The One U2 Song That Somehow Didn't Get Overplayed

San Antonio de Valero

 

Eight IS Enough to Fill Our Lives with Love

 I've been watching "Eight Is Enough" episodes being shown in marathon form on one of the Roku channels.  It's a show that I was vaguely aware of when I was a little kid from ads on ABC and Willie Aames and Adam Rich kind of being third-tier teen and kid idols, although I never watched a second of the show, probably because it was on past my bedtime.

It's actually pretty good, better than I would have supposed.  It's a very light family drama (I think some episodes might actually have a laugh track).  It sometimes has elements of melodrama, although it isn't really a soap opera in a traditional sense in that there is absolutely no villain.  It probably hearkens back to the earliest days of TV as well as radio and family dramas such as "Mama" (which featured "Eight" star Dick Van Patten) and the original "The Goldbergs."  It's also very clearly from the late '70s and early '80s with references to disco and later designer jeans.  Several episodes deal with equal rights for women, with some resistance from the men in the family, and one concerns a high school girl wanting to go on the pill.