7th Heaven

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This article is about the television series. For the band, see 7th Heaven (band).
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7th Heaven is a U.S. television series about a minister's family living in the fictional town of Glenoak in California. It was created and produced by Brenda Hampton. The show has been record-breaking for its parent network, WB in that it is about to enter its 10th season.

The series premiered in 1996, and has been renewed for its 10th (2005 - 2006) season, making it the longest-running family program in television history. The 10th season will begin on September 19, 2005, with its milestone 200th episode, featuring the return of many guest stars who have appeared off and on since the very beginning.

Contents

Premise

The central characters are Reverend Eric Camden, his wife Annie, and their seven children. The family originally consisted of five children (Matt, Mary, Lucy, Simon and Ruthie), but in the third season, Annie gave birth to twins, Sam and David. Three of the children, Matt, Simon, and Mary, moved away from home and appeared irregularly. Nevertheless, the house is always full; Lucy, her husband Kevin, and their daughter Savannah all live near the Camdens, as do daughter Ruthie, and son Simon. Frequent house guests also find the Camden house a home of their own. Due to dissatisfaction with the show and her image, Jessica Biel was slowly written out of the show from 2000, and Mary has not appeared in an episode of the series since September 22, 2003 (see below). On the other hand, Matt and Simon have regularly found themselves involved with the family since they moved out and Simon (David Gallagher) will be returning full time in the upcoming season.

Themes

Each episode deals with a moral lesson or controversial theme that the family deals with either directly or indirectly. Some range from the traumatic (e.g., Eric's sister came to visit and the children found out that she had a drinking problem) to the somewhat trivial (e.g., in one episode, every child acquired an addiction, with even Ruthie being addicted to gum). Beyond the moral lesson in each show, there are also longer-running story arcs. In the later seasons, Eric had to deal with his wife entering menopause and his youngest daughter Ruthie needing a training bra. The topics are usually approached from a very conservative/Christian point of view. Along with the show's family-oriented storylines, this conservative nature has been responsible, in part, for the show's longevity - appealing to an audience who are rarely targeted.

Factually, 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 8 million viewers - the highest WB rating since 2003.

Jessica Biel's departure

Jessica Biel played eldest daughter Mary from the show's beginning. However, gradually dissatisfied with her "goody goody" image, Biel eventually posed for semi-nude photographs for Gear magazine which the conservative producers of the show did not like. During the fifth (2000-2001) season, her character had gone through a rebellious phase, and this storyline was used to write Biel out of the show, sending Mary to her grandparents' house in Buffalo, New York for some tough love to counter her rebellious behaviour. During the sixth season (2001 - 2002), Mary returned home but the differences between Biel and the producers led to Mary leaving home full time and becoming a flight attendant.

Biel returned for five episodes during the seventh season (2002 - 2003), including Lucy's wedding episode, and the season finale. Her last appearance to date was the second episode of the eighth season, which aired on September 22, 2003, when she revealed to the family that she had married old boyfriend Carlos Rivera (Carlos Ponce) and was pregnant. Due to her decision not to return to the show, Mary has had major storylines off-camera, including giving birth to son Charles Miguel in 2004, and then subsequently divorcing her husband and signing away custody of her child in the May 2005 ninth season finale. Biel is not expected to return during the tenth season, but her on-screen husband Carlos Ponce, who has made several appearances in the last two seasons, will return for a few episodes.

Production

Although originally produced by FOX in 1996, the show is now produced by the WB television network, on which it has always aired. Its producers, including Aaron Spelling, consider it wholesome family viewing, incorporating public service announcements into the show.

Cast

Trivia

  • The Camdens live at 527 Alta Road in Glenoak, California.
  • Brothers Kevin Kinkirk and Ben Kinkirk are portrayed by real life brothers George Stults and Geoff Stults, respectively.
  • Brothers Chandler Hampton and Sid Hampton (who appeared in one episode) are portrayed by real life identical twin brothers Jeremy London and Jason London.
  • Both the Camden parents have appeared as central characters in Star Trek films. Stephen Collins (Rev. Camden) played Commander Willard Decker in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Catherine Hicks (Annie Camden) appeared in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as a cetacean biologist named Dr. Gillian Taylor.
  • Jessica Biel and Adam LaVorgna were once dating in real life.
  • Jessica Biel is actually younger than Beverley Mitchell, despite playing the older sister on the show.
  • Nikolas Brino and Lorenzo Brino are two members of a quadruplet, and all four have appeared on the show. They were chosen to always play the twins in 2001, when producers started to notice that all of the quads had begun to develop their own facial features and could not be interchanged.
  • 7th Heaven has always aired in the Monday 8pm/7c time slot for 10 seasons - a television rarity.
  • Beginning with its 10th season, 7th Heaven became the longest running family show in TV history
  • 7th Heaven has been the WB network's most watched show since the 1998-1999 television season. At one point it averaged nearly 8 million viewers per "all new" episode - which is a high number for that network.
  • Stephen Collins, Catherine Hicks, Beverley Mitchell and Mackenzie Rosman are the only cast members that have appeared in every episode of the series.

External links


References

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