It’s hard to believe that it’s been 30 years since we said goodbye to the Bradford clan of Eight is Enough. The dramedy ran for five seasons and 112 episodes before ending on May 23, 1981.
Eight is Enough was initially based on a 1975 book written by newspaper columnist Thomas Braden about his real-life family. The show ended up bearing little resemblance to the book, other than the family names and the father’s profession. Interestingly, prior to becoming a journalist, Braden was a veteran who worked for the CIA and his wife had been a companion to the Kennedy family.
As the ABC TV series begins, Tom Bradford (Dick Van Patten) is a newspaper columnist at the Sacramento Register and Diana Hyland plays his wife, Joan. Their eight children –- David, Mary, Joanie, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Tommy, and Nicholas -— range in age from adults to grade school. The parents remember the names by using the initials of the sentence, “Never Try Eating Nectarines Since Juice May Dispense.”
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RIP, Peter. You and the rest of the Big Valley..."
