Original subtitles

[Partridge family theme playing]

♪ come on now and meet everybody ♪

♪ and hear us singing ♪

♪ there's nothing better than being together ♪

♪ when we're singing ♪

♪ the five of us and mom working all day ♪

♪ we knew we could help her if our music would pay ♪

♪ Danny got Reuben to sell our song ♪

♪ and it really came together when mom sang along ♪

♪ come on now and meet everybody ♪

♪ and hear us singing ♪

♪ there's nothing better than being together ♪

♪ when we're singing ♪

♪ when we're singing ♪

♪ when we're singing ♪♪

Now, remember,

no racing your carts up and down the aisles.

We'll meet back at the checkout counter

in 15 minutes.

If they don't have what's on the list,

can we substitute?

No substitutions.

Why not?

Because last week, instead of lamb chops,

you bought three packages

of chocolate cream puffs.

So? What's wrong with that?

We made a 75-cent savings.

Laurie, would you keep an eye on them,

please?

Oh, I'm so sorry.

Excuse me.

Mabel.

Shirley.

Well, I never expected

to see a big star like you

in a supermarket.

Why?

I shop here every week.

Oh, yeah, well,

I guess you want to make sure

the kids get a home-cooked meal

once in a while.

I try my best.

Oh, I'm sure you do.

That's what I was trying to explain to hortense.

Oh, you remember hortense.

She's the girl with the bad skin

that replaced you at the bank.

Well, I said to hortense,

"if anyone can protect those kids

"from that sordid side of night club life,

Shirley can."

it's so nice to have friends who defend you.

Oh, I did, I did,

and when hortense said to me,

"you name me one child star that grew up normal, "

well, I came right back at her with herby plankton.

Who?

Herby plankton.

My nephew.

He used to help support the folks

by doing those TV commercials.

Well, my sister had her problems with him,

the dope thing and all, but...

But he straightened up.

He got out of show business

and he's very happy now in his new job.

What job is it?

He's a nurse.

Shirley, don't you think

you're making too much of this whole thing?

I don't know.

Theyarekeeping irregular hours

and the life they lead

could be considered unusual.

Oh, Reuben, they're so young.

Maybe it is too much of a strain on them.

Look, as soon as I think

any of the kids are turning into freaks,

I'll tell you.

Now, will you sign these contracts

for the college tour?

Let's discuss it after the performance tonight.

Shirley...

Look, Reuben,

do you want the kids to grow up like herby plankton?

Well, of course not.

Well, neither do I.

Herby plankton?

[♪♪♪]

[Playing "I'm here, you're here"]

♪ I'm here, you're here ♪

♪ I don't care where you been before ♪

♪ you're the sweetest thing I ever saw ♪

♪ ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh ♪

♪ what could you do? What could you say ♪

♪ to make me want to go away? ♪

♪ I know, I know I never wanted anyone more ♪

♪ baby, you know if I go it's gonna be a long walk home ♪

♪ and a pretty thing like you shouldn't spend her time alone ♪

♪ no, shouldn't spend her time alone ♪

♪ and I know that you'll be sorry ♪

♪ if I'm gone ♪

♪ hearts beat we know what we're saying ♪

♪ don't run away ♪

♪ eyes meet why are we playing ♪

♪ all those games that children play? ♪

♪ I'm here, you're here ♪

♪ I don't care where you been before ♪

♪ I don't care where you been ♪

♪ you're the sweetest thing I ever saw ♪

♪ ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh ♪

♪ what could you do? What could you say ♪

♪ to make me want to go away? ♪

♪ Go away ♪

♪ I know, I know I never wanted anyone more ♪

♪ hey, hey ♪

♪ baby, you know if I go it's gonna be a long walk home ♪

♪ and a pretty thing like you shouldn't spend her time alone ♪

♪ no, shouldn't spend her time alone ♪

♪ and I know that you'll be sorry ♪

♪ if I'm gone ♪

♪ hearts beat we know what we're saying ♪

♪ don't run away ♪

♪ eyes meet why are we playing ♪

♪ all those games that children play? ♪

♪ I'm here, you're here ♪

♪ I don't care where you been before ♪

♪ you're the sweetest thing I ever saw ♪♪

Wow, what a great audience.

Weren't they too much?

They were really out of sight.

I bet we could've stayed out there

taking bows all night.

Danny, there's more to life than taking bows.

Not when you're an egomaniac

with grease paint in your blood.

It's not grease paint anymore.

It's pancake.

And it's not in your blood.

As a matter of fact,

most of it's on the front of your shirt.

So? When you're talented, who needs to be neat?

Mom, is there something wrong?

No, nothing.

Hurry up. Let's get going.

I'd like to get home at a decent hour.

Come on, Chris.

Chris?

I guess he crashed, mom.

Those encores must have got to him.

What do you mean?

He works harder than any of us.

He was really whaling away

on those drums tonight.

You know, it must be tough

on those puny, little arms.

We should do something to build the kid up.

Keith: Oh, let him sleep, mom.

I'll carry him out to the bus.

You go get changed.

[Sighs]: Okay.

Okay, but tomorrow,

we're all going over to Dr. Michaels' office

for a complete checkup.

What?

From now on,

we're gonna start living like a normal family again.

Dr. Michaels gave me a lollipop.

Just for being healthy?

No, for being a kid.

He said for you to go on in.

He's almost done with Chris.

If he gives you a lollipop,

keep it for me.

Not likely, Tracy.

I'm not a child.

Can't you fake it?

Come on.

Would you give Dr. Michaels a message?

Shirley?

Shirley, it is you.

What a wonderful surprise.

Jim, what are you doing here?

Did you switch to pediatrics?

No, no. I have an office down the hall.

I was just dropping by

to cancel a lunch date with Ted Michaels.

Is this Tracy?

She's grown a little, hasn't she?

Honey, this is Dr. Lucas.

Tracy, you may not know this,

but I'm just about your oldest friend.

As a matter of fact,

I knew you even before you were born.

You sure get around.

Uh, Dr. Lucas delivers babies.

Delivers them where?

To their mothers.

Did you deliver me?

I certainly did.

Thank you very much.

You're entirely welcome.

Hey, congratulations on your success.

That is a terrific sound you have.

Thank you.

And you look terrific.

Thank you again. I feel fine.

I wasn't speaking medically.

Doctors are human too,

you know.

Oh, thank you.

What about you, Jim? I thought you'd be married

and raising a brood of your own by now.

No, I just deliver.

I leave the care and maintenance to others.

Smart.

The care and maintenance is the hard part.

Dr. Lucas,

your office is on the line.

Mrs. Medford

just arrived at the hospital.

Tell them I'm on my way.

Let's not let it go five years

next time.

May I call you?

I'm in the book.

Okay.

Bye-bye, Tracy.

Excuse me.

Hey, who was that?

He used to be my doctor.

Wow.

Why'd you give him up?

Oh, I recovered.

Well, whatever he treated you for,

I'd get it again...

And right away.

Hey, I thought we'd rehearse a bit tonight.

Do you know where Chris and Danny are?

I ordered them outside to shoot baskets.

You "Ordered" Them?

Look, why don't you forget

about rehearsing tonight?

And do what?

I don't know.

It might be nice for you and Laurie

to go down to the malt shop and see some of your friends.

The malt shop?

Well, wherever young people

hang out these days.

Oh, sure, mom. We'll do that.

Hey, how 'bout it, Laurie?

Won't that be fun?

Maybe Andy Hardy'll be there

and we could all go over

to Polly Benedict's house.

The malt shop...

Mom, you're beautiful. Smarty.

[Telephone ringing]

Hello.

Yes.

Just a second.

Mom, it's him.

It's Dr. Groovy.

Now, mom, don't go losing your cool.

What makes you think I am?

'Cause you were just fixing your hair

and he's on the telephone.

Hello?

Yes, Jim.

Oh, I'd love to.

When is it?

Oh, I'm so sorry.

We'll be out of town performing

on Friday.

No, the whole weekend, I'm afraid.

Sure, some other time.

I am too.

Bye.

Gee, that's too bad, mom.

Did you really want to go?

Oh, I'll live.

Well, I know how you feel.

I was invited to the basketball game

on Friday.

You were?

Does it bother you that you can't go?

Oh, I'll live.

So, if any one of you feels that working in the group

or being away from home so much

is more of a strain on you than you thought it would be

or keeping you

from doing other things you'd rather do,

then I think you should speak up.

But why? Because if it's true,

then I think we should relax for six months

and use that time

to take a hard look at what we're doing.

Six months?

Mom, if we don't work for six months,

we won't even be able to get a booking

at a sweet sixteen party.

Mom, would you mind

if we talked this over among ourselves

before we gave you an answer?

Okay. What's there to talk about?

You know none of us wants to quit.

No, but mom does.

What?

Look, when we're on the road,

she has no social life of her own.

Now she's met a man she likes.

If we keep on working,

they're not even gonna have a chance

for anything to develop.

Well, who is this guy?

He's an attractive, eligible doctor.

So? What's so special about that?

Every daughter wants her mother to marry a doctor.

I don't get it.

If what you say is true,

why doesn't mom just say she wants to quit?

Because she's very unselfish.

She won't put her interests ahead of ours.

The point is,

are we selfish enough to stand in her way?

I think I am.

How about you, Tracy?

I don't understand the question.

Keith?

She really likes this guy, huh?

Well, mom's made a lot of sacrifices for us.

Maybe we should vote.

Mom, we've come to a decision.

Good.

We've decided we'd like to quit.

Hey, it's a beautiful afternoon outside.

Can't you kids think of anything to do with yourselves?

We're doing fine.

Chris, would you like me to pitch some balls with you?

Maybe later, mom.

Okay, I'll start dinner.

If you want to play ball, call me.

I hope she forgets.

Mom's been throwing so many baseballs at me,

I've lost the feeling in my right hand.

You're lucky.

Yesterday she sent me over to play with Bernard mcguire.

What'd you do?

Did you ever spend an afternoon with Bernard mcguire?

Mostly we sat around and watched each other grow.

Let's do something.

Why don't we go out in the garage

and rehearse some numbers?

Hey, far out.

I don't think we should do that, Keith.

[Groans]

Why not?

Because if we keep going off

to rehearse in the garage,

mom's gonna think we miss performing.

This is ridiculous.

We've been home a week now

and that doctor you say is so crazy about her

hasn't even phoned.

He probably thinks we're out of town.

Well, why don't we set him straight?

Because if mom finds out, she'll kill us.

Not if we did it cleverly.

Hi, Laurie.

Look who I have with me.

Oh, uh, Dr. Lucas.

Uh, I'm Laurie.

Uh, mother's not here now.

Oh, well, that's all right.

I was just dropping Danny off.

But she should be back soon.

Let me get you a cup of coffee.

Uh...

Oh, please, please.

Um, you sit down, and I'll get it,

and Danny, keep the doctor talking.

I mean, talk to the doctor.

So, how do you feel about Marcus welby?

Um, where did you guys dream up the name

"artificial respiration"?

Well, hi.

Hi, yourself.

I didn't think doctors made house calls anymore.

I bumped into Danny at the golf course

and gave him a lift home.

Thank you, Jim. That's very nice of you.

Danny, what were you doing at the golf course?

Well, uh...

Well, I was just hanging around.

Laurie: Hey, kids, I need some help

in, uh, cleaning out the garage.

We just did that this morning.

Come on, Chris.

Nice kids.

Mm-hmm... But devious.

Oh?

Jim, I think it only fair to tell you,

I have a suspicion you're a victim

of a little match-making setup.

So, to tell you the truth,

I was rather surprised when I found out

they really wanted to quit.

I'm more mixed up than ever now.

Why?

Well, they don't seem to be taking advantage

of their freedom.

I mean...

Well, I can't really put my finger on it,

but I keep getting the feeling

that they know something

that I don't.

I get that feeling with everybody under 30.

Oh, this is terrible.

Here I've invited you to dinner,

and spent the whole evening

bending your ear about my domestic problems.

I've enjoyed it.

What about you, Shirley?

Don't you miss the excitement?

I mean, that concert in San Francisco,

for instance.

That must've been really something.

How did you know we played San Francisco?

All right, I'll be honest with you.

For the last couple of months,

I've been keeping pretty close track of you.

I'm flattered.

What is it, Jim?

I want to ask you a question

and I'm trying to decide whether or not I...

Have the nerve.

Oh?

Oh, the heck with it.

Um, Shirley...

Shirley...

Will you...

[telephone ringing]

Excuse me.

Hello?

Oh, yes, he's here.

It's for you.

Mm.

Hello. Dr. Lucas.

Oh, Mrs. Reilly.

Uh-huh.

How far apart are the pains?

I see.

Well, maybe you'd better get to the hospital.

No, I'll meet you there.

All right. Don't worry.

Alrighty.

Bye-bye.

[Sighs]

I'm sorry.

I'm afraid I have one of those jobs

where you just can't put things off till tomorrow.

I understand.

Um...

Can I treat you to dinner tomorrow?

I'd like that.

Good.

Do I look all right?

Great, for a mother.

You seeing Dr. Lucas again tonight?

Uh-huh.

Laurie, would you hook me up, please?

That's five times

you've seen the good doctor

in the past couple of weeks.

I didn't realize anyone was counting.

Where are you going tonight?

His place for dinner.

Hmm. Sounds promising.

He said he wanted to talk to me about something.

Sounds even better.

Don't let your imagination run away with you, Laurie.

Bye, kids.

Good night, mom.

Mm...

'Night, mom. Be good.

Bye, honey.

Have a good time.

[Soft romantic music plays]

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Shirley, I think it's about time

I leveled with you.

Oh?

You remember we met by, uh,

accident last month?

That was no accident.

I heard you were in Ted Michaels' office

and I, uh, deliberately dropped in.

Why?

I heard you on the radio a couple of months ago

and I...

Started...

Thinking about you...

Which brings me

to the question I started to ask the other night.

[Playing "I can feel your heartbeat"]

♪ love, love ♪

♪ can't you feel your heartbeat? ♪

♪ Love, love ♪

♪ I can feel your heartbeat ♪

♪ love, love ♪

♪ can't you feel my heartbeat? ♪

♪ Love, love ♪

♪ I can feel your heartbeat ♪

♪ love, love ♪

♪ can't you feel my heartbeat? ♪

♪ Love, love ♪

♪ I can feel your heartbeat ♪

♪ love, love ♪

♪ can't you feel it? ♪

♪ Love, love ♪

♪ oh, I can feel it ♪

♪ love, love ♪

♪ getting stronger ♪

♪ love, love ♪

♪ oh, I can feel it ♪

♪ love, love ♪

♪ can't you feel it? ♪

♪ Love, love ♪

♪ it's getting stronger ♪♪

hi, mom. When did you get here?

A few minutes ago.

You know, that's the happiest I've seen you look

in a couple of weeks.

Um, we were just killing time.

We weren't really that happy.

You don't have to apologize for enjoying yourselves.

Hey, how was your evening, mom?

Did he pop the question?

Yes, he did.

Well, what was your answer?

Maybe I should tell you

what the question was first.

He wanted to know

if I would look at some songs

he had written.

You're kidding.

Some songs?

You mean, we gave up a whole career

for some doctor

who writes songs as a hobby?

What do you mean,

you gave up a whole career for that?

Uh...

Mom, maybe you'd better sit down.

We'd like to talk with you about something.

What?

A gap we've been having.

Generation?

Communications.

Tell me honestly, mom.

Weren't you just

a little bit disappointed

when you found out

it wasn't a marriage proposal?

As a matter of fact, I was rather relieved.

I thought you liked him.

I do.

Nothing more, huh?

You know, Laurie, I think every woman

falls a little bit in love with her obstetrician.

Only during the past couple of weeks

did I realize I liked Jim best when I was pregnant.

I think that would be putting an awful burden

on our relationship, don't you?

Yeah, I could see how that could be quite a drag.

Hey, we just played Dr. Lucas' music.

How is it?

It stinks.

Why does that make you happy?

Well, the music stinks.

The lyrics are great.

They sound like poetry.

Yeah, you know, I'd like to take a crack

at writing some new music for them.

Think he'd mind?

I'm sure he wouldn't.

Of course, it'd mean

sharing the royalties with us.

You'd better explain that to him

very carefully.

Don't worry, Danny.

Dr. Lucas will be very familiar

with that arrangement.

Yeah?

Yeah.

I believe they call it "Fee splitting."

fee splitting.

[Laughing] You don't understand...

Fee splitting!

[♪♪♪]