America shared tears with one of its favorite "Angels" on Friday.
Farrah Fawcett's two-hour documentary about her battle with cancer, "Farrah's Story," aired on NBC and brought an estimated 8.9 million viewers into the room with the former "Charlie's Angels" star.
"I feel like Alice in Wonderland, really," Fawcett, 62, said early on in the film. "Everything is surreal."
Fawcett, now bed-ridden and bald, has battled anal cancer for two and a half years. The disease has spread to her liver and she is nearing her final days.
"Farrah's Story" follows the actress as she shuttles from Los Angeles to Germany for treatment as the disease takes it course.
"You wouldn't stop until you got my hair," Fawcett tells her doctor after trying to put off losing her iconic locks as long as possible.
Through it all, long-time partner Ryan O'Neal is by her side.
"I will never love anyone like I love Farrah," O'Neal says in the film.
Initial reviews called "Farrah's Story" hard-hitting to say the least.
"A life that once looked charmed, suddenly, feels cursed," wrote Joanna Weiss for the Boston Globe. "The film offers a view of cancer as a grim roller-coaster ride. Good news brings euphoria, but bad news comes again."
EW.com said: "Anyone who has experience or been in contact with someone diagnosed with cancer knows the outline of Farrah's 'Story': the doctor consultations and hospital visits, the often-painful treatments, the moments of happiness and despair."
Not all reviews were positive.
New York Times reviewer Allesandra Stanley wrote that while the portrait was indeed "harrowing," it was also "packaged as a generic VH1 'behind the music' biography."
But according to preliminary ratings released Saturday, the film was NBC's most watched Friday night program in more than a year, excluding the Olympics, the AP reported.
O'Neal has said he's never loved her more and wants to wed the cancer-stricken star.
"I'd do that, I would do that," he said. "She's still a little bit hesitant. I'm working though, I'm working."
