34 Years Ago, Michael Landon Made His Heartbreaking Final TV Appearance
As the star of Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie, Michael Landon had performed plenty acts of TV bravery over the course of his career. But on May 9, 1991, he performed a real-life one, appearing as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson mere weeks after he went public with his diagnosis of inoperable pancreatic cancer. Though visibly weak, Landon was in high spirits, and did more than just stay positive throughout the interview — he and friend Carson reminisced raucously about old times, and addressed Landon’s health with gleeful (and often pitch-black) humor. Landon would pass away less than two months later, on July 1, 1991, making it his final TV appearance — and one of his most unforgettable.
How Michael Landon went public with his diagnosis
After experiencing stomach pains while on a family vacation in early 1991, Landon went to the doctor, and was soon diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. He pursued one round of chemotherapy and some holistic treatments, but the cancer doubled in size and spread to other organs within the month.
On April 8, Landon held a press conference at his Malibu ranch to announce his diagnosis — he wanted to get ahead of the tabloids, which were already publishing articles speculating on his health. Though the topic was tragic, the conference was far from grim, with Landon cracking jokes with reporters. “I think you have to have a sense of humor about everything,” Landon reportedly said, according to Cancer Today. “I don’t find this particularly funny, but if you’re going to try to go on, if you’re going to try to beat something, you’re not going to do it standing in the corner.”
Less than a month later, Landon was on The Tonight Show.
Why did he decide to talk about his illness on The Tonight Show?
Landon was far from the first star to go public about an ongoing severe or fatal illness; Lou Gehrig, who spoke about his struggle with ALS in 1939, is widely believed to be the first celebrity to open up about a health struggle while they were in the midst of it. In the ’60s, John Wayne became an outspoken advocate for cancer screenings after his own battle with and recovery from lung cancer, and First Ladies Betty Ford and Nancy Reagan had both been treated for and spoken about their breast cancer struggles while in the White House.
However, Landon appeared on Carson’s show for the same reason he held his press conference — to tell his story the way he wanted it told, and cut off any tabloid rumors before they started.
In the interview, Landon enters and immediately begins making jokes with Carson and Ed McMahon, telling them that the paint used in their green room is made with arsenic, but “that’s not how I got sick.” The pair went on to tackle more dark humor, including tabloid rumors that Landon was trying to get his wife pregnant with a 10th child, a prank Landon had played on Carson several years earlier, and fan health suggestions that Landon do everything from have more sex to swim with a dolphin (“Here I am, going to all these hospitals — I only gotta go to MarineLand”). The pair also joke uproariously about Landon’s illness, with the actor telling the host that his preparation for the show included “two blood transfusions and I got my roots done!”
However, it wasn’t all jokes. Landon happily reported “I feel pretty darn good, actually,” and later towards the end of the interview, took a more somber turn, as he castigated tabloids that wrote headlines like “Four weeks left” about his health. “It’s unbelievable that people can be that way,” Landon marveled. “That’s the cancer in our society.”
Landon was also promoting his new pilot for a TV show called Us, about a man who’s releases from prison after 18 years behind the bars for a crime he didn’t commit.
“You know, I was a little worried about this interview tonight,” Carson said near the end of the interview. “But you’ve made me feel much better with your attitude.” Over 30 years later, many viewers still feel the same way.
Remind