The Adventures Of David Cassidy title
The Adventures Of David Cassidy started in December 1972, no doubt a response to the growing popularity of the singer, who had come to fame in the US musical sitcom 'The Partridge Family'. Often seen as a vehicle for Cassidy, it was in fact the series, about the children of a widowed mother coming to fame as an unlikely musical success, which made Cassidy a star first. It was the fact the series was better known after he became famous as a pop singer in the UK which gave rise to this myth.
In the series David played Keith Partridge, one of the sons, the other Partridges were Mother Shirley (Shirley Jones), Laurie (Susan Dey), Danny (Danny Bonaduce) and Tracy (Suzanne Crough). The series portrayed the day to day lives of a 'normal' American family, who just happen to be popstars too!
The series had actually made its UK television debut in the autumn of 1971 on BBC 1, a year after its first appearance in America. The series stopped after 13 weeks, and was snapped up by London Weekend Television (LWT) who commenced screening the following autumn in the Saturday lunchtime slot before 'World of Sport'. 'Look-In' had recently, from issue 39 dated week ending 23 September 1972, increased in page size and page numbers to incorporate the 'Pop Extra' centre features which the title was notably famous for. So the inclusion of a strip, the first based on a pop celebrity for 'Look-In', was a reasonable step forward, coinciding with the release of David Cassidy's third UK single 'Rock Me Baby', following 'Could It Be Forever' and 'How Can I Be Sure earlier that year.
The Adventures Of David Cassidy artwork
The strip, though subtitled 'The Partridge Family' and using the symbol that promoted the show, is almost entirely about David Cassidy, and the often used 'involved with fans/mysteries' scenarios the singer gets involved in between concerts and recordings. But Shirley Jones, in real-life David Cassidy's step-mother, appears in the third story alongside Danny (played by Danny Bonaduce) during the filming of 'a Partridge Family serial'. The other cast members (Susan Dey, Brian Forster and Suzanne Crough) also make brief unnamed cameos alongside, confusingly, Reuben (Kincaid), the family's manager in the series played in real life by Dave Madden. One can speculate that 'Shirley' and 'Danny' were used as the only characters who shared the same first names as the people who played them, as both turn up again in a later story.
The artist for the entire run of the strip, as well as the Holiday Special and Annual for 1973, was Alan Parry. He used a style of drawing comparable to fashion illustration, giving them a very modern and obvious slant for the female readership.
Despite David Cassidy, and the 'Partridge Family' series, continuing to be successes into 1974, it was seemingly replaced by Bless This House, though the new strip did not appear for three weeks, until issue 1 of the 1974 volume, dated week ending 29 December 1973.
(Article by Shaqui Le Vesconte)