The Partridge Family
(1970–1974)
While parking their bus, Shirley bumps into a car. There is no damage, but when the driver finds they are famous, he fakes an injury for the insurance. Shirley and the family try to prove he is not injured by staying with him 24 hours.
Only the second episode, "The Sound of Money" quickly establishes the home life of the Partridges, rather than life on the road. On their way home, Shirley lightly bumps the suddenly stopping car in front, driven by Willie Larkin (Harry Morgan), whose pleas for sympathy from disinterested onlookers go unheeded. Unable to prove any damage, he quickly decides to accept Shirley's take-it-or-leave-it offer of five dollars, until Danny lets it slip that the group is big in show business; in no time at all, 'Whiplash Willie' goes on the warpath, demanding a huge settlement that the kids want their mother to fight. After several failed attempts to expose his fraud, Shirley decides to kill him with kindness, this poor man confined to a wheelchair after all. In one of her earliest TV roles, Farrah Fawcett tries to trip up Willie by dropping a box of soap, allowing Danny and his newfound libido to screw up the evidence. In it's only appearance, the featured song is most appropriate- "I'll Leave Myself a Little Time," composed by Steve Dossick, unavailable until the Feb 1971 release of the second LP, UP TO DATE, which peaked at number 3 (their highest charting album).