Thursday, 3 December 2020
The iconic home that served as the exterior of TV’s The Brady Bunch may have a new owner with Hollywood pedigree after a dramatic last-minute twist.
On Friday, former NSYNC member and TV personality Lance Bass tweeted that his offer for the house had been accepted. “This is going to be a fun project!,” he said, telling followers that he planned to redo the inside of the house to resemble the show’s interiors.
However on Saturday, Douglas Elliman’ Ernie Carswell, a listing agent for the property, told LA Times that “the seller has not made a final decision,” and after receiving and countering eight offers from buyers that included entertainers, corporate buyers, individual family groups and investors, three offers remained. “From those three, an ultimate prevailing bid was selected by the trustee and a backup,” Carswell said, expecting a sale to close within 10 days.
A few hours later, on Saturday night, Bass posted an Twitter update that he and his team may have been outbid by a Hollywood studio and that the house had gone for way more than the $1.85 million listing price.
“I’m feeling heartbroken today,” he wrote. “We placed the winning bid on the iconic Brady Bunch house — at least that’s what we were told. The agent represinting the estate informed us we made the winning bid (which was WAY over the asking price) after the final deadline for all offers had passed–even writing up the “winning bid” for my team after informing me of the good news.”
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But after he’d spent Friday night celebrating “a dream come true,” the next day “due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’ the same agent informed us that there’s another Corporate Buyer (Hollywood Studio) who wants to buy the house at any cost. We were prepared to go even higher but totally discouraged by the sellers agent, they will outperform any bid with unlimited resources.”
It is unclear which Hollywood studio may be pursuing the house. The rights to The Brady Bunch series are owned by CBS TV Studios, which tried to reboot it during the 2012-2013 season. The project, produced by Vince Vaughn, was in development at CBS. With The Brady Bunch still running in syndication, boosted by cult following, and sitcoms revivals and reboots hotter than ever, it is not inconceivable that the studio would want to own and preserve the exterior of the classic series though I hear that CBS is not after the property.
People in the industry have suggested that Netflix or Amazon, which have seemingly unlimited financial resources, could be the mystery buyer or someone working with the Schwartz family. Full House creator Jeff Franklin recently purchased the San Francisco house used as exterior on the classic sitcom.
UPDATE Aug 7: It was announced this morning that cable network HGTV, which specializes in shows about remodeling, has bought the house and “will restore it to its 1970s glory,” likely as a TV series.
The house, located at 11222 Dilling Street in Studio City, CA., only a few blocks away from CBS’ Radford Studios, only went on the market a couple of weeks ago. The listing calls the property “the second-most photographed home in the United States,” after the White House.
The residence is two bedrooms with three bathrooms and has two master suites. It boasts 2477 square feet on a lot size approximately a third of an acre. The house is on sale for the first time in 45 years, having been bought by its current owners in 1973.
The home was used in the exterior shots of The Brady Bunch series, with interiors done at a sound stage. The beloved Sherwood Schwartz sitcom aired from September 1969 to March 1974, revolving around a large blended family.
Here are Bass’ two tweets:
