88 Fun Facts About The Partridge Family

On which network did The Partridge Family air from 1970 to 1974?

ABC ran the sitcom from 1970 to 1974. Its first pilot, shot in December 1969, never aired: in it the mother was called Connie, not Shirley.

Before The Partridge Family, Bernard Slade developed which sitcom starring Sally Field?

The Flying Nun was the second of his series to reach the air. He later left television for the stage, where his first Broadway play, Same Time, Next Year, became a hit.

The Partridge Family was loosely based on which real family band?

The Cowsills, who had a 1969 hit with 'Hair', sang with their mother, Barbara. The show's producers visited the family while developing it, but none of the Cowsills was cast.

Which Wizard of Oz star played Shirley Partridge's father in three episodes?

Ray Bolger, the film's Scarecrow, played her father. In his first episode he electrifies his mandolin and tries to join the family act on tour.

What warning was painted on the back of the Partridge Family's tour bus?

Caution: Nervous Mother Driving was no idle joke: Shirley Jones really drove the bus on camera, and has said she had to learn a stick shift to do it.

What was the real-life relationship between the actors who played Shirley and Keith Partridge?

Stepmother and stepson: she had married his father, Jack Cassidy, in 1956. The show's unaired first pilot even cast Jack as her character's boyfriend.

Who played Laurie Partridge?

Susan Dey was a 17-year-old model with no acting experience. After hundreds of auditions turned up no Laurie, a producer flew to New York and found her.

Danny Bonaduce's wisecracking Danny Partridge played which instrument in the band?

Bass guitar was only a prop for him: the cast mimed to session players, and Bonaduce had to be told by David Cassidy that a bass is plucked, not strummed.

Which Partridge child was played by two different actors, Jeremy Gelbwaks and then Brian Forster?

Chris got a new face in season two: Jeremy Gelbwaks quit acting when his family moved east after the first season, and Brian Forster took over the drums.

Brian Forster, who joined the Partridge cast in season two, is a great-great-great-grandson of which English novelist?

Charles Dickens is his ancestor through his English mother, the actress Jennifer Raine. Forster himself swapped acting for the track, later working as a professional racing driver.

Suzanne Crough's Tracy, the youngest Partridge, mainly played which instrument?

Tambourine was all Tracy needed, because the young cast only mimed: Suzanne Crough later joked that she was 'very good at being Milli Vanilli'.

What was the name of the Partridge Family's put-upon manager, played by Dave Madden?

Reuben Kincaid, played by Dave Madden, only takes the band on because ten-year-old Danny chases him down with a tape of their song in the pilot.

Before The Partridge Family, Dave Madden threw confetti as a regular on which sketch comedy show?

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In hired Madden in 1968. His first break came from Frank Sinatra, who caught his nightclub act and phoned Ed Sullivan on his behalf.

The Partridges lived in which fictional California town?

San Pueblo is fictional, and it was a late change: in the first, unaired pilot the family lived in Ohio.

What was Shirley Partridge's job before joining the band?

Shirley Partridge worked as a bank teller before her five kids talked her into singing with their garage band in the pilot.

The family's tour bus was painted in patterns inspired by which artist?

Piet Mondrian's blocks of primary colour inspired the paint job. When Nick at Nite reran the show in the 1990s, it built a fresh copy of the bus to promote it.

What kind of vehicle was the Partridge Family bus originally?

A school bus, bought used and repainted by the family in the pilot. The real vehicle outlived the show by years, then ended up in a Los Angeles junkyard in 1987.

Which sportscaster played himself in the episode where Danny tries to recruit a singing whale?

Howard Cosell appears as himself in 'Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?'. Danny's plan to cash in on whale song backfires when Shirley pledges the record's profits to saving whales.

Which famous group of Los Angeles session musicians played the instruments on Partridge Family records?

The Wrecking Crew, with Hal Blaine on drums, played everything. Studio singers were meant to supply all the voices too, until David Cassidy proved he could sing lead.

Which Columbia Pictures television studio, also behind Bewitched and The Monkees, produced The Partridge Family?

Screen Gems filmed its sitcoms on one Burbank back lot, which is why the Bewitched house can be seen as the bus drives by in the opening credits.

What was The Partridge Family's opening theme song from season two onward?

'Come On Get Happy' opened every episode from season two onward; the season-one theme used the same melody with different lyrics.

What was the title of The Partridge Family's season-one theme song?

'When We're Singin'' told the band's backstory in its verse, down to Danny landing them a manager. Season two kept the tune and swapped in new words.

Which future Charlie's Angels star played 'Pretty Girl' in The Partridge Family's second episode?

Farrah Fawcett had the nameless bit part six years before the series that made her a household name. Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd, then billed as Cheryl Stoppelmoor, also guested on the show.

Which future film director guest-starred as Snake, a biker who takes Laurie Partridge to her prom?

Rob Reiner played Snake in 1971, the year he found fame as a sitcom son-in-law. Snake swaps his biker gear for clothes he has outgrown, wins a fight at the dance and leaves Laurie his earring.

'I Think I Love You' reached number one in November 1970 by replacing 'I'll Be There', a hit for which group?

The Jackson 5 had held the top spot for five weeks. A real family band then gave way to a fictional one, which stayed until Smokey Robinson's 'The Tears of a Clown' took over.

Which future Oscar winner guest-starred as Julie, an eleven-year-old with a crush on Danny?

Jodie Foster played Julie in 1973's 'The Eleven-Year Itch'. Danny spends the visit hiding from her, and when he finally comes round and tries a kiss, she gives him a black eye.

In the episode 'But the Memory Lingers On', which stowaway on the bus leaves the family unfit to perform?

A skunk sprays the bus and everything in it. The family bathe in tomato juice, borrow clothes and still end up singing to a children's hospital from behind glass.

What was the name of the Partridge family's dog, seen mostly in season one?

Simone rides along with the family through season one, then fades from view: the show phased the dog out during its second season.

Four-year-old neighbour Ricky Stevens was added to The Partridge Family in season four and did what?

Sang a children's song: little Ricky Segall got solo spots in the early season-four episodes, but the character was dropped before the season was out.

For its final season, The Partridge Family moved from Friday to which night?

Saturday proved fatal: the show had been a top-20 hit on Fridays, but the move cost it more than half its audience and it was cancelled after 96 episodes.

Which record label released the Partridge Family's singles and albums?

Bell Records belonged to Columbia Pictures, parent of the studio that made the show. In 1974, the year the series ended, the label was shut down and folded into Arista.

Bobby Sherman's Partridge Family guest role as songwriter Bobby Conway launched which short-lived spin-off?

Getting Together grew out of the season-one finale, in which the Partridges pair a composer with a tone-deaf poet in a suit of armour. It was cancelled after 14 episodes.

The daughter of which California governor played a photographer on The Partridge Family?

Ronald Reagan was still governor in 1974 when his daughter Maureen appeared in 'Morning Becomes Electric', in which the model energy-saving Partridges nearly end up named as energy hogs.

David Cassidy's first British number one was a 1972 cover of 'How Can I Be Sure', a hit for which band?

The Young Rascals were, Cassidy said, among the great musical influences of his teenage years, so he recorded two of their songs for his second solo album.

Which comedian guest-starred with Louis Gossett Jr. in the Partridge Family episode 'Soul Club'?

Richard Pryor and Gossett play brothers whose Detroit club was expecting the Temptations. The Partridges arrive instead, then throw a block party that saves the club from a loan shark.

Shirley Jones won a best supporting actress Oscar for which 1960 film?

Elmer Gantry cast her against type as Lulu Bains, a prostitute out for revenge. Director Richard Brooks fought her casting, then told her after her first scene that she would win the Oscar.

The actress who played Laurie Partridge later won a Golden Globe as Grace Van Owen on which series?

L.A. Law made her a dramatic star as prosecutor Grace Van Owen. She then kept her distance from her first show, the one cast member who regularly skipped its reunions.

David Cassidy's first solo single, a number nine Hot 100 hit, covered which Association song?

'Cherish' launched him as a solo act in 1971, soon after he turned 21 and renegotiated a contract that had paid him no royalties on the Partridge records.

In May 1972, David Cassidy tried to shed his teen-idol image with a revealing cover of which magazine?

Rolling Stone ran a cropped nude portrait by Annie Leibovitz, and the story inside, 'Naked Lunch Box', described him riding around New York stoned and drunk.

Nearly 800 fans were hurt, one fatally, in a crush at a 1974 David Cassidy concert in which city?

London's White City Stadium was the next-to-last stop of his world tour. Bernadette Whelan, 14, died four days later, and Cassidy stayed away from her funeral so the press would too.

Which of David Cassidy's half-brothers became a teen idol himself with 'Da Doo Ron Ron' and The Hardy Boys?

Shaun Cassidy, Shirley Jones's eldest son, later moved behind the camera as a writer and producer, creating the 2009 sitcom Ruby & the Rockits for two of his brothers.

David Cassidy earned an Emmy nomination in 1978 for a guest role on which crime drama?

Police Story cast the former teen idol as an undercover officer in 'A Chance to Live'. NBC spun the episode into a series of his own, which lasted only ten episodes.

Where did the Partridges play their first live gig in the pilot episode?

Caesars Palace in Las Vegas nearly ends the act: all five kids freeze with stage fright until Shirley tells them to pretend they are back home in the garage.

Which country singer made a cameo as himself in the Partridge Family pilot?

Johnny Cash appears for a few seconds to introduce the unknown family act at their first live show, moments before stage fright silences all five kids.

David Cassidy's daughter Katie played Laurel Lance in which superhero series?

Arrow made Katie Cassidy a star from 2012. She was raised by her mother and stepfather, not by David, but she was at his side before he died in 2017.

Which fictional band topped the Hot 100 in 1969, the year before the Partridges did?

The Archies were cartoon characters. Session singer Ron Dante supplied the lead voice on their hit 'Sugar, Sugar', much as hired voices later backed the Partridges.

Which future Oscar winner made her television debut as Laurie in VH1's The New Partridge Family?

Emma Stone, then billed as Emily Stone, won the part on a VH1 talent contest to recast the family. The pilot she earned was the only episode ever made.

During the show's run, Curtis Books published seventeen Partridge Family paperback novels in which genre?

Mystery paperbacks were only part of the merchandising: a 1971 Milton Bradley board game had players race to be first back to the family's tour bus.

In the episode 'Old Scrapmouth', what do Laurie's new dental braces start picking up before a TV taping?

Radio signals in her braces throw Laurie off key just as a TV crew arrives. The culprit is the radio carried by her boyfriend Jerry, played by a young Mark Hamill.

Which future M*A*S*H commanding officer guest-starred as 'Whiplash' Willie, who sues the Partridges over a fender bender?

Harry Morgan plays the driver who fakes whiplash after Shirley taps his car. The family beat him by moving in to nurse him, until their kindness wears him down.

In 1993, David Cassidy and one of Shirley Jones's sons co-starred on Broadway in which musical?

Blood Brothers cast the real half-brothers as twins separated at birth, with Petula Clark as their mother. The producer hired all three to lift ticket sales.

How did David Cassidy's father, actor Jack Cassidy, die in December 1976?

In an apartment fire: he fell asleep on his couch with a lit cigarette at his West Hollywood home on 12 December 1976, the year after his divorce from Shirley Jones.

Which Cincinnati Reds star played a poolside waiter in the Partridge Family episode 'I Left My Heart in Cincinnati'?

Johnny Bench took time out of his 1972 MVP season for a 30-second cameo, taking drink orders at the Kings Island Inn when the cast filmed at the new Ohio theme park.

In their final season, the Partridges were scheduled against Emergency! and which CBS hit?

All in the Family was the most-watched show on television. Up against it and NBC's Emergency!, the Partridges lost more than half their audience and were cancelled.

A 1977 Thanksgiving reunion special paired the Partridge cast with the cast of which single-parent sitcom?

My Three Sons shared no story with the Partridges. The special's only link was that Shirley Jones and Fred MacMurray had both played single parents of large broods.

Which comedian did Shirley Jones marry in 1977, three years after The Partridge Family ended?

Marty Ingels called theirs an odd-couple marriage. She filed for divorce in 2002, withdrew the petition, and stayed married to him until his death in 2015.

Danny Bonaduce co-hosted which daytime talk show, pitched as a male answer to The View, from 2001 to 2003?

The Other Half sat Bonaduce beside Dick Clark and Mario Lopez. Its title was the pitch: a panel of men to complement the women of The View.

Which member of the Monkees voiced recurring characters in the cartoon Partridge Family 2200 A.D.?

Micky Dolenz voiced Wonderful Wayne and Spotless Sam. Once the Monkees' own series ended, he built a second career as a voice in animated series.

Before making Partridge Family 2200 A.D., Hanna-Barbera pitched CBS an update of which earlier series?

The Jetsons were meant to return with a teenage Elroy. CBS asked for the Partridges instead, so Elroy became Keith, Judy became Laurie and Astro became a robot dog named Orbit.

Shawn Pyfrom, the young Danny Bonaduce in a 1999 TV movie, later played Andrew Van de Kamp on which series?

Desperate Housewives cast Pyfrom as Bree Van de Kamp's son. The 1999 film tells the Partridge story from Bonaduce's side, and Bonaduce himself narrates it.

Danny Bonaduce's troubled marriage was the subject of which 2005 VH1 reality series?

Breaking Bonaduce ran for two seasons of on-camera therapy and relapse, and it did not save the marriage: Danny and Gretchen divorced in 2007.

Which single gave David Cassidy a UK number one in autumn 1973?

'Daydreamer' spent three weeks at the top of the British chart, yet in his own country the single failed to chart at all.

The cover of the 1971 LP Up to Date was designed in the form of what?

Up to Date's sleeve was laid out as a calendar, with the cast's real birthdays marked on the dates, playing on the album's title.

What part of 'Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted' did Cassidy at first refuse to record?

Cassidy balked at the song's spoken interlude, which he found embarrassing, and had to be talked into recording it; 'Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted' still reached No. 6 in 1971.

Mike Appel, co-writer of 'Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted', went on to manage whom?

Bruce Springsteen signed with Appel in 1972 and made his first three albums with him. They fell out over Born to Run, and a long legal battle ended in an out-of-court settlement.

The Partridge Family's 1973 UK Top 10 'Walking in the Rain' revived a 1964 hit by which girl group?

The Ronettes cut the original with Phil Spector, thunderclaps and all. The Partridges' version reached No. 10 in Britain but was never released as a single in America.

Whose 1965 hit 'Looking Through the Eyes of Love' became the Partridge Family's last US Top 40 single?

Gene Pitney's original was a far bigger hit in Britain than at home, and the Partridges' cover repeated the pattern: No. 39 in America, No. 9 in the UK.

The Partridge Family's 1972 UK No. 3 'Breaking Up Is Hard to Do' covered whose 1962 signature song?

Neil Sedaka's 1962 original topped the Hot 100; the Partridges' 1972 cover reached No. 28 in the US and No. 3 in the UK, and Sedaka's own slow 1975 remake returned it to the Top 10.

What is the title of Danny Bonaduce's memoir?

Random Acts of Badness follows the child star through addiction, arrests and a spell of homelessness to an unlikely second career as a radio host.

The Partridges' producer co-wrote which 1965 No. 1, Ohio's official state rock song?

'Hang On Sloopy', written by Wes Farrell with Bert Berns, became Ohio's rock song after a Columbus columnist saw Washington state weighing 'Louie Louie' and campaigned for a reply.

In 1971 the Partridge Family received a Grammy nomination in which category?

The Partridge Family was nominated for Best New Artist at the March 1971 Grammys, losing to the Carpenters in a field that also included Elton John and Anne Murray.

In which 1962 film did Shirley Jones star opposite Robert Preston?

The Music Man cast her as librarian Marian Paroo. Fifty years on she returned to it on stage as Marian's mother, with her son Patrick in Preston's role of Harold Hill.

Which sitcom matriarch role did Shirley Jones turn down shortly before The Partridge Family?

Carol Brady went to Florence Henderson instead. Soon afterwards Jones said yes to the Partridges, partly because a series would let her stay home with her young sons.

Months before his death in 2017, David Cassidy announced he was retiring from touring because of which condition?

Dementia was his explanation in February 2017, after he struggled to remember his own lyrics on stage. Nine months later he died of liver failure, aged 67.

Shirley Jones was the only singer ever put under personal contract by which songwriting team?

Rodgers and Hammerstein made Shirley Jones the only performer ever under personal contract to them after she sang at an open call and Richard Rodgers was fetched to hear her.

David Cassidy's manager Ruth Aarons had earlier been a champion in which sport?

Table tennis made Ruth Aarons a world champion in 1936. As his manager she found he had signed his Partridge contract under age, and used that to win him a far better deal.

David Cassidy scored the first hit with which future Barry Manilow number one?

'I Write the Songs' was written by Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys, who co-produced Cassidy's version. It reached No. 11 in Britain months before Manilow released his own.

Which pop star sang backing vocals on David Cassidy's 1985 UK hit 'The Last Kiss'?

George Michael, who named Cassidy as a major influence on his career, sang on the UK No. 6 hit and then turned reporter, interviewing him for Ritz magazine.

In 1983, David Cassidy took over the title role in which Broadway musical?

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat made him a Broadway lead. Two years earlier, bad reviews had cost him the star part in Little Johnny Jones, which went to Donny Osmond.

David Cassidy competed on the fourth season of which reality show in 2011?

The Celebrity Apprentice sent him home first. He had raised a single small donation, from his daughter Katie, and was fired after a clash with team leader Richard Hatch.

The actress who played Laurie Partridge made her film debut as an airline passenger in which Charlton Heston thriller?

Skyjacked (1972) put her aboard a hijacked airliner flown by Heston's captain, at a time when she was still playing teenage Laurie on television every week.

Danny Bonaduce stopped which former child star in two rounds on Fox's Celebrity Boxing in 2002?

Barry Williams, Greg on The Brady Bunch, went down five times before his corner threw in the towel. Bonaduce had already beaten another Brady, Christopher Knight, in a 1994 wrestling match.

Which retired slugger fought Danny Bonaduce to a majority draw in a 2009 charity bout?

José Canseco, a 6 ft 4 former home-run champion, could not put the one-time child star away: their three-round bout near Philadelphia was scored a majority draw.

Danny Bonaduce hosted a morning radio show on KZOK in which city from 2011 to 2023?

Seattle classic-rock station KZOK was his last radio home. He left its morning show at the end of 2023, months after surgery for hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid on the brain.

Danny Bonaduce co-starred with Mark Hamill in which 1978 film about a stolen custom car?

Corvette Summer was Mark Hamill's first film after Star Wars. Bonaduce plays Kootz, a classmate of Hamill's hero, who sets off in pursuit of his stolen Stingray.

Which 1955 film musical marked Shirley Jones's film debut?

Oklahoma! gave her the female lead, Laurey, in her very first film, opposite Gordon MacRae. The pair were reunited a year later in Carousel.

After The Partridge Family, Dave Madden had a recurring role as Earl Hicks on which long-running CBS sitcom?

Alice made him a regular at Mel's Diner for seven years as basketball coach Earl Hicks. Off screen, Madden had once taken the young Danny Bonaduce into his own home.

In a 2010 cast reunion interview, Suzanne Crough said she now worked as a manager at what store?

An OfficeMax manager with two daughters and, in her words, 'a normal job' was how she described herself on the Today show. She had earlier owned and run a bookstore.