‘The Brady Bunch’ Alum Maureen McCormick Called Barry Williams’ Date with Florence Henderson ‘Weird’: ‘Florence Was Married’

The Brady Bunch lives on in syndication to the delight of loyal fans. The sitcom continues to entertain viewers with the daily lives of one of America’s first blended families: Mike Brady (Robert Reed), his wife Carol (Florence Henderson), and their six kids: Greg (Barry Williams), Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Peter (Christopher Knight), Jan (Eve Plumb), Bobby (Mike Lookinland), and Cindy (Susan Olsen). Housekeeper Alice (Ann B. Davis) helped keep the busy household afloat.

With several crushes forming between the younger cast members, McCormick noted a brief pairing that she found to be a bit unorthodox.

Sparks start flying between Maureen McCormick and Barry Williams

In her memoir Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice, McCormick described an immediate attraction between herself and her onscreen sibling in the show’s first season.

“I also had a crush on Barry,” McCormick wrote of Williams. “I realized that he thought every girl had a crush on him – and to be fair, most of them did – but he liked me too.”

Apparently, their growing fondness for each other did not go unnoticed by the adults overseeing the series.

“We flirted shamelessly as we got to know each other,” The Brady Bunch alum revealed. “Nothing explicit would happen between us for a couple of seasons, but [show creator] Sherwood Schwartz and his son Lloyd, also an executive producer, watched the two of us closely, wondering not what if but when.“

Marcia and Greg and Mike and Carol?

McCormick revealed that in addition to Williams, she started developing a crush on Reed, who played her stepfather.

“I also liked working closely with Bob Reed in the ‘Father of the Year’ episode,” she wrote of the season 1 storyline, adding, “I always had a thing for older mend, including Bob … I used to imagine running off with him.”

Evidently, McCormick wasn’t the only one looking amorously at an older co-star. Williams also began setting his sights on Henderson, his TV mom.

“What was with us Brady kids?” McCormick remarked. “The following year Barry developed the hots for Florence, took her out on what he considered a dinner date, and gave her a good-night kiss.”

Barry Williams and Florence Henderson viewed their ‘date’ differently

McCormick was clearly perplexed by the pairing, even when discussing her co-stars’ outing decades later.

“That was weird,” The Brady Bunch star commented in her book of Henderson’s so-called date with Williams. “Florence was married (though her husband spent most of the time in New York) and more than twice Barry’s age. I want to believe she thought his puppy love was cute and she decided to play along. If you ask me, it’s still weird.”

Williams clarified what the evening entailed in an interview with NPR after Henderson’s death in 2016.

“Did I ask her out on a date? Yes, I did,” Williams stated, noting that Henderson saw her relationship to her young co-star as a mentor. “Now, I don’t think it was designed for romance and certainly not in her mind. … But she knew that I wanted music to be an important part of my career, and she was very established as a Broadway actress and as a singer. And I thought it would be nice to discuss some of those ideas and plans and how I might be able to use them over dinner.”

He added that while he saw something more of a romantic interlude, Henderson considered it career counseling.

“So we went out on what I called a date,” Williams revealed, “and what she thought was maybe a lovely, friendly business meeting.”