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Unlike the more widely syndicated Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family seems to have fallen off the TV Land landscape, but the DVD release of the first season puts the Partridges back on the pop culture charts. The series is an oldie, but a goodie; and while the catchy bubblegum music and velour stage garb are pure '70s, the family dynamics elevate it from being a camp artifact. Headliner Shirley Jones (who, in fact, had originally been offered the role of Carol Brady) anchors the cast of budding child stars as Shirley, a widowed single mother who reluctantly joins the family garage band and takes the act on the road in the now-iconic psychedelic-painted bus to make beautiful, albeit lip-synced, music. Jones's stepson David Cassidy costars as frontman David, with former model Susan Dey as keyboardist Laurie. Freckled Danny Bonaduce provides the comic backbeat as bassist and get-rich-quick schemer Danny. The Partridge Family was hip enough to make references to Joan Baez, Billboard magazine, and such real-life groups as the Temptations. This first season, which mostly chronicles the family's road adventures and first brushes with stardom, features early glimpses of future stars, including a pre-Star Wars Mark Hamill as one of Laurie's suitors in "Old Scrapmouth." Memorable guest stars include Ray Bolger as Grandpa Fred in "Whatever Happened to the Old Songs?" and Richard Pryor and Louis Gossett Jr. as the owners of the Soul Club, a Detroit inner-city venue where the Partridges are mistakenly booked ("I've been working on an Afro-thing," David offers). For the record, the Partridges perform their chart-topping hit "I Think I Love You" in the episode "My Son, the Feminist." It's too bad the commentary by Bonaduce, on the pilot episode, wasn’t extended throughout the season. He’s by turns affectionate and caustic, observing during a scene wherein Laurie leans over Danny, "If she had had breasts, this would have been a pivotal moment for me." So come on, get happy. Get back on the bus and ride again with one of TV's grooviest families. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

Loosely inspired by the career of the real-life family singing group The Cowsills, the ABC sitcom The Partridge Family starred Shirley Jones as Shirley Partridge, widowed mother of five musically inclined children. Almost by accident, Shirley began singing with her kids during an impromptu garage jam session, and thus was born The Partridge Family, a popular singing aggregation who travelled from one engagement to another in the family's battered, psychedelically decorated bus -- all the while trying to lead a "normal" life. The group's agent was Reuben Kinkaid (Dave Madden), who professed to hate kids but who admitted to loving money. As for the kids themselves, they included oldest son Keith Partridge, played by Shirley Jones' stepson David Cassidy, who attained teen-idol status by virtue of this series; oldest daughter Laurie, played by Susan Dey, who grew up to star on such drama series as LA Law and Love and War; middle son Danny Partridge, the group's self-appointed business manager, played by future radio talk host Danny Bonaduce; youngest son Chris, played by Jeremy Gelbwaks during Season One and thereafter by Brian Foster; and youngest daughter Tracy, portrayed by Suzanne Crough. The series' theme song went under the title "When We're Singin'" during Season One, the following year, the lyrics were written and the song was retitled "Come On, Get Happy." Originally networkcast from September 25, 1970 to August 31, 1974, The Partridge Family also yielded a Saturday-morning cartoon spinoff, 1974's Partridge Family: 2200 AD (that same year, several of the series' kid actors supplied the voices of their "Partridge" characters for another animated series, Goober and the Ghost Chasers). And in 1999, the world was honored with a TV-movie "biography" of the series, Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story.

Product Details

• UPC: 043396056565
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Language: English
• Editions: Bonus CD
• Time: 10:55:00
• Sales Rank: 7,810

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• The Partridge Family: What? And Get Out of Show Business?
• The Partridge Family: The Sound of Money
• The Partridge Family: But the Memory Lingers On
• The Partridge Family: When Mother Gets Married
• The Partridge Family: Whatever Happened to the Old Songs?
• The Partridge Family: See Here, Private Partridge
• The Partridge Family: Love at First Slight
• The Partridge Family: Danny and the Mob
• The Partridge Family: Old Scrapmouth
• The Partridge Family: Did You Hear the One About Danny Partridge?
• The Partridge Family: Go Directly to Jail
• The Partridge Family: This is My Song
• The Partridge Family: My Son, the Feminist
• The Partridge Family: Star Quality
• The Partridge Family: The Red Woodloe Story
• The Partridge Family: Mom Drops Out
• The Partridge Family: Knight in Shining Armor
• The Partridge Family: Soul Club
• The Partridge Family: Why Did the Music Stop?
• The Partridge Family: To Play or Not to Play?
• The Partridge Family: They Shoot Managers, Don't They?
• The Partridge Family: Partridge Up a Pair Tree
• The Partridge Family: Road Song
• The Partridge Family: Not With My Sister, You Don't
• The Partridge Family: A Partridge by Any Other Name
• The Partridge Family: A Knight in Shining Armor

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