SoapDope

3 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

They did! Susan lived there with the baby during the last season while Merle was on the road.

I forgot all about that. It's been a while since I watched season 5. That season was a bit of a mess and the show started falling apart. Mary pretty much faded into the background due to Lani's real life issues. The addition of Jeremy was pointless.

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

ABC piloted a spinoff based around David flying the coup and becoming a photographer travelling the country.

Did any of that come up in the series?

Yes. At the end of season 3 there was a boring 2 part episode titled : Marriage and Other Flights Of Fancy" where he breaks up with Janet and takes off. At the beginning of season 4 he returns and tries to win Janet back. She is engaged to a guy named Reed (Played by Terry Lester). She and David marry in a double wedding with Susan and Merle.   

24 minutes ago, danfling said:

Diane Kay (Nancy Bradford) was in an episode (possibly the pilot episode) of the ABC series Once a Hero.  I think that Dusty Kay (television writer and producer who created the series) was her brother.  I am not sure that they were brother and sister, so, if anyone knows for certain, I would love to know.

She was also in the pilot (a few years earlier) of Flamingo Road (produced by the same company that produced Eight Is Enough - Lorimar).   Her character died in the pilot.

I have no idea if that is her brother, but it could be with the last name Kay. Diane was also in the pilot " Cass Malloy" starring Caroline McWilliams. Someone said the pilot actually aired once during the summer of 1982. A few years later they did it again with Suzanne Somers as the lead and it became " She's The Sheriff" that ran 1987-1989. 

Diane would have been good as a regular on a soap. She pretty much stopped acting by the 90's. She was closest to Lani O'Grady who played Mary and was devastated when she died. She keeps a framed photo of her in her house.

22 minutes ago, j swift said:

It is an ironic criticism given that the title of the show suggests a large cast, and the source material had years of stories about the kids.

I have never read the book, but have heard that the real Braden family had more controversy and turmoil in their lives than the more light weight material that was written for the onscreen Bradfords. 

In the series the number of kids were explained as unexpected happy accidents, but the real life catholic Braden family had a friendly competition with the Robert Kennedy family as which family could produce the most children. 

On 2/3/2024 at 2:15 PM, Khan said:

I definitely agree that one of EiE's biggest issues was that, with so many regular cast members, it was hard to write enough material for everyone and justify having them all under one roof at the same time.  Eight might have been enough to fill their lives with love, but it was just too damn many to service on a weekly TV series that wasn't DALLAS or KNOTS LANDING.

 True. They tried to keep them all at home like Dallas, but it just wasn't working in the long run with everyone getting married, having children, unexpected relatives and in-laws showing up/dropping in. I guess Lorimar had a thing about keeping families all under one roof. Someone once joked that Tom had that huge den and should have converted it into extra sleeping quarters.

They never really used the garage. They should have converted that into a guest house where Janet & David lived or Merle & Susan.

One thing that was funny, with all those kids they never had a dishwasher. They would always have these scenes of them doing dishes and having long conversations. Sometimes I noticed there would be suds still on the plates as they were drying them and putting them in the cabinet. It also bugged me how smeary/greasy the refrigerator was. I guess they smeared wax on it to keep from reflection of the film crew showing, but I always wanted to grab a bottle of Fantastik or 409 and give that a good scrubbing. 

Instead of adding worthless characters they could have hired a sassy housekeeper for the Bradfords. Alice Ghostley, Kathleen Freeman, Mary Wickes, Sandra Gould, Patsy Kelly etc....could have fit the bill. Maybe she could have a bit of a drinking problem to add a bit of comedy or drama. 

Great article. I'm glad she looks back at Nancy Drew and Dynasty with fondness. She left ND because they wanted to combine her series with the Hardy Boys full time. Pamela Sue looks a little bit like Valerie Harper as she has gotten older. 

I always thought Janice Lynde could have played Patti on SFT. She resembled Lynn Loring a bit who had originated the role. 

Joan Collins with Gary Collins on Hour magazine. Only a partial episode.

1 hour ago, Chris 2 said:

I also liked Dianne Kay a lot. She was a significant upgrade from Kimberly Beck, who played Nancy in the pilot and who I thought was a limited actress based on her other work in the 1970s and 80s.

I agree. Beck always came across as a pretentious snob in her roles.  

54 minutes ago, soapfan770 said:

Wow, never though I'd see an Eight is Enough thread on this board lol. It's probably been close to 30 years since I have watched an episode and have murky memories at best. Would it be worth my time checking out again? 

I remember in the late 80's it coming on our local independent station and airing right after Brady Bunch reruns, so I associate those two shows together. At the time my young self was puzzled on why there was a laugh track for an hour long show. 

I think you would enjoy it, if only to revisit the culture of the late 70's/early 80's. 

24 minutes ago, John said:

Is the E True Hollywood Story still available on Youtube?

I did a quick search for it and it looks like it has been deleted. 

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

The network/Lorimar obviously didn't step in with Adam Rich.

They were on Susan Richardson hardcore to lose the baby weight stat..and sadly she was so fearful of losing her job that she turned to drugs to lose the weight..and it basically hurt her in the long run.

Of the kids, Elizabeth was given less to do...other then initial disapproval of her dad and Abby marrying.

Abby always seemed judgmental to me, but there were times that she had warm scenes with her step kids.

And sadly since she couldn't go back for the 1st reunion movie...they did a good job with replacing her with Mary Frann (same she wasn't included in the 2nd movie).

Lastly, my favorite of the Bradford kids was Nancy.  She was always searching for her place and identity in the world..and you always cheered for her.  

I agree. I know it was a different era, but Lorimar should have done better by Adam, Susan and the rest of the cast. Abby sometimes acted like she was a bit stoned....LOL. I remember her bridal shower and she was wafting around the room and going on about the cute little baby on her cake. " There's this little baby on the cake...there's the little baby" Tom was up on a ladder hanging a decoration on the chandelier and I kept waiting for her to accidentally knock him off.

Nancy was my favorite too. Diane Kay was cute, charming, and good actress. She should have went on to bigger things. 

2 minutes ago, Chris 2 said:

I think Van Patten was truly one of the good guys. I know he tried to help Adam Rich when he got into legal trouble after the series ended. I’m guessing you read Buckley’s tribute to him when he died. It was in Variety or perhaps the LA Times. She spoke so highly of him and his wife and how they helped her adjust to life in LA when she took the job on EIE, and they became lifelong friends. 

I did see the tribute Buckley wrote about him which was sweet. I also remember her telling a story in a interview where Penny Marshall told her to really play up the relationship between Abby and Tom and get in there and pinch his fanny....LOL

Willie Aames was really devastated when Dick died. Dick loved and supported the cast through his life. I remember him going on talk shows supporting Lani O'Grady with her bouts of mental illness. He knew and was friends with just about everyone in Hollywood. 

6 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

I read the same thing. But they made peace with her. When Adam Rich died, I saw a a pictures of him from a few years earlier with his EIE cast mates attending the LA opening of Hello, Dolly, starring Betty Buckley.

I also saw an interview with Willie Aames and perhaps some of the others (might have been a Today Show reunion) where he said that he used to argue with Betty Buckley that they weren’t making art; they were making product and that’s why they had to move faster. And it drove her crazy. But he sounded pretty good natured about it.

I saw that photo too and the Today Show reunion. There was also a photo of Buckley and the rest of the cast when Dick Van Patten died. Susan was the only one missing.

Joan Prather who played Janet always reminded me of Tracy Scoggins. On the E True Hollywood story, she recalled shooting the scene where Tom catches her coming out of David's bedroom. She said even though they were all acting, the way Dick played the scene and was looking at her, she felt like she had been a bad girl and should be ashamed.....LOL

22 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Did anybody intervene? Wouldn't that behavior have been enough to have his parents/guardians reported to child services or whatever?

You would think, but apparently not. I remember when they did one of those E True Hollywood stories Brian Patrick Clarke who played Merle said he was horrified that this was seen as cute by the higher ups and they allowed it to go on. I think Adam would often travel to promote the show/make public appearances and his parents allowed him to travel alone with "handlers" who turned him on to drugs, porn, women etc...Leif Garrett said that was exactly the same thing that happened to him during that same time period.  

1 hour ago, Chris 2 said:

The challenge with EIE was that it started with most of the kids as older teens or young adults. So that really limited the stories after the show had been for a few years because there was no longer a differentiated range of ages to do stories on. ABC knew the show was out of gas and moved it to Saturday to kill it.

The 1987 reunion movie came about because the show never had an official final episode. When Betty Buckley didn’t participate, the official reason was that she was filming the movie “Frantic.” In reality, she and her representatives were in negotiation to do the reunion. But negotiations dragged on and on over salary and billing and finally Lorimar walked away from the table and hired Mary Frann. Lorimar management had never been overly fond of Buckley, who liked to “color outside of the lines.”

The 1987 reunion rated very well, so NBC ordered a follow-up. For that second movie, they didn’t even offer Buckley the job.

Yes as the kids got older it presented problems. They tried to keep many of them all under one roof, but it still didn't help with storylines. I have read Buckley could be difficult and a perfectionist. She would take forever to complete a scene. She also handed out a book about acting to cast members, which many took offense to especially Willie Aames. 

I remember reading that network executives would be shocked when they would attend cast parties and little Adam Rich was walking around drinking martinis or champagne and smoking. Rich said he was smoking pot and watching porn by age 10.

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

Falling ratings caused the shows cancellation as much as BTS problems.

Eight Is Enough was #12 in the 79/80 season Wed @8 Then Real People on NBC came along and took over the time period. In 80/81 Real People was #12 and Eight was moved to Sat night and replaced by Greatest American Hero. 

Thanks for the info. In the 1987 & 1989 they did the reunion films, but Betty Buckley did not return as Abby. I read the first film got pretty good ratings and there was hope of a series revival or a series of annual films that never came to pass.

In the mid 90's Donny Osmond interviewed Grant Goodeve and he mentioned they were in the works of getting together again for another film, but obviously that fell through. I say problems with Susan Richardson and Adam Rich may have been a factor. Betty Buckley's feelings run hot and cold about her time as Abby.

The last season (1980-81) of the series was a mess. The strike of 1980 did not help things. If you notice a lot of the signature background music was replaced with generic stuff with lots of awkward wah wah cheesy type of comedy crap. After the strike was over a lot of the signature music returned. What was the point of Jeremy played by Ralph Macchio ? The cast was way too huge already and they barely gave storylines to most of them. Elizabeth was one they never seemed to develop much. Mary faded into the woodwork due to Lani O'Grady's mental issues. They also quickly broke up David and Janet and then toyed with a reconciliation. Then they were divorced in the first reunion and toyed with another reconciliation. Then in the second film David remarried another woman. I bet most fans were not pleased with that. 

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

AFAIK Don Murray is the first Knots Landing original cast member to pass away.

I know we've previously lost two Knots Landing long-time cast members Kevin Dobson and Julie Harris.

Steve Shaw who played Eric was killed in a car accident in 1990. 

Sad to hear about Murray passing. It always seemed like he never really wanted to do Knots Landing.

59 minutes ago, Chris 2 said:

I liked Diana Hyland and thought she was warm and believable in the role. But Joan’s death did open up story possibility. I liked how they frequently referred to her and mentions came up naturally, like when Mary visited her old teacher to ask for advice, and the teacher began with how sorry she had been to hear about her mother.

Tom as a single father could have been milked for longer. But ABC as you mentioned was insistent on a two-parent family. So Tom was remarried by November sweeps. Too bad.

It was sad Hyland had finally found a role where she could have the chance to shine and then be told she was terminally ill. Dick Van Patten said he and his wife Pat watched the premiere with Hyland in the hospital. After it finished she turned to him and said " Congratulations, You have a hit". She died about a week or two later. Van Patten and his wife along with John Travolta were with her when she passed. 

Tom as a single father would have been interesting for a season or two, but in the end they made a good decision by casting Buckley as Abby. 

I always loved their colonial style house. Sadly it was torn down several years ago. Van Patten was upset about it when it happened.

Adam Rich set the trend with the bowl haircut for little boys and just about every Mom who had a son between 1977-1989 had their sons hair cut like his. Unfortunately I had that haircut too as a kid.....LOL 

4 hours ago, Chris 2 said:

The issue with Joan Bradford disappearing in mid-season without explanation is interesting. Season 1 consisted of nine episodes. Joan was physically in four. And then she was heard on the phone in two additional episodes (she was said to be visiting a family member who had had a baby). Diana Hyland was not well enough to appear in those two episodes, but recorded voiceovers for them.

When ABC reran the series in the summer of 1977, they only showed episodes in which Hyland did not appear, in order to transition audiences to a new season without Joan. They edited her voiceovers out of those two episodes (for example, in the “Quarantine” episode, Tom’s phone call with Joan is replaced with a phone call to his friend Greg Maxwell). And those episodes got a new opening and closing that eliminated Joan/Hyland.

It’s these summer of 1977 edits that are shown in syndication and streaming used in the DVDs. So it gives the impression that Joan is gone without explanation.

Thanks for the info. I never knew about the phone calls being edited out. I thought it seemed odd she was just gone and they never mentioned where she was and quickly changed the opening credits. I did notice on the season 1 DVD's that the end credits often do not match the episode.

Out of respect for Hyland they chose not to recast Joan and wrote her death into the series. Bill Blinn who developed the series for TV said he wanted to play Tom Bradford as a single father, but ABC insisted that a mother figure be present in the household. Betty Buckley was brought on as Abby. Tom Braden who wrote the book was pissed that his wife's onscreen counterpart was killed off and replaced.

It's hard to judge how the show would have played if Diana had not passed away and how her character of Joan would have developed. Most viewers have stated they feel Buckley as Abby was a better fit. 

The show was racked with problems from the get go. Mark Hamill's car accident and being replaced, Diana Hyland's death, having to recast the roles of Nancy and Tommy etc... Bill Blinn said he wanted a stage actor he knew from New York to play Tom and brought him out to do the pilot. He said after a day or two he realized he had made a mistake and that every time the red light when on, the actor would tense up and flub his lines. He had not choice but to let him go. 

Fred Silverman at ABC told Blinn he wanted Dick Van Patten as Tom. Blinn said he would have never cast Van Patten. He felt he was not right for Tom. Silverman won out. Blinn said he wound up eating his his words because Van Patten turned out to be perfect in that role. 

15 minutes ago, All My Shadows said:

I've watched the odd episode here and there over the years, but I definitely plan to watch it from beginning to end within the next few months. To me, EIE is to Family as Little House is to The Waltons. EIE/LHOTP were a bit more over-the-top with the emotions, drama, sentimentality. Waltons/Family were more understated. The four together are to the 70s what Dallas/Dynasty/Knots/FC are to the 80s, as far as I'm concerned. It's highly possible we might not have had the 80s soaps without those 70s family dramas.

David Jacobs was writing Family for Spelling/Goldberg when he was approached about creating a show for CBS. He said he went with Lorimar as the studio because of the recent hit of EIE and the quality and production values of the series.

The thing that hurt Family was ABC had little faith in it and moved it around the schedule and often pre-empted it in favor of specials. I also read it was never shown in summer reruns. It was also very seldom seen in syndication. A lot of people have never even heard of it. 

The last season of the show was shown late in the season and they finally gave it the axe in early 1980. ABC must have wanted to get rid of it pretty quickly. You would think with the popularity of Kristy McNichol they would try to capitalize on that. 

I know this was considered a Dramedy, but I wanted to start a thread here if anyone would like to discuss this great series. A lot of viewers consider this kind of a sister show to Family. Lorimar had an unexpected hit when this premiered mid season in the spring of 1977. Diana Hyland who played the mother Joan only appeared in 4 episodes before passing away. Her absence was never explained till season 2. ABC quickly wanted a mother figure and they brought in Betty Buckley as Abby the love interest for Tom played by Dick Van Patten. 

Dick Van Patten usually played goofy types of characters, but the role of Tom Bradford really endeared him to TV audiences. 

I always thought Diane Kay was so pretty and charming as Nancy. I know she appeared briefly in Flamingo Road during her time on EIE, but I think should have been hired in a meaty role on a primetime soap. 

Most of the cast had mental or substance abuse issues that caused the shows cancellation after 5 seasons. Van Patten said they were all geared to film season 6 when he was reading the paper at home and read they were cancelled. Lorimar felt the show was too much trouble to continue with.

The show is available to watch for Free on streaming platforms like Tubi. 

11 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Good question. I think it was an 80's thing- yes inspired by Dynasty.

Was there any physical action b/w any of these 70's rivals?

Iris/Rachel AW

Alice/Rachel AW

Lisa/Joyce ATWT

Jennifer/Eunice SFT

 

I would also assume maybe a catfight between Lorie & Leslie on Y&R. I read that Leslie screamed the "B" word at Lorie during an intense scene while she was in the mental hospital. The viewer who remembers it said they were shocked they used the word on daytime TV in the mid 70's. I think they also said it happened as they were going to break. I guess Bell timed that line so the network didn't have time to cut it. 

Speaking of Dynasty, Linda Evans had appeared on a 1973 episode of McCloud where she got into a hilarious catfight with Stefanie Powers with pillows and feathers flying etc... I assume Spelling or the writers on Dynasty saw that and used that for the basis of the Krystal/Alexis brawls. 

When did catfights between female characters start ? A lot of people credit Krystal and Alexis on Dynasty as the beginning. They had their first brawl in 1982. 

In 1978 on Dallas, Pamela slapped the piss out of Sue Ellen and knocked her to the floor up against that ugly blue 70's sofa. It was during the episode where Bobby & J.R.'s plane went down. Would that be considered the first catfight on a soap ? 

On 1/30/2024 at 12:34 AM, Paul Raven said:

And homosexuality was touched upon with Mike and Sharon on Days and Joanne/Kay on Y&R.

Dallas did the story with Kit Mainwaring in 1979. Then Dynasty ripped it off with Steven 2 years later. Even Al Corley (Steven) had similar blow dried blonde parted down the middle feathered hair like Mark Wheeler (Kit).