Danny, the Invisible Man.

Hey kids (of all ages), it's Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

A couple weeks ago, I covered the BRADY KIDS. Filmation's successful cartoon spin-off of the live-action BRADY BUNCH sitcom. Hanna-Barbera, world champion bandwagon jumper-onners that they were, tossed the kids from the live-action PARTRIDGE FAMILY into a cartoon clone of their own flagship SCOOBY-DOO show. But that was a sort-of trial run, apparently.

The JETSONS (Space Age DAGWOOD AND BLONDIE) had originally been an animated, prime-time sitcom counterpoint to the FLINTSTONES (Stone Age HONEYMOONERS) in the sixties. Their single production season had proven remarkably resilient in kiddy-hour reruns. Hanna-Barbera was looking to do a follow-up series featuring older versions of the Jetsons' kids, like they had with the Flintstones' PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM SHOW a couple years earlier, but the network felt the existing Jetsons material had mileage left in it, and were looking for a Partridge Family cartoon...

So the Partridge Family were inexplicably relocated into the Jetson-like world of the Twenty-Third Century. No time-travel or suspended animation pilot episode. They were just there like it was normal.

"They" being the four younger kids, with Mom and oldest boy Keith being voiced by new performers. Oldest sister Laurie was voiced by her original actress for a couple episodes before being replaced.

Although every episode did feature a song, the studio had the good sense not to try and sell records featuring a "Partridge Family" without the two original members who were actual musicians.

The Partridge cartoon was a bit of a flop, and was replaced halfway through the year. Weak animation. Lackluster songs. Bland writing with unfunny gags... Also, the Partridge Family had crested and was declining in popularity rapidly by the time the cartoon hit the air. But I think what killed it was putting the "A.D." after the year number, rather than before, where it is actually belongs. The show did a little better years later when it was recycled into a syndication package and renamed the PARTRIDGE FAMILY IN OUTER SPACE.

But first it was the PARTRIDGE FAMILY 2200 A.D. Here's the premier episode from Autumn 1974.

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