Fans of the 1970s sitcom “The Brady Bunch” may remember the nostalgic episode where Marcia Brady gets hit in the nose with a football just before a big date.
Actress Maureen McCormick played Marcia on the beloved family show, and she revealed a shocking secret about what happened on the day she filmed the episode titled “The Subject Was Noses.”
The 69-year-old McCormick wrote a book about her time on the show titled “Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice.”
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On the show, Marcia and her two sisters, Jan and Cindy, are part of a blended family with their mother, Carol, her husband, Mike Brady, and his three sons — Greg, Peter, and Bobby.
The family of eight lived together along with their housekeeper, Alice, in a Los Angeles suburb. Minutes after Marcia scored a date with a boy she liked named Doug, she was hit in the face with a football by Peter, who was playing with Bobby in the backyard.
Bobby missed the catch just as his sister came into the yard, and the ball hit her square in the nose.
McCormick revealed a strange coincidence in her 2008 memoir that occurred on the very day the “Noses” episode aired on television. The actress was driving her car when she ran into another vehicle that was trying to make a turn.
“The next thing I knew. I had plowed into a car that was making a left turn in front of me,” she wrote. adding that she was injured when her face hit the steering wheel. “I looked in the mirror and saw that my nose was huge and swollen.”
On this Brady Bunch birthday, what’s your favorite episode???
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) September 26, 2023
Mine was when Alice felt shunned by the kids and left — then returns to save the Bradys from her mean replacement. pic.twitter.com/IETeW92oUF
She went to the hospital and was relieved to learn her nose wasn’t broken. McCormick also noted that she was not a fan of the episode because of the numerous takes needed of people throwing a foam football at her face.
“Practically everyone on the set, from the prop man to Lloyd Schwartz, threw a Nerf football at my face, trying to get it in the perfect spot,” she added. In the end, it was her co-star Christopher Knight, who played her brother Peter, who threw the winning and final shot at her nose.
“I couldn’t have been happier when the director finally said, ‘Perfect! Print that one!'”
The two actors recreated the scene years later, in a photo shared on X with the caption, “It was his birthday. I had to make him happy.” Knight can be seen holding a purple football to McCormick’s nose.
After hearing news about McCormick’s accident, one Yahoo reader said, “Loved that scene!!! But never knew poor Maureen was suffering in real life with that.”
Another wrote, “It’s always Marsha. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!” quoting her sister, Jan Brady.”
“Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice” is currently available for purchase on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.