Herald & Review (Decatur, IL)
September 8, 1995
Section: Sports
Page: C1
Keeping up with Shirley Jones
She’s been a musical leading lady and a ‘Partridge Family’ mom. Now, it’s time to get mean.
DAVID BURKE H&R Staff Writer
So, does Shirley Jones get recognized more from “The Partridge Family” or from ...
“Yes,” the 61-year-old actress-singer interrupts a reporter before he can finish his question.
There are other ways to know of Jones -who’s performing with the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night -in films for instance, as the lovelorn Laurie in “Oklahoma!,” Marian the librarian in “The Music Man” or for her Oscar-winning role as a prostitute in “Elmer Gantry.”
“I wish it were that, to be very honest,” she said from her Beverly Hills home. “But it’s coming around a little bit more, since all of those films are now on video. People know them. People my age basically know me more from those movies, but for the people who are adults now, the power of ‘Partridge’ and the power of television is great.
“But I’m so happy when a 9-year-old calls me ‘Marian the librarian’ or ‘Laurie.’ “
And now, thanks to her son, she’ll have a twisted character to add to her repertoire.
She’ll appear as a witch in at least one episode of “American Gothic,” a CBS drama series premiering this fall. The bizarre series was created and co-produced by Shaun Cassidy, the oldest of her three sons with the late Jack Cassidy. (“Partridge” son David Cassidy is her stepson.)
“I can’t wait to play a witch,” Jones said.
The country is doing a double take while Shaun Cassidy -best-known for his days in “The Hardy Boys Mysteries” -delves into the macabre subject matter of the new show.
“I’m a big fan -maybe that’s where he gets it -of horror. That’s all I read,” she said. “Everybody says they would expect me to love all the romance and all the fantasy, but my favorite reading is Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark.
“They don’t expect that from me, and they don’t expect that from Shaun. But let’s face it, we all have dark sides to us. It depends on how we show it.”
Jones gets to show that dark side again this fall with a role on “Deadly Games,” a new show on the new United Paramount Network (which isn’t seen in Central Illinois).
“It was great fun for me. I had a dual role, the good mother and the bad mother,” she said of the episode called “Evil Shirley.”
She gets to play opposite her husband of 19 years, actor-comedian Marty Ingels. It’s the first time they’ve performed together on TV and will tour on stage in “Love Letters” up the California coast later this year.
Plus, Jones works for the American Movie Classics cable channel, hosting AMC’s Family Classics movies and doing goodwill tours that include showings of “Oklahoma!.”
She’s also being considered for a role in a new rendition of “The Music Man,” produced by cable’s The Disney Channel.
Instead of Marian, she’ll play Mrs. Paroo, the librarian’s mother. Bernadette Peters has been tentatively cast as Marian, and Billy Crystal is being considered for Professor Harold Hill.
“It all depends on what Billy wants to do,” she said.
Jones said she yearns for a comeback of the movie musical.
“I keep hoping perhaps it will swing, but nobody’s writing them. There’s not that much out there now,” she said. “Even on Broadway, they’re doing revivals.”
One reason they’re not being made, she said, is that production is very costly.
“But I suppose for the cost of a ‘Waterworld,’ we could certainly get a musical in there,” she said.
There may be hope, though. A movie version of “Evita” should begin shooting soon, and there’s talk of a film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera.”
“We’ve become so realistic in everything we want, and there was a long time when they didn’t believe in musicals, but perhaps we are coming back to pure entertainment,” she said.
Jones doesn’t mind that those five years of “Partridge Family” may overshadow the rest of her career.
“That is understandable with television. I was pleased at that point in my life to have five years in television because it gave me time to stay at home with my kids and still work.”
Jones -although definitely ruling out a “Partridge” reunion -has kept in touch with her TV family. Her TV son, Danny Bonaduce, has a new talk show this fall, and she and the other Partridges are guests on the premiere. (That episode airs at 2:05 a.m. Tuesday -late Monday -on WAND.)
Jones said she wouldn’t mind getting back into television but only on her terms.
“I just don’t want to go into that unless I have a lot of creative control. In this business, it gets harder to maintain,” she said. “What I have been offered, I didn’t want to do. I’m doing what I want to do now. I have more work than I care to have right now.”
September 8, 1995
Section: Sports
Page: C1
Keeping up with Shirley Jones
She’s been a musical leading lady and a ‘Partridge Family’ mom. Now, it’s time to get mean.
DAVID BURKE H&R Staff Writer
So, does Shirley Jones get recognized more from “The Partridge Family” or from ...
“Yes,” the 61-year-old actress-singer interrupts a reporter before he can finish his question.
There are other ways to know of Jones -who’s performing with the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night -in films for instance, as the lovelorn Laurie in “Oklahoma!,” Marian the librarian in “The Music Man” or for her Oscar-winning role as a prostitute in “Elmer Gantry.”
“I wish it were that, to be very honest,” she said from her Beverly Hills home. “But it’s coming around a little bit more, since all of those films are now on video. People know them. People my age basically know me more from those movies, but for the people who are adults now, the power of ‘Partridge’ and the power of television is great.
“But I’m so happy when a 9-year-old calls me ‘Marian the librarian’ or ‘Laurie.’ “
And now, thanks to her son, she’ll have a twisted character to add to her repertoire.
She’ll appear as a witch in at least one episode of “American Gothic,” a CBS drama series premiering this fall. The bizarre series was created and co-produced by Shaun Cassidy, the oldest of her three sons with the late Jack Cassidy. (“Partridge” son David Cassidy is her stepson.)
“I can’t wait to play a witch,” Jones said.
The country is doing a double take while Shaun Cassidy -best-known for his days in “The Hardy Boys Mysteries” -delves into the macabre subject matter of the new show.
“I’m a big fan -maybe that’s where he gets it -of horror. That’s all I read,” she said. “Everybody says they would expect me to love all the romance and all the fantasy, but my favorite reading is Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark.
“They don’t expect that from me, and they don’t expect that from Shaun. But let’s face it, we all have dark sides to us. It depends on how we show it.”
Jones gets to show that dark side again this fall with a role on “Deadly Games,” a new show on the new United Paramount Network (which isn’t seen in Central Illinois).
“It was great fun for me. I had a dual role, the good mother and the bad mother,” she said of the episode called “Evil Shirley.”
She gets to play opposite her husband of 19 years, actor-comedian Marty Ingels. It’s the first time they’ve performed together on TV and will tour on stage in “Love Letters” up the California coast later this year.
Plus, Jones works for the American Movie Classics cable channel, hosting AMC’s Family Classics movies and doing goodwill tours that include showings of “Oklahoma!.”
She’s also being considered for a role in a new rendition of “The Music Man,” produced by cable’s The Disney Channel.
Instead of Marian, she’ll play Mrs. Paroo, the librarian’s mother. Bernadette Peters has been tentatively cast as Marian, and Billy Crystal is being considered for Professor Harold Hill.
“It all depends on what Billy wants to do,” she said.
Jones said she yearns for a comeback of the movie musical.
“I keep hoping perhaps it will swing, but nobody’s writing them. There’s not that much out there now,” she said. “Even on Broadway, they’re doing revivals.”
One reason they’re not being made, she said, is that production is very costly.
“But I suppose for the cost of a ‘Waterworld,’ we could certainly get a musical in there,” she said.
There may be hope, though. A movie version of “Evita” should begin shooting soon, and there’s talk of a film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera.”
“We’ve become so realistic in everything we want, and there was a long time when they didn’t believe in musicals, but perhaps we are coming back to pure entertainment,” she said.
Jones doesn’t mind that those five years of “Partridge Family” may overshadow the rest of her career.
“That is understandable with television. I was pleased at that point in my life to have five years in television because it gave me time to stay at home with my kids and still work.”
Jones -although definitely ruling out a “Partridge” reunion -has kept in touch with her TV family. Her TV son, Danny Bonaduce, has a new talk show this fall, and she and the other Partridges are guests on the premiere. (That episode airs at 2:05 a.m. Tuesday -late Monday -on WAND.)
Jones said she wouldn’t mind getting back into television but only on her terms.
“I just don’t want to go into that unless I have a lot of creative control. In this business, it gets harder to maintain,” she said. “What I have been offered, I didn’t want to do. I’m doing what I want to do now. I have more work than I care to have right now.”
Copyright, 1995, Herald & Review, Decatur, IL