"Tracy, don't put that drumstick up your nose. You don't know where it's been." - Shirley Jones as Shirley Partridge
The Partridge Family: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
Combining the bubble-gum pop of The Monkees with the super-sized family comedy of The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family first rode their psychedelic bus into American living rooms on September 25, 1970. Loosely based on the folksy family singing sensation The Cowsills ("The Rain, the Park and Other Things"), The Partridge Family follows the adventures of widowed mother Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones), and her flock of singing children: Keith (David Cassidy), Laurie (Susan Dey), Danny (Danny Bonaduce), Christopher (Jeremy Gelbwaks), and Tracy (Suzanne Crough).
Shirley's fledglings dream of becoming a big-time rock band. Keith, the eldest, is the band's guitarist, lead singer, and resident lothario. Feminist Laurie plays keyboard. In addition to serving as the band's bassist, ten year-old wiseacre Danny is its business manager wannabe. Christopher plays drums while disaffectedly staring off into space. And wee little Tracy? She doesn't so much play instruments as simply holds them. Tambourines, cowbells - whatever happens to be around. When the group's new female lead singer - a foxy chick recruited by Danny because her rabbi father might get them bar mitzvah gigs - comes down with the mumps, the kids manage to convince a reluctant Shirley to take her place. After all, what could be cooler than being in a band with your mother? Thanks to Danny's persistence, the group soon has a deal with record exec Reuben Kincaid (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In's Dave Madden), a number one hit, and a cross-country tour that includes sold-out performances at Caesar's Palace.
Critics roasted The Partridge Family, but audiences flocked to the series upon its premiere. Although its detractors may not have admitted so at the time, the series actually has a lot going for it, from its colorful design scheme (dig that crazy bus!) to its talented cast. The show's candy-colored production design is eye-catching and vivid, but never seems cartoonish. Instead, the band's pseudo-Edwardian costumes and "Careful: Nervous Mother Driving"-inscribed bus come across as the work of a creative and hip - but not too hip - mom. The show's cast provides excellent cross-generational appeal. Jones, an Oscar winner for Elmer Gantry, manages to simultaneously radiate sex appeal and wholesomeness, a feat also achieved by Cassidy (Jones' real-life stepson) and Dey. Reuben's famous observation that working with Danny is like "dealing with a forty-year-old midget" can actually be applied to Bonaduce as well - he possesses comic timing that most adults would kill for. And while the Partridges' songs are not as creative and varied as those of the Monkees, their pure, sugary pop sound is still hard to beat.
Although often compared to The Brady Bunch (the two series premiered within a year of each other, and Jones had been offered the role of Carol Brady), the Partridge clan is not as sickly sweet as the Bradys. The Brady siblings often come across as simple and stunted, while the Partridges are more fully drawn. Danny, for example, is a surprisingly complex character, mixing little-kid simplicity with old-before-his-time sophistication.
The Partridge Family does share one thing with The Brady Bunch: bad scripts. Most of the show's plots are thin and underdeveloped. Nothing much happens in any given episode. In "Old Scrapmouth," Laurie is mortified to learn that she'll have to get braces right before the family appears on a live coast-to-coast TV broadcast - and that's before she finds out that the braces pick up radio waves. In a miracle of modern orthodontia, her braces come off by the end of the episode. In "See Here, Private Partridge," Danny receives a draft notification from the Army. Shirley wrings her hands at the absurdity of a ten-year-old being drafted, but military officials ignore her complaints. Danny reports for duty and takes his physical before it is decided that he's too short to serve. The end. Yawn. In episode after episode, the writers concoct similarly goofy plotlines, but then fail to flesh them out, as if the concepts alone will keep audiences amused for an entire half hour. As a result, the show lacks the kooky shaggy-dog charm of The Monkees and the satisfying storylines of well-crafted family sitcoms like, say, Leave it to Beaver.
Two of The Partridge Family's first season episodes are centered around special musical guests. Song-and-dance man Ray Bolger appears in "Whatever Happened to the Old Songs?" as Shirley's father, a wannabe hepcat who decides to ditch his wife and go on the road with the band. The problem is that grandpa is too old to appeal to modern audiences. Well, there's his age, and also the fact that he has no discernable talent. How can the family convince him to go back to grandma without hurting his feelings? "Whatever Happened." is sentimental and bland, but even worse, it seems oddly perverted to cast Bolger, the legendary performer who portrayed the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, as a tone deaf ukulele player. What a waste! Teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman pops up as an aspiring songwriter in "A Knight in Shining Armor." This somewhat amusing but unfocused episode served as the pilot for Sherman's short-lived sitcom Getting Together.
Season one also features appearances by a slew of already familiar actors and others who would go on to greater fame. Stargazers should be on the lookout for Gordon Jump (WKRP in Cincinnati), Harry Morgan (M*A*S*H), Farrah Fawcett (Charlie's Angels), Rosemary DeCamp (That Girl), Jack Riley (The Bob Newhart Show), Jaclyn Smith (Charlie's Angels), Pat Harrington (One Day at a Time), Vic Tayback (Alice), Morey Amsterdam (The Dick Van Dyke Show), Jackie Coogan (The Addams Family), Stuart Margolin (The Rockford Files), Dick Clark, William Schallert (The Patty Duke Show), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Richard Mulligan (Soap), Richard Pryor (The Richard Pryor Show), Louis Gossett, Jr., Annette O'Toole (Smallville), Michael Ontkean (Twin Peaks), and even Johnny Cash.
The twenty-five episodes that make up The Partridge Family: The Complete First Season are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in two slim plastic keepcases. The first keepcase holds two DVDs, while the second keepcase holds the remaining disc and a Partridge Family CD sampler. The fronts of the cases are decorated with a Mondrian-esque design reminiscent of the Partridges' famous bus. The backs of the cases include episode titles and brief synopses. The keepcases slide into a cardboard outer sleeve that continues the Mondrian theme. The packaging is a little chintzy, but inoffensive.
The disc menus are also Mondrian-esque. Viewers can play all of a disc's episodes or select an individual one. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes are divided into chapters.
