I have been having fun streaming episodes of the partridge late at night when wanting some light entertainment. It has been very nostalgic, but I can't help wondering the same thing I did as a young teen in the 70s. They seem to be quite famous- have records out and everybody seems to know who they are (they are in all the teen fan magazines), yet they seem to lead a very middle-class life and never seem to play to audiences larger than a few hundred people. I know that they probably just wanted to make them be like the family next door that happens to be a successful musical group, but they don't really seem all that successful. It is still a fun watch for me, though, and brings back some fond memories of watching with friends. Any other fans out there?
Love the show. Even has a naive 7 year old, I had the same questions as the OP. I figured it was easier to stage them in small rather than large venues. Or maybe they were a somewhat well known local act who earned enough to lead a middle class lifestyle. I do recall they toured Europe once. Is the bus still around somewhere or did it become scrap?
Great pop records. David Cassidy could sing his tail off. Good stuff. Oh and the TV show was good too.
When I looked at the picture, all I could think was how breathtakingly beautiful Shirley Jones was - something that passed me as a little kid when I did watch the show. And literally when I saw your reply, I heard the words from the song I was listening to, Leaves That Are Green: "time hurries on" ("and the leaves that are green turn to brown") That's good for her of course... It was a pretty good show and I like some of the songs on it. Time really does hurry on - far too quickly.
Even to my preteen eyes, it was obvious that Ruben Kincaid was a terrible manager…always booking them into cheesy little candlelit supper clubs, filled with square adults who couldn’t find a rhythm if it fell in their laps.
It's a shame David Cassidy wasn't able to sing the songs when the show began. If you listen to "To Be Lovers", David's vocals are far superior to the vocals they were using. They let him sing a little part in this song from the 1:10 to 1:26. His little part is what makes this song great. My opinion.
My mother had the Oklahoma! soundtrack in the latter 50s and 20 years old Shirley Jones was indeed a vision.
I watched it pretty much every week at the time, mostly just for Susan and Shirley. The majority of the music in the show I really didn't like much except for the harpsichord sounds they sometimes used. Seeing the show now, it is much worse (music and stories) than it seemed as a kid. I also thought that the chimpanzees in The Evolution Revolution faked their instruments just as well as the kids in the Partridge Family, plus their music was much better.
Well yes, but Mata Hairi played tambourine so that would make Suzanne the equal character. Looks point taken though.
I like the one where they plays some gigs at an amusement park. Both Danny and Keith have the hots for a woman who is too old for either of them. They nonethless try to outdo each other. Danny dupes Keith into riding the rollercoaster, which he cannot tolerate. Then after the ride, Danny buys some awful looking chilli dog and holds it front of Keither which causes him to puke his guts out.
Shirley Jones was great. Obviously she was a beauty, but she also had good comic timing. And Shirley Partridge was a modern mother. Jones said she didn’t want to take the part if her character was going to hover over her kids and be all “Let mother fix things for you!” The first season is best, as the family embarks on their new career and adventure. Shirley says it best at the end of the pilot, where she narrates how crazy the next few months were but “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” There are lots of road episodes during the first season, with stories taking place as the Partridges tour to support their first album. It was unique compared to the other family sitcoms at the time. For the second season, they cut down on the road aspect of the show, with most stories taking place at the Partridge house. The show settled into being a more typical domestic sitcom, albeit one that featured a song in each episode. I’m sure the expense of location shoots and building new sets for each episode had something to do with getting the family off the road. One of the directors, Ralph Senensky (who has a terrific blog, BTW), said that he hated the cheezy supper club sets he was forced to use for budgetary reasons. For one of his episodes, he used clever lighting and shots to simulate more of a concert atmosphere - see below. I remember one of the producers saying that they couldn’t let the family get too big/famous, because then the audience wouldn’t be able to identify with them. I think they took this to an extreme, such as the episode where Keith couldn’t afford to take his date to the prom and his mother told him to get a job. As if writing and performing (in addition to school) wasn’t a job.
Bono had the same problem! (Hilarious clip from the “The Ben Stiller Show” with Dave Madden reprising his role as Reuben Kinkaid)
They based the series on the Cowsills who where lead by there mother and she was also in the band the way you described there fictional counter parts is pretty much describes the actual group they are based on...
