The Partridge Family - Season 4, Episode 12 (86)

Title: Maid In San Pueblo

First aired: December 8, 1973

Synopsis:

The Partridges advertise for a maid. Shirley can’t cope with housework and touring; it’s too much work for her and she needs help. But they are not lucky with the candidates the agency has sent to interview.

Suddenly, out of the blue, Amanda, Shirley’s mother, arrives with a suitcase. She has ben sent by the agency too and she wants to be the Partridges’ maid. Of course, everything started with a quarrel with her husband, Shirley’s dad, Walter. He is certain that Amanda will not survive without him, and she wants to show her husband she will be able to get a job outside a house. The Partridges don’t know what to do about it but they want to help their mother and grandmother.

In the morning they try to be helpful, and actually do a lot of things by themselves. Keith even mows the lawn. But they can’t go on like that, they need to have professional domestic help because they are very tired from all that housework. Shirley, Keith, Laurie and Danny meet at the garage to talk and find a solution. They discuss how to reconcile the grandparents. Shirley has an idea and phones her father and asks him for dinner this evening. When Amanda opens the door to let the unexpected guest in, she has an unpleasant surprise seeing her own husband. Walter is not nice to Amanda, he treats her as a servant and tells Shirley that her mother deserves ill treatment from him.

Walter stays for the night and in the morning there is another serious argument about a bag of dirty laundry he has brought with him for Amanda to wash. Danny can’t understand why grandma is so stubborn and doesn’t want to say she was wrong. Keith agrees with him that men are superior. Walter and Reuben and even Chris think the same. Of course, the ladies do not like it and Shirley says that boys now will have to take care of themselves.

Grandpa’s attempt to wash his clothes ends in disaster. When Shirley, Amanda, Laurie and Tracey are eating an excellent dinner, the boys are starving. Walter has made Renfrew's Stew, but no one likes it except him.

Danny has an idea. Women always need men’s protection. What will the girls do if a burglar enter the house at night? He is sure that they will yell for help. Amanda thinks boys are up to something and they set a trap for Danny. Of course he tells him everything in exchange for a big piece of chocolate cake. So when Reuben and Walter pretend to be burglars they are caught by a police officer. He’s done it for Shirley and when the joke is explained he frees the would-be-burglars.

Shirley first sends kids upstairs to their beds and later leaves her parents downstairs and tells them that she has enough of their quarrels, and everything must go back to normal. In the morning, Shirley and the kids find Amanda and Walter sleeping together on the sofa in the living room. In the evening, the very happy, reconciled couple watch The Partridge Family’s concert.
Written by Weronika Cyrynger

Songs:
Working On A Groovy Thing, Grandma (We Love You Just The Way You Are) by Ricky

Cast:
Shirley Partridge - Shirley Jones
Keith Partridge - David Cassidy
Laurie Partridge - Susan Dey
Danny Partridge - Danny Bonaduce
Chris Partridge - Brian Forster
Tracy Partridge - Suzanne Crough
Reuben Kincaid - Dave Madden

Directed by: Charles Rondeau

Written by: Bernard Slade, William J. Keenan

Guest Stars: Jackie Coogan as Walter Renfrew, Rosemary DeCamp as Amanda Renfrew, Ricky Segall as Ricky

Screen Shots: