The Good

Reminded me A LOT of all the things I love about “The Brady Bunch.” The shows were well written, succinct and dealt with everyday issues people face.

The Bad

Too much singing on a show that should have just focused on the plots of the stories they were telling.

While not in any way shape or form as good as “The Brady Bunch,” The Partridge Family - The Complete Second Season was a really great show when the character’s weren’t singing. I think Shirley Jones (Shirley Partridge), David Cassidy (Keith Partridge), Susan Dey (Laurie Partridge) and Danny Bonaduce (Danny Partridge) as well as the rest of the cast are all very good on this show (my favorite moments were when Danny and Keith would scheme together), but I just could have done without all the singing. I felt it made this TV show seem like a musical and other than Grease, Little Shop of Horrors and West Side Story I am not fan of that type of movie.

My favorite episode by far was “Fellini, Bergman, and Partridge.” In this installment, Keith tries to prove how easy it is to make films. Well, with a little bit of Danny’s help he sees how wrong he is. As we are nearing in on the Holiday season I also enjoyed, “Don’t Bring Your Guns to Town, Santa.” In this episode our faithful family gets stuck in a ghost town and has to spend their time hearing stories from a stranger. Lastly, I loved “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Partridge.” When Keith decides to start setting good examples for his siblings, he inevitably goes about it the wrong way. In all honesty, if each show would have been 20 minutes and there had been no singing, I probably would have sought out The Partridge Family much sooner than I have.

Features

Jump to Musical Performances

While I am not sure if this qualifies as a “Special Feature,” one can go disk by disc and just watch the musical numbers if they wish. If you have read the above paragraphs than you know that I really didn’t take advantage of it. That said, I am sure that there are going to be some rabid fans who will find this very useful.

Video

1.33:1 - Full Screen. I love the easy, classical look that this show employs. Sure, it takes place in the 1970s and I think that a lot of the clothing and hair styles leave a lot to be desired, but there is something about the quality of the film that is very tight and structured. Composed in a way that isn’t flashy but emphasizes all the colors, what makes this show work is that it isn’t busy. As a product of the 1970s The Partridge Family - The Complete Second Season doesn’t seem to be calling too much attention to that. If it were made now, it would look and act retro. Since it’s a product of that time it plays very easily against much of today’s current programming.

Audio

Dolby Digital. Remastered in High Definition. Close Captioned. English. Well, I most likely would have gotten more out of this box set if I liked the songs they were singing. For fans of this show this DVD set will serve two purposes. They can watch the shows and then play the DVDs like they are CDs using the “Jump to Musical Performances” feature. I thought that overall the sound was really good. There weren’t any dropouts and I didn’t have to raise the volume on my TV set that loud to hear what the characters were saying. I think remastering these shows (especially the songs) is a nice bonus for the fans.

Package

Lots of blue and yellow make up the bright front cover of this vinyl cardboard box. The complete Partridge Family stands in the center wearing white shirts and burgundy vests. Danny Bonaduce seems to be in the middle of a dance move or something. Behind them is the famous Partridge Family bus. The back features another shot of the family standing in a frame, with their Manager Reuben (Dave Madden) splattered in paint, looking arty as he acts like he’s painting a picture of them. There is a tiny description of what this season is about, a “Special Features” listing and some technical specs. Inside are two slim cases that house 3 discs. The cast members are split up among the covers, with Bonaduce and David Cassidy getting the biggest pictures. The back of the covers features an index of the episodes for the DVDs as well as descriptions. I love the slimness of this digipack design.

Final Word

Until MovieWeb gave me this 3 disc set to review I had never watched one episode of The Partridge Family. I had heard about it and the closest I came to seeing anything related to it, was when Danny Bonaduce fought on some Celebrity Boxing show. I really was impressed with how good this show was. I am a huge “Brady Bunch” fan. If I had to be put on a deserted island I would certainly take a season of “Brady” DVDs along. As such, I think this admiration overshadowed my ever watching an episode of The Partridge Family.

My favorite thing about this show was that sure it was light, it was funny and it always resolved things in 30 minutes or less, but The Partridge Family - The Complete Second Season was a very real show. I was able to truly identify with Danny, Keith and Laurie. Yes, the setup is a bit of a put on (they are a family of pop musicians for crying out loud!), but on the whole I found the plots and the writing on this show to be very well done.

The Partridge Family was released .