Newspaper Page Text
Entertainmfl
Life After
The Brady
Bunch
by PAULETTE COHN
Baby boomers best remember Florence
Henderson as one of Americas favorite TV moms: Carol Brady
on the popular 1970 s sitcom The Brady Bunch. But it’s been more
than 30 years since the beloved family comedy ceased produc
tion, and Henderson, 73, still is going strong.
She claims her willingness to remain flexible has allowed her to
keep moving her career forward for more than 50 years.
“It takes passion and desire, loving what you do, and some
humility, because if the business changes, you have to change
with it,’’ she explains.
Henderson’s extensive career includes acting, singing and serv
ing as a spokeswoman for products such as Wesson Oil and
Polident. Her latest incarnation is as the co-host—along with
Meshach Taylor, known for his role on Designing Women —of
Living Live!, a talk show that airs weekdays on DirecTV’s Retire
ment Living network. The new program, Henderson explains,
encourages baby boomers to make the best of their retirement
years, to enjoy their lives, keep learning, keep growing and keep
having fun—just as she has done.
“If I experience something and it makes me feel better, or
has inspired me to change my life, I love to share that with
people," she says. "That is how I have lived my life, so this
show is a perfect fit for me."
Henderson, the daughter ot an Indiana sharecropper father and
a homemaker mother, receives stacks of mail each week from fans
of The Brady Bunch, which has aired nonstop in syndication since
it finished its prime-time run on ABC in 1974. When she bumps
into fans, many of them ask the actress, who so convincingly por
trayed one of TV’s most reassuring moms, for a motherly hug.
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“They are all really nice, responsible people, so it is nice to know you had some effect on
someone, and receive so much affection for that simple, sweet show," says Henderson, whose
Brady Bunch character won a 2006 TV Guide! Bravo poll as the TV mom that most shaped
viewers’ perceptions of a housewife. She got 45 percent of the vote, beating out June Cleaver
C Leave it to Beaver) and Shirley Partridge (The Partridge Family).
Henderson recently performed a one-woman show about her life and career, All the Lives of Me,
in New York. Now living in Los Angeles, where Living Live! tapes, she hopes to find time to
showcase the performance on the new series. And after a 22-year lapse, she has been approached
by Wesson Oil to reinstate her promotional connection with the product.
“I love to take risks,” says Henderson, who worked as a therapist—she is a licensed hypnothera
pist—on the 2006 season of the “celebreality” series Surreal Life for just that reason.
“I love to be funny, I love to make people laugh and that is what I do,” she adds. “I think if you make
people smile or laugh, they listen to you maybe just a little better than if you are serious all the time."
Paulette Cohn is a uniter based in Glen Valley. Calif.
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