I watched both faithfully, and can say they were both dramedies (that’s a real word, I didn’t make it up). But you are demanding a choice, and so here’s a key question that I believe will give us the answer: did either have a laugh track? I can’t recall.
Eight is Enough did. I don’t reall anything about The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (not even its name, perhaps I’d recognize an episode) to comment on it.
I looked up a Youtube clip of the intro after my post. The song sounds very vaguely familiar, but I don’t recognize anything else. It was a little before my time and I don’t remember it being in syndication when I grow up. I do get ME-TV and ME-Too, so I’ll keep a look out for it.
I’ve looked up a number of “Eight is Enough” episodes online (partly to satisfy my childhood crushes on Susan and Joanie) and thought it held up suprisingly well. Yeah it had a laugh track but they could go minutes without hearing it at all. Plus a number of episodes dealt with serious issues like cohabitation, interracial dating, and alcoholism. I don’t see how you could choose anything besides “drama with comic relief”.
“Courtship” I haven’t seen since I saw in syndication as a child. I don’t remember much about it, but it never struck me as a dramatic show. Maybe since it was much slower paced than most sitcoms people didn’t automatically call it a comedy.
On a related note, both MeTV lineups are amazing! I wish they could make it nationally available. In an age when seemingly fifty channels will air “George Lopez” but would die before airing B&W shows, it’s nice to see channels that will air vintage shows.
“I see ‘Eight Is Enough’ as drama and ‘…Eddie’s Father’ as comedy” on the highly scientific basis that, as a kid, I was entertained by “Eddie’s Father” and bored silly by “Eight is Enough.”
TCOEF was a half-hour show and received Emmy nominations in the comedy category. EIE was an hour show and got its nominations as a drama. Ergo, at least in the either/or polar reasoning of the TV industry in the 1970s, the former was a sticom and the latter was a drama.
Yeah I think “Eight is Enough” held up well, especially if your gay or female, 'cause they always seemd to make up reason to have Willie Ames or Grant Goodeve to walk around sans a shirt
“…Eddie’s Father” to me is horribly dated and sickening. I can’t even stomach it. But I guess if you like a handsome dad and a cute kids that’s always having deep amusing observations on life…
The only good thing about it, is the father isn’t portrayed as a total idiot and incompetent when it comes to his kid.
I didn’t vote, because I only vaguely remember “Eight is Enough” and don’t remember “Courtship” at all. However, I think I know ME-TV’s reasoning here: EiE was a one-hour show, TCoEF a half-hour. Sitcoms are generally half-hour shows, and hour-long shows are generally dramas. While that might not be a fine enough filter for serious students of television, it probably works for ME-TV. Scheduling and commercial sales are probably easier if the length of each show is predictable!
