Here`s the story of a girl not named Brady but who probably should be.
So intense is Erin Smith`s devotion to the 1970s ”The Brady Bunch”
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step-family sitcom that she has created a publishing tribute to it.
”To me, it was like the perfect show,” says Smith, 19, and the creator of Teenage Gang Debs, a fan magazine, or fanzine, devoted to the show. (The title is co-opted from a 1960s B female bikers film.) ”The plots are pretty universal. . . and you can learn a lot about the `70s.”
Smith, who has all 117 episodes of the show on tape, and her brother, Don, periodically produce the publication, which mines the ”legacy” of the show now being adopted by a new generation of teenagers because of the proliferation of reruns.
The no-frills magazine-”It`s definitely a Xerox thing”-also explores the terrain of other `60s and `70s popular culture.
What`s in Debs? Recent offerings include an interview with Stan Livingston, who played Chip on ”My Three Sons,” a compilation of TV Guide`s synopses of the episodes of the ”Gidget” series and an interview with Eve Plumb, who played daughter Jan Brady.
Brother and sister traveled six hours from their home in Bethesda, Md., to a lodge in the Poconos to talk with Plumb, who was appearing there in
”South Pacific.”
Though some Bradyophiles may be disappointed at Plumb`s apparent failure to share the sibings` affection for the show (”I was just doing my job, I didn`t have any input. It was just a TV show; let`s get real”), others may enjoy hearing about the cumbersome shooting of the show`s ”Hollywood Squares- style” introduction.
The fanzine has earned raves from the Village Voice, the Washington Post and the teen-chronicle Sassy magazine. Smith says that fans of the show and the era in general are snapping up the publication, by mail or at some newsstands in New York, Los Angeles or the Smiths` native Bethesda, Md.
It`s all very satisfying for Smith, a radio and television major who would like to continue writing after graduation from the University of Maryland but is reluctant to temper her publication for a mainstream audience. ”We`re not making fun of it,” she says, ”but we`re very wacky.”
For a $2 copy of Debs, write: P.O. Box 1754, Bethesda, Md. 208027-1754.