The BEST episodes of Eight is Enough
Every episode of Eight is Enough ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Eight is Enough!
The comedy-drama chronciled the lives of the Bradford family. Consisting of father Tom (a columnist for a Sacramento newspaper), mother Joan and their eight children: Mary, David, Joanie, Nancy, Elizabeth, Susan, Tommy and Nicholas. After Joan's death, Tom met teacher Abby, and they were married to make the family ten once more.
#1 - Letter to One Bradford
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/14/1979
Nicholas feels responsible when bad luck seems to run in the family after he breaks a chain letter. Merle and Susan argue about his choice of friends and her neglect of household duties. Meanwhile, Tom, Abby, and the rest of the Bradfords are worried when Tommy is hospitalized for a ruptured spleen.
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#2 - The Bard and the Bod
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/2/1977
Joannie agrees to do a nude scene in a Shakespearean play and is relives when Tom says he can't make it to the show, or so it goes. [Obviously, a sweeps stunt.] Abby's former father-in-law visits and she is hesitant to introduce him to Tom and tell him about her plans to marry him. David arranges for Tom to buy an engagement ring for Abby through a friend at work, but it turns out to be too hot to handle.
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#3 - Trial Marriage
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1977
This episode introduces Betty Buckley in the contract role of Sue " Abby" Abbott. At first, she was a special guest star. Tommy breaks his ankles at a touch football game and will miss school for five weeks. Mary moves in with her boyfriend, a young psychiatry students [Doug]. Sandra Sue Abbott is sent to tutor Tommy while he is absent from school.
#4 - Children of the Groom (1)
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/9/1977
After much debate, Tom and Abby decide on November 9th as their wedding date and agree to let the children handle the wedding plans, but it almost does not happen when things get too crazy. Elizabeth and Nicholas are not as excited about the wedding plans as the rest of the Bradford children.
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#5 - I Quit
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/16/1977
Tom and Abby take the kids to San Francisco where Tom is scheduled to accept an award for his column and the trip doubles as a honeymoon. Mary is upset when she is rejected by a medical school and Abby wants to contact an old friend to help her get in. The kids wrangle their way along the trip as chaos begins.
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#6 - Best of Friends
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/7/1979
Tommy offers to marry a pregnant friend who was a girl, Lori, even though he's not the father of her baby. The Bradfords rally to support Tommy's taking of responsibility. Nicholas and Irving open a lemonade stand in front of the Bradford house but face stiff competition when a lavish lemonade stand is opened by the Cappleton sisters around the corner. David and Janet spend a night in the Bradford house when their apartment is sprayed for bugs.
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#7 - The Graduates
Season 3 - Episode 28 - Aired 5/23/1979
Tom is proud when Elizabeth and Joannie are graduating the same week (Joannie from college and Elizabeth from high school). Joannie doesn't know what to do with her life after graduation. Tom is invited to give the commencement address at Elizabeth's High School graduation. Abby talks to the principal on Elizabeth's behalf after she is excluded from the graduation ceremony for taking part in a dangerous senior prank. Tommy is offered the perfect summer job as a lifeguard but has to cut his hair if he accepts the job.
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#8 - Merle the Pearl
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/5/1979
Nicholas and Susan meet Merle the Pearl, a local minor league baseball player. Nicholas is upset that his young girlfriend is moving out of town and wants to introduce her to Merle the Pearl to impress her before she leaves. Frustrated by the gas shortage, Tom agrees to buy a new, fuel-efficient car. Merle falls for Susan and Nicholas gets his first kiss
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#9 - Dark Horse
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/26/1977
Mary runs for a seat on the Board of Education and enlists the family's help on her campaign. Abby is too busy to keep her dates with Tom. Tom proposes to Abby after she and Mary are able to work out their difficulties over Mary's running for the school board. Abby accepts Tom's proposal.
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#10 - You Won't Have Nicholas to Kick Around Anymore (2)
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/29/1978
In San Diego, Nicholas is taken in by Joe Simmons, an old con man, and a bum who was a friend of Sam's. He then performs his best scam trying to get Nicholas back to the Bradfords'. Believing that Nicholas is at a friend's house, the Bradfords' work on repairing Tommy and Nicholas room.
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#12 - Double Trouble
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/1977
After Tom and Abby break up, the Bradford children set Tom up with another woman in an effort to make Abby jealous. Nancy enters the Miss Sacramento beauty contest. David and Tommy hang around a laundromat in hopes of meeting girls.
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#15 - The Commitment
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/30/1980
Tommy is upset when Jill's idea of a commitment is not the same as his and then misinterprets signals from Mary's friend, Kerry, and gets deeper into trouble. Tommy presents Jill with a class ring. Abby and the girls plan a surprise baby shower for Susan. Nicholas plays go-between for Marvin but ends up with the girl instead.
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#16 - The Night They Raided Bradfords
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/3/1979
Things are not as they seem at the Bradfords when Merle's sister, Linda Mae, comes from the farm for a visit. It's a comedy of errors when she calls the police after misunderstanding the family's crazy life style.
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#19 - Big Shoes, Little Feet
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/31/1979
A new closeness develops between Nicholas and Abby after a substitute teacher expects him to live up to high standards set by his brothers and sisters. Meanwhile, Tom needs a partner for the father/son golf tournament but David, Tommy, and Merle are all busy, and Nancy tries to help David's construction business by dating a local businessman.
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#20 - Ten Ships in the Night
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/26/1979
Chaos hits the Bradford house when everyone's activities go around the clock. In order to get her Ph.D. more quickly, Abby attends school full-time and has little time for the family. Tom is upset when no one is home when Nicholas gets home from school. Tired of getting dead-end jobs because of her looks, Nancy gets a job at a brokerage firm. All this drives Tom bananas and he finally calls a family meeting at 3 a.m. by playing loud music to rearrange the goings on.
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#21 - I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/19/1979
David and Janet set a wedding date but it turns out to be the same day Merle and Susan decided to move up the wedding day to accomodate Merle's ballplaying career move. Nancy gets a job delivering singing telegrams and is hired to deliver one at the double wedding for David and Janet and Merle and Susan.
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#22 - The Cupid Crisis
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/12/1979
David returns and is determined to win Janet back from her new boyfriend. Merle confides to Nicholas that he wants to propose to Susan but Susan is upset when the entire Bradford family knows about before she does. Nicholas acts as the go-between for everyone
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#23 - The Better Part of Valour
Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/21/1979
While substitute teaching at the high school, Abby refuses to pass the star basketball player, and troubles begin for Tommy. It's an awkward meeting when Tom meets Janet's parents. Tommy is pressured by the basketball player to get the answers to Abby's test. Tommy learns to stand up for what is right.
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#24 - The Yearning Point
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/13/1978
Both Elizabeth and Tommy learn that there is no easy way to success. Elizabeth wants to go to an expensive college in Vermont with a good dance program but Tom can't afford the tuition. Nancy takes a correspondence course in hair styling. Abby discovers a dance scholarship. Elizabeth can compete for Elizabeth starts studying dance with a professional dance company. Tommy tries to earn some extra money.
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#25 - You Won't Have Nicholas to Kick Around Anymore (1)
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/29/1978
The Bradford children plan a party for Tom and Abby's anniversary and Nicholas feels left out. Tom and Abby unknowingly bid against each other for "A Christmas Line" tickets for their anniversary. Nicholas accidentally sets fire to his room, destroying the anniversary present Tommy had made for Tom and Abby. Feeling like the family doesn't want him around anymore, Nicholas runs away to find Sam in San Diego.
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