The WORST episodes of Eight is Enough
Every episode of Eight is Enough ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst 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 - The Idolbreaker (2)
Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/18/1981
Ellen tells Tommy that she doesn't want to marry him and Tommy isn't sure what he wants to do. At the last minute, they both realize it is not the right thing to do.
#2 - Roll Over Bradford
Season 4 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/2/1980
Tom is upset that Tommy hasn't sent in any college applications but Tommy wants to be a musician and is not interested in college. Auntie V brings her new fiance to meet the Bradfords. Auntie V encourages Tommy to pursue his musical dreams. Tommy wants to be a professional musician rather than go to college. Though Tom disagrees, he still is able to encourage him, which brings them closer.
#3 - Fathers and Other Strangers (2)
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/7/1979
Tom and his father finally make up after the family plots to get them together to talk.
#4 - Turnabout
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/12/1977
David learns about his life at a party the family throws to celebrates doctor Maxwell's 25th anniversary, as his date and Maxwell don't get along. David helps an older woman stuck in a traffic jam, but his date seems to cause more trouble with his family than he bargained for.
#5 - Fast and Loose
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/8/1978
David starts living dangerously after a close friend dies of a heart attack at a young age. The kids try to help and eventually David cleans up his act. Nicholas tries to help by offering David a kitten from a litter of a stray cat he has taken on. He soon discovers that the cat is pregnant.
#6 - Who's Crazy Here?
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/6/1978
Suffering from insomnia, Tom starts secretly seeing a psychologist, which leads Abby to believe that he may be having an affair.
#7 - Milk and Sympathy
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/11/1978
Nicholas has a crush on his teacher and buys her self-portrait at her yard sale, while the rest of the Bradfords' dream about how they would spend their millions after another painting is discovered underneath, and believed to be worth a fortune. Meanwhile, Tommy's chances with a popular girl are dashed when he contracts trench mouth.
#8 - War Between the Bradfords
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/15/1978
The male Bradfords refuse to attend a speech that Abby was selected to give. War erupts between the Bradfords' men and woman when the woman feel they are not respected by the men. Nancy gets a job pumping gas in a sexy uniform in a local filling station.
#9 - Semi-Centennial Bradford
Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/23/1980
Abby tries to cheer Tom up on his 50th birthday. Tom feels the pressure of teh youth movement at work and believes that the Register wants to replace him with a younger columnist. Merle and Susan try to pick names for their baby. Nicholas is helping Merle come up with a name for the new baby.
#10 - The Return of Joe Simons
Season 4 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/13/1980
Tom's new temporary secretary is overly attentive. Joe Simons, the con man who helped Nicholas return from San Diego, shows up pretending to have struck it rich in the Yukon and drives the family bonkers. He claims to have found a gold mine. Joannie offers to produce a TV commercial for David's construction company.
#11 - And Baby Makes Nine (1)
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/29/1980
Nicholas and Tom start boy scouts and Nicholas volunteers Tom to be the assistant scout master. Elizabeth considers moving in with her boyfriend. Susan keeps her pregnancy problems from Merle when his career takes a leap forward.
#12 - Holly
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/26/1980
Ernie introduces Tommy to a slightly older songwriting woman who has a 4-year old son. When he falls for her, she has second thoughts. The Bradford's convert the garage into an apartment for Susan and Merle. Nicholas supervises the conversion job.
#13 - Father Knows Best?
Season 5 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/23/1981
Finally ready to be a father, Jeremy's father returns for a visit and wants to take him back to Los Angeles. David relives old memories when four of his old high school buddies return to Sacramento for their 10 year high school reunion.
#14 - V is for Vivian
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/26/1977
Tom's sister shows up for a visit and turns the Bradford house upside-down when she encourages the kids to pursue their dreams and goals. David gets laid off and Vivian gets him a job as an architect. Mary gets a "C' in Introductory Philosophy. Joanie considers traveling in an acting company if she gets accepted by the director.
#15 - Women, Ducks and the Domino Theory
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/5/1977
Topsy-turvy at the Bradfords when Tommy has his "dream girl" stand him up. Neither David nor Tom wants to go on their annual hunt. Nancy wants to be a cheerleader. Elizabeth gets grounded over curfew.
#16 - A Hair of the Dog
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/4/1978
The family gives Tom a day of peace for his birthday, and it drives him crazy. David goes for the weekend and gives Tommy the use of his apartment but Tommy winds up throwing a party. Abby's parenting skills are tested when Tommy gets drunk.
#17 - The Return of Auntie V
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/30/1977
Auntie V. Tom's eccentric sister, returns for another visit with the Bradfords and surpries Tom and Abby with a new house as a wedding present. The kids are excited, but as they fix up the house for sale they begin to fall in love with it again. Nancy wants to expand her horizons by going on a cruise with Auntie V. Nancy falls for the estate agent who is trying to sell the Bradford house.
#18 - Yes Nicholas, there is a Santa Claus (1)
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/14/1977
The Bradfords celebrate their first Christmas without their late mother,Joan. Nicholas mistakenly assumes the man he finds in the house on Christmas Eve is Santa Claus and lets him steal the Christmas presents, putting Christmas temporaily on hold.
#19 - Yes Nicholas, there is a Santa Claus (2)
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/14/1977
The kids convince Tom to shoiw some Christmas spirit by bailing Sam out of jail and inviting him to the house for Christmas dinner as they celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. Tommy receives a special Christmas present from his mom.
#20 - Much Ado about Garbage
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/18/1978
Abby is upset about when David gives Nicholas a BB gun. Tom's column about garbage causes a controverty when he writes a tongue-in-cheek column. That's when his troubles start to pile up, along with his garbage. Tom is prepared to go to jail rather than reveal his source for his column.
#21 - Seven Days in February
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/8/1978
Joannie, Nancy, and Susan meet new guys at a disco over winter break and love times three drives the Bradford household crazy. David's friend tries to convince him to go on a blind date, so he fixes David with one, but the "date" turns out to be totally unexepectely...his sister Mary. Tommy desperatiely tries to win rock concert tickets.
#22 - The Boyfriend
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/15/1978
Susan and Tom are jealous when Abby spends too much time with Susan's new boyfriend she brought home for dinner, and Abby strikes up too much connection with her date. Nicholas is appointed water monitor at home during a water shortage, and gets fired for being too tough. Tommy gets into trouble at school and wrongly assumes he's home-free when the principal calls David instead of Tom.
#23 - Great Expectations
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/22/1978
Frustrated by the transporation arrangements, Tommy, Elizabeth, Nancy, and Susan buy their own car. Tom is upset that Tommy is failing English and pressures him to get a good grade. Tom learns a lesson about parental pressure when Tommy, trying to please him,buys a term paper from a high school hustler. Joannie wants Nicholas to play Prince Charming in her play.
#24 - The Lost Weekend
Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/28/1978
Abby convinces Tom to spend the weekend with her parents in Pasadena, leaving the kids alone for the weekend. While they are away, despite a rule against having any non-Bradfords in the house, the kids throw a party, but then the house is overrun with chaos and the kids barely manage to get things back in order before Tom and Abby return. A distant cousins shows up on the Bradford doorstep for the flower children.
#25 - Poor Little Rich Girl
Season 2 - Episode 25 - Aired 5/3/1978
David meets an attractive young woman who is the daughter of a wealthy construction man. Joannie tries to get the family to communicate better using encounter-like truth games. Tom, which helping Nicholas build a car, takes over completely.