Created by Bernard Slade, the series was inspired by and loosely based on The Cowsills, a real singing family in the late sixties. In fact, in its early development the Cowsill children were approached to be featured on the show, though that idea was quickly discarded (The Cowsills rejected the offer when producers wanted to replace their real-life mother Barbara in the cast). The show starred Shirley Jones as mother Shirley Partridge and David Cassidy (Jones' real-life stepson) as her son Keith. The remaining Partridge children were played by Susan Dey as Laurie, Danny Bonaduce as Danny, Jeremy Gelbwaks (replaced after one year by Brian Forster) as Chris, and Suzanne Crough as Tracy Partridge. Dave Madden played Reuben Kincaid, who was their manager and family friend.
The back of the bus, became an icon for the show, due to its Mondrianesque paint design.
The Partridge Family was produced for ABC by Screen Gems television, which was just finishing its run with The Monkees, another show about a fictional music group. The company promoted the success of the show by releasing a series of albums featuring the music of the family band, though most cast members did not actually play on the recordings. A group of studio singers and musicians, led by producer Wes Farrell actually created the Partridge Family sound. Although he was originally cast with the intent to lip sync, just weeks into production David Cassidy convinced Farrell he could sing, and was allowed to join the studio ensemble as the lead singer. Several songs were made without Cassidy as lead, they were featured in some of the early episodes and on the first album. He and Shirley Jones, who sang background, were the only cast members who were actually featured on the recordings. The whole cast would lip sync to the recordings when they performed on each episode, though it was obvious to most viewers that the actors were lip-synching, The Partridge Family became an instant success, not only as a TV show, but as a band that produced actual hit songs.
The Partridge Family's biggest hit came in 1970 with the song "I Think I Love You," which began climbing the Billboard chart in September and peaked at number one in December of that year. The companion LP, "The Partridge Family Album" reached number four. Other Partridge Family singles including, "I'll Meet You Halfway", "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted", and "I Woke Up in Love This Morning" would also chart high on the Billboard chart. The theme songs "When We're Singing", and its successor "C'Mon, Get Happy" were composed by Danny Janssen and Wes Farrell.
The title card for the pilot episode of The Partridge Family was, "What? and Get Out of Show Business?".
As the show and associated merchandizing took off, David Cassidy became an overnight teen idol. Cassidy launched a solo singing career, touring with his own group of musicians and performing Partridge Family songs as well as hits from his own albums. In the midst of his overwhelming rise to fame, Cassidy soon grew tired of the show. In the summer of 1972 he gave a very candid interview to Rolling Stone magazine in which he attempted to distance himself from the squeaky-clean image of Keith Partridge.
By the fourth season, due to declining ratings and Cassidy's looming departure, a feeble effort was made by the producers to breathe new life into the show. They introduced a precocious 4-year-old neighbor named "Ricky Stevens" played by Ricky Segall to occasionally sing children's songs with the band. To no avail, the ABC network moved the show from its 8:30 Friday night slot to Saturday at 8:00, directly opposite the hit All in the Family, against which they knew it would not survive. The show was cancelled, after 96 episodes and ten Partridge Family albums.
The Partridge Family had a brief resurgence in animated form, which saw the family propelled into the future. The animated Partridge Family first appeared when the kids did a series of guest spots on "Goober and the Ghost Chasers". That idea evolved into a CBS Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera-produced cartoon, "Partridge Family 2200 A.D.". It featured new characters Veenie (Keith's Venusian friend) and Marion (Laurie's Martian friend). Danny had a pet robot dog named Orbit. Shirley Jones and David Cassidy did not voice their animated counterparts, and Susan Dey and Dave Madden had very limited involvement with this series. Sixteen half-hour installments were produced for the animated series, which lasted for half a season on CBS Saturday morning (September 7, 1974 - March 8, 1975); on the syndicated Fred Flintstone and Friends, it was retitled The Partridge Family in Outer Space.
Nickelodeon featured a heavily publicized run of the original series in the early- to mid-90s, along with the Brady Bunch, as part of its Nick-At-Nite line-up. The network used interviews and commercials featuring cast members, and even created a new version of the Mondrian-esque Family bus for promotion.
In 2000 two different made-for-TV movies aired on different networks; Both "Come On Get Happy" and "The David Cassidy Story" attempted to tell the story behind the series. While the movies were criticized as being somewhat inaccurate, they did recreate some of the imagery and music from the original series. "Come On Get Happy" even featured another replication of the bus, which was later auctioned off on eBay.
A modernized version of the bus was created for a new promotion in 2004, when VH1 premiered In Search of The New Partridge Family. This talent competition in the format of American Idol sought a new cast for a contemporary version of the sitcom. The elimination type program aired seven episodes in which a panel of judges selected a new Partridge Family cast from auditioners across the country. The resulting pilot episode of The New Partridge Family aired in January of 2005, but due to low ratings VH1 opted not to produce any more episodes.
The first two seasons of the original series were released as of October 2005 on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Also, at the same time Arista Records released a new music compilation, "Come On Get Happy!: The Very Best of The Partridge Family," which included four previously unreleased tracks.
Despite the prefabricated nature of the "band", the Partridge Family's records were some of the best arranged and produced of their day. Much care was given not only to the overall sound, but even to show that sound would translate to AM radio, then the major outlet for pop music. The writing was equally good, at least on the early albums. However, as ratings and record sales began to drop, so did the quality of the material.
As Long As You're There
The Partridge Family Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And tell myself that I don't care at all,
I can make believe I'm better off without you,
I can build a wall
I can fool myself,
But that won't help at all
You see the problem is deep within my heart,
And the memory is to blame
And I won't really be the same,
As long as you're there
I tore up all your letters I had saved,
As if that would make my loneliness go away,
Then I spent the day picking up the little pieces,
Just to read again
All about the way you loved me way back when,
You see the problem is deep within my heart,
And the memory is to blame
And I won't really be the same,
As long as you're there
You see the problem is deep within my heart,
And the memory is to blame
And I won't really be the same,
As long as you're there
I'm light and gay with friends who come to call,
I've learned to hold my tears that were meant to fall,
Then late at night your face appears before me,
Like a cannon ball,
And I know that I've learned nothing after all
You see the problem is deep within my heart,
And the memory is to blame
And I won't really be the same,
As long as you're there
The Partridge Family's song "As Long As You're There" is a poignant ballad about the pain of lost love and the struggle to move on. The lyrics describe the singer's unsuccessful attempts to convince himself that he is better off without his former lover, despite being haunted by memories of their past relationship. The first verse sets the scene, with the singer stating that he can take down pictures of his ex and pretend that he doesn't care, but ultimately he can't fool himself. The second verse delves deeper into the source of his pain, acknowledging that it's not just the physical reminders of his ex that are causing him grief but the memories of the love they shared. The chorus repeats the central theme of the song, with the singer acknowledging that he won't be able to truly move on as long as his ex remains a part of his heart and his memories.
The final verse is perhaps the most desperate, as the singer reveals that he has tried to distract himself with friends and put on a brave face, but that his ex's image continues to haunt him, like a "cannon ball." The repetition of the chorus at the end of the song highlights the cyclical nature of the singer's pain, emphasizing that he is caught in a cycle of denial and grief, unable to break free from the memories that tie him to his lost love.
Overall, "As Long As You're There" is a moving exploration of the complex emotions associated with lost love, and the ways in which our memories can both comfort and torment us.
Line by Line Meaning
I can take your pictures off my wall,
I can remove all the images of you that I have on my wall,
And tell myself that I don't care at all,
And try to convince myself that I am not affected by your absence,
I can make believe I'm better off without you,
I can delude myself into thinking that my life is happier now that you're gone,
I can build a wall
I can put emotional walls around me to protect myself from feeling hurt again,
I can fool myself,
I can deceive myself into thinking that I have moved on from you,
But that won't help at all
But that won't really change anything and it won't make me feel better.
You see the problem is deep within my heart,
The source of my problem is not on the surface but it's rooted deep inside my heart,
And the memory is to blame
And it's the memory of you that's causing me pain and sorrow,
And I won't really be the same,
And I won't truly be able to move on or be who I used to be,
As long as you're there
As long as you're present in my mind or my life in some way.
I tore up all your letters I had saved,
I shredded all your letters that I had saved over time,
As if that would make my loneliness go away,
As if destroying the letters would somehow make me feel less lonely,
Then I spent the day picking up the little pieces,
Then I spent the entire day picking up the scraps and trying to put them together again,
Just to read again
Just so I could read those words from you again,
All about the way you loved me way back when,
All about the way you expressed your love for me in the past,
I'm light and gay with friends who come to call,
I appear happy and carefree when I entertain guests who come to visit me,
I've learned to hold my tears that were meant to fall,
I have taught myself to keep my emotions in check and not let my tears flow,
Then late at night your face appears before me,
Then, when I'm alone at night, your face suddenly comes to me unbidden,
Like a cannon ball,
Like a heavy, explosive force that hits me hard and makes me feel overwhelmed,
And I know that I've learned nothing after all
And I realize that despite my efforts to move on, I haven't really learned anything from the experience.
Contributed by Joshua L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.