The perfect kitchen; every appliance within reach, plenty of counter space and a double oven-suitable to cook dinners for eight. It was Alice’s kitchen I coveted the most.

When you’re the youngest of six children, getting home from school first was imperative. It often meant the difference between getting cookies warm out of the oven or getting no cookies at all. As soon as I hit that sliding glass door, I was through the den and into the kitchen. Alice, our cook and house cleaner was always there, sometimes on the phone, usually with Sam, her boyfriend, the local butcher. I knew that my three brothers and two sisters would be right on my heels so I would shove one cookie in my mouth and grab another for safekeeping. Then, I was off to my room, were our dog, Tiger and I would have a tea party with my good friend and favorite doll, Kitty Karry-All.

By now, you have figured out that I’m lying. I am not the youngest of six children and I never had a house cleaner, or a Kitty Karry-All, but I did have The Brady Bunch, a show that supplied me with hours of after school vicarious family moments. Mostly avocado green appliances, orange counter tops and that amazing double wall oven that allowed Alice to bake cookies for after school and a pot roast for dinner at the same time!

Like their iconic opening sequence, the family revolves around Alice and her domestic domain, the kitchen. Not an episode went by without seeing Alice bustle about, cleaning things that didn’t look dirty and cooking meals. If fact, Ann B. Davis' Alice was in every episode of The Brady Bunch, running from 1969-1974 for five seasons.

Over the episodes, Alice proves to be not just a gem in the kitchen but an indispensable member of the family. Early in the first season, in an episode titled “Alice Doesn‘t Live Here Anymore“, Alice encourages the three boys to start confiding in their new mother, Carol. When her plan works a little too well, Alice thinks she’s no longer needed and fakes a family illness in order to make a graceful exit, believing the Brady’s no longer need her services. Cue chaos, and the Bradys clamoring to prove Alice is needed.

And oh, is she ever needed. Not only does she make every meal, she squashes squabbles, soothes sore feelings (by relating to Jan as a fellow middle-child), plays matchmaker (after Marcia gets her braces) and nurses egos time and time again.

In addition to her mad culinary skills, Alice proves to be a jack of many trades. In a season two favorite of mine, “The Tattle-Tale” Alice wins a stereo system when she wins a jingle contest, even in the midst of arguing with Sam the Butcher. Later in the season, Alice dons her Sherlock Holmes cap and deduces that a coat and cigarettes is not actually Greg’s in “Where There’s Smoke.”

However, where Alice really shines is in that glorious kitchen. Swaying seamlessly from the side-by-side fridge to the sink, to that enviable dual oven, cooking up delicious, savory meals, that made my mouth water at four  o'clock in the afternoon--a full 90 minutes before dinner was served at my own home. When I sat down at our rinky-dink table for another meal of Hamburger Helper, I yearned for my own Alice, my own avocado green refrigerator, my own orange counter top, wide enough to land a glider on, and my very own dual wall ovens. While there was much to envy about the Bradys, it was Alice’s kitchen that I coveted the most.