August 26, 1996 (1996-08-26) – May 13, 2007 (2007-05-13)
Status
Ended
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 11th and
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.
Three of the Camdens (Matt, Mary and Simon) moved away from home
sometime during the show's run (due to real-life circumstances or
requests from the cast members that portrayed them). Simon went to
college, 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. 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.
Dan Foliart composed the theme song "7th Heaven", which is performed by Steve Plunkett in the intro of each episode.
Eric is the pastor of the Glen Oak Community Church. This is revealed 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.[citation needed]
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 racism, alcoholism, menstruation, spousal abuse, drug abuse, menopause, sexual harassment, and teenage pregnancy.
In one 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 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.
Jessica Biel, who gradually became dissatisfied with what she
thought was her "goody goody" image, eventually posed for semi-nude
photographs for Gear
magazine, at the age of 17. The producers of the show did not approve.
During season five (2000–2001) , her character goes through a
rebellious phase, and this storyline was used to write Biel out of the
show, sending Mary to her grandparents' house in Buffalo
for some tough love to counter her rebellious behavior. During season
six, 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 season seven, including “We
Do”, the episode of Lucy's wedding, and the season finale. She then
appeared in episode two of season eight, when she revealed to the
family that she had married Carlos Rivera (Carlos Ponce)—whom the
Camdens had assisted in returning home to his family in the Christmas
episode "Here Comes Santa Claus" in season three—and was pregnant with
his child. After a nearly three-year absence, it was announced that
Biel would make a triumphant return for the season 10 finale, "And
Thank You", reuniting all nine Camdens for the first time since the
season seven finale "Life and Death." While she was away (2003–2006),
Mary had major storylines off-camera, including giving birth to son
Charles "Charlie" Miguel Rivera in 2004, and then subsequently
divorcing her husband and signing away custody of her child in the
season nine finale "Mi Familia." Her on-screen ex-husband, Carlos, made
several appearances during her absence to deliver these stories. Minor
stories or tidbits include: Mary taking a political stance in season
nine by sending her husband to the voting booth and attending rallies,
sending Lucy a baby shower gift, going through job training in London,
relocating to Chicago following her divorce, and, helping Simon with
his financial difficulties. She had clearly maintained a connection
with Carlos and Charlie, and up until the divorce was made known, kept
in contact with her siblings at least semi-regularly.
Her appearance in the season 10 finale, though limited, shed light
on events which took place during the previous few months: Mary
graduated from college the same weekend as Matt and Sarah, reunited
with husband Carlos, and was pregnant with twin girls. Although Mary
was not with the family, her conversation with her husband during the
episode revealed that her reunion with the family would take place
during Matt's and Sarah's graduation ceremony. All of this brought
resolution to the estrangement that had been present since Season 5. In
the season 11 premiere it is revealed that Mary had the twin girls over
the summer. She and Carlos also reunited and later returned to New York
for reasons unknown. She became a teacher and a basketball coach at a
high school.
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 well-oiled machine,
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.
CBS Television Distribution
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.
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) 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.
