The Partridge Family

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The opening titles, featuring animated partridge hatchlings, was created by artist Sandy Dvore.

The Partridge Family was an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children, living in a small fictional town in Northern California. In the pilot episode this musical family records a pop song in their garage. Through the marketing efforts of the 10 year old son Danny, the song becomes a hit, and the family begins touring the country in a colorful school bus, performing their music in various types of venues. The episodes would often contrast their suburban life with the adventures of a show-biz family "on the road". The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974 on the ABC television network, as part of the Friday night lineup with The Brady Bunch. It had several subsequent runs in syndication.

1 Overview
2 "Band Members"
3 Selected discography
4 External links

[edit] Overview

Created by Bernard Slade, the series was inspired by and loosely based on The Cowsills, a real singing family in the late sixties. In fact, in its early development the Cowsill children were approached to be featured on the show, though that idea was quickly discarded. The show starred Shirley Jones as mother Shirley Partridge and David Cassidy (Jones' real life stepson) as her son Keith. The remaining Partridge children were played by Susan Dey as Laurie, Danny Bonaduce as Danny, Jeremy Gelbwaks (later replaced by Brian Forster) as Chris, and Suzanne Crough as Tracy Partridge. Dave Madden played Reuben Kincaid, who was their manager and family friend.

The back of the bus, which became an icon for the show, due to its Mondrianesque paint design.

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 music 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. A group of studio singers and musicians, led by producer Wes Farrell actually created the Partridge sound. Shortly after being cast as Keith, David Cassidy convinced Wes he could sing, and was allowed to join the studio ensemble as the lead singer. He and Shirley Jones, who sang background, were the only cast members who were actually featured on the recordings. The cast would then lyp-sync to the recordings when they performed on each episode. And though it was obvious to most viewers that the family was lip-synching, the The Partridge Family became an instant success, not only as a TV show, but a band that produced real hit songs.

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 one on the Billboard charts in December of that year. The companion LP, "The Partridge Family Album" reached number four. 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.

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As the show and associated merchandizing took off, David Cassidy became an overnight teen idol. Although the Partridge Family did not actually exist as a live band, David launched a solo singing career, touring with his own group of musicians and performing Partridge songs as well as hits from his own albums. And though he became wealthy very quickly, Cassidy soon grew tired of the show. In the summer of 1972 he did a very candid interview with Rolling Stone magazine in which he attempted to distance himself from the squeaky clean image of Keith Partridge.

By the fourth season, due to declining ratings and Cassidy's looming departure, a feeble effort was made by the producers to breathe new life into the show, by introducing a precocious 4 year old neighbor named "Ricky Stevens" Ricky Segall to occasionally sing children's songs with the band. To no avail, the ABC network moved the show from its 8:30 Friday night slot to Saturday at 8:00, directly opposite the hit All in the Family, against which they knew it would not survive. The show was cancelled after 96 episodes and ten Partridge Family albums.

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,"Partridge Family 2200 A.D.". It featured new characters Veenie (Keith's Venusian friend) and Marion (Laurie's Martian friend). Danny had a pet robot dog named Orbit. (Shirley Jones and David Cassidy did not voice their animated counterparts, and Susan Dey and Dave Madden had very limited involvement with it.) 16 half-hour installments were produced for the animated series, which lasted for half a season on CBS Saturday morning (September 7, 1974 - March 8, 1975); on the syndicated Fred Flintstone and Friends, it was retitled The Partridge Family in Outer Space.

In 2004, the American cable TV network VH1 premiered In Search of The New Partridge Family, a talent competition in the format of American Idol, seeking a new cast for a contemporary version of the sitcom. The elimation type show 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 as of October 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 four previously unreleased tracks.