The bidding mystery around the iconic Brady Bunch house can finally be put to rest — Discovery Inc.’s HGTV network has purchased the iconic television property and plans to restore it to its 1970s original.
The nearly 2,500-square-foot Studio City ranch house remains firmly rooted in the hearts of every 1970s kid who grew up watching The Brady Bunch, as well as those who enjoyed the reruns. The show, which aired from 1969 to 1974 and was one of the first American sitcoms to feature a blended family, panned into the house at the start and end of every episode.
“I am excited to share that HGTV is the winning bidder and will restore the Brady Bunch home to its 1970s glory as only HGTV can,” Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in a second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
When the house first hit the market for $1.885 million last month, a bidding war broke out — former ‘N Sync singer Lance Bass lost to another offer and then accused real estate company Douglas Elliman of using his well-known name to drive up the cost of the property.
While Bass said he lost the property to a buyer wiling to pay “any cost,” the network did not specify how much it paid for the property.
“I just hope it’s not demolished,” Bass wrote in a Twitter post on Aug. 4.
As it turns out, neither Bass nor any of The Brady Bunch’s legions of other fans have to worry about losing what is currently the second-most photographed house (after the White House) in the U.S.
While details around what the restoration will entail have not yet been released, Zaslav confirmed that The Brady Bunch house will remain a piece of 1970s television history as it brings in money.
“If we do not meet these targets, we are going to move Gunnar into Greg’s bedroom in the attic of The Brady Bunch house,” Zaslav joked, referring to Discovery’s CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels and a character from the show known to have a tiny room. “And it was not a fun place to be. It didn’t have a door. There were beads, if you remember.”