The Brady Bunch/Law and Disorder

Law and Disorder
Season 4, Episode 14
Airdate	January 12, 1973
Production Number	080
Written by	Elroy Schwartz
Directed by	Hal Cooper
Produced by	Howard Leeds
← 4x13 Love and the Older Man	4x15 → Greg Gets Grounded
The Brady Bunch — Season Four

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Law and Disorder is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of The Brady Bunch, and the eighty-sixth episode overall.

Starring: Robert Reed (Mike Brady), Florence Henderson (Carol Brady)

and Ann B. Davis (Alice)

Maureen McCormick (Marcia), Eve Plumb (Jan), Susan Olsen (Cindy), Barry Williams (Greg), Christopher Knight (Peter), Mike Lookinland (Bobby)

Additional Cast: Shawn Schepps (Jill), Harlen Carraher (Steve), Cindy Henderson (Girl), Jon Hayes (Jon)

Plot Overview

Bobby is chosen to be a "safety monitor" at school, a job that entails policing his classmates and making sure they abide by basic safety and etiquitte rules. However, Bobby takes this responsibility too seriously and begins enforcing the school's rules to the letter, even if his classmates object.

At home, Bobby oversteps his authority, behaving as though he is also a safety monitor at home. He threatens to report several of his siblings - namely, Greg (for coming home past curfew) and Jan (for not helping to set the table as agreed to) - and Alice (for throwing out aerosal cans with the rest of the trash) when they don't live up to the household rules. Everyone complains when they learn Bobby will be accompanying them on a family outing on a sailboat Mike is restoring.

One day after school, after the safety monitors have taken a group picture for the school yearbook, a pretty classmate of Bobby's named Jill comes up frought in tears; her beloved pet cat had wandered away from her and into an abandoned house, which is slated for demolition. Frantic and saying there's no time to waste - and instead of calling the authorities or the demolition contractor - she gets Bobby to go into the house and save the cat. Bobby does just that, the cat wanders back into Jill's arms, and a grateful Jill thanks Bobby. Bobby says thanks, but then realizes he has soot all over his good suit.

Bobby returns home and realizes nobody is home. He realizes this is a good opportunity to wash his suit and good clothes, hoping nobody will notice what he did. Bobby loads the washer with a full box of laundry detergent, since his suit got extra dirty.

Hours later, when Bobby goes to check the wash, he realizes that the laundry room is full of suds, the result of using the full laundry detergent box! Just then, Carol and Alice return home from shopping and realize what happened.

Later that evening, Mike and Carol counsel Bobby on his recent totalitarian behavior. In noting that sometimes people have good reasons for "breaking the rules," they clear up several of his siblings' apparent misdeeds - Greg and his date had come home to a dark house, and concerned for her welfare, Greg stayed with his date until her parents came home; Jan was studying for a test and previously arranged to trade chores with Marcia. (Although Alice's actions aren't explained, it likely had to do with changes in garbage pickup rules that she was abiding by.) Mike and Carol then remind Bobby that being a safety monitor at school does not mean that he is one at home, and then let on that they are aware of Bobby's too-strict style of policing at school, letting on that Bobby probably was going to be relieved of his school safety monitor duties for a long while.

The family then enjoy their outing on the restored sailboat.