Eight Is Enough

- Season 3

(1978)

Tom seeks help for his insomnia, but miscommunication leads the kids to think he has a heart issue. In a minor plot Tommy tries to juggle two girlfriends.

After getting talked into being Nicholas' little league coach Tom quits when the parents get to be too much. Tom becomes on of "those" parents after Abby takes over the team.

Abby thinks she is pregnant and Tom faces an IRS audit.

Susan uses Abby's vintage car to ensnare a handsome antique car buff; Joanie gets her first professional acting job as an apprentice in a local theater company. When the temperamental star walks out the day before opening, Joanie is thrust into the leading role -- while Tom, unaware of this, allows the newspaper's theater critic to talk him into reviewing the show as a favor.

In the throes of puppy love over his elementary schoolteacher, Nicholas obtains a painting from her that might be worth millions; Tommy goes to Max for outside help with a delicate problem.

Nancy faces an identity crisis after flunking out of school; Tom takes a position teaching journalism at the local college.

Nancy starts a day care business for pre-schoolers out of the Bradford hone, while Susan trains for a spot on the police force.

Mary struggles to keep up in med school amid the chaos and distractions of family life; Tommy burns through family members as he takes the wheel in preparation for drivers' education.

When one of his closest friends dies, a grief-stricken David goes on a binge of self-destructive behavior.

When each of the Bradford men find reasons not to attend a speech given by Abby, it sparks a stand-off in the household; Nancy gets a job pumping gas at a local service station.

Tommy contemplates buying a used car; Elizabeth develops an inferiority complex about her appearance; the Vice-President accepts Nicholas' invitation to join the Bradfords for Thanksgiving dinner.

Feeling guilty and isolated after accidentally causing a house fire, Nicholas sets off on his own to San Diego.

While covering his tracks to keep the family from realizing he's run away from home, Nicholas attaches himself to an elderly con man in San Diego.

Tom and Abby stage an elaborate sting operation to get the house to themselves for a weekend; Susan babysits a friend's precocious daughter.

After discovering that Tom can't afford the tuition, Elizabeth vies for a scholarship so she can attend an expensive college in Vermont; Nancy takes a correspondence course in hair styling; Tommy gambles away the investors' capital of his latest get-rich-quick scheme.

Tired of Tom's strict rules, Nancy, Susan, and Joannie look for an apartment of their own because Tom has trouble accepting that his daughters are growing up. David buys a new truck and agrees to sell Tommy his van. Tom is upset when Abby loans the girls the money to get their own apartment.

Joanie, Susan and Nancy experience miscommunication as they settle into a routine in their new apartment; Using reverse psychology, Tom lifts all house rules in an attempt to get the remaining kids to honor their curfews.

Abby's mother lands on the Bradfords' doorstep after leaving her husband; a rent increase forces Susan, Joannie and Nancy to return home; Nicholas grapples with learning to sleep in his own room; Tom's station wagon becomes a magnet for parking tickets every time one of the kids borrows it.

A torrential downpour causes a power outage across Sacramento, trapping Tom and Abby in an elevator, leaving Nancy stranded at work, and causing imaginations to run wild at home -- especially after a knock on the door from a stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to Norman Bates in "Psycho."

David and Janet's decision to move in together threatens Tom's chances for a Father of the Year award, while the family's excessive reliance upon David threatens the future of his relationship with Janet.

Tommy takes responsibility for an unwed classmate who discovers she's pregnant; David and Janet are forced to move into the Bradford house for several days while their apartment is being fumigated.

The Bradfords become enmeshed in the plight of a lonely foster child befriended by Nicholas; Abby uses the kids as subjects for a research project on multi-sibling families.

Tom and Abby find they have nothing in common with Janet's parents; Tommy is ostracized by his classmates when substitute teacher Abby flunks the school's basketball star.

Tom clashes with Joannie over her new boyfriend, an itinerant poet; Nicholas scores high on a music aptitude test, which results in unending noise from his new drum set; David goes into business for himself as a contractor, and Tom becomes his first customer.

A water main break plunges the family into chaos while dealing with the pressures of finals week; Nancy sympathizes with a brainiac Elizabeth is using to help her pass algebra; Tom's column about passing the torch to the younger generation results in a picket line of protesting seniors outside the Bradford house.

Tom sells a short story, but his elation turns to mortification when the publication turns out to be a stag magazine; David and Janet no sooner announce their engagement than they begin seeing the pitfalls of wedded life, ultimately leading David to break off the engagement and take off on a cross-country road trip.

On his odyssey to Santa Fe, David befriends Dutch, a veteran hang glider, who entices him to take flight on his own. When no experienced test pilots will fly Dutch's untried prototype in a local competition, David contemplates taking the risk to prevent the older man from doing harm to himself.

Elizabeth's part in a senior prank gets her barred from attending graduation, just as Tom is asked to deliver the commencement speech; Joannie faces an uncertain future as she approaches college graduation, which leads to a blowout with Abby; Tommy agonizes over cutting his hair for a summer lifeguard position.