7th Heaven

American drama television series

Trivia

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# Stephen Collins (Reverend Eric Camden) and Catherine Hicks (Annie Camden) have both starred in Star Trek movies. Stephen Collins played Commander Willard Decker in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and Catherine Hicks played Doctor Gillian Taylor in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). Both had ample screen time with James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner.
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# A post-September 11th show revolved completely around the deceased Staff Sergeant Dwight J. Morgan, who was killed in a freak helicopter crash in Afghanistan. The episode had Ruthie corresponding with Morgan prior to his death, with actual letters to home that Morgan wrote to his family, who was a guest in the episode when Ruthie held a wake for Morgan.
When the show was filming Matt Camden's wedding to a rabbi's daughter, a Los Angeles synagogue originally offered a filming location contract but withdrew from the filming because of the show's portrayal of the rabbi as hostile and intolerant towards his new Christian son-in-law.
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# The character 'Rev. Eric Camden' was ranked #11 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" (20 June 2004 issue).
"Nothing Endures But Change" was based on Beverley Mitchell's real-life experience.
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# Before working on the show, the dog "Happy" was a stray that was abused by her former male owner. Even though she was later rescued "Happy" still has a fear of men. Before the taping of every new season Stephen Collins, Barry Watson, and other adult male actors on the show have to spend some time with Happy for her to get used to them being around when doing scenes together.
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# Beverley Mitchell (Lucy Camden) auditioned twice for the role of Lucy Camden. Apparently her first try out didn't go so well and her agent encouraged her to try for the role again.
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# The show initially tested poorly among test audiences in the spring of 1996 before it was picked up as a series. WB executives decided to move forward with the project and not change anything in the format despite early test reactions.
At the start of the series' 10th season this became the longest running family drama on television beating out "Little House on the Prairie" (1974) and "The Waltons" (1972), both of which aired for nine seasons.
When the Camden twin boys Sam and David were introduced to the show in the middle of season three the "7th Heaven" crew used quadruplets (Zachary Brino, Lorenzo Brino, Nikolas Brino, and Myrinda Brino) to play the twin babies as they rotated them around between scenes due to Child Labor Laws and the amount of time one set babies could be kept under lights and camera. But as the twin characters became older the producers decided on using one pair of the quadruplets, Lorenzo and Nikolas, especially since one of the quadruplets was a girl. Beginning from season six both boys had the roles permanently of Sam and David Camden and then appearing in the opening credits of the show.
The exterior shots of the Camden home in the pilot episode of the series is a real house that is located in Altadena, California. The house is very recognizable from movies such as The Baby-Sitters Club (1995), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Risky Business (1983), Can't Hardly Wait (1998), _Bye Bye, Love (1995)_, and others.
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# In the series, Rev. Eric Camden ('Stephen Collins'), the father of the Camden family is a pastor at the fictional "Glen Oak Community Church". It's actually a real church - "The First Christian Church" (Disciples of Christ) that is located in Studio City, California.
Series creator Brenda Hampton purposely introduced more storylines revolving around adoption and foster parenting in the later seasons of the eighth and ninth years of "7th Heaven" to express her desire for others to adopt kids who are in need, as she is also an adoptive parent of two children.
The series stayed in its original Monday 8/7c time slot on the WB throughout its entire 10 year run without ever moving to another night or time, which is very rare for a network television series. In its 11th season, it was moved to Sunday nights, still keeping its 8/7c time.
Series creator Brenda Hampton discovered "Happy" the dog on another set and then decided to write her into the show. She was only 7 months old when she did the pilot.
Series creator Brenda Hampton got the idea of Rev. Eric Camden and his wife Annie Camden becoming pregnant and having twins in the third season from her sister who had recently given birth to twins at the time.
During the fourth and fifth season of the series there was much controversy over co-star Jessica Biel's (Mary Camden) unhappiness over the show and her character Mary. She attempted to leave the show by getting fired when she posed for Gear Magazine to upset producers and network executives to let her out of her contract - which she'd later regret, as she admitted in later interviews and was now contented with the series.
Stephen Collins (Reverend Eric Camden) was offered the role of Eric Camden two days before the pilot episode was filmed. He never auditioned for the role. The next day he met the entire cast in Aaron Spelling's office and read the script out loud with them. It was then when he accepted the role.
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# Writer 'Ron Zimmerman' who wrote episodes for the series in its first season later on became a recurring character on the series as the character Doc, a cancer surviving patient that Camden family befriends.
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# In the 7th season series creator Brenda Hampton created the role of Chandler Hampton (played by Jeremy London) and purposely gave the character her last name to fit more into the show as Rev. Eric Camden's ('Stephen Collins') associate pastor.
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# The fictional town of Glen Oak where the series is based in is supposed to be located somewhere in Southern California, according to series creator Brenda Hampton.
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# Barry Watson (Matt Camden) is the only series regular to have ever written (7.8 "Peer Pressure") and also direct an episode (9.16 "Brother Love") of the series.
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# In real life Beverley Mitchell (Lucy Camden) is older than her co-star Jessica Biel (Mary Camden). But on the show Jessica Biel's character Mary is the older sister, while Beverley Mitchel's character Lucy is the younger sister.
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# When the role of Martin Brewer (Tyler Hoechlin), the son of an U.S. soldier originally went out to be cast in May 2003 for the next season the character's original name was Joe. He was also supposed to be a bad kid who would create a lot of trouble for Ruthie Camden (Mackenzie Rosman) and the rest of her family. Although, once actor Tyler Hoechlin was cast in the role they changed the name of the character as well as the personality of the character to fit more into the family fold.

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7th Heaven

Trivia