Gary Cole Looks Back at the ‘90s ‘Brady Bunch’ Movies

Gary Cole got fresh and funky in the ‘70s — in the ‘90s.

Cole, 69, starred in the 1995 The Brady Bunch Movie as Mike Brady, the dad of TV’s favorite family and the role made famous by Robert Reed. The 1995 comedy — and 1996’s A Very Brady Sequel —  brought the Bradys into the 1990s, even though they’re still stuck in their groovy years. There was also a 2002 TV film, The Brady Bunch in the White House.

“I remember bad hair. Polyester. High platform shoes. And a lot of laughing,” Cole told Remind Magazine in an interview published Nov. 3 about making his Brady films. 

“It was really well put together, to me,” he said. “I think the reason it worked, it was kind of a send-up, but it was a send-up with some sweetness attached to it. It was a tip of the cap to a show that was a big success and meant a lot to a lot of people.”

Cole added, “But what’s funny now is that someone said to me is they watched it, but even the people that regarded the Bradys as weird are also now [in] a time capsule because it’s so ’90s if you look at that movie. So they’re just as dated as the Bradys.”

The Brady Bunch Movie also featured some cameos from the main cast of the original series, including Florence Henderson (who originally played Carol Brady), Ann B. Davis (who originally played Alice), Barry Williams (who originally played Greg Brady) and Christopher Knight (who originally played Peter Brady). But it was another Brady who gave Cole a stamp of approval.

“I ran into Maureen McCormick at an event, at one point, and she actually said that I did a good job, which meant a lot to me,” Cole said of the actress who played Marcia Brady.

Cole also reflected on being a young person when the original The Brady Bunch aired, from 1969 to 1974. “When it came on the air, it was 1969, so I was in junior high school, and it was Friday night, which was significant,” he said. “So I had one foot out the door on Friday nights, like most of my friends did.” He said they all felt “too cool” to watch TV with their family on a weekend night, but noted that one part of the show pierced his consciousness: “I do remember all my friends talking about Marcia, for obvious reasons, when you’re a teenage boy.”

The Brady Bunch Movie was a success, bringing in over $50 million at the box office. It also helped introduce new Brady memes and jokes into the marketplace — including Christine Taylor’s iconic delivery, as eldest sister Marcia, of “Sure, Jan.”

Back in March, Taylor told PEOPLE that playing Marcia helped her land the role of one of the villains, Luara Lizzy, in The Craft, which was released in 1996.

“I did The Craft fairly soon after I had done The Brady Bunch Movie, and Marcia, in a way, is her own little villainess,” she said. “Though she’s not overtly a villain in The Brady Bunch, I felt like there were little bits and pieces of her.” Her “Marcia Brady hair” also part of her character in The Craft. 

Still, she joked, “At least Marcia has a heart and she comes full circle and loves her family, but Laura Lizzy really got what was coming to her.”