Susan Olsen claims Brady Brunch revival was cancelled because of her anti-trans views
Susan Olsen in 2023 (L) and as Cindy Brady in 1969 (R) (Getty/ABC)
Susan Olsen, the actress best-known for playing youngest child Cindy in the 70s sitcom The Brady Bunch, has said that plans for a revival of the show were cancelled because of her views about the LGBTQ+ community.
In an interview on the conservative podcast WalkAway Campaign, Olsen said development began for a reboot but that it stalled because of her previous support for Donald Trump, questioning COVID-19 vaccines, and her views regarding queer people.
Now 63, the star thought the comments were in keeping with her character, because she wanted to portray a grown-up Cindy as a right-wing podcaster.
“I am what I was going to portray,” she said. “What kind of show would this be if I can’t say anything controversial? Everybody was saying: ‘We’re sorry, but they just won’t budge. They just will not have you in this’.
“I was like: ‘Wow, I’ve been cancelled’. A role I’ve played for over 50 years, I can’t play it now because I’m too dangerous. I was like. ‘OK guys, good luck, I hope you can sell it’.”
Susan Olsen went on to point out that people are legally protecting from being fired for their political views but not if they hadn’t been hired in the first place and revealed that she had a call with the showrunner and producer to discuss moving forward with the reboot, even offering to take a course in “political correctness”.
They disagreed with her opinions and had “drank every drop of the Kool-Aid”, she added.
During the call, the subject of vaccines and transgender children came up.
Olsen claimed she was told she could not say that “the vaccine was not safe or effective” and that the production team spoke about the high suicide rates among trans children who don’t receive gender-affirming medical treatment.
According to Olsen, the reboot was set to include one of Cindy’s sister Jan’s kids being trans. She asked if the show could “show both sides” with her being the aunt “talking them out of doing something permanent” but this was not welcomed by the studio.
“There was also a Black spouse. To that I was like: ‘Come on, let’s not be so obvious… let’s make this spouse somebody who has a really close relationship with another Brady, and that’s how this Brady met them. Give them a foundation so this isn’t a token position’,” Olsen added.
“How many times have I watched something on TV and I’ve read the book and am thinking: ‘Wait a minute, that character wasn’t gay, that character wasn’t trans?’ Come on…”
Olsen dismissed the question of systemic racism in the US by pointing to the fact that voters “elected a Black president twice”.
The producers apparently suggested that Cindy’s political views could work if it became “a teaching moment”, with the younger members of her family telling her “gay people are OK”, but Olsen rejected the idea.
“I will not let you make Cindy a bigot. That is not a teaching moment, that is a ‘Cindy is an a**hole moment’. I don’t own the rights to the character, they can write her any way they want, but I don’t want to play her that way,” she said.
This is not the first time Olsen has lost out on a job because of her views. She was fired from LA Talk Radio’s Two Chicks Talkin’ Politics in 2016 after sharing anti-LGBTQ+ views on social media. Bosses announced her departure by saying they would “not tolerate hateful speech by anyone associated with our radio station”.
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