago
[image=https://weigel-comments.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/zhagO-1677934169-Screenshot 2023-03-04 at 07-47-13 phrase.it.png]
Bapa1 LoveMETV22 21 months ago
Don't forget Bobby Sherman!
Mblack Bapa1 21 months ago
And Bobby had two classic shows, Here Come the Brides and Getting Together.
Adanor LoveMETV22 21 months ago
It was that Hawaiian three-parter. There was the after dinner walk on the beach, the sun was setting, the hormones were flowing along with the soft waves and then -- it happened. Unscripted and unbidden, but there it was.
bradyguy Mblack 20 months ago
"Classic" shows? Well...let's just call them "shows". But they were both pretty fun!
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Moody 21 months ago
I'm the oldest of 6 kids, 4 boys & 2 girls and we were nothing like the Brady Bunch or any other tv sitcom family for that matter. We watched those shows back then & sometimes wondered what was wrong with us. lol! But none of those tv sitcom families were realistic or very believable in my opinion. It was just as you said, pure escapism.
Pacificsun 21 months ago
The strange thing is that they didn't do that for Reed in Mannix. Different productions, true.
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bradyguy 20 months ago
Wow. That would have been just horrible...
cperrynaples 21 months ago
Well, I think Johnny Bravo would disagree with Barry...they just keep on comin'!
cperrynaples 21 months ago
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Thank you very much! Yes, that's Cartoon Network! And yes he would also disagree with Barry!
cperrynaples 21 months ago
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rb5391 wallyandbagfan 21 months ago
there was actually another johnny bravo in an episode of Cheyenne many years earlier
rb5391 21 months ago
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Mblack 21 months ago
No posters for me. But then none of Farah, or Raquel, or whoever
BrittReid Mblack 21 months ago
Lynda Carter
BrittReid 21 months ago
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wallyandbagfan 21 months ago
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bradyguy Mblack 12 months ago
But how about Farrah???
bradyguy BrittReid 12 months ago
Oh, I'm with you, Britt.

She made me wonder about women.

Yeah...that was pretty bad. 🙄🙄
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