David Cassidy on the Web
Cassidy brothers bond over 'Ruby'
July 23, 2009
From left: Kurt Doss, Katie A. Keane, Patrick Cassidy, Austin Robert Butler, Alexa Vega, and David Cassidy on the set.
(Edward Herrera/Abc Family)
By Scott Collins
Los Angeles Times
www.boston.com
HOLLYWOOD - Nepotism is not unknown in the TV business, but with his latest project, Shaun Cassidy has taken family ties to a new extreme.
Cassidy is the 1970s teen idol who has spent the past 15 years as a television writer-producer of cult dramas with a sci-fi bent ("American Gothic,'' "Invasion''). Now he has turned his attention to musical comedy with ABC Family's "Ruby & the Rockits,'' about two middle-aged brothers, former rock gods who become reacquainted after the long-lost daughter of one of them reenters the picture. The series premiered its 10-episode run Tuesday night.
For the cast, Cassidy stayed close to home - literally. One of the leads is his half-brother, David, who had his own heartthrob stint as the lead singer on "The Partridge Family,'' the early '70s sitcom about a family of rock singers that "Ruby'' deliberately echoes. The other is stage actor Patrick Cassidy, the younger brother whom Shaun freely admits torturing endlessly during childhood (and well beyond, according to Patrick). The clannishness doesn't stop there: Ryan, the youngest Cassidy brother, works behind the scenes as the show's lead set dresser. (The title character, David's 15-year-old daughter, is played by former "Spy Kids'' star Alex Vega.)
Is it all too twistedly self-referential? As the writer in the family, Shaun Cassidy is aware of the dangers.
"The double-edged sword of working with family is it can be the most fulfilling experience you've ever had,'' Cassidy, 50, said during a recent interview in his office on the CBS lot, where "Ruby'' is filmed. "But the flip side is it can also be the most tortuous and most stressful, because it's your family and the lines can get blurry.''
The brothers are all sons of Jack Cassidy, the comic actor whose presence continues to hang over the family nearly 33 years after his death. David is the son of Cassidy and Evelyn Ward; Cassidy later married actress Shirley Jones, the mother of Shaun, Patrick, and Ryan. Jones, in a paradoxical twist, played David's birth mother on "The Partridge Family.''
When a visitor entered a soundstage where the "Ruby'' cast was rehearsing, the four brothers were chuckling over an old photo of their father. It showed Jack Cassidy in costume for "He & She,'' a 1967-68 CBS sitcom in which he played a preening, hyperconfident actor. In a coincidence that almost seemed preordained, the Cassidy brothers are toiling on the same studio lot where "He & She'' was shot more than four decades ago.
Even today, the sons seem to wrestle with ambivalent feelings toward their father. David has described Jack in interviews as an alcoholic, a sufferer of bipolar disorder, and a closet bisexual who broke his heart by abandoning him when he was young.
But for this story, David, who at 59 has thinner hair but is nearly as lean as during his pop-idol days, offered a balancing perspective: "If you put all my brothers together, we would add up to all the talent that was in my father.''
