Hyland tragically died of breast cancer on March 27, 1977, after filming just four episodes of Eight Is Enough. At the time, an obituary in The New York Times announced, “Diana Hyland, who played a mother of eight in the ABC‐TV series Eight Is Enough, died yesterday at her home here. She was 41 years old. Miss Hyland, who had been briefly ill, had also appeared in Peyton Place and Young Dr. Malone on television.”
“Turnabout” was originally scheduled to air on March 29, two days after Hyland’s death, but it was replaced with another episode that didn’t include the late actress.
The cast didn’t know Hyland was sick
“I remember the day that the first day of work, when Diana came in she said, ‘Oh Dickie, I'm so glad I got this job, I love it. I'm so happy,’” the actor recalled. “And she was so happy that she got that job, and then it ended.”
Original 'Eight is Enough' cast members. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)Photo by ABC Photo Archives on Getty Images
Hyland’s then-boyfriend, John Travolta, later told People magazine that her illness progressed rapidly. “She didn’t know she was going to die for sure until two weeks before,” the actor shared.
‘Eight Is Enough’ continued without Diana Hyland
Following Hyland’s unexpected death, Van Patten admitted that he expected Eight Is Enough to be canceled. “[After she died], I thought that would be the end of the series, but instead they wrote it into the script that I become a widower,” the actor told the Television Academy. “I thought they were going to cancel it. I mean, I remember everybody thought well, I guess this is the end, but [show creator] Bill Blinn said, ‘No, nothing doing, I'll write it right into it.’”
After airing just nine episodes in Season 1, Eight Is Enough returned in September 1977 with the Season 2 premiere, “Is There a Doctor in the House? In the episode, it was revealed that Joan Bradford had died about a year earlier.
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