The Partridge Family

During the show's four-season run, many actors made guest appearances. Some of them were well known at the time, such as Morey Amsterdam, John Astin, Carl Ballantine, John Banner, Edgar Buchanan, George Chakiris, Dick Clark (who later hosted The Other Half from 2001 to 2003 with Danny Bonaduce), Jackie Coogan, Howard Cosell, Jodie Foster, Bernard Fox, Ned Glass, James Gregory, Margaret Hamilton, Pat Harrington Jr., Arte Johnson, Harvey Lembeck, Art Metrano, Mary Ann Mobley, Harry Morgan, Slim Pickens, Richard Pryor, Barbara Rhoades, Michael Rupert, William Schallert, Nita Talbot, Larry Wilcox, Dick Wilson, and William Windom. Others would later become famous in other roles, such as Meredith Baxter, Richard Bull, Bert Convy, Farrah Fawcett, Norman Fell, Anthony Geary, Louis Gossett Jr., Harold Gould, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Hamill, Season Hubley, Ann Jillian, Gordon Jump, Cheryl Ladd, Michael Lembeck, William Lucking, Stuart Margolin, Richard Mulligan, Michael Ontkean, Noam Pitlik, Annette O'Toole, Charlotte Rae, Rob Reiner, Jack Riley, Jaclyn Smith, Vic Tayback, Nancy Walker, and Frank Welker.

Country singer Johnny Cash made an uncredited cameo appearance in the pilot episode. Ray Bolger played Shirley's father in three episodes, and Rosemary DeCamp played Shirley's mother in four episodes. Then-Governor Ronald Reagan's daughter, Maureen Reagan, was also featured in one episode. Future Charlie's Angels stars Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Ladd all made guest appearances on separate episodes.

Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench appeared in a cameo role as a pool waiter in a third-season episode.

Bobby Sherman appeared in the last episode of the first season as struggling songwriter Bobby Conway. This episode led into a short-lived spinoff series on ABC, Getting Together, starring Sherman and Wes Stern as Conway's business partner Lionel Poindexter.

Music recorded for the pilot episode was produced by Monkees arranger Shorty Rogers. Songs for the ongoing series were recorded by music producer Wes Farrell. Chip Douglas was the first to be offered the job of producing the music, but declined.

The studio concoction that informs the Partridge Family sound features lead singer David Cassidy, members of the Ron Hicklin Singers as backing vocalists, and several of the era's most highly regarded studio musicians, now known as "the Wrecking Crew". Cassidy's co-star and real-life stepmother Shirley Jones also features on the recordings, though there remains speculation that she can be heard more prominently in the TV mixes of the songs than in the album mixes. In each episode of the sitcom the TV family of six are seen on screen together in recording sessions and concert performances, playing the part of performers, but none except Cassidy and Jones was involved in any of the actual recordings. Two tracks on the 1970 debut LP The Partridge Family Album do not feature Cassidy. These songs, "I'm on the Road" and "I Really Want to Know You", were sung in blended-harmony style by members of the Ron Hicklin Singers: brothers John and Tom Bahler, Ron Hicklin and Jackie Ward (who in 1963, as Robin Ward, charted with the no. 14 hit "Wonderful Summer"[7]). These professional singers feature throughout the Partridge Family's output.

Cassidy was originally to lip sync to dubbed vocals with the rest of the cast but convinced Farrell that he could sing, and was allowed to join the studio ensemble as the lead singer.[2]^:56–60

Two different songs were used as the opening theme to the TV series. Season 1 features "When We're Singin'" (Wes Farrell and Diane Hildebrand):

"Come on down and meet everybody,
And hear us singin'.
There's nothing better than being together,
When we're singin'.
Five of us, and Mom working all day,
We knew we could help her if our music would pay.
Danny got Reuben to sell our song,
And it really came together when Mom sang along..." (from "When We're Singin'")

The other seasons all feature "C'mon Get Happy" (Wes Farrell and Danny Janssen), which retained the "When We're Singin'" tune but featured new lyrics by Danny Janssen:

Hello world, hear the song that we're singing.
C'mon get happy.
A whole lot o' loving is what we'll be bringin'
We'll make you happy.
We had a dream, we'd go travelin' together,
We spread a little love and then we keep movin' on.
Somethin' always happens whenever we're together;
We get a happy feelin' when we're singing a song..." (from "C'Mon Get Happy")

Nickelodeon featured a run of The Partridge Family from 1993 to 1994 as part of its Nick at Nite lineup. The network used interviews and commercials featuring cast members, and created a new version of the bus for promotion. The show also aired at various times on USA Network, Fox Family, Ion Television, and Hallmark Channel. As of January 2011, it airs on Antenna TV. FETV also started airing The Partridge Family in December 2017.

The cast was reunited in 1977 on the special Thanksgiving Reunion with The Partridge Family and My Three Sons. They reunited again in the 1990s on The Arsenio Hall Show and the short-lived talk show Danny! (1995) and were featured on E! True Hollywood Story, Biography and VH1's Behind the Music.

When the digital subchannel Antenna TV premiered in January 2011, The Partridge Family became one of its offerings through the network's distribution agreement with Sony Pictures Television (parent company and successor of series producer Screen Gems).[11][12][13][14] From November 25–27, 2020, Antenna TV aired all 96 episodes in chronological order to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the series' debut.[15]

The Partridge Family was produced for ABC by Screen Gems. The company promoted the show by releasing a series of albums featuring the family band, though David Cassidy and Shirley Jones (as backing vocalist) were the only cast members who were actually featured on the recordings.[2]^:56–60

As the show and other associated merchandising soared, Cassidy became a teen idol.[2]^:68–73 The producers signed Cassidy as a solo act as well. Cassidy began touring with his own group of musicians, performing Partridge songs, as well as hits from his own albums, to thousands of screaming teenagers in major stadiums across the US, UK, Europe, Japan and Australia.

The Partridge Family remain best known for their 1970 smash debut single "I Think I Love You", written by Tony Romeo, who had penned the big 1968 hit "Indian Lake" (and other records) by the Cowsills. "I Think I Love You" spent three weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 in November and December of 1970. It sold more than five million copies, outselling the Beatles' "Let It Be", was awarded a gold disc, and made the group the third fictional artist to have a number one hit (after the Chipmunks and the Archies).[17] The single's parent LP, The Partridge Family Album, reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200. It was also awarded gold status by the RIAA in December 1970, having sold more than 500,000 copies.[17] A string of US and/or UK hit singles followed: "Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted", "I'll Meet You Halfway", "I Woke Up In Love This Morning", "It's One of Those Nights (Yes Love)", "Am I Losing You", and covers of the early- to -mid-1960s hits "Looking Through the Eyes of Love", "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" and "Walking in the Rain".[18] These singles were showcased on the three gold-certified albums Up To Date (1971), Sound Magazine (1971) and Shopping Bag (1972), plus The Partridge Family Notebook (1972), Crossword Puzzle (1973) and Bulletin Board (1973).[19] The holiday album A Partridge Family Christmas Card was the top-selling Christmas record of 1971.[20] Record sales success was replicated internationally, with both the Partridge Family group and Cassidy as a solo singer achieving huge hits in Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In all, the Partridge Family released 89 songs on nine albums between 1970 and 1973.

Though Danny Bonaduce was not part of the session band, he also got a recording contract. His self-titled debut LP was released in 1973 by Lion Records, a subsidiary label of MGM Records. The single from the album, "Dreamland", was a minor hit.[21][22] Though Bonaduce was credited as lead singer on all songs, he insists that he had a weak voice and that Bruce Roberts provided most of the vocals on the album. The first track, "I'll Be Your Magician", in which the 13-year-old Bonaduce seduces a woman into having sexual intercourse with him, has developed a cult following for its campy entertainment value. The original, watered-down version was recorded with Cassidy for the Sound Magazine album, but was discarded and never released. In fall 2010, Cassidy dared Bonaduce to learn how to play the bass guitar lines for the songs the Partridge Family performed. Bonaduce learned the bass guitar line for "Doesn't Somebody Want to Be Wanted", stating that although he had no ability to read music, the song was relatively easy to learn; Cassidy and Bonaduce subsequently performed together on rare occasions.[23]

In conjunction with the songs featured by Ricky Segall in the fourth season of the TV show, Bell Records released the album Ricky Segall and The Segalls in 1973. Seven of the album's 10 tracks were featured on the TV show. Two tracks were also released as a single, "Sooner or Later"/"Say Hey Willie" (Bell 45429).

The Partridges had a brief resurgence in animated form that saw the family propelled into the future. The animated Partridges 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 in 1974, Partridge Family 2200 A.D. (also called The Partridge Family in Outer Space when rerun later as part of Fred Flintstone and Friends). Jones and Cassidy did not voice their animated characters and Susan Dey and Dave Madden had very limited involvement with this cartoon.

Released in 1971 by Milton Bradley, The Partridge Family Game offers a glimpse of what life on the road was like for one of TV's favorite fictional pop bands. The back of the box explains, “As on TV, many happenings occur to the Partridge family, this game describes one of them. They have finished playing at a local arena and must hurry to their BUS to get traveling again. On the way, they may have some delays.” The object of the game is to be the first player to get back to the tour bus.[24]

Charlton Comics produced a comic book featuring the Partridge Family between March 1971 and December 1973 and later on just David Cassidy comic books. It features stories about the characters, song lyrics and features about Cassidy.[25] The drawings were provided by Don Sherwood.[26][27]

Three years after the show's cancellation, Jones and other cast members gathered with cast members of My Three Sons for the ABC special Thanksgiving Reunion with The Partridge Family and My Three Sons, which aired on November 25, 1977. The show featured the casts discussing the histories of their shows, although other than Jones and Fred MacMurray both portraying single parents of large families, the two series had no narrative link.

In 1995, a majority of the cast appeared on Bonaduce's talk show Danny!, including Shirley Jones, Dave Madden, Jeremy Gelbwaks, Brian Forster, Suzanne Crough, Ricky Segall and the show's executive producer Bob Claver. Susan Dey was working on a movie at the time but called into the show to briefly reminisce with Bonaduce. David Cassidy was also unable to appear as he was working on a new album at that time.

In 1999, a "behind-the-scenes" TV movie called Come On Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story aired on ABC. The film focuses on the lives of Danny Bonaduce (who narrated) and David Cassidy.

In 2004, VH1 produced a pilot for a syndicated The New Partridge Family, starring Suzanne Sole as Shirley, Leland Grant as Keith, Emma Stone as Laurie, Spencer Tuskowski as Danny, and French Stewart as Reuben Kincaid. The pilot was the only episode produced. The episode ended with a teaser for "next week's episode" in which the children's estranged father, played by Danny Bonaduce, drops in for a surprise visit with his same-sex life partner.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released all four seasons of The Partridge Family on DVD in Region 1. Seasons 1 and 2 have been released in Regions 2 and 4.

On October 15, 2013, Sony released The Partridge Family – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.[28] The 12-disc set features all 96 episodes of the series as well as bonus features.

The Screen Gems closing logo was removed from episodes for the first three seasons on DVD.

On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including The Partridge Family.[29] They subsequently re-released the first two seasons on June 24, 2014.[30]

On September 22, 2015, Mill Creek re-released Partridge Family – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 with the original Screen Gems logo reinstated at the end of the credits. No American DVD releases contain the epilogue to episode #25 (which does appear on Region 2 & 4 releases), the unaired 1969 pilot or any episodes of the spin-off series Getting Together.[31]