Strangers on a sitcom

Have you ever watched an episode of The Brady Bunch and wondered how Mike and Carol met, or what happened to their previous spouses? Craig Pittman at Slate has a theory about the show that was a mainstay of his childhood viewing: Mike and Carol Brady Murdered Each Other's Spouses and Married Each Other.

Hear him out:

But after a while a question occurred to me: How did Mike and Carol hook up?

The show conveniently skips over that question. You never learn what happened to Mike's first wife or Carol's first husband. The kids never mention their original mother or father. The kids' grandparents never visit after the wedding. Only once, in the series' pilot, did anyone display a photo of one of the missing parents. 

Clearly, something had happened to these two families that was so traumatic no one dared to bring it up. But what? Nuclear meltdown? Alien abduction? Evil clown attack?

One day, while watching another channel's afternoon movie - the Alfred Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train - suddenly I saw, with a startling clarity, the answer to my mystery: Mike murdered Carol's husband and Carol killed Mike's wife. It was a crisscross killing.

Do check out the article, it's pretty hilarious. And besides, he could be right. It would explain why it was never brought up on the show.

Notice you can't see their hands? That's because THEY HAVE BLOOD ON THEM!!!