This 7-Season Sitcom Streaming for Free Completely Ripped Off ‘The Brady Bunch’

Quick — name a sitcom about a family where a single dad with three children marries a single mother who also has three children, forming a blended family. Hint: The mom’s name is Carol. If you said The Brady Bunch, you’re right. If you said Step by Step, you are also right. Airing 20 years after The Brady Bunch, Step by Step is, for all intents and purposes, the same show, simply uprooted and dropped into Wisconsin in the 1990s. The similarities didn’t go unnoticed, with one reviewer calling Step by Step the “Nitwit’s Brady Bunch.” Yet the series found success as part of ABC’s famed TGIF lineup, and stayed on air for seven seasons, two more than its predecessor’s five, bolstered by its resemblance — and strengthened by its differences — to its 1970s kin.

Similarities Between ‘Step by Step’ and ‘The Brady Bunch’ Abound

How alike are The Brady Bunch and Step by Step? Close enough that the creator of The Brady Bunch, Sherwood Schwartz, claimed that they “stole my show” and did, at one point, contemplate filing a lawsuit over it. Furthermore, he derided the show being promoted as a “Brady Bunch for the 1990s” as riding on the coattails of his work. He’s not wrong: even a cursory glance at the show is enough to recognize the brazen reproduction of his iconic creation.

The Brady Bunch, as per its revered theme song, has a lovely lady, with three very lovely girls (the youngest one in curls), meeting a man named Brady (Robert Reed), with three boys of his own, knowing, on more than a hunch, they’d form a family. Step by Step, meanwhile, has Patrick Duffy, marking his return to a weekly television series following Dallas, playing Frank Lambert, a father of two boys and one girl, while Suzanne Somers, whose previous sitcom She’s the Sheriff ended in 1989, plays Carol — yes, Carol as in “Carol Brady” — Lambert, the mother of two very lovely girls and one boy, sans curls. As for how they came together, Frank and Carol had a brief courtship before marrying while on vacation in Jamaica, while Mike and Carol’s meet-cute was never explained, so it could have been similar (and much friendlier than this dark take).

Two wholesome families, both dealing with the typical family sitcom issues, and both doing so in humorous, decidedly family-friendly ways. Each family even has an extended family member in the household: the Brady’s have their housekeeper, Alice (Ann B. Davis); while the Lambert’s have Frank’s nephew, Cody (Sasha Mitchell), who lives in his van in the driveway. Each show even has its own case of “Cousin Oliver Syndrome,” with Lilly, Frank and Carol’s biological daughter, joining Step by Step after being born at the end of Season 4 (and aged-up for Season 6, played by Emily Mae Young), while The Brady Bunch had cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist) himself. It’s little wonder why Schwartz was, as Cody would say, “cheesed off.”

Suzanne Somers Highlighted One of the Key Differences Between ‘The Brady Bunch’ and ‘Step by Step’

However, it’s not entirely fair to dismiss Step by Step as a note-for-note remake of The Brady Bunch. Both series have their overt similarities, but there are enough key differences between the two for Step by Step to stand on its own. The Brady Bunch had little to no trouble coming together as a real family, with the kids even joining Mike and Carol on their honeymoon. Step by Step, however, takes a more realistic approach that starts from the very first episode, with the children surprised and angered that Frank and Carol married, forcing them to become a family.

As such, the series saw a progression from their initial hostilities into becoming a cohesive family unit. This allowed room for the characters to grow, unlike their counterparts on The Brady Bunch, who largely maintained the status quo through all five seasons. That contemporary setting also gave Step by Step some edge, with storylines around sexual assault and suicide alongside more Brady-esque moments (“Letting Go” has Dana (Staci Keanan) sneezing around Cody all the time, so she must be allergic to him — it gets no more Brady Bunch than that).

But it’s Suzanne Somers herself that points out what is the biggest difference between the two shows. Joking with People about the differences between the two shows, Somers had this to say: “I don’t know if Florence Henderson and Robert Reed had it, but Patrick Duffy and I have great sex.” It’s funny, yes, but undeniably true. Frank and Carol are very loving with one another (Decider calls them the “horniest parents ever depicted in the family viewing hour”), while Mike and Carol… had their kids along on their honeymoon. So there you have it, but if you really want to see the Brady’s doing the 1990s properly, check out The Brady Bunch Movie.