The Masked Singer Mummies revealed as Brady Bunch brothers: Here's why their famous sitcom sisters weren't on the show
Warning: This article contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of The Masked Singer.
TV theme night took over The Masked Singer this week, and it did not disappoint.
The wacky reality-singing show kept to the theme from the episode's opening moments, where panelist Robin Thicke performed a sweet tribute of the Growing Pains theme song in honor of his dad, the late Alan Thicke. Robin's mom, Gloria Loring, was also on hand to cheer on her son, who later credited his mom with being the reason he sings and his dad for his good head of hair.
In further keeping with the theme, all three contestants — this week's being Mummies, Fortune Teller, and reigning champ Harp — were expected to sing theme songs to beloved shows including The Monkees, The Jeffersons, and The Golden Girls, respectively. And, stars from iconic shows Beverly Hills, 90210 (Tori Spelling) and Full House (Jodie Sweetin) showed up to deliver some TV dinner clues.
First on the chopping block was Mummies, who looked a bit shocked to be going home so soon. The guesses during their unmasking were all over the place, from Ken Jeong's ridiculous doubling down on Joey Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence, and Martin Lawrence; to Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg's last-second pivot to Home Improvement lads Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Zachary Ty Bryan, and Taran Noah Smith. Nicole Scherzinger and Thicke were right on the money, though: They guessed that Mummies were the boys of The Brady Bunch — Mike Lookinland, Christopher Knight, and Barry Williams — and they were correct.
Michael Becker/Fox Mummies in the “TV Theme Night” episode of 'The Masked Singer' airing Wednesday, Oct. 5
This sent Fortune Teller and Harp to the Battle Royale, where they were tasked with singing their own version of Full House theme song "Everywhere You Look." Ultimately, Harp proved to be unbeatable once more, and Fortune Teller was eliminated.
When it was time for Fortune Teller to reveal himself, only Jeong got it right. The creepy-cool all-seeing character was revealed to be FUBU CEO and Shark Tank investor Daymond John.
This concludes the end of round 1 this season, meaning Harp will next be seen in the semifinals, and next week's episode will feature an entirely new group of contestants.
Read on for EW's interview with the Mummies about whether or not the Brady Bunch women were ever tapped to join them, who was the rustiest on stage, and how they felt about being eliminated so soon.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When they approached you guys to do The Masked Singer, were there ever any talks of bringing in the Brady Bunch women (Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, and Susan Olsen)?
BARRY WILLIAMS: It was always, when it got serious, it was only discussed as the Brady boys. But it would have been fun to have [one of the] girls in there, as long as they kept extending the numbers, like four, to five, to six — we wouldn't want to sacrifice anyone.
MIKE LOOKINLAND: It's funny. Literally for decades, anytime any one of us has a project, we're just aware, even if we're not involved, of who's doing what — like what play Eve [Plumb] is in and what business Chris [Knight] was doing or what show Barry [Williams] is on, just whatever, right? We always at least know about our siblings' activities, and the girls are completely in the dark on this one, which I find hilarious. I haven't told them!
WILLIAMS: All of us have been in touch with everybody. And no one has discussed, to my knowledge, the fact that we're going to be appearing on this thing tonight to any of the girls, which is really unusual.
LOOKINLAND: It's like an episode of The Brady Bunch.
CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Of course, if we had told Cindy [played by Susan Olsen] the whole world would know by now. That might be why they didn't ask the girls…
WILLIAMS: No... [All laugh]
KNIGHT: I think three individually costumed performers is already record-setting for the show if I'm not mistaken. So six would have been just crazy.
LOOKINLAND: Out of control.
On the show, you mentioned it had been quite a long time since the three of you performed together in that way. Be honest, who was the rustiest?
KNIGHT: Well, I'm not sure it's rusty — it's never unrusty. I was born rusty. That's me. You know, that's not my forte or my place of comfort. So I had to be — I'm not sure I had to be talked into doing it, it was more or less the right thing to do in light of the fact that it was kind of a group opportunity or no opportunity — so my bros here pulled me through and helped me just survive.
WILLIAMS: Just to amplify that a little bit, even from the days of Brady, when we were recording albums and doing episodes that involved music, we had a variety show that was all music and dancing, we toured together. It was just not something that Chris ever was totally comfortable with. He went along with it, he was a great team player. But we haven't done anything like this since the variety show in the '70s that I can think of, and that was '77. So that would be the last time, and when we were approached [for TMS] Mike and I were supportive and encouraging to Chris, and he did it.
LOOKINLAND: And rusty doesn't describe it. It's more like mummified.
KNIGHT: Literally.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, perfect. And Mike has and is active in a band, and so am I, and have been for the last many years. And so that's, you know, it's sort of a different world. And I don't know if you could tell who's who if you didn't know. I'm gonna have people over to watch this tonight that don't know that we're going to watch it. And I'm going to ask them, "Can you tell which one was me? Or Michael? Or Chris?" Because everybody is putting forth their best effort and the sound mix that came out on stage I thought sounded great.
Michael Buckner/Getty Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, and Mike Lookinland reunited at the 2022 Emmys.
It seemed like you guys were having a blast.
WILLIAMS: You bet. We were there to have and get the most out of the experience possible. And that was all going great, until we got unmasked. [All laugh]
LOOKINLAND: There was definitely freedom in being anonymous there for a while. But, that said, there was many technical and logistical issues with the costume itself, just being able to perform. In ours, we could move around, we could jump and dance, and we were the first ones they said ever that had articulated jaws, like our mouths moved. But that said, we also had to make sure that the microphone was exactly in the right spot, or you don't get audio, and singing live for a one chance, one-off deal, it was tricky. But there was definitely this freeing sense that these people have no idea who I am, so let's just go for it.
KNIGHT: I will add that obviously there's a lot of individuals on The Masked Singer who are not themselves performers, and are not there to win the competition, but to enjoy their participation in it, and to just have fun. Not that I can say this about myself, but between Barry and Mike who are performers, there was some held desire to be competitive in the competition. We seemed to get a reaction from the studio audience that we were looking for, and feeling good about the performance, but you're handicapped in that you don't see any of the other contestants, so you're blind to what you're being judged against. But I believe that there was a shock through our group that we were immediately dispatched.
LOOKINLAND: Early in rehearsals, I think we hadn't even all gotten to Los Angeles yet, and we were rehearsing on Zoom and doing audio. I said on one of our calls, "Listen guys, I fully intend to go in to win this thing," and then, when I heard Harp sing for the first time, I said, "Okay, new plan. I fully intend to not get eliminated in the first round." [All laugh]
KNIGHT: Be careful what you wish for.
LOOKINLAND: Well, they have a different protocol this time. The contest is set up a little differently. So only one person is advancing on each episode. And when you're up against the Harp, you know, oh, well.
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