Susan Olsen has long been vocal about her dislike of her “Brady Bunch” character, Cindy Brady. The former child star was just 8 years old when she first appeared on the ABC sitcom in 1969. She played the role of the youngest Brady sibling until 1974, then reprised it for “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour,” and several TV reboots.
Olsen was front and center in her bell-bottoms for the Bradys’ musical segments on the ‘70s sitcom and the spinoff variety show, but it wasn’t always a sunshine day for her.
Speaking with People magazine in August 2025, Olsen said she felt the show was very “uncool” and that she felt pigeonholed by her goody two-shoes character as she got older and looked for other roles. But a trio of rock stars changed her opinion of the show years later.
Susan Olsen Said 3 Rock Stars Praised ‘The Brady Bunch’
Getty“The Brady Bunch” was about a blended family of eight and their live-in housekeeper. The newlywed parents, Mike and Carol Brady (Robert Reed and Florence Henderson) each treated their three stepchildren the same as their three biological children. By series end, the blended family theme was barely part of the show.
Olsen told People that late rock singer Chester Bennington (Linkin Park, Stone Temple Pilots) once talked to her about his own blended family of six kids, which reminded him of “The Brady Bunch.”
In addition, the lead singers from the Black Crowes and Skid Row praised the ‘70s sitcom.
“Chris Robinson comes to me, and he is going, ‘Our drummer would be in tears if he were here to meet you,’” Olsen said, referring to The Black Crowes. She noted that she was told that the drummer still had a “Brady Bunch Live” concert poster on his wall decades later.
“He then goes, ‘This is so cool to meet you,”’ she said of Robinson. “I’m going, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, a rock star is telling me it’s cool to meet me?”
She added, “[Skid Row’s] Sebastian Bach set me straight. He said to me, ‘Dude, you’re a part of people’s childhood, and you’re a good part. How could that ever be bad?’ He’s right. What could ever be bad about that?”
Susan Olsen Was Happy When ‘The Brady Bunch’ Was Canceled
Getty ImagesOlsen has admitted that she wanted “The Brady Bunch” to get canceled. It finally did, after five seasons, in 1974. In a May 2025 appearance on Smashing Pumpkins rocker Billy Corgan’s “The Magnificent Others” podcast, the actress said she was happy that the show ended when she was 12 years old.
“To some extent, I felt guilt,” she admitted of the sitcom’s sudden end. “Because I’d been praying for the show to be canceled.”
“The Brady Bunch” star explained that the onset of puberty was “bad enough” without going through it on national TV.
