History Series / ThePartridgeFamily

This 1970-74 half-hour SitCom was part of Creator/{{ABC}}'s Friday night lineup and is inextricably bound to ''Series/TheBradyBunch,'' its companion in the previous time slot, in the minds of those old enough to have seen it during its original run. It depicted the life and adventures of a family GarageBand that suddenly got their big break and shot to top 40 success after adding their thirty-something mother to the lineup. The cast featured Hollywood favorite Creator/ShirleyJones (best known up to this point for her roles in a number of classic movie [[TheMusical musicals]]) and Dave Madden, a veteran of ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''. The series also featured Jones' stepson Creator/DavidCassidy, whom it subsequently launched into brief but intense teen idol superstardom. Also included in the young cast were future star Creator/SusanDey (later of ''Series/LALaw'') and future scandal-wracked DJ Creator/DannyBonaduce.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: In-universe example. In "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Partridge," Keith drags the younger kids to a modern art exhibit that features a collection of flashing neon shapes, a statue of a man's torso with a hand coming out of his neck and a head and a foot where his arms should be, and what looks like a trash bag with a man trapped inside.

->'''Shirley:''' Tracy, don't put that drumstick up your nose!\\
'''Tracy:''' Why not?\\
'''Shirley:''' You don't know where it's been!

This 1970-74 half-hour SitCom was part of Creator/{{ABC}}'s Friday night lineup and is inextricably bound to ''Series/TheBradyBunch,'' its companion in the previous time slot, in the minds of those old enough to have seen it during its original run. It depicted the life and adventures of a family GarageBand that suddenly got their big break and shot to top 40 success after adding their thirty-something mother to the lineup. The cast featured Hollywood favorite Shirley Jones (best known up to this point for her roles in a number of classic movie [[TheMusical musicals]]) and Dave Madden, a veteran of ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''. The series also featured Jones' stepson Creator/DavidCassidy, whom it subsequently launched into brief but intense teen idol superstardom. Also included in the young cast were future star Creator/SusanDey (later of ''Series/LALaw'') and future scandal-wracked DJ Creator/DannyBonaduce.

* BrotherChuck: The family dog, Simone.

* ScrabbleBabble: While playing scrabble with Laurie, Danny tries to play "Brogak," which he says is an elf-like creature found in Thailand, frequently stuffed and made into lamps.

* PlayingGertrude: In "Aspirin at 7, Dinner at 8," Shirley dates a doctor (Gerald Hiken, age 45) and meets his mother (Nancy Walker, age 50).

* CharacterNarrator: Shirley, but only in the first season.
* ChildHater: Reuben pretends to be one, although it's clear he cares for the Partridge kids.

* ChildrenInTow: In the AnimatedCreditsOpening, the family is represented as a mother partridge and her five children following behind her.

** Additionally, the ending theme was changed after season one, from a brassy, jazzy tune, to an instrumental version of "C'mon, Get Happy."

* WhoWearsShortShorts: In one episode, the family got new outfits with the girls wearing short-shorts. Tracy asks, "Why are they called hot pants? I'm cold."

''The Partridge Family'' was originally proposed as a vehicle for the real-world family rock group Music/TheCowsills (famous for their hits "Indian Lake", "The Rain, The Park and Other Things", and "Hair"). However, the erstwhile producers determined that the Cowsills, while musically talented, were not charismatic enough to carry a television series except for the youngest girl; furthermore, they felt the children were all already too grown up for their plans. The Cowsills' involvement was quickly abandoned and the concept retooled to focus on a fictional family band. Alternately, some accounts claim that the Cowsills walked out on the project on their own accord when the producers refused to use their mother, Barbara, and cast Shirley Jones instead, or that the producers got fed up with the Cowsills' {{Jerkass}} StageDad Bud and dropped the band.

* ActingUnnatural: In "Old Scrapmouth", Laurie's boyfriend lurks around her home in the hopes of "accidentally" running into her so he can ask her to go steady. He walks past the house thirty-five times, attracting the attention of Laurie's siblings, and at one point runs into a kid because he isn't watching where he's going.

* AmateurFilmMakingPlot: "Fellini, Bergman, and Partridge", in which Keith makes a movie called "[[NonIndicativeTitle 16 1/2]]" starring himself and his family. Keith manages to get it shown at a local theater, but the others make him edit out all the embarrassing footage first, and there's almost nothing left. Keith edits the remaining footage to last as long as possible, and the family gives a live performance while it plays.

** Not quite the same thing, but Danny, Laurie, Chris, and Tracy, appeared in several episodes of the Creator/HannaBarbera series ''WesternAnimation/GooberAndTheGhostChasers''.[[note]]Here, they were billed as "The Partridge Kids".[[/note]]

* AppealToObscurity: In "Mom Drops Out", a promoter tells Keith and Laurie what will happen if they break their contract.

* BaseballEpisode: "The Strike-Out King", in which Shirley has Danny sign up for baseball so he can make some friends his own age.
* BathroomBreakOut: In "Road Song", a teenage runaway who hitchhiked with the family pretends to take a shower, then escapes through the bathroom window so she won't be returned to her grandparents. Later, Danny uses the same trick when Shirley makes him stay behind in the hotel room during the search for the girl. He manages to climb back in just in as Shirley gets home.

* BirthdayEpisode: Shirley celebrates her birthday in "I Can Get It For You Retail". Danny wants to buy Shirley a mink coat, so he starts stealing Keith's possessions and selling them to his GroupieBrigade, including his toothbrush, his bedboard, and even some of his hair.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: At the end of "Don't Bring Your Guns To Town, Santa", the characters all [[HuddlePower form a huddle]], then turn to the camera and sing "Merry Christmas!"
* BrokenAesop: In the episode titled "Old Scrapmouth", Laurie is mortified that she has to get braces (something that a lot of teenagers get at some point or another), and everyone acts like getting braces is " bad news!" While having braces doesn't change how her boyfriend thinks of her, in the end she still has her braces made only so that she can wear them like a retainer at night- then she wouldn't have to be seen with them during the day.
* BrokenPedestal: Played for laughs in "Me And My Shadow". When Danny finds out a wealthy author willingly donated $25,000 to charity, he says, "Another idol bites the dust."

* TheCaper: In "Forgive Us Our Debits", Keith, Laurie, and Danny get "revenge" on a computer that almost cheated them out of thousands of dollars by breaking into the computer room and sending Shirley a check for $50,000.

* ChildishPillowFight: Danny and Chris get in one in "This Is My Song". Shirley goes into their room to tell them to quit fighting and go to sleep, but they start hitting each other again as soon as she's gone.

* ChristmasEpisode: In "Don't Bring Your Guns To Town, Santa", the bus breaks down in a ghost town on Christmas Eve. While Keith and Reuben try to fix the bus, the others listen to the town's one inhabitant tell a story about the town's past, with all the main characters played by the show's cast.

* ClosetShuffle: In "Waiting for Bolero", Shirley knocks on Keith's door in the middle of a date when he was supposed to be working on a song. Keith shoves the girl into a closet and hides as much evidence as he can before letting Shirley in. She still immediately realizes what's going on because of the smell of perfume in the air and the pom-pom he left on the sofa.
* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere: In "Each Dawn I Diet", Reuben is trying to kick his cigarette addiction. He tells the family, "I was doing okay until I saw that movie on television last night. Then I just had to have a cigarette." Keith asks, "How could watching ''Literature/{{Heidi}}'' remind you of a cigarette?" Reuben replies, "''Everything'' reminds me of a cigarette."

* {{Costumer}}: "Don't Bring Your Guns To Town, Santa", starring Shirley as the owner of a [[DrunkOnMilk G-rated saloon]], Keith as the ineffectual, guitar-strumming sheriff/historian, Laurie as a schoolmarm, Chris and Tracy as local children, Reuben as a [[KickTheDog balloon-popping]] outlaw who tries to steal the town bell, and Danny as the reformed gambler who wins the bell back.

* CrushFilter: In "Dora, Dora, Dora", Keith watches a pretty but tone-deaf teenage girl mangle "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". He sees her as a GaussianGirl with a beautiful voice, accompanied by violins and a choir instead of just Laurie's piano.
* DartboardOfHate: In "Promise Her Anything but Give Her a Punch", Danny throws darts at a publicity photo of David Cassidy because he's upset that [[LoveTriangle his crush has a crush on Keith]].
* ADayInHerApron: In "This Male Chauvinist Piggy Went to Market", the students at Keith and Laurie's high school are required to take the opposite gender's classes so they can learn how other people live. The two have a contest to see whether Keith can do better at cooking than Laurie can at car maintenance. Naturally, Laurie does everything perfectly, while Keith's spinach soufflé turns out so inedible, he uses it as a planter.
* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: The family performs "When We're Singin'" while on tour in Paris during the first-season episode "Mom Drops Out".

* DontTouchItYouIdiot: In "Al in the Family", Reuben's incompetent nephew temporarily takes over as the family's manager. During one show, he sees a large red button with a sign that says "DO NOT TOUCH." He immediately presses it, turning off all the stage lights.
* TheDoorSlamsYou: At the beginning of "The Selling of the Partridges", Reuben is trying to repair the front doorknob. Shirley and Danny both walk into the house, hitting him with it. Then Laurie walks through the open door and pushes it shut, away from Reuben. Just as Reuben's starting to get back to work, Keith flings the door open, knocking him into the wall.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: In "Guess Who's Coming to Drive", Shirley decides to hire another driver for the family bus. One of the applicants swerves all the way down the street, hops a curb, and pops one of the tires.

* EmbarrassingAnimalSuit: In "Bedknobs and Drumsticks", the characters have to dress up in chicken costumes for a fast food ad, so they deliberately make the ad as terrible as possible so the company won't be able to use it. According to her personal website, this was Shirley Jones's least favorite episode.
* EmbarrassingRescue: In "I Left My Heart in Cincinnati", Keith tries doing a one-and-a-half gainer with a twist off a diving board to impress a girl, but ends up bellyflopping, knocking himself unconscious, and needing to be pulled out of the water by Danny.

* FallingInLoveMontage: Reuben and his girlfriend Cathleen have one in "They Shoot Managers, Don't They?" set to "She'd Rather Have the Rain".

* LeFilmArtistique: Reuben takes the kids to an experimental film in "[[Creator/FedericoFellini Fellini]], [[Creator/IngmarBergman Bergman]], and Partridge". All we learn about the plot is that it features exploding flowers and an asparagus patch covered in shaving cream. Laurie likes it, but the others all think it's nonsense, including Reuben.
* FrivolousLawsuit: In "The Sound of Money", Shirley accidentally rear-ends a car with the tour bus. There's no damage, but once the driver realizes they're in show business, he pretends to have injured his back and sues the family for $500,000. Danny enlists Reuben's help in tricking the man into bending over so he can take a picture of it and prove he's lying.

* {{Gaslighting}}: An unintentional example. When Danny starts stealing and auctioning off Keith's things in "I Can Get It For You Retail", the rest of the family thinks he's just being forgetful. When Danny tries to apologize, Keith says, "I felt like I was in the middle of ''Film/{{Gaslight}}''!"
* GeneHunting: In "A Partridge by Any Other Name", Danny becomes convinced he's adopted because he can't find his birth certificate or any childhood photos. He goes to the hospital, finds that a boy was born on his birthday to Mrs. M. Young, and proceeds to track down every M. Young in the phone book.

* GilliganCut: In "In 25 Words or Less", Keith's AbhorrentAdmirer tells him, "Oh, don't be silly! I would never ask you to take me to [[MakeOutPoint Muldoon's Point]]!" The next shot is of the two of them in a car, with her saying, "So, this is Muldoon's Point!"

* GoshDarnItToHeck: During one of Danny's {{imagine spot}}s in "See Here, Private Partridge", Reuben tells Danny, "Now go out and give 'em heck!"
* GreenAesop: In "Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?", the band records a song with whale singing in the background, with lyrics like "If people don't listen, and people don't know, might the song of the man be the next song to go?" They donate all their profits to the New York Zoological Society.
* GroupieBrigade: Keith acquires one in "Love at First Slight". They sign up for auto shop to be with him, stalk him home, and chase him down the street.
* HandGagging: In "Old Scrapmouth", Danny tries to tell Laurie's boyfriend she has braces. Laurie wanted to tell him herself, so Keith claps his hand over Danny's mouth.
* HeelRealization: In "Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?", the family encounters a money-grubbing FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit who tries to profit off a record the family made in order to [[GreenAesop raise awareness of the endangerment of the whales]]. Danny sees himself in the man, and doesn't like what he sees.

* HeistEpisode: In "The Partridge Papers", Laurie's SecretDiary falls into the hands of a boy at school, who threatens to publish it in the school newspaper. She, Danny, and Keith hatch a ''Series/MissionImpossible'' style plan to break into the school and steal it back.
* HereWeGoAgain: In "My Son, the Feminist", Keith accidentally signs the family up to perform at a feminist rally. At the end of the episode, it turns out Danny accidentally signed the family up to perform for a group of MoralGuardians. The ensuing argument is almost identical to the one at the beginning of the episode.
* HurtFootHop: Reuben hops on one foot after stumbling over a coffee table in "A Knight in Shining Armor".
* IHaveThisFriend: In "Where Do Mermaids Go?", a cop asks Shirley for an autograph for his son, who he says listens to the Partridge Family all the time. When Shirley asks what the son's name is, the cop says, "Officer Bodie."

* InsistentTerminology: Danny prefers to call the bulletin board in the kitchen the "communications center".
* InsultBackfire: In "Mom Drops Out", a TotallyRadical concert promoter tries to fire Shirley for being too old and uncool. When Laurie calls him a homewrecker, he says, "Homewrecker! Hey, I like the ring of that! Home-wrec-ker!"

* IronicEchoCut: In "Helllllp", Shirley hears a funny sound and says, "I haven't heard a noise like that since Tracy bit Reuben on the toe!" Cut to Reuben doing a HurtFootHop, saying, "I haven't felt pain like this since Tracy bit me on the toe!"
* ItsNotPornItsArt: In "My Heart Belongs to a Two-Car Garage", a traveling Russian handyman who claims to be a celebrated artist paints a huge, mostly-naked woman on family's garage, causing an uproar in the neighborhood. In the end a man from the local art museum sees the painting, declares it a masterpiece, and has the front of the garage transported to the museum.

* LaughingAtYourOwnJokes: When Reuben sits down on a cot in "Go Directly to Jail", it folds shut on him. Reuben grumbles, "This cot belongs in jail. It can't go straight." He laughs to himself and repeats, "It can't go straight!"

* LoanShark: In "Soul Club", the owners of a club borrowed money from the appropriately-named Heavy and fail to pay him back on time, almost losing the club.
* LockedInARoom: In "To Play or Not to Play", the band is scheduled to play at an establishment whose employees are on strike. Laurie refuses to play because she doesn't want to be a strikebreaker. To end the strike, Danny locks himself, the manager, and one of the employees in an office and refuses to open the door until they come to an agreement. Within two hours, the manager has agreed to almost all of the employee's demands.

* TheMatchmaker: In "They Shoot Managers, Don't They?", Shirley tries to set Reuben up with her former coworker, Cathleen Darcy, by inviting them both to a barbecue. They hit it off and almost get married before they realize that Reuben wants kids and Cathleen doesn't.

* MenCantKeepHouse: When Keith briefly moves out in "Waiting for Bolero", he can't iron his shirts without burning them and needs to pay Danny to bring him food.

* MrsRobinson: In "The Undergraduate", Shirley befriends a nineteen-year-old college student named Paul Bruner, leading most of the other characters, including Paul himself, to think they're in a romantic relationship. A few characters even reference ''Film/TheGraduate'', including Paul's disapproving parents, who have seen it twice.
* MsFanservice: In "And the Memory Lingers On...", Danny goes around borrowing outfits for the family to wear because a SmellySkunk got to their usual costumes. [[https://img.sharetv.com/shows/episodes/standard/321756.jpg Shirley ends up in a hooker's outfit.]]

* OwnGoal: In "Days of Acne and Roses", it's mentioned that an awkward boy with a crush on Laurie lost a game this way, causing the opposing team to carry him out on their shoulders.
* PaperThinDisguise: In "Guess Who's Coming to Drive", Danny suspects that the family's new driver is a criminal. He follows the man wearing a plastic nose and glasses, [[NewspaperThinDisguise holding a newspaper over his face]]. He later manages to convince Reuben to wear the same disguise.

** In "The Red Woodloe Story", the titular folk singer agrees to perform with them, but on the first night he gets scared and leaves before he's supposed to appear. The next night he tries to do the same thing, but Tracy stops him and helps him overcome his stage fright.
* PhonyPsychic: In "Who Is Max Ledbetter, And Why Is He Saying All Those Horrible Things?", a retired psychic who needs $156 to keep his bakery open predicts disaster during the family's next concert and tells Danny and Keith that he needs that amount of money to help them avoid tragedy.
* PlayingGertrude: In "Aspirin at 7, Dinner at 8", Shirley dates a doctor (Gerald Hiken, age 45) and meets his mother (Nancy Walker, age 50).

* PrisonEpisode: In "Go Directly to Jail", the family performs at a prison, where one of the inmates tricks them into spending the night so he can sell them some songs he wrote. [[spoiler:Turns out he plagiarized them from another prisoner. The real writer is willing to let them use his songs as long as he's credited under a fake name.]]

* ReplacedTheThemeTune: They went from "When We're Singing" in season 1 to a similar-sounding but different song, "C'mon, Get Happy".
** Additionally, the ending theme was changed after season one, from a brassy, jazzy tune, to an instrumental version of "C'mon, Get Happy".

* RightBehindMe: In "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Partridge", the other kids play a series of tricks on Keith. They congratulate each other on their success and make fun of Keith's gullibility just as he gets home from buying groceries. He's so upset that he spends the next hour in the garage until the others go in to apologize.

* SavingTheOrphanage: In "Soul Club", the family arranges a block party with a donation bucket to save a club that's about to be taken over by a LoanShark.

* ScrabbleBabble: While playing scrabble with Laurie, Danny tries to play "Brogak", which he says is an elf-like creature found in Thailand, frequently stuffed and made into lamps.

* SmellySkunk: In the episode "And the Memory Lingers On...", a skunk hitches a ride on the Partridge Family bus and sprays the family just before they are to play a big gig.

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Shirley sings lead on "Whale Song".
* StrawFeminist: The centerpiece of the episode "My Son, the Feminist", where Keith's latest girlfriend dragoons the band into playing a women's lib event, but then insists they play her set list instead of their own recent hit. Despite being accused of being an overbearing male, Keith still brings the band on in the end to sing "I Think I Love You".

* TabloidMelodrama: In "I Am Curious... Partridge", Danny publishes a two-part article full of made-up lurid details about Keith and Shirley's sex lives, causing both of them to be incessantly harassed by people taking advice from the article. Keith gets revenge by publishing an article that claims the miserly Danny loves giving away money, causing him to be harassed by charitable organizations.
* TakingTheHeat: In "Trial of the Partridge One", Laurie is caught with a copy of a test that her friend Cindy Brown stole. She maintains her innocence, but won't tell who actually did it because Cindy's dad is the principal and the consequences of failure will be much worse for her than they will for Laurie.

** Danny asks Keith to give him one in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Partridge".

* TimeCapsule: Danny creates one in "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex... but Couldn't Pronounce". He fills it with publicity photos, autographs, and clippings from fanzine articles about himself.

* TitleDrop: In "Waiting for Bolero", Danny uses binoculars to spy on Keith and his girlfriend, whom he plans on wooing with the song "Bolero". When Laurie asks Danny what he's doing, Danny says, "Waiting for Bolero."
* TheTonsillitisEpisode: Danny comes down with tonsillitis in "Anatomy of a Tonsil". At first he's almost excited, but when his best friend Punky Lazaar tells him how horrible it was, he worries he won't survive the operation. Afterwards, he finds that his voice is raspy, and he becomes so convinced that he's lost his singing voice that he can't sing even days later when he's fully recovered.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: In-universe example. In "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Partridge", Keith drags the younger kids to a modern art exhibit that features a collection of flashing neon shapes, a statue of a man's torso with a hand coming out of his neck and a head and a foot where his arms should be, and what looks like a trash bag with a man trapped inside.
* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: In "The Eleven-Year Itch", Danny meets a girl with a crush on him. After he spends a while trying to avoid her, she gets over her crush, and they agree to be friends. Afterwards, Danny almost immediately develops a crush on her.
* UnwantedAssistance: In "Go Directly to Jail", the prison warden is setting up the band's equipment. Reuben tries to be helpful, but everything he says is something the warden already knows, and he only succeeds in slowing him down.
* VacationEpisode: "Swiss Family Partridge", in which the family arranges to spend a weekend in a mountain cabin; unfortunately for them, it rains for days on end, sinking the bus into the mud and causing some of them to worry that they'll starve to death.

* WritersBlock: At the beginning of "This Is My Song", Keith has had a two-month creative drought, leading Danny to try his hand at songwriting.

* YourTomcatIsPregnant: In "Tale of Two Hamsters", Danny buys one hamster of each sex in the hopes that he can make money breeding them. He names them Creator/DeanMartin and Sonia. Naturally, Dean Martin ends up giving birth.

* BrokenPedestal: Played for laughs in "Me And My Shadow." When Danny finds out a wealthy author willingly donated $25,000 to charity, he says, "Another idol bites the dust."

* ChildishPillowFight: Danny and Chris get in one in "This Is My Song." Shirley goes into their room to tell them to quit fighting and go to sleep, but they start hitting each other again as soon as she's gone.

* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: The family performs "When We're Singin'" while on tour in Paris during the first-season episode "Mom Drops Out."

* FallingInLoveMontage: Reuben and his girlfriend Cathleen have one in "They Shoot Managers, Don't They?" set to "She'd Rather Have the Rain."

* LeFilmArtistique: Reuben takes the kids to an experimental film in "[[Creator/FedericoFellini Fellini]], [[Creator/IngmarBergman Bergman]], and Partridge." All we learn about the plot is that it features exploding flowers and an asparagus patch covered in shaving cream. Laurie likes it, but the others all think it's nonsense, including Reuben.

[[caption-width-right:350:Six Partridges; no pear tree, just a manager..]]

* ActingUnnatural: In "Old Scrapmouth," Laurie's boyfriend lurks around her home in the hopes of "accidentally" running into her so he can ask her to go steady. He walks past the house thirty-five times, attracting the attention of Laurie's siblings, and at one point runs into a kid because he isn't watching where he's going.

* AmateurFilmMakingPlot: "Fellini, Bergman, and Partridge," in which Keith makes a movie called "[[NonIndicativeTitle 16 1/2]]" starring himself and his family. Keith manages to get it shown at a local theater, but the others make him edit out all the embarrassing footage first, and there's almost nothing left. Keith edits the remaining footage to last as long as possible, and the family gives a live performance while it plays.

* AppealToObscurity: In "Mom Drops Out," a promoter tells Keith and Laurie what will happen if they break their contract.

* BaseballEpisode: "The Strike-Out King," in which Shirley has Danny sign up for baseball so he can make some friends his own age.
* BathroomBreakOut: In "Road Song," a teenage runaway who hitchhiked with the family pretends to take a shower, then escapes through the bathroom window so she won't be returned to her grandparents. Later, Danny uses the same trick when Shirley makes him stay behind in the hotel room during the search for the girl. He manages to climb back in just in as Shirley gets home.

* BirthdayEpisode: Shirley celebrates her birthday in "I Can Get It For You Retail." Danny wants to buy Shirley a mink coat, so he starts stealing Keith's possessions and selling them to his GroupieBrigade, including his toothbrush, his bedboard, and even some of his hair.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: At the end of "Don't Bring Your Guns To Town, Santa," the characters all [[HuddlePower form a huddle]], then turn to the camera and sing "Merry Christmas!"
* BrokenAesop: In the episode titled "Old Scrapmouth," Laurie is mortified that she has to get braces (something that a lot of teenagers get at some point or another), and everyone acts like getting braces is " bad news!" While having braces doesn't change how her boyfriend thinks of her, in the end she still has her braces made only so that she can wear them like a retainer at night- then she wouldn't have to be seen with them during the day.

* TheCaper: In "Forgive Us Our Debits," Keith, Laurie, and Danny get "revenge" on a computer that almost cheated them out of thousands of dollars by breaking into the computer room and sending Shirley a check for $50,000.

* ChristmasEpisode: In "Don't Bring Your Guns To Town, Santa," the bus breaks down in a ghost town on Christmas Eve. While Keith and Reuben try to fix the bus, the others listen to the town's one inhabitant tell a story about the town's past, with all the main characters played by the show's cast.

* ClosetShuffle: In "Waiting for Bolero," Shirley knocks on Keith's door in the middle of a date when he was supposed to be working on a song. Keith shoves the girl into a closet and hides as much evidence as he can before letting Shirley in. She still immediately realizes what's going on because of the smell of perfume in the air and the pom-pom he left on the sofa.
* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere: In "Each Dawn I Diet," Reuben is trying to kick his cigarette addiction. He tells the family, "I was doing okay until I saw that movie on television last night. Then I just had to have a cigarette." Keith asks, "How could watching ''Literature/{{Heidi}}'' remind you of a cigarette?" Reuben replies, "''Everything'' reminds me of a cigarette."

* {{Costumer}}: "Don't Bring Your Guns To Town, Santa," starring Shirley as the owner of a [[DrunkOnMilk G-rated saloon]], Keith as the ineffectual, guitar-strumming sheriff/historian, Laurie as a schoolmarm, Chris and Tracy as local children, Reuben as a [[KickTheDog balloon-popping]] outlaw who tries to steal the town bell, and Danny as the reformed gambler who wins the bell back.

* CrushFilter: In "Dora, Dora, Dora," Keith watches a pretty but tone-deaf teenage girl mangle "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." He sees her as a GaussianGirl with a beautiful voice, accompanied by violins and a choir instead of just Laurie's piano.
* DartboardOfHate: In "Promise Her Anything but Give Her a Punch," Danny throws darts at a publicity photo of David Cassidy because he's upset that [[LoveTriangle his crush has a crush on Keith]].
* ADayInHerApron: In "This Male Chauvinist Piggy Went to Market," the students at Keith and Laurie's high school are required to take the opposite gender's classes so they can learn how other people live. The two have a contest to see whether Keith can do better at cooking than Laurie can at car maintenance. Naturally, Laurie does everything perfectly, while Keith's spinach soufflé turns out so inedible, he uses it as a planter.

* DontTouchItYouIdiot: In "Al in the Family," Reuben's incompetent nephew temporarily takes over as the family's manager. During one show, he sees a large red button with a sign that says "DO NOT TOUCH." He immediately presses it, turning off all the stage lights.
* TheDoorSlamsYou: At the beginning of "The Selling of the Partridges," Reuben is trying to repair the front doorknob. Shirley and Danny both walk into the house, hitting him with it. Then Laurie walks through the open door and pushes it shut, away from Reuben. Just as Reuben's starting to get back to work, Keith flings the door open, knocking him into the wall.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: In "Guess Who's Coming to Drive," Shirley decides to hire another driver for the family bus. One of the applicants swerves all the way down the street, hops a curb, and pops one of the tires.

* EmbarrassingAnimalSuit: In "Bedknobs and Drumsticks," the characters have to dress up in chicken costumes for a fast food ad, so they deliberately make the ad as terrible as possible so the company won't be able to use it. According to her personal website, this was Shirley Jones's least favorite episode.
* EmbarrassingRescue: In "I Left My Heart in Cincinnati," Keith tries doing a one-and-a-half gainer with a twist off a diving board to impress a girl, but ends up bellyflopping, knocking himself unconscious, and needing to be pulled out of the water by Danny.

* FrivolousLawsuit: In "The Sound of Money," Shirley accidentally rear-ends a car with the tour bus. There's no damage, but once the driver realizes they're in show business, he pretends to have injured his back and sues the family for $500,000. Danny enlists Reuben's help in tricking the man into bending over so he can take a picture of it and prove he's lying.

* {{Gaslighting}}: An unintentional example. When Danny starts stealing and auctioning off Keith's things in "I Can Get It For You Retail," the rest of the family thinks he's just being forgetful. When Danny tries to apologize, Keith says, "I felt like I was in the middle of ''Film/{{Gaslight}}''!"
* GeneHunting: In "A Partridge by Any Other Name," Danny becomes convinced he's adopted because he can't find his birth certificate or any childhood photos. He goes to the hospital, finds that a boy was born on his birthday to Mrs. M. Young, and proceeds to track down every M. Young in the phone book.

* GilliganCut: In "In 25 Words or Less," Keith's AbhorrentAdmirer tells him, "Oh, don't be silly! I would never ask you to take me to [[MakeOutPoint Muldoon's Point]]!" The next shot is of the two of them in a car, with her saying, "So, this is Muldoon's Point!"

* GoshDarnItToHeck: During one of Danny's {{imagine spot}}s in "See Here, Private Partridge," Reuben tells Danny, "Now go out and give 'em heck!"
* GreenAesop: In "Whatever Happened to Moby Dick?" the band records a song with whale singing in the background, with lyrics like "If people don't listen, and people don't know, might the song of the man be the next song to go?" They donate all their profits to the New York Zoological Society.
* GroupieBrigade: Keith acquires one in "Love at First Slight." They sign up for auto shop to be with him, stalk him home, and chase him down the street.
* HandGagging: In "Old Scrapmouth," Danny tries to tell Laurie's boyfriend she has braces. Laurie wanted to tell him herself, so Keith claps his hand over Danny's mouth.
* HeelRealization: In "Whatever Happened to Moby Dick," the family encounters a money-grubbing FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit who tries to profit off a record the family made in order to [[GreenAesop raise awareness of the endangerment of the whales]]. Danny sees himself in the man, and doesn't like what he sees.

* HeistEpisode: In "The Partridge Papers," Laurie's SecretDiary falls into the hands of a boy at school, who threatens to publish it in the school newspaper. She, Danny, and Keith hatch a ''Series/MissionImpossible'' style plan to break into the school and steal it back.
* HereWeGoAgain: In "My Son, the Feminist," Keith accidentally signs the family up to perform at a feminist rally. At the end of the episode, it turns out Danny accidentally signed the family up to perform for a group of MoralGuardians. The ensuing argument is almost identical to the one at the beginning of the episode.
* HurtFootHop: Reuben hops on one foot after stumbling over a coffee table in "A Knight in Shining Armor."
* IHaveThisFriend: In "Where Do Mermaids Go?" a cop asks Shirley for an autograph for his son, who he says listens to the Partridge Family all the time. When Shirley asks what the son's name is, the cop says, "Officer Bodie."

* InsistentTerminology: Danny prefers to call the bulletin board in the kitchen the "communications center."
* InsultBackfire: In "Mom Drops Out," a TotallyRadical concert promoter tries to fire Shirley for being too old and uncool. When Laurie calls him a homewrecker, he says, "Homewrecker! Hey, I like the ring of that! Home-wrec-ker!"

* IronicEchoCut: In "Helllllp," Shirley hears a funny sound and says, "I haven't heard a noise like that since Tracy bit Reuben on the toe!" Cut to Reuben doing a HurtFootHop, saying, "I haven't felt pain like this since Tracy bit me on the toe!"
* ItsNotPornItsArt: In "My Heart Belongs to a Two-Car Garage," a traveling Russian handyman who claims to be a celebrated artist paints a huge, mostly-naked woman on family's garage, causing an uproar in the neighborhood. In the end a man from the local art museum sees the painting, declares it a masterpiece, and has the front of the garage transported to the museum.

* LaughingAtYourOwnJokes: When Reuben sits down on a cot in "Go Directly to Jail," it folds shut on him. Reuben grumbles, "This cot belongs in jail. It can't go straight." He laughs to himself and repeats, "It can't go straight!"

* LoanShark: In "Soul Club," the owners of a club borrowed money from the appropriately-named Heavy and fail to pay him back on time, almost losing the club.
* LockedInARoom: In "To Play or Not to Play," the band is scheduled to play at an establishment whose employees are on strike. Laurie refuses to play because she doesn't want to be a strikebreaker. To end the strike, Danny locks himself, the manager, and one of the employees in an office and refuses to open the door until they come to an agreement. Within two hours, the manager has agreed to almost all of the employee's demands.

* TheMatchmaker: In "They Shoot Managers, Don't They?" Shirley tries to set Reuben up with her former coworker, Cathleen Darcy, by inviting them both to a barbecue. They hit it off and almost get married before they realize that Reuben wants kids and Cathleen doesn't.

* MenCantKeepHouse: When Keith briefly moves out in "Waiting for Bolero," he can't iron his shirts without burning them and needs to pay Danny to bring him food.

* MrsRobinson: In "The Undergraduate," Shirley befriends a nineteen-year-old college student named Paul Bruner, leading most of the other characters, including Paul himself, to think they're in a romantic relationship. A few characters even reference ''Film/TheGraduate'', including Paul's disapproving parents, who have seen it twice.

* OwnGoal: In "Days of Acne and Roses," it's mentioned that an awkward boy with a crush on Laurie lost a game this way, causing the opposing team to carry him out on their shoulders.
* PaperThinDisguise: In "Guess Who's Coming to Drive," Danny suspects that the family's new driver is a criminal. He follows the man wearing a plastic nose and glasses, [[NewspaperThinDisguise holding a newspaper over his face]]. He later manages to convince Reuben to wear the same disguise.

** In "The Red Woodloe Story," the titular folk singer agrees to perform with them, but on the first night he gets scared and leaves before he's supposed to appear. The next night he tries to do the same thing, but Tracy stops him and helps him overcome his stage fright.
* PhonyPsychic: In "Who Is Max Ledbetter, And Why Is He Saying All Those Horrible Things?" a retired psychic who needs $156 to keep his bakery open predicts disaster during the family's next concert and tells Danny and Keith that he needs that amount of money to help them avoid tragedy.
* PlayingGertrude: In "Aspirin at 7, Dinner at 8," Shirley dates a doctor (Gerald Hiken, age 45) and meets his mother (Nancy Walker, age 50).

* PrisonEpisode: In "Go Directly to Jail," the family performs at a prison, where one of the inmates tricks them into spending the night so he can sell them some songs he wrote. [[spoiler:Turns out he plagiarized them from another prisoner. The real writer is willing to let them use his songs as long as he's credited under a fake name.]]

* RightBehindMe: In "Dr Jekyll and Mr. Partridge," the other kids play a series of tricks on Keith. They congratulate each other on their success and make fun of Keith's gullibility just as he gets home from buying groceries. He's so upset that he spends the next hour in the garage until the others go in to apologize.

* SavingTheOrphanage: In "Soul Club," the family arranges a block party with a donation bucket to save a club that's about to be taken over by a LoanShark.

* ScrabbleBabble: While playing scrabble with Laurie, Danny tries to play "Brogak," which he says is an elf-like creature found in Thailand, frequently stuffed and made into lamps.

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Shirley sings lead on "Whale Song."

* TabloidMelodrama: In "I Am Curious... Partridge," Danny publishes a two-part article full of made-up lurid details about Keith and Shirley's sex lives, causing both of them to be incessantly harassed by people taking advice from the article. Keith gets revenge by publishing an article that claims the miserly Danny loves giving away money, causing him to be harassed by charitable organizations.
* TakingTheHeat: In "Trial of the Partridge One," Laurie is caught with a copy of a test that her friend Cindy Brown stole. She maintains her innocence, but won't tell who actually did it because Cindy's dad is the principal and the consequences of failure will be much worse for her than they will for Laurie.

** Danny asks Keith to give him one in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Partridge."

* TimeCapsule: Danny creates one in "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex... but Couldn't Pronounce." He fills it with publicity photos, autographs, and clippings from fanzine articles about himself.

* TitleDrop: In "Waiting for Bolero," Danny uses binoculars to spy on Keith and his girlfriend, whom he plans on wooing with the song "Bolero." When Laurie asks Danny what he's doing, Danny says, "Waiting for Bolero."
* TheTonsillitisEpisode: Danny comes down with tonsillitis in "Anatomy of a Tonsil." At first he's almost excited, but when his best friend Punky Lazaar tells him how horrible it was, he worries he won't survive the operation. Afterwards, he finds that his voice is raspy, and he becomes so convinced that he's lost his singing voice that he can't sing even days later when he's fully recovered.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: In-universe example. In "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Partridge," Keith drags the younger kids to a modern art exhibit that features a collection of flashing neon shapes, a statue of a man's torso with a hand coming out of his neck and a head and a foot where his arms should be, and what looks like a trash bag with a man trapped inside.
* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: In "The Eleven-Year Itch," Danny meets a girl with a crush on him. After he spends a while trying to avoid her, she gets over her crush, and they agree to be friends. Afterwards, Danny almost immediately develops a crush on her.
* UnwantedAssistance: In "Go Directly to Jail," the prison warden is setting up the band's equipment. Reuben tries to be helpful, but everything he says is something the warden already knows, and he only succeeds in slowing him down.
* VacationEpisode: "Swiss Family Partridge," in which the family arranges to spend a weekend in a mountain cabin; unfortunately for them, it rains for days on end, sinking the bus into the mud and causing some of them to worry that they'll starve to death.

* WritersBlock: At the beginning of "This Is My Song," Keith has had a two-month creative drought, leading Danny to try his hand at songwriting.

* YourTomcatIsPregnant: In "Tale of Two Hamsters," Danny buys one hamster of each sex in the hopes that he can make money breeding them. He names them Creator/DeanMartin and Sonia. Naturally, Dean Martin ends up giving birth.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/partridge.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Six Partridges; no pear tree, just a manager..]]

* ThemeTuneCameo: The family performs "When We're Singin'" while on tour in Paris during the first-season episode "Mom Drops Out."

* DrivingStick: In an [[https://youtu.be/KvQcVCuRTyU online interview]] with the Television Academy Foundation, Shirley Jones admitted that she had to learn manual transmission in order to drive the bus.

''The Partridge Family'' was originally proposed as a vehicle for the real-world family rock group Music/TheCowsills (famous for their hits "Indian Lake", "The Rain, The Park and Other Things", and "Hair"). However, the erstwhile producers determined that the Cowsills, while musically talented, were not charismatic enough to carry a television series except for the youngest girl; furthermore, they felt the children were all already too grown up for their plans. The Cowsills' involvement was quickly abandoned and the concept retooled to focus on a fictional family band. Alternately, some accounts claim that the Cowsills walked out on the project on their own accord when the producers refused to use their mother, Barbara, and cast Shirley Jones instead.

This 1970-74 half-hour SitCom was part of Creator/{{ABC}}'s Friday night lineup and is inextricably bound to ''Series/TheBradyBunch,'' its companion in the previous time slot, in the minds of those old enough to have seen it during its original run. It depicted the life and adventures of a family GarageBand that suddenly got their big break and shot to top 40 success after adding their thirty-something mother to the lineup. The cast featured Hollywood favorite Shirley Jones (best known up to this point for her roles in a number of classic movie [[TheMusical musicals]]) and Dave Madden, a veteran of ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''. The series also featured Jones' stepson Creator/DavidCassidy, whom it subsequently launched into brief but intense teen idol superstardom. Also included in the young cast were future star Susan Dey (later of ''Series/LALaw'') and future scandal-wracked DJ Creator/DannyBonaduce.

* DisappearedDad: Th Partridge kids' father died before the start of the series.

* BedtimeBrainwashing: Done accidentally in one episode. Keith stayed up all night writing a song. In the morning, Danny announced that a song "came to him in a dream" and got credit for writing it. (Keith gets revenge by writing a deliberately bad song on a subsequent night, after which Danny laments that his muse has flown).

* BedtimeBrainwashing: Done accidentally in one episode. Keith stayed up all night writing a song. In the morning, Danny announced that a song "came to him in a dream" and got credit for writing it.

* WeddingDay: "A Penny for His Thoughts" has the Partridges' biker friend Snake getting married in the family's backyard.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The show had a "Saving the world with whale songs" plot line 15 years before ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''.