Jump to content

Eight Is Enough


SoapDope

Recommended Posts

  • Members

I recently bought picked up season 4 and plan on getting season 5 to complete the series. Anyone else here a fan or like the show ? It's one of those shows that takes me back to my childhood. I posted a recent interview with Brian Patrick Clarke where he talks about the series and playing Merle.

 

The sad thing is most of the cast has had a lot of troubles much like the cast of Diff'rent Strokes. Willie Aames (Tommy), Adam Rich (Nicholas), Lani O'Grady (Mary), have had substance abuse problems. Susan Richardson has had a lot of problems as well and was living in a rotting trailer in recent years. Lani died in the early 2000's of a drug overdose. I think Grant Goodeve (David) admitted to being a recovering alcoholic and Joan Prather (who played David's wife Janet) hit a cop with her car.

 

The cast reunited with the passing of Dick Van Patten last year.

 

Please register in order to view this content

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 19
  • Created
  • Last Reply
  • Members

I have the first two seasons on DVD and plan to buy more as I work my way through the series. I love all of the 70s family dramas. They were sorta like precursors to the 80s nighttime soaps but with an earnestness that actually worked. People often pit EiE against Family, but I think they're really two very different shows with two different purposes. While Family thrived on being quiet and understated, EiE was all about the raucousness of a house full of people who didn't always get along, and it was just a very busy show. And it worked!

I had not seen the picture from DVP's funeral. Susan's absence really does make me worry for her...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I agree, Family and Eight Is Enough are 2 very different shows. Family was strictly more dramatic and EiE mixed in comedy. Susan was in pretty rough shape a while back.

 

I noticed Adam Rich is holding a glass in his hand. I know he had substance abuse problems in the past, so maybe he was drinking something non alcoholic. I remember reading by the time he was 10 that some of the backstage crew and people that traveled with him on personal appearances etc... had turned him on to pot and alcohol and let him watch hardcore porn. One person said at a cast party Adam was walking around with a mixed drink. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
  • Members

OUch at DVP....did he and Betty not get along? And Willie Ames...

Please register in order to view this content

I always had a crush on him. He was better than Baio on Charles in Charge. I never understood the big hoopla with Baio.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Thank you for alerting me to this. Eight Is Enough is one of my favorite shows. Over the years a lot of the stories of the backstage drama has come out. I had heard that Betty was very difficult to get along with. In an interview with the Archive of American Television, Lee Rich was asked about the sudden cancellation of the show in 1981 and he said they decided to pull the plug because the cast was out of control behind the scenes and instead of putting up with that mess any further, they cut their losses and ended it. The show could have ran a bit longer. Adam Rich (Nicholas) was drinking, smoking pot and watching porn by age 10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I wish that someone would rerun, stream, or put out on DVD those old episodes Dinah Shores 70's/early 80's talk show. When I see clips or random episodes show up on youtube, I like watching them. The same way with the Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin shows. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Bill is super annoying. He had no reason to go to the Duprees house other than to try to stay connected to them. At first I thought Kat was going to play only part of that recording so it would be easier to implicate just Eva. That Cody guy seems like he might end up being a stalker. Still adjusting to this recast and I'm already seeing the character's aesthetic has changed. At one point it seemed like Robinson tried to make his voice sound deeper and it seems like Tricia Mann-Grant slightly dialed her performance style to fit with his less imposing presence. Reminds of how the character of Lionel Jefferson changed when he was recast with Damon Evans after Mike Evans left.
    • Andre having mommy issues is an intriguing thought. Vanessa is quite the thirsty thot.
    • I can see that...especially after her phone call with her mother.
    • LOL!  You're right, I'm out of my mind   This is me reacting to your post (if you know Phaedra Parks at all):  

      Please register in order to view this content

      Anyway, thanks for breaking it down for me. Sounds like I need Friday happy hour!  
    • The post 1795 present day stories started out promising once Victoria came back from the past and she was trying to make sense of the past.. while adjusting to the present.  The scene where she and Liz find Peter's grave and she expressed guilt over her actions in the past causing Peter to be accused of her crime and ending up being hung was well written and acted.   It would have been perfect had she mentioned that two men that were important to her were now dead (Burke/Peter). And Angelique invading the Collins family in the present day was a result of Victoria's visit to the past and realizing that Barnabas was out and about in the 20th century started promising with her causing Liz to become paranoid about death (a call back to her paranoia over 'killing' her husband Paul).. and Victoria instantly knowing who she was and trying to warn Julia. It's a shame that shortly after those first episodes back in the present post 1795 ended up becoming too focused on the ghouls/monsters... and downplaying the more soapy elements.  
    • I recently watched the premiere of Santa Barbara. I had never seen it. Most of my knowledge of the show is from 1988 onwards. I know of the show before that, but it's from recaps or individual clips/stories (having seen some of the carnation killer stuff). I can see why SB was not well thought of during its first year. The first episode is not that good. The acting is all over the place with only Robin Wright and Lane Davies making much of an impression. Everyone else is either given little to do or just too overeager/overwrought. Ava Lazar is beautiful but awful. I don't know how long she stays, but my word she is bad. Peter Mark Richman tries, but he's very one note as C.C. There's very little of the Dobson wit except for the few seconds with Anderson's Mrs. Lockridge. Interesting how Kelly is set up as the show's main heroine at this point and Eden is given just a brief mention.  I will say that Valorie Armstrong is a compelling presence, but I know she doesn't last long based on what I know of the show. A shame as they do set up the show to have different economic backgrounds and they also have the Andrades. That was completely gone by the time I started watching. I don't think the Andrades last long either because I don't remember seeing Rosa or Santana when I started following SB in late 88. Santana comes back briefly at some point (I think to kidnap Brandon) but then disappears and then she reappears when the Dobsons return for round 2 but that's with Wanda De Jesus. Did Rosa return then? I don't remember. This premiere episode would not make me keep watching if I didn't know what was to come. @DemetriKaneI just watch when I feel like watching the soaps. I'm an emotional watcher so sometimes I will watch a batch of episodes and other times I watch one or two a day. As I'm watching Edge of Night and Dark Shadows, I can get two or three a day if I'm disciplined.
    • I love how fast they updated the opening, if this were BOLD it'd take over a year lol  I gotta admit Keith is winning me over 
    • Catching up with the episode now. Is it me or did the addition of the new Ted in the opening titles come with a slight remix of the theme tune?
    • From the episodes I've seen during the last few months of the shows run, the show wasn't in a perfect nor horrible place.  It was decent. The highlight of the judge story was Ann Flood playing a completely 180 character from her Edge of Night days.  And Stu/Jo having good focus. I think the Ireland story was an attempt to hop on the bandwagon of 80s location shoots.. and solidifying the McCleary's as the second major family outside the Stu/Jo combination family (though killing Suzi off was misguided.. especially considering Terri E had this likable everywoman element)   I also see that Tomlin came back to headwriting again in late September/early October 1985... and the first thing I noticed was the mask was off Sarah and the gloves were off with Wendy.  The two had good antagonistic chemistry.. and Tomlin was misguided killing her off and deep sixing the Sarah/Wendy/Quinn triangle. The alternative for all three proposed by Tomlin didn't seem any better with Wendy being put in a Suzi/Warren redux situation except it was her mother Stephanie and her new boy toy Bela.  The move was plot driven and not character driven. Meanwhile Sarah is killed off just as she figured out the weird Bela/Wendy vibe and threatening to go to Stephanie... and Quinn has this sudden fascination with working class Evie that made no sense.   As Marcia McCabe said during the Locher Room interview she had... she said each EP/headwriter would come in and remake the show and this done too often.   And seeing the episodes from 1983/1984/1985 posted... she's correct in that view. For example, Wendy and Suzi's friendship was threatened by Warren and their mutual interest in him... but that seems to fall by the wayside due to the numerous Suzi recasts. Then a random character Justine comes on.. and the show spends months building her up as the antagonist... establishing a potentially good rivalry with Wendy.  And in fact, Quinn/Justine are tested in the spring of 1985 before she leaves/is dropped.. and Sarah is introduced.  Sarah is a character with no history with Wendy... and the show spends weeks setting the foundation of a rivalry between former schemer Wendy and new schemer Sarah while fighting over Quinn. Then just as the foundation has been laid down.. poof Sarah is killed off and Wendy is sleeping with the man her mother is seeing. Typing all these whiplash changes makes me understand why viewers were confused/unattached the show.... and all I typed was Wendy's situation (we won't even go into the Liza and Sunny whiplashes during that same period of time).  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy