7th Heaven is one of the pinnacles of insipid shows. I don't think it started out that way, usually emphasizing some meaningful point here and again about common issues, though mostly concerning a long line of teen and parenting issues from the very benign (teen dating) to most severe (eating disorders) in addition to other vital topics such as hate crimes. However, as the years went on, 7th Heaven fell victim to the vapid nonsense themes that plagues most of the WB's teen-based dramas.
7th Heaven, for those who have never seen it, is basically about the Camden family. Eric, a minister, lives with his wife and what used to be only five kids--though that number has become indefinite as people move in and out and more surprise pregnancies occur to try to comepensate for boring storylines. So, basically, it's just a show dealing with various family crises that arise.
I never thought of the show as much of a role model for young girls, who seem to be a large part of the show's audience, particularly because of the young teen cast (i.e. Barry Watson, David Gallagher, and others). And the show fails as a model for young girls because it either never did, or at one point ceased to address anything valid as far as female independence, intelligence, and the like. Especially in being that every episode eventually became to depict the daughter's as always eagerly in search of dates and nothing else. Mary, the oldest daughter, wanted to get married. Then, it was Lucy (perhaps the most vapid character of all, next to the youngest daughter. Even while at work, the female cop friend of what would soon be Lucy's husband, also a cop, would spend most of their time talking about their love lives and not much else. And though not as drastic as other television dramas such as FOX's The O.C., which seems lax on it's portrayal of rampant teen sex, nearly every female character on 7th Heaven suddenly became a stereotypical boy-toy type of character while the male characters, though also lacking any substantive value, were written to be the more interesting of the characters, nonetheless.
As the years went on, the show became terribly less interesting as the characters had less to offer and as the writers kept trying to pull a magic rabbit out of their hat, seeking to hype what was sooned to be revealed as stupid plotlines in an effort to reinvigorate whatever it was the show once had that made it decent to begin with. It think the show has been around far too long and is running out of steam. But, I suppose to make up for that, they'll write another pregranancy into the story (to make yet another couple of annoying characters that you have pay attention to).
