Eight is Enough to fill our lives with schmaltz. But at least Grant Goodeve took his shirt off

Oh we spend our days like bright and shiny new dimes,
If we're ever puzzled by the changing times.
There's a plate of homemade wishes on the kitchen window sill,
And eight is enough to fill our lives with love.

To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, "the theme song marks the first place in Eight is Enough at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up.”

If that's the sort of thing that appeals to you, you probably got all warm and gushy on Wednesday nights during the late 1970s watching Eight is Enough (1977-81).  If you wondered just how much of a day a dime could buy, or your gag reflex set in at the very thought of plates of homemade wishes on the window sill, you turned the channel to hip sitcoms like Good Times, Busting Loose, and The Jeffersons

I never made it through an episode, but everybody knew about every show in those days, so I know that it featured  Tom Bradford (Dick Van Patten), a conservative newspaper columnist who liked to give anti-abortion speeches to captive audiences in elevators.  

Dick Van Patten (1928-2015) was a tv fixture during the 1970s, playing button-down businessmen, kindly country doctors, and snake-oil salesmen on Sanford and Son, The Paul Lynde Show, The Rookies, Adam-12,  Happy Days, One Day at a Time...it would actually be easier to list the programs he wasn't in. 

He belonged to a show biz dynasty, including siblings Joan and Tim, and children Vince (left), Jimmy, and Nels.

Tom and his wives (Diane Hyland, Betty Buckley) had the promised eight children, including five girls (Mary, Joan, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth) and three boys (David, Tommy, Nicholas).  None were gay of course, although Mary was so butch that her quest for boys seemed ridiculous (she was played by probably gay Lani O'Grady).  

But gay boys who survived the smarm were rewarded by nonstop beefcake.  All of the girls dated hunky boys -- a lot.  Guest hunks included Ralph Macchio, Brian Patrick Clarke (left), Tony O'Dell (Head of the Class), Noah Hathaway, Marc McClure (Superman), even perennial gay fave Don Johnson.  Not to mention Tom's sons.

1. David (Grant Goodeve, top photo and left), a young adult employed in construction.  He achieved some teen idol fame, cutting a few records and enjoying guest shots on Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Northern Exposure.  He also played Steve Carrington's boyfriend on Dynasty.  Today he is involved mostly in live theater.

More after the break

He's show his backside on tv a few times, but not his front.  Although he comes close in this swimsuit shot (sorry for the bad reproduction).  

2. Tommy (Willie Aames), a brooding, sullen bodybuilder-musician. He went on to fame in Paradise and Charles in Charge (with Scott Baio) before being beset-upon by financial and career problems.

There's a famous underwater n*de scene in the Blue Lagoon rip-off Paradise.

3. Nicholas (Adam Rich), a smart-alecky preteen, here showing a little chest (they liked them young in the 1970s).    After Eight is Enough, Adam had starring roles in Code Red, Dungeons and Dragons, and appeared in a few other tv series, as well as two Eight is Enough reunion movies, but he had trouble adjusting to life as a former child star.   He had arrests for drug possession, shoplifting, and breaking and entering.

He died in 2023.

See also: Willie Aames: Charles in Charge's Buddy goes to Paradise, shows his willie, becomes Bibleman and a platinum-selling writer

The Van Patten Brothers