5 Divinely Fun Facts About ‘Highway to Heaven’ to Celebrate the 40th Anniversary
On Sept. 19, 1984, network television got a little more angelic with the debut of Michael Landon‘s post-Little House on the Prairie project, Highway to Heaven.
Landon portrayed a man named Jonathan Smith, a “probationary angel” who had died 40 years earlier, and now traveled the Earth helping strangers (often with help from “The Boss”) in order to secure his spot in heaven. Victor French, who played Isaiah Edwards on Little House, portrayed Mark Gordon, a cynical ex-cop who agrees to join Jonathan on his mission. Together, they aided those in need, who were often young children, those with illnesses, or people who were otherwise struggling.
A do-gooder spin on adventure-of-the-week shows like The Incredible Hulk, Highway to Heaven was not a runaway hit on the level of Landon’s previous series, but it got solid ratings, ranking within the top 25 shows on TV for its first three seasons.
How did Landon decide to make the leap from Western settler to hitchhiking angel?
1. The Show Was Michael Landon’s First Non-Western Series
Despite the fact that Landon began his TV career in 1955 — 29 years before the debut of Highway — the show was his first starring role on a show that was not a Western, and took place in the present day. Landon had long runs on two Western shows — Bonanza, which ran from 1959 to 1973, and Little House on the Prairie, which ran from 1974 to 1983 — but even his early career TV performances were primarily as a guest star on Western shows like Tales of Wells Fargo or The Rifleman.
2. It Was Inspired By Getting Stuck In Traffic
NBC/Courtesy: Everett Collection
In a 1988 interview with the L.A. Times, Landon explained the origins of the show — and, surprisingly, they involved rude road behavior in Los Angeles. “I was driving through Beverly Hills to pick up my kids on a Friday night,” Landon told the paper, “and people were honking at each other. There is no worse place for that than Beverly Hills; I think when people have a little bit more money, they really believe that the Red Sea will part and their car will go forward. And I thought, ‘Why is everybody so angry? If they would just spend that same time being nice … it’s obvious the flow of traffic is going to go much better if everybody has his opportunity.’”
From that moment, Landon was inspired to create a show about the fact that “man really has an opportunity to be quite wonderful.”
3. Network Executives Were Not Easily Sold On The Idea
NBC/Courtesy: Everett Collection
Though Landon was the star of two extremely successful TV shows, and had been one of the major creative forces behind Little House, NBC executives were not immediately sold on the concept of Highway to Heaven. Landon’s pitch was that the show would fill a rarely fulfilled need: “There are an awful lot of people out there who are trying to make people laugh; there are very few shows that can, on a regular basis, give the audience a good cry,” Landon said in his pitch. “I know I can do that — and if I do it well, [the audience] will be back.”
Brandon Tartikoff, then-president of NBC, recalled “I said, ‘The critics are going to have a field day with this!’” “I think they really felt it was just something I had to get out of my system,” Landon told the L.A. Times. The network was also not sold on having French as Landon’s character’s right-hand man — they wanted a younger and more commercial actor.
But the show was produced anyway, with French in the costarring role — and, perhaps to the network’s surprise, was a ratings hit.
4. An Episode Paid Tribute to Landon’s Werewolf Past
The fourth season Halloween episode, “I Was a Middle-Aged Werewolf,” included an homage to Landon’s first major hit — 1957’s I Was a Teenage Werewolf, where Landon played the titular adolescent beast. Though the episode’s plot involved a very wholesome mission to help a child get over his fear of monsters, clips of the older film are shown throughout the episode (Mark remarks that the film’s lead looks like Landon). Landon eventually dons the wolfman makeup, first to teach a lesson to some mean tweens, and then in a slightly eerie dream sequence. To promote the episode, Landon appeared on Entertainment Tonight in the makeup, giving a completely straight interview while covered in face paint and fur.
5. The Final Season Didn’t Have A Regular Time Slot
Curt Gunther/TV Guide/NBC/courtesy Everett Collection
Highway‘s ratings dropped in the fourth season — it was the No. 38 show in the country, while the previous season, it had been No. 24. In summer 1988, the decision was made that the show’s fifth season would be its last; but after airing the season premiere, the series was pulled from the network’s schedule, and instead of having a regular weekly slot, was aired periodically. Because of this, the show’s Christmas-themed episode was aired in August.
However, even if the show had been renewed for another season, shooting more episodes would have been impossible — Victor French was diagnosed with lung cancer in March 1989 and died the following June.
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Hollywood Heaven
April 2021
Take the high road to Hollywood Heaven with feel-good TV shows, movies, music and more!
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