The New Partridge Family

Well- I actually have more than three so here goes. Much of TV today is poorly written soap operas. Chicago is burning, Texas is burning, LA is burning. In between you have soppy, messy, incoherent stories. Or you have comedies that say nothing. That only worked once with Jerry and it has since been over done.

This pilot is by no means a work of art- but the documentary style filming is an ingenious way of hiding a limited budget. But it works.

Other than Emily Stone - as she insists to be referred to her real given name- and French Stewart- the cast is still unknowns to me. But they were fresh and believable in their roles. Mr French really captured the essence of Rubin Kincaid while updating him. The whole cast for that matter mirrored the original without making it feel sacrilegious. Heck - even the kid playing Chris who was mimicking Jeremy Welbaks deer in the headlights expression was dead on.

The writing was fun. It was funny. One joke led into the next one. Much like Cheers, Fraiser and the new Frasier - I laughed continuously at the jokes and the situations presented. There was no dull moment.

But the topper was the end of the episode. That was the best.

I wish the show took off. I would have enjoyed it every week. Instead - I have three words for the studio, network and fans who hate this great little pilot. The three words start with - Go...

As Bill Murray's character said in Scrooged, "Gosh, does that suck!". I watched the search for the actors and actresses on VH1 and thought that it was a fun show. Mainly because I liked seeing David Cassidy and the other people from the original show. But when it started showing on VH1 I absolutely hated it period. What was a cute show was pathetically reinvented to be a reality show. Are you kidding me? It had absolutely nothing in common with the original and the people portraying the characters didn't even look like the original characters. Plus the fact that when they were doing the tests for the prospective candidates I found it a funny thing to watch. An American Idol type search. Sorry but if you want to do a remake of a classic show like The Partridge Family, get known and/or trained actors. Don't do this asinine talent search with wannabe morons who are hungry for their fifteen minutes. I was glad and relieved when this train wreck was derailed quick after it's start. Hey VH1, if you want to remake a classic show hire regular actors and then you may have something there, otherwise you're wasting the viewers' time and energy!

My Review of this, the new version was bad, I mean the new shirley said her ex husband & in it's original show Shirley Jones's Character Shirley was a widow & Reubin Kincaid did work & had a job & in this version he was fired & so I think The Originial Was Alot Better Then This New Version!

How did they ever think they could top a cast that included Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, and Danny Bonaduce (who did return for this)?

This was unwatchable. Horrid. If you can't say anything nice about something on IMDb, you still have to fill ten lines.

What is there to say? Oh, I need a few more lines?

Okay, it stunk. The original was better.

I can't believe they did this. Why? Why?

Okay?

I'm serious, IMDb, why do you make me write ten lines about this abomination?

My god. What is next?

Sheesh.

Although the remake was not true to form, (what remake is) and also too campy, the actors in the show were paid to do a job, and did not control scripts, music, etc. I think it's really harsh to judge them and the range of their talents by a poorly done pilot that they had no control over. I can personally vouch for the extreme range and talent of one of the actors, and although it may have been a poor choice of vehicles for them, they all performed to the best of their given roles. Blame VH1 or the writers and directors for their part in this. Not the actors. Hopefully, someone with the talent to write and direct a future remake of a beloved classic will take this where it needs to be. Let's remember- even if The Brady Bunch movies were not exactly true to form- they were amusing and even managed to make some money.