Break Out Those Tambourines: 'Partridge Family' gets a remake

Reveille, Geffen create new version of show

An updated version of 'The Patridge Family' is in the works.

"The Partridge Family" is back.

Reveille and Geffen Records have partnered with original "Partridge" format rights holder Sony Pictures TV to develop a modern version of the 1970s series.

Jeff Rake ("Cashmere Mafia") is aboard to pen the project, which is being pitched around town this week. Insiders said a network deal was imminent.

Rake would exec produce with Reveille execs as well as Interscope-Geffen-A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine and Geffen Records chairman Ron Fair.

Details surrounding the scripted remake are thin, but insiders said the show will take a tongue-in-cheek, modern-day approach to the original series.

Idea to revive "Partridge Family" came from discussions between Fair and Reveille managing director Howard Owens on ways they could develop a family show centered around the music business.

"We decided to take a shot at acquiring the original rights and resurrecting the show with a new spin," Fair said.

Given all the changes in the music industry, Fair said the new "Partridge Family" won’t look much like the original.

"We’re not going to be caught up in nostalgia," Fair said. "The original was a great touchstone — our goal is to use it and spring forward from it."

The original "Partridge Family" ran on ABC from 1970-74. An animated Saturday morning version, "The Partridge Family 2200 AD," aired on the net in 1974.

More recently, VH1 turned "The Partridge Family" into a 2004 reality show. "In Search of the Partridge Family," which featured original cast members Shirley Jones, David Cassidy and Danny Bonaduce as mentors, was used to cast pilot "The New Partridge Family" (which also featured French Stewart as a new Reuben Kincaid). A series wasn’t ordered, however.

[Variety]