The Partridge Family

for kids, and wish there were more like this today.

Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, Susan Dey and Danny Bonaduce are the primary characters; This show competed with the Brady Bunch when it first aired. It had the usual teen conflicts, Keith (David Cassidy) and his dating conquests. Danny and his latest scheme. The music was fun (so innocent- compared to what is offered up today!) Basically a good nostalgia show. The Reuben Kincaid interactions with Danny (Danny Bonaduce) are some of the best. Funny and cynical, Kincaid is the cranky old uncle, Bonaduce the trouble maker.

I don't know if this show is still available on cable regularly, but it is well worth watching. 9/10.

I was 5 years old when this show debuted, and can remember the popularity of it unlike any other show to date. The bubble gum cards, the records, teen magazines-everything to do with "The Partridge Family" was a hot commodity! "I Think I Love You" was the first song I ever knew all the lyrics to. This was due to my friends and I piling onto the swingset in my backyard, which included a 4 seater lawn swing which we made fit 8 kids, and sing "I Think I Love You" over and over again while pumping the lawn swing way into the air. Some of my friends would take the end cones off and sing through the top bar to get a reverb effect! Seeing the show in reruns throughout the '70s & '80s, it still had it's charm. It wasn't mean't to be an emmy award winner, but it served it's purpose-to be lighthearted and funny. The music showcased on the show was memorable too. Try watching an episode, and not have their songs replay in your head long after watching it. To me, "The Partridge Family" will always have a special place in my heart because it invokes happy memories from such a great time in my life.

Amusing to see VH-1 staging a minor-scale "American Idol" to find the "new Partridge Family" (with judges who base their scores on, among other things, physical likeness to the original line-up). It's nice see Shirley Jones and David Cassidy involved (as for Danny Bonaduce, well...he'd appear at the opening of an envelope). But the really funny part is the fact that VH-1 does not air reruns of "The Partridge Family', so how do these young kids auditioning even know who Keith Partridge is (and what he meant to TV viewers and teenyboppers all over the world from 1970-1974). It's bound to flop, as did the remake of "Family Affair", simply because you can't get lightning to strike twice. "The Partridge Family" came along at the right time, when people needed it--needed to BELIEVE IN IT--and record producer Wes Ferrell and the editors at 16 Magazine and Tiger Beat made millions off the show (exploiting David Cassidy's manufactured wholesome image of the boy-singer-next-door). There were better shows of this period (and the laugh-track just screams at the sometimes corny humor), but the show does have great appeal, and the familial relationships have a lived-in feel (when Laurie and Danny kid Keith about his non-existent bald spot, they wink at each other as Keith goes mad with the hairbrush, and mom Shirley watches from the sidelines, no doubt enjoying the prank). They have tried unsuccessfully to reunite this group of actors for specials, and aside from a David-Danny-Shirley reunion on "Arsenio", they've failed. If you can't reunite the originals, why then is VH-1 betting on the success of duplicates? Maybe people need to believe again, or maybe Hollywood has really run dry of ideas.

This show was a pop culture phenomenon that actually had its moments of creative inspiration. The relationship among the members of the cast, particularly during the first season, was wonderful. The writing always had some good moments and the performances of all the actors were great. Especially Danny Bonaduce as Danny and David Madden as the agent Mr. Kincaid. The show became a pop culture icon because it was new fresh and innovative for the time.

Nowadays a show gets a gimmick and beats it to death. The Partridge Family gimmick was they were a singing family. However, the shows main joke wasn't about the fame but the family antics. The cast had a really goid chemistry and acted like real brothers, sisters and a mother. Dave Madden comic timing was fantastic. His scenes with Danny were comic gold. My only nitpick would be the two youngest kids who were basically background. They were rarely given anything to do.