Melissa Sue Anderson is best known for playing Mary Ingalls on the NBC drama series Little House on the Prairie. The former child star played the eldest Ingalls daughter from 1974 to 1981. But months before landing the life-changing role that would earn her an Emmy nod, Anderson scored a guest spot on a popular ‘70s sitcom—and she admits she was embarrassed by it.
Anderson played Millicent, a friend of Cindy Brady’s (Susan Olsen), in the 1973 Brady Bunch episode “Never Too Young.” In the episode, Millicent thanks Bobby Brady (Mike Lookinland) for defending her against schoolyard bullies. She gives him a kiss—his first ever—that makes visions of fireworks explode in the pre-teen’s head.
During an appearance on Harvey Brownstone Interviews, Anderson, now 63, recalled the classic Brady Bunch episode which aired in October 1973, just one year before her debut on Little House.
Anderson told Brownstone she didn’t realize The Brady Bunch episode would end up being so well known by fans.
“And I was quite mortified that my first speaking role with any—I guess I maybe had a few lines in some commercials— but my first big role on a show was having to kiss a boy,” the actress recalled. “I was just, oh, I was so embarrassed because of my age. And then when I arrived on the set, the director saw my long blonde hair and he added that slow motion spinning, running together, and clasping hands and spinning around that whole, I think it at the time it was supposed to be a takeoff on the Clairol. I believe it was Clairol shampoo commercial and so that was even worse.”
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Anderson’s first credited TV role was on The Brady Bunch, per IMDb. Before that, she made an uncredited 1972 appearance on Bewitched as a schoolmate of Tabitha’s (Erin Murphy). She was also in a Malibu Barbie commercial.
While she was mortified by the kissing scene on The Brady Bunch, Anderson noted that she enjoyed working with Lookinland and remained friendly with him.
“Mike Lookinland, who played Bobby, was a doll, and we kind of kept in touch a bit,” she said. “He then guest-starred on our show a few years later, so that was very nice to be able to welcome him to our set as he had welcomed me to theirs. And I must say that for me, even though I was embarrassed to do the kissing, The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family were my two favorite shows at that time. So being able to act on your favorite show that you watch every Friday night was just beyond.”
In a 2025 interview, Lookinland, 65, recalled his guest stint as Patrick, a man on a train, in the 1977 Little House on the Prairie episode “Times of Change.” But the actor had actually been promised a bit more by series star and producer Michael Landon.
“So I was only on that one episode at the very end,” Lookinland said. “Michael Landon actually cast me because we were together occasionally on the set when I was filming The Brady Bunch. He was there, so he knew of me, and he knew about me. And there was the Melissa Sue Anderson connection, of course.”
“But anyway, he came to me after that after we shot that scene, and said, ‘Hey, listen, Mike, you're going to be a recurring character. You're going to live in the town, the next town over. And you're going to be a love interest for Melissa Sue Anderson in the next season,’” Lookinland recalled. “And her character promptly went blind and moved to Chicago. And so that, what he said, never happened. But he was a joy to work with.”
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