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Eight Is Enough was an American television "dramedy" series which ran on ABC from March 15, 1977 until August 29, 1981. The show was modeled after syndicated newspaper columnist Tom 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. It 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.
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. 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 (Eight Is Enough seemed to grab the most headlines, as the press had a field day with ABC's choice to bring "eight shows in" and kick "eight shows out."). 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 to Fill Our Lives With Love." Macchio would gain the most fame in feature films such as The Karate Kid and its sequels, as well as My Cousin Vinny.
Cast list
Mark Hamill was originally cast as David Bradford. After filming "Star Wars" he was involved in a high speed accident for which he was hospitalized. He required rehabilitation and plastic surgery to his face. (You can note the difference in his appearance by watching Star Wars and then The Empire Strikes Back.) He did play David in the pilot, but Grant Goodeve played the character for the rest of the show's run. Core cast members
Recurring cast members
ParodyEight Is Enough was parodied on the "Brian: Portrait of a Dog" episode of Family Guy: After being insulted for always trying to console people by making them sandwiches, Tom slaps his daughter Nancy eight times until another daughter Mary rushes into the room, exclaiming "Dad! Dad! Eight Is Enough!" The characters then laugh at the coincidence of the statement and the fact of the eight offspring and the resultant title. InternationalIn Spain, "Eight Is Enough" was aired also in the 80s. RTVE (public network) aired all the seasons under the title "Con Ocho Basta" (the Spanish traslation) in Saturday's morning time. In Italy, Eight Is Enough was aired in the 1980s. RAI public networks aired the first season, under the title Otto Bastano, the correct Italian translation. All seasons were aired later, 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 80's both in France and French Canada. Trivia
External link
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