Keller @ Large: The Brady Bunch Changed How Americans Viewed Women

BOSTON (CBS) - The man behind some of the most iconic TV comedies has died.

Sherwood Schwartz created shows like Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch. They weren't just popular.

The Brady Bunch changed the way Americans viewed women, just as shows like All in the Family dealt with bigotry in the sixties, or The Cosby Show dealt with race relations in the eighties.

In the saga of changing social views of women and girls over the past 40 years, The Brady Bunch deserves an episode of its own.

WBZ's Jon Keller is at large:

The familiar theme of "The Brady Bunch" struck a chord for many in an era of change in the American family.

"The Brady Bunch, I think, helped normalize a lot of these things," said Joanna Weiss writes about pop culture for the Boston Globe.

She notes this was the first time network TV told the story of a blended family.

But The Brady Bunch were also role models for a major change our culture was undergoing. Women were breaking loose from longtime social constraints.

It was a time when women were demanding fair and equal treatment, and in the Brady household at least, they got it.

For instance, in a 1971 episode, Marcia Brady's brothers scoff at her nascent feminism, and she shows them up by joining brother Greg's scouting troop, passing every "manly" test they throw at her.

"The girls were an equal part of the family, they were just as valid and just as relevant," said Weiss. "And they could do all the things that the boys could do, which I don't think was always happening in kid culture in the 60s and 70s."

"The Brady Bunch" didn't completely transcend gender stereotypes, not by a long shot. At the end of the camping episode, Marcia decides she'd rather go read a fashion magazine than attend her scouting induction ceremony. But, it offered a modern take on gender roles for millions.