The Brady Bunch (TV Series) The Big Sprain (1970) User Reviews

Alice Sprains Her Ankle

[Jimmy_the_Gent4 · 30 August 2020]

Mike and the kids need to handle the housework while Carol is visiting her sick aunt and Alice is laid up in bed due to a sprained ankle.

An amusing episode for Season 1. Cindy gets some of the funniest bits as she burns toast and drops a salad. Alice also get depressed because she can't go to the Meatcutter's Ball with Sam. The kids all work together after first messing everything up.

THE FAMOUS SPRAINED ANKLE EPISODE.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 15 June 2024]

I think some of the best episodes, and more poignant, revolved around Alice. Carol is away, helping her sick aunt, Alice now has double the work to do, accidentally trips and sprains her ankle.

What a mess. The fun part is watching the kids pitch in and help around the house --and obviously they've NEVER done anything like this before. Mike is also in an awkward position and everything goes haywire. The sad part is Alice being stuck in bed --doctors orders to stay off her ankle --who will miss a special night with Sam at the Meatcutters Ball.

The name of that get-together has always fascinated me through the years, credit creative comedy writing 101. For all us tv buffs, we get a glimpse of Alice's bedroom off the kitchen, which was very similar to Uncle Charley's room on MY THREE SONS, if you remember.

You know things will eventually work out, but it's still fun to watch the gang in a big mess. Good direction by Russ Mayberry, who directed many episodes for THAT GIRL. Best known for MAGNUM PI.

SEASON 1 EPISODE 19 remastered color. 4 dvd box set ABC/Paramount released 2005.

Unbelievable episode

[aqueckboerner · 3/10 · 13 April 2022]

This entire episode is unbelievable. Mike, who does absolutely nothing in the kitchen except maybe dishes thinks he's going to be able to help get the kids to do the work when Alice falls and sprains her ankle is unbelievable. What, does he just assume the kids are going to magically be able to know how to cook and clean up when they've never had to do so before? What was Mike thinking? He wasn't even in the kitchen supervising the girls when they made breakfast and dropped it on the floor. Cindy could have burned the house down because she didn't even know how to operate the toaster. Mike is supposedly this awesome tv dad but he didn't even make the boys help the girls with breakfast. Instead he rewards them by giving them cash to buy breakfast somewhere. That's not being a good dad!

Then we are to believe the kids magically made a huge dinner for Alice and Mike when they had no idea how to cook, let alone organize it. This was just not believable. Jan is left to doing laundry and overfills it with too much detergent. Again, no supervision or instruction. Could Alice have not gotten crutches or a wheelchair to help supervise the kids doing the work? Come on now! You cannot just leave kids to figure things out like this on their own. They could destroy the house or burn it down. Poor parenting!