7th Heaven (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The series follows Reverend Eric Camden, a Protestant minister, and his wife Annie as they raise seven children in the fictional town of Glen Oak, California.
• In May 2025, a reboot of the show was announced to be in development at CBS Studios, with Anthony Sparks as showrunner and executive producer alongside Biel and DeVon Franklin.
• 7th Heaven was the last series produced by Spelling Television to end its run, as the company was shut down a month after Spelling's death.

Reception

The Parents Television Council (PTC), a conservative media advocacy group, frequently listed 7th Heaven among the top ten most family-friendly shows. The PTC praised the series for its positive depiction of a cleric and for promoting honesty, respect for parental authority, and the importance of a strong family and good education. It named the show the best of 1998–1999, stating that it provided moral solutions to tough issues facing teenagers without seeming preachy or heavy-handed, and that it showed consequences of reckless behavior. The council also noted that the parents, Annie and Eric, offered wise counsel with love and understanding when addressing topics such as premarital sex and peer pressure. Critics, however, held a different view. Hillary Frey of Salon described the series as one of the worst long-running shows on television, making Beverly Hills, 90210 look Shakespearean, while also being addictive. Criticisms included heavy-handed moralizing, Christian propaganda, and a depiction of a family so clean it was obscene. Frey outlined a predictable episode pattern: a Camden family member has a problem or secret, a misunderstanding ensues, a confrontation or intervention occurs often with a short sermon from a parent, and the central figure eventually chooses the 'right' action, which always equates to Christian values, with Protestant guilt used as a plot device. Implausible scenarios were also noted, such as the daughter Mary's absence for several seasons being barely explained. Frey argued that the sappiness and sanctimony made moral lessons impossible to swallow, and that the show displayed an obsession with premarital sex, with parents and eldest son Matt sometimes treating the sexuality of Lucy and Mary as something to be owned or negotiated.

Availability

Paramount Skydance handles both domestic and international distribution of the series. Season one episodes were retitled 7th Heaven Beginnings. The series received a TV-G rating throughout its 11-season run, but reruns on some cable or satellite channels have been given TV-PG or TV-14 ratings depending on subject matter. In the United States, off-network syndication reruns began on September 25, 2000, and ceased in September 2002 while the series was still in first-run broadcast on The WB and later The CW. The show then aired on ABC Family from fall 2002 until 2008. On April 1, 2010, ABC Family announced it had re-obtained the rights and would begin airing the series at 11 a.m. ET/PT on weekdays from April 12, 2010, but after one week the network abruptly pulled the show and replaced it with a third daily airing of Gilmore Girls. As of 2012, GMC (now known as UP) began airing the series with a marathon on July 7, 2012. Due to allegations of child molestation against Stephen Collins, the network pulled the series from its schedule on the afternoon of October 7, 2014. 7th Heaven briefly returned to UP in December 2014 but was quickly removed; UP CEO Charley Humbard stated that viewers could not separate the allegations from the series. In summer 2015, UP brought the series back, airing weekdays from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM until 2019, when it was again pulled. It previously aired on GetTV and Hallmark Drama. In Ireland, the show aired on RTÉ; in the UK, it aired on Sky One in a midweek prime time slot. CBS DVD, distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment, has released all 11 seasons on DVD in Region 1, seasons 1–7 in Region 2, and the first 6 seasons in Region 4. On August 22, 2017, a complete series DVD release was announced for November 14.