Here’s the story…

I wish I could say the same for my seven-year-old, who watched the Bradys for the first time this week, and was hooked - sensing, perhaps, that they filled a big void in her current TV diet.

“The Brady Bunch’’ feels different from today’s kids’ fare, and that’s partly due to its time-capsule quality, spoofed so lovingly in the 1995 “Brady Bunch Movie.’’ The clothes are vintage ’70s, and in a way, so is the wholesomeness: Today’s TV teens warble pop songs, not old Americana.

But really, it’s not the Bradys’ innocence that sets them apart. It’s the fact that their lives, and their troubles, were usually so mundane.

On most popular kids’ shows today, the characters are living extraordinary lives: They’re international pop stars, budding wizards, or web-show hosts. They live in a hotel, or on a boat. Their parents are often barely present, or conspicuously absent. Cartoons like “SpongeBob SquarePants’’ and “Phineas and Ferb’’ are clever and quick, packed with pop culture references, written for adults as much as for kids.

“The Brady Bunch’’ seldom tried to be clever, postmodern, or hip. And it proved that simple, ordinary lives can make for powerful entertainment, too.

In a 1997 interview with the Archive of American Television, Schwartz said he got the idea for “The Brady Bunch’’ after spotting an item in the Los Angeles Times, which said 30 percent of American families included a child from a previous marriage. This, Schwartz realized, was a situation millions of people could relate to, and a treasure trove of stories to be told.

As with his other hit series, “Gilligan’s Island,’’ Schwartz was conscious of making a statement, showing how disparate people could get along. “The Brady Bunch’’ did a lot to normalize blended families, and could even be a useful lens for viewing social trends. In one 1971 episode, Marcia, awakened to women’s lib, decides she wants to join Greg’s Frontier Scouts troop. In some ways, the episode feels like the pre-Title IX artifact it is. In other ways, it feels as relevant now as ever.