How a beloved sitcom almost permanently altered Gene Hackman’s career
When you think of Gene Hackman, you think of his incredible work in the medium of film. He picked up two Oscars across his remarkable career, one for his leading role in The French Connection and the other in a supporting capacity for Unforgiven. The list of his other outstanding performances is long and impressive; a truly glorious legacy.
The beloved actor might be one of the greatest film stars of all time, but he wasn’t adverse to taking the odd trip to TV-land. He began his career on the small screen, picking roles here and there on shows like Brenner and Tallahassee 7000. These appearances began to drop off once he hit the big time in Hollywood, but he still made some contributions on the side. He was once in an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2008, meaning that he met the legend that is Guy Fieri. Now that’s a crossover.
If things had gone differently, however, Hackman would be tied much more directly to the world of television. When the future star was looking for work early in his career, he was made aware of a brand-new sitcom that was in the works over at ABC. Produced by Paramount Pictures, the show would be about a widowed man with three sons and his marriage to a woman with three daughters, absolutely classic sitcom fodder for those days. You may have already figured this out, but that show would be called The Brady Bunch.
Originally airing between 1969 and 1974, The Brady Bunch wasn’t a major hit at first, but has endured as one of the most eternally popular American TV shows of all time. It became incredibly popular in syndication after its initial run, with reruns and repeats drawing in just as many viewers (if not more) than the first time around. Numerous spin-offs and sequels have been produced over the years, including three feature films, a musical, and even a home renovation special. Hackman could have been part of this goliath institution, but fate had other ideas.
As per the book Brady Brady Brady: The Complete Story of The Brady Bunch as Told by the Father/Son Team Who Really Know, the show’s creator, Sherwood Schultz, revealed that he wanted Hackman for the role of Mike Brady, the patriarch of the titular family.
“Paramount wouldn’t even okay Gene Hackman for an interview because he had a very low TVQ,” he revealed. TVQ is a metric by which broadcasters measure an actor’s familiarity to the public.
The role was instead given to Robert Reed, whom audiences would have known from the legal drama The Defenders. Reed did a good job as Mike, further cementing his popularity, but Hackman might have been the better option. “The year after The Brady Bunch debuted,” Schultz continued, “Unknown Gene Hackman with no TVQ starred in The French Connection and won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’, and has been a major star ever since.” Not that he’s bitter or anything…
Things could have been so different for Hackman, who we unfortunately lost in February 2025, had Paramount not been so stubborn. Would he have reached the heights he did if he’d taken a cushy sitcom job instead of chasing his movie ambitions? We’ll never know for certain, but it sure is fun to speculate.
