TUBULAR KNELLS: REMEMBERING THE PARTRIDGES AND THEIR PLACE IN TOOBWORLD

THE REAL PARTRIDGE FAMILY

Back in the early 1970s, TV crossovers were not yet a common event.  Even so, it’s odd that ABC never considered having the cast of ‘The Partridge Family’ appear in other shows on their schedule between 1970 and 1974.  It wouldn’t have needed a suspension of disbelief for most of those shows – the Partridge Family was always on tour and could conceivably show up anywhere in the United States during that time.  And that would have also been one of the only limitations to a potential crossover – time.  TV Westerns were dying off, but still there were a few during those years, as well as a couple of other series set in the past which O’Bviously can’t be considered for a crossover with ‘The Partridge Family’.

• ‘The Young Rebels’
• ‘Alias Smith and Jones’
• ‘Kung Fu’ 
• ‘The Cowboys’
• ‘The Strauss Family’
• ‘Happy Days’

There were no futuristic sci-fi shows on ABC at the time, but a couple set during the “present day’:

• ‘The Immortal’
• ‘The Sixth Sense’
• ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’

But I can’t picture a full out crossover.  What ABC could have done to capitalize on the publicity of that sitcom would be to have Colonel Austin tell a pretty young thing that he had tickets to see the musical group… maybe even Jamie Sommers!  Of course Oscar Goldman would dash Steve’s plans with a fresh new assignment.  As for the other two shows?  A trivial reference in dialogue or a simple poster for the group would be all that was needed

Here are the other drama series – cop shows, medical and courtroom dramas, action/adventure hours – that were on ABC prime-time during those four years:

• ‘The F.B.I.’ 
• ‘The Young Lawyers’
• ‘The Silent Force’
• ‘The Mod Squad’
• ‘Marcus Welby, M.D.’ 
• ‘Dan August’
• ‘The Young Lawyers’
• ‘Matt Lincoln’
• ‘The Man and the City’
• ‘The Persuaders!’
• ‘Longstreet’
• ‘Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law’
• ‘The Rookies’ 
• ‘The Men: Assignment Vienna’ 
• ‘The Delphi Bureau’
• ‘Jigsaw’
• ‘The Streets of San Francisco’
• ‘Doc Elliot’
• ‘Toma’
• ‘Chopper One’
• ‘Firehouse’
• ‘Griff’

The idea of linking a sitcom with a drama wouldn’t really kick in until the decade was almost over, with the most famous example being ‘Lou Grant’ as a spin-off from ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’.  Another was a crossover between ‘The Associates’ and ‘The Paper Chase’ with John Houseman as Professor Kingsfield making an appearance on the law firm sitcom.

The Partridge Family could have made cameo appearances on most of those dramas listed above, perhaps even worked into a plot or two – performing in concert and the starring detectives have to work the crowd to track down a murderer, a thief, a kidnapper, someone out to kill one of the Partridge Family etc.  Or again, it could have been something as simple as a poster hanging in the background of a scene.    Or a framed picture of Keith Partridge or the whole family in the bedroom of a young girl being questioned by investigators.

However, I think it’s probably best that ‘The Partridge Family’ crossed over only with other ABC sitcoms (looking at it from outside the box and not from the Toobworld perspective.)  And ABC had plenty of situation comedies on the air during those four years:

• ‘The Courtship of Eddie's Father’
• ‘Danny Thomas in Make Room for Granddaddy’
• ‘Room 222’
• ‘The Smith Family’
• ‘Love on a Rooftop’
• ‘Bewitched’
• ‘Barefoot in the Park’
• ‘The Odd Couple’
• ‘The Brady Bunch’
• ‘Nanny and the Professor’ 
• ‘That Girl’
• ‘Shirley's World’
• ‘Getting Together’
• ‘The Super’
• ‘The Corner Bar’
• ‘Temperatures Rising’
• ‘The Paul Lynde Show’
• ‘Thicker than Water’
• ‘Love Thy Neighbor’
• ‘Here We Go Again’
• ‘A Touch of Grace’
• ‘Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice’
• ‘Adam's Rib’

Many of those sitcoms really could have used a boost from a connection to ‘The Partridge Family’.  And as with the dramas, a simple reference, like a poster or a mention in dialogue, would be all that was needed.  But it certainly wouldn’t have hurt to see the band show up to exasperate Paul Simms in an episode of ‘The Paul Lynde Show’.

THE REAL PARTRIDGE FAMILY

 The actors performing as their characters on ABC variety shows like ‘This Is Tom Jones’ and ‘The Julie Andrews Hour’ could have been a ratings grabber during Sweeps week.  And that would have given those variety shows some “street cred” in the fictional world of the Toob.

[There’s one other show I’m going to divorce from consideration as it takes place in Skitlandia”: ‘Love, American Style’.]
 
And yet, ABC never took advantage of crossovers to first promote the series and then to use it to help promote other, struggling sitcoms.  It would have made it easier to consider them all for induction into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.

It would be many years before the references to ‘The Partridge Family’ began appearing in other shows and for the most part we can accept them as being Zonk-free since the Partridge Family would be well-known as celebrities in Toobworld who would make appearances on other TV shows, have their own reality series, could even have their music playing in the background of some of the sitcoms and dramas.

Here are some examples…….

'Family Matters'
"Jailhouse Blues" 
(1992)

CLARENCE:
(to the Winslow family)
Well if it ain't the Partridge family.
What's for dinner, milk and cookies?

Clarence was using the Partridges as a diss on the Winslows but he was probably more familiar with them in their TV shows, both a reality show and a sitcom based on their lives.  He didn’t seem the type to actually follow them as a stage groupie.

'You Can't Do That on Television'
"Families" 
(????)

ANNOUNCER:
"The Partridge Family Gets Shot" will not be seen at this time.
In its place we present the following 'Family Feud'.

This show was about fictional kids making their own sketch comedy show.  This was from one of the episodes which they produced.  The TV special was meant to be a fake; the kids had no clue that it would partially come true one day.

'Day by Day'
"A Very Brady Episode"
(1989)

ROSS HARPER:
I don't wanna be in this family anymore!
I wanna be in the Partridge family!

This was a dream sequence in which Ross found himself as part of the Brady family.  A television show was made about the actual family, but Ross was familiar enough with their true story to populate his dream with the real Bradys.  And it appears he was familiar with the musical group as well.
 'Married with Children'

"How Green Was My Apple" 

(1994)

PEGGY BUNDY:

Hey, are you sure you're not that little Partridge boy from 'The Partridge Family'?

SURVEYOR:
Yes, I'm sure. I've never been [more] sure of anything in my life.

RUEBEN KINKAID:

 Let's go! Come on, Danny!

 We have to be in Pittsburgh by midnight. Come on... get happy!

With this quick cameo appearance, we got an update on the life of Danny Partridge.  Apparently he had dropped out of the music business when the Partridge Family disbanded and became a property surveyor in the Chicago area.  But it looks as though he was making a comeback, with Rueben Kinkaid acting once again as his manager.

'Sex and the City'
"Three's a Crowd"
 (1998)

MIRANDA HOBBES:
So the four of us get in a cab, only they won't let me sit in the back with them. They make me ride up front with the driver who happens to be the original Chris from 'The Partridge Family'.

THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY
AS SEEN ON TV

This is more than confirmation that there was a TV show based on the life of the Partridge Family.  (The ‘Married With Children’ quote did that as well.)  This quote addresses the recastaway situation for Chris Partridge.  In the first season he was played by Jeremy Gelbwaks, but for the remainder of the series’ run, Brian Forster took over the role.

There are distinct differences in the looks between Gelbwaks and Forster.  Jeremy Gelbwaks didn’t really look as though he was a genetic part of the family, unlike Brian Forster.  I didn’t want to look for some splainin for the drastic change in appearance as I would usually do in more outlandish scenarios – like alien impersonation, quantum leaping, etc.  But there is a splainin that will work, one which I first used with ‘The Lone Ranger’.  What we have with ‘The Partridge Family’ is two different shows. 

With ‘The Lone Ranger’, all of the episodes which featured Clayton Moore as the Masked Man were the actual historical figure.  But in the middle of the series’ run, Moore was replaced by John Hart; the producers were hoping to save a couple bucks, figuring the kids would never notice the difference behind the mask.  But they did and the ratings fell, so Clayton was brought back to the role.  For Toobworld, the episodes featuring Hart are the actual TV show within Toobworld.  So John Hart was John Hart playing the Lone Ranger.  Hart went on to be inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as he played himself in the Lone Ranger garb in two other shows – ‘Happy Days’ and ‘The Fall Guy’.  (The actual Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion Tonto were inducted together a few years earlier.)

So that’s the position I’m taking here.  In this case, the first season of ‘The Partridge Family’ is a TV show seen in Toobworld.  All of the people we are seeing in those episodes are actors who bear an incredible resemblance to the actual Partridge family – except for the actor playing Chris Partridge.  By the second season of the show, it was now a reality documentary series which followed the real family.  And so now we saw the real Chris Partridge along with the real Shirley, Keith, Laurie, Danny, and Tracy.  This covers all Zonks that could come up with any other reference to the show which has not been already mentioned here.

I suppose you may have surmised by now that what spurred all of these O’Bservations about the Partridge Family had been triggered by the death of David Cassidy earlier this week at the far too young age of 67.  But I had been thinking about the ramifications of the Partridge Family on Toobworld in general for the last two years, since the death of Suzanne Clough at the age of 52. 

Even without the availability of crossovers for the Partridge Family, I think those references above prove that they do in fact link all those shows together even if they’re not actually seen.  And as back-up, I can claim they should be inducted as Multi-dimensionals as they also existed in Toobworld2, Skitlandia, Toobworld-Toobworld, the Tooniverse, and a few other nameless TV dimensions as well.

 So we know a little about Danny Partridge, decades after the band broke up.  I have to cite the standard rule of Toobworld Central that a character so identified with a particular actor would die around the same time as that actor.  I have no theories as to how Keith Partridge died, but I’m afraid we could assume that he died from complications of long-time abuse, just as David Cassidy did.

THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY
IN RECENT YEARS

 I never thought about how Tracy Partridge died, but in putting this together today, I gave it some consideration.  Unlike with Keith, there was no need to doom her immediately upon the death of Ms. Clough.  But I have come up with a condensed telemythography for her.  After the Partridge Family broke up as a band so that they could lead their own personal lives, Tracy may have married, had kids, and eventually considered returning to the music business.  She explored an interest in country music and was somewhat successful as a country songwriter.

As with Keith, she also died this year, and tied in with one of the most tragic events of 2017.  As regular television is wont to do, eventually somehow various TV shows will find a way to tie in to the Las Vegas massacre, just as shows have done with the collapse of the World Trade Center, the Titanic, and the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake.  Well, this will be the first.  Sadly, Tracy Partridge was in attendance at the open air concert in Las Vegas when that crazed gunman opened fire on the crowds below. 

That’s the way of the Toobworld……

But to honor the memory of the two ‘Partridge Family’ actors we have lost and before we lose any more, I want to induct them all into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.  (Just the family – Rueben Kinkaid has enough credits on his own to make it into the Hall and will make an appropriate entry someday for April.)

Good night and may God bless David Cassidy and Suzanne Clough.  And welcome to all the Partridges into the Hall.

BCnU!

O’BSERVATION:
My apologies for being late with this.  I was still writing it by 9:15 tonight.  But two days of Thanksgiving took a big bite out of the week for me.