Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story

An excellent depiction of the actors who played the roles in '70s sitcom "The Partridge Family." It mostly focused on Danny Bonaduce and his family, but also David Cassidy and how he as a young person dealt with fame. I would strongly recommend you watch it if you get the chance.

Can't recall too many movies along the lines of "true story behind the xxxx group". Val Kilmer played Morrison in "The Doors", and there was the supposed true story of the Beach Boys. That was MUCH better than this. And I can't recall any more.

Having said that, I'm wondering if maybe there wasn't much to tell? I mean Danny Bonaduce WAS just a kid during the four years of the Partridge Family, maybe he simply aired his childhood memories, and they were... well... childish?

I would have liked to have seen more of what happened to the family AFTER the show was canned. I believe that it was quite sordid, maybe that would have added some interest to the story?

This little TV movie about The Partridge Family,a hard to believe irony if any,is ruined by the showy selfishness of Danny Bondaduce.Look at the end Bondaduce claims in his cornball narration"well that's my story",and that's the problem with this movie.It IS his story being told.It isn't about Shirley Jones,or Susan Dey,or the other child actos on the show.It was all about Bondaduce and the people that were the center of his life,the selfish David Cassidy,Bondaduce's surrogate father David Madden and his dysfuntional family. Now it is too bad that his father hated him and the rest of his family didn't amount to very much(He portrayed them that way ,that's not my opinion).But we wanted to see the Partridge Family aside from Bondaduce and Cassidy and we didn't see that.The other actors on the show,even Shirley Jones,didn't get their stories told from what would have been an balanced film ,except this movie's screenplay is written by and for Bondaduce. The other child actors have been forgotten,Susan Dey doesn't even talk about the show anymore,and the show's makers seemed to wanted to keep their distance from it.Therefore a real presentation about the makings of the Partridge Family was not told here.You got Danny Bondaduce's Partridge Family life story instead.His post Partridge Family life story is one better left unsaid and unseen but the real Partidge Family story will have to made and seen in the future.

The movie showed a lot more depth than the recent David Cassidy Story and addressed one of the major flaws in that movie. By focusing on only the 4 years of the Partridge Family, it gave a more complete portrait of the Partridge Family phenomena. From recent interviews of cast members, "Come On Get Happy" seemed pretty accurate. Even so, like the David Cassidy Story, it tried to cover too much territory. They should have focused more on 1 or 2 of the characters - like Cassidy and Dey or Danny Bonaduce - instead of cramming all the characters in 1 movie. (I'm still waiting for the Danny Bonaduce story which I think has the most dramatic appeal).

Second, they didn't really show the sheer hysteria surrounding the program, which was covered better in the DC Story. They also didn't show the emotional devastation of the death of the fan at Cassidy's farewell show or cover the greed of the producers. All in all, I'd give it 3 stars. It's worth a second showing.

So many reviewers bash this film for focusing on Danny Bonaduce's point of view. For heaven's sake -He wrote it! How could he tell anyone's story but his own?

Back in the day, The Partridge Family was a phenomenon. Other than Shirley Jones and Dave Madden the cast were plucked from obscurity and placed under the glare of the spotlight. Instant fame and recognition. The film deals well with that issue, focusing on its effects on Bonaduce and David Cassidy. Yes, there were certainly many other possible topics to address -But how much can you cover in a 90-minute TV movie?

The film was well-cast, with actors who strongly resembled the people they were portraying. Other than Cassidy, there was little time for character development, but he, Jones, Madden, and Susan Day were treated sympathetically (and accurately according to the interviews I've read). The three actors who portrayed the two youngest Partridges were treated the same as their real-life counterparts: little screen time and almost no dialogue. The real focus was on Danny Bonaduce and how his on-screen family became a happy surrogate for his dysfunctional off-screen family. Shawn Pyfrom's portrayal of Bonaduce was nicely understated. The scenes of domestic abuse and his relationships with his TV family were told from the child's perspective and rang truer than the rest of the film.

The Partridge Family was never high art. What kept it going for four years were the songs and the on-screen chemistry between Bonaduce, Cassidy, and Madden. This TV film shows a little of what was behind that -And what more could a fan ask for?