‘Brady Bunch' Star Eve Plumb Reveals Why She Doesn't Get Paid for Reruns of Classic Sitcom
Eve Plumb opened up about her Brady Bunch paycheck-and why it stopped more than five decades ago, even though the show is still on the air. Speaking with WGN News, the former child star speculated that the not-so-forward-thinking deal the cast members cut in the late 1960s could be why the show still airs all over the world in reruns.
"That's why it's been on for 40 years, I think, because they don't have to spend money on residuals," Plumb, 68, said in the May 2026 interview. "It was [a different time]. The contract only allowed for 10 runs of each episode. And there was no cable, and there was no rerunning, so it sounded like a good deal."
Plumb noted that there has been a reluctance to go back and renegotiate the deal that was made more than 50 years ago because many other shows "would love to do it."
"But you know what? It's all right," she added.
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Plumb knew ‘The Brady Bunch' cast made less money than stars from other shows
Plumb was just 11 years old when she joined the cast of The Brady Bunch as middle child Jan. She appeared in 117 episodes of the ABCsitcom from 1969 to 1974. In her memoir Happiness Included, she shared that her father, Neely Plumb, was diligent about protecting the money she earned on the show and kept a ledger down to the penny.
Plumb wrote that most fans think the cast members are rolling in residuals from "the hundreds of thousands of times the five seasons of The Brady Bunch have been in reruns since 1974."
"If only it were so," she admitted, adding that no one questioned the 10-run deal, including her agent, because no one ever dreamed the episodes would run more than a few times each.
"Needless to say, that faucet of residuals income ran dry before I even graduated from high school," Plumb revealed in her book.
In a fan Q&A posted on YouTube, Plumb explained she knew that stars on other ABC shows at the time were making more than the cast of The Brady Bunch, most notably The Partridge Family stars.
"I wasn't aware of any sort of [rivalry]," she said. "I mean, I know that the Bradys weren't getting as much money for our productions because things like Mod Squad was on the lot, and we were sort of looked down on. But The Partridge Family was very separate and such a different show. I didn't feel any rivalry."
While she didn't get paid residuals, Plumb secured a savvy investment. In 2016, the actress sold a beach house she bought when she first started on The Brady Bunch in 1969. According to Page Six, Plumb paid $55,000 for the Malibu, California, property as a child and sold it for $3.9 million decades later.
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This story was originally published May 9, 2026 at 7:49 AM.