David Cassidy on the Web
Patrick Cassidy Discusses Ruby & The Rockits
July 27, 2009
By F. Brokaw
www.suite101.com
The Star of Stage is Enjoying His New Sitcom
The ABC Family show Ruby and the Rockits has many real life aspects of the Cassidy family. This talented family joins forces for the first time.
The network has ten episodes ready and everyone connected with the show hopes the fans will enjoy it and there will be another season in the near future.
Basing the Show on the Lives of the Cassidys
"For me, the most interesting thing is that so much of the show is our lives. I mean anybody who knows anything about David or Shaun or myself or my Mom (Shirley Jones), you're going to see so many things in the show that are our lives. I mean I am married to a dancer who was a dancer in the eighties, who did every single video and award shows and tours." His wife in the show is also a dancer.
"I do have two sons. That's all reality," Patrick says. In the sitcom he also has two sons. "They're a little older in the show. They are musicians. David does have a daughter that turned up. So, I mean were David and I pop stars in the eighties? No. That's a little bit of fiction."
Patrick is energetic as he discusses working with all of his brothers and says the audiences will get a kick out of the comparisons between their real lives and those of their characters. "But that aspect of the show is what's going to be, I think, very interesting to people. Wait a minute. Is this real? Did this really happen? And so it's a lot of our lives that we've inserted in the show and we'll continue to insert in the show. I think that the (longer) the show goes on, I'll be giving them many more specifics."
The Cassidy Brothers' Road Trip
He loves to tell the story of a road trip he took with his three brothers, and doing press appearances for Ruby and the Rockits he brings it up regularly. "There's a great road trip that my brothers and I all did together about, a little over five years ago without our spouses, without our children. It was four brothers that drove on the road for nine days. Let me tell you, it was the most unique, wonderful, cathartic, insane experience that anyone could ever have. And we have sibling moments just like the rest-one moment at Disney World where I actually punched Shaun for saying something one time too many to me. So, we are brothers. We are brothers that have all the wonderful things and all the downfalls just like any other family. And we get to live that, which is great. Really great. And you'll get to see that in the show."
Pitching the Story to ABC Family
Talking with Patrick it is evident he is more than a little excited about this project. "The best story for me about how it got developed was David had actually gone to Shaun with an idea, of kind of doing maybe a new version of the Partridge Family, and that kind of fell by the wayside, but Shaun liked the idea of maybe working with (him). He pitched it around and then ABC Family suggested that it could be a brother thing. You know, like Two and a Half Men, type thing but with music. And Shaun said, 'That's great.'"
Patrick describes the pitch to ABC Family this way. "So I got brought into it, but when the three of us went to pitch it, which was so long ago, it seems like now, there we were for the very first time, David, myself, Shaun, all in front of ABC Family and sort of talking about this idea of two brothers that were an act that are sort of forced to be together, even if they don't want to be. I mean, that's what acts are. If you look at the Smothers Brothers, if you look at (Laurel and Hardy). They might not like each other, but it's like a marriage, where you kind of stay in it, you know, because that's your career. So they're forced to be together.
"And originally it was with David playing the sort of domestic dad with the kids that were talented musicians. And me being kind of the crazy brother who's still on the road and wants that glamour and success, you know, and doesn't really want to grow up. After the meeting, which went incredibly well, they said, 'We love the idea, we want to be a part of this, however, we have one small little adjustment. We'd like David and Patrick to switch parts.' It was purely on, I guess, our personalities. David's a father and stuff, but, he is much more sort of the guy on the road and still does that, and I'm a stay at home dad. And so, yeah, the original idea just got flip flopped. But it's worked out good, worked out great."
Ruby and the Rockits airs Tuesdays on ABC Family.
