I'm not sure there was ever a better TV schedule than the early 70s Friday night one-two punch of The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family. Yea I know they weren't considered to be "hits" or anything, but that's just because of the demographics that that goofy Nielsen guy counted as "viewers." I assure you, all of my friends, and no doubt all of their friends, too, watched The Bradys' and right after them, the family Partridge.
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| While Eve Plumb has little really to do with this post, I had such a crush on "Jan" that I was even jealous of George Glass. |
While both shows were (and are) undeniably great, The Partridge's did tinker with their greatness, almost detrimentally so, after the first season.
While there were many an episode where the Brady kids would break into song, the Partridge Family, by virtue of being a pop band, broke into song at least once an episode. Despite never really being featured, it was clear that young drummer Chris was pretty awesome at keeping that backbeat going, allowing the rest of the family to shine. Because he was so solid, it came as a complete shock on that September night, the second season's opener, when the opening credits rolled, and there was no Chris. Well that's not fair. There was a Chris. But a different Chris. And it was obvious, even after only seeing the opening credits, that this new, surrogate Chris, was not only not the Chris; this Chris was nowhere near as good a drummer as the real Chris was either. Don't believe me? Check out the quality of the songs before and after the real Chris left:
Before: After:
I Think I Love You Whale Song
I Can Feel Your Heartbeat
I'll Meet You Halfway
All these roads point to this morning's earworm, which also happens to be one of the Partridge's greatest. (Naturally. It features the real Chris.)
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| The real Chris on the skins. |
Let the earworms sing!
"Point me in the direction of Albuquerque. I need to go ho-ome. Help me get ho-oh-ome. (Gimme dat, gimme dat gimme dat, gimme dat)"
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