The Former Site of the “Eight Is Enough” House

One of my biggest filming location pet peeves is when an unfound spot from an old movie or television show is explained away as having been demolished without any evidence to support that allegation.  Like Whitney Houston, I wanna see the receipts!  So when I recently came across an Eight Is Enough message board in which several commenters mentioned that the home where the Bradford family lived on the popular ABC series had been torn down years back, I was not quick to believe the claims and decided to look into the matter myself.  As I eventually learned, the EIE house was indeed razed long ago, sadly.  Because questions about the residence linger online, though, I figured it was worthy of a blog post – especially since my friend Michael (you may remember him from his many guest posts) was able to dig up some proof of its demolition.

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For those not familiar with Eight Is Enough, the show, which ran from 1977 to 1981, was based upon the 1975 memoir of Tom Braden, a Washington, D.C.-area political columnist who, with wife Joan, had eight children.  For the series, the family’s last name was changed to Bradford and the setting shifted to Sacramento, where Tom (Dick Van Patten) and second wife, Abby (Betty Buckley), lived with their large brood – David (Grant Goodeve), Mary (Lani O’Grady), Joannie (Laurie Walters), Susan (Susan Richardson), Nancy (Dianne Kay), Elizabeth (Connie Needham), Tommy (Willie Aames) and Nicholas (Adam Rich) – in a charming two-story Colonial-style dwelling.  (Diana Hyland, the actress who played Joan, Tom’s first wife and mother of the Bradford clan, sadly passed away in the middle of the series’ inaugural season and only appeared in the first four episodes.  Tom then married Abby at the beginning of Season 2.)

A commenter on the Eight Is Enough message board had stated that the Bradford pad formerly stood right off Lankershim Boulevard at 10703 Chiquita Street in North Hollywood.  Early on in my research, though, I unearthed a The Sacramento Bee article from 2015 in which associate producer Sandra Bice said that the property used on the show was located in Burbank.  She explained that EIE location managers likely did some scouting of Sactown neighborhoods and then found a house in the vicinity of Warner Bros. Studio, where the series was lensed, that had a similar look and feel.  I was not sure which source to believe, but felt an associate producer was likely more credible.  To fulfill my due diligence, I did look into the Chiquita Street address, though.  Number 10703 is no longer in existence, but, as Google showed me, that address falls at the end of a small cul-de-sac in Studio City, not North Hollywood.  While there are several newly built homes situated in the cul-de-sac today, aside from a mid-90s construction date, I could find no other information on them or what stood there prior anywhere.

Seemingly stuck, without any sort of idea where to turn next, I brought Michael in on the hunt.  Thankfully, he was able to work his usual magic, showing me the receipts via a 1984 Press Democrat article in which the home’s location was spelled out in literal black and white.  As it turns out, the message board commenter was correct – almost.  The Eight Is Enough house was once located at 10733 Chiquita Street (not 10703).

Running a search on that address, Michael then came across a building permit which showed that the residence was torn down in 1996.

The permit also provided a diagram revealing how the property was formerly laid out.

Armed with that information, I headed over to the Historic Aerials website to see if I could figure out exactly where the house and its detached garage used to be situated.  Though a bit hard to see, the Bradford residence and garage are marked with pink and blue arrows, respectively, in the images below.

Using that imagery, along with the building permit, I was able to discern that the Eight Is Enough house and garage formerly stood in the areas denoted with pink boxes below.

That spot is pictured below in its current state.

The home, said to be at 1436 Oak Street in Sacramento on the series, was used extensively throughout Eight Is Enough’s 5-season run.  Not only did the dwelling pop up regularly in establishing shots . . .

. . . but it also appeared in each episode’s opening credits . . .

. . . as well as in countless on location scenes.  The residence was also featured in the 1987 made-for-television movie Eight Is Enough: A Family Reunion and in 1989’s An Eight Is Enough Wedding, but, unfortunately, I could not find a copy of either production with which to make screen captures for this post.

Only the exterior of the dwelling appeared on Eight Is Enough.  Interiors were filmed inside of a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio.

Though the Bradford house is long gone, the road leading up to it still looks relatively the same.

Thanks to IMDB and the Eight Is Enough message board, I learned that the residence was an onscreen regular in its day, most likely due to its charming aesthetic, proximity to several studios, and Anywhere, U.S.A. feel.  In the Season 2 episode of The Rockford Files titled “Where’s Houston?,” which aired in 1976, the Bradford pad portrayed the home of Houston Preli (Lane Bradbury).

I believe the property’s actual interior was also utilized in the episode.

The pad popped up on The Rockford Files once again two years later, this time as the supposed Sherman Oaks home belonging to Jay Rockfelt’s (John Pleshette) parents in Season 4’s “Dwarf in a Helium Hat.”

From the way the episode was shot, I can say with certainty that the real life interior was also featured.

The Eight Is Enough house was used in an establishing shot of the residence belonging to Rebecca Steck (Paula Hoffman) in the Season 2 episode of Valerie – or The Hogan Family, if you’re watching in syndication – titled “Caught on a Hot Tin Roof,” which aired in 1986.

Interestingly, the shot was actually borrowed from the pilot episode of Eight Is Enough, which makes sense being that both series were produced by Lorimar.  Though the quality of The Hogan Family cap is terrible (I could not find a hi-res version of “Caught on a Hot Tin Roof” to stream), as you can see, the images above and below are one and the same.

In 1987, it popped up as the supposed Eden, Oregon-area Sitwell Mortuary where Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) met with some blackmail victims in the Season 4 episode of Murder, She Wrote titled “Trouble in Eden.”  (Thanks to fellow stalker Dennis for the tip!)

The property’s interior also briefly appeared in the episode, though the main mortuary room featured was, I believe, just a set.

The Bradford home also portrayed the Conventry Presbyterian Halloween Spook House in the Season 3 episode of Quantum Leap titled “The Boogieman: October 31st, 1964,” which aired in 1990.

Thanks to fellow stalker AJM, I learned that the Bradford residence was used extensively as the home of Cus D’Amato (George C. Scott) and Camille Ewald (Lilyan Chauvin), where Mike Tyson (Michael Jai White) lived while training to become a boxer, in the 1995 biopic Tyson.

The interior of the pad also appeared in the movie.

Update – While perusing photographs of the 1938 Lankershim Bridge collapse, a fellow stalker named Paul spotted the Bradford home!  He was kind enough to share the photos with me to post here.  The image below is from the USC Libraries Digital Collection.  The Bradford pad is denoted with a blue circle.  Though not perfectly clear, it is a much better shot of the property than the ones provided by Historic Aerials.  I love that, despite the somewhat fuzzy imagery, the home is still definitely recognizable from Eight Is Enough.

The second photo Paul shared comes from the Water and Power Associates website and, once again, the Bradford residence, which is pictured from the rear, is circled in blue.  Though I have not been able to discern when precisely the property was originally built, at least we now know, thanks to Paul, that it was constructed at some point prior to 1938.

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Big THANK YOU to my friend Michael (you can read his many guest posts here) for helping to confirm this location! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: The Bradford home from Eight Is Enough was formerly located at 10733 Chiquita Street in Studio City.  The residence was torn down in 1996 and a new house now stands in its place.