document_title: The Brady Bunch

question_text: where did the brady bunch live in california

text: The Brady Bunch

text: Development[edit]

text: In 1966, following the success of his TV series Gilligan's Island, Sherwood Schwartz conceived the idea for The Brady Bunch after reading in The Los Angeles Times that "30% of marriages [in the United States] have a child or children from a previous marriage." He set to work on a pilot script for a series tentatively titled Mine and Yours.[5] Schwartz then developed the script to include three children for each parent. While Mike Brady is depicted as being a widower, Schwartz originally wanted the character of Carol Brady to have been a divorcée, but the network objected to this. A compromise was reached whereby Carol's marital status (whether she was divorced or widowed) was never directly revealed.

text: Schwartz shopped the series to the "big three" television networks of the era. ABC, CBS, and NBC all liked the script, but each network wanted changes before they would commit to filming, so Schwartz shelved the project.[6] Although similarities exist between the series and two 1968 theatrical release films, United Artists' Yours, Mine and Ours (starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball) and CBS's With Six You Get Eggroll (starring Brian Keith and Doris Day), the original script for The Brady Bunch predated the scripts for both of these films. Nonetheless, the outstanding success of the United Artists film (the 11th-highest-grossing film of 1968) was a factor in ABC's decision to order episodes for the series.[5]

text: After receiving a commitment for 13 weeks of television shows from ABC in 1968, Schwartz hired film and television director John Rich to direct the pilot, cast the six children from 264 interviews during that summer, and hired the actors to play the mother role, the father role, and the housekeeper role.[7] As the sets were built on Paramount Television stage 5, adjacent to the stage where H.R. Pufnstuf was filmed by Sid and Marty Krofft, who later produced The Brady Bunch Hour,[8] the production crew prepared the back yard of a home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, as the exterior location for the chaotic backyard wedding scene. Filming of the pilot began on Friday, October 4, 1968, and lasted eight days.

text: Premise[edit]

text: Mike Brady (Robert Reed), a widowed architect with three sons, Greg (Barry Williams), Peter (Christopher Knight), and Bobby (Mike Lookinland), marries Carol Martin (Florence Henderson), who herself has three daughters: Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb), and Cindy (Susan Olsen). The wife and daughters take the Brady surname. Included in the blended family are Mike's live-in housekeeper, Alice Nelson (Ann B. Davis), and the boys' dog, Tiger. (In the pilot episode, the girls also have a pet:  a cat named Fluffy.  Fluffy never appeared in any episodes following the pilot.)  The setting is a large, suburban, two-story house designed by Mike, in a Los Angeles suburb.[9]

text: In the first season, awkward adjustments, accommodations, gender rivalries, and resentments inherent in blended families dominate the stories. In an early episode, Carol tells Bobby that the only "steps" in their household lead to the second floor (in other words, that the family contains no "stepchildren", only "children"). Thereafter, the episodes focus on typical preteen and teenaged adjustments such as sibling rivalry, puppy love, self-image, character building, and responsibility.  Noticeably absent was any political commentary, especially regarding the Vietnam War, which was being waged at its largest extent during the height of the series.[10]

text: Cast and characters[edit]

text: Main[edit]

text: The regular cast appeared in an opening title sequence in which video head shots were arranged in a three-by-three grid, with each cast member appearing to look at the other cast members. The sequence used the then-new "multi-dynamic image technique" created by Canadian filmmaker Christopher Chapman; as a result of the popular attention it garnered in this sequence, it has been referred to in the press as "the Brady Bunch effect".[11][12] In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, the show's opening title sequence ranked number eight on a list of TV's top-10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.[13]

text:
Robert Reed as Mike Brady
Florence Henderson as Carol Brady
Ann B. Davis as Alice Nelson
Maureen McCormick as Marcia Brady
Eve Plumb as Jan Brady
Susan Olsen as Cindy Brady
Barry Williams as Greg Brady
Christopher Knight as Peter Brady
Mike Lookinland as Bobby Brady

text: Recurring characters[edit]

text:
Sam Franklin (Allan Melvin) is Alice's boyfriend. He is the owner of a local butcher shop. Sam appears in only eight episodes, but they span all five seasons. He is also frequently mentioned in dialogue, and Alice occasionally goes on dates with him off-screen. By the time of the 1981 made-for-TV movie The Brady Girls Get Married, Alice and Sam are married.
Tiger the dog – the original dog that played Tiger died early in the first season.[14] A replacement dog proved problematic, so the producers decided the dog would only appear when essential to the plot. Tiger appeared in about half the episodes in the first season and about half a dozen episodes in the second season. Tiger seemingly vanished without an explanation and was not shown again after "The Impractical Joker" (last episode shown with Tiger) and "What Goes Up" (last episode made with Tiger).

text:
Mr. Phillips (Jack Collins) is Mike's boss at the architectural firm. He appears in only three episodes, all during season two, but is often mentioned in other episodes when  issues occur around Mike's work.
Cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist) – in the middle of season five, producers added a new character named Oliver, Carol Brady's young nephew, who was sent to live with the Bradys while his parents were living in South America. The character was added in an attempt to fill the age gap left by the maturing Brady children – the youngest (Susan Olsen) was 12 years old during the show's final season. Lloyd Schwartz, son of creator and executive producer Sherwood Schwartz, later admitted that the character threw off the balance of the show and said that fans regarded the character as an interloper. Oliver appeared in the final six episodes of season five, which proved to be the final season, as ABC cancelled the series in 1974. The addition of the character has been cited as the  moment the series "jumped the shark".[15] The term "Cousin Oliver" has been used to describe the addition of a young character to a series in an attempt to save a series from cancellation.[16]

text: Notable guest stars[edit]

text:
Herbert Anderson (known for playing Dennis's father in the 1960s sitcom Dennis the Menace)  as a doctor who comes to treat the boys' measles in "Is There a Doctor in the House?" (season one)
Melissa Sue Anderson, who later rose to fame playing Mary Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, played Millicent, a girl who gives Bobby his first kiss ("Never Too Young", season five)
Desi Arnaz, Jr. (teen heartthrob son of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball) meets Marcia, who had written about him in her diary in "The Possible Dream" (season one)
Jim Backus (Thurston Howell III in Gilligan's Island) appears three times in the series, twice in two of the three Grand Canyon episodes, "Ghost Town U.S.A." and "Grand Canyon or Bust", playing Zaccariah T. Brown, who mistakenly thinks the Bradys are jumping his gold claim and locks them in a ghost-town jail, and in "The Hustler" (season five) playing Mike's second boss, Mr. Harry Matthews
Ken Berry (known for F Troop, Mayberry RFD and Mama's Family). In 1973 Sherwood Schwartz wrote a Brady Bunch spin-off called Kelly's Kids, which featured Berry as the adoptive father of three diverse boys (black, white, and Asian). The pilot failed to interest ABC.
Imogene Coca (known for Your Show of Shows and one of the cast members of Sherwood Schwartz's It's About Time TV series) plays the Brady girls' great-aunt Jenny, whom Jan fears she will grow up to resemble after seeing a childhood photo of her in "Jan's Aunt Jenny" (season three)
Don Drysdale (Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher) tries to inject reality into Greg's dreams of being a professional baseball player in "The Dropout" (season two)
Don Ho (Hawaiian singer) meets Cindy and Bobby and serenaded Cindy in Honolulu in "Hawaii Bound" (part one of a three-part season-four episode, filmed on location in Hawaii)
Davy Jones (of The Monkees) performs at a music studio and then takes Marcia to her school dance in "Getting Davy Jones" (season three) (he also satirized his cameo decades later in The Brady Bunch Movie).
Deacon Jones (Los Angeles Rams defensive end) encourages Peter's singing in "The Drummer Boy" (season two).
E. G. Marshall as Mr. J.P. Randolph, Marcia's school principal in "The Slumber Caper" (season two) (Marshall and Robert Reed co-starred in The Defenders in 1961–65 – making this a reunion of the two).
Bart La Rue, immortalized in Star Trek history as the iconic voice of the Guardian of Forever, played a sports coach in the (season two) episodes "Click" and "The Drummer Boy".
Brigadier General James McDivitt (NASA astronaut) signs autographs for Peter and Bobby after appearing on a talk show in "Out of This World" (season five).
Joe Namath (New York Jets quarterback) visits Bobby because he thought that Bobby had a terminal illness in "Mail Order Hero" (season five).
Wes Parker (Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman) meets Mike and Greg in Greg's math classroom, thus curing Greg of the crush he had on his teacher Miss Linda O'Hara (played by Gigi Perreau), Parker's fiancée in "The Undergraduate" (season one).
Vincent Price (horror film actor) appears twice in the series in two of the three Hawaii episodes, "Pass the Tabu", and "The Tiki Caves" from season four, playing the villainous Professor Hubert Whitehead, who holds the Brady boys hostage.
Marion Ross (later known as Mrs. Cunningham in Happy Days) appears as a doctor who comes to treat the girls' measles in "Is There a Doctor in the House?" (season one).
Natalie Schafer (Lovey Howell in Gilligan's Island) is Mike's fussy client, Penelope Fletcher, who is charmed by Cindy's impromptu 'Shirley Temple' routine in "The Snooperstar" (season five).
Marcia Wallace played a salesclerk in "Would the Real Jan Brady Please Stand Up" (season two) and "Mrs. Robbins" in "Getting Davy Jones" (season three).
Rita Wilson (actress and wife of Tom Hanks) began her career with a guest appearance in "Greg's Triangle" (season four) where she played one of the candidates running against Marcia for head cheerleader.
Paul Winchell (ventriloquist and actor; Winchell-Mahoney Time, voice of "Tigger" in Winnie-the-Pooh) appears as Skip Farnum, the TV commercial director in "And Now a Word From Our Sponsor" (season three).

text: Production notes[edit]

text: Theme song and credits sequence[edit]

text: The theme song, penned by Schwartz and Frank De Vol, and originally arranged, sung, and performed by Paul Parrish, Lois Fletcher, and John Beland[not in citation given] under the name the Peppermint Trolley Company,[17] quickly communicated to audiences that the Bradys were a blended family. The Brady family is shown in a tic-tac-toe board with Carol on the top center, Alice in the middle block, and Mike on bottom middle. To the right are three blocks with the boys from the oldest on top to the youngest. To the left are three blocks with the girls from the oldest to the youngest. In season two, the Brady kids took over singing the theme song. In season three, the boys sing the first verse, girls sing the second verse, and all sing together for the third and last verse. The sequence was created and filmed by Howard A. Anderson, Jr., a visual effects pioneer who worked on the title sequences for many popular television series.[18]

text: The end credits feature an instrumental version of the theme song's third verse. In season one, it was recorded by the Peppermint Trolley Company. From season two on, the theme was recorded in-house by Paramount musicians.

text: The Brady house[edit]

text: The house used in exterior shots, which bears little relation to the interior layout of the Bradys' home, is located in Studio City, within the city limits of Los Angeles.  According to a 1994 article in the Los Angeles Times, the San Fernando Valley house was built in 1959 and selected as the Brady residence because series creator Schwartz felt it looked like a home where an architect would live.[19] A false window was attached to the front's A-frame section to give the illusion that it had two full stories.[20] Contemporary establishing shots of the house were filmed with the owner's permission for the 1990 TV series The Bradys. The owner refused to allow Paramount to restore the property to its 1969 look for The Brady Bunch Movie in 1995, so a facade resembling the original home was built around an existing house.

text: In the series, the address of the house was given as 4222 Clinton Way (as read aloud by Carol from an arriving package in the first-season episode entitled "Lost Locket, Found Locket").[21] Although no city was ever specified, it was presumed from references to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Rams,  and a Hollywood movie studio, among many others, that the Bradys lived in Southern California, most likely Los Angeles or one of its suburbs.[22][23]

text: The interior of the Brady house was used at least three times for other Paramount shows, twice for Mannix and once for Mission: Impossible, while The Brady Bunch was in production. In the case of Mission: Impossible, the Brady furniture was also used.[24][25][26] A re-creation of the Brady house was constructed for the X-Files episode "Sunshine Days", which also revolved around The Brady Bunch.

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
Season

Episodes

Originally aired

Time slot (ET)

First aired

Last aired

1

1969–70

25

September 26, 1969 (1969-09-26)

March 20, 1970 (1970-03-20)

Friday at 8:00 PM

2

1970–71

24

September 25, 1970 (1970-09-25)

March 19, 1971 (1971-03-19)

Friday at 7:30 PM

3

1971–72

23

September 17, 1971 (1971-09-17)

March 10, 1972 (1972-03-10)

Friday at 8:00 PM

4

1972–73

23

September 22, 1972 (1972-09-22)

March 23, 1973 (1973-03-23)

5

1973–74

22

September 14, 1973 (1973-09-14)

March 8, 1974 (1974-03-08)

text: Reception[edit]

text: U.S. television ratings[edit]

text: SeasonEpisodesOriginally airedNielsen ratingsFirst airedLast airedRankRatingTied with125September 26, 1969 (1969-09-26)March 20, 1970 (1970-03-20)5614.9 [27]N/A224September 25, 1970 (1970-09-25)March 19, 1971 (1971-03-19)N/AN/AN/A323September 17, 1971 (1971-09-17)March 10, 1972 (1972-03-10)3119.3[28]Mission: Impossible422September 22, 1972 (1972-09-22)March 23, 1973 (1973-03-23)N/AN/AN/A522September 14, 1973 (1973-09-14)March 8, 1973 (1973-03-08)5416.1 [29]Chase

text: Ratings data prior to 1972 is scarce for shows which did not place in the Top 30.  Beginning in 2017, TV Ratings Guide began publishing vintage television ratings as they became readily available from old newspaper publishings. [30] The Brady Bunch never achieved high ratings during its primetime run (never placing in the top 30 during the five years it aired) and was cancelled in 1974 after five seasons and 117 episodes; it was cancelled shortly after the series crossed the minimum threshold for syndication. At that point in the story, Greg graduated from high school and was about to enroll in college.[31]

text: Popular reception[edit]

text: When the episodes were repeated in syndication, they usually appeared every weekday in late-afternoon or early-evening slots on local stations. This enabled children to watch the episodes when they came home from school, making the program widely popular and giving it iconic status among those who were too young to have seen the series during its primetime run.

text: According to Schwartz, the reason the show has become a part of Americana, even though other shows have run longer, were rated higher, and were critically acclaimed, is that the episodes were written from the standpoint of the children and addressed situations that children could understand (such as boy trouble, sibling rivalry, and meeting famous people such as a rock star or baseball players). The Bradys are also portrayed as a harmonious family, though they do have times when one of the children does not cooperate with his or her parents or the other children.

text: Awards and honors[edit]

text:
Award

Year

Category

Result

Recipient

Young Artist Award
1989
Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award
Honored
Barry Williams

TV Land Awards
2003
Hippest Fashion Plate – Male
Nominated

Favorite Dual-Role Character
Nominated
Christopher Knightas Peter Brady and Arthur

Funniest Food FightThe Brady Pie Fight on the Paramount Lot.
Nominated

Favorite Guest Performance by a Musician on a TV Show
Won
Davy Jones

Most Memorable Male Guest Star in a Comedy as Himself
Won
Joe Namath

2004
Favorite Fashion Plate – Male
Nominated
Barry Williams

Most Memorable Mane
Nominated
Susan Olsen

Favorite Made-for-TV Maid
Won
Ann B. Davis

2005
Theme Song You Just Cannot Get out of Your Head
Nominated

Best Dream SequenceFor episode "Love and the Older Man," in which Marcia has a crush on her dentist.
Nominated

Favorite Two-Parter/CliffhangerFor the Greg Brady surfboard accident.
Nominated

Favorite Singing Siblings
Nominated
Williams, McCormick, Knight, Plumb, Lookinland, Olsen

2006
Best Dream SequenceFor episode "Love and the Older Man"
Nominated

Favorite Made-for-TV Maid
Won
Ann B. Davis

Favorite TV FoodPork chops and applesauce
Won

2007
Most Beautiful Braces
Nominated
Maureen McCormick

Pop Culture Award
Won
Williams, McCormick, Knight, Plumb, Lookinland, Olsen, Davis, Henderson, Lloyd J. Schwartz (producer)

text: Syndication and distribution[edit]

text: Since its first airing in syndication in September 1975, an episode of the show has been broadcast somewhere in the United States and abroad every day of the year.[32] Episodes were also shown on ABC daytime from July 9, 1973 to April 18, 1975 and from June 30-August 29, 1975, at 11:30 a.m. EST/10:30 CST.

text: The show was aired on TBS starting in the 1980s until 1997, Nick at Nite in 1995 (for a special event), and again from 1998 to 2003 (and briefly during the spring of 2012), TeenNick (under the channel's former name The N) from March to April 2004, on TV Land on and off from 2002 to 2015, Nick Jr. (as part of the NickMom block from 2012 to 2013), and Hallmark Channel from January to June 2013 and again starting September 5, 2016, until September 30, 2016.

text: Episodes in the syndicated version have been edited for time to allow for commercial breaks, down from the original version of 25–26 minutes.

text: Current airings[edit]

text: Since its launch as a national network in 2010, the Weigel Broadcasting owned classic TV network MeTV airs a weekly two-hour block of the show every Sunday morning/early afternoon promoted as the "Brady Bunch Brunch". In the years following, Me-TV has also periodically aired the series weekday mornings.[33] Decades - a sister network of MeTV - also occasionally airs the show.

text: Online, the show is available on Hulu and CBS All Access, though not all episodes are available for either service.

text: Discography[edit]

text: During the series' original run, the Brady kids recorded several albums on Paramount's record label. While session musicians provided backing, the actors from the series provided their own singing voices (which was not always the case for early 1970s television crossover acts). None of the albums or singles from The Brady Kids ever became hits on any national music charts.

text: Albums[edit]

text:
Merry Christmas From The Brady Bunch—Paramount 5026–1970
Meet The Brady Bunch—Paramount 6032–1972—Billboard #108
The Kids From The Brady Bunch—Paramount 6037–1972
Phonographic Album—Paramount 6058–1973
Chris Knight & Maureen McCormick—Paramount 6062–1973
It's a Sunshine Day: The Best of The Brady Bunch—MCA 10764–1993

text: Singles[edit]

text: Also includes solo recordings as indicated

text:
Year

Single (A-side, B-side)

Label & number

Album

1970

"Frosty the Snowman"b/w "Silver Bells"

Paramount 0062

Merry Christmas From The Brady Bunch

1971

"Sweet Sweetheart"b/w "Sunny"Barry Williams solo single

Paramount 0122

Non-album tracks

"How Will It Be?"b/w "The Fortune Cookie Song"Eve Plumb solo single

RCA 0409

1972

"Time to Change"b/w "We Can Make The World A Whole Lot Brighter"

Paramount 0141

Meet The Brady Bunch

"We'll Always Be Friends"b/w "Time To Change"

Paramount 0167

"Over and Over"b/w "Good For Each Other"Chris Knight solo single

Paramount 0177

Non-album tracks

"Candy (Sugar Shoppe)"b/w "Drummer Man"

Paramount 0180

The Kids From The Brady Bunch

1973

"Zuckerman's Famous Pig"b/w "Charlotte's Web"

Paramount 0205

Phonographic Album

"Truckin' Back To You"b/w "Teeny Weeny Bit (Too Long)"Maureen McCormick solo single

Paramount 0217

Non-album tracks

"I'd Love You To Want Me"b/w "Everything I Do"

Paramount 0229

Phonographic Album

"Little Bird"b/w "Just A Singin' Alone"Maureen McCormick solo single

Paramount 0246

Non-album tracks

1974

"Harmonize"b/w "Love's In The Roses"Maureen McCormick solo single

Paramount 0292

"Love Doesn't Care Who's In It"b/w "Gum Drop"Mike Lookinland solo single

Capitol 3914

text: Spin-offs, sequels, and reunions[edit]

text: Several spin-offs and sequels to the original series have been made, featuring all or most of the original cast. These include another sitcom, an animated series, a variety show, television movies, a dramatic series, a stage play, and theatrical movies:

text: Kelly's Kids[edit]

text: A final-season Brady Bunch episode, "Kelly's Kids", was intended as a pilot for a prospective spin-off series of the same name. Ken Berry starred as Ken Kelly, a friend and neighbor of the Bradys, who with his wife Kathy (Brooke Bundy) adopted three orphaned boys of different racial backgrounds. One of the adopted sons was played by Todd Lookinland, the younger brother of Mike Lookinland. While Kelly's Kids was not subsequently picked up as a full series, producer Sherwood Schwartz reworked the basic premise for the short-lived 1980s sitcom Together We Stand starring Elliott Gould and Dee Wallace.[34]

text: The Brady Kids[edit]

text: A 22-episode animated Saturday morning cartoon series, produced by Filmation and airing on ABC from September 1972 to August 1974, is about the Brady kids having various adventures.[35] The family's adults were never seen or mentioned, and the "home" scenes were in a very large, well-appointed tree house. Several animals were regular characters, including two non-English-speaking pandas (Ping and Pong), a talking bird (Marlon) which could do magic, and an ordinary pet dog (Mop Top, not Tiger). The first 17 episodes featured the voices of all six of the original child actors from the show, but Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick, and Christopher Knight were replaced for the last five episodes due to a contract dispute.

text: The Brady Bunch Variety Hour[edit]

text: On November 28, 1976, a two-hour television special entitled The Brady Bunch Variety Hour aired on ABC. Eve Plumb was the only regular cast member from the original show who declined to be in the series and the role of Jan was recast with Geri Reischl.[36] Produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, the sibling team behind H.R. Pufnstuf, Donny and Marie, and other variety shows and children's series of the era, the show was intended to air every fifth week in the same slot as The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, but ended up being scheduled sporadically throughout the season, leading to inconsistent ratings and its inevitable cancellation.

text: In 2009, Brady Bunch cast member Susan Olsen, with Lisa Sutton, published a book, Love to Love You Bradys, which dissects and celebrates the Variety Hour as a cult classic.[37]

text: The Brady Girls Get Married / The Brady Brides[edit]

text:
The Brady Brides
Genre
SitcomCreated by
Sherwood SchwartzLloyd J. SchwartzDirected by
Peter BaldwinStarring
Maureen McCormickEve PlumbJerry HouserRon KuhlmanFlorence HendersonAnn B. DavisKeland LoveTheme music composer
Frank De VolCountry of origin
United StatesOriginal language(s)
EnglishNo. of seasons
1No. of episodes
10ProductionExecutive producer(s)
Sherwood SchwartzLloyd J. SchwartzProducer(s)
John Thomas LenoxLocation(s)
Paramount Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, CaliforniaCinematography
Lester ShorrRunning time
25 minutesProduction company(s)
Redwood ProductionsParamount TelevisionDistributor
CBS Television DistributionReleaseOriginal network
NBC[38][39]Original release
February 6 (1981-02-06) – April 17, 1981 (1981-04-17)ChronologyPreceded by
The Brady Bunch HourFollowed by
A Very Brady ChristmasRelated shows
The Brady BunchExternal links
Website

text: A TV reunion movie called The Brady Girls Get Married was produced in 1981. Although scheduled to be shown in its original full-length movie format, NBC at the last minute divided it into half-hour segments and showed one part a week for three weeks, and the fourth week debuted a spin-off sitcom titled The Brady Brides. The reunion movie featured the entire original cast; this proved to be the only time the entire cast worked together on a single project following the cancellation of the original series. The movie's opening credits featured the season-one "Grid" and theme song, with the addition of The Brady Girls Get Married title.[40] The movie shows what the characters had been doing since the original series ended: Mike is still an architect, Carol is a real-estate agent, Greg is a doctor, Marcia is a fashion designer, Peter is in the Air Force, Jan is also an architect, Bobby and Cindy are in college, and Alice has married Sam. Eventually, they all reunite for Marcia and Jan's double wedding.

text: The Brady Brides features Maureen McCormick (Marcia) and Eve Plumb (Jan) in regular roles. The series begins with Marcia and Jan and their new husbands buying a house and living together. The clashes between Jan's uptight and conservative husband, Philip Covington III (a college professor in science who is several years older than Jan, played by Ron Kuhlman) and Marcia's slovenly and more bohemian husband, Wally Logan (a fun-loving salesman for a large toy company, played by Jerry Houser), were the pivot on which many of the stories were based, not unlike The Odd Couple. Florence Henderson and Ann B. Davis also appeared regularly. Ten episodes were aired before the sitcom was cancelled. This was the only Brady show in sitcom form to be filmed in front of a live studio audience. Bob Eubanks guest-starred as himself in an episode where the two couples appear on The Newlywed Game.

text: Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, The Brady Girls Get Married was rerun on various networks in its original full-length movie format.

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
No.

Title

Original air date
1"The Brady Girls Get Married (Part 1)"February 6, 1981 (1981-02-06)
Marcia and Jan announce that they are both getting married and plans soon begin for a double wedding. 2"The Brady Girls Get Married (Part 2)"February 13, 1981 (1981-02-13)
Jan and Philip want a traditional wedding, and Marcia and Wally want a modern wedding. 3"The Brady Girls Get Married (Part 3)" February 20, 1981 ( February 20, 1981)
The weather spells disaster for an outdoor wedding, so they end up having the ceremony inside the Brady house. 4"Living Together"March 6, 1981 (1981-03-06)
After all the houses they see are too expensive, Marcia, Jan and their husbands decide to share a house. 5"Gorilla of My Dreams"March 13, 1981 (1981-03-13)
Marcia and Jan get some self-defense lessons from their mother, while a thief attempts to burglarize their home. 6"The Newlywed Game"March 20, 1981 (1981-03-20)
Game-show host Bob Eubanks asks Marcia and Jan to appear on The Newlywed Game with their new husbands. 7"The Mom Who Came to Dinner"March 27, 1981 (1981-03-27)
Carol temporarily moves in with her newly wedded daughters and their husbands. 8"The Siege"April 3, 1981 (1981-04-03)
Wally's guilt over parking tickets causes him to panic when a policeman visits the house, so he decides to impersonate Philip. 9"Cool Hand Phil"April 10, 1981 (1981-04-10)
Philip tries to change his image by dressing and acting "hip." 10"A Pretty Boy is Like a Melody"April 17, 1981 (1981-04-17)
Marcia is forced to use Wally and Philip in her fashion show after her models go on strike.

text: A Very Brady Christmas[edit]

text: A second TV reunion movie, A Very Brady Christmas, aired in December 1988 on CBS and featured all the regular cast (except Susan Olsen, who was on her honeymoon at the time of filming; the role of Cindy was played by Jennifer Runyon), as well as three grandchildren, Peter's girlfriend, Valerie, and the spouses of Greg, Marcia, and Jan (Nora, Wally, and Phillip, respectively).[41] The Nielsen ratings for A Very Brady Christmas were the highest of any television movie that season for CBS.[42]

text: The Bradys[edit]

text: Due to the success of A Very Brady Christmas, CBS asked Brady Bunch creator Sherwood Schwartz and his son Lloyd to create a new series for the network. According to Lloyd Schwartz,  his father and he initially balked at the idea because they felt a new series would harm the Brady franchise. They finally relented because CBS was "desperate for programming". A new series featuring the Brady clan was created entitled The Bradys. All the original Brady Bunch cast members returned for the series, except for Maureen McCormick (Marcia), who was replaced with Leah Ayres.

text: As with A Very Brady Christmas, The Bradys also featured elements of comedy and drama and featured storylines that were of a more serious nature than that of the original series and its subsequent spin-offs. Lloyd Schwartz later said he compared The Bradys to another dramedy of the time, thirtysomething. The two-hour series premiere episode aired on February 9, 1990, at 9 pm on CBS and initially drew respectable ratings. Subsequent episodes were moved to 8 pm, where ratings quickly declined. Due to the decline, CBS cancelled the series after six episodes.[43]

text: Day by Day: "A Very Brady Episode"[edit]

text: The Day by Day episode, titled "A Very Brady Episode" (February 5, 1989), on NBC, reunited six of the original The Brady Bunch cast members: Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland and Maureen McCormick [44][45]

text: Film adaptations[edit]

text: Twenty years following the conclusion of the original series, a film adaptation, The Brady Bunch Movie went into production and was released in 1995 from Paramount Pictures. The film is set in the present day (1990s) and the Bradys, still living their lives as if it were the 1970s, are unfamiliar with their surroundings. It stars Gary Cole and Shelley Long as Mike and Carol Brady, with Christopher Daniel Barnes (Greg), Christine Taylor (Marcia), Paul Sutera (Peter), Jennifer Elise Cox (Jan),  Jesse Lee (Bobby), Olivia Hack (Cindy),  Henriette Mantel (Alice), and cameo appearances from Ann B. Davis as a long-haul truck driver and Florence Henderson as Carol's mother.

text: A sequel, A Very Brady Sequel, was released in 1996. The cast of the first film returned for the sequel. A second sequel, The Brady Bunch in the White House was made-for-television and was aired on Fox in 2002. Gary Cole and Shelley Long returned for the third film, while the Brady kids and Alice were recast.

text: DVD releases[edit]

text: Paramount Home Entertainment released all five seasons on DVD in Region 1 from 2005 to 2006, before CBS DVD took over DVD rights to the Paramount Television library (though CBS DVD releases are still distributed by Paramount). Paramount/CBS has released the series on DVD in other countries as well.

text: A Complete Series box set was released in 2007 by CBS and Paramount, which includes the TV movies A Very Brady Christmas and "The Brady 500" (an episode of The Bradys), as well as two episodes of The Brady Kids animated series. The box art for the set features green shag carpeting and 1970s-style wood paneling.

text: The first two seasons are also available on Region 2 DVD for the Nordic countries, with audio in English and subtitle choices in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, or Finnish.[46][47] The series has also been released on VHS, but the VHS tapes have gone out of print.

text: On April 7, 2015, CBS Home Entertainment released a repackaged version of the complete series set, at a lower price, but it does not include the bonus disc that was part of the original complete series release.[48]

text: Seasons one and two have also been released in the UK.

text:
DVD name

Episodes

Release dates

Region 1

Region 2

Region 4

DVD Special Features

The Complete First Season

25

March 1, 2005

August 27, 2007

September 19, 2007

Audio Commentary on 4 Selected Episodes.
15min Behind the scenes Feature
Special Features are on Region 1 Release Only

The Complete Second Season

24

July 26, 2005

March 24, 2008

March 6, 2008

None

The Complete Third Season

23

September 13, 2005

N/A

September 4, 2008

None

The Complete Fourth Season

23

November 1, 2005

N/A

April 2, 2009

None

The Complete Fifth Season

22

March 7, 2006

N/A

June 18, 2009

None

The Complete Series

117 (with extras)

April 3, 2007

N/A

N/A

Audio Commentary on 4 Selected (Series One) Episodes.
15min Behind the scenes Feature (Series One)
A Very Brady Christmas
"The Brady 500"
Two episodes of The Brady Kids

The Brady Kids: The Complete Series

22

February 16, 2016

N/A

August 6, 2016

Episode Promos

Very Brady Christmas

Film

October 10, 2017

N/A

N/A

None


document_title: The Gift of the Magi

question_text: how much did della sell her hair for

question_tokens: how much did della sell her hair for

root

text: The Gift of the Magi

text: Summary[edit]

text: Mr. James Dillingham Young ("Jim") and his wife, Della, are a couple living in a modest apartment.

tag: p

text: On Christmas night, with only $1.87 in hand, and desperate to find a gift for Jim, Della sells her hair for $20 to a nearby hairdresser named Madame Sofronie, and eventually finds a platinum / steel pocket watch fob chain for Jim's watch for $21. Satisfied with the perfect gift for Jim, Della runs home and begins to prepare pork chops for dinner.

text: At 7 o'clock, Della sits at a table near the door, waiting for Jim to come home. Unusually late, Jim walks in and immediately stops short at the sight of Della, who had previously prayed that she was still pretty to Jim. Della then admits to Jim that she sold her hair to buy him his present. Jim gives Della her present – an assortment of combs, useless now that her hair is pretty short. Della then shows Jim the chain she bought for him, to which Jim says he sold his watch to get the money to buy her combs. Although Jim and Della are now left with gifts that neither one can use, they realize how far they are willing to go to show their love for each other, and how priceless their love really is.

text: The story ends with the narrator comparing the pair's mutually sacrificial gifts of love with those of the Biblical Magi.

text: Adaptations[edit]

text: The story has been adapted to films, The Sacrifice (1909), Love's Surprises Are Futile (1916), The Gift of the Magi (1917), a segment of O. Henry's Full House (1952), The Gift of Love (1978), The Gift of the Magi (1958), Dary magów (Poland, 1972), Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978), I'll not be a gangster, love (Не буду гангстером, дорогая/Nebūsiu gangsteriu, brangioji, USSR, 1978),[3] Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999),[4] The Gift of the Magi (2004) and the short film for the Irish band The Script in 2010 called For the First Time.[5] Love, another French movie, based some of its scenes on this story. Raincoat (2004), a Hindi film directed by Rituparno Ghosh is an adaptation of the story.[6] The Greek film directed by Ismene Daskarolis (2014) places it in the economical crisis of Greece today.[7] The Mexican film Nosotros los pobres includes this tale as a small sub-plot. There is also a Bulgarian short film adaptation known as "Darovete na vlahvite" (2013)[8] directed by Ivan Abadjiev.

text:
An off-Broadway musical version entitled The Gifts of the Magi[9] premiered at Lamb's Theatre in New York City in 1984. Written by Mark St. Germain and Randy Courts, the play is regularly produced in schools and regional theaters.
In 1955, in The Honeymooners episode 13 of season 1, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" involves Ralph looking for the perfect present for Alice for Christmas. Without money, he pawns his prized bowling ball to buy her an expensive gift, only to find out in the end that she bought him a custom bowling ball bag.
In 1992, in Rugrats episode 27 "The Santa Experience", Phil doesn't know what to get Lil, so Angelica convinces him to give up his precious Reptar to get Lil markers for her Color Me book, and then convinces Lil to give up the Color Me book to get a space helmet for Phil's Reptar even though Angelica was now in possession of it. The twins both believe the sacrifice is the greatest gift of all, leaving Angelica in bitter Christmas spirits until she returns the original gifts.
The Squirrel Nut Zippers song "Gift of the Magi" from their 1998 album Christmas Caravan is a duet sung from the point of view of both Jim and Della.
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, which is a twist on "The Gift of the Magi", is a children's storybook by Russell Hoban which was first published in 1971. In 1977, Muppet creator Jim Henson produced a one-hour television adaptation of the story, filmed in Toronto for HBO in the United States and CBC in Canada. The special premiered on HBO on December 17, 1978. The special later aired on ABC in 1980 and on Nickelodeon in the 1990s. The special features several original songs written by songwriter Paul Williams.
The sketch comedy show Studio C contains a skit called "Gift of the Magi" in which Jim and Della argue over their gift-giving.
The television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has the episode "The Gift of the Maud Pie" in which Pinkie Pie gives Maud a perfect gift, costing her the confetti-using Party Cannon. Maud's gift in return was confetti for the cannon of which Pinkie Pie had sold.
Radio drama series Adventures in Odyssey features a comedic adaptation of this story in its episode "Gifts for Madge & Guy"
The animated sketch comedy series Robot Chicken features a parody of the story in its fourth season, except that Jim does not sell his watch and instead buys Della lingerie, much to her consternation.
Joni Mitchell wrote and performed, but never recorded, a song based on the story.
The opening sketch of the December 10, 1988 episode of Season 14 of Saturday Night Live reimagines "The Gift of the Magi" as Donald and Ivana Trump (played by Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks) selling their yacht Princess and estate Mar-a-Lago, each in order to pay for a gift intended to adorn the other.[10]

tag: ul


document_title: History of the Australian Football League

question_text: when did the vfl change to the afl

question_tokens: when did the vfl change to the afl

text: VFL begins[edit]

text: The Victorian Football League was established in 1896 when six of the strongest clubs in Victoria – Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne and South Melbourne – broke away from the established Victorian Football Association to establish the new league. The six clubs invited two more VFA clubs – Carlton and St Kilda – to join the league for its inaugural season in 1897. Among the notable initiatives established in the new league was an annual finals tournament, rather than awarding the premiership directly to the team with the best record in the season; and, the formal establishment of the modern scoring system, in which six points are scored for a goal, and one point is scored for a behind.

text: Although the Victorian Football League and the Victorian Football Association continued to compete for spectator interest for many years, the VFL quickly established itself as the premier competition in Victoria. In the early years, Fitzroy and Collingwood were the dominant teams. Following the arrival of Jack Worrall as coach in 1903, Carlton began a dominating period, during which they won three successive flags from 1906 to 1908; although Worrall was the club secretary, he took on a player management and direction role which is today rrecognszedas the first official coaching job in the league. Essendon won flags in 1911 and 1912, also under Jack Worrall's coaching.

text: In 1908, the league expanded to ten teams, with Richmond crossing from the VFA and University from the Metropolitan Football Association. University, after three promising seasons, finished last each year from 1911 until 1914, including losing 51 matches in a row; this was in part caused by its players focus on their studies rather than football, particularly during examinations, and it was partly because the club operated on an amateur basis at a time when player payments were becoming common – and as a result, the club withdrew from the VFL at the end of 1914. University teams now compete in the Victorian Amateur Football Association.[1][2]

text: From 1907 until 1914, the VFL premier and the premier of the Adelaide-based South Australian Football League met in a playoff match for the Championship of Australia.

text: Between the world wars (1914–1945)[edit]

text: In 1919, the VFL established a seconds/reserves competition to run alongside the senior competition. In 1924 the VFL inaugurated the Brownlow Medal for the player who received the most votes from the umpires for the best and fairest player. Richmond won its first Premierships in 1920 and 1921 but Essendon – battlers since their 1912 flag – took over as the dominant team between 1922 and 1926.

text: In 1925, the VFL expanded from nine teams to twelve, with Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne each crossing from the VFA. North Melbourne and Hawthorn remained very weak in the VFL for a very long period. North Melbourne did not win more than eight games in a season until 1944 and Hawthorn only once won more than seven until 1954. Between them, Hawthorn and North Melbourne finished in last place fifteen of the twenty-nine years from their admittance until 1953. Footscray adapted to the VFL with the most ease of the three clubs, and by 1928 were well off the bottom of the ladder.

text: Between the years of 1927 and 1930, Collingwood became the first and so far, the only, team to win four successive Premierships. The club also finished the 1929 home-and-away season without losing a game, a feat yet to be repeated. This team became known as "the Machine" because of the organised and consistent way it played. With Premiership victories in 1935 and 1936, the Collingwood Football Club had already won 11 Premierships, four more than the next most successful club, Fitzroy (7).

text: In the 1930s, Richmond and South Melbourne rivaled Collingwood as the best team. Melbourne, which had won the Premiership in 1926 but fallen off sharply, developed a powerful attacking side that swept all before it between 1939 and 1941 to win three successive flags. Essendon, after a lean decade in the 1930s, enjoyed a dominant period with nine grand final appearances between 1941 and 1951. For more information on how world wars affected the VFL see: The VFL during the World Wars.

text: In 1946, the VFL established an Under 19s grade of competition, to run alongside the seniors and reserves. In 1951, the McClelland Trophy was established as a prize for the best performing team across all three grades. In 1952, the VFL hosted 'National Day', when all six matches were played outside of Melbourne. Matches were played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Brisbane Exhibition Ground, North Hobart Oval, Albury Sports Ground and Victorian country towns Yallourn and Euroa.

text: In 1959, the VFL planned the first purpose built mega-stadium, VFL Park (later known as Waverley Park), to give it some independence from the Melbourne Cricket Club, which managed the Melbourne Cricket Ground. VFL Park was planned to hold 155,000 spectators, to make it making it one of the largest stadiums in the world – although it would ultimately be built with a capacity of 78,000. Land for the stadium was purchased at Mulgrave, in those days just farmland, but one day predicted to be near demographic centre oerMelbourne's population.

text: Geelong was the stand out team at the beginning of the 1950s, winning the Premiership in 1951 then setting an enduring record of 23 consecutive wins starting in Round 12, 1952 and ending in Round 13, 1953. This streak included the 1952 Premiership. Footscray became the first of the 1925 expansion teams to win the premiership in 1954.

text: Melbourne became a powerhouse during the 1950s and early 1960s under coach Norm Smith and star player Ron Barassi. The club contested seven consecutive Grand Finals from 1954 to 1960, winning five Premierships, including three in a row between 1955 and 1957.

text: Television coverage began in 1957, with direct telecasts of the final quarter permitted. At first, several channels competed through broadcasting different games. However, when the VFL found that television was reducing crowds, it decided that no coverage was to be allowed for 1960. In 1961, replays (in Melbourne) were introduced although direct telecasts were rarely permitted in Melbourne (other States and Territories, however, enjoyed live telecasts every Saturday afternoon).

text: The VFL Premiership Trophy was first awarded in addition to a pennant flag in 1959; essentially the same trophy design has been in use since.

text: In the 1960s, television began to have a huge impact, which continues unabated to this day. Spectators hurried home from games to watch replays and many former players took up positions as commentators on pre-game preview programs and post-game review programs. There were also several attempts at variety programs featuring VFL players, who generally succeeded in demonstrating that their skills were limited to the football ground.

text: The VFL played the first of a series of exhibition matches in 1962 in an effort to lift the international profile of the league.

text: Hawthorn won its first premiership in 1961, beating Footscray. Melbourne's extended its success from the 1950s by winning the premiership in 1964, but its success ended abruptly when Barassi was recruited by Carlton as captain-coach after the season, followed by Norm Smith being sacked during the 1965 season. Melbourne would not return to the finals for twenty-five years, and (as of 2017) has not yet won another premiership.

text: St Kilda, which had never won a VFL or VFA premiership in more 93 years of competition, won its first and, to date, only premiership, in a famous Grand Final victory against Collingwood by one point in 1966.

text: With the number of players recruited from country leagues increasing, the wealthier clubs were gaining an advantage that metropolitan zoning and the Coulter law (salary cap) restricting player payments had prevented in the past. Country zoning was introduced in the late 1960s, and whilst it pushed Essendon and Geelong from the top of the ladder, it created severe inequality during the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1972 and 1987, only six of the league's twelve clubs – Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Richmond – played in Grand Finals; by comparison, nine different clubs had contested Grand Finals between 1961 and 1967.

text: The 1970 season saw the opening of VFL Park, with the inaugural match being played between Geelong and Fitzroy, on 18 April 1970. Construction work was carried out at the stadium as the 1970s progressed, culminating in the building of the now heritage listed Sir Kenneth Luke stand. The Queen of Australia, Elizabeth II was a guest at the game and officially opened the stadium to the public. The 1970 Grand Final between traditional rivals Carlton and Collingwood, arguably the league's most famous game, saw Carlton recover from a 44-point deficit at half-time to win the game by ten points, featured a famous spectacular mark by Alex Jesaulenko, and was witnessed by a record crowd of 121,696.

text: Carlton and Richmond won three premierships each between 1968–1974, facing each other in three Grand Finals. North Melbourne, after struggling for most of its time in the VFL, finally won its first premiership in 1975, and contesting the Grand Final each year from 1974–1978, winning two; three of those deciders were against fellow 1925 expansion team Hawthorn, who also won two premierships. Carlton won three premierships in four years from 1979–1982.

text: Among the notable rule changes made during the decade were:

text:
The finals series was expanded from four teams to five in 1972.
The introduction of the centre diamond, later changed to a square, to limit the number of players allowed around the center bounce to four per team.
The introduction of a second field umpire in 1976.
The introduction of unlimited interchange in 1978, replacing substitution, which had been in place previously.

text: The 1980s was a period of significant structural change in Australian football around the country. The VFL was the most popular and dominant of the state leagues around the country in terms of overall attendance, interest, and money, and began to look towards expanding its influence directly into other states. The VFL and its top clubs already had the buying power to recruit top players from interstate. As a result of this, rising cost pressures were driving some of Victoria's weaker clubs into dire financial situations.

text: But in spite of the increasing dominance of Victoria, the country's three top leagues – the VFL, South Australia's SANFL and Western Australia's WAFL – were never closerr to an integrated competition than they were in the early 1980s, with teams from all three leagues competing in the Australian Football Championships Night Series, a competition runseparatelye to the league competitions on weekday evenings.

text: South Melbourne became the first VFL club to relocate interstate, and the club moved to Sydney to become the Sydney Swans in 1982; under the private ownership of wealthy Dr Geoffrey Edelsten during the mid-1980s, Sydney became a successful team on-field. In 1986, the West Australian Football League and Queensland Australian Football League were awarded licences to join the VFL as expansion teams, leading to the establishment of the West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears, who both joined the league in 1987. These expansion team licenses were awarded on payment of multimillion-dollar fees which were not required of the existing VFL clubs. Interstate clubs dropped out of the Night Series, and by 1987 it consisted solely of VFL clubs; it was shifted to become a pre-season competition in 1988. In 1989, financial troubles nearly forced Footscray and Fitzroy to merge, but a fundraising event from Footscray supporters stopped the proposed merger at the eleventh hour.

text: The 1980s first saw new regular timeslots for VFL matches. VFL matches had previously been played on Saturday afternoons, but Sydney began playing its home matches on Sunday afternoons, and North Melbourne pioneered playing matches on Friday night. These have since become regular ttime slotsfor all teams.

text: In the late 1980s, the former zoning arrangements which had led to such inequality between the stronger and weaker clubs began to be phased out. The first National Draft was introduced in 1986, and a salary cap was introduced in 1987. Over the following decade, these changes helped to equalise the clubs, minimising the ability for the richer clubs to dominate the league.

text: In 1984, there was a revival of the International Rules representative series, which had first been played in the 1960s. The matches were played with a hybrid set of rules based on Australian rules football and Gaelic football. It also began to pave the way for Gaelic footballers to convert to Australian football; pioneered by Melbourne and known as the Irish experiment, Irish players Sean Wight and Jim Stynes began their successful VFL/AFL careers in the mid-1980s. Many Irish players have since played professional AFL football.

text: On-field, the 1980s were dominated by Hawthorn, Essendon and Carlton: Hawthorn contested seven consecutive Grand Finals for four premierships; Carlton contested four Grand Finals for three flags; and Essendon contested three consecutive Grand Finals, all against Hawthorn, winning two, and establishing a bitter rivalry. In the process, Carlton and Essendon both passed Collingwood in terms of number of premierships won; since 1982, Carlton has continuously been the team with most premierships won, holding the position jointly with Essendon for much of that time. The 1989 Grand Final between Hawthorn and Geelong is considered one of the finest Grand Finals, with many strong physical encounters, a joint Grand Final record nine goals by Geelong's Gary Ablett, Sr., and Geelong coming back from a 36-point deficit at three quarter time to fall six points short of victory.

text: AFL[edit]

text: The league was officially renamed the Australian Football League in 1990 to reflect the new national perspective;[3] the VFA later took over the Victorian Football League name in 1996. Functionally, the AFL gave up control over its Victorian-based minor grades at the end of 1991 – clubs continued to field reserves teams in the independent Victorian State Football League, while an entirely new under-18s competition (the TAC Cup) was established with new, zone-based clubs. Without minor grades, the McClelland Trophy was now awarded to the senior minor premiers.

text: Collingwood won the AFL Premiership in 1990, ending a 32-year premiership drought, which featured a string of near misses known as the Colliwobbles that had seen the club lose eight Grand Finals.

text: In 1990, the SANFL's most successful club, Port Adelaide, made a bid for an AFL licence. In response, the SANFL established a composite South Australian team called the Adelaide Crows, which was awarded the licence and joined the league in 1991 as the fourth interstate club. The same year saw the West Coast Eagles become the first interstate club reach the Grand Final, losing to Hawthorn; the Eagles would then win the premiership in 1992 and 1994. In 1994, the Fremantle Football Club was formed in Western Australia, and joined in the AFL in 1995, becoming the fifth interstate club.

text: In 1996, the VFL/AFL celebrated its centenary; the Australian Football Hall of Fame was established and the VFL/AFL Team of the Century was named. However, several Victorian clubs were in severe financial difficulties, most notably Fitzroy and Hawthorn. Hawthorn had proposed to merge with Melbourne to form the Melbourne Hawks, but the merger ultimately fell through and both teams continued as separate entities. For Fitzroy, however, the club was too weak to continue by itself; the club nearly merged with North Melbourne to form the Fitzroy-North Melbourne Kangaroos, but after the other clubs voted against it, the club merged with Brisbane to become the Brisbane Lions.[4] Fitzroy played its last match at the end of 1996.With the Brisbane-Fitzroy merger, Port Adelaide was awarded an AFL licence, and joined the league in 1997. The AFL rejected bids from Queensland club Southport Sharks and the Tasmanian government to enter teams.

text: Some of the rule changes of the decade included the introduction of a third field umpire in 1994, a blood rule in 1994, and the introduction of a third (1994) and fourth (1998) interchange player. The International Rules series against the Gaelic Athletic Association was revived again in 1998, and has become a semi-permanent fixture since. The finals series was expanded from five teams to six in 1991, and then to eight teams in 1994.

text: Through the 1990s, there was a significant trend of Melbourne-based teams abandoning the use of their small (20,000–30,000 capacity) suburban venues for home matches, in favour of the larger MCG and Waverley Park. The 1990s saw the last matches played at Windy Hill (Essendon), Moorabbin Oval (St Kilda), Western Oval (Footscray) and Victoria Park (Collingwood), and saw Princes Park abandoned by its long-term co-tenant Hawthorn. The transition to the use of only two venues in Melbourne was ultimately completed in 2005, when Carlton abandoned the use of Princes Park.

text: There was no dominant club in the latter part of the 1990s, although North Melbourne was the most successful, winning two premierships from three Grand Finals. Adelaide won two Grand Finals, and Carlton won one Grand Final from two appearances.

text: In 1999, the league sold Waverley Park stadium and used the funds in a joint venture to begin construction of a brand-new stadium situated at Melbourne's Docklands. Representative state football came to an end, with the last State of Origin match held in 1999.

text: 21st century[edit]

text: The AFL logo was again changed in 2000, with a new look intended to coincide with the new millennium. Rivals Collingwood and Carlton, played a pre-season match known as the 'Millennium Match' on New Year's Eve 1999. The new Docklands Stadium hosted its first match in Round 1, 2000, and it was the first AFL match played under a retractable roof. After Victorian State Football League ceased operation at the end of 1999, the Victorian-based AFL clubs established connections with the Victorian Football League (a rebranding of the former VFA), with clubs either fielding reserves teams in the VFL, or entering into affiliations with existing senior VFL clubs to serve as feeder teams.

text: The early 2000s were dominated by Essendon, Brisbane and Port Adelaide, who shared the five flags from 2000–2004. Essendon won minor premierships in 1999–2001, but converted only the 2000 season into a premiership; Essendon's 2000 season set an enduring record, with a win-loss record of 24–1 across the home and away season and finals, the best ever recorded. Brisbane contested four consecutive Grand Finals, winning three from 2001–2003. Port Adelaide won minor premierships in 2002–2004, and broke through for its first premiership in the 2004 season. The dominance of interstate clubs continued to six consecutive flags, with Sydney and West Coast facing each other in 2005 and 2006 Grand Finals for one flag each, with both matches decided by less than a goal.

text: The 2002 season saw the Carlton Football Club finish last, becoming the last of the twelve VFL clubs to win its first wooden spoon, before being heavily penalised for cheating the salary cap a few years earlier; the penalties saw Carlton stay near the bottom of the ladder for the next six years.

text: A series of new rule changes were introduced for the 2006 season intended to speed up the game, allowing full-backs to kick in more quickly after a behind, and limiting the length of time that a player was allowed to hold the ball after a mark to 8  seconds for a mark in general play, and 30 seconds for a set shot.

text: Several teams established a regular presence in other parts of Australasia during the 21st century, generally by playing between one and four home matches in the alternative location. Among the notable contracts were including Hawthorn (Launceston), St Kilda (Launceston and Wellington[6]), North Melbourne (Gold Coast, Canberra and Hobart), Richmond (Cairns), Port Adelaide (Darwin) and the Western Bulldogs (Darwin).

text: In 2007 Geelong beat Port Adelaide by a record 119 points in the Grand Final. In 2008 Hawthorn beat the dominant team, Geelong, to win the flag. In 2009 Geelong claimed vindication from their 2008 premiership loss, by being the only team of the modern era to overcome a three-quarter-time deficit to defeat St. Kilda in the 2009 Grand Final. In 2010 Collingwood and St. Kilda contested the first drawn Grand Final of the modern era. The AFL faced much scrutiny, with the current rule at the time having the Grand Final being replayed the following week. The rule now currently has a period of extra-time being played. Collingwood won the Grand Final replay. In 2011 Collingwood played Geelong in the Grand Final. Collingwood had only lost to one team all year, Geelong, and now faced them to win back-to-back premierships. The game was in the balance until the final quarter where Geelong pulled away to win their third flag in five years.

text: In the late 2000s, the AFL looked to establish a permanent presence on the Gold Coast, which was fast-developing as a major population centre. North Melbourne, who was in financial difficulty and had played a few home games on the Gold Coast in previous years, was offered significant subsidies to relocate to the Gold Coast, but the club declined. The AFL then began work to establish a club on the Gold Coast as a new expansion team; the Gold Coast Suns were established, and joined the AFL in 2011 as the 17th team. The Greater Western Sydney Giants, based on both Western Sydney and Canberra, were then established and entered the league as the 18th team in 2012.

text: In 2012, the Sydney Swans beat the Hawthorn Hawks in the Grand Final. In 2013 Hawthorn beat first time Grand Finalist's Fremantle. In 2014 Hawthorn got revenge on the Sydney Swans for the 2012 loss, by winning their back-to-back flag. In 2015 West Coast made the Grand Final, after beating the Hawthorn Hawks earlier in the finals, and faced them in the Grand Final. Hawthorn then won their third flag in as many years. In 2016 the Western Bulldogs, plagued by injuries, finished the regular season in seventh placed, the second lowest of teams that qualify for finals. They performed inspiringly throughout the finals and made the Grand Final, to face the Sydney Swans, the best team all year. The Western Bulldogs won the 2016 flag, after many years of heartbreak.

text: The Bulldogs win sparked conversation about how even the AFL competition has become, begging the question whether the age of the powerhouse has ended in the AFL. The 2017 season currently reflects that with any team qualifying for finals potentially having the ability to win the flag.

text: History[edit]

text: Competition timeline[edit]

text:
Due to World War I, Melbourne did not compete from 1916 to 1918, Essendon and St Kilda did not compete in 1916 and 1917, Geelong and South Melbourne did not compete in 1916.
Due to World War II, Geelong did not compete in 1942 and 1943.

text: Before the VFL[edit]

text: Australian rules football dates back to 1859. Melbourne Football Club was formed on 14 May that year. At a couple of meetings over the next week or so, at the Parade Hotel in East Melbourne, a group of about seven men, including Tom Wills, W.J. Hammersley and J. B. Thompson, wrote the first rules for Australian football. By 1866, several other clubs had also adopted an updated version of Melbourne's rules. In 1877, the amateur Victorian Football Association was established.

text: VFL begins and after[edit]

text: The Victorian Football League was established in 1896 when several clubs broke away from the Victorian Football Association which was the first Australian rules competition in Victoria, second in the country after the South Australian Football Association. The first games were played in 1897 between the foundation clubs – Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and South Melbourne.