The Brady Bunch never got higher than No. 31 on the ratings charts, and it was far from a critical favorite or a television masterpiece. But it's celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with loving tributes to its theme song, its opening credits, its iconic house, and that perfectly symmetrical, blended family of three boys and three girls who had only the tiniest problems to solve within a half-hour every week.

Pop Literacy co-host Kimberly Potts has written a new book, The Way We All Became the Brady Bunch, investigating how such a middling show gained such cultural staying power—and she's talking with co-host Jennifer Keishin Armstrong about what she learned.