There must have been a lot of people auditioning for the part of Keith, Lori, Shirley, Danny, Tracy, Chris and Rubin.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know what became of all those people who were sitting in the same casting-call room as the eventually-chosen cast (Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, Jeremy Gelbwalks, Suzanne Crough, Danny Bonaduce, Suzan Dey, Dave Madden)? I guess all or many were or had to have been professional albeit-unknown actors. As far as the youngest ones, there must have been parents trying to get their under-qualified kids chosen. It is ironic that years later, Shirley Jones indicated in an interview that Jeremy Gelbwalk's mother was a "stage mother" and Jeremy had to be replaced. There must have been a good many stage parents trying to audition their 8 year old boys and girls for "Chris"and "Tracy." But also what about the young females who tried to get the part of "Lori" ? Susan Dey famously got a crush on her co-star David
Cassidy, but after the show became a hit, there must have been at least a few teenage actresses who had failed to get the role who really really regretted not getting picked.
(And I guess there must have been a lot of parents trying to get their boy to play the "second 'Chris'" after the first one was "fired" since by this time it was obvious The Partridge Family was a hit).
I wonder if the young females who auditioned for Lori but were not chosen, went on find other roles? If they did , has any actress or former actress of a certain age, ever said that she auditioned for the role of "Lori Partridge"? Never heard anyone say so. Probably a lot of them quit acting. What about male actors who tried out for "Keith"? Probably a lot of them would have wanted to have Susan Dey as a co-star.

I wonder how many people who auditioned for those roles are still alive and can tell about having had been at that audition? (After all it is rumored that renowned murderer, Charles Manson auditioned for "The Monkees." Also about eight years back I heard a story on radio about some comedic stage performers who were to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show the same night that the Beatles were to make their first ever performance on American TV.). It is fascinating to hear about people who were there when show biz history was in the making.

Also, what about the behind-the scenes people? David Cassidy wrote in his autobiography that the camera men and other behind-the-scenes staff (I guess scenery people, make-up artists etc) began to resent him because his many fans hung outside the studio made it hard for other workers to get get to their jobs . I wonder about people who were part of the filming crew and the the other work crew of the show. What stories do they have to tell about
the actors interacting with each other?

Furthermore, right now Susan Dey is retired from acting and has been retired for many years. She is involved in charity work. Currently she is about 64 years old. A lot has been said about how she has not taken part in Partridge Family reunions as much as the other cast members had.
Perhaps Jeremy Gelbwalks is the only one to have done fewer reunions than Susan Dey.

Also, though there is some information on the internet and elsewhere about Jeremy Gelbwalks and what he went on to do with his life after his one-season stint on The Partridge Family, there isn't much known about him other than he went on to study computers and had "quit" show business soon after his famous role as Chris Partridge was over. Only decades afterward has it been revealed with the most certainty that Jeremy was (probably) dismissed from the show NOT because his father got a job in another state, as has been strongly stated from the beginning, but because Jeremy was an extremely difficult child who's behavior would have fit the profile of a child with ADHD . But, much less was known about ADHD back in the early 70s and there might not have even been such a term yet (just like anorexia was less known about back then).

The least utilized regular characters were Chris and Tracy. Suzanne Crough died rather young and unexpectedly. It is now the two Chris-es who are the youngest surviving regular cast members of The Partridge Family. As time goes by, Jeremy Gelbwalks and Brian Forster are chronologically most likely to be the last two who can speak to having had been one of the cast members of "Partridge Family." Brian Forster reportedly became a race-car driver which is a dangerous sport, but wouldn't it be interesting if he were to write a book about being one of the show's cast, and his reminiscences even though he was very young at the time? Wouldn't it be interesting if Jeremy Gelbwalks , who now must be about 54 years old, wrote an honest tell-all about his time in the Partridge Family and about whether he was forced to go into acting by his parents and thus about being put to act when he did not want to, and wouldn't it be interesting if he presented it how he saw it at the time, and did things like bite and kick Shirley Jones and David Cassidy and kept picking fights with Danny? Wouldn't it be interesting if he did admit to being a wildly-behaved kid, but only years later was he able to get diagnosed and treated so that he can concentrate enough to study computers?
Wouldn't it be interesting if Jeremy and Brian wrote a book together about being "Chris" on The Partridge Family? Maybe they eventually will if or when they are the last to be able to tell about it.

If Jeremy Gelbwalks really was such a hellion on the set as he was rumored to be then he's probably too embarrassed to talk about it. If anyone is ever going to recap the PF series it would be Danny Bonaduce. I could see him writing a biography like Barry Williams did with Growing Up Brady.

Of course I should have done my research first - Danny already wrote a book about his PF experiences in Random Acts of Badness. Maybe I'll order it from Amazon.

According to Wikipedia, Gelbwaks (this is how they spell it) had personality conflicts with every member of the cast, and the producers (per Cassidy). Interesting, because Danny professes to have been a hellion. It would have been interesting if Gelbwaks had participated in the reunion on the Today show in 2010 (of course, it would also have been nice to see Susan Dey and Shirley Jones, as well).

"stevea,"
"Donthe2nd"

Yes, Danny has already written a book. It was quite a while back, I think.
I have not read it but though I guess it covers his years in PF, I think it goes into his troubles with the law and being a wayward person judging from the title.

I think that particularly the youngest surviving cast members, would have quite a tale to tell . Again, with Suzanne gone it leaves Jeremy and Brian.
I think that the three of them could probably have written a book of their observances and such.

David Cassidy's book "C'mon Get Happy" was written in the early 1990s and it is quite a tell-all but it was written only 20 years after the PF went off the air and though at that time it seemed as if many years of memories and experiences were written into the biography, now that at least twice the amount of time has gone by it seems that the book was written too soon and there was still a lot of Cassidy's life to be updated. I know that another book "Could It Be Forever" was written but reportedly it is only a "sanitized" version of the original book and only certain photographs and a few words are different and a lot of the crass talk is just taken out or maybe put in milder words.
"Could It Be Forever" was "written" or released in the early 2000's . I am not sure if it goes into the severe downward spiral of Cassidy's life.

BTW, in the book, Cassidy only mentions Gelbwalks in one, maybe two, different short sentences. He only says that the kid once did something to him such as run up to him and scream loudly. Cassidy wrote that he just said to Gelbwalks, "You do that again you little 'f--k.' "
Sounds awful.

Cassidy does not say much about Brian other than he met up with him years after PF was cancelled and that Brian told him that he (Brian) lost his virginity years after he was 18, a legal adult.
There is comparatively a good deal of mention about Danny Bonaduce. Cassidy sometimes felt as if Danny was like one of his younger brothers and was worried about him.
I don't think I read anything about Suzanne Crough in the book but of course Suzanne's character was so insignificant.


I guess Jeremy would be embarrassed to now talk about what he used to be like when he was a kid actor. He must have started feeling serious embarrassment about it when he reached the age of about 16 , maybe younger. But, chances are he came to realize how unprofessional he was. He may not have wanted to try an acting career since he would likely be remembered as the kid who was replaced on Partridge Family.
I guess only when he was significantly older did he realize that he missed out on a show business career. Of course I have read about several kid actors who quit show business after they grew up and did not want to be remembered for any characters they played and felt that it prevented them from moving on to other things in their lives.
With Gelbwalks, it seems to be the only situation of its kind. Actors have been replaced in TV shows, but not like what happened with the character of "Chris." I don't think there is anything else like it in TV history. (Correct me if I am wrong).

But also , yes, Danny was reportedly a very badly behaved kid and used to throw food around the set and smoke cigarettes when he was about 11 years old and he generally acted out.
I guess Danny Partridge had gotten to be a popular character fairly early on in the series and the actor who played him could not be so easily gotten rid of or changed.

I think anytime a network has a hit on their hands, the execs are aware that cast changes are risky. I kind of doubt that things ever got to the point of debating whether Bonaduce was expendable or not.

Watching the earliest eps, Bonaduce is clearly feeling his way. He makes no real effort to move his fingers to simulate playing the guitar. But for his age, he's sort of a prodigy when it comes to sitcom acting, and becomes even better and more natural -- a very important cast member.

I know I have been using the word "interesting" a lot but it would have been great to know what ever happened to David Cassidy's stand-in on The Partridge Family, who was a female.
David Cassidy only mentioned it briefly in his book, "C'mon Get Happy" that his stand-in was a "girl." I guess the stand-in was at least 18 years old though. There is only one photo of her in the center pages of the book and she is dressed like him during the scene in the Christmas episode of The Partridge Family (in which the family finds themselves in a ghost town and imagining themselves back in the Wild West, with Keith being the handsome guitar-playing good guy cowboy that saves the town,or tries to).
I don't recall the stand-in's name now, but what did she go on to do after The Partridge Family went off the air? How did she get the job in the first place?
She might have been a little too old to be into Cassidy's music or be star struck by his teen-idol status. Reportedly the girl who played Gloria Hickey (Patti Cohoon) did have a crush on David but I doubt Susan Dey seriously thought of "Gloria Hickey" as a rival.
I wonder what became of Patti Cohoon too. Did she do what Suzanne Crough did and just quit acting and just live a life of obscurity?

Sadly, the young man who played Punky Lazarr died fairly recently. I imagine he would have had quite a bit to tell about his time on the PF set.