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.

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?

I knew that this movie was going to be biased towards Danny Bonaduce, since he worked on it somehow. What I didn't know is how much of the story they DIDN'T tell. The only really good performances came from Kathy Wagner (Susan Dey) and Rodney Scott (David Cassidy). The kid who played Danny was too fake for the part. Overall, this movie was a sappy biased biopic.

Call me crazy, but I like this movie. It has some very light hearted bits and some very funny scenes as through the eyes of Danny Bonaduce's memories of getting on the show, working on it,getting kidnapped by Keith...whoops,I mean,David Cassidy, a tough family experience as a childhood TV star and the disappointment of the series's end. I was never a big fan of the series, but I did like some of the songs and now thanks to the movie I know some behind the scenes trivia about the music. All of the actors are dead-on lookalikes good enough to bring this series back to TV, especially the lovely Kathy Wagner who plays Susan Dey. Someone please thank Danny for peeking in on Susan for the peeping-tom scene. As a kid, Danny is portrayed like some sort of kid prodigy, which he probably was, and as well sets up the preminitions of what was set to happen to him in the later years of his life.Hey, I think I love,,,,,,,this movie !

I don't know a lot about the partridge family, I've only seen maybe two episodes from beginning to end, but did this stuff behind the scenes really happen. Such as, when David just kidnaps Danny and drives away in the bus, the scene when they were in the bunny costumes, how they took care of Danny for different weekends or how they would refer to each as Keith or Laurie, Just to name a few. But the acting was pretty bad and i didn't like how the jumped around a lot. The only thing I liked about the movie was the Brady Bunch scene. I would like to see what happened to the actors after the show. I am looking forward to the "new" family on VH1. But I wouldn't see it again though. It was pretty bad.