"Star Quality" ("Partridge Family") is now on YouTube

Sony posted the Season 1 Partridge Family episode "Star Quality" on one of its YouTube channels recently. This is the episode we talk about in our discussion of the series!

If you haven't seen it, here is a chance to check out the full saga, including the treehouse scene, Dick Clark's cameo, and a group of alleged L.A. Dodgers.

Shirley Jones didn't get along with Dick Clark?

A recent video on the "Retro Rules" YouTube channel by Paul Van Scott teased co-stars Shirley Jones hated. Turned out it was guest stars. Van Scott got the info from Jones' autobiography.

Ray Bolger, who played Shirley's father on The Partridge Family was self-centered and demanding in Jones' view. The other name really surprised me: Dick Clark, who has a limited role in the very episode Mike and I discussed this season, "Star Quality!"

Why did she not care for him? There doesn't seem to be a lot of info from Jones on it. Now, far be it from me to jeopardize a possible Batty campaign for Clark, but I feel like I should put this info out there.

Brooks on Books: C'mon Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus" by David Cassidy

My main reaction is sadness. I got really wrapped up in this memoir but felt really...sad after I read it. David Cassidy did not enjoy fame. He was miserable. He had deep-seated trust and insecurity issues relating to shoddy treatment by father Jack Cassidy (a real piece of work just in this narrative alone) and never recovered, succumbing to his demons and dying at 67 without ever finding contentment.

Here are some things you don't get in this book: Any mention of daughter Katie (They apparently reconciled just before his death, but in this 1994 book, she is nowhere to be found even though she was about 10 at that point). You also won't get details on The Partridge Family as a TV show. David talks a little bit about the cast members (Very little about all other than Shirley, Danny, and Susan) and the general production, but his real focus is on his musical career. The show made it all happen, but you don't get notes on specific episodes or anything like that here or info about which directors he favored. Don't come looking for anecdotes about sharing scenes with Richard Pryor, for example.

He was ambivalent at best about the series, which we discussed this season, for many years, but I don't think he is deliberate in snubbing it here. He just saw it as a job. I do believe he was genuine in embracing the series years later and appreciating the love the fans had for it. I just don't think he had all that much to say about it.

Another odd omission is his 1978 NBC series David Cassidy: Man Undercover. OK, that one didn't set the world on fire, but it's strange that the text sets up an explanation and then walks away. Cassidy writes about unretiring from acting, appearing in an acclaimed Police Story episode, and Screen Gems pondering whether or not to take a chance on him with an actual series. And then--nothing! He goes back into talking about finances and his second marriage to actress Kay Lenz. it's like someone came in and just plucked multiple paragraphs right out of the text. I haven't seen anyone else comment on this.

Here is what you do get in the book: Details about his business arrangements and the money he made and was screwed out of. You read about the insane touring schedule. You get a bit about his attempts to guide the musical direction of his career.

He seems honest about early drug use (not so revealing about later substance issues, maybe) and his romantic life. I had no idea that Meredith Baxter was the one that got away.

Some of the stuff he dives into is tremendous. There is a lot about the fan magazines, specifically those spearheaded by publisher Chuck Laufer, who had an empire based on exploitation of teen stardom. Laufer was very calculating, and Cassidy relates a conversation they had about Cassidy's inevitable decline--while Cassidy was still at his peak.

Cassidy's negative attitude about his fame is understandable and does not come off as whiny to me. He was unable to live a normal life due to the fan obsessions, and he wasn't able to enjoy the experience--not just because of the logistics, but because so much of it was out of his artistic control. He grew up as a rock and blues hippie but was molded into a pop idol, and he never felt right in the role. He does seem to have enjoyed performing, though.

The book really rushes after Cassidy leaves the show and retires from acting. He was a huge success overseas and continued to make music, but much of the rest of his life gets short shrift. There's a passing mention of his 1990 comeback hit, "Lyin' to Myself." I would have loved to read more about that. The man got MTV airplay, for crying out loud. Yet the 15 years or so before this book's publication are a blur.

On the podcast, we expressed our confusion about what happened between him and Susan Dey. Years after this book was released, it was said that Dey was irritated by the account of their relationship. However, even in the book itself--maybe it was edited later--Cassidy says he will always treasure her but has no idea why she wants nothing to do with him now. This is after he talks about a massive crush she had on him and how he had been clueless. 

He had treated her as a sister, or maybe more like a pal, telling her all about his life and exploits, never catching on about her feelings until Shirley Jones (who he really seems to admire) clued him in on it. David and Susan had an awkward encounter in which she confessed her love, he didn't feel the same but was afraid to turn her away and hurt her, and nobody ended up happy.

No one gets happy in this book except maybe the Screen Gems executives who made tons of money in the Seventies. It's a sad read. Cassidy does not get into all the details of his decline, but he seems honest enough about his issues that you don't have reason to doubt his accounts. He doesn't seem to have a ton of anger at specific individuals, though he doesn't have great feelings for Don Johnson and Elliot Mintz (!), and he even still seems to care for his dad. Overall, though, it was a rocky life up till 1994.

If you can handle the sadness and even bitterness, then you will be enthralled by his story.

(Apparently, Could It Be Forever?, another Cassidy memoir, is a "sanitized" version of this book. Despite the later publication date, it doesn't seem to be worth getting, but I am not certain of the differences.)

The Partridges in comic book form Part 4

Here's one final batch of pics from Charlton's The Partridge Family #4!

The Partridges in comic book form Part 3

This week we are looking at pages from Charlton's The Partridge Family #4! We'll take one final look tomorrow.

The Partridges in comic book form! Part 2!

Yesterday we started talking about issue 4 of the Charlton Partridge Family comic book series. Here are some more pages! Come back tomorrow for more!

The Partridges in comic book form! Part 1!

I love digging through longboxes for TV and movie comic books, and this is one I bought well before we decided to cover the series on the podcast. This Charlton publication is dated September 1971.

Artist Don Sherwood has some interesting work in here. I kept thinking there was an odd quality to the art, like it relied on stills and publicity photos. Well, I looked him up, and sure enough, he had a reputation for swiping other artists and for tracing photos.

The stories are unexceptional, but the cast does look like the cast! What jumps out at me is the number of ads promoting Partridge merch--almost all of it sold by Charlton. It's like the comic is a vehicle to publish ads to push the stuff. 

And by the way, all that merch is David Cassidy material with the exception of Susan Dey's Private Journal:

Come back tomorrow for more pics!

Brooks on Books: "The Partridge Family Album" by Joey Green

During our recent Partridge Family episode, I mentioned reading Joey Green's 1994 book "The Partridge Family Album." It's very much in the vein of Green's Hi, Bob! It's a sure winner for fans of the show or anyone learning more about it but maybe a bit padded with inessential info for the others.

Green's books don't quite have as much production detail as I might like; however, there is a lot of info in this one. There's a full episode guide with Green's subjective ratings of each installment, and there's even a guide to the band's music. Like the work about The Bob Newhart Show, this one has a sense of humor; there's a faux analysis of the albums that is amusing if a bit long. In a similar sense, much of the book consists of lists gleaned from tracking things throughout all 96 episodes. A list of Danny's get-rich schemes, say, might have been of more value in the pre-Internet era, but now it seems a bit like padding.

I feel a bit unfair complaining about a book offering too much information. It's just that I am more interested in the behind-the-scenes info than I am the trivia. It's not so much a narrative history of the series as it is a collection of sections, but if you read carefully you do get some great info. 

Green conducts his own interviews and draws on archival quotes to get thoughts of creator Bernard Slade, the cast (Susan Dey didn't participate), and others. They are often presented almost like an oral history without context, but here you get great tidbits about what the production thought of the acting ability of the youngest cast members (not much) and the musings of Dave Madden. The former Rueben Kincaid cracks me up with his matter-of-fact practical takes on what the show is about and its ambitions.

One of the best treats in the book is the reprinting of the original Mad parody of the series, "The Putrid Family." Arnie Kogen and Angelo Torres' 1972 piece is exactly what you think it will be. There's also lyrics, merchandising photos, and other ephemera. If you have any interest in the series and can find this used, as I did, it's a no-brainer to pick it up.

YouTube Spotlight: Paddy the Pelican

I had a little fun with Mike's harrowing story of a pelican attack on this week's podcast. At the end of the YT playlist this week is Paddy the Pelican in "Piggy Bank Robbery." You may wonder, what the heck is Paddy the Pelican?

The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican is an animated (and I use the term loosely) series that launched on ABC in 1950 and apparently got some airplay on Chicago stations in 1954 (Maybe other markets as well?). Paddy shows up on many "worst cartoon" lists, and you have to see it to really get it.

Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 13-14: The Partridge Family

*Thank you for listening to this week's episode, in which we discuss The Partridge Family!

*The Partridge Family aired 4 seasons on ABC from 1970-1974, running a total of 96 episodes. The Brady Bunch was on ABC 5 seasons, 1969-1974. Both series aired their final episodes in March 1974.

*Danny is drafted into the U.S. Army in the series' fourth episode, "See Here, Private Partridge."

*The Partridge Family Album (a book) by Joey Green was published in 1994. David Cassidy wrote two memoirs, but the one I refer to is 1994's C'mon Get Happy...Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus. Shirley Jones' Shirley Jones: A Memoir appeared in 2013.

*The Cowsills started performing in 1965. Mike mentions the 2011 documentary Family Band.

*Norman Farrell is played by Jean-Michel Michenaud, who earned an Emmy nomination for producing All in the Family 20th Anniversary Special.

*"Star Quality" premiered Friday, December 18, 1970 at 8:30 PM.

*Here is our look at The Brady Bunch.

*William Schallert played Retired Man in Legends of the Superheroes.

*Howard Cosell and Bert Convy guest in the Marineland episode, Season 2's "Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?"

*Partridge Family 2200 A.D. is a 1974 Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna Barbera. Somehow we don't mention it on the pod!

*Please enjoy this episode's video playlist, with promos, intros, commercials, and more! There's a lot of music in this one! Click below to go right to it, or you can always visit our official YouTube page for all of our past episodes and similar lists for each one of them! Get happy!

Episode 13-14: The Partridge Family

In the early 1970s, a fictional family became a fictional band, which became a real phenomenon. For a while the Partridge Family ruled the hearts and minds of teeny boppers across the country with a mix of music and laidback family comedy, and David Cassidy became a worldwide sensation. In the fictional world of the Partridges, young Danny reads an article that praises him above the others, and he decides he needs to become a "single act." Does his plan succeed? Does it make any sense? Is he ready for the big time all on his own? In the real world, does the show hold up? Are we starting to confuse ourselves? Find out on this week's Battle of the Network Shows.

Read full show notes and more at https://www.battleofthenetworkshows.com/

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