Mike Colman: Bring back The Block we all loved

In the early days we were obsessed with The Block. We loved how hard the couples all worked to get their apartments ready for sale. So what happened? To say the show has changed is like saying Shaynna Blaze has got an annoying laugh.

Want to feel really old?

I caught a few minutes of Nine’s Today show the other morning and one of the hosts revealed the astonishing news that next week marks 50 years since the first airing of The Brady Bunch.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia, could it really be half a century since you and the rest of America’s most famous blended family came into our lives?

The Brady Bunch … time flies. Picture: Supplied

As part of Today’s piece on the Brady Bunch anniversary they showed clips from a US reality program titled A Very Brady Renovation in which the real Brady house is bought at auction and totally rebuilt to the exact specifications of the original show.

Host Jonathan Scott, Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick (Marcia), Brady Bunch star Susan Olsen (Cindy) and host Drew Scott pose with their tools after building replica of a dresser from the Brady Bunch TV set for the original Brady House, as seen on A Very Brady Renovation. Picture: Supplied

In the interview aired on Today the “kids” were asked, “so you did all the jackhammering and stuff?”

“That’s right,” said Christopher Knight who played Peter. “It was just us … and about 100 workers helping us.”

Which brings me to another of my once-favourite shows, The Block. When my children were about the same age as my wife and I had been when we were first immersed in The Brady Bunch, we as a family became obsessed with series one of The Block.

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The thing we really liked about the show back then was how hard the couples all worked to get their apartments ready for sale. It reminded us of ourselves and our first hovel … I mean house.

So what happened? To say the show has changed is like saying Shaynna Blaze has got an annoying laugh.

Mitch and Mark won master ensuite week on The Block. Picture: Supplied

This current lot aren’t renovators, they’re interior decorators driving around buying stuff and overseeing an army of tradesmen.

The heaviest thing they pick up is a coffee. When Scottie Cam whistles and calls out, “Tools down”, he should really say, “Lattes down”.

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And as for the way Mark and Mitch play fast and loose with the rules, why have them in the first place? (Rules, I mean, not Mark and Mitch).

If it’s master bedroom week, build a master bedroom, not a party room … whoops, sorry boys, entertainment space.

And ensuite means something with a basin and WC, not an oven and wine fridge. It’s time they had a good hard look at themselves and brought the show back to something resembling real life. Like The Brady Bunch.