Ok, I'm 20 mins. into what I guess is a new episode and I have three questions:

(1) Who are all these people?
(2) What in the heck are they all talking about?
(3) What happened to this show?

I thought I remembered this show as being fairly watchable at one time. Not now.

All of those people moving into that house? The script writers for the show.

Just in case you wanted a serious answer, here goes:

The oldest son and daughter, Matt and Mary have moved out of the house. They both now live in New York, where Matt is in medical school and Mary is an airline flight attendant. They are both pretty much out of the show but do make occasional appearances. Number 2 daughter Lucy is marrried to Kevin, a cop. They live in an apartment over the Camden family garage -- Lucy is a fulltime college student. Number 2 son Simon left home and high school one year early and is off enrolled in some special studies program. The blond girl with the annoying voice (singer Jessica Simpson's sister in real life) is Simon's ex-girlfriend and spends a lot of time with the Camdens, but has her own family and is not living there. The dark haired boy is a neighbor whose dad is a marine fighting in Iraq. He spends a lot of time with the Camdens too and may move in while his aunt, who he lives with, is off in NYC starting a business. The blond boy, Peter, is number 3 daughter Ruthie's boyfriend. He spends a lot of time with the Camdens and lives with his divorced Mom, who has been dating Chandler, the church's associate pastor, who entered the show when Eric Camden was recovering from open heart surgery. And the obnoxious guy with the crewcut is Peter's dad who after many years away wants to re-enter his son's life. Whew!

Harsh!

I wasn't a big fan of all the new faces at the start of the season. but I've really enjoyed this season and all the people really give them new avenue's for stories.

The Camden's, like real families, get boring if you see them and only them for 8 years.

You want some inside skinny about this show? the crew and directors were canned and they moved on to other projects. A majority went to J.A.G. for the most part, this show has ran it's course and should be put out of it's misery.