Medium's oldest daughter started her career as Cindy Brady

On Medium, Patricia Arquette's character Allison DuBois isn't the only one who has visions. All three of her daughters have psychic abilities as well, and we first learn about the oldest daughter Ariel's visions in the 10th episode, when she begins to have eerie dreams her mom hopes to protect her from.

The character of Ariel DuBois was key to casting Medium, because she's the kid in the family who's most like her medium mom. The role required a young actress who could believably serve as a spiritual channel during cases when Arquette's character was working to solve the murder of a young girl. They found their fit in Sofia Vassilieva, a child actress who got her start playing one of the world's most iconic TV kids.

Vassilieva started acting in 2001, landing her first bit part on TV just a month before she turned 10 years old. That was on the short-lived drama The Agency, which featured Vassilieva in two episodes. She got a taste for crime drama on that show, preparing her for her future on Medium, but her first major role came less than a year later when she was cast as a kid from a decidedly different TV family, The Brady Bunch.

In 2002, The Brady Bunch Goes to the White House became the final installment of a trilogy of parody films that poked fun at the famous '70s sitcom. It saw Shelley Long and Gary Cole return as Carol and Mike Brady, but they had to recast all the Brady kids because the movie was released seven years after A Very Brady Sequel. Among the new faces smiling as they satirized the Brady clan was Sofia Vassilieva, cast as Cindy Brady, red bows in her hair and Kitty Karry-All in her arms.

Over the next few years, the Medium actress would be nominated for three Young Artists Awards, winning two before she turned 18. The awards nods started when Vassilieva took on yet another iconic role, playing Eloise from the hit children's book franchise in a pair of TV movies across from the legendary Julie Andrews.

So that makes two nostalgic characters with big shoes the young actress was able to fill, but Cindy Brady came first. Next time you're watching Medium, a show focused on reviving spirits, try not to notice how eerily similar it is that Allison DuBois is yet another lovely, blonde TV mom with three girls of her own.