New book: original Captain Pike Jeffrey Hunter was “simply too handsome” to play Mike Brady in The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch (image Wikipedia), and Jeffrey Hunter (image By Warner Bros. Pictures - Warner Bros. publicity photo, Public Domain)

A new book coming out today reveals that Jeffrey Hunter was in contention for the role of the dad on The Brady Bunch. The original Captain Pike actor, from Star Trek’s first pilot episode “The Cage” was turned down for the role of Mike Brady because he was “too handsome”.

Entertainment Weekly’s ew.com published an excerpt from the book, The Way We All Became The Brady Bunch, in which the book’s author describes the difficult casting process. From the piece:

“As with the search to find the actress who would portray Carol, efforts to cast Mike were met with polite ‘no thanks’ by some well-known actors who wanted neither the commitment a TV series required nor the risk that once they became known as a TV actor, movie work would elude them. But original Star Trek series star Jeffrey Hunter (he played Captain Christopher Pike in the first Trek pilot) was the pursuer for the job of playing Papa Brady. Hunter, who’d had some success on TV, and on the big screen with his performance as Jesus in 1961’s King of Kings, interviewed multiple times with [Sherwood Schwartz, Brady Bunch creator], who told him he was simply too handsome (imagine Comeback Special–era Elvis Presley crossed with Golden Globe winner Matt Bomer) to be architect Mike.”

It was just the next year that Hunter tragically died after suffering a skull fracture in a fall at home. 

The Way We All Became The Brady Bunch: How the Canceled Sitcom Became the Beloved Pop Culture Icon We Are Still Talking About Today is the rather wordy title of the book by Kimberly Potts, which comes out today. Kimberly Potts is a television and pop culture writer with a prolific career spanning more than 20 years. The Way We All Became The Brady Bunch is available in multiple formats from Amazon or wherever great books are sold.