Behind the Rankings: Do I really need to see all 5 seasons of Eight Is Enough?

(NOTE:  'Mooners Monday will return next week)

I continue to rate the remnants of Warner Archive Instant high in the weekly rankings, and I appreciate the chance to keep plowing through the stuff I'm watching, Eight Is Enough. However, now that I am through the first 3 seasons, I find the show is straining a bit.

Susan's boyfriend-soon-turned-hubby Merle the Pearl is all over season 4, and his character's 'push" seems a bit too fast, too soon.  David's wife Janet is essentially a cast member now, but at least she was built up over the course of season 3.  What concerns me more is the use of more shtick, sillier situations, and the kind of stuff that plagues most shows that pass their peak.

I saw a season 5 and a season 4 episode last week that each made me think about that issue. In the season 4 episode, though, I had a sense it was deliberately "zany." The hijinks and coincidences were stacking up on top of each other because of a specific intent to create sitcom chaos. In the season 5 episode, though, I just felt like the show didn't know any better at that point.

The worst thing about season 5 is the introduction of Ralph Macchio's Jeremy, who is shoved into the cast and practically adopted right away by the Bradfords. This leads to a sappy episode in which the family agonizes over the thought of Jeremy's real father taking him away. I keep thinking the departure of that poser wanna-be hustler would be addition by  subtraction, but Tom and Abby don't see it the same way.

Oh, of course I am going to keep watching, but the gentle and more grounded dramedy of the early seasons is losing out to the more contrived, sillier farce that the series contained pretty well in the beginning. If WAI does pull the plug soon, at least I will know I saw the best the show has to offer.