The D Word
When Sherwood Schwartz told the network that Carol Brady was going to play a divorced woman, the network flat out refused this as “divorce” was a taboo topic back then. So they compromised, Mike was known as a widower but Carol’s background was kept quiet. In fact when Florence Henderson was asked what happened to her husband, she joked that she killed him.
The D Word
In The Closet
From one taboo topic to another, gay actors stayed in the closet as fiercely as possible as they were afraid of public disappointment. Robert Reed, aka Mike Brady, was no exception. Florence Henderson had noticed early on that Reed was uncomfortable during romantic scenes, eventually in private he admitted the truth. As a result the pair worked around it, rehearsing kissing and hugging off-camera, in order to appear like a more natural couple when filming. Bonus fact: the entire cast kept Reed’s homosexuality a secret, even after his death.
In The Closet