David Cassidy's most torrid portion of teen idol worship was a little before my time.
I was in pre-school in the years of 1970-73, but I do remember watching the Partridge Family in the years as part of ABC's Friday night block with the Brady Bunch until both shows were canceled in 1974.
In my elementary school childhood, David's younger half-brother Shaun was a much bigger teen star than David was, due to the Hardy Boys tv show and the singing (I use that word loosely) of "Da Doo Ron Ron" while David was the much better singer.
The Partridge Family's music was a bit "bubblegummy", but it was solid music that stands up well today and despite Cassidy's less than enthusiastic feelings towards the music during the show and for a while after.Cassidy came to terms with what was pretty solid music, if not socially meaningful or music with a hard edge, but yet made fans of his and the show pretty happy (get the pun there?)
Some of their songs still are recognized by people that were either not around or fans of the show.
I think a lot of Cassidy's problems with the show/audience/fame etc came from the fact that he was really just too old to play the role of a teenager.
When The Partridge Family hit the airwaves in 1970, Cassidy was 20 years old playing the role of someone 15/16.
When the show ended, Cassidy was 24 playing the role of a high school senior/college freshman and I'm sure that's not always easy on the psyche'.
Hollywood does this all the time and I'm not sure why that it is because if the show becomes a success and it becomes a multiple year program, the actor's age always catches up to them.
That alone might have been a huge problem being 23 and having 13 yr old girls screaming "Keith" at you everywhere you went!
Cassidy tried to do other things after Partridge Family to varying degrees of success, but to a certain degree was going to be thought of by his fan base that had grown older and moved on as "Keith Partridge."
I imagine that has to be hard for someone that is remembered as someone else, a someone that becomes even more distant as days go by.
I was a fan of the sitcom and I was amazed when I picked the first season of the show out at a Ohio Wal-Mart to give us something to watch at our hotel (I know it wasn't THAT long ago but was still before the streaming option) and Rachel hooked onto the Partridge Family so quickly-to the point of being crazy about it and ranking it as her favorite show of all time!
I liked it, but I didn't like it THAT much!
Still, I've always thought it was really cool that she cared about it that much and made it that much meaningful when I was able to take her to meet Shirley Jones earlier this year.
David Cassidy might have felt that his teen idol/Partridge Family run was a time wasted to a certain degree, but there are a whole bunch of people in their early to mid 50's now (children of the 70's) that think far differently about his time in the spotlight.
Not a bad way to be thought of.
No comments:
Post a Comment