Eight Is Enough Episode Rating Graph

When Tommy is rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, Mary and Nicholas both feel culpable for different reasons; Merle and Susan adjust to the give and take of married life; Nancy plays travel guide for a visiting colleague from China who doesn't speak English.

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 introuduce 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.

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

David and his traveling companion continue on their cross-country trip and he gets involved in a hang-gliding competition and learn a few lessons about life.

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.

Tom and Abby take the kids to San Francisco where Tom is scheduled to accept an award for his column anbd 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.

After much debate, Tom and Abby decides 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.

Mary runs for a seat of the Board of Education and enlists the famil'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.

Tom and Abby believe that Susan is depressed because Merle is gone but learn that she is pregnant. The girls try to cheer her up. Joannie meets a psychic and holds a seance to help Susan. Merle arrives to win her back and finds out she is going to have their baby. Ernie and Tommy use Nicholas as bait to meet girls.

In San Diego, Nicholas is taken in by Joe Simmons, an old con man and 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 Bradford's work on repairing Tommy and Nicholas room.

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.

Nicholas starts a dog-sitting service. Nancy falls in love with the 5-year-old daughter of the young widower she is dating, but doesn't fall in love with her father. Ernie can't find a date for the prom.

It's winter break and Joannie, Nancy, and Mary meet strange men that drive Tom and Abby crazy. Tom fixes Tommy up with his boss's niece.

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.

The furnace is on the blink, causing a cold front in the Bradford house, but Tom dismisses Mary's offer to fix it; Susan's chance for an internship conflicts with Merle's offer to play winter ball in Puerto Rico; Nicholas goes on strike for a raise in his allowance.

Tom's sister Vivian sweeps into town with an offer to take the entire family on vacation to Hawaii, where she secretly plans to reunite Tom with their estranged father.

Three Bradfords struggle to meet the expectations of others: Nicholas turns truant to escape the long shadow of his siblings; Tom's boss pressures him to participate in a father-son golf tournament; Nancy feels compelled to date a stockbroker uniquely positioned to help David's slumping business.

Joannie gets a job in the research department of a TV station. Mary finds a hidden home pregnancy test and tries to find the owner. Joannie ""scoops"" Tom on a story on a porno theater for her new job at a television station. The problem is that the theater is owned by a public corporation and Tom is a stockholder. Tom is upset that a porno theater has opened in his neighborhood but then discovers that he is part owner of it.

Things are not as they seem at the Bradfords when Merle's sister, Linda Mae, comes from the farm and visits the Bradfords and is shocked at what she finds. Joannie talks Nancy into playing a stripper in her play. Susan panics when she hears that Merle was injured in a game. It's a comedy of errors when Linda Mae calls the police after misunderstanding the family's crazy life style.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 stying. Abby discovers a dance scholarship. Elizabeth can compete for Elizabeth starts studying dance with a professional dance compoany. Tommy tries to earn some sxtra money.

The Bradford children plan a party for Tom and Abby's anniversary and Nicholas fell left out. Tom and Abby unknowingly bid against each other for ""A Christmas Line"" tickets for their anniversary. Nicholas accidents set fire to his room, destroying the anniversary present Tommy was making for Tomand Abby. Feeling like the family doesn't want him around anymore, Nicholas runs away to find Sam in San Diego.

Abby's parents are flying in from Pasadena for Thanksgiving.Nicholas is surprised when the Vice-President accepts his invitation to Thanksgiving dinner with the Bradfords. He picks the Bradfords as American's typical family. Tommy puts a deposit on a used car.

Tom talks David into hiring Tommy as a construction worker but Tommy has to prove himself to his fellow workers by standing up to them on his own. Nicholas needs to write a speech about Tom and follows him around for a day at the office to get material. Elizabeth is looking for advice on how to meet men in college.

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.

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 Scaramento beauty contest. David and Tommy hang aroung a laundromat in hopes of meeting girls.

Merle suffers a career-ending shoulder injury and doesn't know what to do if he can't play baseball. Merle comes upon Nicholas and his friends playing ball. He is offered a job of assistant coach of the High School team. One of Mary's patients falls in love with her and won't leave her alone. Eager to earn more money, Jeremy gets a job convincing people to try experimental products.

Jeremy is suspicious when he finds a skull while digging in the garden. David and Janet consider getting back together. Nicholas assumes he's a shoo-in for the basketball team when Elizabeth dates the coach.

Just as Tommy's career is about to take off, his old girlfriend returns to tell Tommy she is pregnant after it is announced that his band has been booked for a national tour. Nicholas wins a girl's heart by standing up to a bully. Mary, Nancy, Elizabeth, and Joannie adopt a bum named Max, and bring him home for dinner.

This year it's the boys' turn to meet new women. Tommy dates the daughter of a radio station owner in order to get his band some air time. Jeremy runs himself ragged trying to keep up with a beautiful sports athelete. David dates an older woman, Tommy's date's divorced mother.

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.

Still in Hawaii, Tom and his father contemplate whether they can or should bother to reconcile their relationship.

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 dates seems to cause more trouble with his family than he bargained for.

Suffering from imsommia and thinking he's going nuts.Tom visits a psychiatrist to find the cause. Tommy develops two personalities, ""disco kid"" and ""mellow man"", to impress the two girls he is dating. Tom's sneaking around leads Abby to believe that he may be having an affair.

Abby has her own problems when she thinks sha may be pregnant and is relucant to tell Tom. Tom panics when he finds out he is going to be audited by the I.R.S, and the family pitches in for help. Nicholas plays post office for the first time.

Nicholas has a crush on his teacher and buys her self-portrait at her garbage sale, but tries to hide it from the kids, who think there is a valuable painting underneath. The Bradfords because believe Nicholas's painting may be worth a fortune and dream about how they would spend their millions of it is. Tommy's chances with a popular girl are hurt when he contracts trench mouth.

David starts living gangerously after a close friend dies oif 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 kn. He soon discovers that the cat is pregnant.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Jeremy begins to feel like part of the family when Abby enrolls him in school and Tom makes him follow the household rules.

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. Tom and Abby fight with Jeremy's dad for custody of Jeremy.

Togetherness can be really funny when the whole Bradford household is quarantined, including Nancy's blind date,after Mary's boyfriend comes down with a mysterious ailment. David has to run errands for his quaranteened family. Nicolas hides some toys he brought into the house without buying them. Cabin fever eventually drives the family crazy.

Tony's sister shows up for a visit and turns the Bradford house upside-down when the encourages the kids to pursue their dreams and goals. David gets laid off and Vivian gets him a job as an architect. Mary gets ""C' in Introductory Philosophy. Joanie considers traveling in an acting company if she gets accepted by the director.

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.

Tom's eccentric sister Auntie V returns for another visit with the Bradfords. She surprises 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.

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.

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.

Tom is upset when Abby makes arrangements for Elizabeth to get birth control pills. Tom is drafted into doing a ""Dear Abby"" for the paper. Abby's studies are keeping her busy and leave little time for the family. Abby decides to stay at home more and drives everyone, including herself a little crazy trying to be a Betty Crocker-type. David and Tommy fix Abby's car.

With Abby's encouragement, Tom takes a leave of absence to pursue the dream of writing a book about his family. He can't get it published the norman way, but has a special issue done for each member of the family. David goes on a double date with Nancy and they come home with different stories of the same night.

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.

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.

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.

Abby suffers a concussion when she falls off a ladder. Tha Bradfords take turns keeping Abby awake by telling her stories and sharing memories, which are flashbacks from previous episodes.

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.

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.

Joannie directs a talent show to raise money, for the orphanage she is vo;unteering at . Joannie tries to get the whole family to enterain. Nicholas believes ha has seen a UFO, but nobody else believe him. It turns out to be only a practical joke by one of the neighborhood kids. ""Abby"" sing a song she wrote herself. ""SO-LA"". music by Jim Hurt, Ira Newborn and Betty Buckley aho also wrote the lyrics. ""David"" sings a song he wrote hisself. ""Eight is Enough"". lyrics by Molly-Ann Leikin, music by Lee Holdridge. This song replaced the original theme song from the next season on.

Joannie gets accepted into a theater company and her first role is that of gopher and understudy.When the lead actress quits the play, Joannie has 24 hour to learn her lines and is unaware that Tom will be reviewing the play for the vacationing drama clinic.The Bradford children try to make Abby feel guilty about not sharing her car with tjhe family.Nicholas can't get away from a girl who has a crush on him.

Abby and the children are frustrated when they are trying to study for finals and a youth-oriented article Tom wrote in his column runs into trouble with a senior citizen and inspires a picket line in their front yard. Elizabeth panics when she discovers she has to take an algebra final. Tommy puts a band together after hearing that the prom committee will pay $300 for a band.

Merle recruits the girls for a charity basketball team. Tom is jealous when a publisher offers to publish Abby's thesis and Tom can't get his accepted. They pool their efforts, after competitive feelings are straightened out, to co-author his book. Nicholas gets his friend's mom a job helping with the book. Nicholas's friend is upset to learn that his mom works for Abby and not the other way around.

Joannie has a fender-bender with a real developer who is upset with Bradford's column opposing his project. Meanwhile, Elizabeth goes from three prom dates to none when they all show up at the same time. Tommy breaks the window of a local church house.

The children get carried away with the weddind plans and nearly cause the wedding to be canceled. Abby asks Elizabeth to be her maid of honor and develop a special relationship.