The Brady Bunch star Susan Olsen, who portrayed Cindy Brady in the beloved Seventies sitcom, has claimed a revival series was axed due to her controversial views and support for Donald Trump.
In a recent appearance on the Walk Away Campaign podcast, Olsen said a reboot of The Brady Bunch, which originally aired from 1969 to 1974, was in the works at CBS Studios. However, the revival series was scrapped, she claims, by the network over her past remarks on Covid-19 vaccines and the LGBTQ+ community.
According to Olsen, now 63, the new series was expected to follow the Brady Bunch children as adults, with her playing a libertarian podcaster. Following the end of the original Brady Bunch, Olsen became a political radio show host. She was fired from LA Talk Radio’s Two Chicks Talkin’ Politics in 2016 after an incident with openly gay actor Leon Acord-Whiting, who called her “a Trump fanatic” and accused her of spreading “outrageous misinformation” on the show. He then posted a screenshot of a private message Olsen had allegedly sent him, in which she used a homophobic slur, per Entertainment Weekly.
At the time, LA Talk Radio issued the statement: “We will not tolerate hateful speech by anyone associated with our radio station and have severed our ties with a host that veered off the direction in which we are going.”
Speaking on the podcast, Olsen claimed the Brady Bunch revival was in early development for about a year before CBS expressed concerns over her past comments. She was allegedly questioned by producers of the show on how to move forward and appease the network, including taking a “political correctness” course.
“I did have a phone call with my [TV] siblings and my agent,” Olsen said. “Everybody was saying, ‘We’re sorry, but they just won’t budge. They just will not have you in this.’ I’m like, ‘Wow, I’ve been canceled. A role that I’ve played for over 50 years, I can’t play it now because I’m too dangerous.’ I was like, ‘Well, okay guys, good luck, I hope you can sell it.’”
Olsen said the studio “did a web search and they came up with 50 pages” of comments she had made on social media “and the resounding result was, ‘No, we cannot have her in a show. If we go forward with this project, it will not be with her.’”
The actor added: “To be honest, those 50 pages were my greatest hits. I stand by everything I said. I don’t just say things.”
Ultimately, Olsen claimed CBS would not agree to follow through with her involvement in the revival unless she declared she was “wrong about everything, which was never going to happen.”
“No, I’m done. At this point, you’re going to have a woke Brady Bunch, and I want no part of it,” Olsen said she told her agent.
According to the actor, the Brady Bunch revival series was going to thrust the family into the modern era, with one of Jan Brady’s children as trans and one of the Bradys with a Black spouse. However, she said the reboot is now “dead in the water.”
A source told The Independent the issue with casting Olsen was not due to her political views or support for Trump, but rather her “controversial comments and hate speech,” which she has noted she still stands by.
The Independent has contacted CBS for comment.
While Olsen clarified she is “technically” a libertarian herself, she admitted she doesn’t fully agree with the party and has considered joining the Republican Party to vote in primaries.
Following her portrayal of Cindy Brady in the original series, Olsen reprised her role in the subsequent series The Brady Kids, The Brady Bunch Hour, and The Bradys. She also appeared alongside her former co-stars in the 2019 HGTV reality series A Very Brady Renovation, in which the iconic house used for exterior shots in the original sitcom was renovated.
