The Bradford Family Curse

Eight Is Enough ran from 1977 to 1981. Patriarch Tom Bradford was played by Dick Van Patten, one of the wussiest and whiniest father figures ever to grace a TV screen. He and his first wife, Joan (Diana Hyland), had 8 kids -- David, Mary, Susan, Joanie, Nancy, Tommy, Elizabeth and Nicholas. After Joan's death, Tom remarried Abby, played by Broadway great Betty Buckley.

The real lives of some of the castmembers was far, far more dramatic than anything we saw on the small screen.

DIANA HYLAND: Joan Bradford. After shooting the first 9 episodes, she died of breast cancer. She was just 41 and left behind a young son and her lover, John Travolta. On her behalf he accepted the posthumous Emmy Award she won for playing his mother in Boy in Plastic Bubble.

LANI O'GRADY: Mary Bradford. The sister of Don Grady ("Robbie" on My Three Sons), Lani came from a showbiz family. Yet working before the cameras was stressful for her, resulting in debilitating panic attacks. She required prescription meds for the wherewithal to leave her trailer and perform. Eventually she became addicted to the pills, and liquor, too. After multiple stints in rehab she gave up acting and worked as a recovery counselor. Tragically, she suffered a relapse and in 1998 she checked herself into the mental health ward of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for detox. While there, she was sexually assaulted by a medical technician and sued the hospital. She died in 2001 at the age of 47.

SUSAN RICHARDSON: Susan Bradford. She really didn't act much after Eight Is Enough was cancelled because ... um ... people thought she was nuts and wouldn't hire her. Most notably she claimed that Korean film makers kidnapped her, cut off all her hair, and forced her to appear in their movie. Then in 1999, she suffered a nervous breakdown, was hospitalized and place on suicide watch. Not long after her release she moved to Pennsylvania, where she got a job at a nursing home.

WILLIE AAMES: Tommy Bradford. After the show was cancelled, he fell victim to cocaine and booze. He blames his addictions, as well as sexual abuse as a very young boy, for his suicide attempts. Upon completing a 12 step program, he found religion, turned his life around and launched a second career as Bible Man, starring in a series of Christian videos for kids.

ADAM RICH: Nicholas Bradford. Buckle your seatbelts, for this is the roughest ride of all. After the show ended, he went back to school but promptly dropped out. Then, over a 20 year span, he was arrested for drugs, DUI, breaking and entering, and shoplifting. In the early 1990s, he broke into a pharmacy in an attempt to get drugs. He called Dick Van Patten to come bail him out, and Adam's friends were hopeful that he had turned a corner. No such luck. He was arrested again 2002 for drunk driving (he just missed hitting a police car).

Just writing this made me want to take a nap. I'm sooooo glad to be just an average ol' gal!