What would have prevented The Partridge Family from Jumping The Shark

[um]

The Partridge Family, as a sitcom sank approximately mid-run. Reportedly because the music was not as good as in the beginning. Also the plots were
not as well plotted.

There are some entire threads or discussions, or comments to the effect that it was Ricky Segall who made the show bad to the point of having to be ultimately cancelled. I think that the show had already reached a downward spiral before then.

But what do you think would have kept The Partridge Family as good as it was at the beginning? Of course there are people who think that the show was never any good and should never have been thought up or filmed or broadcast. I guess it would be useless for those of you to comment.

I think that the music should have continued to have serious focus so that it remained as it was at the beginning. It seems that the original on-the-road aspect was completely done away with after the first season (or approximately) and essentially all of the episodes were about the family's adventures at home or close to home. Perhaps the episodes should have mostly been about life on the road, but then maybe the writers were at a standstill about what to make the family encounter next. (Who knows?Maybe it might have been worse to continue to make episodes about the family constantly touring, and there would have been some episode about the family coming across space aliens on a deserted isolated stretch of highway. Perhaps if we look at it a certain way, the show, as "bad" as it eventually got, could have been worse but we cant really compare it to how worse it could have gotten).

Would the show have gone in a better direction if Chris and Tracy were used more in the beginning so that they would have been more usable in coming episodes as the show went on, and Danny aged out of being such a little kid?

Would the show have been better contrived at the beginning if David Cassidy were not chosen to play "Keith"?
The show then would not have had the same heartthrob element that David Cassidy brought to it, and maybe the episodes and the entire show would have relied more on the plots just as a sitcom should do rather than just feature an unusually prominent teen idol and the ratings and viewership are only high because of teen girls tuning in to watch their heartthrob?

Would a different actor have been better for the show than David Cassidy?
A relevant following question is would the show have been better off not really being like The Monkees, a type of spring-off to sell records? (Actually The Brady Bunch ended up being the same thing). Would the show have been easier to save from Jumping The Shark if all the actors did not really sing ( whether they could or not) and no records were produced out of it, so that the show just presented the adventures of a traveling musical family?

Would other teen actors have been better at playing "Keith" such as Bill Mumy (of Lost In Space) who, at the time, would have been about 16, the age "Keith" was supposed to be?
How about Kurt Russell? He was just a year younger than David Cassidy.
Robby Benson? I heard that Rick Springfield was actually going to be considered as a replacement for David Cassidy if , or when , David left the show. Would it have been better if he were chosen?

Would it have been better if a female actor like June Lockheart played "Shirley Partridge"?

[Donthe2nd]

I don't think anything could have kept the show going beyond the 4th season. David Cassidy was burned out and ready to quit, Danny was outgrowing his cuteness, and the younger kids Chris and Tracy were not developed enough to replace him. Ricky was just the straw that broke the camel's back, but even without him the show could not have lasted much longer than it did.

[Retro4Life]

This is, of course, all operating under the assumption that the show DID jump the shark, which I don't necessarily think is true.

Had Cassidy stayed and had the show not been moved to a terrible time slot, my guess is it could have lasted another couple of years, if they had wanted it to.

But yeah, any show with kids has a certain built in lifespan. Once they grow up, it's over. I think once Keith and Laurie were both out of college (they had to be getting close by 1974), they realistically couldn't have kept the band together because the older kids would be moving away and/or getting married. And the younger kids weren't strong enough to carry the show.

It had a good run. It didn't fall apart of get old; it got dumped because of the timeslot and Cassidy, IMO.

[um]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

I don't think they could have stretched this much farther than they did. More involvement by the younger kids earlier would have made the show insufferably cute. They could have just pushed everything toward the classic situation comedy, with the five elders getting in and out of jams every week, but at that point they'd just have to ask if it isn't better to start over again with actors who specialize at that?

Maybe, but The Brady Bunch gave more equal treatment between the older kids and the younger ones and it was essentially as insufferably cute as The Partridge Family was.
Danny was a 10 year old who was the main focus of the plots practically from the beginning. When he got older and was in his early teens he was still the main troublemaker. So, with so much focus on him as a kid and young teen it fit the definition of insufferably cute. It was just that mostly one kid carried the show for the cuteness factor.

[um]

Originally Posted by Retro4Life

This is, of course, all operating under the assumption that the show DID jump the shark, which I don't necessarily think is true.

Had Cassidy stayed and had the show not been moved to a terrible time slot, my guess is it could have lasted another couple of years, if they had wanted it to.

But yeah, any show with kids has a certain built in lifespan. Once they grow up, it's over. I think once Keith and Laurie were both out of college (they had to be getting close by 1974), they realistically couldn't have kept the band together because the older kids would be moving away and/or getting married. And the younger kids weren't strong enough to carry the show.

It had a good run. It didn't fall apart of get old; it got dumped because of the timeslot and Cassidy, IMO.

Not sure what you mean by "had Cassidy stayed."
Whether he wanted to or not, he was on the show from beginning to end. Of course he intended to leave, and still it seemed it was just time for the show to be cancelled regardless of that.
I am not sure if Keith and Lori were in college until perhaps the very very last episodes, so their being in college did not factor into the plots much that I recall.
Now under normal circumstances the older college-aged kids in a family would move away, but since they were a traveling performing family that could easily be made into something that the older kids just did not do because in order to travel and perform together, they have to have a living arrangement in which they are able to practice together in the garage and be near each other so as to be ready for a tour. Also, for a long time (definitely in the 1970s), it has been fairly common for people past the age of 18 and even into their 20s to still stay at home with their parents even after graduating college, and even if they marry. Sometimes their spouse moves in with the family rather than they move out on their own.

I think that if Lori and Keith moved out especially if it was because they married, the band would have broken up. Or maybe mom and Danny and Chris and Tracy would have continued traveling and performing?
I don't think that it is merely that the younger kids could NOT have been able to carry the show. Even if they could, it is just that the entire set-up of The Partridge Family household would have changed so that it would be a different show. But in that respect, it might have been better if the younger kids got more scenes earlier. Maybe.

David Cassidy might be thought of (by certain people) as the most trivial person who regularly had a majority of lines and scenes on the show; meaning he was thought of as being attractive to the teen female audience but not much other than that; But he played his role very well and Keith was an important character to be the major fall guy (perhaps next to Rubin Kinkaid) for Danny's pranks .

[Retro4Life]

Originally Posted by um

Not sure what you mean by "had Cassidy stayed."
Whether he wanted to or not, he was on the show from beginning to end. Of course he intended to leave, and still it seemed it was just time for the show to be cancelled regardless of that.
I am not sure if Keith and Lori were in college until perhaps the very very last episodes, so their being in college did not factor into the plots much that I recall.
Now under normal circumstances the older college-aged kids in a family would move away, but since they were a traveling performing family that could easily be made into something that the older kids just did not do because in order to travel and perform together, they have to have a living arrangement in which they are able to practice together in the garage and be near each other so as to be ready for a tour. Also, for a long time (definitely in the 1970s), it has been fairly common for people past the age of 18 and even into their 20s to still stay at home with their parents even after graduating college, and even if they marry. Sometimes their spouse moves in with the family rather than they move out on their own.

I think that if Lori and Keith moved out especially if it was because they married, the band would have broken up. Or maybe mom and Danny and Chris and Tracy would have continued traveling and performing?
I don't think that it is merely that the younger kids could NOT have been able to carry the show. Even if they could, it is just that the entire set-up of The Partridge Family household would have changed so that it would be a different show. But in that respect, it might have been better if the younger kids got more scenes earlier. Maybe.

David Cassidy might be thought of (by certain people) as the most trivial person who regularly had a majority of lines and scenes on the show; meaning he was thought of as being attractive to the teen female audience but not much other than that; But he played his role very well and Keith was an important character to be the major fall guy (perhaps next to Rubin Kinkaid) for Danny's pranks .

I meant if he had not chosen to leave after four seasons, of course.

Also, I assumed the older children were junior/seniors when the show began. I can't recall how their grade status progressed during the show, but since Cassidy was 24 in 1974, it would not have made sense to have him continue to play a college student much longer, unless he was a very unsuccessful one. So maaaaybe they could have gotten away with it for another two seasons.

My point was simply that they could not have drawn out the plot of the older kids in college for a lot longer unless they wanted to completely undermine credibility.

And yes, the minute they moved the focus away from Danny, Keith, Laurie and the other adults, the show would have sunk like a rock, IMO.

I don't disagree with anything in your final paragraph.

Cassidy's birthday is Wednesday, btw.

[Retro4Life]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

I think that you have to look beyond the age of the actor to what he or she was actually saying. Danny wasn't cute, he was pretty close to cynical. His dialogue was more adult than anyone on the Brady Bunch, including the parents.

As I've said on here before, I think the Partridge Family is an adult show by stealth. Aside from Chris and Tracy, everyone talks at an adult level, and Chris and Tracy are usually treated as props. I think the Brady Bunch is written at a level somewhere between the ages of the oldest and middle kids. Aside from scheduling they shared, I don't think they're comparable shows at all.

Yes. I think the reason I always preferred TPF to TBB (though I liked both) was because I somehow knew TPF was being aimed at kids a bit older than I was, and I liked that I was able to have a "seat at the bigger kids' table" if that makes sense. As much as I liked TBB, sometimes I felt it was a little too silly even for my age.

The snappy banter on TPF is much different than the dialogue on TBB, geared toward an older audience.

[EricPost]

I don't even know why Cassidy wanted the part. Halfway through the first season you could tell he didn't want to be there and was phoning it in. Only Jones, Danny Bonaduce and Dave Madden any real talent acting wise.

And then only Bonaduce and Madden were OK when they were playing off each other. This meant that all the comedy in the sitcom had to come from those two basically, as Jones, well a good actress was merely OK for comedy roles.

The producers were trying to get Rick Springfield in to replace Cassidy in year three (he looked a lot like him) but I've never been clear if he would take the role of Keith or simply play another character.

[um]

Originally Posted by EricPost

I don't even know why Cassidy wanted the part. Halfway through the first season you could tell he didn't want to be there and was phoning it in. Only Jones, Danny Bonaduce and Dave Madden any real talent acting wise.

And then only Bonaduce and Madden were OK when they were playing off each other. This meant that all the comedy in the sitcom had to come from those two basically, as Jones, well a good actress was merely OK for comedy roles.

The producers were trying to get Rick Springfield in to replace Cassidy in year three (he looked a lot like him) but I've never been clear if he would take the role of Keith or simply play another character.

Cassidy did not really want the part from the beginning as far as what I have read, but since he did not yet know what was going to happen, he accepted it perhaps thinking that he will give it a try; and I have read things to the effect that Shirley Jones at least mildly nudged him to take the part and mildly encouraged the producers or casting department to take him because he could actually sing. But he eventually got stuck playing the role since others around him, such as agents and managers and the TV studio etc, saw that it was so lucrative for them.

I would disagree that Cassidy showed no acting talent in this role that he notoriously disliked so much. I think that he played the character very well even though he may have gritted his teeth doing it. He was just as good as all the other adult actors who played their parts well. I would often look at the episodes and think to myself that for an actor that has no desire to depict the particular character, the actor is just doing a professional job of not letting it be known while doing his work. Cassidy had acting talent though he was typecast. Actually it was the same for Susan Dey who was a female teen idol for playing Lori Partridge ,though not to the same extent as Cassidy. Remember she could not get roles after the show was cancelled and she "joined" Eve Plumb and Linda Blair in doing sensational movies about runaway girls, or girls who end up on the streets, or get locked up in jail etc.

I think that since the show started out as it did with the original characters that it did start out with, there was no turning back and it was bad enough that they substituted one of the younger kids with a kid who looked so differently and had something of a different personality though the character was hardly used in any plot.
The main characters of Shirley, Keith, Lori and Danny Partridge, mixed with their manager Mr Kincaid all had a certain chemistry. Mr Kincaid could not always be the fall guy to Danny's wisecracks and schemes. Keith and Mr Kincaid shared that purpose mostly. Shirley and Lori would sometimes be the fall girls.
Danny did carry the show in a way, to the point where it was too much about him. Sure it was good for laughs and all, but though he visibly matured from a little boy to a hefty teen he was still portrayed as mischievous and cute.

I don't think that Rick Springfield would have worked as Keith. I think he looked like he was in his late 20s.

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by EricPost

I don't even know why Cassidy wanted the part. Halfway through the first season you could tell he didn't want to be there and was phoning it in. Only Jones, Danny Bonaduce and Dave Madden any real talent acting wise.

And then only Bonaduce and Madden were OK when they were playing off each other. This meant that all the comedy in the sitcom had to come from those two basically, as Jones, well a good actress was merely OK for comedy roles.

The producers were trying to get Rick Springfield in to replace Cassidy in year three (he looked a lot like him) but I've never been clear if he would take the role of Keith or simply play another character.

From what I've read and heard in interviews it was David's Father Jack Cassidy who incouraged David to take the part of Keith. And since David and admired his Dad especially when it came to acting Jack's opinion carried a lot of weight with David.

[glickmam]

Originally Posted by um

I would disagree that Cassidy showed no acting talent in this role that he notoriously disliked so much. I think that he played the character very well even though he may have gritted his teeth doing it. He was just as good as all the other adult actors who played their parts well. I would often look at the episodes and think to myself that for an actor that has no desire to depict the particular character, the actor is just doing a professional job of not letting it be known while doing his work. Cassidy had acting talent though he was typecast. Actually it was the same for Susan Dey who was a female teen idol for playing Lori Partridge ,though not to the same extent as Cassidy. Remember she could not get roles after the show was cancelled and she "joined" Eve Plumb and Linda Blair in doing sensational movies about runaway girls, or girls who end up on the streets, or get locked up in jail etc.

Thankfully, however, Ms. Dey ended up getting a major career recovery, when Steven Bochco cast her as A.D.A. Grace van Owen, Harry Hamlin's on-screen love interest, on the NBC legal drama L.A. Law.

[um]

Originally Posted by EricPost

I don't even know why Cassidy wanted the part. Halfway through the first season you could tell he didn't want to be there and was phoning it in. Only Jones, Danny Bonaduce and Dave Madden any real talent acting wise.

And then only Bonaduce and Madden were OK when they were playing off each other. This meant that all the comedy in the sitcom had to come from those two basically, as Jones, well a good actress was merely OK for comedy roles.

The producers were trying to get Rick Springfield in to replace Cassidy in year three (he looked a lot like him) but I've never been clear if he would take the role of Keith or simply play another character.

BTW, back then I heard of Rick Springfield but I believe he was strictly a musician and not an actor , or not particularly. I don't think he would have done a better job of playing Keith and might not have had the acting talent to do it well.
Had he done any acting roles?

[MIKEPR]

Originally Posted by um

The Partridge Family, as a sitcom sank approximately mid-run. Reportedly because the music was not as good as in the beginning. Also the plots were
not as well plotted.

There are some entire threads or discussions, or comments to the effect that it was Ricky Segall who made the show bad to the point of having to be ultimately cancelled. I think that the show had already reached a downward spiral before then.

But what do you think would have kept The Partridge Family as good as it was at the beginning? Of course there are people who think that the show was never any good and should never have been thought up or filmed or broadcast. I guess it would be useless for those of you to comment.

I think that the music should have continued to have serious focus so that it remained as it was at the beginning. It seems that the original on-the-road aspect was completely done away with after the first season (or approximately) and essentially all of the episodes were about the family's adventures at home or close to home. Perhaps the episodes should have mostly been about life on the road, but then maybe the writers were at a standstill about what to make the family encounter next. (Who knows?Maybe it might have been worse to continue to make episodes about the family constantly touring, and there would have been some episode about the family coming across space aliens on a deserted isolated stretch of highway. Perhaps if we look at it a certain way, the show, as "bad" as it eventually got, could have been worse but we cant really compare it to how worse it could have gotten).

Would the show have gone in a better direction if Chris and Tracy were used more in the beginning so that they would have been more usable in coming episodes as the show went on, and Danny aged out of being such a little kid?

Would the show have been better contrived at the beginning if David Cassidy were not chosen to play "Keith"?
The show then would not have had the same heartthrob element that David Cassidy brought to it, and maybe the episodes and the entire show would have relied more on the plots just as a sitcom should do rather than just feature an unusually prominent teen idol and the ratings and viewership are only high because of teen girls tuning in to watch their heartthrob?

Would a different actor have been better for the show than David Cassidy?
A relevant following question is would the show have been better off not really being like The Monkees, a type of spring-off to sell records? (Actually The Brady Bunch ended up being the same thing). Would the show have been easier to save from Jumping The Shark if all the actors did not really sing ( whether they could or not) and no records were produced out of it, so that the show just presented the adventures of a traveling musical family?

Would other teen actors have been better at playing "Keith" such as Bill Mumy (of Lost In Space) who, at the time, would have been about 16, the age "Keith" was supposed to be?
How about Kurt Russell? He was just a year younger than David Cassidy.
Robby Benson? I heard that Rick Springfield was actually going to be considered as a replacement for David Cassidy if , or when , David left the show. Would it have been better if he were chosen?

Would it have been better if a female actor like June Lockheart played "Shirley Partridge"?

Think you're making a big deal over nothing.


It was a successful TV sitcom that ran for 4 years.


What more do you want?

Hey it could have been canceled after 1 season if the ratings were bad.

[Cocoa8]

If David had not been burned out, it might have been interesting to see either Keith or Laurie marry. In addition, see how Danny handled HS.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by um

Cassidy did not really want the part from the beginning as far as what I have read, but since he did not yet know what was going to happen, he accepted it perhaps thinking that he will give it a try; and I have read things to the effect that Shirley Jones at least mildly nudged him to take the part and mildly encouraged the producers or casting department to take him because he could actually sing. But he eventually got stuck playing the role since others around him, such as agents and managers and the TV studio etc, saw that it was so lucrative for them.

I would disagree that Cassidy showed no acting talent in this role that he notoriously disliked so much. I think that he played the character very well even though he may have gritted his teeth doing it. He was just as good as all the other adult actors who played their parts well. I would often look at the episodes and think to myself that for an actor that has no desire to depict the particular character, the actor is just doing a professional job of not letting it be known while doing his work. Cassidy had acting talent though he was typecast. Actually it was the same for Susan Dey who was a female teen idol for playing Lori Partridge ,though not to the same extent as Cassidy. Remember she could not get roles after the show was cancelled and she "joined" Eve Plumb and Linda Blair in doing sensational movies about runaway girls, or girls who end up on the streets, or get locked up in jail etc.

I think that since the show started out as it did with the original characters that it did start out with, there was no turning back and it was bad enough that they substituted one of the younger kids with a kid who looked so differently and had something of a different personality though the character was hardly used in any plot.
The main characters of Shirley, Keith, Lori and Danny Partridge, mixed with their manager Mr Kincaid all had a certain chemistry. Mr Kincaid could not always be the fall guy to Danny's wisecracks and schemes. Keith and Mr Kincaid shared that purpose mostly. Shirley and Lori would sometimes be the fall girls.
Danny did carry the show in a way, to the point where it was too much about him. Sure it was good for laughs and all, but though he visibly matured from a little boy to a hefty teen he was still portrayed as mischievous and cute.

I don't think that Rick Springfield would have worked as Keith. I think he looked like he was in his late 20s.

Yeah, after The Partridge Family ended, Susan Dey seemed to search for the most crass and/or "edgiest" roles that she could find presumably in hopes of breaking away from the wholesome teen girl image that she got from the show. She did a made for TV movie called Cage Without a Key, where she a played a girl who was unjustly sent to a juvenile prison. She also did another made for TV movie called Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night, where she's a psychotic young single mother who brutalizes her small child. Even later in her career, it seemed like Susan was still trying to show people that she was more than being Laurie Partridge in a TV movie called Lies & Lullabies, where she played a pregnant cocaine addict.