The actress who starred as eldest daughter Marcia Brady on the classic sitcom The Brady Bunch is speaking out against anti-vaxxers, who have turned an episode from the show into a meme to claim getting measles is no big deal.
The episode, titled "Is There a Doctor in the House?" is the 13th of the show's first season. In the episode, all six of the Brady kids get the measles.
The children are happy because they get to stay home from school. In fact, Carol Brady tells Mike Brady you can tell when kids have the measles, because they have all the symptoms including "a great big smile."
Later in the episode, Marcia declares: "If you have to get sick, sure can't beat the measles!"
According to anti-vaxxers, this episode is "proof" that when measles was a common illness, it was no big deal.
They have spread the video clip and Marcia's line online, and it's now a meme.
"Measles couldn't kill the Brady Bunch," they proclaim.
"Remember when the entire Brady Bunch was wiped out by measles?!!"
There's even this shirt you can buy.
The meme grew so prevalent among anti-vax groups, that it got back to Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia on the show.
She decided to speak out in an interview with NPR, saying she was very disturbed that her childhood role was being used to spread misinformation.
"I think it's really wrong when people use people's images today to promote whatever they want to promote, and the person's image they're using they haven't asked or they have no idea where they stand on the issue," she said, adding, "As a mother, my daughter was vaccinated."
McCormick added that she has measles as a child, and it "was not a fun thing." BuzzFeed News has reached out to McCormick, as well as her Brady Bunch castmates Barry Williams and Christopher Knight, for comment. A rep for Eve Plumb, who played middle sister Jan, had no comment.
The son of the creator of the show, Sherwood Schwartz, also told NPR his father would be angry that his show was being used to spread misinformation.
"Dad would be sorry, because he believed in vaccination, had all of his kids vaccinated," Lloyd J. Schwartz said.
The episode is not available for streaming on Hulu, which hosts five seasons of the show. In the page for the first season, Episode 13 is missing.
A spokesperson for Hulu told BuzzFeed News the omission was not due to the measles controversy, but was because of "licensing restrictions with CBS." They said these issues are usually "music clearances."
Despite their warnings in the NPR article, anti-vaxxers continue to post.
On the Facebook post for the article on NPR's page, people continued to share anti-vax rhetoric.
"They all had measles, strengthened their immune systems and have life long immunity...real story," wrote one person.