The Darling Buds of May - brought Catherine Zeta Jones to public attention
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, I like the movie too (I read the book which is quite different, but the movie is just fun).
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…
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.
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?”