Jeremy Gelbwaks

[DJM77]

I understand that he was fired after the first season because of his limited acting ability but it seemed to me like he did a much better job than Suzanne Crough. Did Jeremy have trouble memorizing his lines or something?

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by Flanders vs. Szyslak

I understand that he was fired after the first season because of his limited acting ability but it seemed to me like he did a much better job than Suzanne Crough. Did Jeremy have trouble memorizing his lines or something?

Jeremy wasn't fired per se. His father was transferred to Virginia, so he had to move w/ his family. It's been suggested that his mother was willing to keep him in California, but the producers discouraged that, since they apparently were happy to replace him anyway.

[OKCRay]

I guess it depends on which sources you believe. I've read several accounts (including in the PF book that came out in 1994) that Jeremy left the cast due to his family moving to Virginia, but if you believe some of the other accounts (TV movies, "True Hollywood Stories", etc.), Jeremy also may have had some behavior problems on the set, probably nothing more than "kids being kids" stuff (including making airplane noises and supposedly kicking David Cassidy under a table according to some accounts).

[m60tankdriver]

Re Jeremy's leaving -- yes, it really does depend on which source you believe. Personally, Danny Bonaduce's such a flake that I would tend to discount anything he says (besides the fact that he was only 11 to 12 yrs old during that 1st season). The Virginia relocation appears to be valid up to a point. It was offered to Anthony Gelbwaks after the 1st season ended, but before ABC had committed to a 2nd. Also true is that the PF producers were considering dropping Jeremy, and his folks probably knew it. But what no one's yet mentioned is the very bad relationship the producers had with Jeremy's mom Haley Cynthia Gelbwaks. I've seen far too many references to this situation, over 35 years, to discount it. The impression I get is that Cyndi Gelbwaks was the real "monster" of the PF set, not little Jeremy. Being a pushy stage mother, Cyndi Gelbwaks no doubt wanted to keep her son in California, and had her attorney pressure Screen Gems to find out if the PF was being renewed. But Bob Claver, Paul Junger Witt, Mel Swope, and Bernie Slade had all reached their limit in dealing with her, and that (more than any minor misbehavior by Jeremy) is why they gave absolutely no encouragement to the Gelbwaks, hoping they'd take the job relocation.

[studd911]

In some of the partridge family episodes did the family used to sang at the end

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hey i have a question about the partridge family in most of there episodes, did the family mostly sang more towards the end or the middle of the show i am just curious thanks

[TMC]

Originally Posted by m60tankdriver

Re Jeremy's leaving -- yes, it really does depend on which source you believe. Personally, Danny Bonaduce's such a flake that I would tend to discount anything he says (besides the fact that he was only 11 to 12 yrs old during that 1st season). The Virginia relocation appears to be valid up to a point. It was offered to Anthony Gelbwaks after the 1st season ended, but before ABC had committed to a 2nd. Also true is that the PF producers were considering dropping Jeremy, and his folks probably knew it. But what no one's yet mentioned is the very bad relationship the producers had with Jeremy's mom Haley Cynthia Gelbwaks. I've seen far too many references to this situation, over 35 years, to discount it. The impression I get is that Cyndi Gelbwaks was the real "monster" of the PF set, not little Jeremy. Being a pushy stage mother, Cyndi Gelbwaks no doubt wanted to keep her son in California, and had her attorney pressure Screen Gems to find out if the PF was being renewed. But Bob Claver, Paul Junger Witt, Mel Swope, and Bernie Slade had all reached their limit in dealing with her, and that (more than any minor misbehavior by Jeremy) is why they gave absolutely no encouragement to the Gelbwaks, hoping they'd take the job relocation.

I'm going to quote the old Jump the Shark site, so take this with a grain of salt if you will:

First jump: Jeremy Gelbwaks departs; second jump: Ricky Segall arrives. Funny how old rumors & stories just keep circulating about why Jeremy left; and of course that ridiculous TV movie about The Partridge Family didn't help -- in fact it merely embellished them. Well, you can either believe the hallucinations of Danny Bonaduce, who had a big hand in that wretched movie, or the guys who actually produced the original Partridge Family TV show and were there on the set, day-in and day-out, Producer Bob Claver and Associate Producer Mel Swope (and, I might add, neither of whom have any personal axes to grind). Who knows what impels Danny to make up stories (except maybe to cover his own misbehavior on the set), but the fact that he was a mixed-up kid with a physically abusive father who got too much fame too early speaks for itself. Bob Claver and Mel Swope have given extensive interviews about the Partridge Family (including Jeremy's departure), and it's pretty clear that they didn't have any major problems with him...but that they had big-time problems with his mother! Her name was Haley Cynthia Gelbwaks (everyone called her Cyndi) and she was the worst "stage mother" they ever saw -- overbearing, obnoxious, pushy. She was not only hard on poor Jeremy, but rubbed people the wrong way, nitpicked the producers and directors mercilessly, and generally butted into everyone's business. Apparently she'd been an aspiring actress who's career had gone nowhere, then she took up writing, and did television screenplays. She must have felt that made her some kind of "expert" on TV production, and consequently she was a real pain in the ass on the set. According to Claver and Swope, it got to the point where no one could stand her, and by season's end they were looking to jettison her, even if it meant losing Jeremy. Cyndi & her husband Anthony Gelbwaks provided just such an opportunity when he got a lucrative job offer from his employer to relocate to Virginia. Mel Swope is particularly enlightening on this issue, cause he personally had to deal with the Gelbwaks' attorney. This was at a time when ABC hadn't picked-up the show for a 2nd season, though the producers were confident they would. So this lawyer tells Mel that Jeremy's dad is considering relocating back East, but maybe won't if The Partridge Family gets renewed & they need Jeremy. Seeing his opportunity to be rid of Jeremy's troublesome mom, Mel gives him absolutely no encouragement, and this lawyer goes back to the Gelbwaks, advising them to take the Virginia job. Bob Claver and Mel Swope are insistent that they never "fired" Jeremy, or even sought to, and that their sole motivation for withholding the info that ABC did intend to renew the Partridge Family was the hope of being rid of Cyndi Gelbwaks. (And interestingly enough, neither ever mentions anything about Jeremy biting David Cassidy, yet they would have been the very guys David would have gone to demanding Jeremy get fired. I can't see any motiviation for these men to stay silent on such an issue, while speaking so openly about Cyndi Gelbwaks). Yet people who weren't even involved assumed that the Virginia move was just a Screen Gems "cover story" to hide the reported "problems on the set", and that since Jeremy didn't return for season two, then HE must have been the problem. Neither Bob Claver nor Mel Swope have ever tried to hide the fact that there WERE "problems on the set", but both make it clear that the cause wasn't Jeremy, but his mother. Maybe Jeremy wasn't a "perfect angel" (like Danny Bonaduce was?) but he certainly wasn't the little monster he's been portrayed as by Danny or in that movie.

[warp9p65]

Jeremy appeared on one of the talk shows that reunited some of the cast in 1995. I think Bonaduce was the host. Jeremy just sort of sat there and said little if anything. I'm not sure he even got asked a question. Brian Forster said that back stage Jeremy was very nervous and kept saying he didn't even know why he was there and wanted to leave.