Question: I'm going to send ...

Question: I'm going to send this every week until I get a response! I was watching an episode of The Brady Bunch, and it prominently featured a couple who had adopted several boys of various races. Since the Bradys were hardly in the episode, I assume this was meant to test the waters for a possible spin-off. Is that a correct assumption, and, if so, did the show ever make it on the air? Thanks! — Garrett Sparks

Televisionary: Y'know, Garrett, I'll give you points for persistence — and an answer. Though let me caution others that similar efforts won't help a question without either niche interest or broad appeal. As much as I'd love to help everyone, I can't justify to my boss writing about why you can't seem to find Sabrina on your Hackensack, NJ, cable system (like I know).

As to your question, that spin-off did indeed make it to the air, Garrett, albeit in concept only. Twice, in fact.

That Brady Bunch episode was entitled "Kelly's Kids" (sounds suspiciously like a series name, no?), and it originally aired in January 1974. In it, Brady neighbors Ken (Ken Berry) and Kathy Kelly (Brooke Bundy) adopt wee orphan Matthew (Brady cast member Mike Lookinland's brother Todd). They figure, "Why not keep the roll going?" So they adopt his Asian pal Steve (Carey Wong) and African-American (okay, they didn't use that term then) friend Dwayne (William Attmore II).

All was set for a successful series sibling based on the tried-and-true Brady formula of an alternative family living and loving. Then it didn't happen.

Brady creator Sherwood Schwartz did manage to get a show based on that setup, Together We Stand, on CBS's schedule in the fall of 1986. Elliott Gould played a former Portland Trail Blazers coach who, together with wife Dee Wallace Stone, headed a household of one natural son and three ethnically diverse adoptees. After a brief time jumping around the network grid, the show left the air until February, when it returned as Nothing Is Easy. This time around, Gould was nowhere in sight and Wallace Stone was a widow. As it turned out, though, nothing was easy. The show was gone by the end of April.