Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'The Bradys Go Bowling'

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“The Bradys Go Bowling”

America’s first family of middlebrow kitsch racks up a few strikes and spares on the reality TV lanes in “The Bradys Go Bowling,” due out on DVD Tuesday.

One of the earliest reality TV series was “Celebrity Bowling,” which often pitted the casts of popular television shows against one another to win cash prizes for people in the studio audience. The syndicated show ran from 1971-78, and two of the 144 episodes featured members of the Brady clan – Greg (Barry Williams), Marsha (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb), Cindy (Susan Olsen) and Bobby (Mike Lookinland) – pitted against kids from “The Waltons.”

“The Brady Bunch,” which followed the comic misadventures of a large blended family comprise of the children of patient-exasperated father Robert Reed and wholesome-kindly mom Florence Henderson, ran for five seasons, from 1969-74. The concept from writer-producer Sherwood Schwartz has enjoyed a rich afterlife in a series of musical variety shows, reunion episodes, Christmas specials, two big-budget Hollywood films (1995’s “The Brady Bunch Movie” and 1996’s “A Very Brady Sequel”), made-for-TV movies, a stage musical and more.