Partridge Family 2200 AD

Quite frankly, this has to be the worst cartoon ever and it doesn't deserve to bear the Partridge Family name. Gone are the well-crafted scripts of the original series as well as the strong dynamics between the characters. I mean the Danny/Reuben relationship is all but gone, Keith and Laurie are just cardboard cutouts of the stereotypical teenagers and their voice replacements are terrible. The same with Shirley whose progressive edge that made the character so different from other TV mothers from the same era. Quite frankly, if you haven't seen it, you are definitely not missing anything. Go and do yourself a favor and watch the original series episodes (all four seasons are available on DVD) and try to forget this was ever made.

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the original "Partridge Family". I honestly thought that their show was a more realistic portray of family life than "The Brady Bunch". When I heard that they were going to make the Partridges into an animated series, I thought that it was going to be great. Imagine my shock when I saw how bad it was. This was nothing like the original show and they even had the nerve to try to pass off Joan Gerber and Chuck McClendon off as reasonable substitutes for Shirley Jones and David Cassidy. This show was so bad that after a few episodes Susan Dey quit the show and they had to get Kathy Gori to assume the role of Laurie Partridge. Also, the characters of Marion the Martian and Vinnie the Venusian were nothing but annoyances. Also, the robot dog Orbit was a waste of ink and wasn't even funny. Thankfully, this show isn't shown in reruns anymore and I have an idea that Shirley Jones and David Cassidy are thanking their lucky stars that they didn't appear in this train wreck.

Let's be honest, many of us GenXers view Hanna-Barbera's '70s output through a lens of nostalgia and are willing to overlook that a lot of is objectively bad.

Then there's this show.

The original concept, a sequel to the Jetsons might have been interesting. Unfortunately somehow an animated Partridge Family was forced into that idea and the results are just awful.

Even the title is bad. A. D. Precedes a date (A. D. 2200).

As a five-year-old, I was horrified by the theme song's lyrics "It's the Partridge Family showing us how it's gonna be." No! The future cannot be this nightmare!

Marian the Martian and Veenie the Venusian were annoying, but, sadly, less annoying than the hackneyed scripts, which were about the most unoriginal in Saturday morning history.

I will say one good thing about this show: its existence keeps Filmation's The New Adventures of Gilligan from being the worst animated series derived from a live-action series. That at least had a little charm.

Same buildings and even the same office as George Jetson. Not sure about the clothing though.

If the original series weren't too cutesy and cartoony enough, Hanna-Barbera had to bring the singing family to the future, in animation form. The Partridges were based on the Cowsills; why weren't both families brought to the future? The animation here is poorly done (but then that's how it was in the OPEC-affected 70s)and the stories are not any better. Not a great way to cash in on the success of the band.