“A Very Brady Sequel” Celebrates Anniversary W/ Jan Reaction & Cast Secrets

Zephyring 30 Years! The Bradys are still gloriously stuck between decades

The Brady kids bring their perfectly misplaced ’70s energy into 1996 in A Very Brady Sequel. Image: Paramount Pictures.

Let’s transport back to the 1970s! Or wait — should we say the 1990s? Better yet, let’s crash both stellar decades directly into each other, because A Very Brady Sequel turns 30 years old today.

Paramount released the second big-screen Brady spoof on August 23, 1996, which means August 23, 2026 is the exact 30th anniversary. And somehow the film’s central joke still works: the Brady family remains completely, cheerfully trapped in its ’70s sitcom universe while everybody around them is living in mid-’90s America.

Directed by Arlene Sanford, the sequel brings back Shelley Long as Carol, Gary Cole as Mike, Christine Taylor as Marcia, Christopher Daniel Barnes as Greg, Jennifer Elise Cox as Jan, Paul Sutera as Peter, Olivia Hack as Cindy, Jesse Lee Soffer as Bobby and Henriette Mantel as Alice. Tim Matheson enters the Brady orbit as Trevor Thomas, a con man pretending to be Carol’s long-lost first husband Roy Martin while secretly hunting for the family’s valuable horse statue.

It is ridiculous. It knows it is ridiculous. And that is exactly why it works.

“Sure, Jan” went from Brady spoof to forever internet language

Then there is Jennifer Elise Cox, whose completely committed take on permanently overlooked middle child Jan Brady remains one of the movies’ secret weapons. Her exaggerated frustration, George Glass fantasy life and desperate attempts to escape Marcia’s shadow helped turn the sequel into something much bigger than a disposable ’90s parody.

Most famously, the movie gave pop culture the endlessly reusable “Sure, Jan” exchange between Jan and Marcia. Thirty years later, people who have never watched a minute of The Brady Bunch still know exactly what that reaction means.

And the love behind the spoof was very real. Christine Taylor recently recalled that she and Cox were the two cast members who were truly obsessive fans of the original series. Taylor said they would push back when dialogue or delivery did not feel Brady-correct, even insisting that Marcia’s famous pronunciation of “school” stay faithful to the way Maureen McCormick originally said it.

That explains why the films can be so viciously funny without ever feeling completely detached from the source material. Taylor has said the performances came from affection rather than contempt — parodying the Bradys while also protecting the tiny character details longtime fans would notice immediately.

The sequel went even more Brady — and packed in the cameos

Taylor described the sequel as even more “Brady-esque” than the first movie, and the film certainly commits harder to the bit. There is Hawaii, family sing-alongs, ludicrous misunderstandings and enough retro styling to make 1996 itself look understated.

The cameos only make the time capsule sweeter. RuPaul, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Rosie O’Donnell, David Spade, Richard Belzer and Barbara Eden all turn up, with Eden appearing as Jeannie in a final wink to another giant piece of classic television.

The movie opened wide on August 23, 1996 and ultimately earned about $21.4 million domestically. It may not have matched the first Brady movie at the box office, but three decades of quotes, memes and Jan reactions have given it the kind of afterlife no opening weekend can measure.

So yes: Zephyring 30 years to a movie where the 1970s invaded the 1990s, Jan remained deeply Jan, Marcia remained deeply Marcia, and somehow the whole thing became even funnier once the internet arrived.

Watch A Very Brady Sequel Turn 30 With Jan Reactions and Cast Secrets

Entertainment Tonight revisits its 1996 set footage as Jennifer Elise Cox reacts to the staying power of the Brady parodies and the cast shares behind-the-scenes memories.

Sources: Paramount Pictures; Entertainment Tonight; Entertainment Weekly.