MORE THAN A HUNCH `BRADY' DOES OFFER SOME SITCOM DISH.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

``Growing Up Brady'' is laudable for what it isn't and for what it doesn't do, particularly when you compare it to recent docudramas about the dysfunctional ``Partridge Family'' cast.

``Brady'' isn't a pathetic piece of self-aggrandizement by a washed-up performer desperate to prove fans still love him. It doesn't try to settle old scores by embarrassing cast mates or family members who gave the actor behind the project what was perceived as a tough time way back when, yet it doesn't offer a wholly whitewashed portrait of the era.

Instead, it's an affectionate, not particularly judgmental look back at an oddball time when many in America lost their senses, particularly when it came to watching a wan situation comedy about an impossibly squeaky-clean family. People say that our affection for the Bradys stems from the fact that we long for their innocence. However, I suspect the reason the series still resonates and that the film parodies of the '90s were successful is because, for a vast majority of the first generation that grew up watching TV, seeing ``The Brady Bunch'' - as kids and then as teens - led to our first realization that the media condescends and even lies to viewers, a far grimmer but no less important lesson. So the Bradys were educational, after all.

Based on Barry Williams' good-humored, unpretentious memoirs of the Brady experience, ``Growing Up Brady'' has a hokey framing device, but of course, it couldn't be any hokier than the show it essays. The real Williams returns to the Paramount lot to have lunch with old pal (and series creator) Sherwood Schwartz, gets a lot of questions about whether he and Maureen McCormick - best-known to the rest of us as Marcia, Marcia, Marcia - ever got it on. Standing on an empty soundstage, he delves into reverie (and, most importantly, answers that question).

Williams (played by Adam Brody in the body of the film) isn't really the central character in his own story. He shares the stage with his co-stars, particularly Robert Reed (Daniel Hugh Kelly, a middling look-alike but a serviceable impersonation), who vitriolically battled creator Sherwood Schwartz (Michael Tucker, who plays his character with the same blinkered bonhomie with which he hosts Pax's unwatchable ``Chicken Soup for the Soul'') over the show's (using the term advisedly) ``creative content.'' In Williams' point of view, both men were right: Reed was right to argue that the show was junk, but given its success, Schwartz had clearly hit upon something that didn't need tampering with. Reed's homosexuality is discreetly mentioned and, as it should be, shrugged off.

He brings Florence Henderson (Rebeccah Bush) front-and-center for a scene in which the teen-age Williams has a chaste but nonetheless eyebrow-raising ``date'' with his TV mom (in Williams' book, Henderson was a good deal more earthy and profane than depicted here). He depicts the efforts of Christopher Knight a k a Peter (Ricky Ullman) and Eve Plumb, better-known as Jan (Kaitlin Cullum), to venture into a relationship (this, too, is significantly tidied up from the book's version of the story). Hormones were everywhere on the set: Even Michael Lookinland (played by the original actor's son Scott, and therefore the only dead-ringer in the crowd) and Susan Olsen (Carly Schroeder), who played Bobby and Cindy, respectively, ventured some experimental pecks.

And, of course, there are Williams' own romantic travails with McCormick (Kaley Cuoco). There's an amusing scene early on when he tries to impress her by smoking; she literally blows rings around him. Later, when Maureen comes to frolic in the Williams family swimming pool (images of which will soon, inevitably, be downloadable from numerous Web sites devoted to Cuoco), turns wildly amusing as poor Barry must conceal his arousal when his parents call the two into the living room. (Interestingly, Williams was offended by the Marcia/Greg romance subplot in the theatrical release ``A Very Brady Sequel,'' even though it was simply riffing on his and McCormick's real-life tryst; the film is mild compared to what's suggested here.)

The cast here doesn't nail the Brady mannerisms in the hilarious manner that the performers in the movies and the stage play in Westwood managed; they're sort of the road-show, dinner-theater Bradys. And the humor rarely rises above the anemically amiable level of the series (if not the even lamer spin-offs). Still, given how obsessed many fans of the series are, they'll likely find this a good-natured kiss-and-tell that manages to make everyone look good.

The facts

--The show: ``Growing Up Brady.''

--What: Behind-the-scenes telefilm about the kitschy family comedy.

--The stars: Adam Brody, Daniel Hugh Kelly, Michael Tucker, Kaley Cuoco, Rebeccah Bush.

--Where: NBC (Channel 4).

--When: 9 tonight.

--Our rating: Two and one half stars

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Daniel Hugh Kelly as Robert Reed uncomfortably embraces his co-star, Florence Henderson (Rebeccah Bush).

(2) ``Brady Bunch'' creator Sherwood Schwartz (Michael Tucker, center) addresses the cast in a scene from ``Growing Up Brady.''

(3) Adam Brody as Barry Williams casually flirts with Maureen McCormick (Kaley Cuoco) in ``Growing Up Brady.''