The Partridge Family: Season 02 (1971) Reviews

Season two of The Partridge Family is significant for two reasons: number one, the role of Chris Patridge, played during season one by Jeremy Gelbwaks, is taken over by Brian Foster, who would remain with the series until its cancellation two years later; number two, the series' theme song, "When We're Singin'," is given new lyrics and a new title, the now-familiar "Come On, Get Happy." This season's crop of episodes (which includes the classic installment in which Danny Partridge [Danny Bonaduce] worries about losing his singing voice due to tonsillitis) is graced by a number of prominent guest stars. Rob Reiner is seen as a motorcycle hippie named Snake, who falls in love with Laurie Partridge (Susan Dey). Howard Cosell shows up as himself (as if there was any other part he could play) in an episode filmed at Marineland of the Pacific. Dean Jagger appears as a grizzled old prospector who becomes a proxy Santa when the Partridges are stranded in a Nevada ghost town during Christmas, while in another episode with a desert setting, Harry Morgan plays a garage mechanic who gently persuades the family to perform a free concert for a local Native American tribe. Meredith Baxter-Birney is cast as a free-spirited millionairess who may or may not be able to provide the Partridges with lifetime financial security. Arte Johnson goes into his foreign-accent mode as a Russian émigré who offers his services as a jack of all trades to a "typical middle-class American family" (guess who?). And in the season finale, former Hogan's Heroes co-star John Banner, who died in 1972, delivers his final TV performance, as a retired vaudeville mind reader. And, of course, we must not forget the Partridges themselves, led by Shirley Patridge (Shirley Jones), with teen heartthrob Keith Partridge (David Cassidy) writing the songs, younger kids Laurie, Danny, Chris, and Tracy (Suzanne Crough) doubling as vocalists and instrumentalists, and grouchy, kid-hating agent Reuben Kinkaid (Dave Madden) ever seeking out newer and greater methods of enriching himself and his clients. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi