C'mon Get Happy!

“C’mon, get happy,” as soon as you heard that song you knew The Partridge Family was on television. This was another one of my all-time favorite television shows of the 1970s. It aired on ABC on Friday nights from September 1970 through March 1974.

Most people don’t know that The Partridge Family was loosely based on a real-life musical family, the Cowsills. They were a popular band of the 1960s and 1970s. The band included six siblings and later their mother. They were from Newport, Rhode Island. Their most popular hits were, “The Rain, The Park and Other Things,” (Also known as the flower song), “We Can Fly,” “Indian Lake,” and “Hair.”

The Cowsills were always one of my favorite bands of that era, and I always loved the flower song. They were inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame on Sunday, April 28, 2013. As of 2024, a few of the band members are still together, and still perform. Since 2015, they have appeared with several other sixties bands on the “Happy Together” tour. If you have not seen it, I would highly recommend it. It is great!

The Partridge Family, was an American musical sitcom that starred Shirley Jones, and David Cassidy as the headliners. What female species was not in love with David Cassidy? The Partridge Family emulates the Cowsills in the fact that they are a family of five siblings, and their mother, traveling around the country in a 1957 Chevrolet Series 6800 Superior bus painted with Mondrian-inspired patterns performing live at different venues.

Danny Bonaduce starred as Danny, a precocious street smart 10-year-old, who finds a manager named Reuben Kincaid, played by Dave Madden. In their pilot episode, The Partridge Family played their first live gig at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Subsequent episodes showed the band performing in various venues, or in their garage. The series often tried to show a contrast between the suburban life of the band, and the adventures of a show-business family on the road.

During the first season of the series, there was another song the show opened with, and most people never noticed when it switched during the second season. The first season opened with the song, “When We’re Singin.” It wasn’t until the second season that “C’mon Get Happy” was the opening song for the show.

The show was always interesting and very popular. It had many famous guest stars. Some of which, were not famous until after the show. Some of the stars included Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd, Jaclyn Smith, Bobby Sherman, Johnny Cash, Ray Bolger, Johnny Bench, and many more.

However, there were many episodes that featured Danny trying to hustle someone or something and was always getting into trouble. Then his mother would have to talk with him about what he had done wrong, and why he should not have done it. It was truly a very wholesome television series for its time.

Most of the music performed on the show was done by David Cassidy, Shirley Jones, the Ron Hicklin Singers as backing vocalists, and several of the era’s most highly regarded studio musicians, now known as “the Wrecking Crew.”

The Partridge Family had many hit songs on the series, but their biggest smash hit was “I Think I Love You,” in 1970. Other songs included “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted,” “I’ll Meet You Halfway,” “I Woke Up in Love This Morning,” and many more.

These songs were all feel good songs. My favorite is still, “I Think I Love You.” Every time I hear these songs, I just start singing and they put me in a good mood. I believe the series, and the music were so positive and had that effect on people of the day. “C’mon Get Happy,” is a catchy, happy positive tune, and I guarantee if you listen to it, it will put you in a good mood, and you will start singing with it too. Most people do not know that it was originally sung by Judy Garland in her 1950 film, “Summer Stock.”

The Partridge Family released 89 songs on nine albums between 1970 and 1973. The series had 96 episodes and was canceled in 1974.

          The main characters today.

          Dave Madden, who played Reuben Kincaid, the manager, died on January 16, 2014, in Jacksonville, Florida, he had been receiving hospice care for complications of myelodysplastic syndrome. He was 82.

          Suzanne Crough, who played the youngest girl, Tracy Partridge, died on April 27, 2015, while sitting at her dining room table at her home in Laughlin, Nevada. The Clark County, Nevada coroner listed the cause of death as arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia, a rare form of cardiomyopathy. She was 52.

          David Cassidy was hospitalized with liver and kidney failure and was in a medically induced coma. Two days later, he came out of the coma, but died on November 17, 2017, while waiting for a liver transplant. According to his daughter, Katie Cassidy, his last words were, “So much wasted time.” He was 67.

          Susan Dey went on to star as Grace Van Owen on the television drama series L.A. Law from 1986 to 1992. She won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for L.A. Law in 1988. She is 72.

          Shirly Jones is 90. She will be 91 on March 31, 2025.