The show was modeled on the life of syndicated newspaper columnist Tom Braden, a real-life parent with eight children, who wrote a book by the same title.

The show centers on a Sacramento, California, family with eight children (from oldest to youngest: David, Mary, Joanie, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Tommy, and Nicholas).

Joan was played by actress Diana Hyland (born Diane Gentner) and in early 1977, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

He eventually meets and falls in love with Sandra Sue "Abby" Abbott (Betty Buckley), a widowed schoolteacher who comes to the house to tutor Tommy after he breaks his leg in a football game.

The role went to Buckley after being approved by network chief Brandon Tartikoff, who felt that the character of Miss Collins, the sympathetic high school gym teacher she had played in the 1976 film Carrie, would translate seamlessly to the series.

[1] In the fourth season, in another of the series' TV movie broadcasts in September 1979, both David and Susan get married in a double wedding.

As an in-joke, the character name of one of Nicholas Bradford's best friends was Irving Julius Moore, a nod to the director of the same name whose middle name was, in fact, Joseph.

Beginning with the show's third season, this was replaced by a slowed-down vocal theme titled "Eight Is Enough," which was sung by series co-star Grant Goodeve.

The song had music by Lee Holdridge and lyrics by Molly-Ann Leikin, and was first heard in a longer arrangement on the last episode of the second season titled "Who's on First?

It cemented teen idol status for Grant Goodeve (David), Willie Aames (Tommy), and Ralph Macchio, who played Abby's orphaned nephew Jeremy later in the show's last season.

Filming date: February 23 – March 4, 1977A football game becomes a blood-and-guts event.Note: This episode's working title was "What Hath Roone Arledge Wrought?"

Tommy moves into Ellen's apartment and makes plans for their future wedding; a new sexy female reporter stirs jealousy in Joanie; Jeremy is frustrated when the Bradfords are unaware of his upcoming 16th birthday.

[11] The show aired on FX from 1994 to 1997, on PAX in 1998, and as part of a marathon celebrating the 50th anniversary of Warner Bros. Television on TV Land in 2005.

The remaining seasons were aired in the 1980s on Retequattro, a commercial network from Fininvest (now Mediaset), under the title La Famiglia Bradford.

The French version, Huit, ça suffit!, which excludes the laugh track, was successful in the 1980s in France and Quebec, and with the francophone Canadian audience in general.

[18] The release includes the pilot episode (featuring Mark Hamill in the role of eldest son David) and a cast reunion special which occurred on the Today show in 2012 (sans Richardson, Rich and the late O'Grady).