Con ocho basta

Eight is Enough was one of the best shows from the late 1970's and early 1980's. It was considered a dramedy. It had drama because the show could be serious at times but it also had comedy because the show was funny and it had a laugh track. Eight is Enough is now seen in reruns on CTS up here in Canada and I am happy about that. I had a major crush on Willie Aames (Tommy Bradford) when I was younger. Too bad there aren't many T.V. shows on now like this. Those were the good old days of television!

I began watching in season 1 but I never warmed up to most of the characters. I also got tired of the plot line, someone has a problem and everyone chips in to solve it. I continued watching only because I had a crush on David Bradford. He was a he-man blue collar construction worker type so I only watched to catch episodes with him. When he faded so did my interest.

Good show. My favorite characters were Tommy and Joanie. Dullest character was Elizabeth. Not many stories about her. Nicholas was cute until about the 4th season. By then he starts growing out of his cuteness. Everyone always complains about the Jeremy character in the 5th season. I thought he was a good addition although the ratings were totally down by the 5th season anyway. I never realized the father Tom had so many lines. Every time he speaks its usually a speech or something. Not complaining, just an observation. Most of the episodes were very entertaining although there are a few boring ones here and there. Overall I liked it a lot.

This show pretty much picks up where the "Brady Bunch" left off, but on a more serious tone. This show was definitely one of the first "dramadies", but it still managed to have its lighter moments. Most of them were provided by Willie Aames as the entrepreneur Tommy and Adam Rich as the cute Nicholas. These two young actors helped make this show one of the most loved of the 1970's. I do think that the major flaw in shows of this type though is the conflict of whether or not it was to be a serious drama or whether it was to be a cute domestic comedy along the lines of the aforementioned "Brady Bunch" and another show of that era "The Partridge Family".

This family comedy, which initially would be that of a married couple with eight children, underwent several modifications from the beginning until it found the right direction. Diana Hyland would be the mother of the boys and wife of Dick Van Patten, but her sudden death from fatal cancer forced the writers to make changes to the script, at first Tom Bradford was alone until he met Abby (Betty Buckley) Tommy's tutor and was remarried. The second and third seasons of the series were the best, scripts that ranged from drama to comedy, the entire cast was great and the stories were generally very good. From season four the three eldest daughters become independent and rent their own apartment, from here the family clan is a little disarmed and the series turns more to drama than comedy, later new characters are added, the boyfriends and husbands of the older daughters. Like any series they had their maximum peak of creativity but after a little it was losing the charm of its best time.