Eight Is Enough

Eight Is Enough
Title screen
Format	Comedy-drama
Created by	Lee Rich Philip Capice Lee Mendelson director = Gary Adelson
Starring	Dick Van Patten Diana Hyland Betty Buckley Grant Goodeve Lani O'Grady Laurie Walters Susan Richardson Dianne Kay Connie Newton Willie Aames Adam Rich
Composer(s)	John Beal Alexander Courage
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	112
Production
Running time	60 minutes (48 minutes without commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	March 15, 1977 – August 29, 1981

Eight Is Enough is an American television comedy-drama series which ran on ABC from March 15, 1977 until August 29, 1981. The show was modeled after syndicated newspaper columnist Thomas Braden, a real-life father with eight children, who wrote a book with the same name. The series was rare in that it was one of the few hour-long television series to use a laugh track.

Synopsis

The show is centered around a Sacramento, California family with eight children (from oldest to youngest: David, Mary, Joanie, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Tommy, and Nicholas). The father Tom Bradford (Dick Van Patten) was a newspaper columnist for the fictional Sacramento Register. His wife Joan (Diana Hyland) took care of the children. Hyland was only in four episodes before falling ill; she was written out for the remainder of the first season.

Hyland died only 12 days after the first episode aired, and the second season began in the fall of 1977 with the revelation that Tom had become a widower. Tom fell in love with Sandra Sue "Abby" Abbott (Betty Buckley), a schoolteacher who came to the house to tutor Tommy. They were married in one of Eight Is Enough's special TV-movie broadcasts in November 1977.

In another TV-movie event in September 1979, two of the children (David and Susan) were married off in a special double wedding extravaganza. As the show went on, Abby got her Ph.D in education and started a job counseling students at the local high school.

Production details

After the end of the show's fifth season, production costs and declining ratings caused the show to be canceled, along with seven other shows that season. Reunion movies were broadcast in 1987 and 1989.

The series jumpstarted acting careers for a select few of the "eight" and cemented teen idol status for Grant Goodeve, who played David, Willie Aames, who played Tommy, and Ralph Macchio, who played cousin Jeremy later in the series. Aames would go on to star with Scott Baio in Charles in Charge. Goodeve started a minor singing career, due to his rendition of the theme "Eight Is Enough" and initially hosted HGTV's "If Walls Could Talk." Macchio would gain the most fame in feature films such as The Karate Kid and its numeraled (numbers II and III) sequels, as well as My Cousin Vinny.

The series had two reunion movies on NBC: An Eight Is Enough Reunion on October 18, 1987 where Mary Frann replaced Betty Buckley as Abby and An Eight Is Enough Wedding on October 22, 1989 with Sandy Faison in the Abby role. Buckley had been filming the movie Frantic with Harrison Ford during the filming of the first movie. Both movies aired opposite game 2 of The World Series on ABC Sports.

Episodes aired on FX when the network began in 1994 but haven't been on cable since, except for a 50th Anniversary Warner Bros. marathon on TV Land in 2005. It currently runs on WMEU-CA a low power television station in Chicago, which also airs on WCIU-TV subchannel 26.3. Selected full episodes of the show can also be found at Fancast.com.

Cast

The cast of Eight Is Enough

Top row (left to right):
Kay, Van Patten, Goodeve, and Walters.
Middle row: Richardson, Newton, and Buckley.
Bottom row: Rich, O'Grady, and Aames

The ages of the children are given alongside their character names; these are their ages in the first episode in 1977.

Core cast members

• Dick Van Patten - Tom Bradford
• Diana Hyland - Joan Wells Bradford (season 1)
• Betty Buckley - Sandra Sue "Abby" Abbott Bradford (seasons 2-5)
• Grant Goodeve - David Bradford (23) (seasons 1-5)
• Lani O'Grady - Mary Bradford (21)
• Laurie Walters - Joanie Bradford (20)
• Susan Richardson - Susan Bradford Stockwell (19)
• Dianne Kay - Nancy Bradford (18) (seasons 1-5)
• Connie Newton - Elizabeth Bradford (15)
• Willie Aames - Tommy Bradford (14) (seasons 1-5)
• Adam Rich - Nicholas Bradford (8)

In the pilot, the roles of David, Nancy, and Tommy were played by Mark Hamill, Kimberly Beck, and Chris English, respectively.

Recurring cast members

• Brian Patrick Clarke - Merle "The Pearl" Stockwell (1979–1981)
• Jennifer Darling - Donna (1978–1981)
• Henderson Forsythe - Big Bud
• Janis Paige - Vivian "Auntie V" Bradford
• Michael Goodrow - Ernie Fields (1979–1981)
• James Karen - Eliot Randolph
• Ralph Macchio - Jeremy Andretti (1980–1981)
• Joan Prather - Janet McArthur Bradford (1977–1981)
• Michael Thoma - Dr. Greg Maxwell (1977–1979)

Guest stars

• Adrienne Barbeau - Jennifer Linden (1977)
• Tyler McVey - Senator Theil (1981)
• Robert F. Simon - Grandpa Wells (1980)

International

In Italy, RAI public networks aired the first season of Eight Is Enough under the title Otto Bastano in 1978 ^[1], the literal Italian translation of the original title. The other seasons was aired in the 1980s on Retequattro, a commercial network from Fininvest (now Mediaset), under the title La Famiglia Bradford. The Italian version doesn't provide a laugh track.
Also, the French version, "Huit, ça suffit!" was a big success in the '80s both in France and French Canada.
In Spain, Eight Is Enough was aired also in the 1980s. RTVE (public network) aired all the seasons under the title Con Ocho Basta (the Spanish translation) in Friday's evening time.
In the Philippines, Eight Is Enough aired on GMA 7 from 1978-1981.

Episode list

Season 1 (1977)

1. Never Try Eating Nectarines Since Juice May Dispense
2. Schussboomer
3. Pieces of Eight
4. Women, Ducks and the Domino Theory
5. Turnabout
6. Quarantine
7. V is for Vivian
8. Hit and Run
9. The Gipper Caper

Season 2 (1977-1978)

1. Is There a Doctor in the House?
2. Trial Marriage
3. Triangles
4. Double Trouble
5. Mortgage Burnin' Blues
6. Dark Horse
7. The Bard and the Bod
8. Children of the Groom - Part I
9. Children of the Groom - Part II
10. I Quit
11. All's Fair in Love and War
12. The Return of Auntie V
13. Yes Nicholas, there is a Santa Claus - Part I
14. Yes Nicholas, there is a Santa Claus - Part II
15. A Hair of the Dog
16. Author! Author!
17. Much Ado about Garbage
18. Dear Ms. Dinah
19. Hard Hats and Hard Heads
20. Seven Days in February
21. The Boyfriend
22. Great Expectations
23. Long Night's Journey into Day
24. The Lost Weekend
25. Poor Little Rich Girl
26. Who's on First?

Season 3 (1978-1979)

1. Who's Crazy Here?
2. Nine Is Too Much
3. Here We Go Again
4. Cinderella's Understudy
5. Milk and Sympathy
6. The Flunked and the Funked
7. Cops and Toddlers
8. The Hipbone's Connected to the Thighbone
9. Fast and Loose
10. War Between the Bradfords
11. All The Vice President's Men
12. You Won't Have Nicholas to Kick Around Anymore - Part I
13. You Won't Have Nicholas to Kick Around Anymore - Part II
14. Alone At Last
15. The Yearning Point
16. Moving Out
17. Mother's Rule
18. Inlaws and Outlaws
19. Horror Story
20. Just The Ten of Us
21. Best of Friends
22. The Kid Who Came to Dinner
23. The Better Part of Valor
24. Dads, Daughters, Different Drummers
25. The Final Days
26. The Graduates
27. Marriage and Other Flights of Fancy - Part I
28. Marriage and Other Flights of Fancy - Part II

Season 4 (1979-1980)

1. Merle the Pearl
2. The Cupid Crisis
3. I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
4. Ten Ships in the Night
5. The Devil and Mr. Bradford
6. The Night They Raided Bradfords
7. Big Shoes, Little Feet
8. Fathers and Other Strangers - Part I
9. Fathers and Other Strangers - Part II
10. Letter to One Bradford
11. Separate Ways
12. Arrivals
13. Brotherhood, Sisterhood
14. Mary, He's Married
15. My Son, The Prom Queen
16. The Courage to Be
17. Semi-Centennial Bradford
18. The Commitment
19. Seven More Days in February
20. The Return of Joe Simons
21. Bradford vs. Bradford
22. Memories
23. Official Positions
24. A Matter of Mentors
25. Roll Over Bradford
26. A Little Triangle
27. Grad Night (Festa di diploma)

Season 5 (1980-1981)

1. And Baby Makes Nine - Part 1
2. And Baby Makes Nine - Part 2
3. Jeremy
4. Welcome to Memorial Dr. Bradford
5. Generations
6. Holly
7. The Maltese Airline Bag
8. Strike
9. Bradfordgate
10. Darlene Dilemma
11. Second Thoughts
12. David's Rib
13. Vows
14. The Way We Were
15. If The Glass Slipper Fits
16. The Best Little Telethon in Sacramento
17. Yet Another Seven Days in February
18. Idolbreaker (1)
19. Idolbreaker (2)
20. Starting Over
21. Goals
22. Father Knows Best?

Special

1. TV Movie Eight is Enough: A Family Reunion (1987)
2. TV Movie An Eight is Enough Wedding (1989)

References

External links

• Eight Is Enough at the Internet Movie Database
• Eight Is Enough at TV.com
• Eightisenough.com contains episode summaries