Beyond ‘The Brady Bunch’: Ann B. Davis’s Most Surprising TV Moments

Ann B. Davis was everybody’s favorite TV housekeeper. The 88-year-old actress, who died on June 1, was best known for her role as live-in maid Alice Nelson on the 1970s sitcom The Brady Bunch. And while she was also famous for her Emmy-winning role as Schultzy on The Bob Cummings Show in the late 1950s, Davis popped up in a few more shows over the years. Here’s a look at five surprising Ann B. Davis TV moments.

The Dating Game

Looks like teen idols Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick weren’t the only Brady alums to appear on The Dating Game. Smack in the middle of her Brady Bunch stint, Davis tried her luck at love on the campy television dating show. The TV legend asked questions like:  ‘If you had to sleep at the zoo tonight, what cage would you hope they would put you in?” And yes, one of her suitors actually described himself as “truly one of the world’s great lovers. And I’d like to have the opportunity to show you just how nice it can be.” And she actually picked him!  What would Sam the Butcher think?

Love, American Style

In 1970, Davis had her trippiest TV appearance ever when she appeared on the Love American Style segment, “Love and the Trip.” She played Vi Cooper, a mom who finds a stash of marijuana in her future daughter in law’s luggage. After debating on ways to get rid of it (“Burn it in the fireplace,” “bury it”), Davis’s character and her curious husband decided to smoke it instead!

The Love Boat

In 1980, Davis made a pit stop on ABC’s The Love Boat, but her character didn’t find love there. She played Agnes in the episode “Invisible Maniac/September Song/Peekaboo,” a woman who mistakenly believed a sex maniac was loose on the ship.  (Don’t worry, it wasn’t Gopher or Doc!)

The Brady Bunch Variety Hour

All of the Brady cast (except for Eve Plumb) reunited in 1977 for this bizarre family variety show, but Davis really surprised us when she acted witchy in a Wizard of Oz themed sketch. Who knew Alice could sing and cackle like that? And why were The Scarecrow (Greg Brady), the Tin Man (Peter) and the Cowardly Lion ( played by Rip Taylor) singing the song “Car Wash?”

The John Forsythe Show

And before she became famous for that bright blue maid uniform, Davis played a gym teacher! On the 1965 NBC sitcom The John Forsythe Show, the actress played Miss Wilson, the phys-ed teacher at the fictional Miss Foster’s School for Girls. But this fledgling sitcom did a switcheroo mid-season and segued into a spy-themed show, which totally confused viewers. No wonder it only lasted one season!

Ann B. Davis on The Brady Bunch: 

Ann B. Davis: Five Things You Didn’t Know About ‘The Brady Bunch’ Star

The recent death of actress Ann. B. Davis has us all nostalgic for her days on the '70s sitcom The Brady Bunch.

Who can forget her iconic character, live-in maid Alice Nelson,  a lady who was known for greeting the six Brady kids with fresh baked cookies and milk after school? The hapless housekeeper did windows and she skied on a haystack and volunteered to be the guinea pig for the family's carnival dunking booth. All with a sarcastic smile on her face.

Of course, in real life, Davis was actually nothing like her Brady Bunch alter ego. (And that's not a bad thing!) Here are five things that might surprise you about the beloved late actress.

She didn't cook

While Alice was known for her prize-winning strawberry preserves, pork chops and applesauce, and super special sweets (remember when she combined Peter's three favorite desserts and came up with a Straw-Split-Fudge-Short?), Davis didn't like to cook in real life. In a 1992 interview with People she said, "When it's my turn in the house, we just eat out." Still, she teamed up with Ron Newcomer and Diane Smolen for "Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook" in 1994, a spiral bound treasure that boasted recipes like "House of Cards Hamburgers" and "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia Muffins."

She couldn't relate to kids

Hard to believe that the woman who poignantly gave Jan (Eve Plumb) a special locket because was also a middle child once claimed that she "didn't do well" with kids. Davis told People that while she got along with her pint-sized co-stars ("I had the boys hooking rugs and the girls doing needlepoint," the avid knitter once said), she also revealed, "I basically don't do that well with children, although my sister says I'm a great aunt."

She had a twin sister

Speaking of her sister, that'd be her twin! That's right, the actress who once did double duty playing Alice and her lookalike Army sergeant cousin Emma on the classic sitcom (in the 1972 episode "Sergeant Emma") in fact had a real life twin named Harriet. Check out a pic of the Davis sisters here.

She was cool enough to have a rock band named after her

Back in the early 1990s, a Michigan rock band named themselves Ann B. Davis after the Brady Bunch icon. Davis told the Chicago Sun-Times, "They actually sent me their record, but I didn't have any machine to play it on. It's obviously not music for my generation. It's flattering, I guess. I've had dogs and jeeps named after me, so who knows what else people will come up with."

She was a two-time Emmy winner

Before her Brady days, Davis was already an Emmy award winning actress. In the late 1950s she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress two years in a row for her role as Schultzy on The Bob Cummings Show. (She even beat out I Love Lucy legend Vivian Vance!) And by 1960, Davis already had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Landing the coveted role of zany housekeeper Alice Nelson on The Brady Bunch was really just the icing on the cake.