#134 Here’s The Story: Lloyd J. Schwartz talks Brady Bunch and more

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:28

All right, Carol, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get this show going each and every week, and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 134 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. That's right. I'm back to deliver the classicness you've come to love and expect week after week after week. Today's episode we're pushing the limits of classicness we're so classic are talking to Lloyd J. Schwartz, Lloyd J. Schwartz, of course, the son of TV mogul Sherwood Schwartz, sure woulda known of course for bringing us Gilligan's Island, the Brady Bunch, and so much joy to each and every one of our childhoods. Lloyd J. Schwartz was there at the beginning of the Brady Bunch. We talk all about the Brady's we jog all about the Gilligan's Island reunion movies, and we talk about a whole bunch more, grab your socks because otherwise they're gonna fly off and buckle down for ultimate classic NISS with my conversation with Lloyd J. Schwartz, and that's coming up in just a few minutes.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:51

I hope you're able to catch last week's episode, Episode 132 With Dava Savel. It's an amazing episode deep dive into her Emmy win for the puppy episode, which is the episode from the Ellen Show where Ellen DeGeneres came out considered one of the most influential and important television episodes of all time, it was an honor speaking to Dava learning all about how that came to be. Dava also shared a ton of great other stories. You got to tune in and catch that.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:28

Last Thursday, we had a bonus episode, featuring segments from our live show crossing the streams this Thursday. Bonus bonus another bonus episode featuring segments from crossing the streams. crossing streams is our awesome live show we do every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern Time, which is a full hour you can tune in comment along myself and a bunch of friends and a bunch of rotating guests. We talk about TV shows you should be binging or movies you can't miss and where to find them on your streaming services. It's an awesome show. And on the YouTube channel, if you follow us there you can watch the full episodes live or catch up on any the old past episodes is over 75 episodes out there, each with about four or five recommendations in them. So you do the math. That's crazy. But we package up a few segments from across all the episodes into the bonus episode. So if you can't check out YouTube or watch live, just sit here and the podcast feed delivered right to your ears. You're welcome.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:29

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Jeff Dwoskin 4:19

All right. Well, without further ado, I'm going to share my conversation with Lloyd J. Schwartz with you get ready for a lot of Brady Bunch chatter if you're listening to this while you're heading off to a Brady Bunch of trivia nights, consider yourself well prepared and I expect you to win and report back in the morning. In the meantime, pull up a plate of pork chops and applesauce and get ready for my conversation with Lloyd J. Schwartz. Enjoy it.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:47

All right, everyone. I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest, director, producer, writer of the beloved Brady Bunch Gilligan's Island and so much more. He's brought so much joy ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the show. Lloyd J. Schwartz. Hello.

Lloyd J Schwartz 5:05

Hi, Jeff. I am so happy to be here. Talk to you.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:08

Great to have you here too. I wanted to make sure everyone caught the j stands for Jeffrey there's not many Jeffrey's left so I mean, we got to like

Lloyd J Schwartz 5:19

so it's a funny thing because I my very first contract they sent asked for my middle initial, and so I put it down and then I just felt it's not it's a little it's Yeah, I don't know. It's a little Heidi tidy, whatever that is. But I've been using that ever since. So there we go.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:35

It works. It works. I love it. So you've been a part of so many amazing things. You can kind of see my background maybe like I got my Greg Brady there that I worked on Happy days. I got some happy days signatures back there. All the work on the Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island and and working on of course with your father Sherwood and I'd love to get to all there. I'd love to know how you got started, though. I understand you did stand up comedy at some point.

Lloyd J Schwartz 6:02

Yeah. While I was in college, I was actually writing for television by that time where I wrote love American style. I got a degree at UCLA and TV writing. And then I did stand up my partner was a black panther. And we did very, very controversial material. And eventually we were thrown out of many clubs. So at that time dad had created I had already worked with him on Gilligan and Frey. And it's about time, and he created the Brady Bunch. And he said, he wanted me to come over and be a dialogue coach for the Brady Bunch. And I said, Now you just give me that because I'm your son and whatever. And he said, Well, okay, who should be a Brady Bunch of dialogue coach with the six kids? And I said, Well, somebody who's worked with kids, and he said, Well, you ran a summer camp. And I said, Yeah. And he said, I said, someone has been a dialogue coach before and he said, Well, you were he said, somebody young, and I certainly was that somebody who's in performing and and Okay, okay, he kind of nailed me that way. So I said, Okay, I'll be a dialogue coach. And they gave me these six kids. And they said, Here, here's the Brady Bunch of kids, work with them and get them prepared for each scene. And that's what I did. And by the end of that season, I said, you know, I can do more than this, because paramount at that time, we were working at Paramount, they sent me started sending me out as a dialect coach for kids, which is not what I wanted to do on other shows. So I said, I'll be a social producer. And so I was associate producer. I was successful with that. And actually, then I quit at the end of that, too. And I said, what do you what do you want to do as well direct, so I direct it, and I was only 20 feet 23 years old. Then I said, Well, I don't want to be a TV director. I want to be a producer. So then I was a producer. And I was the youngest producer in the business and we became a team. And we were the only father son producing team. And with Brady, I did everything. After that every Brady Bunch has been so many things, you know, half hour comedies, and then three cameras show and movies of the weekend, you know, you know, we have a musical that plays on everything, Brady, including the feature films, and so I've done a lot of other stuff, but Brady just keeps coming back, you know, and in one way or another. And I always say Brady bunches a lot of things, but over isn't one up. There we go. And you know, we were on the air in the 60s and 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 10s the teens and now we're gonna do stuff in the 20s.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:18

That's incredible in my own personal life, when I started dating my wife, so it'd be late 90s Our first dates and in Pontiac, Michigan at the Strand Theatre, they had the real live Brady Bunch, right they took every week they took an episode. And they did it live, it was most of the style of what the movie became meaning it was a little over the top. I remember one of the episodes was the Davy Jones episode and David Jones was there. He he actually played himself. It was one of those things where you know, we both loved Brady Bunch growing up and actually we I remember we didn't have any money so we actually offered to Asscher so we could go every week and see every episode. It was it was a great it's a great memory, the memories outlive the theater but but yeah, it's just amazing how it keeps coming back and coming. Well, you

Lloyd J Schwartz 9:07

know, that realized Brady Bunch. Up until that moment, I didn't think the Brady Bunch could be satirized because I just done the real show. And was there enough to satirize I saw it very funny. And so when Pearman asked us to do a feature film with the Brady Bunch, I said, Well, there's six kids in the house. We don't really have a movie. And Dad and I talked about it said we could do it as a satire. And that's how that evolved. The future films.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:31

I think the the Brady Bunch movie, the original Brady Bunch movie is by far one of the best because there was a flood of those kind of movies at that time where every TV show they were turning into a movie, the concept of the Brady Bunch still being in the 70s. But in but in now was so brilliant. It was just it was such a great, great movie. I did have a question for you on that though. I know you worked on the monsters today. Right and The monsters Today's concept which was it predates the Brady Bunch movie. The monsters today concept was they slept from the time that we knew them as the monsters and then woke up in the 80s.

Lloyd J Schwartz 10:12

So right now you're thinking that that's what? No,

Jeff Dwoskin 10:15

no, I'm just wondering what you worked on both. So I'm wondering if they Oh with you, it's kind of without here's a good thing and it worked. You know, I will work my work even better. You know, there was a tweak of the concept that was,

Lloyd J Schwartz 10:25

it wasn't me that came up with that for the Brady Bunch movie. It was me that came up with that Munsters and here the first one that's ever pointed that out, actually, there was a cross connection of the two. No, it was it was we had actually written a different movie script for the Brady Bunch movie, which was kind of Desperate Hours, I think convicts get into the Brady house. Venture, they get Brady ized pretty much like what happened in the 3d to feature film. But then as you know, movie business goes, we were thrown out our script. And they brought in these other writers who had that idea. So the tone was all dead. And I thought

Jeff Dwoskin 10:59

it's very cool. It's one of the I know you drew from multiple, multiple episodes for that movie, right? Not too long ago on this podcast. I had Nicholas Hammond who was Doug Simpson, the original OG big man on campus.

Lloyd J Schwartz 11:12

That's yet Yeah. Was that the sudden something suddenly came up so that yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 11:17

oh, my nose? Oh, my nose. Yeah. Yeah, so it was fun. We talked about we talked about the episode. It was just it was funny. Just he's like, it's weird. I like I'm on one episode. And that becomes like a classic episode. Yeah. Was I even mentioned like, he didn't even meet half the cast, because he wasn't really in scenes with all of them. So but that was funny. Then how was it working with Betty Thomas as a director for that movie?

Lloyd J Schwartz 11:40

Well, she was brilliant. I didn't select her. Alan Ladd, Jr. was one of the other producers and I was we were it was issues between us all and he brought it Betty. But Betty really had a great feel for the whole thing. And I think she's the one who really made the satire work. I'm fond of her work in them. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:58

Did you guys get a kick you and your father I've seen like Shelley Long and Gary called, like, create new versions of these characters with the heart of the original characters in mind.

Lloyd J Schwartz 12:07

That was an interesting thing, because I had a whole different idea for the casting Gary, who are very fond of it, as I am showing and I think they did great impersonations. I saw it as I wanted, but Donna as Mrs. Brady, because I thought my I just wanted to poke fun at it that way. And they went the impersonation way. And it was great. I really wanted to see a little bit of a different way. I thought we would have made a lot more money on this Mises break.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:32

I gotta say it's really long. I think it holds up as a great Carol Brady did great. I'm very fond to both of them. But I'm sure I'm sure though, what if were there any other any other casting ideas that you had before landing on that cast that you had?

Lloyd J Schwartz 12:48

I kind of want to like Kevin Nealon and Mike Brady. I was thinking that way and I wanted if they didn't like Madonna, Barbara mandrill was pretty much like Florence's history, and no way ever really got to that.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:59

Yeah. Very cool. So back to the the original Brady. Okay. What is a dialogue coach? Exactly. Okay. Well, in

Lloyd J Schwartz 13:07

movies, it's different movie helped usually help people with accents and things. But with with my my job, as I saw it, and dad had never said how to do the job. He said, here's the six kids, I just wanted to make sure they knew other lines when they went into the scene. And not only their lines, but they had to get the concept of it all. So what I would do is I would go to there, I was single at the time, and I go to their houses the night before if it was you know, each show featured one of the children. So I went over there, I got a free dinner. And then we would just discuss the show and what it meant. And they got all that. And so when they went into the scene, that director just had to worry about where they needed to go and like that.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:43

Got it today read that at some point they started eliminating some kids from some of the scripts to save money. While

Lloyd J Schwartz 13:51

you're you're really very thorough about your research. They did that for I think it was maybe half a season. And then it just became like it was it was awkward because most people don't the audiences would tune in to see one of their favorite kids if he wasn't in it or she wasn't in it. That wasn't going to work they would do that they were trying to save money. Yep.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:09

How did the music slant come along? Because some of those songs The Brady Bunch kid songs are so yeah,

Lloyd J Schwartz 14:16

what's funny because Partridge Family and a cat songs in every episode, but we had to justify it Brady's we're gonna sing it was a talent show some kind of contest or something. It was it was some of the most fun for the kids except for Chris because Chris couldn't sing a note. And most of the time when they would do song number they just just open your mouth and move your mouth please don't say it was great fun and a lot of songs are very well known you know, Sunshine day, you know so

Jeff Dwoskin 14:43

Oh, yeah, in the movie they're they're well played out to an episode where didn't they have Christopher Knight like his voice was changing right so well

Lloyd J Schwartz 14:53

within it with all with all the episodes we've started to slant them to the kids really work as opposed to most TV shows where a kid now they've described children this one eats all the time. And that one's a science nerd. And you know, whatever. We didn't have descriptions for the kids. We just wanted real kids. And we began to see who they were. And so episodes with kind of feature that and since Chris couldn't sing, too well, that's what we did that episode.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:15

That's totally fine.

Lloyd J Schwartz 15:16

His voice cracked. This is something I've never said before. But when his voice cracked, and he went on his time to change his time to age like that, that was the other producer hit that note. That is our leads.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:29

Well, as long as you're not getting me, it wasn't him saying pork chops and applesauce will

Lloyd J Schwartz 15:34

know that, you know that the history that was Chris had to do that episode, he was trying to get a personality and in the script, it said, like home for Humphrey Bogart. And so he had never heard of Humphrey Bogart. And it wasn't so you could turn on the TV and see and, you know, a movie in those days. So I said, Okay, Chris, do it like this. And then I did an impression of Humphrey Bogart. And then Chris did an impression of me doing Humphrey Bogart. And so if you ever ask him about it, he says, I never did Humphrey Bogart. I did Lloyd Schwartz talk.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:06

That's how I feel like most people do impressions. It's always the person on Saturday live here impressing you're doing them do anything?

Lloyd J Schwartz 16:13

That's right. That's right. I don't do very good impressions, by the way, so and his was even worse than mine. So there you go.

Jeff Dwoskin 16:23

So is it was it true that Barry Williams and Florence Henderson went on a date and all that kind of? Well,

Lloyd J Schwartz 16:29

it's true, they went on a date, but all that kind of stuff is not true. Very like music, and Florence knew everything about music. And so I think his daddy and truck drove them to this quote, unquote, date, they went to see it. And when walked through the door, she kissed him on the cheek. And that was the extent of their affair when Barry wrote a book about it. And that became the high point of the book. And everybody was talking about that. I remember, I talked to Florence about it. And she said, you know, they're making a deal about it. I said, Florence, no one's gonna remember that. Don't worry about it. And that's all they asked about. After a while, I was very raw.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:04

I remember in the real live Brady Bunch, I remember them playing that up. And then between Barry and Maureen to and then like those characters.

Lloyd J Schwartz 17:14

There was issues with Barry Miranda, and they were they were kids and their hormones running around. And so part of my job, not not in the job description. But as I saw the job was to keep throw water on them, and stop them from being on top of each other. And one episode I directed episode, where they had, they sat in a bed together. And I was like, it was it was a scene where Barry comes and sits down next to Maureen and I saw steam rising from them, you know, in this situation. And so the words were all right, cut at the end that everybody was ready to move on. But I couldn't let that be on the screen. And I also couldn't tell them because they were like 15 years old. But the problem was, and so we both take after take and was getting worse. And so I suddenly I remembered from a class I had at UCLA about psychic distance, putting a barrier. And so I had Barry changed the blocking, so they put his arm between them. And that was how I solved the problem. But it was, yeah, and I also asked him basket, hacer baited the problem because in the Hawaii episode, we all went to Hawaii. I was kind of interested in this woman. And so in the evening, we weren't there. So we took a walk on the beach. I took all the kids. We walked on the beach and it it really moved the needle needle along where it shouldn't have been my fault.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:27

It was at the Tiki. That was the Vincent Price. Right?

Lloyd J Schwartz 18:32

Right. He was great. He was great. I mean, I've worked with many actors in my career. And I think he was probably the most professional actor I've ever worked with. He was just great. And if you talk to anybody worked with Vincent Price he was he has that reputation

Jeff Dwoskin 18:45

other than the ones that were in love with each other and I got okay, you can't blame Barry.

Lloyd J Schwartz 18:51

No, I told Barris and Barry, Look, we all recognize Maurice very pretty girl. The idea is you she has pretty friends which you got to do is use marine to get to her friends. And he he bought that for a while

Jeff Dwoskin 19:08

So were there any ever any strife? I mean, I you know, even fake brothers and sisters probably don't get along at some point.

Lloyd J Schwartz 19:17

Oh, not really? Not really. I mean, there was a couple of issues between Marina and Eve you know? And I think some of that because of the episodes that we play up marinas being beautiful, and I don't think any girl likes to hear the other ones beautiful all the time. You know, so it was a Marsha Marsha Marsha thing, and some of that was genuine. Not certainly like it wasn't a show. I mean, I'm not as mad as as it was played up at the show. But there was just there was a little bit of that. Even Susan Susan always wanted to be older. She wanted to be you know, and she didn't like being the youngest one and saying youngest one things. There was nothing. There was never anything between boys. I mean the boys always got along great. They're very good friends to this Christian. Very, very close. Are they always have been

Jeff Dwoskin 19:58

very cool. I love them. running joke about there not being any toilets. Yeah. Talk to me about cousin Oliver. What why? What what brought in him? He was only in like the last eight episodes, and then they like or something like that right. And then the series ended?

Lloyd J Schwartz 20:15

That's right. Well, you know, we were on for five years and the arc of the show has only had to do with the growing up of the kids. Because by the end of that series, you know, Perry was graduating what we're going to do if we're going to continue and so the idea was to bring in some youth to it. And so that's how Bobby wrist joined. And we wanted to kind of a more unique kind of a kid at that point. So cousin Oliver was, was that unfortunately, Robbie has this reputation that was killed the Brady Bunch. But he was it wasn't jumped the shark was brought. I mean, we did we our ratings were very high. At the end, a new president came into the network and said, That's it. So the Brady Bunch was never a major yet when it was on originally, it was only when it got into syndication, where it became wakes up but when you saw it I'm sure was right, right. Then it became like everybody knows every episode.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:05

Well, Robbie, rest was in Big John Little John.

Lloyd J Schwartz 21:08

That's right. We knew Robert Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Very talented young guy. Oh, no. He's got these guys. They say he's been given too much credit or blame.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:20

I blame Tiger. There you go. There you go. Very cool. So I so you have that. And then Gilligan's Island. Like

Lloyd J Schwartz 21:28

I didn't do the original series. I was like in high school. But I did work with them a lot later, when we did the reo reunion movies. I produced those.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:37

Right, right. Why the cast the castaways of getting on the delegates Island rescue from Gilligan's Island and of course,

Lloyd J Schwartz 21:44

Harlem Globetrotters.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:47

I love those. Like I remember distinctly that whole period of time where all these reunion movies were happening. It was joyful to, like, I loved every single one of those watching them.

Lloyd J Schwartz 22:01

We did several of those ourselves, you know, finding anything in the Gilligan one, we couldn't sell that that one to sell that nobody was going to buy it. And he was talking to somebody somewhere, it's at an agency. And the Secretary said, How come they did they ever get off the island dad said, Well, you're trying to sell it and that agent was walking by so they can sell that. But up until that time, it was just turned down. I remember when there was an executive at CBS. And his rejection letter was not only do I not want to see this, I can't believe anybody wants to tune in to see this event that was and then when it went on the air was the highest rated movie in two years. Oh, there we go. Oh, yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:37

But then they went back, right, as I recall, because they made it more like a resort.

Lloyd J Schwartz 22:42

Sometimes audience should be ahead of you. So when they go on this boat at the end of that movie as a reunion cruise, you know, if everybody couldn't figure out there were going to ship shipwreck and that was gonna happen. But the by that time the castle is getting old. And we couldn't really do the physical things we were we had done when we when the original Gilligan and so that's when the idea of that resort opened

Jeff Dwoskin 23:04

up there. Why was Tina Louise so resistant to come back? I watched a little bit of what was it there was nationalism about this. There was like a real, there was a documentary that yeah, Don wells did. And they kind of touched on it where she thought it was like her show of the original show was her show.

Lloyd J Schwartz 23:21

And that's the fine hand of networks. So they needed somebody for that part of ginger. And so she Tina was on in New York doing a play. And they got her to do the show by saying there's a series where it's about this movie star who was maroon with these other people. None of that was Gilligan's Island. Agenda, isn't it? Oh, Tina says great, there's gonna be a show about me. And then she signed on. The network guy was felt good because he had delivered Tina Louise. And he went on to other things. And then it was problematic. And I remember she had a meeting with that said, Didn't titled Gilligan's Island give you a hint that it was not. However, you know, she she always thought she had dreams of major stardom. And she's really talented actors. And she thought this, this curtail that. And so that was so weird that time we did the reunion movie, she said I had enough. So that's why she didn't do them. But she's recently she's the only survivor of that cast right now. And recently, she's I've read very nice things. And she's talks about the fun that she has for the show. I guess by the age of 80 Something you finally have a certain amount of revisionist history.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:21

Lloyd, let me ask you a very important question. Mariana ginger.

Lloyd J Schwartz 24:26

Well, I have more of a personal thing about that. Because if you remember the rescue movie, there was a guy who was waiting for from the island What for 15 years, I played that part. So it's obviously going to be a marry for me. So during that movie, was discovered that well, Marianne was on the island. My character had fallen in love with her best friend, not knowing that. And so when that was revealed, they pulled Skipper Gilligan pull Maryanne away so she won't marry me because we felt obligated to get married. And then I had a chance to marry your best friend, played by my wife. So there we go.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:01

There you go. That's awesome. Keep it all in the family. All right. Well, that's that is excellent trivia and then speaking of excellent trivia, I read that Fred Silverman once tried to pitch a Brady Bunch on Gilligan's Island mashup?

Lloyd J Schwartz 25:14

Yes, he did. I worked with for I was an executive at ABC. And so this is all pure Fred Silverman that doing that kind of thing. Well, they couldn't happen because Gilligan's Island at that point was on NBC and Brady Bunch was on ABC, there was no way that the studios and they were different studios. And so then Fred said, Okay, what about the Dallas cheerleaders on Gilligan's Island, and again, that was the same problem with different networks and all and then Fred said about Harlem Globetrotters and Gilligan's Island. Well, Dad said when he heard about the channel's cheerleaders, and he said, well, the Globetrotters are much taller. Who's kidding? The whole thing? We ended up with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:53

Awesome. There was nothing better than that classic group of Harlem Globetrotters.

Lloyd J Schwartz 25:58

They were I had a chance to play against them between scenes or something. And I hit a jump shot over curly Neal, which I think is the height of my athletic endeavors.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:07

That is awesome. It's really cool. All right, so you brought back the Brady Bunch had the same I mean, like Tina Louise not coming back as ginger. The Brady Bunch sporadically had different while like in the very Brady Christmas Susan Olsen didn't wasn't there. And I think I don't know if that you were involved with the variety hour but like, II plumbed in come to that because she's starting to get some some success with acting, I think and then then come back

Lloyd J Schwartz 26:34

then when we did the Brady's marine didn't come back. However, the most recent thing, they all came back from the renovation series. You know, when they did the reality show,

Jeff Dwoskin 26:43

I caught some of those episodes. That was it was fascinating how they were trying, they were recreating. And then they would look for those things that you don't notice in the background to like, they point out in the background, like where they're like hunting for this exact Rachel picture or vase or that was that was a that was a fun show.

Lloyd J Schwartz 26:59

Yeah, it was it was funny, because I found out about that the same way the world did with the house went up for sale. And then there was a kind of a bidding frenzy. And this was a mysterious buyer bought it, which was discovery network. And they had that idea to turn that into this reality series. And then they came to me and eventually they said, Why don't you produce it with us? And so I produced that show with them. And it was it was very, very successful. And just maintain the interest in Brady. All the kids got involved. I call them the kids are all 60 or 70 years old. I go to most of their weddings, and most of them are new weddings and the other you know, so yeah, but it was it was it was very successful.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:43

There's been so many the Brady brides there. There's been so many Brady Bunch revisits, I guess you would say,

Lloyd J Schwartz 27:51

stay tuned, because there's there's things right in the work now. I don't know. I it just keeps going some way.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:59

Right? Okay, well, I Oh, that's awesome. All right. So speaking of keeping going, yeah. Why is it never been a Gilligan's Island movie? I read that in 2013. Josh Gad tried to do it. I remember and I have no frame of reference as to what this was. But at one point, I remember reading something. And this may or may not be true that I mean, it's true that I read it. I think, as far as Chris Farley is the skipper, you know, like, I mean, so that obviously would have been a while ago, seems Gilligan's Island would make a pretty cool,

Lloyd J Schwartz 28:27

it wouldn't be the best of them all. We've been trying to sell that elegance movie since 1988. And my book, which is not published or anything, but my book about the making of the Gilligan's Island movie, I'm on page 550. And there's no movie in sight. The book is called invitation to a shipwreck. And it has just been a mess with all these different studios coming in and people dying and things it's gonna go on and on and on. And I know that it would be a huge hit, you know, but we have one time, Josh, I've been involved with all of those different possible permutations. And some of them were Oh, studios playing games and trying to do stuff behind our back. So that's threatened. It just goes on and on. But my hope so you know, I hope that there'll be a movie I one thing I remember, I talked to dad about it on his deathbed, pretty dramatic time of just me and him and I was promised him with any with anything, Brady or Gilligan, you're in charge gold. And I said, and my job is to make sure it's something that you would want to do. And so that's the guiding principle. And so I won't allow any of these things to be done unless I thought that he would like

Jeff Dwoskin 29:36

that. That's a really that's kind of very touching they Yeah, it's important that you got to keep the legacy alive because you don't want to tarnish it. It was in any way. Right. But I do agree. I do think like you said it would be the best it just it seems like it's just ripe for it. It's like so many of them like Beverly Hills hillbillies.

Lloyd J Schwartz 29:56

They try to do all this and It's you know, I'm very analytical about all this and why it would be a success and how to do it. And Paul red flags and they say, No, we're not gonna let that happen. Every studio is wanted to do it. But the one studio that has it, it's the ownerships now over with Warner Brothers, they seem to think that they know more than we were, the truth of the matter is between Gilligan and Brady. I mean, we've made paramount, CBS and Warner Brothers, we made them half a billion dollars, and it seems they have made anything that we didn't make for him. So I think they should trust us, they trusted us with all the things we've done, and they've done well, so but that studios, you know, it's more important to them than make their movie that a good month. And so that's not important to me, I don't, I just want it to be something that we'd be proud of.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:42

When it's about the money, it's no good. I will keep I'm gonna cross my fingers that your book has happy. And

Lloyd J Schwartz 30:50

I don't know, every once in a while, it's because now the book is just originally brought up to date. And then we just, I just go on, and I said, Now I'm going into a meeting with something and this is what's going to happen. And it never is what's going to happen in XyO. So I've gotten a couple of times I've written recently that Well, I think that's No, there's never going to be a movie. And then I'll just try and publish the book. But every once in a while something pops up. And then there's gonna be a movie again, very cool. I've done you know, all these different shows. And I've also turned to theater. I do a lot of theater. I do have a play, I can tell your listeners about coming up in Los Angeles. It's called classic couples counseling. And it's a play about a therapist for Shakespearean characters. And so she's there and Hamlet and Ophelia come in, or Romeo and Juliet are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and she's tries to help them with their issues. So it's pretty fun to play. We've been through that

Jeff Dwoskin 31:37

how that's a brilliant concept. It's really cool. You've what have you written over 40 plays?

Lloyd J Schwartz 31:44

Yeah, I've had about Yeah, well, I've written more than that. They've had 40 produced in different ways and go around the country that we're going to there's going to be a we do a Brady Bunch of musical that's going to be like an immersive thing that's going to start, it's gonna have a national tour soon that Gilligan musical plays around and I've done lots of I wrote the first dinner theater play called The nearly waves and that plays around. So I enjoy that, you know, with with theater, the authors in charge, as opposed to make major movies where it's the studio or the director. And so when I do a play, you're gonna see, that's what I want it, whatever you see is what I want it and I've gotten good reviews, I got bad reviews, but I can always say Yeah, well, that's what I wanted.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:21

I read that you, you write a lot of historical plays. Yeah, I have

Lloyd J Schwartz 32:26

a few of those that have been done. I've written a play evening with John Wilkes Booth, one man show about gentleman's booth. And I wrote a play called independence, which is about Dr. Mary Walker, She's the only woman to win the National Medal of Honor. And that's just been sold as a feature film with Walden and David permit is going to produce

Jeff Dwoskin 32:46

that. Oh, that's exciting John Wilkes Booth play is that before the incident or after it's the it's take, it takes us through the whole thing. Yeah.

Lloyd J Schwartz 32:54

In fact, in the second act, he acts out the entire assassination. From everybody's point of view, we have a production of that coming up in March, April. And then I have a children's theater that I run with my wife, and we've been doing that for 37 years. And that's story, but the are Los Angeles. And those are we've been lots of wins a lot of awards for from the city in this case, you know, Governor and all those. So when I'm been very lucky, I've been able to do something in every form. And every in all the media and in every form and all the musicals and our shows and movies and

Jeff Dwoskin 33:26

very cool. I have a couple pieces of Brady Bunch trivia, I would like you to

Lloyd J Schwartz 33:30

Okay. I'm not so good at it. Not I don't watch the shows a lot. So okay, no,

Jeff Dwoskin 33:35

no, no, this has been Mike Brady, Gene Hackman was originally considered thought or sought after? Ah,

Lloyd J Schwartz 33:41

yeah, I think that that was a suggestion that that. And I don't know how far that went. But I know that he was a choice that dad wanted. He thought Mike Brady should have been more of a refer kind of a guy that more like a foreman, rather than an architect, but then I don't know how far that went. But that I've seen that on Jeopardy. He was gonna play the part, but I don't know that it was that far along.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:06

And Joyce Bulifant was originally Yeah,

Lloyd J Schwartz 34:09

that was yeah, that was cat she was cast. But then suddenly Florence became available. And that changed the whole dynamic of the show because Joyce is you know, intensively a funny person Florence's can do comedy well, but she's not funny person. And so when when Joyce was out and Florence was in then we had to get a funnier maid. And so the woman who had been cast as the name was out and Ann B Davis was so was originally cast as the maid I think her name was Mani Mark gets something like that. I was not there with original cast. So but I was totally supportive of Ann because I love her in the upcoming show. And she went in and we became extremely close. She was her birthday was May 3 Mines may 2, he's your listeners want to send me something anyway.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:55

Let us know where you're registered. We'll send

Lloyd J Schwartz 34:58

me a hand he would always call She moved out of town after the show was over. So she would always call me on my birthday to wish me happy birthday. And then the next day was over. So I said, Well, I got nothing to say to her right now. So the next year I would call her the day before my birthday, which was May 1. And then she caught on to that started calling me on April 30. So it was like a thing think she was absolutely terrific, terrific woman.

Jeff Dwoskin 35:22

I love Ann b Davis, do you have any other stories about her like anything fun, oh, maybe did on Saturday or anything

Lloyd J Schwartz 35:27

personal stuff. I was getting a new car. I wanted to get a stick shift car. So she drove she had a little Porsche. So she took me out learning how to drive a stick and we went up to Dodger Stadium. And we're driving around, of course, then the police pulled us over. They were unhappy until they realized it was Alice from The Brady Bunch, and they just let us go. So she

Jeff Dwoskin 35:48

that's awesome.

Lloyd J Schwartz 35:49

She also did my first play. It was a dinner theater play called The nearly was and she'd been doing dinner theater. And I didn't know anything about theater at that point. And so I went was a terrible play, but they loved her. I said, Why are you doing this terrible play? And she said, Well, nobody's ever written a play for dinner theater and all the plays were getting kind of Broadway that were not exactly appropriate. So I wrote her a play. And she did it. And it was the first play ever for dinner theater. She did oh, in fact, when when I engaged and got engaged to my wife, it was announced, and I went to one of the plays. And so I was there with Barbara and barbers folks were there and so and Bs barbers father for my for her hand in marriage for me from the stage.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:31

It's so funny. That's so funny. And then there's Lawrence Henderson make everyone use Wesson oil. Like

Lloyd J Schwartz 36:37

I don't know the timing. I wish I wish. Mine sorry. The phone is ringing here. I'll just be real quick. Hello. There. I should have gotten you can edit that part out right.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:49

Yeah. But How amazing would it have been if like, they were like, Oh, my God, the Gilligan's Island Gilligan's Island movie just got greenlit

Lloyd J Schwartz 36:56

then I shouldn't have hung up on whoever it was.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:00

Good news. We were talking. Yeah, the movies on. It's so exciting. I'm a big fan of The Love Boat I've had Isaac over in the dock. I've talked to all of them. And you wrote seven episodes.

Lloyd J Schwartz 37:13

I don't think I wrote seven. I worked on it for about a year I wrote one, maybe one or two, one of the ones I wrote. And by the way Ted lands and are very close friends. We do a lot of stuff together. And I did a play last year that had to Fred grandi was in but anyway, the LeBeau and I wrote had Lynnae and Gish and Lillian Gish. Now that shows how young our businesses because Lillian Gish was in the first movie with DW Griffith. And I wrote something that she was in at 95 years old. So I remember I was pretty great. No, no,

Jeff Dwoskin 37:45

but that's pretty awesome. Yeah, you know, I grabbed out IMDb story editors, it said, Yeah, unwritten. By You're right. You're right. Of course, you would be right. It's you.

Lloyd J Schwartz 37:54

Hey, listen so much in there. I

Jeff Dwoskin 37:56

don't know. I was gonna say Ted lands. Right. So a lot of plays, too.

Lloyd J Schwartz 37:59

Yeah, he we did a play well, eight years ago called one dozen where he was a bailiff. And it was kind of a satire. 12 Angry Men. But we and then he just oh, he directed the original production of, of classic couples counseling we did about seven years ago. And he's very, very much into Shakespeare. So I wanted somebody to do that play, should know about Shakespeare. And then

Jeff Dwoskin 38:23

Fred was on the show, talked a lot about million things. But then one of them was, is doing a one man play right now. Give them how Harry with that.

Lloyd J Schwartz 38:32

Yeah, we did a play last two years ago, I get mixed up with time because of the pandemic. But two, three years ago, at that time, it was called Dinner, dinner at five. And it had television stars in it. It was about two couples who are in their 70s. And the wives can't stand it anymore with their husbands. So they decided to switch partners. And I had Kathy Garver and Fred grandi and Chris Knight, David wrote practice rotating casts. So that's when Fred and I that was first time we had ever really worked together. Other than braid under a boat.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:03

You did work on, you oversaw at some point, happy days. And the Vernon Charlie.

Lloyd J Schwartz 39:08

Yeah, and Three's Company. And what's happening? What's happening, right? Yeah, yeah, it was interesting, because I was the first guy to go from being a network, excuse me from being a producer, to becoming a network executive. I wanted to see what that was like working in the network. And so suddenly, I would go around to different shows, and they'd wait for my wisdom. And I would tell them something, and then I close the door, and then I leave, and then they probably laugh at the network guy, which was what we used to do. So but I mean, you know, it was it was very good, because one of the reasons I want to do that, because I had grown up into that point, I'd only worked with my father. And I wanted to see how other producers worked. You know, but you're gonna in one case, and or Gary Marshall or somebody. And I was surprised to me to find out that to realize that my dad was probably the best producer I've ever worked with. He cared a lot about the shows and he cared a lot about the people and said it Great, Tom. So it was a surprise to me. I wasn't expecting that.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:04

So we got, I guess, upcoming projects with the Brady Bunch thing we haven't mentioned.

Lloyd J Schwartz 40:08

Yes. Some of the things that can't, I can't really tell you about some of the things but there's things in the work. The plays are upcoming. There's a couple of things. I have a couple of feature film things that are looking pretty good. You know, I don't want to be one of those people that say this is going to happen. That doesn't happen.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:25

Right? Because you never know, right? No, man. But keep plugging away at the Gilligan's Island thing. I'm going to cross my fingers for you. Okay, I'll be first in line for that.

Lloyd J Schwartz 40:35

Well, if they do, like I want to do it, it will be a big success. And some of the ones that they've suggested that's where they sunk No pun intended. We're not what that what one

Jeff Dwoskin 40:46

guy? Do you hang out on any of the social medias? Where can people keep up with Yeah,

Lloyd J Schwartz 40:50

I'm on Facebook as me so people can find it. You know what most of it's about my family

Jeff Dwoskin 40:58

you guys I know what Lloyd Schwartz ate for breakfast lunch and dinner head over to Facebook. Pictures of the grandkids that are coming up thank you so much for hanging out with me I really appreciate it

Lloyd J Schwartz 41:12

well I enjoyed talking to you and best of luck whatever you're getting involved with

Jeff Dwoskin 41:16

same to us same to us. What is that examining anyway Same to you. There we go. Retake All right how awesome was Llyod J. Schwartz so many fun stories. If this question is relevant for you, Maryanne or ginger, or I guess if you don't want to answer that one Gilligan or Skipper, why didn't anyone ever asked between those two I just Marianne and ginger. Now that I'm thinking about it out loud as I say this, anyway, I was a Marianne but only because I actually got to meet John Wells once and it was and she was real fun at a comic con. I matter. Anywho Okay, so I Well, that was Lloyd J. Schwartz. Now the interview is over. You know what that means?

Jeff Dwoskin 41:55

What does that mean? Jeff? Oh, it means it's time for another trending hashtag when the family of hashtags add hashtag round up follow hashtag round up on Twitter at hashtag round up download the free always free hashtag roundup app at the Google Play Store or iTunes App Store. tweet along with us in one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of Classic conversations, fame and fortune awaits you. Today's hashtag is a fun hashtag that I found I had to go back 2017 But it was worth it because it was it was a really fun hashtag #BewitchedBradyBunch I know right to classic television shows it's a mash up tag brought to you by TV movie tags, mashing up b which and the Brady Bunch #BewitchedBradyBunch doesn't get any simpler than that? I don't think so. I let me read some of these hilarious tweets to you. Here we go. Here are some #BewitchedBradyBunch tweets the Brady kids are hired to perform in a commercial that Darren is pitching Marcia gets hit by a football unable to wiggle her nose. She can't do her magic. There's some amazing #BewitchedBradyBunch mash ups a little what ifs if you will. If we can lay around some Marvel vernacular there's no toilet in the entire house just a call dren. That is definitely a #BewitchedBradyBunch tweet Tabitha makes fun of babysitter Marcia has broken nose. Oh my nose Tabitha just sitting there wiggling that nose while marshes were Eiling and pain. Ah, that's mean Tabitha Marcia sets up dates with both Darren at the same time. Well, that's a conundrum. I guess you can just tell one of them. Oh, something suddenly came up Peter invites the neighbors Sam and Darren to dinner alice serves pork chops and applesauce didn't know you'd hear me do that twice in this episode did yeah. The Brady's never get rid of tigers dog house because the original Darren has been living in it since 1970. That's actually very possible. Alice hires endure of our love spells so she can finally get Sam the butchers meat. It's a little racy for bewitched and a Brady Bunch mashup Don't you think Mom always says don't do spells in the house is amazing. #BewitchedBradyBunch tweets. Alice leaves Sam the butcher for Dr. Bombay who wouldn't? He's a doctor Tabitha Geron says sock monkey into Davy Jones so she can get him to sing in her junior prom when she grows up. I think that's Davy Jones is true origin story Samantha brings back the Brady's dog tiger with a spell sometimes dead is better digit that's pretty good impression. Anyway, when Marcia takes a blow to the nose Alice and Carol fall madly in love Mike is surprisingly supportive. Mr. Brady is replaced by another Mr. Brady and no one notices or says anything Serena agrees to remove the curse of the tiki idol for our brides is their amazing #BewitchedBradyBunch tweets. Could you even pre imagine when I brought this up? up this type of mash up on kitty Carroll all turns all Chucky and murder Sam and Alice while the others are busy with cousin Oliver. I knew that kitty carry owl was dangerous Cindy's list actually has magical powers between her list and Tabitha as knows wiggle. There's a lot going on. And our final #BewitchedBradyBunch twee cousin Oliver replaces Tabitha and nobody notices.

Jeff Dwoskin 45:27

Oh, okay. As always, all those tweets are retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show the home of classic conversations on Twitter and Instagram. Give a follow too. Which Brady Bunch tweet tag at Jeff Dwoskin show also some Twitter love. Yeah, I will. All right. Well, with the hashtag over and the interview over I can only mean one thing. That's right episode 134 has come to a close I want to thank my special guests Lloyd J. Schwartz for joining me today. And of course, I want to thank all of you for coming back week after week means the world to me. And I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 46:10

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai