The family home in which Tam Spiva grew up in Minden,
Louisiana, is located at the intersection of Elm
and East and West streets near the Webster Parish Library. Spiva is orignally from the small city of Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. His parents, Hubert Spiva and the former Lilla Stewart (1905-1959), operated the Webster Printing Company and the former Minden Herald and Webster Review newspapers, forerunners of the current Minden Press-Herald. Lilla Spiva managed the papers after her husband's death and was herself publisher and society editor of the Minden Herald.[She was a daughter of a prominent early Minden couple, Daniel Webster Stewart, Sr. (1857-1935), and the former Alice Reagan (1871-1954). Spiva's maternal aunt was Mary Amanda Stewart (1903-1994), whom he visited when he returned to his hometown.
Spiva graduated from the defunct Western Military Academy in Alton in Madison County, Illinois, near St. Louis and then Northwestern University in Evanston, near Chicago. He also studied at the London School of Film Technique. His early free-lance writing was rewarded in the script for the 1965 film Island of the Lost. In addition to The Brady Bunch and Gentle Ben, Spiva garnered credits for two other ABC sereis, The FBI starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Dan August starring Burt Reynolds.
Spiva's wife is Phyllis Ellen Spiva (born November 25, 1947,. There are two Spiva children.