[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNXkrX3fGKA]
They were Screen Gems’ answer to the Monkees: all five Partridge kids and their supermom Shirley set out in 1970, completing four seasons of musical touring and family hijinks spawning songs like “I Woke Up in Love This Morning” and “I Think I Love You.” The problem was, the show itself didn’t attract huge audiences, even though younger viewers ate it up. What really kept the kids going (aside from tween crushes on David Cassidy and Danny Bonaduce) was a massive marketing campaign that made Partridge Family lunch boxes, pencil cases and even comic books into cash machines for the actors. As one former MTV veejay put it, the show was “hipness for the under-10 crowd.” Once the Partridge Family found itself pitted against All in the Family in 1973, however, it was time to pack up for the long trip home in their psychedelic touring van.