The Diamond Ring

The Diamond Ring is the eighth episode of the fifth season of The Real McCoys, and the only Christmas episode of the show's six-season run. Broadcast from 1957 to 1963 (ABC for 5 Seasons, CBS for the final), the program had a similar (though much less comedic) premise to The Beverly Hillbillies, seeing a family of dirt farmers from West Virginia experience and give culture shock when moving to California's San Fernando Valley, in those times still a more rural location.

In this episode, main protagonist Big Luke McCoy (called Big because his parents named a much younger brother the same) decides to buy his wife Kate a diamond ring that is likely out of his price range as a Christmas gift. Making matters even more difficult, an illness Kate has been concealing forces her into the hospital, where she fears she will ruin Christmas for the family. Little Luke and Granpa, the clan's scheming patriarch, try their best to learn what Kate has bought them for the holiday.