For all of the little kiddies of a certain age, gathering around the color TV on Friday night to watch the Brady Bunch was an adolescent highlight and especially if the episode was about some crazy Jan antics. George Glass anyone? Big black afro wig? Marcia, Marcia, Marcia? You get the drift.
Well after the series became less than groovy and was eventually cancelled, the cast realigned themselves with the then power house production team of Sid and Marty Kroft and repackaged themselves into a singing dancing variety hour known to fans and the world over as…The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.
It was legendarily awful. Really bad TV in fact it was so bad that it has now reached the level of Cult status. It was so bad that crazy Jan (Eve Plumb) preferred NOT to be associated with it or the enormous swimming pool that was populated with the enchanting Kroffette Water Follies. Thus began the story of and known to legions of fans as, “Fake Jan”.
Fake Jan (Geri Reischl) was the poor victim who was chosen to replace the real Jan. She was terrible and better than that she was beyond terrible. She was actually not a bad singer or dancer and she was rather attractive. BUT she was NO Jan! It robbed the loyal viewers of the opportunity to ridicule the original crazy Jan as she would have warbled and clod hopped her way through embarrassingly elaborately staged and choreographed disco numbers.
The rabid cult stalkers know January 2 as Fake Jan Day. Everyone should celebrate this momentous occasion for what it is, the day that commemorates a young girls dreams of a Hollywood career being dashed and ruined as she is to be forever associated with her one shot at stardom, Fake Jan.
I’ve always identified as a Jan. I’m a middle child with crazy tendencies but I overcame those obstacles to become a Marcia, Marcia, Marcia. I saved my pennies and when the classroom received it’s Weekly Reader magazine I ordered three lovely posters of Marcia. To be hung on the wall in sequential order of my spell-casting dungeon…Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.
Sadly one of the Marcia’s was damaged beyond repair and another is wrinkled and has broken glass in the frame. This Marcia is facing some serious Marcia conservation and the one good surviving Marcia is beginning to fade into the ether. Now I only have the two, Marcia, Marcia’s and for now they are safely ensconced in my magic attic. One day I’ll find the missing Marcia and her magic trilogy of power will once again be restored granting me the all powerful magical menacing Marcia alluring charms that is the Power of the Three Marcia’s.
