The Partridge Family

The Partridge Family bus One of the jewels in the Screen Gems Network's crown was this family sitcom, seen Fridays on ABC 1970-73 following the Brady Bunch. The rambunctious Partridge kids had started a garage band but need a last-minute vocalist for a recording session, so mom fills in. The song, "I Think I Love You," is bought by a record company, so they buy an old school bus and hit the road for their first concert tour from their California home.

Life imitated art and that very song went on to sell 4,000,000 copies in real life, making them the first big "pre-fab" TV rock group since The Monkees. Though professional musicians did the background music, Shirley Jones and son David Cassidy did their own vocals. The sitcom was loosely based on a real-life singing family, the Cowsills. 
               The Partridges
Shirley.............................Shirley Jones
Keith...............................David Cassidy (16 years old in 1970)
Laurie..............................Susan Dey (15)
Danny...............................Danny Bonaduce (10)
Christopher.........................Jeremy Gelbwaks (7)
Christopher.........................Brian Forster (1971-74)
Tracy...............................Suzanne Crough (5)
The original themesong "When We're Singin" by Diane Hilderbrand with music by Wes Farrell, was replaced in 1972 by "Come On, Get Happy" by Danny Janssen set to the same music.

In the fourth season (1973-74), 4-year-old nieghbor Ricky Stevens (Ricky Segall) joined the band. Their long-suffering agent Reuben Kinkaid was played by David Madden all 4 years, a TV veteran of Camp Runamuck (1965-66, seen most recently on Comedy Central), and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968-69 season.) Shirley was the first to be hired, but the casting director wasn't sure who should play Keith until he saw David Cassidy. Since Shirley and son David had never worked together before, he feared her reaction, but she was delighted, especially when she learned he had won the part in a regular casting call with other unknowns. The role, and instant stardom, caused problems not with David's mother, but with his father.

Jack Cassidy (1927-76) had started on Broadway at age 15 and was a popular stage actor/singer in the 1950s & 1960s, but never really had a hit on TV or in movies. His relationship with David was increasingly cold until his death in an apartment fire. His only TV role was playing the role of a self-centered wacky actor on "He & She" (1967-70.) A year later his second son, Shaun Cassidy, was cast in the hit TV-series The Hardy Boys-Nancy Drew Mysteries. For the 1973-74 season, the Partridge Family was seen on Saturdays opposite "All In The Family." Susan Dey would go on to play Grace Van Owen in the TV drama "L.A. Law" (1986-92) and some movies. A Hanna-Barbera cartoon series The Partridge Family 2200 A.D. ran on Saturday mornings 1974-75 set 200 years in the future, I think it had some of the same voices, plus Micky Dolenz of The Monkees. Danny joined the ranks of "troubled former child actors," but after dealing with personal problems, became a successful radio personality instead of having a pity party for himself like some actors named Todd.

Actress/singer Shirley Jones became a movie star with "Oklahoma" (1955, actually filmed partly in another place because the corn crop had already been harvested in Oklahoma.) She got an Oscar for her role as a prostitute in "Elmer Gantry" (1960) and played a similar role in the Jimmy Stewart comedy-western "Cheyenne Social Club" (1970), but was best known before her retirement for musicals. After the death of Jack Cassidy, she married entertainer Marty Ingles, who retired from movies in 1974 and set up a business matching actors with spokesman roles starting with an offer from a certain winery that wanted Orson Welles to let people know that they "sell no wine before its time." More recently, Shirley appeared in the James Garner comedy "Tank" (1983) and wasn't seen in theaters again until "Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday The 13th" (2000, a spoof of teen films)
(guest star Harry Morgan)

(guest stars Richard Pryor & Lou Gossitt Jr)

"My Son, The Feminist"

(Danny gets a draft notice)
Season 1

  1. 25 Sep 70   What? And Get Out of Show Business?
  2.  2 Oct 70   The Sound of Money
  3.  9 Oct 70   Whatever Happened to the Old Songs?
  4. 16 Oct 70   See Here, Private Partridge
  5. 23 Oct 70   When Mother Gets Married
  6. 30 Oct 70   Love at First Slight
  7.  6 Nov 70   Danny and the Mob
  8. 13 Nov 70   But the Memory Lingers On
  9. 20 Nov 70   Did You Hear the One About Danny Partridge?
 10. 27 Nov 70   Go Directly to Jail
 11.  4 Dec 70   This is My Song
 12. 11 Dec 70   My Son, the Feminist
 13. 18 Dec 70   Star Quality
 14.  1 Jan 71   The Red Woodloe Story
 15.  8 Jan 71   Mom Drops Out
 16. 15 Jan 71   Old Scrapmouth
 17. 22 Jan 71   Why Did the Music Stop?
 18. 29 Jan 71   Soul Club
 19.  5 Feb 71   To Play or Not to Play?
 20. 12 Feb 71   They Shoot Managers, Don't They?
 21. 19 Feb 71   Partridge Up a Pair Tree
 22. 26 Feb 71   Road Song
 23.  5 Mar 71   Not With My Sister, You Don't
 24. 12 Mar 71   A Partridge by Any Other Name
 25. 19 Mar 71   A Knight in Shining Armor

Season 2

 26. 17 Sep 71   Dora, Dora, Dora
 27. 24 Sep 71   In 25 Words or Less
 28.  1 Oct 71   A Man Called Snake
 29.  8 Oct 71   The Undergraduate
 30. 15 Oct 71   Anatomy of a Tonsil
 31. 22 Oct 71   Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?
 32. 29 Oct 71   Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Partridge
 33.  5 Nov 71   Days of Acne and Roses
 34. 12 Nov 71   Tale of Two Hamsters
 35. 19 Nov 71   The Forty-Year Itch
 36. 26 Nov 71   I Can Get it for You Retail
 37. 10 Dec 71   Guess Who's Coming to Drive?
 38. 17 Dec 71   Don't Bring Your Guns to Town, Santa
 39. 31 Dec 71   Where Do Mermaids Go?
 40.  7 Jan 72   Home is Where the Heart Was
 41. 14 Jan 72   Fellini, Bergman, and Partridge
 42. 21 Jan 72   Waiting for Bolero
 43. 28 Jan 72   I Am Curious Partridge
 44.  4 Feb 72   My Heart Belongs to a Two-Car Garage
 45. 11 Feb 72   Hel-l-l-p
 46. 18 Feb 72   Promise Her Anything, But Give Her a Punch
 47.  3 Mar 72   The Partridge Papers
 48. 10 Mar 72   All's War in Love and Fairs
 49. 17 Mar 72   Who is Max Ledbetter and Why is He Saying All Those Horrible Things?

Season 3

 50. 15 Sep 72   This Male Chauvinist Piggy Went to Market
 51. 22 Sep 72   M is for the Many Things
 52. 29 Sep 72   Princess and the Partridge
 53.  6 Oct 72   Each Dawn I Diet
 54. 13 Oct 72   A Penny for His Thoughts
 55. 20 Oct 72   You're Only Young Twice
 56. 27 Oct 72   The Mod Father
 57.  3 Nov 72   A Likely Candidate
 58. 10 Nov 72   Swiss Family Partridge
 59. 17 Nov 72   Ain't Love Grand
 60. 24 Nov 72   Whatever Happened to Keith Partridge?
 61.  8 Dec 72   Nag, Nag, Nag
 62. 29 Dec 72   For Sale by Owner
 63.  5 Jan 73   Aspirin at 7, Dinner at 8
 64. 12 Jan 73   For Whom the Bell Tolls...and Tolls...and Tolls
 65. 19 Jan 73   Trial of Partridge One
 66. 26 Jan 73   I Left My Heart in Cincinnati
 67.  2 Feb 73   The Eleven-Year Itch
 68.  9 Feb 73   Bedknobs and Drumsticks
 69. 16 Feb 73   Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex...But Couldn't Pronounce
 70. 23 Feb 73   Forgive Us Our Debts
 71.  2 Mar 73   The Partridge Connection
 72.  9 Mar 73   The Selling of the Partridges
 73. 16 Mar 73   Diary of a Mad Millionaire
 74. 23 Mar 73   Me and My Shadow

Season 4

 75. 15 Sep 73   Hate Thy Neighbor
 76. 22 Sep 73   None But the Lonely
 77. 29 Sep 73   Beethoven, Brahms, and Partridge
 78.  6 Oct 73   The Strike-Out King
 79. 13 Oct 73   Reuben Kincaid Lives
 80. 20 Oct 73   Double Trouble
 81. 27 Oct 73   The Last Howard
 82.  3 Nov 73   The Diplomat
 83. 10 Nov 73   Heartbreak Keith
 84. 17 Nov 73   A Day of Honesty
 85. 24 Nov 73   Al in the Family
 86.  8 Dec 73   Made in San Pueblo
 87. 12 Jan 74   Art for Mom's Sake
 88. 19 Jan 74   Two for the Show
 89. 26 Jan 74   Danny Drops Out
 90.  2 Feb 74   Queen for a Minute
 91.  9 Feb 74   Danny Converts
 92. 23 Feb 74   Miss Partridge, Teacher
 93.  2 Mar 74   Keith and Lauriebelle
 94.  9 Mar 74   Morning Becomes Electric
 95. 16 Mar 74   Pin it on Danny
 96. 23 Mar 74   ... _ _ _ ... (S.O.S)
ScreenGemsNetwork.com
Google

Back to Monstervision.org or Scifans


© Bill Laidlaw. All Rights Reserved. That's my 2½¢ worth

Official website since 1997: ShirleyJones.net

I Think I love You