Just the Ten of Us is an American sitcom starring stand-up comedianBill Kirchenbauer as Coach Graham Lubbock, a teacher and the head of a large Catholic family with eight children living in Eureka, California. The series is a spin-off of Growing Pains, in which Kirchenbauer portrayed the same character on a recurring basis. As the series progressed, Coach Lubbock's four eldest daughters, the teenagers Marie, Cindy, Wendy, and Connie, became the primary focus of the show. Just the Ten of Us aired on ABC starting with a trial run from April 26 to May 17, 1988. After the first four episodes in an abbreviated first season were aired, the show was renewed for two more seasons, eventually ending after 47 episodes on May 4, 1990. The show was a part of ABC's early TGIF programming block.
Synopsis
The series focuses on Graham Lubbock, a Catholic gym teacher who used to teach at the high school that Growing Pains characters Mike and Carol Seaver had attended on Long Island, and the father of eight children. In the pilot episode, Graham's job is in jeopardy due to district budget cutbacks. Mike leads a protest after he learns that Lubbock is trying to support a large family. Despite this, Graham loses his job. However, he is soon offered a job at St. Augustine's Academy, an all-boys private Catholic school in Eureka, California. Graham promptly moves his family to California. Six of Graham's children were girls, four of them teenagers. They were:
Marie – the oldest, most responsible, and most pious.
Cindy – Wendy's older twin sister, and the most ditzy.
Wendy – Cindy's younger twin sister, and the most flirtatious.
His younger daughters were eight-year-old Sherry and infant Melissa. By special arrangement, the older girls were allowed to attend St. Augustine's, much to the chagrin of the school's administration. Graham and Elizabeth's sons were 11-year-old Graham, Jr., familiarly known as "J.R.", and toddler Harvey. The first season consisted of four episodes for a trial run in the spring of 1988. ABC was pleased with their success and ordered a second season. In the second season, Cindy and Wendy seemed to switch personalities, with Cindy becoming more ditzy, and Wendy becoming the schemer. Also, the show focused more and more on the four older girls and frequently revolved around the family's efforts to save money, dating, and other typical family sitcom issues. In later episodes, the four teenage girls formed a singing group called "The Lubbock Babes". The girls had many boyfriends and love interests that Graham took great pride in testing—and in most cases, fending off—but the most permanent fixture among them was Marie's goofy boyfriend, Gavin Doosler. Those on the St. Augustine's staff included Father Frank Hargis, the affable headmaster; Coach Duane Johnson, Graham's earnest young assistant during the first two seasons and pulled some strings with Father Hargis to hire Lubbock; and in the third season, featured teachers Father Bud and elderly, madcap Sister Ethel.
