"Soul Club" is another celebrated episode, a rare TV appearance for stand up comedian Richard Pryor, whose six picture movie career only truly took off with 1972's "Lady Sings the Blues," teamed with future Oscar and Emmy winner Lou Gossett as the Simon brothers, owners of a Detroit night club called The Fire House (an actual firehouse). Imagine their surprise when they find The Partridge Family arriving to perform instead of The Temptations, in what at first appears to be a simple booking error. The Partridges soon learn that the Simons borrowed money from a loan shark (Charles Lampkin), and must pay him back by Monday to keep the club; naturally, the entire mix up was orchestrated by him, certain that he'll be the new club owner welcoming James Brown the following week for a big money payoff. Shirley hits upon the idea of orchestrating a block party, with a new song from Keith that's 'sort of an Afro thing.' That song, taken from THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY ALBUM, is "Bandala," composed by Wes Farrell and Edward Singleton, which does sound oddly appropriate, despite the weak lyrics. Lou Gossett's TV career dated all the way back to 1957, and he was coming off the short-lived series THE YOUNG REBELS (supposedly, this episode was intended to be the pilot for a series starring Pryor and Gossett). As for Pryor, he did only one more TV episode, on THE MOD SQUAD ("The Connection"), before focusing exclusively on writing, night clubs, and movies. Here is another case where the series was slightly ahead of the curve, as the 'Blaxpoitation' craze had not yet taken hold, "Shaft" not released until July 1971, nearly six months after this broadcast (Marvin Gaye's WHAT'S GOING ON album issued in May).
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