The Partridge Family was an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who traveled around in a very colorful bus to different venues to perform songs. The series originally ran from 1970 until 1974 on the ABC television network, with many subsequent runs in syndication.
The show starred Shirley Jones as mother Shirley Partridge and David Cassidy as Keith Partridge. Susan Dey played Laurie, Danny Bonaduce played Danny, Jeremy Gelbwaks (later replaced by Brian Forster) played Chris and Suzanne Crough played Tracy Partridge. Dave Madden played Reuben Kincaid, who was their manager and booked all their tours. The story was loosely based around The Cowsills, who were a real singing family. The show was produced for ABC by Screen Gems television, which had also made The Monkees, another show about a fictional music group.
As it had with the Monkees, the production company capitalized on the success of the show by releasing a series of albums featuring the music of the "group". Even though the only singers were Shirley Jones and David Cassidy, and none of the television characters actually played their instruments, people did buy the albums and the Partridge Family became a phenomenon.
The Partridge Family's biggest recorded hit came in 1970 with the number one hit song "I Think I Love You" (lyrics). The album which followed reached number four on the Billboard magazine album chart. The lead singer, actor David Cassidy, solidified his growing teen idol status with that recording. His follow-up single, "I Woke Up In Love This Morning", released in 1971, was a slower seller but was still a very popular title.
The Partridge Family television show lasted for four years until David Cassidy, a reluctant teen idol who was actively pursuing a solo career, decided he did not want play the role of Keith Partridge any more. The show was cancelled after 96 episodes; during the four years of the television run ten Partridge Family albums were released.
In November of 2003, American cable TV network VH1 announced plans to create an updated version of the show. The new Partridge Family cast was decided in the vein of The Monkees meets American Idol; the audition episodes started airing in the summer of 2004.
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