The Partridge Family is an American musical sitcom, created by Bernard Slade, that aired in the United States from September 1970 to March 1974 on ABC. Following its final first-run telecast on ABC in March 1974, the show went into reruns from March 30 to August 31, 1974.
The series follows the lives of a fictional pop music band formed by the titular family, including Shirley (Shirley Jones), Keith (David Cassidy), Laurie (Susan Dey), and Danny (Danny Bonaduce), as well as their manager Reuben Kincaid (Dave Madden). The family was loosely based on the real-life musical family the Cowsills, a popular band in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The show was broadcast on ABC as part of its Friday night line-up, and had subsequent runs in syndication.
Premise
In the pilot episode, a group of musical siblings in the fictional city of San Pueblo, California (said to be "40 miles from Napa County" in episode 24, "A Partridge By Any Other Name"), convinces their widowed mother, bank teller Shirley Partridge, to help them out by singing as they record a pop song in their garage. Through the efforts of the precocious and street-smart 10-year-old Danny, they find a manager, Reuben Kincaid, who helps make the song a Top 40 hit. After more persuading, Shirley agrees that the family can go on tour. They acquire an old school bus, a 1957 Chevrolet Series 6800 Superior, for touring, paint it with Mondrian-inspired patterns, and head to Las Vegas, Nevada, for their first live gig at Caesars Palace.
Subsequent episodes usually show the band performing in various venues or in their garage. The shows often contrast suburban life with the adventures of a show-business family on the road. After the first season, more of the show's action takes place in the family's hometown than on tour.
Background
The Partridge Family was created for television by Bernard Slade, and the series' executive producer was Bob Claver. The show was inspired by and loosely based on the Cowsills, a family pop music group that was famous in the late 1960s. In the show's early development, the Cowsill children were considered by the producers, but because the Cowsills were not trained actors and were too old for the roles as scripted, Slade and Claver abandoned that idea. Shirley Jones had already been signed as mother Shirley Partridge and star of the show, with the producers insisting that Jones' casting in the role of Mrs. Partridge was not negotiable.
The pilot was filmed in December 1969. This unbroadcast pilot differs from the pilot that was broadcast in 1970. In the unaired pilot, Shirley's name is Connie and she has a boyfriend played by Jones' real-life husband at the time, Jack Cassidy, father of David Cassidy. The family has a different address and lives in Ohio.
The show proved popular, though the fame reportedly took its toll on several, if not most, of the starring cast, particularly David Cassidy. In the midst of his rise to fame, Cassidy soon felt stifled by the show and trapped by the mass hysteria surrounding his every move. In May 1972, he appeared nude on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in a cropped Annie Leibovitz photo. He used the article to get away from his squeaky clean image. The article mentioned that Cassidy was riding around New York in the back of a car "stoned and drunk".
Shortly after the series ended, the scriptwriter Roberta Tatum launched a lawsuit against Screen Gems concerning the creation of the show. She claimed that she had submitted a similar premise to Screen Gems before 1970 called Baker's Half-Dozen. The matter was resolved out of court, with Tatum receiving a reported $150,000 from Screen Gems.
Cast and characters Shirley Jones as Shirley Partridge: vocals, keyboard, tambourine, percussion David Cassidy as Keith Partridge: lead vocals, guitars, banjo Susan Dey as Laurie Partridge: vocals, harmony, piano, Hammond organ, percussion Danny Bonaduce as Danny Partridge: vocals, bass guitar Jeremy Gelbwaks as Chris Partridge (season 1): vocals, drums Brian Forster as Chris Partridge (seasons 2–4): vocals, drums Suzanne Crough as Tracy Partridge: tambourine, percussion, vocals Dave Madden as Reuben Kincaid: band manager Rick Segall as Ricky Stevens (season 4): singer Simone, the family's pet dog (Season 1, occasionally in later seasons) Gary Dubin as Punky Lazaar (recurring role): a friend of Danny Partridge
Unlike The Monkees, none of the members of the cast played any music on the show or the album releases and originally only Shirley Jones sang. Initially, all of the actors pretended to sing while listening to recordings by session musicians, who provided the real vocal and instrumental music attributed to the Partridge Family. However, after Cassidy demonstrated to the series music producer, Wes Farrell, that he could sing, he was allowed to record his own vocal parts.
Notable guest stars During the show's four-season run, many actors made guest appearances. The country singer Johnny Cash made an uncredited cameo appearance in the pilot episode. Ray Bolger played Shirley's father in three episodes and Rosemary DeCamp played her mother in four episodes. Then-Governor Ronald Reagan's daughter, Maureen Reagan, also appeared in one episode. The future Charlie's Angels stars Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd all made guest appearances on separate episodes.
Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench appeared in a cameo role as a Kings Island Inn poolside waiter in "I Left My Heart in Cincinnati," a Season 3 episode which first aired on January 26, 1973.Kiesewetter, John. "The Partridge Family Kings Island Episode Aired In 1973," WVXU-FM 91.7 (Cincinnati, OH), Thursday, January 26, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2024.
Bobby Sherman appeared in the last episode of the first season as the struggling songwriter Bobby Conway. This episode led into a short-lived spin-off series on ABC, Getting Together, starring Sherman and Wes Stern as Conway's business partner Lionel Poindexter.
Other celebrity guest stars included:
Morey Amsterdam John Astin Carl Ballantine John Banner Lane Bradbury Edgar Buchanan George Chakiris Dick Clark Jackie Coogan Howard Cosell Norman Fell Bernard Fox Ned Glass James Gregory Margaret Hamilton Pat Harrington Jr. Arte Johnson Harvey Lembeck Art Metrano Mary Ann Mobley Harry Morgan Slim Pickens Richard Pryor Barbara Rhoades Maggie Roswell Michael Rupert William Schallert Nita Talbot Larry Wilcox Dick Wilson William Windom
Some guest actors later became famous, including:
Meredith Baxter Richard Bull Bert Convy Farrah Fawcett Jodie Foster Anthony Geary Louis Gossett Jr. Harold Gould Jackie Earle Haley Mark Hamill Season Hubley Ann Jillian Gordon Jump Cheryl Ladd Michael Lembeck William Lucking Stuart Margolin Richard Mulligan Holly Near Michael Ontkean Noam Pitlik Annette O'Toole Charlotte Rae Rob Reiner Jack Riley Jaclyn Smith Vic Tayback Nancy Walker Frank Welker
Episodes
Production At the end of the first season, Jeremy Gelbwaks' family moved out of the Los Angeles area, and the part of Chris was recast with the actor Brian Forster. According to Cassidy, Gelbwaks "had a personality conflict with every person in the cast and the producers" and especially did not get along with Cassidy or Bonaduce. A dog named Simone appeared in the first season, but it was phased out during the second season. At the beginning of the fourth season, a four-year-old neighbor, Ricky Stevens (Ricky Segall), appeared and sang a children's song during each episode, but the character was dropped mid-season.
Music Music recorded for the pilot episode was produced by Shorty Rogers, a jazz musician and arranger who worked with the Monkees. Songs for the ongoing series were recorded by the music producer Wes Farrell. Chip Douglas was the first to be offered the job of producing the music, but declined.
The studio concoction that forms the Partridge Family sound has lead singer David Cassidy, members of the Ron Hicklin Singers as backing vocalists and several of the era's most highly regarded studio musicians, now known as "the Wrecking Crew". Cassidy's co-star and real-life stepmother Shirley Jones also appears on the recordings, although there remains speculation that she can be heard more prominently in the television mixes of the songs than in the album mixes. In each episode of the sitcom, the television family of six is seen on screen together in recording sessions and concert performances, playing the part of performers, but none except Cassidy and Jones was involved in any of the actual recordings. Two tracks on the 1970 first LP, The Partridge Family Album, do not include Cassidy. These songs, "I'm on the Road" and "I Really Want to Know You", were sung in blended-harmony style by members of the Ron Hicklin Singers: brothers John and Tom Bahler, Ron Hicklin and Jackie Ward (who in 1963, as Robin Ward, charted with the no. 14 hit "Wonderful Summer"). These professional singers appear throughout the Partridge Family's output.
Cassidy was originally to lip sync to dubbed vocals with the rest of the cast but convinced Farrell that he could sing, and was allowed to join the studio ensemble as the lead singer.
Season 1, episode 1 is the only episode of the series that does not use any version of the theme song, instead using the Rogers and Kelly Gordon song "Together (Havin' A Ball)" under the opening credits. The first episode is also unique in that it does not include the animated main title, instead using shots of the Partridge Family singing "Together" as if in a performance.
Two different songs were used as the opening theme for the television series. Season 1 uses "When We're Singin (Wes Farrell and Diane Hildebrand):
"Come on down and meet everybody, And hear us singin'. There's nothing better than being together, When we're singin'. Five of us, and Mom working all day, We knew we could help her if our music would pay. Danny got Reuben to sell our song, And it really came together when Mom sang along..." (from "When We're Singin)
The other seasons all use "C'mon Get Happy" (Wes Farrell and Danny Janssen), which retained the "When We're Singin'" tune but with new lyrics by Danny Janssen:
Hello world, hear the song that we're singing. C'mon get happy. A whole lot o' loving is what we'll be bringin' We'll make you happy. We had a dream, we'd go travelin' together, We spread a little love and then we keep movin' on. Somethin' always happens whenever we're together; We get a happy feelin' when we're singing a song..." (from "C'mon Get Happy")
Broadcast history For its final season, ABC moved the show from its 8:30 p.m. Friday slot (where it rated first in its slot) to Saturday at 8 p.m. (opposite CBS' top-rated All in the Family and NBC's medical drama Emergency!, against which it lost more than half of its audience from the previous season).
In the United Kingdom, it was first picked up by the BBC who showed the first three episodes in a Friday children's slot of 17:20, starting on September 17, 1971. From October 2, 1971, it moved to Saturdays at 17:10, and eight episodes were shown at this time. A further episode was shown on New Year's Eve (December 31, 1971), after which the BBC dropped the programme. After Cassidy succeeded with UK Top 30 chart hits the following year, the show was picked up by ITV in many regions. On London Weekend Television, it was shown at Saturday lunchtimes. After the show's popularity began to decline in the US, it began to increase in the UK. This new popularity in the UK gave the Partridge Family five UK Top 20 hits, some of which were less popular in the US.
After 96 episodes and eight Partridge Family albums, ABC canceled the show in 1974.
Ratings