Ricky Segall.

If you blinked during the Partridge Family's run in the 1970's you may have missed him, but child actor Ricky Segall appeared in 10 episodes of the series back in 1973. He played the role of next door neighbor Ricky, a child singer who the Partridge's took under their wing (most likely in an attempt to up the show's "cute" factor, as the youngest Partridge kids were getting a little long in the tooth).

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5467630/the_most_adorable_child_stars_of_all_pg2.html?cat=49

http://www.cmongethappy.com/interviews/bc/claver33.jpg

Ricky Segall was cast at the beginning of the 4th and final season as Ricky Stevens a neighbor boy who would drop by to sing with or for the Partridges. I think even the producers realized that he was an unnecessary character as his appearances were reduced and he was hardly ever seen (if at all) in the second half of the season.

Oh, yeah I remember little Ricky. He was grating to me even when I was a kid. It was so obvious they were trying to introduce a younger kid to address the aging of the youngsters, as you mentioned.

I think of the two, I might actually prefer Cousin Oliver! :rolleyes:

Ricky's main function on the show was to sing a cute little song to cheer one of the Partridges up while the rest of the family sat around with goofy grins on their faces.

I think of the two, I might actually prefer Cousin Oliver! :rolleyes:

Me too. I fastforward through his parts when I watch the DVDs.

He really drags down Season 4, which rebounds once he is gone!

We've just begun the Ricky Segall era on Antenna TV I'm sad to report. It is nice seeing Season Four though as I have not purchased it on dvd. The show was clearly dragging by Season Four as is apparent by the addition of Ricky.

Oh, yeah I remember little Ricky. He was grating to me even when I was a kid. It was so obvious they were trying to introduce a younger kid to address the aging of the youngsters, as you mentioned.

I think of the two, I might actually prefer Cousin Oliver! :rolleyes:

Yes, The Partridge Family did have its Cousin Oliver.
He has always gotten on my nerves to. He is not a very good singer. I was happy they took him out. I always fast forward over his part every time I watch an episode with him in it.

The worst Ricky Segall episode was the Beethoven one where the high-brow girlfriend sits there with a big grin on her face listening to Ricky sing his worst song ever, very incongruous. I just stop the DVD when he arrives since it was at the end of an episode after the plot had resolved.

I just finished watching the first episode of season 4 (Rickys introductory episode). Did they think Ricky would take the show all the way to the top of the ratings? yeesh!! I can't get that awful YOU CAN DO IT song out of my head.

Oh, yeah I remember little Ricky. He was grating to me even when I was a kid. It was so obvious they were trying to introduce a younger kid to address the aging of the youngsters, as you mentioned.

I think of the two, I might actually prefer Cousin Oliver! :rolleyes:


I think that I stopped regularly watching The Brady Bunch sometime before Cousin Oliver was introduced to the series. I could see that The Brady Bunch had already been going downhill largely because the Brady kids were growing up and it seemed Greg was close to 20 years of age, and Peter was about 16 and the rest of the young cast were now older than when the series started and as happens with a series that has child characters, when the child actors grow older, it is hard for writers to write up good character development and good plots instead of just silly goofy overdone comedy stuff.
So it was decades after the Brady Bunch went off the air did I hear about the fact that a young cast member was brought into the Brady household because the other young cast members were no younger than about 15.

I definitely heard that Ricky Seagull was going to be the newest "Member of the Partridge Family" before the first episode featuring him ever aired, and likewise, by this time I did not watch each Partridge Family episode as commonly as when the series first began.

I don't take it out of context. They area all only TV shows that are meant to entertain and eventually go off the air and just remain in our memories and re-runs.
A lot of people who comment here on sitcomsonline.com as well as any other similar websites regarding how Ricky Seagull did not really do anything for the music or plots of The Partridge Family, seem to be written by mental cases who take it all personally.

I actually don't think Ricky's singing was "annoying" rather than silly. The whole idea of bringing in a child no older than about 5 to attract "music fans" when the music in The Partridge Family was no longer as good as it was at the beginning, couldn't have been serious.

But heck, The Partridge Family and the Brady Bunch had both been on the air approximately the same length of time and none of the TV shows could
merely continue.

I actually did not see any episode of the Brady Bunch with Cousin Oliver so as to know if his being in the Brady Bunch was as insipid as Ricky Seagull being in The Partridge Family or worse.

I liked Cousin Oliver better than Ricky. At least Oliver was a relative.

I would like to see an episode of The Partridge Family where Shirley strangles Ricky while he is singing one of his "let me cheer you up" songs.

I would like to see an episode of The Partridge Family where Shirley strangles Ricky while he is singing one of his "let me cheer you up" songs.


Uh oh, sicko trolling. :nonono:
Sitcomsonline is mainly free of the psychotic stuff you see on YouTube

The poor child could not sing and the character was completely annoying. He was totally not needed.

When Ricky was added, it sounds like by this point PF was "grasping at straws".

The more knowledgeable fans can correct me if I am wrong, but didn't David Cassidy announce year 4 would be his last year? Without Keith, since he was the only Partridge family kid that sang there would be no show.

I don't criticize the addition of Ricky, since I think I know why PF did it.

When Ricky was added, it sounds like by this point PF was "grasping at straws".

The more knowledgeable fans can correct me if I am wrong, but didn't David Cassidy announce year 4 would be his last year? Without Keith, since he was the only Partridge family kid that sang there would be no show.

I don't criticize the addition of Ricky, since I think I know why PF did it.

I believe you are right about Cassidy; actually, I think I remember reading that he was going to leave after the third year, then changed his mind.

But I also think another reason for the addition of Ricky was that the "kids", like those on the Brady Bunch, were growing up. I think they wanted a "little kid" on the show, though to be honest, even that plan seems silly looking back since the kid they brought in was only in each episode for about five minutes. I wonder if they planned on highlighting him more if the show went to another season?

No - Ricky was dropped in the middle of the fourth season because the producers knew he wasn't working. He wouldn't have appeared in a fifth season.

It was on one of the Partridge Family biographies that I saw that DC was going to leave the PF. Even Danny Bonaduce said that without DC, there is no PF.

What just occurred to me is that a lot of TV shows last 5 years. So it doesn't sound like DC had a five year contract.

When the Brady Bunch added Oliver it was at the end of year 5. The PF was already adding a kid at the start of year 4.

According to the The Partridge Family Album (Joey Green’s excellent book), the producers started searching for a replacement for David at the end of season 4. One idea was to have Rick Springfield as an Australian exchange student who lived with the Partridges (and took over as lead singer of the group) after Keith went away to college. Shirley Jones was willing to continue.

But the show’s ratings had plummeted when ABC moved it opposite All in the Family on Saturday night, and ABC wasn’t interested.

Kind of ironic that PF's ratings plummeted opposite AITF because in a early PF episode, Rob Reiner guest starred.

I am currently watching PF for the first time as an adult. (I don't think I've seen PF as an adult, can't quite remember). I'm noticing things that I didn't notice when I saw PF growing up.

Both DC and SD were too old to be still playing teenagers. DC was in his early 20's but looked about 25. I remember the TV PF biographies where it was mentioned DC was unhappy. At that time, I wasn't watching PF. Now, I can understand why. Don't get me wrong, I do like the PF but I can see why the PF didn't make it to 5-7 years.

Kind of ironic that PF's ratings plummeted opposite AITF because in a early PF episode, Rob Reiner guest starred.

I am currently watching PF for the first time as an adult. (I don't think I've seen PF as an adult, can't quite remember). I'm noticing things that I didn't notice when I saw PF growing up.

Both DC and SD were too old to be still playing teenagers. DC was in his early 20's but looked about 25. I remember the TV PF biographies where it was mentioned DC was unhappy. At that time, I wasn't watching PF. Now, I can understand why. Don't get me wrong, I do like the PF but I can see why the PF didn't make it to 5-7 years.

Weren't Keith and Laurie in college by the time the show ended?

According to the The Partridge Family Album (Joey Green’s excellent book), the producers started searching for a replacement for David at the end of season 4. One idea was to have Rick Springfield as an Australian exchange student who lived with the Partridges (and took over as lead singer of the group) after Keith went away to college. Shirley Jones was willing to continue.

But the show’s ratings had plummeted when ABC moved it opposite All in the Family on Saturday night, and ABC wasn’t interested.

Another idea was to have Wesley Eure, of "Land of the Lost" and "Days of Our Lives" fame, replace Cassidy, after being introduced as a neighbor.

And what was up with that Ricky kid's haircut? Was he trying to channel Baby Peggy?

I wouldn't have minded Wesley Eure being added to the show, though!:)

There is something else that doesn't make sense with Ricky - he wouldn't have been a regular because of the child's age.
Ricky came on a year before LHOTP premiered, and remember twins were playing Carrie Ingalls because the child actors were only 4.

Retro4Life - I'm currently on season 2 of the PF where Keith is still in high school. Although I did see the episode where he moved out next door the other day. In that episode it was mentioned he was 17. I'm not surprised that by the time PF ends he is in college, or at the very least out of high school.

Keith gets his driver's license pretty quick (since he already was driving at the start of PF). Was there any mention in the later years of Laurie driving?

Oh, yeah I remember little Ricky. He was grating to me even when I was a kid. It was so obvious they were trying to introduce a younger kid to address the aging of the youngsters, as you mentioned.

I think of the two, I might actually prefer Cousin Oliver! :rolleyes:


When you think of it, why didn't the producers or directors or whoever have Cousin Oliver join the Brady Kids in their singing act?

There is something else that doesn't make sense with Ricky - he wouldn't have been a regular because of the child's age.
Ricky came on a year before LHOTP premiered, and remember twins were playing Carrie Ingalls because the child actors were only 4.

For that matter a lot of kid actors of that time had no twin to share a role. I read in some of the teen magazines of that time that the kid who played Cousin Oliver was an extremely busy kid actor and was playing roles in Saturday morning kid's shows, commercials, guest staring or regularly appearing in sitcoms and other shows (I recall seeing him in a TV show called "Having Babies" in which he played a practically homicidal kid who was jealous because his adoptive parents were gong to have a baby of their own).
They did not necessarily have to be 4 and under although I do understand your point. I think I heard that the boy who played "Joey" in "Gloria" the spinoff from All In The Family in which Gloria Stivick has her own series, shared the role with a twin.


Retro4Life - I'm currently on season 2 of the PF where Keith is still in high school. Although I did see the episode where he moved out next door the other day. In that episode it was mentioned he was 17. I'm not surprised that by the time PF ends he is in college, or at the very least out of high school.

Keith gets his driver's license pretty quick (since he already was driving at the start of PF). Was there any mention in the later years of Laurie driving?

Back then I recall hearing that a person could drive a car at the age of 13 in certain states that are very rural or suburban. I think that "San Pueblo" is supposed to be a suburban community . SO it seems that Keith and Lori should have already been able to legally drive a car when the Partridge family first aired even if Lori and Keith were supposed to be about 15 and 16 respectively.
Danny reached the age of 13 approximately by the third season and he should have been driving already. Of course their mother could have been very over protective about that too

For that matter a lot of kid actors of that time had no twin to share a role. I read in some of the teen magazines of that time that the kid who played Cousin Oliver was an extremely busy kid actor and was playing roles in Saturday morning kid's shows, commercials, guest staring or regularly appearing in sitcoms and other shows (I recall seeing him in a TV show called "Having Babies" in which he played a practically homicidal kid who was jealous because his adoptive parents were gong to have a baby of their own).
They did not necessarily have to be 4 and under although I do understand your point. I think I heard that the boy who played "Joey" in "Gloria" the spinoff from All In The Family in which Gloria Stivick has her own series, shared the role with a twin.



Back then I recall hearing that a person could drive a car at the age of 13 in certain states that are very rural or suburban. I think that "San Pueblo" is supposed to be a suburban community . SO it seems that Keith and Lori should have already been able to legally drive a car when the Partridge family first aired even if Lori and Keith were supposed to be about 15 and 16 respectively.
Danny reached the age of 13 approximately by the third season and he should have been driving already. Of course their mother could have been very over protective about that too

I don't know of any state that ever legally allowed anyone to drive at age 13. And I certainly think that any TV show that featured such a situation would have been in for a LOT of criticism.

I don't know of any state that ever legally allowed anyone to drive at age 13. And I certainly think that any TV show that featured such a situation would have been in for a LOT of criticism.

From some quick information that I find on the internet, it seems no US state currently allows a person younger than 14 to drive, but I do recall hearing back in the 1970s that there were some state ( I think California or in neighboring states, and/or very rural states) in which people as young as 13 are legally allowed to drive. It might have changed in the past 40 years or so.



https://www.verywell.com/driving-age-by-state-2611172

http://study.com/academy/lesson/history-of-the-driving-age.html

The worst Ricky Segall episode was the Beethoven one where the high-brow girlfriend sits there with a big grin on her face listening to Ricky sing his worst song ever, very incongruous. I just stop the DVD when he arrives since it was at the end of an episode after the plot had resolved.

Ricky (both Ricky Stevens the character and Ricky Seagal the child actor) on The Partridge Family (https://worldsworstrecords.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-partridge-calamity.html) strikes me as one of those occurrences where you have a friend who is thoroughly convinced that their young child is a prodigy (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/who-came-up-with-the-idea-for-that-kid-in-the-4th-season-of-the-partridge-family.387688/) in the making because they're cute and they can write their own songs. And then you hear the child sing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9AK9UVfUF0) gratingly (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ricky-seagull-talk-about-jumping-the-shark.241856/) offkey, you don't have it in your heart to directly criticize the kid out of fear of hurting their feelings. That's what it was like on the show, with how Shirley and her kids would just sit there in awe with forced smiles on their faces as little Ricky shouts his newest preschool song.

You know that episode from the second season (https://www.davidcassidy.com/fansite/TvFilmPages/TPF_S2_E1.html), where the Partridges meet a girl named Dora, who sings a very off key and flat rendition of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"? And everybody except Keith thinks that she sucks as a singer. Ricky is like Dora except without a shred of irony and played straight. When Ricky sang, they made it look like we were supposed to sincerely marvel in his "talent". Just replace being a hot young woman in Dora with being a cute and precocious little boy in Ricky.

Ricky Segall was cast at the beginning of the 4th and final season as Ricky Stevens a neighbor boy who would drop by to sing with or for the Partridges. I think even the producers realized that he was an unnecessary character as his appearances were reduced and he was hardly ever seen (if at all) in the second half of the season.

I agree with however said that they were really grasping at straws by the time that Ricky was introduced. I think that the producers and/or network naively figured that Ricky would create and bring (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0670163/reviews) a fresh perspective or dynamic to the show.

What they didn't count on is that, the show is called The Partridge Family, not The Little Boy Who Lives Next Door. Ricky's continued presence on the show (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/who-came-up-with-the-idea-for-that-kid-in-the-4th-season-of-the-partridge-family.387688/) didn't make much (https://www.datalounge.com/thread/30748797-they-didn-t-seem-to-fit-in-the-cast) logical sense because why was he always over (https://www.amazon.com/Partridge-Family-Season-4/product-reviews/B001LRTT3A) at the Partridges' house unsupervised?

Young people I assume, watched the show primarily for David Cassidy and Susan Dey. Who was this four year old little boy with a dark bowl haircut therefore, meant to appeal to? Also, why is the Partridges' little neighbor getting a bigger spotlight (https://bradybunchreviewed.wordpress.com/2017/08/11/summer-special-johnny-come-lately-the-new-kid-in-town/#comment-5251) and more screen time than the two youngest Partridge kids, Chris and Tracy, had in like the past four years? The show already had (https://www.davidcassidy.com/fansite/InPrintPages/Web2010March02d.html) two cute little kids in Chris and Tracy and yet, the writers and producers (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0670172/) didn't want to do anything with them beyond having them as window dressing.

Also, Ricky didn't so much "sing" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9AK9UVfUF0) as he did shout at you. Ricky Segall was not (https://www.reddit.com/r/sitcoms/comments/18xu7if/which_sitcoms_were_ruined_because_of_bad_child/) a particularly talented (https://worldsworstrecords.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-partridge-calamity.html) or gifted child performer (https://www.datalounge.com/thread/26513704-who-are-the-worst-child-performances-in-film-and-television-), but we were supposed to overlook that (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/that-kid-on-the-partridge-family.948934/) because he was "cute" (https://greginhollywood.com/greg-in-hollywood-hangs-out-with-rodney-allen-rippy-of-1970s-jack-in-the-box-commercial-fame-134167#comment-246699).

When Ricky was added, it sounds like by this point PF was "grasping at straws".

The more knowledgeable fans can correct me if I am wrong, but didn't David Cassidy announce year 4 would be his last year? Without Keith, since he was the only Partridge family kid that sang there would be no show.

I don't criticize the addition of Ricky, since I think I know why PF did it.

I think that Shirley Jones all but alluded to that in her book (https://www.datalounge.com/thread/18587180-shirley-jones-stories).

By the third season of The Partridge Family, David had become the rock star of the century, but that wasn’t making him happy.

He became disgusted with singing what he termed “bubblegum songs” and wanted to go on to bigger and better things and sing hard-rock music in earnest, much in the style of his heroes Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

So he decided to leave the show. If he had asked my advice, I would have told him to be happy with what he’d got, because that was my philosophy of life. (Besides which, I hated hard-rock music.) But he didn’t discuss the subject with me and decided to leave the show.

There was no replacement for him because David was the show. We were all sad, but we were also aware that it was just a matter of time before the show was canceled anyway.

March 23, 1974, was the last broadcast of The Partridge Family. I was sad to see the show end. If it hadn’t been canceled, I would have been happy to carry on playing Shirley Partridge for another four years. For me and all the rest of the cast, this was the end of an era. Just after the wrap party, David took Susan Dey out for dinner. As he said afterward, he fondly imagined that they would stay friends forever.

After dinner, the two of them went for a drive together and reminisced about how they’d first met when she was an inexperienced actress, and they both started crying. Afterward, David put Susan in touch with Ruth Aarons, who became her manager, and also with Lenny Hirshan, his agent at William Morris, who became Susan’s agent. For a few years after the show ended, David and Susan stayed friends.

Shirley's comment about David getting sick of of singing "bubblegum songs" is kind of ironic because that was I think, the whole message in the "Beethoven, Brahms and Partridge" (https://www.davidcassidy.com/fansite/TvFilmPages/TPF_S4_E3.html) episode (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0670144/) from Season 4. Keith starts dabbling into classical music at the behest of his new girlfriend. And when he tells Walter Yost, the distinguished composer/conductor, that the music that he makes is otherwise "frivolous", Yost tells Keith that what's really important is if his music at the end of the day, makes people happy. Basically, if people enjoy your music as it is, what difference should it make whether or not it's "bubblegum" or classical.

And what was up with that Ricky kid's haircut? Was he trying to channel Baby Peggy?

I wouldn't have minded Wesley Eure being added to the show, though!:)

All of the boys had long (https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1875&context=etd) or longish hair at that point: Keith, Danny, Chris, Reuben's nephew Alan Kincaid, Andrew and David Williams, etc. I was thinking, when did it (at least by the early 1970s (https://www.am-studies.com/history-bits/the-hair-of-the-70s-men#:~:text=a%20styling%20choice.-,Long%20Hair,was%20also%20just%20plain%20popular.)) become trendy or acceptable (https://www.quora.com/Why-did-men-have-long-hair-in-the-1970s-that-became-shorter-later-on-Is-it-possible-that-long-hair-will-become-fashionable-again-in-the-near-future) for young men to grow their hair out. It's funny that Keith and Danny had long hair but their music didn't exactly reflect a rebellious (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/pu689l/why_was_long_hair_so_popular_for_men_in_the_70s/) or not so clean-cut (https://www.davidcassidy.com/fansite/InPrintPages/Web2021April19.html) image (https://larrylambert269.medium.com/things-you-didnt-know-about-the-partridge-family-6213673843c7). Shirley Partridge seemed like a relatively conservative mother, and yet she allowed her sons to walk around looking like that.

There is something else that doesn't make sense with Ricky - he wouldn't have been a regular because of the child's age.
Ricky came on a year before LHOTP premiered, and remember twins were playing Carrie Ingalls because the child actors were only 4.

Retro4Life - I'm currently on season 2 of the PF where Keith is still in high school. Although I did see the episode where he moved out next door the other day. In that episode it was mentioned he was 17. I'm not surprised that by the time PF ends he is in college, or at the very least out of high school.

Keith gets his driver's license pretty quick (since he already was driving at the start of PF). Was there any mention in the later years of Laurie driving?

You could've easily written Ricky out and the plots for the Season 4 episodes would've more or less remained the same. Like in the episode (https://www.davidcassidy.com/fansite/TvFilmPages/TPF_S4_E10.html) where Shirley challenges her kids to be honest for the next 24 hours. At the midpoint of the episode, Ricky just shows up to the Partridges' kitchen with a guitar for Danny to play for him. What follows for the next few minutes, is Ricky signing his "If I Were a Monkey" (https://the-partridge-family.fandom.com/wiki/If_I_Were_a_Monkey) song before leaving.

What was the point of that other than the need to give little Ricky Segall his contractually obligated five minutes of screen time? It wasn't essential to the plot, it didn't push the story forward, and it was completely done and forgotten about for the remainder of the episode.

‘Partridge Family’ Star Danny Bonaduce Gives Rare Update on Susan Dey and Shirley Jones (https://parade.com/entertainment/partridge-family-star-danny-bonaduce-gives-rare-update-on-susan-dey-and-shirley-jones)

In the new interview, Bonaduce also shared an update on Ricky Segall, the young actor and singer who appeared on The Partridge Family during the show’s final season and was compared to Cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist) on The Brady Bunch.

“So, he was fine,” Bonaduce said of the child actor. “He was the cute kid. We all knew it was the cousin Oliver thing, everybody, you know.”

Bonaduce revealed that Cassidy, the teen heartthrob and main star of the show, took issue with the addition of the musical moppet when producers added him to the cast.

“If you look when [Ricky] sings, I actually play guitar. David does not,” Bonaduce noted. “David just would not accompany the kid. I guess you know when you’re a big star, and you’ve sold a million records, you don’t have to play for the six-year-old. So I play the guitar for Ricky Segall. Nice guy. I think he ended up a minister. I’m not positive, but I think he ended up actually a minister for a time.”