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Come on, get happy! If you don’t we’ll make you watch wholesome and quite funny DVD and I guarantee it’ll filter into your brain and tickle your funny bone. You might even smile! OK, I was traumatized when Christopher number one was replaced by Christopher number two. Granted, the first Christopher had all the acting chops and appeal of a 2x4 but it shattered the illusion for me of this quaint TV family. “The Partridge Family” took the plan of “The Monkees” to more of an extreme; the members of the “family” here never played their musical instruments (and couldn’t) and, with the exception of David Cassidy and Shirley Jones, didn’t even appear on the musical soundtrack of the show. Cassidy exploded into a teen heartthrob and the actors inthe show faced issues that their alter egos did as well but without the wholesome resolution (i.e., groupies, etc.). ***

“The Partridge Family” may not be a “great” comedy but its still loads of fun. The sweet nature of the series makes even the worst episodes go down easy. The fun, though, is looking for the guest stars some of whom would become high profile players or icons later down the road. Seeing Mark Hamill, Richard Pryor, Louis Gossett Jr., Johnny Cash, Richard Mulligan, Farah Fawcett, Jaclyn Sith and others in their guest star turns is still a hoot. Combine all that with the toe tapping power pop written by people like Neil Sedaka, Wes Farrell and others and you’ve got a fun evening for preteens. Although the music and situations might not lend themselves to our modern post-ironic world like they did in 1970, there’s still enough appeal here to entertain kids. As a time capsule of the 70’s you could do far worse. ---

God Bless Columbia Tristar as they elected not to take the easy way out for this classic series. We get loads of extras considering how old the series is. First the complaints; it appears that one episode is the edited syndicated version of “Knights in Shining Armor” (the final episode of the first season) vs. the original network first run episode. I suspect this was an accident and that Columbia-Tristar probably wasn’t aware of the situation until fans pointed it out. One of the nicest features for fans of the music is the option to jump directly to the musical performance for each episode. ***

We get two fine featurettes on the series. “Boarding the Bus” features interviews with cast members David Cassidy, Danny Bonaduce, Dave Madden and Shirley Jones discussing the pop phenomena the show became in 1970. Cassidy relates some funny stories about how the series boosted his career and made him a hot commodity. Although Cassidy doesn’t do Emmy Award turns in the series, he’s a natural, charming screen presence in the series. That charm continues to radiate and is evident in the featurette. “The Sound of Partridge” focuses on the songs written for the series. There’s interviews with Jones and Casidy (they were the only two involved in the recording sessions from the series) as well as interviews with the songwriters/producers and performers that appeared on the records. We also get a fine photo gallery that includes the album covers. The most important part, though, is the CD premium mentioned on the box. This CD features a number of songs that were recorded for the TV episodes that never made it to vinyl during the show’s run as well as songs recorded for the albums that weren’t used. ***

Columbia-Tristar thoughtful decided to include two episodes from the very, very bad Hanna-Barbara cartoon series “The Partridge Family 2200 A.D.” The animation is typical TV quality for the 70’s but the fun in these episodes is looking at some of the backgrounds (many of which look like they were recycled from “The Jetsons” and other Hanna-Barbara productions) and the inane writing of the show. “Car Trouble” and “My Son the Spaceball Star” are included with this set. Let’s hope that future sets of the series will include additional episodes as well. ---