Eve Plumb Reveals the Secret Behind Her Post-‘Brady Bunch' Career
Eve Plumb shared the secret to her career beyond The Brady Bunch. The actress, who played middle child Jan Brady on the ABCsitcom from 1968 to 1974, was in danger of being typecast when the series ended its five-season run more than 50 years ago. Instead, she said "yes" to some surprising projects and "no" to others.
"I think that the power to say no is very valuable as an actor," Plumb, 68, told Fox News Digital in an interview while promoting her memoir Happiness Included. "My parents always made sure that I had time off and that I did the right things. You don't have to say yes to everything. And I am still that way today."
"I would hope for every child actor that they have good protective parents, like mine, who saved their money and kept them away from anything that seemed suspicious," she added.
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Just saying no
Plumb said no even when she was a Brady. When the Brady Bunch kids hit the road as a touring musical act in the early 1970s, Plumb dodged a proposed deal with talent manager Harvey Shotz, she shared in her book. Turns out Plumb's dad, Neely, a former RCA A& R executive, questioned Shotz's promises and big talk, and the decision to pull Eve out of the group fueled a bit of divide between the TV siblings. (Susan Olsen and Mike Lookinland's parents felt the same way, Plumb noted.)
A few years later, Plumb famously skipped the first and most famous Brady Bunch spinoff-the cast's short-lived 1976 variety show, The Brady Bunch Hour. Lookalike Jeri Reichl was cast to play Jan in the Sid and Marty Krofft-produced series. More Brady movies, specials, and spinoffs would follow, and Plumb did say yes to those.
Speaking with CBS Mornings in April, Plumb reiterated, "The only Brady reunion I didn't do was the variety show. But every other Brady TV movie I've done. I have always spoken highly of it. It's put me where I am today."
RELATED: Eve Plumb Shocked Fans With First Post-Sitcom Role
One of the big things Plumb said yes to totally broke her out of the Brady mold. In 1976, she starred in the NBC TV movie Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway. The then-teen actress played a young runaway who turned to prostitution to get by.
In a 2023 interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Plumb said the role was a "really great" way to shed her wholesome Brady Bunch image. "I was really fortunate, because it was such a departure from Jan, and that was a big shocker," she said. "But it was great ... because it was the instant transition from Jan to adult, which is very difficult for a lot of child actors to make, because once you're not cute anymore, nobody wants you. So, that was very fortunate for me, so that's why I did it. It was a very quick, giant step."
Plumb, who started her career in commercials and classic TV, also admitted to Fox that it was years before she experienced rejection in Hollywood because she was always cast as the cute kid or the pretty young woman.
"It probably happened in my late 20s, when I finally stopped getting everything I auditioned for," she said. "I had such confidence going along and moving through all of my roles, that it took a while for me to experience the disappointment of being an actor in Hollywood."
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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 8:56 AM.