Season 4, Episode 18: 9 February 1973 ...or What Goes Around Comes Around. That's what this one should've been called, coz it's a great big Brady lesson in honesty, humility and egoism from beginning to end. Marcia's got a date Saturday with Charlie, the wallpaper salesman's son. Charlie's a nice guy but he's not Doug Simpson, "the big man on campus". Yes, almost unbelievably, that's actually how she describes him. And when the big man on campus asks you to a dance the same night as your date with someone else, what's a girl to do? Break the other date, obviously. Clinton Way's resident stud Greg suggests the best and, in his vast experience, most successful way to break a date is simply to lie. "...do what we guys always do. Just say something suddenly came up." For the usually butter-wouldn't-melt Bradys it's a decidedly underhanded approach, but one that Marcia embraces with gusto. Within moments she's used the line on Charlie and he slinks off, heartbroken, leaving Marcia to callously plan her next move with Doug. Next day there's almost an unplanned meeting of the duelling Romeos when Doug drives Marcia home from school and arrives at the house just as Charlie's delivering some more wallpaper samples. Jan saves the day - doesn't she always? - with some verbal smoke signals that Marcia interprets at an almost glacial pace. Self-created crisis narrowly averted. But she gets what she deserves - in another of the series' most iconic scenes, she walks out onto the patio just as Peter lobs the football so far over Bobby's head that he's never in any danger of catching it and, instead, it scores its own touchdown smack bang in the middle of Marcia's nose. "Oh my nose!", she cries. When the big man on campus sees how grotesquely bruised and swollen it is, just as Greg predicted, "something suddenly came up" and the date's off. Like any good Brady would, Marcia gets an attack of the guilts and fesses up to Charlie about the dirty trick she played on him. She also gets to throw the now infamous line back at Doug Simpson when he tries to unbreak their date. Instead she unbreaks her date with Charlie. Charlie and Doug later get into a fight and Charlie bops Doug right on the nose, swelling it like a balloon! Good old Charlie. He and Marcia seemed such a good match but, like so many other characters, he's never seen or heard of again. Presumably Marcia's need to forge a friendship with Charlie ended as soon as Mike & Carol put the kibosh on the whole wallpaper idea. Poor Charlie.
I'm just a guy who loves words. I discover vast tracts of uncharted enjoyment by chucking words together and coming up with stuff that talks about the things I enjoy and love most. I'm also a massive listaholic, so I'm probably talking about a list, looking at a list or banging away at another What Culture list as you read this. My tone's pretty relaxed and conversational, with a liberal sprinkling of sparkling wit, wilting sarcasm and occasional faux-condescension - with tongue almost always firmly planted in cheek.
