Fridge brilliance kicks in when you realize that the writers were attempting to portray Lucy as growing up to be just like her mother... without quite realizing that a lot of viewers thought her mother was a terrible person.
Both Eric and Annie seem to have enough philosophical knowledge that they could help people through long speeches. While Eric's career as a minister justifies this, Annie's advice could be chalked up to being a minister's wife and having spent years observing her husband's counseling. However, consider this: Annie switched majors multiple times during college, and we're given a brief list of her attempted majors. One of them had to be psychology, which could explain why she acts like a surrogate psychologist most of the time.
It has always irritated me that the Camdens could pry into other people's lives without most of them batting an eye. However, then I realize a possible solution: the reason why people aren't irked by the Camden family's sneakiness is that they could be that the Camdens feel that it is their moral obligation to help as many people as they can before they go to the big guy in the sky.
This arguably explains why they're all such busybodies, but not why everyone else is fine with it.
The reason why Simon began a promiscuity streak in college was because of his upbringing. Because his parents constantly told him that unmarried Sex Is Evil, he had to repress all of his natural sexual urges and go with the flow. When he was finally given independence, he began as many sexual relationships as he could, so he could release all the pent-up sexual feelings he had inside of himself.
Towards the tail end of season 8, Lucy and Kevin were discussing starting a family. In an episode later in the season, Lucy and Kevin celebrate their first wedding anniversary, where Lucy refuses to drink champagne. Reason? She probably knew she was pregnant at the time, and sure enough, almost exactly nine months later in the season 9 episode "Paper or Plastic?", Lucy gives birth to the couple's daughter.
She had a good relationship with Kevin and the couple had discussed getting pregnant before (at the beginning of Season 8), so there is no reason why she wouldn't tell Kevin if she suspected being (let alone, knew being) pregnant. And Kevin clearly doesn't know anything about a pregnancy (assuming that Kevin knows pregnant women shouldn't drink alcohol...)
Or simply, it was just a coincidence.
Or maybe she just wasn't taking chances, since they were considering the possibility.
In the episode "X-mas" two young women are afraid that they don't know enough about the religious aspects of Christmas, and that the Camdens will realize this. Anybody who grew up in the United States could tell you that it is practically impossible to avoid the story of Christmas growing up, especially around Christmas time. Made even more ridiculous when one of the girls doesn't even know what a nativity scene is, and assumes that the people in it are begging for money.
The season four episode "Just You Wait and See" depicts Eric's sister Julie going into labor at the Camden house, with apparently no way to get to the hospital (both cars having been taken by Eric and Lucy, respectively), and the only person there being Annie. While Annie did call an ambulance, Julie ultimately gave birth in the house, with no ambulance present. The Fridge Logic kicks in when you wonder how long does it actually take to get an ambulance to the house. On average, an ambulance would arrive at the location within at least 20 minutes barring any unforeseen circumstances. But, it seemed like hours before Julie gave birth, which is calculated by the fact that Lucy went on a date to the movie theater at the same time, and since most films are about 90 minutes to over 2 hours long, it really makes you think how terrible the Glenoak ambulance services seem to be (it would be understandable in a large city like Los Angeles, but not in a small town like Glenoak). However, at the same time, Annie could've asked a neighbor to drive her and Julie to the hospital, and while it was nighttime, it was still seemed early enough to ask someone to help (I mean, there aren't many people who would refuse to help a pregnant woman in labor, even if it was nighttime). Avoiding the whole "stranger danger" thing, many people in the Camdens' neighborhood know them as good, honest people, and wouldn't turn away Annie in this time of need.
The episode following the above episode features Mary's basketball coach chaining the gym doors and cancelling the season because the girls' grades dropped. Though I'm not entirely sure about basketball in general, I'm sure that wouldn't be legal, since it seems that the girls are meeting the required minimum GPA and most of them seem to be okay people. Also, locking the gym doors doesn't really make sense because more than just the girls' basketball team are going to use the gym.
The season five episode "Crazy" involves Matt having to take a psychological evaluation in order to be deemed fit for medicine. He ended up going to the psychiatrist's office at the hospital and met Doc, whom he believed was the psychiatrist. When Doc does give some savory advice to Matt about the evaluation, we learn from Eric that Doc was actually a patient at the hospital. The logic here would be are psychiatrist's offices left open when they are not there, long enough for a patient to enter the room and have what seems to be an hour-long talk with someone that the psychiatrist was supposed to be meeting? In Real Life, the hospital would check on their patients regularly, and if Doc wasn't a checked-in patient, it's still very negligent for the psychiatrist to live their office unlocked for a patient to come in. While Doc was stated by Matt to be a friend of the psychiatrist, still leaving their office open to anyone is still a bad idea.
The season ten episode "And Baby Makes Three", Sandy gives birth to her and Martin's son, Aaron. In the episode, when Sandy goes into labor, she does go to the hospital, but the contractions are considered far apart enough for her to take a walk, which none of the characters, including Sandy and the nurse seem to object to (even though, Sandy came into the ER stating that her water broke). The Fridge Logic, in this case, comes before even you go to the fridge: what type of nurse would allow a nine-month pregnant woman in labor to go for a walk? At best, a negligence lawsuit against her. Predictably, Sandy goes into actual labor at a movie theater, and has to struggle to get to the hospital.
For women who are still in the early stages of labor, it's actually recommended to walk around in order to help with dilation to speed things along. Granted when a women's water breaks they are usually admitted and monitored immediately in order to prevent infection, but maybe the nurse didn't know Sandy actually left the hospital.
In general, when birth control (e.g. condoms or the pill) is brought up, all of them seem to inevitably fail, resulting in numerous women on the show becoming pregnant, including Annie. The only way could actually happen is if the factory making the products make them extremely cheap, and sell all of them to Glenoak.
Almost everyone on the show refers to Eric as "The reverend" as if there are no other churches in the town, which is definitely untrue considering the existence of Reverend Morgan Hamilton and the mentioned Reverend Huffington. So, does that mean that the latter two are no better than Eric, or does that mean that simply Eric's just that good of a preacher than the entirety of the town refers to him as the one and only reverend.
In the season 5 episode "One Hundred", the Camdens find a baby girl on their doorstep. The baby is quickly recognized as the daughter of Mary's ex-friends Johnny and Frankie. When Eric goes to Johnny's uncle's pizza shop to tell him, the man drops everything and quickly closes down the shop for the day to find the baby's parents, forcing every customer out of the restaurant. Huh? The man must have some other employees in his shop that could watch over while he's looking for them, and if he doesn't, that's not good. Otherwise, he and the employees would've just wasted a day of work.
There's never really a mention of Simon getting charged with anything after committing vehicular manslaughter. Nothing, not even a misdemeanor. Apparently because it was an accident, Simon gets off scot-free. According to California Penal Code 192(c), even a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter conviction is punishable by up to a year in county jail, and considering that Simon, then about 17, could be charged as an adult contrary to popular belief. However, he could've been put on probation and do community service hours, though this is never mentioned on the show.
Also, Michael Towler, who doesn't seem to get punished despite accidentally striking Mary with his car, and driving away from the scene of the crime.
Annie's former high school boyfriend Robin was an unbearable and patronizing Jerkass when she met up with him years later. Somehow, he's a successful psychologist despite his supposed "Brutal Honesty" when in actuality, he's insulting and condescending to everyone without much justification, and even calls his patients "losers". Most people are there to seek some help and to talk to someone, and his attitude is more detrimental to patients than helping, yet somehow he's successful!
