Whether you know him from “The Goonies” or the “Indiana Jones” franchise, it’s safe to say Ke Huy Kwan was one of the most recognizable child stars of the ’80s. While his biggest success came on the silver screen, he dabbled in television from time to time, including a part on a short-lived sitcom that started life as a spin-off to “The Brady Bunch.”
During the final season of “The Brady Bunch,” a show that defined the 1970’s, creator Sherwood Schwartz wrote an episode that was intended to be a backdoor pilot for a spin-off he was working on. The episode was called “Kelly’s Kids,” and featured the Brady’s next door neighbors who end up adopting a boy and his two friends. The two friends were African-American and Asian, creating a multi-racial family unit. In an interview with Pop Goes The Culture TV, Schwartz said ABC ended up passing on it. “That was a serious disappointment for me creatively,” he said. “I thought I had a really good show that would say something.”
Even though “Kelly’s Kids” ended up not materializing, Schwartz never gave up on the idea. 12 years later, a revamped version of his idea came to CBS, entitled “Together We Stand.” In this version, a white couple with one adopted and one biological child of their own adopt two more children, including a Black girl (Natasha Bobo), and an Asian boy, played by Ke Huy Quan.
Ke Huy Quan was already a star by the time the show aired
By the time “Together We Stand” debuted on CBS in 1986, Ke Huy Quan was already an established kid actor, unlike his fellow child stars who left Hollywood behind. His first acting role was as Harrison Ford’s partner, Short Round, in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” in 1984. The next year, he appeared in the landmark film “Goonies” playing Data. You could argue he was the biggest star in the cast, even though Elliott Gould was the more marketable name at the time. Unfortunately, neither Gould nor Quan could deliver ratings and, after airing just six episodes, CBS pulled the show from its schedule.
That would not be the end of the series, however, at least not entirely. After a three month hiatus, CBS would bring the show back with a different title and a major plot twist. The show was renamed “Nothing Is Easy” and revamped without Elliott Gould, whose character was written off — dead in a car crash. The change didn’t do much for the ratings, however, and after seven more episodes, CBS killed the show for good.
It would be another four years before Quan would appear on television again, getting added to the cast of “Head of the Class” for the series’ final two seasons. He would eventually take a 19-year hiatus from acting entirely, before returning in the 2020’s where Ke Huy Quan won an Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and made a triumphant return to television in “Loki.”
