`PARTRIDGE FAMILY': COME ON, GET SERIOUS.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

You'd expect ``Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story'' to be ironic in a flip, kitschy way, but who would've guessed the irony would be quite so dark? This backstage yarn - told from Danny Bonaduce's (a k a Danny Partridge's) perspective - has such wild mood swings that it could use a prescription for lithium.

Mainly, the teleflick is content to revel in the benign loopiness of the sitcom in question, famous for its pablum-as-counterculture premise. At times, though, it aspires to being the ``Raging Bull'' of sappy sitcom tell-alls, as it depicts the violent physical abuse Bonaduce (played by Shawn Pyfrom) received from his father, an embittered, struggling writer. Director David Burton Morris hasn't a clue how to handle these tonal shifts - the confrontational scenes, though staged in a heavy-handed fashion, are shot and lit in the same pointedly inane, light-headed manner as the rest of the film.

``Come On, Get Happy'' at its best is a once-over-lightly parody of the network-executive sensibilities that created the show. ``Like the Monkees, only less threatening'' is an early pitch for ``The Partridge Family'' in sessions that would be called ``brainstorming'' if, in fact, any cerebra had been in use while devising the series.

In quick order we meet the players - Shirley Jones (Eve Gordon) and Dave Madden (Michael Chieffo), who are fondly delineated; David Cassidy (Rodney Scott), depicted as a spoiled artiste chafing against the yoke of mainstream-television oppression; and everyone else, who fail to make much of an impression. Except, of course, for Bonaduce, who, the film suggests, was at 10 already the go-to guy when mining for comic gold (Bonaduce served as the film's consultant).

Aside from some rather bland revelations that won't make headlines (heck, they barely serve as subplots) - Jones warned Cassidy to be compassionate toward Susan Dey, who had an unrequited crush on her co-star; Cassidy battled with the network over money and his highly publicized private life - Bonaduce tells no tales out of school. The film doesn't belabor the sheer cheesiness of the musical sequences in the series, as the actors lip-sync'ed the tunes and put shockingly little effort into playing their instruments with anything approaching verisimilitude, but neither does it fully exploit the comedic potential. And the scenes with Danny's father - who does everything except wickedly twirl a handlebar mustache - bring down the tepidly giddy fun of the rest of proceedings significantly, without adding much substance or insight in the way of a trade-off.

There's scarcely an interesting anecdote offered about the making of the series, so it's appropriate that the show's own turgid musical cues are frequently employed. At the end, Bonaduce (as voice-over narrator) blandly enthuses, ``It was the bus ride of a lifetime.''

We'll have to take his word for it; for viewers, it's little more than an excuse to go nowhere, just vegetate on the couch for a couple of hours.

The facts

The show: ``Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story.''

What: Seriocomic behind-the-scenes tale of the kitschy '70s sitcom.

The stars: Eve Gordon, Rodney Scott, Kathy Wagner, Shawn Pyfrom, Michael Chieffo, William Russ, Roxanne Hart.

Where: ABC (KABC, Channel 7).

When: 9 tonight.

Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Photo

Photo: Looking remarkably similar to the originals are the cast members of ``Come On, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story.'