The Partridge Family

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.
The Partridge Family
Format Comedy / Music
Created by Bernard Slade
Starring Shirley Jones
David Cassidy
Danny Bonaduce
Susan Dey
Suzanne Crough
Jeremy Gelbwaks (1970-1971)
Brian Forster (1971-1974)
Dave Madden
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 96
Production
Producer(s) Bob Claver
Running time 30 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run September 25, 1970 – March 23, 1974
External links
IMDb profile

The Partridge Family was a successful American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children living in San Pueblo, a small fictional town in Northern California. It was originally broadcast on ABC from 1970 to 1974.

Contents

[edit] History

In the pilot episode this group of musical siblings convinces their mother to help them out by singing with them as they record a pop song in their garage. Through the efforts of the 10-year-old son Danny, they find a manager who helps make the song a Top-40 hit. After some more convincing, Mom finally agrees that the family can go on tour. They acquire an old school bus, paint it and depart to Las Vegas for their first live gig at Caesars Palace.

Each subsequent episode features the band performing in various locations and types of venues. The shows would often contrast their suburban life with the adventures of a show-biz family "on the road". After the first season the show focused more on the "at home" themes and less on their touring. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974 on the ABC television network, as part of the Friday night lineup following The Brady Bunch. It had a few subsequent runs in syndication.

Created by Bernard Slade, the series was inspired by and loosely based on The Cowsills, a real pop music family famous in the late Sixties. In fact, in its early development, the Cowsill children were actually approached by the producers to be featured on The Partridge Family, though the children rejected the offer when they learned their real-life mother and band member Barbara would not be included in the cast. Shirley Jones had already been signed as mother Shirley Partridge and star of the show. The remaining Partridge children were played by David Cassidy (Jones' real-life stepson) as her eldest son Keith, Susan Dey as Laurie, Danny Bonaduce as Danny, Jeremy Gelbwaks as Chris and Suzanne Crough as Tracy. Dave Madden played Reuben Kincaid, who was their manager and family friend. After the first season, the dark-haired Gelbwaks was replaced by a blond actor, Brian Forster. It was reported by teen magazines in 1971 that this was because his family simply moved away.

A dog named "Simone" was also featured in the first season, though she was phased out of production early in the second season. Like "Tiger" on The Brady Bunch, the dog simply disappeared without an explanation.

The Partridge Family was produced for ABC by Screen Gems television, which was just finishing its run with The Monkees, another show about a fictional musical group. The company promoted the success of the show by releasing a series of albums featuring the music of the family band though most cast members did not actually play on the recordings. Led by producer Wes Farrell, a group of hired studio musicians (informally referred to as the Ron Hicklin Singers and Wrecking Crew) actually created the Partridge Family sound. Although David Cassidy was originally cast with the intent to lip sync with the rest of the cast, he convinced Farrell just weeks into production that he could sing well and was allowed to join the studio ensemble as the lead singer. (Several songs were made without Cassidy as lead and were featured in some of the early episodes and on the first album.) He and Shirley Jones, who sang background, were the only cast members who were actually featured on the recordings. Though it was obvious to most viewers that the cast was lip-syncing (and that Bonaduce was strumming his bass rather than plucking it), the Partridge Family became an instant phenomenon, not only as a TV show but as a band that produced actual hit songs.

As the show and other associated merchandising took off, David Cassidy became an overnight teen idol. In response to his instant fame, producers quickly signed him as a solo act as well. Although the Partridge Family did not actually exist as a live band, Cassidy began touring with his own group of musicians, performing Partridge songs as well as hits from his own albums.

The Partridge Family's biggest hit came in 1970 with the song "I Think I Love You" (lyrics), which began climbing in September and peaked at Number 1 on the Billboard charts in December of that year. (The song was written by Tony Romeo, who had previously written several of the Cowsills' hits.) A companion LP, The Partridge Family Album, reached Number 4. Other Partridge singles, "I'll Meet You Halfway", "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted", and "I Woke Up in Love This Morning" would also chart high on Billboard. The theme songs "When We're Singing" and its successor "C'Mon, Get Happy", as well as album cuts "I Can Feel Your Heartbeat" and "Point Me In The Direction Of Albuquerque", also became popular favorites. Despite the "Bubblegum pop" label and prefabricated nature of the "band", the Partridge Family's records sold very well.

Cast of The Partridge Family
Cast of The Partridge Family

In the midst of his overwhelming rise to fame, David Cassidy soon grew tired of the show. In the summer of 1972, he gave a very candid interview to Rolling Stone magazine in which he attempted to distance himself from the squeaky-clean image of Keith Partridge. By the fourth season, due to Cassidy's looming departure and a decline in the ratings, an effort was made by the producers to breathe new life into the show by introducing a precocious 4 year old neighbor named "Ricky" (Ricky Segall) to occasionally sing children's songs with the band. In another parallel to The Brady Bunch, who introduced young "cousin Oliver" during its simultaneous final season, it was widely perceived that the show had "jumped the shark". Knowing it would not survive, ABC moved the show from its 8:30 P.M. Friday night slot to Saturday at 8:00 P.M., directly opposite the hit show All in the Family. After 96 episodes and ten Partridge Family albums, the show ended.

The Partridges had a brief resurgence in animated form which saw the family propelled into the future. The animated Partridges first appeared when the kids did a series of guest spots on Goober and the Ghost Chasers. That idea evolved into a CBS Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera-produced cartoon in 1974, Partridge Family 2200 A.D. (also called "The Partridge Family in Outer Space" when rerun later). Shirley Jones and David Cassidy did not voice their animated counterparts, and Susan Dey and Dave Madden had very limited involvement with this cartoon. (In fact, during a Feb. 2, 2008 interview with Mark Simone on WABC Radio's Saturday Night Oldies show, Jones had no recollection of any animated version of the series ever being produced.)

Though more popular in its time than its Friday night companion The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family did not become as widely circulated in syndicated reruns. Consequently the Bradys, who have never been off the air since 1969, have become more well-known to subsequent generations. Nickelodeon did feature a heavily-publicized run of The Partridge Family in the mid-90s, along with The Brady Bunch, as part of its Nick-At-Nite lineup. The network used interviews and commercials featuring cast members, and even created a new version of the Mondrian-esque Family bus for promotion. It was during this time that the "competition" element between the two shows was popularized with special features on Nick and MTV. The cast was also reunited around this period on the "Arsenio Hall Show" and "The Danny Bonaduce Show", both popular talk shows at the time.

In late 1999, two different made for TV movies aired on different networks; "Come On Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story" and "The David Cassidy Story" both attempted to describe the history of the series. While both movies were criticized by fans as being inaccurate, they did recreate imagery from the series. Some of the original musicians were gathered together to re-record music for the "Cassidy" movie, and "Come On Get Happy" even featured another replica of the bus which was later auctioned off on an Internet auction site.

A modernized-version of the bus was created for a new promotion in 2004, when VH1 premiered In Search of the New Partridge Family. This talent competition in the format of American Idol sought a new cast for a contemporary version of the sitcom. The elimination-type program aired seven episodes in which a panel of judges selected a new Partridge Family cast from auditioners across the country. The resulting pilot episode of The New Partridge Family aired in January of 2005, but due to low ratings VH1 opted not to produce any more episodes.

The first two seasons of the original series were released in 2005 on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Also, at the same time, Arista Records released a new music compilation, Come On Get Happy!: The Very Best of The Partridge Family, which included 4 previously unreleased tracks. (There were a number of songs that had been featured on show but never released in stereo on record or CD, known to fans as "the lost songs".) Sony has not yet announced release dates for the final 2 seasons.

[edit] Band Members

[edit] Selected discography

[edit] References In Popular Culture

  • The Channel 7 network in Australia used The Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You" as the station promo for 2006.
  • In 2006 7 Up featured the Partridge's gospel-style song "Sunshine", from the album Bulletin Board in a television commercial.
  • "C'mon, Get Happy" was adapted in 2007 as the jingle for the Bloom supermarket chain ("Come In, Shop Happy").
  • Spike Lee's 1994 film Crooklyn features a scene where the kids watch The Partridge Family while singing along with "I Woke Up In Love This Morning". (We see a clip from the episode "Dora, Dora, Dora".)
  • In the 1995 Brady Bunch Movie the Partridge Family bus (actually MTV's version of it) can be seen driving by the high school just before the talent show contest.
  • The 1996 MTV Video Awards featured a Speed spoof, with Shirley Jones, Dave Madden and Danny Bonaduce reprising their Partridge Family characters aboard Nickelodeon's replica of the bus.
  • In the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral Charles (Hugh Grant) quotes David Cassidy -- "I think I love you" to Carrie (Andie MacDowell)
  • In 1992 Saturday Night Live did a send-up of the Bradys versus The Partridge Family, "Battle of the Bands". Susan Dey, hosting SNL that week, reprised the character of Laurie Partridge for this sketch. SNL cast member Melanie Hutsell led the battle as Jan Brady, a recurring character at that time. (Sketch is available on the "101 Unforgettable SNL Moments" DVD.)
  • On Six Feet Under season 1, episode 4 there is a scene where Claire is watching a scene from the pilot episode of The Partridge Family.
  • The 2003 VH1 mini-series I Love The 70's features a segment about the Partridge Family phenomenon on its first installment.
  • In 2001 the short-lived sketch comedy The Rerun Show spoofed an episode of The Partridge Family. Danny Bondaduce, now an adult, recreated his role as 12-year-old Danny Partridge by performing on his knees but not bothering to shave his beard and mustache.

[edit] DVD Releases

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released the first 2 Seasons of The Partridge Family on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Release dates for Seasons 3 and 4 have not been announced yet.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date
The Complete 1st Season 25 May 3, 2005
The Complete 2nd Season 24 November 8, 2005
The Complete 3rd Season 25 TBA
The Complete 4th Season 22 TBA

[edit] External links

[edit] References

1. "The Partridge Family Album" by Joey Green, 1994 HarperCollins Publisher

2. "Cmon Get Happy.com" Fan-based Website

3. http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/sgn/pf/

4. http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/partridge_family/bio.jhtml

Languages