Eight Is Enough - General Discussion

[izabella]

Tom was very sensitive to his own feelings, but much less so to other people's. 

[Katy M]

So, I'm on season 5 and not enoying it as much as the first four, but once again, the rooming situation is bothering me.  Susan and Merle are living in a garage apartment.  that means both Mary (who is hardly ever home) and Joni have their own rooms while 3 boys are sharing one room.  they ought to move in and either jeremy or tommy get the other room.  If Susan and Joni were still sharing it would be one thing. But it's not right for 3 boys to have to share when 2 girls have their own.  and it seems OOC for tommy not to complain about this, tbh.

[MaryHedwig]

On 3/7/2023 at 1:43 PM, Egg McMuffin said:

Abby doesn’t show up until the second episode of the season as Tommy’s tutor.

Tommy had a broken leg. Were we to assume that Tommy and his mother were in a car accident, and that she died in that accident?

[Egg McMuffin]

I think Tommy hurt his leg in a football game at the beginning of that episode. I could be misremembering though.

We never found out how Joan died. We know it was sudden, because in a later episode, Tom mentioned to Abby that he didn’t have the chance to say goodbye to Joan.

[Katy M]

9 hours ago, MaryHedwig said:

Tommy had a broken leg. Were we to assume that Tommy and his mother were in a car accident, and that she died in that accident?

Yes, Tommy hurt his leg during a football game.  Even though they didn't acknowledge it, the mom was probably dead most of season 1 as she wasn't around.  They just didn't mention her at all.  It was kind of weird.

[Egg McMuffin]

I think I mentioned this above, but as originally aired, some of the first season episodes in which Diana Hyland didn’t appear on camera had phone calls from Joan calling from whatever relative she was staying with. ABC edited out those phone calls for summer 1977 reruns and only showed the 5 episodes where she didn’t appear, so the audience could get used to the show without her, in preparation for the new season.

For whatever reason, Warner only uses those slightly edited episodes in reruns, so it now seems that Joan disappears in the middle of the season with no mention. But that’s not how it originally aired. 

[Katy M]

23 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

I think I mentioned this above, but as originally aired, some of the first season episodes in which Diana Hyland didn’t appear on camera had phone calls from Joan calling from whatever relative she was staying with. ABC edited out those phone calls for summer 1977 reruns and only showed the 5 episodes where she didn’t appear, so the audience could get used to the show without her, in preparation for the new season.

For whatever reason, Warner only uses those slightly edited episodes in reruns, so it now seems that Joan disappears in the middle of the season with no mention. But that’s not how it originally aired. 

Oh good. I'm glad to know that.  I thought i was insane.  Because I could have sworn that I remembered from years ago Elizabeth on the phone with her mom visiting someone. But, when I did the rewatch, there was nothing.  Obviously I blamed my faulty memory since it was so long ago (mid-90s, I think).

[Egg McMuffin]

I think the Quarantine episode has a scene where Tom is on the phone with Dr. Maxwell. Originally that was Tom on the phone with Joan, but it was redubbed.

Our local station actually showed the original edits when EIE went into syndication in the early 80s, with Hyland credited in all season 1 episodes. But since the late 90s, I’ve just seen the edited versions, with the season 2 intro pasted on for the non-Joan episodes. They even redid the closing credits for those episodes, using the still photograph of the pyramid rather than the scene on the front porch.

[MeLikesTV]

I am on the last few episodes of season 5 and I have really enjoyed it. I seemed to know a lot about the characters, but hadn’t remembered any of the storylines.

But now, I need to know how to watch the reunion movies! Does anyone know if those are available?

thanks

[Katy M]

On 10/1/2023 at 7:29 PM, MeLikesTV said:

I am on the last few episodes of season 5 and I have really enjoyed it. I seemed to know a lot about the characters, but hadn’t remembered any of the storylines.

But now, I need to know how to watch the reunion movies! Does anyone know if those are available?

thanks

I just finished, too, and am wondering the same thing.  I vaguely remember them and really want to see them with the series fresh in my head.

[MeLikesTV]

I found them on YouTube if u search “eight is enough reunion”. The titles will be in Spanish. The video quality is pretty bad, especially the first one from ‘87. But the continuation of the story was good. The final movie (1989) was pretty bad, but fun to watch.

I listened to the dialogue more than watching it. I really wish the quality was better

[1xposter]

I grew up in the 60s & 70s when TV became an integral part of our lives. I've had quite a few "favorite" shows over the years and for me EiE is one of them. When the show premiered in 1977 I was a college freshman. I really don't recall if I watched much of season one. At the time, I was a fan of another family-focused show called The Fitzpatrick's, which featured a young Helen Hunt. But I was aware of EiE and when the Fitzpatrick's was canceled I started watching EiE regulary and became a big fan.

I religiously watched seasons two through four, not missing many episodes. I also had something of a rotating crush on the Bradford women, with Joanie (Laurie Walters) being my favorite. Followed by Susan (Susan Richardson), Abby (Betty Buckley) and Mary (Lani O'Grady). Honestly I didn't care much for the Nancy and Elizabeth characters at the time but have come to appreciate them more after watching season five.

So by the time season five came around, I had made some changes in my life where I could not watch EiE anymore (and no, I wasn't in prison!). Recently when I found that EiE was on Tubi, I started going through the episodes again and this past week I finallly finished season five. (It's also on the Roku Channel which seems to have less commercials than Tubi)

From watching season five it seems to me the show ran out of gas. It had a couple of good episodes, such as when Joan's parents disapproved of Abby. The one with Tommy falling in love with the songwriter was good also. Although I like Ralph Macchio and Karate Kid...why? The cast was already unwieldy with not enough story lines to go around, and you add yet another cast member?

Regardless, I have been and am still a fan of EiE. It takes me back to a time in my life when the world was fresh and new and held endless opportunities.

Thanks 

[Egg McMuffin]

It ended at the right time. It was unusual in that many of the kids were older teenagers and young adults when it started but they still had enough younger kids to carry some story. By the end, all the kids except for Nicholas were adults, and that limited the stories.

I thought the whole thing with Susan naming her daughter after Abby (Sandra Sue) was a little odd. I get they were fond of Abby but she’s only been in their lives for a few years. But I never cared for Susan as a character to begin with, and she only got more boring after they married her off.

IRL, some of the kids had developed drug and other personal issues by season 5, and it was disrupting production. It was still doing well on Wednesday nights, but ABC sent it off to Saturday night at midseason presumably to kill it.