Here Come the Brides

The theme song "Seattle" was composed by Hugo Montenegro with lyrics by Jack Keller and Ernie Sheldon. Both Perry Como and Bobby Sherman recorded slightly different variations of the song. Como's version, recorded for his album of the same name, scored a minor hit, reaching No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 2 on the Easy Listening chart. Sherman's version, although receiving some airplay, was never released as a single. There is no reference in either version regarding the TV series title, i.e.; "...look out everyone! Here Come the Brides!" Starting with the series debut in September 1968, the series opened with a rousing instrumental score featuring screen stills of "Jason", "Jeremy & Joshua", "Candy & Aaron" and "Lottie". Starting with episode 8 ("A Jew Named Sullivan") as evidenced by the end credits, and to coincide with the spring 1969 release of the Perry Como 'pop' recording, the TV theme was reworked by overdubbing vocals/lyrics to the same theme music already recorded (as used previously) along with updating all the opening character stills, including the addition of a "Clancy & Biddie" screen. The added lyrics performed by "The New Establishment" and updated screen stills were featured for the remainder of the first season and remained unchanged for the entire second season. In the beginning syndication years, the instrumental version of the opening credits was placed on all episodes. In recent years, the vocal theme of the opening credits has been restored to the second-season episodes (although with the first season screen stills).

A young Bruce Lee appeared as a Chinese immigrant named Lin in the episode "Marriage Chinese Style" (1969). This character was the only dramatic English language non-martial arts role in Lee's acting career.[1] Character actress Nora Marlowe played Mrs. Bronson in the same episode.

Cicely Tyson, Jane Wyatt, Edward Asner, Majel Barrett (Star Trek), Barry Williams (pre-The Brady Bunch), Marge Redmond and Madeleine Sherwood (both known as regulars in The Flying Nun), Bernard Fox (Dr. Bombay of Bewitched), Vic Tayback (an extra as one of 'Jason's men' in the premiere episode, later a guest star), Lynda Day George, Bob Cummings (star of The Bob Cummings Show 1955–1959 on NBC and The New Bob Cummings Show 1961–1962 on CBS), Daniel J. Travanti and James B. Sikking (both later known for Hill Street Blues), Larry Linville (M*A*S*H) and Billy Mumy (Lost in Space) all made guest appearances.

Mitzi Hoag, who played Miss Essie during the season 1, had two guest roles in season 2 as completely different characters, one as a Greek immigrant in the episode "Land Grant" and another as a nun in the episode "Absalom".

Reruns were aired on CBN Cable during the mid-1980s.

Early in January 2011, digital sub-network Antenna TV began airing the series.

INSP began broadcasting a back to back 2 episode block of the series on Sunday mornings in 2018 continuing through 2020.

The Decades channel aired most of the series during a weekend marathon on June 2–3, 2018; February 1–2, 2019 and again January 23–24, 2021 in widescreen format. The episodes were cropped for the widescreen presentation.

In autumn 2021 the series began airing on MeTV+.

In January 2022 GetTV began airing episodes in a 75 minute format on Saturday & Sunday at 11:15 am Eastern.

A French-language version of the show and theme song (performed by a chorus of male singers) was a smash hit in French Canada, under the title Cent filles à marier (A Hundred Girls to Marry Off). The show capitalized on the popularity of the American version and the fact that a similar "bride drive" (see Filles du roi) is also part of Québec's cultural mythos.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first season on DVD in Region 1 on May 16, 2006.[3]

On October 14, 2011, Shout! Factory announced that it had acquired the home-media rights to the series, and it later released the final season on DVD.[4] It was subsequently released on February 28, 2012. However, the season 1 opening cast-and-credit sequence was used for this release, using the New Establishment's vocals, but ignoring Henry Beckman's and Susan Tolsky's respective credits.[5]

In December 2009, BearManor Media released a nostalgic look into the program's history, Gangway, Lord: (The) Here Come The Brides Book by Jonathan Etter, which featured a foreword by Robert Brown. Bobby Sherman was the only (then) surviving cast member who did not cooperate with the author. However, Sherman did discuss the series in his autobiography, Bobby Sherman: Still Remembering You, whose contents he dictated to Dena Hill, and was subsequently published by Contemporary Books in 1996.

Barbara Hambly's Star Trek novel Ishmael has Spock traveling back to the time and place of Here Come the Brides after discovering a Klingon plot to destroy the Federation by killing Aaron Stempel (spelled "Stemple" in the book) before he could thwart an attempted 19th-century alien invasion of Earth. During most of the story, Spock has lost his memory and is cared for by Stempel, who passes him off as his nephew "Ishmael" and helps him hide his alien origins.[6]

At the end of the story, Captain Kirk discovers that Stempel is one of Spock's mother's ancestors, a reference to the fact that Mark Lenard also played Spock's father Sarek in episodes of the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as several of the Star Trek motion pictures.[6] Also the same actor played descendants of Mr. Spock on his father's and his mother's sides of the family.

Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Christine Chapel in Star Trek, appeared as Tessa a dancehall woman in the first-season episode "Lovers and Wanderers".

Jane Wyatt who played Spock's mother in the original series, made a guest appearance in the final episode of the series, "Two Women". She did not have any scenes with Mark Lenard.

In addition to Lenard, other Brides actors appeared in Star Trek: Robert Brown (both of the Lazaruses in "The Alternative Factor"), David Soul (Makora in "The Apple"), and semi-regular Carole Shelyne (the visible representation of a Metron in "Arena", whose voice Vic Perrin provided in that installment).[7][8][9]