Susan Dey

An explosion of stripes, pastels, and pure bubblegum pop music, The Partridge Family were more popular than The Brady Bunch when they were both on the air. It's easy to see why; though perhaps best known for launching David Cassidy as a pop idol, The Partridge Family merged infectious melodies with fresh writing and charming, lighthearted performances. In The Complete Third Season, the show is at its peak. The touring of a family band had largely been laid aside; the focus is on domestic life, though every episode features at least one musical number.

By the second season (1971-72) of its four-year run, America's favorite rock 'n' roll television family found its groove, with well-honed comedic timing and familial chemistry that helped secure The Partridge Family as one of the brightest sitcoms of the decade. This three-disk set includes all 24 episodes where most of the action remains close to home; Keith's role expands (as David Cassidy's real life stardom as teen idol crystallized); and the stories exploit the acerbic banter between Danny (Danny Bonaduce) and Reuben Kincaid (Dave Madden).

Danny Bonaduce was always The Partridge Family's not-so-secret weapon. His cheerful money-grubbing ways provided an antidote to the smug homilies and treacly heartwarmingness that afflicted so many sitcoms of the early 1970s. His prepubescent cynicism was never more needed than in The Partridge Family's fourth and final season, when recycled plots and forced gaiety began to seep in. The biggest red flag was, of course, the addition of an adorable precocious tot: Ricky Segall, a four-year-old neighbor who brought too many episodes to a screeching halt with his cloying children's songs.

Like a groovy Family von Trapp, The Partridge Family arrived in 1970 with matching velvet outfits and wholesomeness bursting from every pore. Watching it now, you expect little more than kitsch--but the show, though certainly a sitcom representation of the world, is curiously fresh and appealing.