Who Is Robbie Going Out With?

Hello, Mr. Spelling…

Who remembers 7th Heaven? This show ran from 1996 until 2007 and follows the lives of minister Eric Camden, his wife, Annie, and their seven children in Glenoak, California, and today we’ll be looking at the “V-Day” episode, which was, appropriately enough, the fourteenth episode of Season Five and broadcast on February 12, 2001.

7th Heaven, which was Spelling’s last executive producer credit, is the polar opposite of his infamous cultural leviathan Beverly Hills, 90210, a show that was more involved with the younger set than the adults and definitely racier.

Still, things were never boring in Glenoak, as 7th Heaven dealt with serious issues such as death, racism, alcoholism, drugs, lost children, and broken families. Pretty much anything. Annie and Eric have a healthy and romantic marriage, finding ways to keep their relationship fresh despite an extremely busy life and lots of kids running around.

And yeah, there’s a certain amount of cheese involved, starting with the theme song, but there are also a lot of good lessons to learn, and the show really strove to be different from other shows of that time. If an unmarried couple lived together, they didn’t share a room, or if they shared a room they had separate beds with a curtain in between. Tattoos were frowned upon. Belly buttons were mostly kept covered. Respect for adults was paramount, as were ethics and church attendance. It was very much a family show in more ways that one and somehow walked the line between being too perfect and staying just edgy enough to be relateable.

Well, mostly, anyway. As the show’s creator and executive producer Brenda Hampton noted to Variety, “No one’s family is this nice.”

That hasn’t stopped 7th Heaven from being part of the cultural zeitgeist. I remember an episode of Dawson’s Creek in which Buzz (Jonathan Lipnicki), a kid Pacey Witter’s mentoring, tells Pacey (Joshua Jackson) rather defiantly that he’s “not like one of those kids on 7th Heaven.”

Getting back to the matter at hand, though, I’m not even going to try to sum up all of the dynamics and who’s who in Season Five except for what’ll be needed for the “V-Day” episode to make sense. When it opens, oldest daughter, Mary (Jessica Biel) is living in Buffalo, New York with Eric’s parents because she needs to straighten up and fly right. Robbie (Adam LaVorgna), Mary’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, is living at the Camden house after he left his current girlfriend following a pregnancy scare.

It’s Valentine’s Day, and middle daughter, Lucy, has a date with Jeremy (David Scott Lago). She’s excited, of course, but when the Camdens find out Robbie has a date with a mystery woman, the house is abuzz. It’s also the night of twins’ Sam and David’s second birthday party, which everyone is obligated to come to before their Valentine’s Day activities commence.

The Camdens won’t let up on finding out who Robbie’s date is, though. Oldest son, Matt (Barry Watson), middle son Simon (David Gallagher) and youngest daughter Ruthie (Mackenzie Lockwood) try to get dates so they can double-date with Robbie and solve the mystery, but everything falls through. Mary calls twice from New York, and she’s not happy when she finds out Robbie is going out with someone.

Meanwhile, Lucy’s V-day is downright blissful. She’s got a brand-new red satin dress for the occasion and Jeremy shows up with flowers for her mom and chocolate for her dad, plus his cell phone number, just in case. He’s a very conscientious kid.

The only slight fly in the ointment is that the night is a parade of Lucy’s ex-boyfriends. Two of them work at the restaurant where Lucy and Jeremy go to eat, and then later Lucy and Jeremy spy another one on the street looking at a jewelry store window while eating a banana. The awkwardness potential is pretty strong, but Jeremy takes it all in stride. He’s got a surprise in store for Lucy that she won’t forget.

V-Day isn’t a wash for the rest of the Camdens, either. Matt takes some of the twins’ birthday cake over to his friend, Simon’s (Chaz Lamar Shepard) apartment, and then finds himself on a very uncomfortable date with a woman who looks remarkably like Cher. Simon’s ex-girlfriend comes over to clear the air. Ruthie and her friend, Burt, ride a horse around the block. It all ends nicely.

And yes, the question of who Robbie is going out with gets answered as well, but I won’t spoil anything. Suffice it to say that Mary, who ends her Valentine’s Day with a cup of soup, gets a reassuring phone call.

Watching it now, I’m surprised this was my favorite episode way back when because it doesn’t so much advance the arc of the show as change the trajectory slightly in some spots and hold places in others. It’s kind of presumptuous of the Camdens to be so determined to butt into something Robbie wanted to keep quiet, but they’re watching out for Mary, right? The episode does have a lot of cool moments, though, and we get to see the show at a good mid-point before the kids started moving on with their lives and really growing up.

Unfortunately 7th Heaven‘s audience started declining in the later seasons, maybe because the show had overstayed its welcome. Plus, the WB became the CW, which likely heralded staffing changes, which are oftentimes a death knell for productions in Hollywood. The decision was made in April of 2007 to cancel the show.

7th Heaven has remained a quietly successful show for Aaron Spelling, who died several months before the last season ended. In fact, the final episode, which aired on May 13, 2007, is dedicated to Spelling’s memory. It’s a safe bet he would be proud to know that 7th Heaven is still fondly remembered, with many of the cast members coming together for a reunion this past year.

For more of the Spellingverse, please visit Gill at Realweegiemidget Reviews. Thanks for hosting this blogathon, Gill–it was great! A new During World War Two post is coming out tomorrow. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…

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