# Movies, shows, and books about big families? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2018, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141 "2018-03-25T00:17:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141/21 "2018-03-26T16:39:42Z")
[The Darling Buds of May](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darling_Buds_of_May_(TV_series)) - brought Catherine Zeta Jones to public attention ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141/22 "2018-03-26T17:59:12Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There are eight kids in _Eight Is Enough_. And as we all know, Dumb Martians Just Sit Nearby Eating Tender Noodles (David, Mary, Joannie, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Tommy, Nicholas). I think this was an underrated show. They had to deal with the death of a cast member and wrote in a new part for a stepmother and it worked. The child actors were pretty good and of course Dick Van Patten was great. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141/23 "2018-03-26T19:54:16Z")
_All of a Kind Family_ and its sequels, by Sydney Taylor. The “family” (whose last name we never learn) starts with five kids and another born in the final chapter. They’re set just before (and during, and just after) World War I. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141/24 "2018-03-26T20:33:56Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Meh: > The Brady Bunch > Cheaper By The Dozen > Yours, Mine, and Ours I liked Yours, Mine and Ours. Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball were good as the parents. (And it’s a true story.) And there’s another, kind of similar movie called With Six You Get Eggroll, except Doris Day plays a widow with three boys who meets a widower (played by Brian Keith) with one daughter. So not quite the five kids requested by the OP but it’s a fun little movie. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141/25 "2018-03-26T20:48:58Z")
When I was a kid there was a series of books that began with _Ten Kids, No Pets_. There was at least one more, maybe several more after it. Another mid-grade book I remember is _Maudie in the Middle_, about a little girl who’s the middle of seven kids. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141/26 "2018-03-26T21:17:02Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I liked Yours, Mine and Ours. Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball were good as the parents. (And it’s a true story.) Yeah, I like the movie too (I read the book which is quite different, but the movie is just fun). ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141/27 "2018-03-26T21:50:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > _Game of Thrones?_ > > The series started with 5 official Stark kids. _Started_. On a similar vein, _Stardust_. Yes, four of the seven princes are dead at the start, but since we see the Dead Princes Greek Chorus quite frequently, I figure that’s fine. Books: If kids’ books are okay, Diana Wynne Jones _The Ogre Downstairs_. A bit like a darker, more cynical Brady Bunch. The three pov kids loathe their new stepdad and rather despise their toffee-nosed stepsiblings. And then, of course, Stuff Happens The first three books of Orson Scott Card’s _Seventh Son_ series. Books four and onwards are dead to me, but the first three are actually rather good. Thirteen kids in that family. Helen Forrester’s _Tuppence to Cross the Mersey_. Semi-autobiographical account of her … I think seven-child family, who go from upper class to starving in Liverpool during the Depression. I’m not sure about Iain Banks’ _The Crow Road_. There seem to be four kids in the older McHoan family (Hamish, Kenneth, Fiona, Rory) but then what looks like a fifth sibling (Ilsa) pops up briefly towards the end. I was never quite sure where she fitted. Since it’s Banks, there are plenty of grisly elements, and gory death. And exploding corpses… ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141/28 "2018-03-26T21:51:12Z")
World War 1 is a horror story where about 10+ million innocent people are killed, basically because a family feud between various members of a particular clan - with cousins, daughters, wives etc all putting their oar in where they weren’t wanted. A bit unrealistic - could never happen in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141/29 "2018-03-26T23:26:57Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Yeah, I like the movie too (I read the book which is quite different, but the movie is just fun). The book the movies were based on is called “Who Gets the Drumstick?” The title is based on something that happened at the first Thanksgiving after Helen North and Frank Beardsley married. It was written by Helen. I think it’s sweet how they met. And when she describes opening her door,(she’s pregnant with her eighth child), and seeing her priest standing there, it’s so sad. “This is an official visit father?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-shows-and-books-about-big-families/811141.md?page=1)