The Brady Bunch: "Wholesome" is Faked

The Brady Bunch with it's "Hollywood Squares" introduction to the show was billed a wholesome portrayal of the "nuclear family" and ran for several seasons in the late 1960's and early 1970's.  Most Americans with access to a television have seen episodes of the show and learned about the marriage of two parents, combining 6 children (3 boys and 3 girls) and Alice the housekeeper (with her longtime affair with Sam the butcher) in one household.  But all was not "wholesome" about the Brady Bunch and here are a few trivia tidbits I found interesting:

• Barry Williams (played Greg, the oldest son) had a huge crush on Florence Henderson (played Carol, the mother) during the taping of the show.  Little weird to place yourself in an acting role opposite your crush, who plays your mother!  He has since admitted that he dated his television mom and at the 1993 MTV Movie Awards, Williams and Henderson locked lips for a long kiss prompting the audience to gasp at the thought of "Greg" kissing his "mother"!
• In many episodes, the children argued over "bathroom time" since they shared an adjoining bathroom between the girls and boys rooms (and hey...wasn't Mike Brady an architect in this show?  If so, why did he design this house with ONE bathroom for six kids?!)  You see the bathroom many times during different epsiodes, but you never once see a toilet.  The popular joke is that the family is so good and wholesome they don't even have to use a toilet.  But that isn't the real reason.  The creators and designers of the set intended to have a toilet in the bathroom, it wasn't an oversight to exclude it, but network censors wouldn't allow it to be part of the scene.  I'm still shocked that during ANY decade of TV shows that television networks truly believed that viewers would be shocked, apalled or disgusted by the fact that yes, bathrooms have toilets and people (even TV characters) use a toilet.
• In another attempt to perpetuate a "wholesome show," you watch Greg Brady (oldest son) date many of the high school girls, but you never once see him kiss any of them.  In fact, only the youngest son is shown to kiss anyone, (probably because it can be explained away as cute and children's play). Once again, the reality of high school kids not kissing their dates (even in the 1970's) is slim to none and this seems like another silly attempt to gloss over true life experiences.

In writing this post I came across dozens of Brady Bunch trivia sites and this one had the most interesting pieces, including the ones above.  For instance, there wasn't any glass in the screen doors going out to the backyard of the house because camera glare was an issue.  The same house where the original series was filmed still exists in North Hollywood.  A large iron fence was erected in the front with shrubbery covering the fence to deter trespassers from visiting.  All requests to use the house for the 1990's Brady Bunch spoof and other films have been denied.