Looks like I'll have to find another guilty pleasure -- 7th Heaven is going off the air on May 13th after eleven seasons. It feels like déjà vu all over again; the show was cancelled last year but got a reprieve; but it looks like this time it's for real.
7H is perhaps the last of its breed -- not just the last show to be produced by the late Aaron Spelling but also the last real family friendly show, one that could be appreciated by traditional and non-traditional families, kids from stable households and broken ones, as well as bridging the Red State - Blue State divide. It did get quirky at times and one season will go down as the worst -- the sixth, the one where Matt and Sarah eloped after their first date; and Robbie dated a no-hit wonder Latina singer. But the quality of writing from the early years as well as the later ones were top-notch and I find it unconscionable that Hollywood didn't even give the show a single Emmy nomination, let alone reward.
I felt privileged to have written commentaries for most episodes from seasons 7 to 10 under the handle "The Big Show." (From a time when I still liked professional wrestling -- today it's complete bullshit.) They're out there on the USENET group alt.tv.7th-heaven and archived for posterity in Google Groups so have fun reading them if you want to look back. This opened the doors to a number of e-mail pen pal friendships that exist to this day and I hope will go on for a long time to come.
I think many of the younger stars on the show have bright future ahead of them. Jessica Biel and Barry Watson are the most obvious ones, but I think Beverly Mitchell and Mackenzie Rosman will have no trouble finding work for the short term. As for the adult stars, Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks, kudos to them for taking such a huge risk during the mid-90s, at a time when most people had written their careers off. Their characters, as well as them as real life personalities, stood as good role models in a town where divorce court is a revolving door and children are dispensable. (Collins is happily married to actress Faye Grant while Hicks is married to Kevin Yagher, the guy who designed "Chucky" in the Child's Play movies; and both couples have stable families of their own as well.) With the show's departure will come another excuse for Hollywood to promote anti-family values and even more oddball couples.
(And yes, I'm praying every day that Katie Holmes and her kid manages to escape the Scientology prison created by her husband Tom Cruise and his sisters. And don't get me started on Angelina Jolie -- she doesn't deserve any kids for how she ruined Jennifer Aniston's life.)
As Bob Hope would say, Thanks for the memories.
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