The Eight is Enough reunion today was lovely, but if you tuned in the see Adam Rich, you were left disappointed.

In 1977, the show Eight is Enough debuted and ran until 1981.  The show followed newspaper journalist Tom Bradford and his eight children- David, Mary, Joanie, Susan, Nancy, Elizabeth, Tommy, and Nicholas.  The show ran for a full hour and was one of the first to use laugh tracks for its recordings.

Today on The Today Show, seven of the cast members- Dick Van Patten, Laurie Walters, Connie Needham, Grant Goodeye, Dianne Kay, Willie Aames, and Betty Buckley- came back for a small reunion. The group reminisced about the show and their experiences making it. However, the (arguably) most popular actor on the series, Adam Rich (who played Nicholas), was no where to be seen.

Rich, as the youngest child, had that ‘cute kid’ factor that other television shows like Leave It To Beaver cashed in on and soon Rich was the center of the show, whether the writers wanted him to be or not.  After Eight is Enoughended, Rich’s career stopped.  He then had struggles with drug addiction and got in trouble with the law over theft.

Why wasn’t he on the show?  Not sure, but I can only hope that Adam Rich is staying out of trouble and keeping himself emotionally and physically healthy.

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