[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7th_Heaven_4556.jpg]]

In [[TheNineties the '90s]], TheWB aired this drama about a pastor, his wife, their seven kids, and their dog. The pastor, a [[NiceGuy good-natured fella]], dealt with the problems of both his family and his flock, which were often related, with various degrees of success.

This show had an interesting mix of old-fashioned TV family entertainment and {{Soap Opera}}tics. It stretched the limits of preacher's kids' misbehavior in later seasons.

The show lasted from August, 1996 to May, 2007. It was the [[LongRunners longest-running]] and highest-rated show on TheWB by far (as well as AaronSpelling's longest-running show), loved by many viewers and providing SnarkBait for many others (it was likely one of the few shows on the network to attract audiences ''outside'' the valued 18-49 demographic). It got [[PostScriptSeason renewed for an eleventh season]] off the ratings of its [[SeriesFauxnale intended series finale]] (to the distress of fans of ''{{Everwood}}''); it ended shortly after TheWB did.

It also gave us Creator/JessicaBiel, for which just about anyone attracted to women will be eternally grateful.
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!!Tropes used and applied by the fans:
* AbsenteeActor: Most of them - Stephen Collins and Beverley Mitchell are the only cast members to appear in every single episode.
* AcademicAthlete: Basketball star Mary Camden will occasionally tutor other characters.
* AxesAtSchool: "See You In September" has Simon getting suspended because his mother packed a knife with his lunch.
* BabiesEverAfter: Taken to ridiculous extremes in the 10th season finale, in which Lucy, Mary, ''and'' Matt's wife were all pregnant... '''with twins'''.
** Inverted come the start of season 11, with Lucy having miscarried her twins.
* BigBrotherWorship: Sam and David adore Simon.
** Simon feels like this about Matt.
* BornInAnElevator: Kevin and Lucy's daughter.
* BrokenAesop: Quite a few of the show's lessons don't hold up to scrutiny. See the episode where the parents tell their 7-year-old daughter ''she's not allowed to play pretend anymore''...because it might lead to her confusing fantasy with reality, [[InsaneTrollLogic and then killing someone]]. Really.
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Anytime a character even so much as tiptoes near the "dark side", they will see the worst possible consequences of it.
* CastingGag: Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks both starred in a [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek: TOS]] movie, and each had ample screentime with James Kirk himself, WilliamShatner.
* CharacterAsHimself: In this case, the ever suffering Happy the Dog...plays Happy the Dog. She got starring billing for his stirring role playing a common housedog, though her Emmy submissions always seemed to be rejected.
* CharacterFilibuster: There is something in the air of the Glen Oak Parsonage that prevents people who live there too long from Ever. Shutting. Up.
* CharacterOutlivesActor: Averted; Barry Watson survived his Hodgkins Lymphoma and returned to the show.
* ChurchOfSaintGenericus
* CockFight: One episode has two boys competing over Lucy.
* CompoundTitle:
** "Boyfriends..." "...And Girlfriends"
** "Chances..." "...Are"
** "Sin.." "...And Expiation"
** "Goodbye..." "And Thank You"
* CreepyTwins: Unintentional example: Sam and David. The ultimate in DullSurprise.
* DawsonCasting: Beverley Mitchell (born in 1981) as the younger sister of Creator/JessicaBiel (born in ''1982'').
* DeathBySex[=/=]DeathByChildbirth: Wilson's wife, the mother of little Billy.
* DirectedByCastMember: Stephen Collins and Barry Watson (the latter also [[WrittenByCastMember penned an episode]]).
* DiscriminateAndSwitch
* DoubleStandard: In the Season 9 opener, Ruthie pulls down the pants of a male friend in school when he won't give her a ride to school and also pay attention to her. She refuses to apologize, and Annie won't hear of her being punished for it, instead speaking of the kind of loose pants he was wearing and the favor he wouldn't do. One can only imagine the fate of a boy who did anything similar to a girl.
* DullSurprise
* EverybodyHatesMathematics: There was an episode which involved Annie and Mary breaking down and crying about how much they hated math.
* FamilyThemeNaming: Reverend Camden and his wife Annie give all their children Biblical names: Matthew, Mary, Lucy [[hottip:* The name "Lucy" is the feminine form of Luke]], Simon, Ruth(ie), Samuel and David.
* FelonyMisdemeanor: Mary drinks a beer and [=TPs=] the school gym = Mary is a fallen woman on an uncontrollable downward spiral whose recklessness and lack of reverence for the conventions of civilized society will surely spell her doom. Also, you can pass out from one beer -- so completely that the continuous screaming of the baby you're supposed to be watching won't wake you up until its parents come home. The penalty? PutOnABus to Buffalo (the TelevisionWithoutPity recappers had a lot of fun with the idea of [[PlaceWorseThanDeath Buffalo as the nightmarish place you go to pay for your sins]]). And that's just the most significant example (as mentioned above, this was punishment for Jessica Biel's posing topless for ''Gear'').
** There was also that time Simon was in deep anguish over the fact that he *gasp* had sex with someone. He was majorly concerned that he might have contracted an STD, and it was played for much drama, even though he had used a condom. Do also keep in mind that he appeared to be more shaken up by having premarital sex than the time he had committed ''vehicular manslaughter''.
** And of course there was that whole episode where listening to rap music = being a woman-hater (even if, you know, you ARE a woman!).
* FiremenAreHot: Mary's love interest Ben. Even Ruthie basically wolf-whistles at him. Then comes his cop brother Kevin for Lucy...
* {{Flanderization}}: Annie's overprotective/controlling attitude and nosiness, Lucy's clinginess and sensitivity, Ruthie's sneakiness, Simon's Wangst, Mary's flakiness…pretty much everyone over time, actually. But being a LongRunner will do that to you.
** Mary's was essentially [[RonTheDeathEater done deliberately to demonize her]] and to [[SlutShaming shame]] and insult Jessica Biel, not only having her become a sheltered fundamentalist's view of "lacking in moral fiber" but also draining her intelligence away.
* FrenchJerk: Guy, a French exchange student, drives Eric and all the kids crazy.
* GiftOfTheMagiPlot: In one Christmas episode, where Annie trades her mother's cross for a jukebox for Eric's prized record collection and Eric trades the records for an expensive chain for Annie's cross. Fortunately, the antiques dealer catches on and shows up at the end to set everything right.
* GoodParents: The father leaned towards being the OverprotectiveDad, and the mom leaned towards being MyBelovedSmother, but they are both loving and supportive Christian parents. They always stuck together as a family no matter how many things their children do wrong.
** Except for [[TheUnfavorite Mary]]
* GroundedForever:
-->'''Mary''': So I guess I'm grounded for life?
-->'''Annie''': That's a given.
* HappilyMarried:
** Eric and Annie
** Kevin and Lucy
** Matt and Sarah
** Mary and Carlos, though they did break up at one point
* TheHecateSisters: The first three episodes are about the life cycle. In the pilot, daughter Lucy is sensitive about starting her period and thus becoming a woman. She says that her type is Prince Charles because she bets that he is sensitive and shy. The second episode has mother Annie using her intuition and welcoming nature to learn that Matt's friend is a pregnant teenager. In the third episode grandmother Jenny is visited by Annie who is concerned because Jenny has Leukemia. Annie finds that Jenny is spending her final days living life to its fullest. When Annie expresses her concerns about Jenny resting and watching her cholesterol, Jenny says that she'll be resting soon enough and she's not supposed to be watching it anymore.
* ItsAllMyFault: Lucy believes this when her friend is killed in a car accident.[[hottip:*:This was based on something that really happened to Beverley Mitchell.]]
* IvyLeagueForEveryone
* JesusTaboo: How a show about ''Christians'', with the lead character a ''minister'', avoids mentioning ''Christ'' more than about three times in eleven years is baffling. You probably have ExecutiveMeddling to blame for that.
* LikeGoesWithLike: An episode has Matt's best friend and roommate, who is black, try to pair up him and Matt with a couple of women in the building and it's obvious that he'll be with the black one and Matt will be with the white one.
** Another episode has Simon's friend Nigel says that there's a desirable girl in his class who could have picked anyone to be her boyfriend and she picked him. Come to find out that she's black like him.
* LittleMissSnarker: Ruthie -- way, way back in the day.
* LonersAreFreaks: and not being in a committed relationship is a tragedy.
* LowSpeedChase: Simon, when a new driver, gets into a low speed car chase aided by his grandfather who has dementia but who is supposed to be helping him learn to drive.
* MoodWhiplash: A somewhat outside-the-fourth-wall case: For a time, ''7th Heaven'' was aired right before ''Series/{{Angel}}'', which one reviewer described as being akin to "Following up your glass of orange juice with a vodka chaser."
* MusicalEpisode: The ninth-season Valentine's Day [[http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/7th_heaven/red_socks.php Red Socks]].
* NewMediaAreEvil: Eric gets shot by a kid in one episode. The kid likes video games. See where this is going?
* NiceCharacterMeanActor: Jerkass extraordinaire Jeremy London (who, after his role on this show has only been in the news for his various drug problems and being a DomesticAbuser who managed to lose custody of his kid) as good-natured associate pastor Chandler Hampton in seasons seven and eight.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: No viewer who saw his tribute episode but didn't personally know the man can say "Staff Sgt. Dwight J. Morgan" without laughing.
* OnceAnEpisode: Look up and down this trope list, and chances are this trope can apply to any other trope here.
* OnlyAFleshWound: When Eric gets shot, it's treated with all the seriousness of sprained ankle. The doctors give him a bandage and an arm sling and send him home the same day.
* OedipusComplex: The reverend has ''issues'' with his militaristic father.
* OverprotectiveDad: Eric towards his daughters.
* PassionateSportsGirl: Mary Camden from ''Series/SeventhHeaven'' plays on the girls' basketball team and is seen as a girl who would give the guys a hard time because of her self-confident nature.
* PickUpBabesWithBabes: Matt and Simon take the twins to the promenade, thinking they'll attract family-oriented girls with good values. Unfortunately, the only girl who talks to them chastises them for having the babies out so late in the cold.
* PlotParallel
* PostScriptSeason: The show was renewed for an 11th season three days after the series finale, leaving the writers to figure out what to do with a much smaller budget.
* PutOnABus: Mary, after Jessica Biel's aforementioned escape from ContractualPurity. In the series finale all of the characters leave on a bus.
* RedheadsAreUncool: There is an episode where Mary's high school friends tease a girl with frizzy red hair for wearing flannel and being fat.
* SelfHarm: In one episode, Mary catches Nicole (a new friend of her sister's) self harming in her bathroom. Mary tells Eric (her father), who then tells Nicole's father. Eric gives him a card and a number to call so they can get help for Nicole. Nicole is then Put on a Bus.
* [[SexIsEvil (Unmarried)]] SexIsEvil
* SickeninglySweethearts: Eric and Annie. When Annie is pregnant with the twins, the younger kids don't want her to drive them to school because, as Lucy puts it, "The fact that there are five of us is already proof that Mom and Dad can't keep their hands off each other."
** A late-season episode had them get so worked up by the sight of another couple kissing that they sneak off to their basement ''during a dinner party'' to have sex.
* StayingWithFriends
* TeenDrama: ''7th Heaven'' pretty much defines this trope.
* [[TeenPregnancy Teen Mom]]: Subverted when Lucy is out babysitting the twins -- passersby assume she's their 16-year-old mother and are disgusted/shocked.
* ThreeSuccessfulGenerations: Mary has the confidence and ability to want to play in the Women's National Basketball Association someday, Annie is the vastly knowledgeable mother, and Ruth wants to visit the children more then once a year to influence them.
-->'''The Colonel:''' Well, we're lucky to have Annie and Mary. You know, our Mary has enough salt to make jerky.
-->'''Grandma Ruth:''' That Annie, she's always been a doer. She's not afraid to get her hands dirty.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Mary and Lucy.
* VerySpecialEpisode: Pretty much every episode.
* WildTeenParty: There have been a few of these over the show's run. The most notable party was thrown by Matt and Mary in season one when Eric and Annie went out on Valentine’s Day. It starts out like any average party but gets out of hand when more guests show up, someone sneaks beer into the Camden house, and the dog Happy gets out and hit by a car. She gets better though. Another one appears in the sixth season episode "Drunk", which was about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Simon going to a party and having too much to drink]].
* WhereDidWeGoWrong: The Camdens' reaction to Mary's rebellion towards the middle of the series.
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