Cindy is a morning radio DJ, and Bobby is now a race car driver. He makes it to the Nashville 500 where he is in a serious car wreck and paralyzed from the waist down. Marcia, her husband Wally (who has lost another job) and their kids move in with Mike and Carol. Peter breaks up with his business-minded fiancée Valerie (Mary Cadorette) and becomes a playboy. Jan and husband Philip try to get pregnant. Greg, following Bobby's car wreck, considers going back to medical school and changing his specialty to orthopedics.

The Bradys rally around Bobby in his efforts to recover. The arrival of Bobby's old college girlfriend Tracy Wagner helps to lift his spirits. Unable to conceive a child of their own, Jan and Philip adopt an Asian girl named Patty. Cindy is a morning radio DJ and begins dating her boss. Greg decides to stay with obstetrics after Tracy's pregnant sister goes into labor at Bobby's and Tracy's wedding, which is officiated by the same minister who performed Mike's and Carol's wedding.

With Carol doing more things for Jessica and Mickey, Wally working overtime with Mike, and her siblings each busy with their respective projects, Marcia feels left out and unneeded and turns to alcohol for escape.