A Year in the Life is a 1986 Emmy Award"winning miniseries and a one-hour dramatic series that ran on NBC during the 1987"1988 television season, created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey (whose long partnership also produced the television shows St. Elsewhere, Northern Exposure and I'll Fly Away).
The series began as a three-part miniseries which was first broadcast in December 1986. As suggested by the title, the miniseries followed the various members of the Gardner family of Seattle during the course of one year. The major event of that year was the sudden and unexpected death of wife and mother Ruth Gardner (Eva Marie Saint).