The Partridge Family Episode #19
Thanks for joining me for my review of The Partridge Family Episode #19. This episode originally aired on February 5, 1971 and is entitled To Play or Not To Play. This episode is about when the Partridges play at a night club where the working conditions in the kitchen are crap. One of Laurie’s old friends is one of the workers. The workers decide to strike, Laurie refuses to cross the picket line because of her friend, the owner threatens to sue Shirley for breach of contract, and then Danny makes everything all better and saves the day. Bonaduce is the bomb.
The episode opens with the bus backfiring and farting into the town of their current gig. A cute dude named Mark runs out of the building and into Laurie’s arms. I guess Mark used to go to high school with Laurie. FYI, Mark is played by Michael Lembeck who was on One Day at a Time and was a member of Kaptain Kool and the Kongs. He is also a director and has directed a lot of the Friends episodes. Back to the Partridges…..
Some crabby dude looking like Mario or Luigi from the Nintendo games comes out and starts yelling at Mark. It turns out that he’s Marino, the owner of the club. In real life, he’s Michael Lembeck’s dad. That’s kind of cool. Anyway, Marino shows them in and the Partridges start rehearsing. They sing There’s No Doubt In My Mind while Marino is yelling at his kitchen staff. The Partridges watch as all of the workers stomp out. Turns out they’re going on strike.
Up To Date
As a side note, The Partridge Family album Up To Date was released the week this episode aired. Because of the popularity of the show, the album shipped gold. Up To Date was my favorite Partridge album. My family would listen to the 8-track while driving to North Dakota in our motorhome. Trivia: Mike Appell and Jim Cretecos wrote five songs for The Partridge Family. They changed careers and ended up being managers to Bruce Springsteen. Back to my review of The Partridge Family Episode #19.
Picket Line
Laurie doesn’t feel like she can cross the picket line. She agrees with her friend Mark and the reasons they’re all striking. Shirley looks super hot in her white sweater. She and Danny cross the picket line to go and talk to Marino. Marino is a dick so Shirley gets her bitch on. Awesome.
Reuben shows up and is hysterical. Typical. He tries to talk Laurie into performing. Keith is starting to side with Laurie. Danny takes charge and goes and talks to the workers out on the picket line. He finds out a lot of facts about the two sides. Marino doesn’t pay well and the kitchen is poorly ventilated, BUT Marino is a nice guy in that he hires college kids because he knows it’s hard for them to get a job and he lets them come in late or miss entirely if they have an exam. Maybe he’s just a dick on the outside. I’ve known people like that.
Danny the Hero
Danny goes over to see Marino and brings Mark with him. He got Mark to go by tricking him into thinking Marino wanted to settle. Danny locks the door and refuses to open it until they’ve settled things. He drops the key in his pants (or somewhere) and when Marino goes to dig for it, Danny reminds him of the laws protecting juveniles and Gary Glitter and stuff. Danny works with the two and everything gets worked out.
The Partridges sing Umbrella Man and sound ultra groovy. I loved that blue on blue costume they wore. The tag is of Laurie and the group saying goodbye to Mark. Marino comes out and calls Mark a bum. Ah, the love continues on.
Overall, I thought The Partridge Family Episode #19 was a good episode. It had two songs performed (yay) and dealt with some real life issues. The only negative was that there wasn’t enough Chris and Tracy. I don’t even know if Suzanne Crough had a line. Jeremy Gelbwaks had one or two. He only has a few more episodes to go before being replaced by Brian Forster. That was a very sad day for me.
Thanks for stopping in. Click here to read my other Partridge Family reviews.