In March 1977, Eight Is Enough made its debut on ABC. The comedy-drama series, based on the familylife of syndicated newspaper columnist Tom Braden, starred Dick Van Patten as patriarch Tom Bradford, Diana Hyland as his wife, Joan, and Grant Goodeve, Lani O’Grady, Laurie Walters, Susan Richardson, Dianne Kay, Connie Newton, Willie Aames, and Adam Rich as their eight kids.
But the series took an unexpectedly sad turn when Hyland was diagnosed with breast cancer and died just as the show began to air. The late actress was only able to film a few episodes before her death on March 27, 1977, at age 41. The Bradford matriarch's death was written into the script, but not directly addressed until Season 2.
Eight is Enough featured its first Christmas episode in late 1977—and it was a tearjerker. The two-parter, titled “Yes Nicholas, There is a Santa Claus,” aired on Dec. 14, 1977, just nine months after Hyland's unexpected death.
In the script, Tommy Bradford (Aames) finds a present that his late mother had wrapped and hidden for him. In an emotional scene, Van Patten’s character reads the inscription in the book, which is an EE. Cummings poetry collection.
“My dearest Tommy,” the inscription reads. “It is not unmanly to be sensitive. Be happy that you are. It makes you even more than a man. It makes you a human being. Merry Christmas. I love you.”
Van Patten and Aames both broke down in tears during the scene, as did the other cast members as they gathered for a group hug.
View this post on InstagramIn comments to an Instagram clip of the scene, many fans note that it was clear that the Eight is Enough actors weren’t acting at all in the deeply emotional scene.
“I don't know about you guys, but it doesn't really look like most of those actors are acting. Those look like real tears, red nose, labored breathing,” one fan wrote.
“I remember watching this episode when it aired. So sad. ? Loved Eight is Enough. ❤️,” another wrote.
“Even as a kid, this scene killed me,” a third recalled.
“I watch this every year!?????I cry every single time! ?,” another commenter added.
Aames once addressed the Eight is Enough Christmas episode, noting that it was one of the highest-rated in the series' five-season run. Speaking with Media from the Heart in 2016, Aames said, “We were one of the first examples of what they would eventually call a ‘dramedy’ on television where we approached realistic issues."
"We did a Christmas show, which has been mimicked several times, where I find my dead mother’s present that she’s hidden for me," Aames continued. "And that show actually received a fifty-one share, and that’s huge. If a show gets a thirteen share these days, it’s a qualified hit. Which basically means that fifty-one of the households were watching that particular show. And it happened to be my show. I was definitely known on Eight is Enough for drama.”
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
After Hyland’s death, Van Patten’s Tom Bradford married Abby (Betty Buckley), and the show was able to continue on. But Hyland was never forgotten.
“She was great,” Van Patten said in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “After the eighth show she died, and I thought that would be the end of the series, but instead they wrote it into the script that I become a widower and then….I marry Betty Buckley.”
Van Patten added that the Eight is Enough cast members did not know that Hyland was sick until the very end.
“No, we did not, we did not, no, absolutely not,” the actor said. "I was with her when she died. I was with [her boyfriend href=" parade.com/968403/parade/questions-to-ask-a-guy/"] John Travolta, the two of us were sitting by her bedside, and we were the last two people with her. And then I said to John, I said, ‘We should get a priest.’ He was so upset he wasn't thinking straight…I said I'll get a priest, and I called up a friend of mine, a priest, and he came over and gave her the last rites.”
“I thought they were going to cancel it,” Van Patten added of Eight is Enough. “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.’”
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