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.
Baby I Love Love I Love You
The Partridge Family Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The hurt you put on me girl, is more than enough
You were so good to me girl needed you to go on
We had ourselves a good thing is it over and done
I need some time to think get myself together again
Time to think, I gotta to get, on my feet again
The woman I used to love ain't the woman I see today
Baby I love, oh baby I love you
Baby I love, love, love, love I love you
And baby I love, baby I love you
Baby I love, love, love, love, I love you
It's about time you tell me have you made up your mind
Is it really over, have I got a little time
To sit and talk it over to see where we went wrong
Is it really over, is it over and done
I need some time to think get myself together again
Time to think, I gotta to get, on my feet again
The woman I used to love ain't the woman I see today
The woman I see today ain't the woman who used to say
Baby I love, oh baby I love you
Baby I love, love, love, love I love you
And baby I love, baby I love you
Baby I love, love, love, love, I love you
And
Baby I love, oh baby I love you
Baby I love, love, love, love I love you
And baby I love, baby I love you
Baby I love, love, love, love, I love you
And
Baby I love, oh baby I love you
Baby I love, love, love, love I love you
And baby I love, baby I love you
Baby I love, love, love, love, I love you
The Partridge Family's song "Baby I Love" is a ballad about a man who is trying to understand where his relationship has gone wrong with the woman he loves. He asks for her honesty, as he is feeling hurt by their recent experiences. He reminisces about how good things used to be between them and is desperate to find a way to move forward together. The lyrics suggest that he has been left confused and struggling to cope with the changes in their relationship.
The chorus is a repetition of the title phrase "Baby I Love You", which is the emotional crux of the song. The man is trying to sustain their love and hold on to what they had before, and he pleads with her to love him back. The pain in his expression is palpable as he sings about his need for time to heal and get back on his feet. He acknowledges that the woman he used to love is not the same person he sees today, and he is searching for the connection and love they once shared.
Overall, "Baby I Love" is a poignant tale of a man struggling to understand why his relationship has gone awry, and his desperate attempts to save it.
Line by Line Meaning
Isn't it time you tell me am I loosing my touch
You should just tell me if I'm losing my ability, because the hurt you caused me is too much.
The hurt you put on me girl, is more than enough
The pain that you caused me, girl, is just too much to keep going.
You were so good to me girl needed you to go on
You were so important to me, girl, because I needed you to keep moving forward.
We had ourselves a good thing is it over and done
We had something good together, but is it really over and finished now?
I need some time to think get myself together again
I need time to think and recover from the difficulties and hardships I've faced.
Time to think, I gotta to get, on my feet again
I need time to regain my balance and composure before I can move forward.
The woman I used to love ain't the woman I see today
The woman I once loved has changed into someone else entirely.
The woman I see today ain't the woman that used to say
The woman I see today isn't the one who would say the things I needed to hear.
Baby I love, oh baby I love you
I love you immensely, oh darling, I love you so much.
Baby I love, love, love, love I love you
I truly, honestly, deeply love you, love you so much and nothing could be truer.
It's about time you tell me have you made up your mind
It's high time you reveal whether or not you've made a decision.
Is it really over, have I got a little time
Is it actually over, or do we still have time to try and fix things?
To sit and talk it over to see where we went wrong
We should sit down and converse about where exactly we went wrong.
And baby I love, baby I love you
My darling, I truly love you and nothing could change that.
Baby I love, love, love, love, I love you
I just love you so much, too much for words to express it wholly.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
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