| 7th Heaven | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Family drama |
| Created by | Brenda Hampton |
| Starring | Stephen Collins Catherine Hicks Barry Watson Jessica Biel Beverley Mitchell David Gallagher Mackenzie Rosman Nikolas Brino Lorenzo Brino Happy (dog) |
| Theme music composer | Dan Foliart |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 11 |
| No. of episodes | 243 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Brenda Hampton Aaron Spelling E. Duke Vincent(both; seasons 1–10) Chris Olsen Jeff Olsen (both; season 11) |
| Camera setup | Film; Single-camera |
| Running time | 44 minutes (excluding commercials) |
| Production company(s) | Spelling Television CBS Paramount Network Television (2006-2007) |
| Distributor | Paramount Domestic Television (1999–2006) CBS Paramount Domestic Television (2006–2007) CBS Television Distribution (2007–present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | The WB (1996–2006) The CW (2006–2007) |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Original run | August 26, 1996 – May 13, 2007 |
| External links | |
| 7th Heaven Haven | |
7th Heaven is an American family drama television series, created and produced by Brenda Hampton. The series premiered on August 26, 1996, on the WB, the first time that the network aired Monday night programming, and was originally broadcast from August 26, 1996 to May 13, 2007. The series finale was scheduled for May 8, 2006; however, the show was renewed by the CW when the intended final episode received high ratings. The final season premiered on Monday, September 25, 2006 and ended on May 13, 2007.
7th Heaven is the longest-running series that has ever aired on The WB and is the longest-running family drama in television history (beating out both Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons).[1] It is also the longest-running show produced by Aaron Spelling.
Dan Foliart composed the theme song "7th Heaven", which is performed by Steve Plunkett in the intro of each episode.
Contents |
The series tells the story of the Camden family, a Protestant minister's family living in the fictional town of Glen Oak, California. The central characters are the Reverend Eric Camden (Stephen Collins), his wife Annie (Catherine Hicks), and their seven children (all named after key biblical figures): Matt (Barry Watson), Mary (Jessica Biel), Lucy (Beverley Mitchell), Simon (David Gallagher), Ruthie (Mackenzie Rosman) and the twins, David (Lorenzo Brino) and Sam (Nikolas Brino). There are originally five children (making it seven in the family)—until the twins, David and Sam, are born in episode 14 of season three, "In Praise of Women."
Four of the Camden children (Matt, Mary, Lucy and Simon) moved away from home during the show's run. Simon went to college, Mary went to live with her grandparents (see Jessica Biel's departure section), and Matt married and pursued his career as a doctor far away from the family. Despite these three being absent from the Camden home at varying points throughout the show, the house was still always full. When Lucy married, she and her husband moved into the garage apartment and started to raise their family, and later moved into a home next door with her husband Kevin and daughter Savannah. Ruthie left for a short while in the last season to go to Scotland, and the Camdens offer shelter to various house guests at different points in the show.
Eric is the pastor of the Glen Oak Community Church. This is revealed in episode two of season one when Eric is at the hospital talking to a nurse. It is also mentioned in an episode that was narrated by Simon in season eight.
In at least one episode, the Disciples of Christ denominational logo (St. Andrew cross and chalice) is displayed prominently on the front of the church's pulpit. Many of the church scenes were filmed at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of North Hollywood.[2] On the wall hanging left to the pulpit, the church's logo is present (blue logo with a cross/anchor symbol). The church (First Christian Church of North Hollywood), has noted that when the cast was on set, they often went into the church office to observe how church staff really act.
In an earlier online show guide from Warner Brothers Television, the back story for Eric Camden described him as being an Episcopal Priest leading, with his Bishop's permission, a non-denominational church.
Each episode deals with a moral lesson or controversial theme that the family handles either directly or indirectly. Topics dealt with include alcoholism, bullying, drug abuse, homelessness, menopause, menstruation, racism, robbery, sexual harassment, spousal abuse, and teenage pregnancy. In one particular episode, each family member acquires an addiction (with even Ruthie being addicted to gum). Beyond the moral lesson in each show, there are also longer-running story arcs, such as Eric's difficulty coping with the maturing of the female members of the household. The first episode of the series involves Lucy's (lack of a) period. Another episode features a Holocaust survivor telling her story to Simon's class. In the later seasons, Annie enters menopause and Ruthie needs a training bra.
The topics are usually approached from a socially and politically conservative Protestant Christian point of view. Much of season nine is devoted to the importance of abstaining from pre-marital sex. However, several pre-marital incidents do occur—including a season 10 episode where Eric mentions that his parents had to marry because his mother became pregnant with him. Additionally, there is an episode in which Ruthie discloses that she lost her virginity while in Europe over the summer (though it is later revealed to be a lie). As a rule, the series generally avoids touching on "hot button" issues (i.e. affirmative action, abortion, and homosexuality).
A 2004 episode about the importance of voting on election day seemed to suggest that the men in the family were voting for President George W. Bush, while the women were voting for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry—however, the script went out of the way to make sure that no mention of either candidate was ever made directly by name, leaving the viewer to decide, and the message of the episode simply being "vote, no matter who you vote for." In the same episode in which Matt discloses that the family is Protestant, he also discloses to Sarah that his father is a Democrat.
The show is reliant on the "very special episode" concept, attempting to introduce contemporary social issues to lend greater emotional resonance to episodes. These episodes do in fact lead to high ratings for the show. The January 24, 2005 episode, which featured the birth of Lucy's daughter Savannah, garnered 7.99 million viewers—the highest WB rating since 2003. Another example included the would-be series finale, now simply known as the season 10 finale, which scored 7.56 million viewers on May 8, 2006.
Although originally produced for Fox in 1996, the show aired on the WB. It was produced by Spelling Television, and distributed for syndication by (corporate sibling) CBS Television Distribution. Its producers, including Aaron Spelling, considered it wholesome family viewing, incorporating public service announcements into the show. The final season of 7th Heaven was shown on the inaugural season of The CW. The show wrapped production on the final episode March 8, 2007 about one month before most shows film their last episodes of the season. This was due largely to the fact that after ten years of working together, the actors, producers and crew had gotten production down to a steady pace, slashing costs repeatedly and routinely coming in well under budget. This resulted in 7th Heaven filming episodes in shorter time during the final seasons.
After much deliberation within the now-defunct WB network, it was made public in November 2005 that the tenth season would be the program's final because of high costs, which were revealed to be due to a poorly negotiated licensing agreement by the WB network a few years earlier. The program's future was hanging in the balance and it was entirely in the hands of the newly established CW network whether to renew it for an eleventh seasonal run. In March 2006, the main cast of characters were approached about the possibility of returning for an eleventh season.[3][4]
After further consideration by the CW network, it was decided three days after the airing of its "series finale", that 7th Heaven would be picked up for an eleventh season, which would air on their network in the Monday-night slot that had helped make it famous.[5] Originally the show was renewed for thirteen episodes, but on September 18, 2006, the renewal was extended to a full twenty-two episodes.[6]
Along with the show's unexpected and last-minute, renewal came some changes. The show's already-low budget was moderately trimmed, forcing cuts in the salaries of some cast members and shortened taping schedules (seven days per episode instead of the typical eight). Furthermore, Mackenzie Rosman, who played youngest daughter Ruthie, did not appear in the first six episodes. She had appeared in every episode of the series prior to that. Catherine Hicks missed three episodes in Season 11, as another cost-cutting move. Additionally, for the first time since joining the cast in 2002 as a series regular, George Stults was absent for a few episodes at the beginning of season 11. Stephen Collins and Beverley Mitchell ended up being the only two cast members to appear in every single episode of 7th Heaven's eleven seasons.
Also, after airing Monday nights at 8/7c for ten seasons, plus the first two episodes of season 11, the CW unexpectedly moved 7th Heaven to Sunday nights as of October 15, 2006. The Sunday/Monday lineup swap was attributed to mediocre ratings of shows on both nights. While 7th Heaven did improve in numbers over the CW's previous Sunday night programming, it never quite hit its Monday-night momentum again, and the shows that replaced it in its slot on Monday night never matched what it had achieved in that time slot.[7]
7th Heaven was the most watched TV series ever on the WB. It holds the record for the WB's most watched hour at 12.5 million viewers, on February 8, 1999; 19 of the WB's 20 most watched hours were from 7th Heaven. On May 8, 2006, it was watched by 7.56 million viewers, the highest rating for the WB since January 2005. When the show moved to the CW, ratings dropped. Possible reasons for the decline include an aired "Countdown to Goodbye" ad campaign for the last six months of the 2005–06 season which promoted that season as the final season ever; though the New CW Network announced the series' unexpected renewal, it didn't promote the new season strongly via billboards, bus stops, magazine or on-air commercials. Lastly, the network moved 7th Heaven to Sunday nights; possibly causing the viewers to think that the series was removed from the schedule. The show had a season average of just 3.3 million on the new network, losing 36% of the previous year's audience. It was the third most watched scripted show on the CW. Overall, it was the seventh most watched show.
| Season | Year | Network | Viewers (in millions) |
Rank | Network Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1996–1997 | The WB | 3.2[8] | #154[8] | #10 |
| 2 | 1997–1998 | 5.8[9] | #131[9] | #2 | |
| 3 | 1998–1999 | 7.6[10] | #106[10] | #1 | |
| 4 | 1999–2000 | 6.4[11] | #94[11] | #1[12] | |
| 5 | 2000–2001 | 6.9[13] | #100[13] | #1 | |
| 6 | 2001–2002 | 7.0[14] | #101[14] | #1 | |
| 7 | 2002–2003 | 6.6[15] | #106[15] | #1 | |
| 8 | 2003–2004 | 5.5[16] | #132[16] | #1 | |
| 9 | 2004–2005 | 5.3[17] | #103[17] | #1 | |
| 10 | 2005–2006 | 5.2[18] | #111[18] | #1 | |
| 11 | 2006–2007 | The CW | 3.3[19] | #133[19] | #9 |
20th Television and Fox Television Studios handles the domestic and international distribution of the series. Although the series did not receive a rating other than TV-G throughout its 11-season run, reruns on some cable/satellite channels have been given a TV-PG rating.
In the United States, the show began airing reruns in off-network syndication on September 25, 2000, but ceased to air in syndication in September 2002, while the series was still in first-run broadcast on The WB. The show then aired on the ABC Family channel from the fall of 2002 until 2008. Then, It was announced on April 1, 2010 that ABC Family had re-obtained the rights to the series, and would begin airing it at 11 a.m. (ET/PT) on weekdays beginning April 12, 2010.[21] However after one week, ABC Family abruptly pulled the show and replaced it with a third daily airing of Gilmore Girls.
It started airing on “superstation” WGN America on September 8, 2008, though it had previously aired on WGN from 2000 to 2002 during its initial off-network syndication run. Incidentally, the series aired in first-run form on WGN from the show's 1996 debut on The WB until 1999, when WGN ceased to carry WB network programming on its national feed (7th Heaven, along with Sister, Sister, The Parent 'Hood and The Wayans Bros. are the only WB series to air in both first-run broadcast and off-network syndication on WGN America). Since September 2010, 7th Heaven no longer airs on WGN America.
The series also began airing on Hallmark Channel around the same time as when WGN America began to carry reruns of the series again. Hallmark Channel airings of the series, however, truncated the opening credit sequence removing the majority of the theme song except for the first stanza and the last few seconds of the theme. Since both WGN America and Hallmark Channel dropped the series in 2010, 7th Heaven is not currently shown on television in the United States. As of 2010 Crossroads Television System aired the show in Canada. In August 2011, the show was dropped from the lineup.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has released 7th Heaven on DVD. They have released all 11 seasons in Region 1. In region 2, seasons 1-7 have been released while in region 4 the first 6 seasons have been released on DVD.
| Title | Episode # | Year | Region 1 | Region 2 (Sweden) | Region 2 | Region 4 (Australia) | Discs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | 1996–1997 | September 14, 2004 | September 4, 2006 | September 7, 2006 | September 7, 2006 | 6 | |
| 2 | 22 | 1997–1998 | February 8, 2005 | March 11, 2008 | March 24, 2008 | January 10, 2008 | 6 | |
| 3 | 22 | 1998–1999 | November 28, 2006 | May 27, 2008 | May 8, 2008 | June 5, 2008 | 6 | |
| 4 | 22 | 1999–2000 | March 27, 2007 | August 8, 2008 | November 13, 2008 | November 6, 2008 | 6 | |
| 5 | 22 | 2000–2001 | December 4, 2007 | March 11, 2009 | March 26, 2009 | July 2, 2009 | 6 | |
| 6 | 22 | 2001–2002 | June 10, 2008 | September 30, 2009 | 2009 | December 24, 2009 | 6 | |
| 7 | 22 | 2002–2003 | November 11, 2008 | January 26, 2011 | November 19, 2009 | TBA | 5 | |
| 8 | 23 | 2003–2004 | March 3, 2009 | TBA | TBA | TBA | 5 | |
| 9 | 22 | 2004–2005 | November 17, 2009 | TBA | TBA | TBA | 5 | |
| 10 | 22 | 2005–2006 | March 23, 2010 | TBA | TBA | TBA | 5 | |
| 11 | 22 | 2006–2007 | November 23, 2010 | TBA | TBA | TBA | 5 |