Hello again dear readers! Your joining me to review “Click” is most appreciated. The episode first aired November 26th, 1971. Last week’s episode, “Her Sister’s Shadow” was a well played drama reflecting real life. “Click” on the other hand I found to be a dull imitation of real life with a few chuckles tossed in. It almost seemed like the writers sat down at the writing table and one said, “We need a plot for another episode.” Another asked, “Well, what happened around your house this past week”. And with the mildly interesting events shared, an episode was born. Let us begin reviewing “Click”.
The story opens with Greg arriving home feeling apprehensive about something. One will notice the bike he arrives home riding is of the beach cruiser variety, complete with a basket on the front. Such transportation must have been the norm on the west coast in 1971. A southern boy in the 1990s would have been laughed off the road if he put a basket on the front of his bicycle (no matter how convenient and sensible it might have been). Greg’s reluctance to go inside and face Carol is interrupted when Bobby approaches him with a question regarding a camera. Apparently Greg is quite the camera whiz. Bobby has also taken an interest in photography. With this scene, the A and B plot of the episode is introduced. Shortly thereafter, Mike arrives home and learns Greg has not shared the important news that his him so apprehensive. Mike agrees to accompany Greg as he shares his burden with Carol.
Inside, Greg stammers his way to telling Carol he is now on the football team. She is none too happy about it. Her experience with football is limited to what Mike and Greg watch on TV where great big guys try to kill each other. Mike tries to support Greg’s cause by sharing the coach thinks Greg is a natural flanker back. I enjoy watching football, but have never played the game for any organized team. Flanker back must be an archaic term for the game as I had never heard it before. Even a Google search failed to produce a result for flanker back, but did suggest that a flanker is a wide receiver. Carol argues that football is just too dangerous. Mike touts the merits of football which Greg echoes to Carol until he suggests the sport teaches a person how to lose gracefully. Greg’s displeasure with this “merit” of the sport was funny. Greg rationalizes a guy can find himself injured falling in the bathtub. Carol gives a chuckle worthy reply when she counters with a guy in the bathtub doesn’t have two other guys there trying to knock him down. All the comic momentum built up in the scene is deflated with the final joke. Carol wishes Greg would have tried out for the debate team and Mike says she’d worry about Greg spraining his tongue.
The next scene introduces the C plot for the episode. The situation at hand really warranted some further explanation. Alice is working with Cindy and Jan to recall the ingredients for one fantastic cake she made them. Sheets of paper must be a rare commodity around the Brady house as throughout this episode she must use the chalkboard to attempt to record this information of such vast importance. The girls suggest it was either lemon or lime that was used in the cake. Alice laments she forgot her own secret recipe. Using a lemon or a lime seems like one of those things that would stand out in one’s memory. Greg enters and begins to share the details about a football play he is crafting. To better explain it, he erases Alice’s recollections from the blackboard. Alice is briefly upset at this, but then states it is no big deal and learns more about the football play.
Ever the fun and whacky housekeeper, Alice joins the boys out in the yard to run Greg’s play. She must have one cannon for an arm. When she attempts to throw the ball to Greg, she launches it well over his head and almost to the street/end of the driveway as we see Mike driving in holding the ball.
The next scene introduces the episode’s guest star. Greg is taking photos of a girl named Linette as she performs her cheers. With the photo shoot complete, Greg starts to work some of his charm and the two of them tell each other how attractive they find each other. Greg suggests a date for the two of them and invites Linette to the pizza place. In the review for “My Sister, Benedict Arnold”, there was a thorough discussion in the comments section of the term pizza parlor. I chuckled when Greg referred to the pizza place this time around. Bobby then interrupts them seeking further camera assistance. The jokes that follow seemed to suggest this was to be one of those true to life moments where a little brother embarrasses his older one, but in this case, the scene just seemed flat and unfunny. The rest of the episode seems to follow suit.
Linette Carter was played by Elvera Roussel. Of all the pretty girls who were guest stars on “The Brady Bunch” I must say Elvera Roussel ranks among the top of my list when it comes to looks. She just has that girl next door look about her while at the same time being quite a beauty. Elvera would continue to act sporadically on TV shows and in TV movies through the years. Her most recent acting credit per IMDB was in 2010. A Google search found a project about the Vietnam War with the New York Foundation for the Arts being headed up by her (or somebody with the same name).
The next scene begins with Greg entering the kitchen and Carol noticing a bruise on Greg’s arm. Upon seeing this purple testament of injury, Carol says injuries such as these are why she doesn’t want Greg playing football. Greg says the bruise is not from football practice, but from when he bumped his arm in math class. What was he doing in math class that would have caused him to bump his arm and leave a bruise like this? If something as mild as a bump in math class leaves this kind of bruise, Carol is 100% justified in not wanting Greg to play football. He is one fragile dude!
After some footage of a football practice, we see Greg in the locker room studying football plays. The coach enters and tells Greg to go home and get some sleep because he is going to be starting in the practice game. The coach was played by Bart La Rue. He also played the football coach in “The Drummer Boy”. The chalkboard behind them has a reminder to the football players to return the towels after they shower. I could not help but wonder why they wanted to not return them in the first place.
The camera subplot returns in the next scene as Bobby once again consults Greg for some photography advice. Greg says Bobby’s pictures, while good for a kid his age, are too posed and he should be photographing people in their natural state. What follows is a montage of Bobby doing just that. Marcia makes a disgusted face while eating a radish, Alice has flour on her forehead, Jan and Cindy prepare for bed and Peter is half asleep. The shot with Jan and Cindy could have resulted in something very bad for Bobby. To just barge in on somebody in the bathroom of all places and snap a pic is never a good idea.
The next scene opens with footage of the practice game and follows with an injured Greg being brought into the locker room. Those who enjoy continuity errors will notice that in the establishing shot, the team in the white jerseys has on gold helmets while the blue jerseyed team wears silver helmets. Greg has on a white jersey and is carrying a silver helmet. Greg’s injury warrants a call to his parents.
Back at the Brady house, Carol is finishing a phone call with the never seen but often referenced Martha. Mike and Greg enter and Carol questions their being home so early. In a funny moment, she playfully pokes Greg in the rib. Upon learning of Greg’s injury she is quite distressed. Greg assures her all is well and says he can continue to play as the odds of getting hit again in the same place are very low. Carol says the chances are ZERO as he not playing anymore. This was a funny line too. This time Mike supports Carol in Greg’s not playing football. The scene is a tad confusing as Mike seems to be suggesting he can play again when his rib is healed while Carol seems to be suggesting Greg’s flanker back career is done. The scene ends on an attempted comedic note with Alice announcing they are having ribs for dinner.
Upstairs, Bobby shares with Greg his photos. Marcia and Jan ask the boys to remove their photo developing equipment so they can wash their hair. At this point, Bobby and Greg’s serious interest in photography should be evident as that is one bulky machine they use in their hobby. Perhaps some older readers can shed some light on this device and if such contraptions were common in homes back in the 1970s. It looks to me like one pricey device that would be in a professional photo lab. Bobby’s exiting the bathroom at the start of the scene suggests he developed the photos himself. Quite an impressive feat for a boy his age!
Mike comes upstairs to discuss with Greg his supporting Carol’s desire for Greg to no longer play football. He suggests that Greg can still contribute to the team in some fashion. Greg takes this to mean he can be the water boy or the equipment manager. Greg has no desire for those roles as they don’t have a cheering section. Mike asks Greg if plays football only for the cheers and reminds him of winning gracefully and losing with dignity. Greg says if he can’t be on the field, he is through with football.
The father son chat is interrupted by a phone call from Linette. She is calling to check on Greg’s rib. Greg assumed she was calling to tell him that she has no interest in him since his high school football career was over. Linette is understandably miffed at Greg thinking her so shallow and superficial. She asks Greg to still come to the game and sit near the cheerleaders and even take some more pictures of her. He is non-committal at the idea. Before it seemed like the door was open for Greg to keep playing after his rib healed. With the prospect that he might be able to play again, one would think he would still be on the sidelines at the game, observing plays or what not. While it wasn’t explicitly stated on camera, Mike and Carol must have told Greg his playing days were over. Greg does eventually decide to go to the game.
The A, B and C plot all mesh together as Alice has successfully recollected the cake recipe and written it on the blackboard. Bobby takes a surprise picture followed by Greg and Peter arriving home from the football game. Alice’s elation at remembering the recipe is countered with the boys’ downbeat mood due to their team losing the game. Greg was too busy taking photos of Linette to see the final controversial play of the game. Peter saw it and begins trying to explain it to Alice. With her back turned, he erases the recalled recipe from the blackboard. Her reaction is what I do believe was the loudest ever scream on The Brady Bunch. Seriously, the volume at which she yells is usually reserved for some horrific circumstance. Alice mourns the loss of a recipe handed down from generation to generation. If the recipe was so all fired important and timeless, why wasn’t it written on a medium other than a chalkboard???? Had Alice somehow committed this fabulous cake recipe to memory for the past few decades, only to have it escape her recollection when she made it last? If it had been written down and mistakenly tossed out with the morning newspaper, one or two lines of dialogue could have made this clear. Instead, there is only the ridiculous circumstance by which the recipe was lost to time. Much like the inconsistency of Greg’s football future, some script rewrite while filming must have changed the recipe from a secret one she conjured up on the fly to some tradition that had been handed down.
Up in the boys room, Mike and Greg discuss the game and admire Greg’s talent for photography. He has since developed the photos he took of Linette at the game. As Greg photographed her, he unknowingly snapped a photo of the controversial play. I doubt many viewers cared much about who won the high school football game, but this episode makes it a plot point as Greg’s photo suggests the player was in bounds when the ball was caught. He and Mike enlarge the photo to the point where it is evident the receiver’s feet were inbounds when the ball was caught. Such a revelation is this that it must be shared with the coach right away. Mike volunteers to drive Greg over to show the coach the photo so he can challenge the play. Were they going to ride to the coach’s house and show him or does he just hang around the school hours after the game? Also, can the camera Greg was using and the photo equipment available lend itself to such an enlargement o the photo? The image of the player’s feet is as crisp as if it was taken from just a few feet away, not the distance we see in the photo Greg took.
I have another gripe about the photo. Is Linette the only cheerleader for the team? This picture would suggest she was the only one on sidelines rooting for the team! That receiver was wide open as well with no coverage from the other team. They could have airbrushed a few other players on the field to make the shot look more realistic. This photo, or the enlarged version of the player’s feet, gets Greg a spot back on the football team. He will now be the team photographer. He will get a movie camera and a press pass. A press pass? For a high school football game? I suppose he needs it to stand alongside all those others authorized to cover a high school football game while the thrill seekers and crazed fans are kept back from all the action.
The epilogue sees that Alice has a happy ending too. That surprise shot Bobby took of Alice right before Greg and Peter came home from the football game included the blackboard and her lost recipe. She celebrates it as the best picture he ever took! Let’s hope she whipped out a sheet of paper and wrote it down and then made copies!
That concludes the story of football, photography and a forgotten recipe. As stated earlier, this episode seems like a slice of normal every day life for a suburban family. One might say it was a plot about Greg wanting to play football or his photography skills, but both just seem kind of loosely intertwined into the events of the episodes. Bobby’s interest in photography is also worked into the story as well as Alice’s lost recipe. Very late into the episode, the outcome of the football game is worked into the story, but the ultimate resolution is never stated. Readers, please share you own thoughts be they good, bad or indifferent. Next week we return to some Brady craziness with “Getting Davy Jones”. See you then!
Here's The Story: Every Episode of The Brady Bunch Reviewed 
Following on from “The Private Ear” episode where I queried why Greg would need lunch money, we have proof in this episode that Alice DOES still make Greg his lunch!
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Thanks for commenting Jefferson. That same thought crossed my mind!
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Down the road, a few things will come to light as there will be an episode that shows:
a. Greg does eventually play on the high school football team and
b. Carol should know a lot more about football than what she sees on TV as it is eventually learned that her high school beau was a big time football player.
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Thanks for commenting Tripp! I was thinking about the stolen playbook episode but wasn’t sure if Greg was playing on the team.
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1) Baskets on bicycles was pretty common, but Greg looks like a total dork riding that thing. Sometimes the basket would be attached to the back, although that may have been more common on spider bikes.
2) A flanker back is a wide receiver that lines up wide of the line of scrimmage, but is a yard behind the line. In football, the offense has to have seven men on the line of scrimmage, and only the two outside players are eligible to catch a pass. The other five (of the seven) comprise the offensive line. Later on, this player was known simply as a flanker. Other players who go out for a pass line up either a yard off of the line of scrimmage or in the backfield.
3) Very good point by Tripp that Carol should have been more knowledgeable about football that she’s depicted in these scenes, since she dated the best player Westdale ever produced.
4) Mike’s spraining the tongue “joke” was indeed lame.
5) Even as kids, we thought it was really stupid of Alice to write the recipe on the chalk board. Ever hear of paper, Alice? School was in session, the kids would have had paper on hand if she didn’t have any herself. But Alice wrote quite a number of letters to various people during the series, so she must have had some paper in her room.
6) lol, I agree with you, I don’t think it would be possible for Alice not to know if she used lemon or lime in the recipe.
7) Re: Greg’s play that he “invented”…nothing unusual about it. A run here, a block there, of course it works out that the team scores a “TD”… he acts like it’s the most unstoppable play ever. But almost every play ever invented was designed to reach the end zone, except for short yardage plays.
8) Re: Pizza “place”…that’s what we would have called it in those days.
9) Bobby’s trying to embarrass Greg in front of Linette was definitely dumb. Not that little brothers don’t do that, but Bobby’s lines were just dumb… But, I did like the way Linette plays along with Bobby and tells him that they’ll be lucky if Greg even remembers them once he becomes a big football star. That was cute. She made it work.
10) And yeah, other than Kym Karath, I thought the girl who played Linette was easily the cutest and prettiest guest star to ever appear on the Brady Bunch. She was very sweet and had “cheerleader” written all over her. Very nice bit of casting there.
11) lol, we always wondered what happened to Greg in math class that caused a bruise like that. Bumping one’s arm on a desk or a door wouldn’t even do that. I did kind of like Greg’s comment that he’ll be happy to give up math class if Carol thinks it might be too dangerous.
12) lol, “After Shower Return Towels”.
13) Re: the “candid” photos taken by Bobby… when he takes Marcia’s picture, she’s in the kitchen eating a radish … she makes a face because it has a bitter taste. Bobby takes her picture at that moment. Now, Bobby is shorter than Marcia… But later, when the picture is developed and we see it for the first time, doesn’t it look like the picture was taken by someone who is taller than Marcia? Doesn’t that picture look “down” on her a little, not up as Bobby would have?
Same thing with the picture of Peter… Bobby is underneath Peter in the bottom bunk, but doesn’t the picture we see of Peter look like it was taken from a couple of feet away from the bed, looking up at him? It should have looked like it was taken from the bottom bunk, but it didn’t.
Seems like only the pictures of Alice looked like they were taken by someone who is shorter than her.. I’m not sure about the picture of Cindy and Jan.
14) Good catch on the football uniforms/helmets mix-up.
Never noticed that!
15) Alice sure had great timing re: her choice of dinners… ribs, indeed!
16) Mike and Carol definitely had different ideas about the possibility of Greg playing again once he heals up. Carol wanted no part of it but Mike seemed to suggest that Greg could play again, once he’s completely healed.
17) Re: Bobby and Greg’s photography equipment. I supposed they could have acquired it from someone who was getting rid of it, or maybe a former owner put an add in the paper to sell it and Greg bought it. I think it would have been an expensive hobby if they bought brand new development equipment
18) I guess I can’t blame Greg for not wanting to be a water boy or an equipment manager (although I would think the team would already have those spots filled if the season is starting), especially since he worked his way up to a starting position (wonder if he beat out Warren Mullaney?).
19) Greg was a total jerk for thinking Linette only cared about him because he was a starter on the football team. But fortunately for him, she is indeed a very sweet girl and forgives him.
20) Good catch noticing the switch from a conjured up recipe to one that was handed down for generations.
21) It was beyond ridiculous that the enlarged picture would have turned out that clear to show the receiver’s feet in bounds.
22) Speaking of the receiver, why would the quarterback throw a pass that close to the sideline when there are absolutely no defenders anywhere to be found??
I guess there’s one possible scenario…The only thing that might cause that is that the pass was deflected by a pass rusher and floated over to the sideline where the receiver had to make a spectacular play to stay in bounds.
Far fetched, I know, but what else makes sense?
With no one being within 20 yards of the receiver, the QB should just throw it to him instead of threading the needle with a sideline pass.
This was kind of a silly episode, it takes some real life situations and takes them to an extreme, while trying to tie the sub plots together. I can still enjoy this episode today, and having Linette in there sure does help. She was a babe!
Great job on the review!
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As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts Tweety! You know a lot about football! Are you are former player or just a fan? The other scenario I thought about for the lonely picture of only Linette and the receiver was the quarterback was blitzed and he had to fire off a pass as quickly as possible. As it was tossed under duress, the one open receiver had to reach far to catch it. As I thought of this scenario, it came to mind that we should have seen an referee someplace in the shot!
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Yes, I pretty much played everything. Had a lot of fun! lol, there’s definitely should have been a referee SOMEWHERE on that field! If Greg’s coach wanted to protest the call, he could have argued that the side judge was out of position to see the play…and I mean REALLY out of position!
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1. Yes, Greg looked like a dork riding the bicycle with the basket on it. I recently visited Chicago with my big brother and we rented bikes that had baskets on them. Surprisingly, I didn’t complain about it.
2. The wide receiver is my favorite position in football. I’m tall and lean, and can run very quickly. It makes sense that “flankerback” is synonymous with “wide receiver.” It’s ironic how “wide receivers” are generally the thinnest players on a football team.
3. Yes, Carol should’ve been more knowledgeable about football, but she’s done a lot of growing up and has moved on from her past relationships, and her interests have changed over time.
4. Agreed.
5. I don’t get why Alice had to write down the recipe on a chalkboard. Who does that?
6. Only Alice would know if she used lemon or lime in her recipe.
7. This is where we draw the line between “football” (aka soccer) and “American football.” Unlike soccer, which is played all over the world, “American football” involves players on the line of scrimmage, the seperation between the offense and defense teams, and the teams scoring “touchdowns” by advancing the ball in the opponent’s end zone.
8. “Pizza Place” seems like a weak description. Whenever my friends and I eat pizza, we reference the name of the place. Also, I’m surprised nobody has referred to the pizza restaurant as “the pizza plaza.” In an earlier episode, Marcia informs Jan that she will meet up with Warren at the “pizza parlor.”
9. Bobby was indeed an embarrassment, but Linette was surprisingly cool with it.
10. Those two women were my favorite “one-time” female stars in The Brady Bunch. However, I really liked Marge (the female game operator) from “The Cincinnati Kids.”
11. Perhaps Greg could’ve been injured in math class if the teacher dropped a calculator or pencil sharpener on his back, or slapped him with a ruler. My mother had an abrasive father who would whip her brothers with belts if they misbehaved. If Greg didn’t pass math, then he probably wouldn’t have graduated high school.
12. I found that funny as well.
13. That’s a really good observation! Perhaps Mike Lookinland stood on an apple box to get a good angle while photographing Marcia. For Peter, I would assume that Mike Lookinland either stood up or sat in a chair to take a photo of Peter.
14. Talk about mismatched uniforms!
15. Alice’s dialogue was meant to be a punchline, since midway throughout the episode, Greg fractures a rib during a football game.
16. Mothers are more emotional than fathers and constantly worry about their kids. Mike probably had a different opinion because he himself is a guy and had close friends who played football in high school.
17. Yes, all the photography equipment looked super expensive. I wonder how Greg and Bobby acquired and afforded the equipment. Reapplying photographic film and color plates would increase Greg and Bobby’s expenses if they were serious about this hobby.
18. I worked as a water boy when I was the manager for the freshman boys’ basketball team in 11th grade. I had a lot of fun, and really got to know these kids on a personal level.
19. Yes, Linelle forgave Greg, but she would’ve accepted Greg for who he was, regardless of whether or not he participated in sports.
20. Another stray observation.
21. I’m amazed by that scene with the enlarged photo. This was way before photography had high-definite resolution, where you could literally see every nook and cranny within a photograph. Perhaps Greg mastered the different types of apertures to get closer shots of the athletes playing football.
22. That’s what I’m asking. I guess he was really confident that his team would win the football game, but he really should’ve thrown the football towards the other end.
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I remember seeing this episode sometime before I was 10 years old, because I got my first camera for Christmas that year. It took 126 cartridges (remember those?) and had a built-in battery-operated flash, so I never had to buy flash cubes. Anyway inspired by Bobby I took candid pictures of 1 of my sisters and, I think, my brother too.
When she was taking photography classes at a local community college, my mom managed to borrow an enlarger from her college and turned a bathroom into her personal darkroom. I remember it looking a lot like the contraption that Mike & Greg used. I don’t think their efforts could come to anything in the real world, as I’ve never known a game result to be overturned by later evidence or even referee mistakes. I know of at least 2 college football games that had an unintended result when the team that ended up winning was given 5 downs, instead of 4, leading to the winning touchdown.
I think this episode introduced the blackboard in the kitchen, as I don’t remember seeing it in any episode before this one. Does anyone know for sure?
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Note the differences between the two games in which the final results were treated (from Wikipedia):
[Cornell-Dartmouth, 1940:] “Officials discovered their error after reviewing the game films. Cornell’s players, coach Carl Snavely, acting athletic director Bob Kane, and President Edmund Ezra Day, a Dartmouth alumnus, agreed that Cornell should send a telegram to Dartmouth offering to forfeit the game. Dartmouth accepted.”
[Colorado-Missouri, 1990:] “Colorado football coach Bill McCartney, a former Missouri Tigers player, did little to soothe the controversy. Asked whether he would consider forfeiting the game, McCartney declared that he had considered it but decided against it because “the field was lousy.” He complained about Missouri’s notorious Omniturf artificial turf surface, which he said had caused repeated slips and falls during the game.
Missouri chancellor Haskell Monroe appealed to the Big Eight, arguing that since Colorado’s game-winning touchdown had come on a play that should have never been run, Missouri should be declared the winner 31-27. However, he was rebuffed by Big Eight commissioner Carl James, who said in a statement that “the allowance of the fifth down to Colorado is not a post-game correctable error,” and therefore Colorado’s win would stand.”
I only remember the large blackboard the Bradys used to track the kids’ medical histories in “Is There A Doctor in the House?”
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Great piece of history Mangler! Thanks for sharing.
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That fifth down play became even more notorious when Colorado wound up co-winning the National Championship that year. On the game winning TD against Missouri it’s also highly debatable whether or not the Colorado QB actually crossed the goal line.
Then of course there was Colorado’s Orange Bowl game that season against Notre Dame where Rocket Ismail’s incredible TD on a punt return got called back on the infamous”phantom clip” call. While there doesn’t appear to be a clip during that return there was a block from a Colorado player that was awfully close to being a block in the back which also would have negated the TD.
I feel kind of bad for Colorado football fans. Their university’s only National Championship to date is mired in controversy because of those 2 games.
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Just a quick correction to my post about the Colorado-Notre Dame Orange Bowl game. That questionable block in the back foul was committed by Notre Dame not Colorado.
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It’s seen in other episodes, but not always used. It was used to keep track of how many calls the boys got about the found wallet and in the episode when Bobby comes home to an empty house and washes his dirty clothes- there’s a message for him to do his homework. (That episode shows Bobby in the laundry under a mound of suds and when Carol and Alice come in, Florence Henderson almost causes a retake because she almost cracks up laughing, while Ann B. Davis manages to get through the scene-it would have been a tough scene to re-do!)
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Mangler,
It’s nice to learn that, after creating Batman, Bob Kane became an acting athletic director.
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Thanks Jon H and Tweety for confirming my suspicions that the capability of blowing up the photo to that extreme is a product of Hollywood.
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There is a classic film from 1948 that carries this concept to an even greater extreme. It is “Call Northside 777” starring James Stewart. He plays a journalist trying to uncover evidence that a man convicted of murder eleven years before was actually innocent. It all comes down to his blowing up an eleven-year-old photograph to the point where he can read the date on a newspaper in the background! I’m not so sure that’s possible today, let alone in 1948.
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I had one of those Instamatic cameras when I was growing up, and I can concur with Bobby not wanting to miss a frame when he accidentally over-wound the film advance (“You can’t get it back to 8”).
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One other thing about the blown up photo… if you look at the original photo with Linette in it, she herself appears a little blurry because she’s in motion, jumping up and down. And she was what Greg was focusing on (can’t blame him!).
So if Linette, who was the subject of the photo, was as blurry as she was, how could the receiver’s feet be as clear as they were after Greg “blew up” the picture, considering the distance involved ?
This was kind of a silly episode, it takes some real life situations and takes them to an extreme, while trying to tie the sub plots together. I can still enjoy this episode today, and having Linette in there sure does help.
Great job on the review!
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Tweety made excellent points! I concur that Linette was top of the line; she was always my very favorite girlfriend, because of her sweetness to go along with her beauty. In this way, she topped Kym Karath (Kerry) and Cindy Crosby (Sandra), to say nothing of the manipulative Tannis Montgomery (Jennifer).
I had a friend whose brother developed his own pictures back in those days. I saw the darkroom several times, and it had the same type of equipment, though the large piece was not as large as it was in this episode. And there was no way that a player in the back of the picture could have been blown up to that level of closeness.
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Thanks for that added photography expertise!
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http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Elvera+Roussel
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“To just barge in on somebody in the bathroom of all places and snap a pic is never a good idea.” Just a reminder that, whether you expect it or not, the camera is watching you… .
Football must be a big deal where the Bradys live; so many people in the stands watching a “practice game”. The continuity error reminded me that the San Francisco 49ers used to wear silver helmets before they switched to gold helmets, and red helmets before that. Or maybe Greg was hit much harder than originally thought, picking up an opposing player’s helmet by mistake.
There’s no guarantee that Alice’s recipe would be legible from that last photo. Perhaps Alice should have scrawled the recipe on the wall instead of a blackboard, just like Oscar once did with all those hot phone numbers in The Odd Couple. It’s less likely that anyone would come along and paint over the numbers like Felix did.
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I like your thought on the impact of Greg’s hit causing him to grab the wrong helmet. As for Alice’s recipe, if the Brady photo lab could enlarge that receiver’s feet, that chalkboard might as well have been a photo all its own!
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Well Alice knew her recipe she just forgot it. It wouldn’t have to be totally legible, she’d just need to read enough to job her memory.
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This is a very solid episode with decent storylines and no slapstick. Carol’s comment in reply to Greg saying “A guy could get hurt falling in his bathtub” and her response, “Sure, but he doesn’t have two other guys in the bathtub with him trying to knock him down!” is classic! That is one of the funniest lines in the series! It cracks me up to this day!
The situations with the blackboard getting erased were funny, but this this instance, believably is shot out the window. The Brady’s have no message pad paper in the house! LOL! Alice does not have a recipe card file box? Some ladies who cooked had recipe carousels in their kitchens, where you could store paper with anything on it on a rotating wheel. I think there were alphabetical letters that you could put on the carousel to find what you were looking for easily. The Cake recipe is also flawed:
If Alice says it’s “The Best Cake I ever created.” She would not have forgotten her own secret recipe, as she laments. I know Mothers and Grandmothers who cooked by ear, but they had their own recipes handed down for decades. They were memorized because generations loved them so much. If you are going to cook or bake something “Handed down from generation to generation” you have that recipe committed to memory, because you’ve done it 50-100 times, or you have it written in a safe place because it’s sentimental to you. Nobody would use a blackboard for something that they wanted to persevere for a long period of time.
I had a camera just like Bobby’s in this episode! Given the distance from which Bobby took the cake recipe pictures and the low quality of the camera with pictures taken by an 11-year old kid, I doubt that the photographs shown in this episode would have come out that clearly. Greg’s camera, maybe, but where would a 16-17 year old get s camera and equipment like that to produce such high-quality shots? When Peter and Bobby claim to see a UFO in the “Out of this World” episode, it is Carol, not Mike, or Greg who develops the pictures. Just one of several continuity errors where the abilities and skills of the Brady clan change from season to season. It is obvious that many, if not all of the pictures taken by Bobby, were re-shot post-production, to show more realistic detail on close up viewing.. Several retakes may have been necessary as well. The enlarged photo of the pass receiver’s legs on the controversial called play, I am told was not the same photo that Greg took when picture was regular size. It is claimed that the receiver’s legs are in a different position.
What was Greg doing in Math Class to get a bruise that large? Loved his comment to Carol that I’ll be happy to quit Math if you think it’s too dangerous.” The writers could have said that Greg got hurt in gym or even at football practice, but than his response to carol would not have worked.
I liked the sub-plots in this episode. A little more believable thought using something other than a blackboard for Alice’s cake recipe, and having a more realistic way for Greg to bruise his arm, would have moved this episode from very good to great.
Jack
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Thanks Jack for sharing that camera knowledge. As always, your thoughts are most appreciated!
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Agree that for the most part this is a good episode. Not a personal favorite by any means, but still realistic.
I would’ve down-rated the episode due to production concerns I note below, particularly with the photos of Linette cheerleading and smiling like a narcissist instead of watching the game at a climatic point in the game when the outcome was on the line and her cheering would be expected. (If I were her coach, I’d have taken away her pom poms on the spot and demanded she turn in her sweater then and there.)
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Bobaloo,
I think Tweety would be the first to vote for you as Linette’s head coach, if you promised to follow through on your demand she turn in her sweater then and there.
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Carol is worried about Greg playing football. Does anyone remember last season when Peter played football? Carol did not seem the least bit concerned about Peter playing football.
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Great continuity catch! I’d never even thought of that.
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Different levels of play — youth football (which by Peter’s age in 1970 would mean no more flag/touch football) vs. high school, where things are a little more serious.
And remember, if this were shot in the 2010s, Carol would be fraught with worries about concussions and — later in life — her son(s) coming down with symptoms consistent with CTE. The Bradys were blissfully unaware of those concerns in 1971.
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Apparently, neither did Carol.
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That’s a good observation!
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Perhaps Carol wasn’t worried and then Peter got hurt (in an unmentioned episode of his life) and now Carol had reason to worry. Of course a simple “Remember when Peter played,” in the script could’ve covered any continuity error and but the writes didn’t think of it.
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“He will get a movie camera and a press pass. A press pass? For a high school football game?”
I’m not sure how things worked in 1971 — heck, I wasn’t even born yet (about 1 1/2 months away from entering this world), and I’ve never asked — or in southern California, where it never rains. (Yeah, a funny, since Albert Hammond didn’t come out with such a song until late in 1972). Or if they still work that way now.
I do know, working as a sports editor and having covered high school sports for many years (as both a sports reporter, general assignment reporter and managing editor of a weekly newspaper), that at least at the regional level — for those who don’t know, that’s post-season playoffs — they require you to have a press pass and show it to get in and be directed to where the media goes. They generally don’t in my state … if the gate person knows you from coming long enough, they’ll let you in, and most of the others from other schools will just let you in if you say you’re a member of the media. But it’s very possible that some high schools require press/media passes and display it to be allowed in certain areas.
In any case, the climatic scene where Greg and Mike are enlarging the photos (to reveal their belief that the referees blew a call on a game-deciding pass play) … I agree. This looks like these photos were taken during a practice or JV game, and it’s not set up realistically either. Wouldn’t Linette have been paying attention and watching the game, rather than smiling for the camera? Wouldn’t there be a full sideline of team personnel (coaches, managers, players, ball boys, trainers and maybe even the athletic director) and perhaps the line judge, photographers and TV crews, etc. … and oh yeah the cheerleaders? I’d guess they used stock footage of a high school game from somewhere in the Los Angeles/San Diego area, but the camera shots don’t seem to back up that they were in the same stadium or — given (again) this is likely stock footage — a reasonably similar stadium.
As far as the game-deciding pass play itself goes — one foot in and one foot out equaling an incomplete pass — I don’t know how the rules were in 1971, except that many rules have changed over the past (almost) 50 years. I do know that current NFHS rules state that if a pass is completed with one foot in and one foot out (either the sideline or end zone) it is considered a complete pass, whereas in the NFL both feet must be inbounds.
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I suppose younger fans haven’t heard some old football terms before. Technically, for receivers, the split end is the X receiver and the tight end is the Y– the X and Y both play on the line to meet the requirement of 7 on the line of scrimmage; that is, within a yard of the line. The X (split end) is ‘split’ at least a few yards from the rest of the linemen, and the Y is normally in ‘tight’ close to the line. So the other wide receiver is the Z- rarely called the “flanker” or “wingback” any more. But he is a back, not a lineman, so he lines up at least a yard behind the line of scrimmage. If the Z did line up on the line, that is a legal formation, but since he “covers” the Y, then the Y is not an eligible receiver on that play.
In much older times, football just lined up with everybody “in tight,” with the 7 linemen and 4 backs and just rammed the defense, which led to many serious injuries. To keep the game from being banned, then leagues made rule changes, including making the forward pass legal. These changes developed new strategies which led to needing one more outside receiver and one less back in the backfield. Hence, a back was made a receiver though he had to be behind the line… This was the flanker– because he was ‘flanked’– or the wingback, or the Z man.
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This would have been a logical episode for the Bradys to remember that they are a blended family. I can’t imagine Greg wouldn’t greatly resent that his stepmother of less than three years is preventing him from playing football.
I also really liked Linette Carter – not only for her beauty but for her intellectualism as well. I wish we had seen her multiple times instead of the dull Rachel. But Elvera Roussell wasn’t the producer’s daughter.
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I liked this episode and thought it was good. Some funny moments and some ridiculously funny.
I have never seen that scene that is on the DVD where Mike shows up with the football. They seem to like to make Mike look good regarding sports stuff. lol In Her sister’s shadow, he shoots the basketball and scores then this episode he catches an interception. lol
I didn’t really notice it until I have been watching the DVDs but RR is sure tall. Some of his pants just make him look taller maybe.
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According to Lloyd Schwartz, Robert Reed was 6’2″, which I think anyone outside of a pro basketball team would consider to be tall.
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Elvera Roussel What’s the regular on the Guiding Light for about four years. She was on the cover of many soap opera magazines.
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*was a regular
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Here are 5 things I liked about this episode:
1. Mike catching the football as he pulls in the driveway.
2. Carol getting worried when Greg tells her that he plays football.
3. “Don’t argue about it, Greg.” – Coach
4. Bobby takes up photography as a hobby.
5. Greg’s pink outfit.
Here are 5 things I disliked about this episode:
6. Carol forbidding Greg from playing football.
7. Greg erasing Alice’s recipe on the chalkboard and replacing it with a football simulation. The offense team is represented by X’s and the defense team is represented by O’s.
8. Bobby takes very embarrassing photos, but they turn out to be hilarious.
9. “I don’t even do this many routines in a football game.” – Linette
10. Carol is a little overprotective of Greg in this episode, but she’s the mother and mothers worry about their kids.
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This episode was a stinker. Carol was way to intrusive about Greg playing football. Alice was annoying about the recipe, just write it down! Bobby’s photo shots of everyone was the best part about this episode.
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I’m willing to cut a little more slack regarding Alice using the blackboard to try and recall her secret recipe. She could always erase whatever part didn’t look quite right without obliterating the entire recipe. Plus it provided the perfect visual for the running jokes to work.
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“After shower return towels” may not be referring to the players trying to steal the towels in their gym bag on the way out, but rather to return them to the dirty towel bin where they picked up the clean towel instead of leaving the towel in the shower or by the lockers for someone else to collect.
While I agree that opening a bathroom door and snapping a picture may not be a wise decision, it is plausible that Bobby heard the sisters talking and giggling and knew that there would be nothing inappropriate about the surprise picture.
I also thought that the Head Coach and 3 assistants coming to the locker room in the middle of the game to tend to Greg’s injury was a bit much. Was anyone still coaching the team??
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“Click” is a solid, entertaining episode that gracefully blends Greg’s struggles of playing football with Bobby developing in interest in photography. Here are my thoughts:
1. It’s probably a good thing that Greg waited for Mike to come home to tell Carol that he made the football team. Carol is clearly worried about her son playing a sport where men with shoulder pads try to kill each other.
2. I’ve never heard the term “flanker back.” In fact, we never know what position Greg plays for in football. Since he wears a #23 jersey, there’s a pretty good chance Greg is a running back.
3. Only Alice would forget her recipe… And why does she feel the need to jot down her recipe on a chalkboard? Nowadays, people would do it on a dry-erase board. I never really cared for chalkboards that much. They would always get dusty really fast.
4. I think it’s impressive that Mike was able to catch a football and park his car in the driveway simultaneously.
5. Greg wears a lavender outfit that we previously seen in “The Personality Kid.” I sure dig the fashion from the ’70s.
6. Out of all of Greg’s girlfriends and love interests, I think Lanette was the most genuine. Too bad she didn’t appear in any subsequent BB episodes.
7. Greg suggests going to the “pizza place” with Lanette for a date. Of course, I thought about “My Sister, Benedict Arnold” and how Marcia went on a date with Warren Mullaney at the “pizza parlor.” Does the pizza restaurant not have a name? In fact, is it even the same restaurant as the “pizza parlor?”
8. While Bobby was sort of annoying in this episode, at least he’s not incredibly obnoxious. He was jealous that Greg is at this point in his life where he’s interested in girls and going on dates.
9. The next scene has Carol noticing a bruise on Greg’s shoulder and surmising that he received it from football practice. Greg, of course, mentions that he received that bruise from math class. Perhaps Greg bumped into one of those hand-cranking pencil sharpeners mounted on the wall or one of his classes struck him with a ruler because he was talking the entire class.
10. I loved the montage of Bobby improving his photography skills by taking embarrassing photos of his siblings and Alice. I thought Marcia and Alice’s photos were the funniest! Bobby should’ve not barged into the Jack-and-Jill bathroom to take a photo of Jan and Cindy, and to wake up Peter minutes after he fell asleep.
11. Good eye on the establishing shot! Greg should’ve been wearing a gold helmet.
12. Needless to say, Mike and Carol are worried about Greg playing football when they learn that he injures his rib. I’m not sure if Greg genuinely enjoys the sport of football or is playing the sport solely to impress Lanette.
13. Ironic how Alice cooked ribs for dinner on the same day Greg injured his rib.
14. I wonder how much Greg and Bobby are paying for all that photography equipment? I’m also impressed how Bobby, a nine-year-old boy is already proficient with the camera and knows how to develop photos, but those photos were developed with an instant camera. Maybe Mike and Carol helped Bobby develop them off-screen.
15. Yes, this is the loudest I’ve heard Alice scream throughout the Brady Bunch.
16. I don’t think Lanette was the only cheerleader for the team. There were probably a handful of other cheerleaders, but some of them might have been sitting on the bench or rehearsing their cheers six or seven feet away from Lanette.
17. Thanks to Bobby taking a photograph with the chalkboard, Alice can finally recall her own secret recipe.
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Great thoughts as always!! Interesting thoughts on Lynette being the only cheerleader in the photo. It’s possible the rest of the squad was rehearsing. I love 1960s fashion. Those slim ties and bold colors and sharp lines were amazing.
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One thing I found surprising about Elvera Roussel was that she was born March 28, 1948 and that made her 23 years old here when she played Linette Carter. She did not look that old at all.
Also a few episodes ago Bonnie Boland played the kookie Myrna Carter who ruined the Brady’s commercial by giving them acting lessons. I wonder if someone behind the scenes has the last name of Carter.
I agree Elvera was very pretty and her beauty was subtle and laid back and didn’t jump in your face the way the other pretty girls on the Brady Bunch.
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This is the 4th ep I have this blog to thank for bringing to my attention. I vaguely recall Alice hugging Bobby over a photo he took and that’s about it. Maybe it is one I never fully saw, as I don’t recall ever seeing film of a football game before.
The actress playing Lynette looks familiar from somewhere else, but not sure where.
Greg’s lavender outfit was … really out there, man.
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I always loved on TV/movies when enlarging a picture results in a crisp image. I’ve done this on photo shop, and all I get are fuzzy.pixelated results.
What good would showing the photo to the coach right away prove? The game was over and all decisions, right or wrong, are final… unless you can prove that an official was paid off or something. The photo might only have been valuable if the coach wanted to show the ref calling the play that he was an idiot.
In a previous episode with Peter being teased by his team mates for being in the Glee Club, Carol had no objection to Peter playing football. The coach had every intention of sidelining Greg until his injury was healed and not making him play dispite it.
I’m surprised Greg never got a ribbing from his fellow players: “Whatsa’ matter, Gwegie? Mommie won’t let you pway football anymore because you got a boo-boo?”
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