In 1966, following the success of his TV series "Gilligan's Island", Sherwood Schwartz conceived the idea for "The Brady Bunch" after reading in "The Los Angeles Times" that "30% of marriages the United States have a child or children from a previous marriage." He set to work on a pilot script for a series tentatively titled "Mine and Yours". Schwartz then developed the script to include three children for each parent. While Mike Brady is depicted as being a widower, Schwartz originally wanted the character of Carol Brady to have been a divorcée, but the network objected to this. A compromise was reached whereby Carol's marital status (whether she was divorced or widowed) was never directly revealed.