My Top 10 this week is Top 10 7th Heaven Characters!
Deena is on this list solely because I was the same age as the character when the show first aired and had a huge crush on her at the time. I found Simon annoying and thought Deena really needed to be with me instead. She wasn't a great actress (but who on this list was?) but I was pretty heartbroken when she left the show.
9. SARAH GLASS CAMDEN
The last gasp of solid episodes of 7th Heaven came when Sarah joined the cast as love interest and then wife for Matt. The show played up the fact that she came from a Jewish family with a Rabbi father while Matt was from a Christian family with a preacher father. But she was a down to earth personality and a good fit for Matt.
8. LUCY CAMDEN
Lucy is on this list because of the early years of the show. She eventually became really insufferable in later years. Early on though, she was fairly convincing as a teen who was in the shadow of her sister and struggling to find her identity and place in the family and world as a very typical middle child. She could even hang with some pretty intense stories before the show leaned too hard into those stories with her.
I really struggled with where to put Annie on this list. At one point I had her higher and at one point I had her almost off the list. I finally settled on #7 because she was frustrating at times but she also wasn't Reverend Camden. The reason the parent/child dynamic worked when it did was because of Annie who was so much less insufferable than Eric as a character (and obviously, as an actor as well).
6. MORGAN HAMILTON
I think there could have been a world where 7th Heaven focused on the Hamilton family with the Camdens being occasional guest stars. The show approached some of the racial elements of the Hamilton story with the touch that you might expect from a 90s WB drama, but the patriarch of the family was a much more enjoyable presence than Eric Camden.
I always wanted Mary to end up with Wilson. He was a "type" as so many characters on 7th Heaven were. In this case, it was a teenage father but a very responsible teenage father. Despite playing a character who could be just way too self-righteous, he was a very down to earth character and was played well. The show kept bringing him back but he didn't end up with Mary, it was unfortunate that the more annoying Carlos did.
4. RUTHIE CAMDEN
Ruthie is another one who makes the list thanks to the early days of the show. Like her old sister, Lucy, she became a pretty irritating character later in the run. But in the early days, she was actually quite a good character. She had a lot of funny lines and deliveries and was precocious as a young child without being irritating. There is evidence that young kids could be horrible on this show (the twins, Sam and David) and Ruthie wasn't irritating, at least at first.
You might notice that there are nearly as many Hamiltons in the Top 6 of this list as Camdens. That's not a surprise because the Camdens are just so darn annoying sometimes. John was great as Matt's roommate for a couple years. He brought a fun energy and dynamic to the show. The show never really gave him a ton to do but he did the most with it.
2. MARY CAMDEN
Of course Jessica Biel is known for much more than 7th Heaven these days, most notably her marriage to Justin Timberlake. But we've also seen proof that she's a decent actress so it's no surprise that she was unhappy on the family show (and famously tried to get off it with a risque magazine shoot). But Mary Camden was a really solid character throughout Biel's entire run on the show. Her scenes were always solid because Biel was always solid, even when she was unhappy.
The oldest child was easily the best character on the show and I'm not just saying that because I'm the oldest in my family too. Barry Watson made Matt an extremely likable character even when he was dealing with silly storylines or bearing the brunt of completely unreasonable expectations about his behavior from father Eric. Watson was goofy and had good comic timing. He was a perfect big brother character and the show suffered when he left.
Tomorrow: A One Season Wonder look at South Central!
Next Tuesday: Top 10 The Dick Van Dyke Show Characters!
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