The Partridge Family Trivia
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88 free The Partridge Family trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
43 free The Partridge Family trivia questions with answers. The Partridge Family ran on ABC from 1970 to 1974 and left behind a painted school bus, a number-one single and the biggest teen idol of the decade. This quiz covers all of it: the widowed bank teller and her five kids in San Pueblo, the manager Reuben Kincaid, the two theme songs, the Wrecking Crew musicians who actually played on the records, the dog Simone, and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon that sent the family to the year 2200. Easy questions ask who played Keith and what the bus looked like; the hard ones want the songwriter of 'I Think I Love You', which cast member is a Charles Dickens descendant and why the Cowsills turned down the chance to play themselves. Made for people who still know every word of 'C'mon Get Happy'. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the show, its cast and its music, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 88 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which network did The Partridge Family air from 1970 to 1974?
ABC
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.
Q 02Before The Partridge Family, Bernard Slade developed which sitcom starring Sally Field?
The Flying Nun
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.
Q 03The Partridge Family was loosely based on which real family band?
The Cowsills
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.
Q 04Which Wizard of Oz star played Shirley Partridge's father in three episodes?
Ray Bolger
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.
Q 05What warning was painted on the back of the Partridge Family's tour bus?
Caution: Nervous Mother Driving
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.
Q 06What was the real-life relationship between the actors who played Shirley and Keith Partridge?
Stepmother and stepson
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.
Q 07Who played Laurie Partridge?
Susan Dey
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.
Q 08Danny Bonaduce's wisecracking Danny Partridge played which instrument in the band?
Bass guitar
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.
Q 09Which Partridge child was played by two different actors, Jeremy Gelbwaks and then Brian Forster?
Chris
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.
Q 10Brian Forster, who joined the Partridge cast in season two, is a great-great-great-grandson of which English novelist?
Charles Dickens
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.
Q 11Suzanne Crough's Tracy, the youngest Partridge, mainly played which instrument?
Tambourine
Tambourine was all Tracy needed, because the young cast only mimed: Suzanne Crough later joked that she was 'very good at being Milli Vanilli'.
Q 12What was the name of the Partridge Family's put-upon manager, played by Dave Madden?
Reuben Kincaid
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.
Q 13Before The Partridge Family, Dave Madden threw confetti as a regular on which sketch comedy show?
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Q 21What was The Partridge Family's opening theme song from season two onward?
'Come On Get Happy'
'Come On Get Happy' opened every episode from season two onward; the season-one theme used the same melody with different lyrics.
Q 22What was the title of The Partridge Family's season-one theme song?
'When We're Singin''
'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.
Q 23Which future Charlie's Angels star played 'Pretty Girl' in The Partridge Family's second episode?
Farrah Fawcett
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.
Q 14The Partridges lived in which fictional California town?
San Pueblo
San Pueblo is fictional, and it was a late change: in the first, unaired pilot the family lived in Ohio.
Q 15What was Shirley Partridge's job before joining the band?
Bank teller
Shirley Partridge worked as a bank teller before her five kids talked her into singing with their garage band in the pilot.
Q 16The family's tour bus was painted in patterns inspired by which artist?
Piet Mondrian
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.
Q 17What kind of vehicle was the Partridge Family bus originally?
A school bus
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.
Q 18Which sportscaster played himself in the episode where Danny tries to recruit a singing whale?
Howard Cosell
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.
Q 19Which famous group of Los Angeles session musicians played the instruments on Partridge Family records?
The Wrecking Crew
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.
Q 20Which Columbia Pictures television studio, also behind Bewitched and The Monkees, produced The Partridge Family?
Screen Gems
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.
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.
Q 24Which future film director guest-starred as Snake, a biker who takes Laurie Partridge to her prom?
Rob Reiner
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.
Q 25'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
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.
Q 26Which future Oscar winner guest-starred as Julie, an eleven-year-old with a crush on Danny?
Jodie Foster
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.
Q 27In the episode 'But the Memory Lingers On', which stowaway on the bus leaves the family unfit to perform?
A skunk
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.
Q 28What was the name of the Partridge family's dog, seen mostly in season one?
Simone
Simone rides along with the family through season one, then fades from view: the show phased the dog out during its second season.
Q 29Four-year-old neighbour Ricky Stevens was added to The Partridge Family in season four and did what?
Sang a children's song
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.
Q 30For its final season, The Partridge Family moved from Friday to which night?
Saturday
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.