The Partridge Family :: essays research papers

If you were alive 30 years ago you probably can recall those Friday nights when you were sitting in front of the television set during prime time watching a widowed mother and her five children who charmed America and broke a generation gap with their groovy, bubble gum sounding tunes. You probably would also know that "The Partridge Family," with its something for everyone cast and groovy tunes, took over America as an instant success in the fall of 1970.The Partridge Family was the 70s successor to the Monkees who were a mid 60s hit. Both the Monkees and the Partridge Family were fictional rock/pop bands produced by a television branch of Columbia Pictures called Screen Gems, but unlike the Monkees, the Partridge Family strictly was about wholesome and traditional family values. (UBL.com)The famous cast included screen and stage veteran Shirley Jones who played the mother, Shirley Partridge. Shirley Jones had been in numerous plays and movies including Rodgers and Hammerstien’s "Oklahoma!", "The Music Man", "The Big Slide", and the 1960 film version of Elmer Gantry which won her an Academy Award for her role as a prostitute. In 1956, Shirley Jones married actor Jack Cassidy who was the father of her future co-star David Cassidy. Born April 12, 1950 in New York City, David Cassidy grew up in the show business atmosphere with both his father and mother being avid performers. After he graduated from Rexford, a private school in Beverly Hills, he worked with the Los Angeles Theater Group and was featured in the Los Angeles theater production of "And so to Bed" (members.tripod.com). After that he moved to New York and back to Los Angeles while starring in several plays and TV shows including "Mod Squad" and "Bonanza", but David Cassidy didn’t get his big break until he returned to his first love, music, when he was cast as Keith Partridge. Other cast members who played Partridge siblings included Susan Dey, a popular New York fashion model who played Laurie Partridge, and the red headed and freckled Danny Bonaduce who played Danny Partridge and to many people’s surprise actually came from an 100 percent Italian background (The Partridge Family Deluxe Souvenir Album). The youngest partridges as you may know were Chris and Tracy. Chris was first played by Jeremy Gelbwaks during the first season, but his parents soon became uncomfortable about his acting with the mania that surrounded the show and took their son out of the cast.