~ HIGHWAY to HEAVEN ~ ~ Technical Information ~ 
- Name:"Highway to Heaven"
- Aired Between: 19 September 1984 – 1989
- Number of episodes: 111 eps. ( 5 seasons )
- Genre: Drama | Family | Fantasy
- Directed by: Michael Landon - Kevin Inch - Victor French - William F. Claxton and Dan Gordon.
Language: English Also Known As: Camino al cielo / Autopista hacia el Cielo Filming Locations: Big Sky Ranch - 4927 Bennett Road, Simi Valley, California, USA
Production Co: Michael Landon Productions, National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
- Sound Mix: Stereo
- Color: Color
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1
- Victor French's final TV series. It has often been written that Michael Landon decided to end the series after French died of lung cancer. However, in actual fact it had already been agreed in June 1988 that the series would end because it was falling in the ratings.
- Highway to Heaven was Micheal Landon's second pairing with Victor French (the two both starred on Little House on the Prairie). This show was about Jonathan Smith, an angel sent down by God, aka "The Boss," to partner up with ex-Oakland cop Mark Gordon. They would be assigned duties by the Boss in which they would help people see a better life, and sometimes help each other. The show ran for 5 years on NBC.Each episode began with clips of that episode. Then the sky would fill with a heavenly shot of clouds. The clouds would fade away, and the soothing theme music would begin to play, and the highway to heaven was open to all.The show ran for a seemingly short five seasons and is shown today in reruns on the Goodlife TV Network (Monday through Friday 1 p.m. EST and 7 p.m. EST) (Also, it will show on TVLand, every day at 8pm EST.
- First Telecast: September 19, 1984
- Last Telecast: August 4, 1989
Eugene Maurice Orowitz was born on October 31, 1936, in Forest Hills, New York. He was the second child of Eli Orowitz and Kathleen O' Neill. Their first child was Evelyn, who was born in 1933. His father was Jewish and his mother Irish Catholic. His mother was a popular comedienne and showgirl who worked in Broadway and changed her first name to Peggy. His father was a studio publicist and theater manager.
In 1941, the Orowitz family moved to Collingswood, in Southern New Jersey. When Eugene was going to Collingswood High, he participated and excelled in track and field, especially throwing the javelin, thus earning himself a scholarship to USC in Los Angeles. He graduated in 1954, and in the class of 301, he was the 299th student, but with a genius IQ of 159. His record javelin throw of just over 183 feet, was the highest measured in 1954, for a high school student in his senior year.
In 1955, when he was 19, his straight blonde hair was turning darker and extremely wavy, with a sprinkling of gray. It would get progressively grayer as the years went by. These same changes occurred with Evelyn's straight blonde hair a few years before, but she would lighten it with lemon juice and lay out in the sun. Eugene resembled his Jewish father's facial appearance, with no resemblance to his mother. His older sister looked more like her then he did.
Having moved to Los Angeles in February 1955, he enrolled at USC. His fellow teamates were jealous of him and that long hair. One day on the field, they pinned him down and cut it off. This would mark the end of his stay at USC. He honestly believed growing his hair longer would physically make him stronger, after he saw the 1949 film "Samson and Delilah", with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. Although he really didn't grow his hair out very long until some thirteen years later, it apparently had some kind of strengthening on his physical condition for a little guy.
Now depressed and emotionally hurt, he went back to the field one day and was throwing the javelin and tossed it so many times, he tore an elbow ligament in his left arm. He lost interest and dropped out of USC. The damage to his left elbow healed up some weeks later. He took a number of odd jobs, and one day while working at a warehouse, one of his co-workers who was a budding actor, invited him to an audition, so he could play opposite him in a scene in "Home of the Brave."
The year was 1956 and Eugene was hoping to be discovered, he took a job pumping gas across the street from Warner Brothers Studio. One of the studio's talent scouts spotted him in true Hollywood fashion. He joined the studio's acting class the next day and attended for months. In his spare time, he worked as a salesman selling blankets door-to-door. It was an invaluable experience because it taught him to communicate with all kinds of people.
It was during that time in 1956, that he met Dodie Levy-Fraser, a 26-year-old widow with a seven-year-old son, Mark. She was a legal secretary and widow. Her husband had been killed in an automobile accident some years before. He was drawn to her warmth, motherly instincts, her ability to nurture without being controlling, and he liked the way she treated her son. They married in December 1956. His parents did not attend the wedding ceremony. After that, Eugene distanced himself from his mother, and after the death of his father in 1958, he saw his mother less than half-a-dozen times just prior to her death in 1981.
Although he had been slowly making his way into motion pictures, appearing in live TV dramas such as "Playhouse 90" and "Studio One,' and in forgettable "B" movies, life continued to be a struggle. Dodie's paycheck as a legal secretary was the breadwinner of the family and Eugene worked odd jobs and auditioned for roles he thought he might have a chance at winning. He even took to the stage, garnering an impressive review for his work in a West Coast production of "Tea and Sympathy."
By this time he had changed his name. Eugene Orowitz was hardly marquee material in the Hollywood. He went looking through the telephone book and chose the name Michael Lane. However, there was already an actor enrolled in Screen Actor's Guild by this name. So, he went back in the telephone book and saw the name Alf Landon listed. The name Michael Landon was born.
His career begun to gain momentum. He had a small role in the film "God's Little Acre" and then he landed his first starring role. Having spent 2 years waiting for a break, Michael failed to recognize it when it finally arrived. No one would have suspected a low-budget horror film filmed entitled "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" would be the vehicle to offer any real success, but it was. Produced by Herman Cohen, the 1957 film became an overnight sensation and remains a cult classic today.
He accepted the role because he needed the money, and because the lead role in any film could only help his career. Werewolf earned him instant fame and marked the first giant step in an acting career that ultimately would make him a multimillionaire and major TV star. The following year, in 1958, Michael landed small roles in films such as "High School Confidential," "God's Little Acre" and "Maracaibo". He also had the lead in "The Legend of Tom Dooley," a low-budget Western film. On the second day of shooting, while doing script rehearsals, he received a frantic phone call from Dodie. His father had died of a fatal heart attack.
After Eli's humiliating experience at Paramount, where he couldn't even get past the gates, witnessed by his son, he knew his days a publicist were over. Eli settled for the only job he could get, as the manager of a movie house on Vermont Avenue in the Los Feliz area of Hollywood. Eli had his lunch everyday at approximately the same time and at the same restaurant adjacent to the movie house he managed. He was a creature of habit.
"I'll try your soup of the day," he'd always say. Then, once it was served, he'd take a sip and say, "That's very good." One day, according to Michael, his father sipped the soup, said "That's very good," and dropped dead of a heart attack. "I hope that's the way I go," Michael told his listeners. "Fast, no pain, no suffering. Just the blink of an eye, like my dad. He never knew what hit him."
Eli's fatal heart attack was the first time Michael experienced the death of a loved one, and although he knew his father wasn't in good health, it was still a shock. Although his mother and sister were living in Los Angeles, the responsibility of the details of his father's burial fell on Michael. He was grateful he had become close to Eli the year just prior to his death.
Still stunned by his father's death, he returned to finishing "The Legend of Tom Dooley," a film he termed "one of the most disastrous jobs" he ever worked on.
The first mishap was when he went to cut a rope with a scout knife and accidentally stabbed himself in the face. He was also shot at close range by a gun with blanks and later broke his foot. He went to a Jewish physician by the name of Dr. Edelstein, who performed plastic surgery in three layers on the left lower cheek, without any scarring. Few weeks later he went to a party and some of the young actors were disappointed he wasn't disfigured and didn't wind up looking like Frankenstein. He said, "They were really depressed I wasn't ruined."
In March of 1959, producer David Dortort was looking for a handsome, young, virile actor to portray the youngest son of Ben Cartwright in an hour-long color television series he was creating for NBC. The show was called "Bonanza". Michael had worked with David Dortort in his first TV-series "The Restless Gun," in the pilot episode, entitled "Duel at Lockwood" in 1957. Dortort made the mistake of killing off his character, and Michael could never get a regular lead role in a TV series until "Bonanza" came his way.
Michael Landon had become financially secure with "Bonanza" and had a steady job. For Michael, the role of Little Joe would prove to be a hearty fourteen year gallop from rags to riches. "When it ended it was painful for everybody," Michael would confess, "it really was."
Set during the Civil War years, "Bonanza" starred Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright, the patriarchal owner of the Ponderosa, a 1,000-square-mile ranch nestled on the shore of Lake Tahoe, with nearby Virginia City, Nevada. His sons were played by Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, and of course, Michael. In what turned out to be perfect casting, Pernell Roberts landed the role of the eldest son, Adam. Dan Blocker portrayed Hoss, a kindly, gentle bear of a man, with a simple mind and sunny disposition. And Michael played Little Joe, the youngest, most handsome, and impetuous of Pa's three boys.
Little Joe was the most beloved, by the audience and the heart and soul of "Bonanza". He was regularly involved in pranks and ever more frequently falling madly in love! He was looked on by his father and brothers with affection, and was usually at the center of the most humorous episodes. After the first few years, when the series became successful, Michael had surgery performed on his ears that would stick out in his earlier career films and also would begin to financially aid his estranged mother and sister.
His marriage to Dodie was not doing well and in early 1960, he met 26-year-old Marjorie Lynn Noe, a model instructor who would work in live television in between modeling assignments. He would see her again on the "Bonanza" set before the first season wrapped and it was by accident. The casting director hired Lynn, thinking she was a movie extra, when she was a TV extra. They fell in love and secretly dated in 1960. Lynn was a divorcee with a young daughter, Cheryl, from her first marriage that lasted from 1953 to 1957. After her first marriage ended, she was out in Hollywood dating men around town.
Michael and Dodie decided to adopt a second son, an infant named Josh in 1960. However, their marriage was failing and Michael was dating Lynn, who at one point married a Hollywood garment salesman named Manny Baire to make Michael jealous and leave Dodie for her. He was young and confessed to Dodie he was with another young woman and summoned the courage to ask her for a divorce. In the midst of this fiasco, they had adopted a third child named James and then decided under the circumstances to return him to the adoption agency.
When Michael was still married to Dodie and seeing Lynn, she got pregnant and their first daughter, Leslie Ann was born on October 10, 1962. The year of Leslie's birth was changed to 1963 in some publications, since there was a scandal brewing. This would fool the public into believing Leslie was born after Michael and Lynn married in 1963. Sometime after the initial wedding in Mexico, Michael and Lynn were officially married in Reno, Nevada. Dan Blocker served as Michael's best man at the wedding.
Michael's divorce with Dodie was final in December 1962. He and Lynn eloped to Juarez, Mexico and they were married on January 12, 1963. The justice of the peace barely spoke english and the ceremony was like a comic gem.
On June 20, 1964, Lynn gave birth to their first son, Michael Graham. When they tried for another child, Lynn suffered a miscarriage and Michael got a vasectomy until they had their third child, Shawna Leigh in 1971 and later Christopher Beau in February 1975, a few years after the series had ended. Michael wanted to legally adopt Lynn's first daughter, Cheryl Pontrelli, but her biological father wouldn't allow it.
Michael bonded with his co-stars Lorne Greene and Dan Blocker. They just drifted together and became this real-life family of their own, while portraying the Cartwright family on "Bonanza". The eldest son, Adam, played by Pernell Roberts was unhappy with his career on the series and after six years left the show, feeling the show was beneath his dignity. His TV father told him not to be a "damn fool" and stay another year, so he could make his million and then build his own theater so he could play all the stage roles he wanted. During the later years of the series, Joe matured into a fine young man. Although Joe was always happy to be his father's son, Michael was the one to grow in stature and maturity. In the early years of the series, producer David Dortort said of Michael's acting abilities, "The most highly intuitive set of natural acting responses I've ever seen in a young actor."
In the summer of 1962, during the start of the fourth season, a man named Kent McCray was assigned to the series as its new production manager. Kent had been working at NBC since 1951, as a live-unit production manager. In 1959, he served as associate producer for the MGM film "Alias Jesse James" and also served as the associate producer for the new NBC TV-series "Outlaws," from 1959 to 1962.
In the formative years of the series, the production ran out of scripts and was going to shut down. Michael was driving home that night and envisioned a story about the Cartwrights getting framed for robbery and murder. He wrote the story in longhand on yellow legal pads and titled it "The Gamble" in February 1962. Monday morning, he gave it to David Dortort and they broke it down for a teleplay, written by Frank Cleaver. It was a good story and garnered rave reviews. But Michael would not write another story for the next four years. In the 1966-67 season, he co-authored three teleplays for the episodes, "Ballad of the Ponderosa", "Joe Cartwright, Detective" and "The Wormwood Cup". It was early 1967 and the ninth season was fastly approaching, so Michael wrote his first complete script entitled, "It's a Lot of Bull". This was a comedy story for Dan Blocker, but NBC rejected it, because they stated in a memo, the Indians weren't supposed to be speaking English. This infuriated Landon to no end. Subsequently, he co-authored "Six Black Horses" for the 1967-68 season. It was telecast on November 26th of that year.
By December of 1967, he had written his second complete story entitled, "A Dream to Dream", with guest stars Julie Harris and Steve Ihnat. The 6-day shoot was helmed by veteran director William F. Claxton. They wrapped the filming of the episode a few days before Christmas arrived. For the New Year of 1968, Michael Landon decided that he wanted to direct.
After hounding producer David Dortort for a few weeks, he allowed Michael to direct his second written script, entitled "To Die in Darkness," made in February 1968. By May of 1968, he had written his third script, "Kingdom of Fear," directed by Joe Pevney, made the following month, but was voluntarily delayed by NBC, due to governmental concerns involving the assassination of Robert Kennedy on June 5th, 1968 and later aired in 1971.
In the 1968-1969 season, Michael was directing "The Wish," which he also wrote. Now a mature 32, wearing boots, blue jeans, a sweater and a solid gold chain with an odd-shaped Egyptian medallion that stands for enduring life, loosely around his neck. "Bonanza" production manager Kent McCray says: "Ten years have changed Mike. He's mature. He gives more of himself. The kid's okay."
Michael Landon presented great pride of authoring "The Wish," which guested black actor Ossie Davis and aired on March 9, 1969. In the story, Dan Blocker (Hoss) assists a neighboring black family but unwittingly becomes the fumbling and insensitive "liberal," in part the target of Landon's script.
Michael recalled, "Mainly, I wanted to get across the idea to whites just why black people are angry and frustrated and I wanted to help cool some of the backlash. One black writer saw the show and said to me. 'You've gotten so close to what it's like to be black, I could hardly believe it was written by a white man.' For me that was my Emmy."
The next year, he would write and direct the episodes "Dead Wrong" and "Decision at Los Robles" for the 1969-70 season. In the 1970-71 season he wrote and directed "The Love Child," "Terror at 2:00" and directed "The Stillness Within". During the 1971-72 season, he wrote and directed "Don't Cry, My Son," "The Younger Brother's Younger Brother" and "He Was Only Seven".
By the end of the 1971-72 season, the ratings came in and the show was out of the Top 10 and the death knell was close. The show was tired and everyone on the film crew, Michael and his co-star Lorne Greene knew it was winding down and its future was uncertain. Michael was also ready to move on, as he was the most talented star on the series. Everyone on the crew could tell. The sudden death of Dan Blocker was an unexpected blow for the show, when he died two weeks after gall bladder surgery, on May 13, 1972. His death occurred just 19 days before the production would start for the 1972-73 season.
The final season of "Bonanza" went into production in June 1972. Michael had envisioned a story he called "Forever" for his best friend Dan Blocker, to showcase his acting talents in, while the show was on hiatus earlier in 1972. His unexpected death in May made this impossible and Michael had to write the script for Joe in the role of the tragic bridegroom. David Dortort circled the wagons and brought back Candy, a rough and rowdy cowboy who was on the series in the 1967-70 seasons. Tim Matheson was Blocker's replacement, in a character named Griff King, who was an old friend of Candy. Lorne Greene, now 57-years-old and Michael at 35-years-old, continued with making the series, although very depressed over Dan Blocker's death.
But Michael did manage to showcase the final season by writing and directing "Forever," and then "The Sound of Sadness" and "The Hunter" in 1972. The Neilson ratings coincidentally came in on Michael's 36th birthday, October 31, at a disastrous No. 53 and the series was cancelled on November 3rd, by NBC-New York. The cast was given only two days notice on Monday, the 6th, they would stop filming on Wednesday, the 8th. The cast was stunned and Michael was disgusted with NBC, with producer David Dortort in tears.
Dortort wasn't able to announce the show's cancellation to the press. Michael was more than happy to do it. He was the "boss" of the three actors and was practically running the show in its last several years. He called NBC publicist Bill Kiley and told him to get to Warner studio for the press conference.
He and the other press agents arrived, but didn't know Mike had rigged himself in a stuntman harness. After he announced the show was cancelled, a shotgun blast blew him over the boxes and he disappeared from sight! If this was the way to mark the end of a television Western, it sure was an unforgettable one!
David Dortort was stunned upon hearing Michael's meeting with the press. Some days before the show was cancelled, Michael had signed a new contract at NBC as executive producer for new and future TV projects. This way he'd have total control and wouldn't have any network interference and insensitivity befall him.
"The Hunter" was the final episode chosen to air on January 16, 1973. The series had wrapped production the month before in December 1972. Michael directed a total of 14 episodes from 1967-72. He co-wrote "The Gamble" in 1962 and co-wrote 4 more episodes in the 1966-67 season, a total of 5 co-writes. In the 1967-72 seasons, he fully wrote 16 episodes, for a grand total of 21 written stories on the series. By the end of the series' run, Michael's hair was much grayer and longer than in past years. He began dying his hair when he was 19, on and off over the years, and by 1968, grew it long. He stopped dying it in 1969 and let it go natural. By 1973, it would turn all silver in color with white roots.
Michael's first post-"Bonanza" project was in April of 1973, which reunited him with actress Bonnie Bedelia for the new NBC drama-romance series "Love Story". He wrote and directed the pilot episode "Love Came Laughing" later broadcast on October 3, 1973. She played Alice Hartman in the pilot episode. Bonnie had worked with Michael the year before on "Bonanza" when she was cast to play Alice Harper in "Forever". She had made her initial appearance in the 1969 episode entitled "The Unwanted" as Lorrie Mansfield.
In May of 1973, his eldest daughter, Cheryl was involved in a serious car accident while attending the University of Tucson. One night, without warning, a reckless driver crashed full force into the Volkswagen she and her three friends were in and everyone in the car except Cheryl were killed. They were struck at 80 miles-per-hour by the other driver and the vehicle flipped over and over until it landed and stopped.
Michael was notified of this and flew to Arizona and the doctors gave her up for good. She was in a coma and it was in the hands of God. Michael was with her at intensive care for days and made a pact with God while at her bedside.
The most important promise I ever made, was a promise to God and I made it while holding the hand of my step-daughter Cheryl, who was lying near-death in a hospital near Tuscon. She'd been in a terrible accident and her body was shattered. She was in a deep coma, and the doctors gave her no chance at all. But I wouldn't, I couldn't give up.
So I stayed with her in intensive care. Day after day, holding her hand, telling her that I loved her, that we all loved her. The nurses said it was useless, that she couldn't hear me. But I didn't listen.
When Cheryl finally woke up, she told me things I'd said to her. And I spoke to God. I promised God that if he would let her live, I would do something useful with my life, something to make the world a little better because I'd been there.
Cheryl lived and I've tried to keep that promise ever since. Michael Landon
Having taken most of 1973 off, later in November of that year, a man named Ed Friendly contacted him for a project that would be his biggest landmark achievement in television. Friendly had bought the rights to the series of books written by the beloved Laura Ingalls Wilder. It took him a few years to wade through the red tape, and now he was ready for a serious television series. Friendly and Michael were no strangers; they had lived down the street from one another in Encino and Ed was a close friend of actor Lorne Greene. In fact, Ed and Michael had dinner at Lorne's house quite a few times in the previous years before "Bonanza" was cancelled. Friendly had seen the 1969 "Bonanza" episode "The Wish" when it aired and was highly impressed with Michael's direction of the story.
His next project was to direct a television movie for NBC, entitled "It's Good to Be Alive" starring Paul Winfield and Lou Gossett, Jr. It was telecast on March 30th, 1974. It detailed the life of baseball player Roy Campanella. It aired on February 22, 1974. Michael also served as executive producer and director of another television movie entitled "The Jackie Robinson Story" aired on NBC in 1974, about the famous baseball star. Meanwhile, editing of the "Little House" pilot film had been completed at NBC as the premiere movie. They took it to a testing house where people could view it. It turned out to be the highest-tested and rated NBC Movie of the Week at the network. They gave the show the green light and ordered the first 13 episodes to start filming in June of 1974.
However, Landon and Friendly had a falling out, which was over the adaptation of the series for television. Michael was thrilled working on the pilot and Ed Friendly was highly impressed with it, but that wasn't the last word. Landon maintained the series would be too dark and depressing going by the books, and presented in this fashion it would be a turn-off to audiences at home. NBC agreed with Michael's instincts and backed him up. Friendly wanted to be executive producer of the series, but Michael already was. Friendly's name would be listed at the end titles as "An NBC Production, in association with Ed Friendly", for the entire run of the series. In the case of Michael winning the argument from Friendly, it was a matter of making the correct creative decision.
The series was an instant hit and audiences were thrilled to see Michael Landon now playing a mature man who was responsible, compassionate, sensitive, caring and the hard-working father and husband every week on television. "Little House" was filled with heartwarming adventures and life-affirming lessons, loosely based on Laura Ingalls Wilder, significantly altering the landscape of television. The series filming was done in two states, in California and Arizona, and local exteriors were filmed at Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, which had been used in "Bonanza's" later years, with other locales such as Bronson Canyon and Golden Oak Ranch in California.
Stages 31 and 32 at Paramount Studios were rented by the production for the soundstage interiors for "Little House." A & R Livestock was selected for rental of the horses, livestock, and other equipment for whole run of the series. In the conception of the series, Michael hired his friend and character actor, Victor French for the role of Mr. Edwards. They met in the late 60s, while Victor was a guest star on "Bonanza." NBC wanted a recognized name for the role, but Landon insisted it be French and he won. French thought Landon wouldn't want him on the series, since he damn near stole the pilot episode from him, but Michael insisted Victor stay as a regular. It provided to be great luck for French's career, since for the past 15 years he was typecast as murderers, rapists and mob bosses in television and film.
In 1976, while on hiatus from the series Michael produced, wrote and directed "The Loneliest Runner" for NBC, a television movie which was based on his teenage youth as an athlete and bed-wetter. It aired December 29, 1976. Meantime, "Little House" was at the peak of it's formative years and Victor French quit because of a contract dispute with the network at the end of the 1976-77 season. He tried to talk Michael into getting him a raise, and should have known his mentor better. The two didn't speak after this for the next two years. French was replaced by football player Merlin Olsen at the start of the 1977-78 season, as newcomer Jonathan Garvey, who bore a likeness to the late Dan Blocker, who was Michael's best friend while he was on "Bonanza." In 1979, French and Landon talked the issue out and in less than 5 minutes, it was completely forgotten.
French would make his first return appearance in 1979's "The Return of Mr. Edwards", in a very dramatic, gripping storyline that deals with Edwards' being disabled in a logging accident and loses the will to live. The 1981 episode "Chicago", marks the next appearance of Mr. Edwards, as Charles is summoned to meet him in the city and the two must discover who killed his adopted son, John Junior, in a very sad and heartwrenching story.
While Michael was filming the city street segments for the "Chicago" episode at Fox Studios that summer, Pernell Roberts initially met him for the first time since he left "Bonanza" in 1965. True, he'd been on the Paramount lot after he left the horse opera, working as a guest star in "Mission: Impossible", but that was over 10 years in the past. The two exchanged bear hugs and talked over old times that week in the summer of 1981. Pernell Roberts said of Landon; "It was sure good to see the kid again."
Victor French once again returned as Mr. Edwards for the 1982 two-part episode "He Was Only Twelve", in which he accompanies Charles to find the men who shot his son James in the bank. Landon and French's acting together is totally professional and genuine. This is something that was missed in French's absence from "Little House" after he quit some years before. Not to mention, Michael gave Victor top billing and salary in these "return" appearances in "Little House". No other executive producer in Hollywood would do this for a returning actor, but Mike Landon was a generous and good man.
Since Merlin Olsen was a regular on the series, he couldn't bring Mr. Edwards back as a regular. By the end of 1981-1982 season the "Little House" cast were much older and were ready to move on, so Michael wrote them out after eight successful seasons and wrote in a new cast for the 1982-83 season re-titled "A New Beginning." He had also written out Merlin Olsen and gave him a series of his own entitled "Father Murphy" making it's fall premiere on November 3, 1981, about a makeshift family on the run, with Olsen as an outlaw turned priest. "Little House" was now serving as a sequel series, as it was the beginning of the end for Walnut Grove with Victor French finally returning as Mr. Edwards. Michael was still making "Father Murphy," the spin-off that starred his former "Little House" co-star and friend Merlin Olsen, along with Moses Gunn, since 1981. In the way of other projects, Michael made a semi-autobiographical motion picture that was entitled "Sam's Son". He wrote and directed the film and had brief cameos in it. The movie detailed the early days of his youth, that led to his high school years, filmed in late 1983. It starred Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson and Timothy Patrick Murphy. It premiered on August 17th, 1984, as the NBC Movie of the Week. He also made a motion picture entitled "Love is Forever," in 1982, with filmmaker Hal Bartlett, which was aired in NBC on April 3, 1983. Unlike his own projects, this movie co-starring Edward Woodward, Priscilla Presley and Moria Chen, was not exactly a good project at the time, and the worst came out in him.
The year 1981 was undoubtedly the worst year in his life since he departed from Collingswood some 27 years before. On March 15, 1981, his mother died. Michael and his seventy-one-year-old mother had been estranged for years, even though they were living in the same city, only miles apart. He felt no obligations to either his mother or his sister, Evelyn, both of whom had grown increasingly eccentric as the years rolled by.
His mother, Kathleen O' Neill, who had adopted the stage name Peggy in her career and his sister Evelyn, who adopted the studio name of Victoria King during a brief fling as an actress in the 50's, were sharing a small apartment in a run-down Los Angeles neighborhood area, along with Evelyn's teenage daughter, when they were robbed in August 1980. The tabloids got hold of the police report and begun their smear campaign against Michael, without ever examining the reasons for his behavior. Michael's mother was quoted with saying: "I don't know where he lives. I never bother him because he doesn't like me asking questions. He's quite secretive. He keeps me at a distance. I don't even have his phone number. Why should I? I'm not very important. I'm just his mother." Evelyn was quoted as having angrily said, "I never mention his name." It was true that his mother didn't have his telephone number.
It was true that as soon as either his mother or sister managed to somehow wrangle his number out of a friend, he would have it changed. He didn't want them calling him, haranguing him. He didn't want them to know where he lived for fear they would show up, uninvited, and cause a scene. The tabloids simply took the words of his mother and sister and printed them in a damning article. The truth was Michael had been financially assisting his mother and sister for years. It was even in his estate's will, with the stipulation, he wouldn't have to see them. When Peggy broke her hip in late 1980, he had paid for her hospitalization and, despite his own misgivings, had even gone to visit her at the hospital.
It was just a coincidence that his former "Bonanza" co-star Pernell Roberts was filming some segments at the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital for his "Trapper John" series and they met and talked over old times and his mother's predicament in 1980. He also unbegrudgingly paid Evelyn's medical bills in June 1981, when she suffered burns from an accident at home. But that was where his involvement with them ended. He was not going to spend time with them or incorporate them back into his life. Why should he? As far back as he could remember, his mother had caused him nothing but grief and aggravation. He had drawn a line through her name after his first marriage to Dodie, and he'd never erased it.
"When I was a kid, I loved her," he confided to a friend. "But when I grew up it was a different feeling. I felt sorry for her and I had to divorce myself from loving her because, otherwise, all that pain would have been transferred to me." It had taken him years to overcome the guilt he felt about having disavowed his mother and sister. Now he wanted absolutely nothing to do with either one of them. "I was afraid of her," and my oldest kids were terrified of her, because you never knew who she was going to be," Michael recalled several years after his mother's death. "She spoke with a lot of different accents, and she'd use them all in one conversation." The irony of all this was that my mother apparently was a wonderful person to people who didn't know her. I don't know how many times people have come up to me and said 'Your mother was the sweetest!'
"I don't know," he had sighed, "maybe she was to them. When they tell me that, though, all I can think of is the time she came after me with a knife and there I was in my jockey shorts, jumping fences in front of the neighbors, trying to escape." Although by his own design, they had been virtual strangers for years, the death of his mother filled Michael with a strange mixture of sadness and relief. It was the end of a chapter in his life, and the end of the family, be as it was. Despite everything that had transpired in the past, Michael felt a sense of loss. He realized that Peggy's death had left questions in his mind that would never be answered.
Less than two weeks after his mother's death, Michael was forced to deal with his sister, who suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be institutionalized. Michael had her transported to a private hospital and paid her expenses. Although the press attributed Evelyn's mental state to the death of her mother, chances are the real cause behind her collapse was due to having livedwith Peggy all those years. While making "Little House" in 1980, Michael fell in love with a younger woman through the camera on the set. He peered through the camera lens and he couldn't believe his eyes. He lingered for a second before zooming in for a closer look. That was the moment he fell in love again. Her name was Cindy Clerico, a 23-year-old makeup artist and stand-in for Melissa Sue Anderson and the other child stars in the series. No one would have guessed that first day on the set she'd soon be playing a permanent role in Michael's life.
"I began watching her through stronger and stronger lenses without her knowing it," says Michael. "It was as if I was just inches from her face--staring at her lips, looking into her eyes. And I thought, "What a fascinating woman. What a wonderful smile." Although the blonde beauty was just half his age--and he was a family man--she made him feel like a teenager again as they shared chewing gum and played pranks on each other. It was not long before their passion boiled over and they started openly kissing and cuddling on the set. His wife was the last to know.
His 19-year marriage to Lynn, with seven children, had been on the rocks for some time, but Michael was still wracked with guilt over his treachery. "But it became clear," he says, "no matter how painful it was for me and the kids, I had to be with Cindy. The more I saw her, the more I loved her." As a child, he'd encouraged his parents to stay together despite their unhappy marriage, but was not about to make the same mistake of his own life. "There's nothing worse than people who obviously should not be together." When he finally left Lynn for a younger woman, he was attacked for preaching his "Little House" series about wholesome family values while practicing the exact opposite.
Lynn confided in an interview, "Michael has made his choice and I think at this point it would be best for me and the children if he made his affair legal and married his girlfriend." Lynn invited the National Inquirer into the home for an "exclusive interview" less than a month after Michael filed for divorce. "I know that Hollywood is wrecked with littered marriages," she continued, "but I sincerely believed ours was different," she told the reporter. "Now it's another statistic. Life goes on, and the children and I will, too. I loved him very much. I've lost a lot. The children have lost out on having a father in the house. And I think Michael has lost a lot, too." She added, "We had everything. The Landon family was close, happy, and secure. We had it all, or so I thought. Our marriage was built on a foundation of trust. Or so I thought."
Unlike Dodie, twenty years before, Lynn was not amiable to the divorce. She was angry and she was bitter. She had been a devoted wife and mother to seven children, and she had been betrayed, callously for a younger woman. "I was too busy being the kind of wife Michael wanted me to be," Lynn later confided. As a result, I lost myself little by little. I made Michael my god."
Professionally, his relationship with Cindy was proving ruinous. Not only was he being lamblasted by the press, there were people at NBC who were questioning his ability to portray Charles Ingalls, happily married frontiersman and devoted father. Michael suffered an ever greater blow when Kodak announced it was removing him as its television spokesman since his image as a father at home was no longer positive and truthful.
"The relationship lasted 19 years," Michael would explain when interviewers inquired how a thrice-married man could portray such a saintly father on television. "I don't consider that a failed marriage. I don't think it was a disaster. We produced some terrific kids. We just didn't grow in the same direction. We became different people. We both changed."
"To stay with someone when you no longer have anything in common is the cruelest thing to do to a child. It's much better to divorce and have two parents happy. I don't know if Charles Ingalls would have stayed married to Caroline as long as he did, except that it was a long way to the next house in those days."
"I was not an aging lecher looking for a fresh young thing," he maintains. "You don't dissolve a relationship to go to bed with someone 20 years younger. You have to have major differences to stop a relationship, after as many years as I was married." He continued, "With a wife and seven children, there's always a problem. Lynn and I fought a lot, about jealousy, about my being tied up with my work. I'd go into depressed moods, and then I'd go around screaming at people at home and in the studio--and at everyone in sight. Banging down phones, swearing and yelling." He had added, "But I figure if you don't have these kind of problems, life would just come up with some other unpleasantries for you. Nobody's perfect. Not Charles Ingalls. Not Michael Landon."
Michael filed for the divorce on April 16, 1981 and it cost him $26 million and cited "irreconcilable differences" between he and his wife. Although he gave her his $3.5 million-dollar, 35-room Beverly Hills mansion, the bitter divorce was very painful for Lynn, who admitted on TV that Michael had become "my god." Michael and Cindy moved into a five-bedroom beach house in Malibu that he found far more relaxing than his palatial home in Beverly Hills. He said of his second wife, "Lynn is a very aristocratic woman while I'm basically the blue-collar worker," he said. "I like being in my shorts. I don't like maids in my house. You can't have a decent argument." No wonder 1981 and 1982 were the most disastrous years in his life that he persevered through. Michael's divorce with Lynn was final in December 1982.
The final season of 'Little House on the Prairie' concluded on March 21, 1983, with the episode "Hello and Goodbye", with the final season of 'Father Murphy' concluding on September 18, 1983, with the episode "The Matchmakers". Both series were now behind him and considered a landmark achievement in television. Sadly, "Father Murphy" was doomed against "60 Minutes" in its Sunday timeslot and coupled with Merlin Olsen's lack of acting skills, it was cancelled by the network. "Little House" had been telecast for 9 seasons, with a total of 203 episodes made, aired from September 11, 1974 to March 21, 1983. Aside from the 96 minute pilot, there were nine full-length episodes made and aired, along with eighteen 2-part episodes made and aired in the nine year run of the series. The show was nominated for 17 Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards.
Michael directed the pilot film and 89 episodes of "Little House", along with writing 50 episodes for the series. Victor French clocked in at directing 17 episodes, relieving the stress for Landon behind the camera, along with the other directors that Landon assigned to the series. The final 1982-83 season's production started up in June 1982, with filming completed in January 1983, with the final post-production in early February 1983.
On Valentine's Day, 1983, he married Cindy Clerico, his girlfriend since 1980, at his Malibu beachouse. He was 46-years-old and she was 26-years-old. Cindy was already two months pregnant with their first child, Jennifer. They took their honeymoon at the secluded, posh resort, La Samanna Hotel, on the island of Saint Martin in the French West Indies. When they came back to Los Angeles, they both had their first face lifts together, as a sign of their deep love for each other. Michael had to stay looking young for his audience, too.
In the spring of 1983, Michael and the crew were working on writing three "Little House" TV-movies that would wrap the series--and in an unusual way for the series to end. Three scripts were written and approved by NBC. They were "Look Back to Yesterday", "Bless All the Dear Children", and "The Last Farewell". The final film, "The Last Farewell" was written and directed by Michael Landon.
They were all filmed back-to-back in June and July of 1983. Post-production was from August through October 1983, with the network slotting them for airplay some months ahead. "Look Back to Yesterday" was aired on December 12, 1983, with Albert Ingalls contracting a rare and deadly blood disease. However, Albert survives the ordeal as Michael didn't believe in killing off good characters on his show. The silence of film explains it perfectly. Not to mention he and Matthew Laborteaux were very close, like father and son.
"Bless All the Dear Children" was the second television movie made and later aired on December 17, 1984. Laura and Almonzo's infant, Rose Wilder, is abducted by a woman, but all turns out well at the end of the story.
"The Last Farewell" was the third and final television movie made and later aired on February 6, 1984. In the climax, the townspeople blow up all the buildings in Walnut Grove, to keep greedy land developers from building on their land. Only the church and the Ingalls' homestead remained intact on the property. The final scene has white rabbits outside the house, that the Carter's children were raising in the story.
This is a strange way to end a successful series, since the people of Walnut Grove lived there, but Michael Landon had other thoughts on his mind. First, he didn't want the land razed and second, he aimed this defensive gesture at Hollywood. Simply put, no one in that town was going to remake his series while he was alive and well.
Michael brought his next project to NBC in the fall of 1983. Partly based on the film "It's a Wonderful Life," which was his favorite movie, he had an unused concept for this new series he presented to the network's Brandon Tartikoff. NBC had a terrible 1982-83 season with a total of nine newly made TV series cancelled and was at an all-time low. Michael titled his new series "Highway to Heaven" and Tartikoff gave it the go-ahead. He wrote the pilot script in 4 days and NBC approved it. Kent McCray did the site surveys in March and filming of the pilot encompassed the first 20 days in April of 1984. It would sell to NBC with no problems.
The premise is about a convicted angel Jonathan who comes to earth to make better in people's lives, along with Mark Gordon, an ex-cop who worked in Oakland, who he saves from ruin. NBC wanted a good-looking guy to play Mark Gordon and Landon said it's either Victor French or it's no one. As usual, he won. After the pilot was completed, it was sent to the network's testing facility, where several hundred viewers sample it. The response was incredible. The pilot had gone through the roof, in terms of viewer response. It had the distinction of being the highest-tested show of any NBC pilot before or since.
The pilot made its debut on Wednesday evening, September 19, 1984 at 8:00 PM, as the Movie of the Week on NBC, with convicted angel Jonathan Smith on probation from God, who in turn saves ex-cop Mark Gordon from ruin. Together, they would travel the highways for the next five seasons and make better of the lives of everyone they touched. This series emulated Michael's true and sincere beliefs in the American culture and even the rest of the world that people can make better in their lives in a socially self-destructive society that keeps getting worse. Michael also owned "Highway" outright. The series was attacked by religious zealots and the press, but Michael laughed at all of them-- and his fans had the last laugh with him those five years.
In August of 1985, while making "Highway to Heaven's" second season, Michael called his TV father Lorne Greene from their "Bonanza" days and asked him to guest-star on the series in the episode "The Smile in the Third Row". They had tried to do this ten years before in 1975 while Michael was making "Little House," but Landon could not let him have the part.
"Michael called me and said if we worked together, people would ask, 'Why doesn't he recognize his father?'" Greene reported. "He said he wants me to know he was thinking of me." He added, "When Michael started 'Highway to Heaven', I knew he would call me if the right thing came up and it did," said Greene. "He sent me this strange, different, and wonderful script. I read it and said, "Yeah, I think it's the right one. NBC advertised the November 20, 1985 telecast of the show: "A Bonanza of a Reunion!"
The majority of the "Highway To Heaven" crew was 90% of the same veterans who worked "Little House" and "Bonanza". Greene described the show as "old home week". Towards the end of the "Bonanza" days, Greene said of Landon: "No finer director exists in this business", and his opinion was unchanged in 1985. "Michael has a wonderful imagination and he knows how to touch people."
In May 1986, Michael hosted the Western segment of NBC's 60th Anniversary along with other segments hosted by Johnny Carson and Robert Conrad. Clips from the 1966 episode "Ride the Wind" were compiled with other TV Westerns that the network made and aired for the segment.
The announcement "Bonanza" fans had been waiting for since the summer of 1973 came in the summer of 1987: David Dortort had been writing a reunion movie to be syndicated on stations before the year's end. Rumors circulated Michael Landon would return to play Little Joe, but only in truth had Lorne Greene agreed to return to reprise the role of patriarch Ben Cartwright. Fate had other plans.
On August 19, 1987, Lorne Greene was admitted to Saint John's Hospital for abdominal hernia surgery and then was hospitalized again for prostate cancer in early September. Michael visited him several times and the day before his death on September 11, 1987. The next day was the twenty-eighth anniversary of "Bonanza". His other TV son Pernell Roberts also came to see him on his own visits to the hospital. He was deeply saddened and in tears at the loss of his friend.
According to the nurse on active duty at Saint John's Hospital at Santa Monica, during Michael's last visit, he had walked up to Lorne Greene's bedside, grasped the older man's right hand, with both of his, smiled, and said, "How ya' doin" Pa?" Although weakened from the cancer and obviously in pain, Lorne smiled and whispered "Okay."
The two had exchanged few words because it was difficult for Lorne to speak. So Michael stayed fifteen minutes without speaking. He just held Lorne's hand in his. Finally, he slowly got up and walked away. When he reached the doorway, he turned and looked at the older man halfway asleep in the bed. Then he strode quickly down the corridor. There were tears in his eyes.
Later after Lorne was gone, Michael recalled his visit. "He looked at me and slowly started to arm wrestle," he said, "just like we used to do in the old days on 'Bonanza'. He was Ben Cartwright to the end. He was ready to die without no complaints. I never stopped seeing him as my dad," he added. "Lorne was a solid pillar for both me and Dan Blocker. I'd known him for more than half my life and he'd been my father for fourteen years on 'Bonanza'. You don't just quit being a father and son. I'll always consider him my Pa."
Production of "Bonanza the Next Generation" started on October 10, 1987. Greene's replacement was character actor John Ireland who was written in to play his brother Aaron Cartwright. Ireland had guested in the 1967 episode "Judgement at Red Creek" as Sheriff Rimbeau. David Dortort denied reports that Michael was going to appear but had changed his mind when Lorne died. "That was more than likely just wishful thinking on the part of the hopeful viewers."
Michael was deeply involved with the production of "Highway to Heaven" and was not interested nor apparently very many others, as interest in reviving the series cooled for several years. Two sequel films were made in 1993 and 1995, starring Ben Johnson, who had guested on the original series, and were better made, but still paled and coupled with Johnson's death from a heart attack on April 8, 1996, sadly put an end to the Next Generation clan.
Perhaps it was the result of Lorne's death or perhaps because of Cindy's insistence that in 1987, Michael announced he would do three more seasons of "Highway to Heaven," then was taking a year off to travel around the world with his family. That same year, Michael's youngest son Sean Matthew was born in June of 1987.
Production of the fifth season in June of 1988 was initiated by a meeting that summoned Michael Landon, Kent McCray and NBC to discuss the show's fate. In their minds, they didn't want "Highway to Heaven" on their network anymore, and since Michael owned it, they couldn't cancel it. NBC made the series a mid-season replacement and Michael filmed the final 13 episodes. Both parties had made this agreement before the final season went into production that year.
The final episode filmed was "Merry Christmas from Grandpa" in December 1988. Veteran cinematographer, Ted Voightlander died that month, on December 7, 1988, the same evening the two-part episode "Hello and Farewell" aired. He was 74. Post-production of the series was completed in February 1989, assembling the film and sound elements. The last airing was "Merry Christmas from Grandpa", aired on August 4, 1989.
"Highway to Heaven" spanned 109 first-run episodes on NBC, with Michael directing 90 of them, writing 18 of them, and with Victor French directing 11 episodes himself. There were nine 2-part episodes made, along with the 96 minute full-length pilot episode aired on September 19, 1984 and "Love and Marriage" which was aired as a 90-minute full-length episode on November 12, 1986. "Highway to Heaven" garnered seven Emmy nominations and eleven Young Artist nominations in its five-year run. Michael did win the People's Choice Award for his work on the series.
While "Highway to Heaven" was in final production in December 1988, Michael had a close encounter with death. A man named Nathan Trupp, a mental patient wanted in connection with several murders in New Mexico, shot and killed two security guards at Universal Studios, before being felled by a sea of police bullets. He had claimed to be on a "mission from God" and, as he toured the sprawling 420-acre studio lot on his general admission ticket, had asked several employees where he could find Michael Landon.
Unable to locate Michael, Trupp walked off the tour tram and went to the guardhouse at the entrance to the compound, where he demanded to use a studio phone to speak to Landon. When the guards refused, the forty-two-year-old man walked away, only to return a moment later. He pulled a gun and shot both men through the head, killing one of them instantly. The other died a short while later at the hospital.
While this real-life drama was being played out at Universal Studios in Hollywood, Michael was twenty miles away in Culver City, directing one of the last "Highway to Heaven" episodes on the backlot at MGM Studios. None of Michael's series and projects before "Highway" were filmed at MGM, so it will remain a mystery why the gun-toting Trupp was so convinced Michael was on the Universal lot.
After 5 successful seasons of the series, in April of 1989, Victor French had just returned from directing a film in Ireland and was ill. He thought he was sick with the flu and went to the hospital in Sherman Oaks and was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, from decades of heavy smoking. On June 7th, Victor was admitted to the hospital and Michael was devastated. He went to visit him at the hosptial and even included a special get-well message that was included with the June 9th first-run broadcast of the "Highway to Heaven" episode "The Source". Michael was at his bedside for an all-night vigil with Victor's family into the morning of June 15th, when Victor succumbed to the cancer. He was 54 years-old. Shortly afterwards, there was a television tribute to Victor French, hosted by his family, Michael and many of his best friends, including Ned Beatty and Hal Burton.
Michael was rocked by his death and was so scared he might have lung cancer, went to his doctor and had a chest X-ray and nothing showed, except for the normal congestion found in smokers. With Cindy's encouragement, he cut down and quit smoking that summer. She also encouraged him to cut back on his fried food intake and began eating more vegetables, chicken, and fish. Earlier that year, on March 10, 1989, Michael once again made a guest appearance on "The Tonight Show", hosted by his good friend and fellow tennis player, Johnny Carson. His main message was to let his audience know that NBC was airing "Highway" as a mid-season replacement and were showing it whenever they wanted to, and he was not happy with the network's attitude. He announced the next episode, "The Silent Bell" would air on March 21st, 1989. The series concluded its run on August 4, 1989.
Michael still had one more project to fill in his contract for NBC, and met with former "Little House" co-star Melissa Sue Anderson. She recommended the book "Where Pigeons Go to Die" to him, and said "it's your cup of tea." He hired Art Carney for the film and it was filmed on location in Kansas, made in late October through November 1989. It was later aired on January 29, 1990. After "Highway to Heaven" finished airing in August of 1989, Michael promised Cindy and the two children they were going on a one-year vacation, but never got around to it, but did manage to spend some time with them in Hawaii and the Caribbean, and on educational trips across the country.
Michael appeared on "Larry King Live" and "The Tonight Show," the last week of January 1990, to talk about "Pigeons" and his career. Naturally, his longtime friend and producer Kent McCray made the transition with the crew to CBS. In the summer of 1990, his first job for CBS was a special called "America's Missing Children," which was aired the next year, in May of 1991. His next project he was developing was "Us," a new television series which would have been his fourth hit. He wrote the pilot script in less than 10 days. The concept was based on the character of Jeff Hayes, a journalist who was wrongly convicted of murder and 18 years later, it's discovered he's innocent and is released from prison, only to discover a new life with his estranged father and son, spanning three generations.
He described the show to TV Guide in October 1990, right before filming the pilot. "It's not a show where you're going to be able to guess what's going to happen," he had explained. "It's like life really is." Aside from his very long, wavy hair, sporting various T-shirts and V-necks, tennis shoes, and black denim jeans with a trim, healthy and virile look, more like Michael Landon himself with traits of Little Joe, Charles Ingalls and Jonathan Smith in the new character of Jeff Hayes. Filming of the pilot in November of 1990 and taking a break for Thanksgiving, then post-production in December, wrapping it up for Christmas and New Years. Michael taped a segment for the talk show "Entertainment Tonight" that aired on Christmas of 1990. He was sporting a green T-shirt and was speaking about the children and Christmas gifts. At 54, he couldn't have looked or felt better in life.
After more than three decades in front and behind the camera, he had written 107 hours of television, directed another 208 hours and produced over 330 hours. As an actor, he had logged well past 800 hours, becoming America's quintessential Family Man. On "Highway to Heaven," he was the father to all mankind. "Little House on the Prairie" found him at the head of a Minnesota farming family. And he began as the youngest member of a Western dynasty named Cartwright.
With "Us" not scheduled to begin production until June 1991, Michael was enjoying the New Year with his family. He begun to experience a loss of appetite in January. Something like this had never happened before. He was bench pressing 300-350 pounds with no problem and felt fine. In February, he attended his daughter Leslie's wedding on Valentine's Day and his family noticed he was tired in appearance and didn't look well. He told them it was nothing to worry about, and he was working hard. In mid-March, he attended a private screening of the "Us" pilot, with CBS executives and his good friend and cinematographer Haskell Boggs, who noticed Michael, sitting next to him, appeared different, with an elongated face, a departure from the way he normally appeared, a hint something was wrong. CBS was highly satisfied with "Us" and it was a go, but fate had other plans.
Michael planned a ski trip to Park City, Utah for fun and games on the slopes with the family, the last week of March 1991. The trip was cut short by Michael's severe abdominal pains he was experiencing. He didn't confide to anyone, not even his wife Cindy, the abdominal pains he had been experiencing since February. He thought it was a hiatal hernia and Cindy made an appointment for him to see their doctor, but he never went to get examined before leaving for Utah. Michael sensed something was seriously wrong with him, and flew back to Los Angeles on April 2nd, leaving Cindy and the children behind. He checked in Cedars-Sinai on April 3rd for an MRI scan, which revealed a large tumor in his abdomen. Cindy and the children followed on their flight from Utah back to Los Angeles. On April 4th, the biopsy was performed and the diagnosis was grim.
Two days later, on Friday, April 5th, the doctor called Michael and gave him the news. It was adencarcinoma, the medical name for cancer of the pancreas. It was inopearable and had already spread to his liver and lymph nodes. Michael was stunned. He had never expected anything like this. A few days later on April 8th, he held a press conference at his Malibu home and unlike in the "Us" pilot, some five months back, he had a set to his jaw and chin and looked healthy, but was losing weight, and very ill. He made his last public appearance on "The Tonight Show" on May 9, 1991 and resembled less the character he portrayed some six months back in the pilot. Landon's one-time TV brother, Pernell Roberts issued a statement with his reaction, "I am deeply grieved."
"The news shocked me," he would admit an exclusive issue of Life magazine that was published in June 1991. "Nothing was further from my mind, since I'm only fifty-four and, with rare exceptions, I'd been healthy my whole life. Not that I don't deserve to have cancer. I'm a good athlete, and I work out hard--before this happened, I could bench press three hundred, three hundred fifty pounds, no sweat. I think I have it because for most of my life, though I was never a drunk, I drank too much. I also smoked way too many cigarettes and ate a lot of wrong things. And if you do that, even if you think you're too strong to get anything, somehow you're going to pay."
A short time later in the month on May 21, he had a near fatal blood clot in his left leg that was successfully treated at Cedars-Sinai. That same night he was hospitalized, on television was a special Michael had taped the year before for CBS, "America's Missing Children," and bore a minimal resemblance to the ill Michael. After being released from Cedars-Sinai on May 25th, he decided to live out his final days with his family.
On July 1, Michael died at his Malibu home at 1:30 in the afternoon. His family and closest colleagues were with him. Michael's services were held at Hillside Memorial Park in West Los Angeles on July 5.
Cindy and Michael's family were joined by 500 other mourners including former President Ronald Reagan, with whom Michael had once chopped wood, and his wife Nancy. Merlin Olsen, Ernest Borgnine, Brian Keith and many of Michael's costars, such as Melissa Gilbert and Melissa Sue Anderson were present. Although Michael's first wife Dodie, accompanied by her two sons were present, his second wife, Lynn was noticeably absent.
Jay Eller, Michael's close friend and attorney conducted the service during which many of Michael's friends eulogized him as a loving, kind person and also recalled his tremendous sense of humor.
Following the memorial service, family and friends moved to another spot, not more than fifty yards from where Michael's beloved TV father, Lorne Greene had been buried only four years before. With a rabbi conducting the service, Michael's ashes were entombed in the mausoleum.
He left $100 million, and according to his videotaped will, forty percent of his worth was to go to Cindy, and the other forty percent among his nine children. The rest was to go to charity and cancer research. Shortly after his passing, it was revealed he had changed his will and Cindy and the two youngest children were entitled to receive more than his other children.
Although he loved his entire family, he had a new wife and two young children and without his support, they would be in trouble. That was the reason. All his other children were of adult age and could work.
"Michael Landon," Ronald Reagan had eulogized, "was a man whose tragic battle with cancer touched the hearts of every American, as does his indomitable spirit."
Through sheer courage and determination, Michael Landon had imprinted his vision of the American Dream on television throughout the world. Rising from nowhere, he had become a living symbol of all that is good, positive and industrious about the country. He was an American visionary creating a world in which truth, decency, and sense of fairplay prevailed, in a land where all things are possible, no matter what the odds. He was, and will remain an inspiration to anyone seeking to better themselves or to inspire the worlds they live in.
The "Us" pilot made the year before in November of 1990 was aired on CBS on September 20, 1991, some two months after Michael's passing. It was later rerun in the spring of 1992 on the network.
Michael's older sister Evelyn, more commonly known as Victoria King, died on January 1, 2003 from diabetic seizures in Los Angeles. She was 69-years-old. She leaves behind a daughter, Chrissy. Fans and admirers of Michael adored her, as she would correspond with them on the Internet. She would talk about her memories of the family and her brother when he was in his youth, share rare family photos and spoke of when they would rarely see each other until he passed away in July. Michael and his sister spoke to each other over the phone during his battle with cancer in 1991. |
Series Produced by | | Michael Landon | .... | executive producer (111 episodes, 1984-1989) | | Kent McCray | .... | producer (111 episodes, 1984-1989) | | Marvin Coil | .... | associate producer (7 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Gary L. Wohlleben | .... | associate producer (7 episodes, 1984-1987) |
|
Series Original Music by | | David Rose |
| (111 episodes, 1984-1989) |
|
Series Cinematography by | | Brianne Murphy |
| (34 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Ted Voigtlander |
| (5 episodes, 1984-1987) |
| | Haskell B. Boggs |
| (unknown episodes) | | Michael Meinardus |
| (unknown episodes) |
|
Series Film Editing by | | Jerry Taylor |
| (4 episodes, 1984-1987) | | John Loeffler |
| (3 episodes, 1986-1987) |
|
Series Casting by | | Susan McCray |
| (7 episodes, 1984-1987) |
|
Series Art Direction by | | George B. Chan |
| (5 episodes, 1986-1987) | | George Renne |
| (2 episodes, 1984-1986) |
|
Series Set Decoration by | | Lowell Chambers |
| (7 episodes, 1984-1987) |
| | Dennis W. Peeples |
| (unknown episodes) |
|
Series Makeup Department | | Allen Payne | .... | hair stylist (12 episodes, 1988-1989) | | Lillian Barb | .... | hair stylist (6 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Allan Snyder | .... | makeup artist (5 episodes, 1986-1987) |
| | Darby Hoppin | .... | hair stylist (unknown episodes) |
|
Series Production Management | | Kent McCray | .... | production manager (7 episodes, 1984-1987) |
|
Series Second Unit Director or Assistant Director | | Jack Willingham | .... | second assistant director (26 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Brad Yacobian | .... | second assistant director (26 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Reid Rummage | .... | assistant director (15 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Maury Dexter | .... | assistant director (14 episodes, 1984-1987) |
| | Wallace Van Allen | .... | second assistant director (unknown episodes) |
|
Series Art Department | | Michael P. Hunter | .... | assistant property master (111 episodes, 1984-1989) | | Dean Wilson | .... | property master (7 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Wallace Graham | .... | construction coordinator / construction foreman (5 episodes, 1986-1987) | | William Boyd | .... | construction foreman (2 episodes, 1984) |
| | Donald F. Winter | .... | construction coordinator (unknown episodes) |
|
Series Sound Department | | Ken Dufva | .... | foley artist (98 episodes, 1984-1988) | | Bill Shotland | .... | cable person (37 episodes, 1987-1989) | | Anthony F. Brissinger | .... | sound recordist / sound recording (5 episodes, 1984-1987) | | M. Curtis Price | .... | sound recordist / sound recording (5 episodes, 1984-1987) |
| | Marty Church | .... | adr mixer / foley mixer / ... (unknown episodes) | | Forest Williams | .... | boom operator (unknown episodes) |
|
Series Special Effects by | | Luke Tillman | .... | special effects (4 episodes, 1984-1986) | | Gary Crawford | .... | special effects (4 episodes, 1986-1987) |
| | Michael Douglas Middleton | .... | still Photographer: Apogee Productions (unknown episodes) | | Raymond Robinson | .... | special effects (unknown episodes) |
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Series Stunts | | John Ashby | .... | stunts (1 episode, 1984) | | Gregory J. Barnett | .... | stunts (1 episode, 1987) | | Marco Paul | .... | utility stunts (1 episode, 1989) |
| | Pat Romano | .... | stunts (unknown episodes) |
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Series Camera and Electrical Department | | Kevin McGill | .... | assistant camera (13 episodes, 1988-1989) | | Ron Housiaux | .... | key grip (7 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Kenneth Hunter | .... | camera operator (7 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Lon Massey III | .... | gaffer (7 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Michael Meinardus | .... | camera operator (7 episodes, 1984-1987) |
| | Ron Eisenberg | .... | still photographer (unknown episodes) | | Wally Johnson | .... | camera operator (unknown episodes) | | Bill Sheehan | .... | assistant camera (unknown episodes) | | Clarence Tindell | .... | key grip (unknown episodes) |
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Series Casting Department | | Frank Kennedy | .... | extras casting: locations / extras casting / ... (12 episodes, 1984-1987) |
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Series Costume and Wardrobe Department | | Linda Taylor | .... | costumer: women (6 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Bob E. Horn | .... | costumer: men (4 episodes, 1986-1987) | | Mike Termini | .... | costumer: men (2 episodes, 1984-1986) |
| | Deborah Curtis | .... | set costumer (unknown episodes) |
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Series Editorial Department | | Kay Suffern | .... | negative cutter (5 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Dennis McNeill | .... | color timer (4 episodes, 1986-1987) |
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Series Music Department | | David Rose | .... | composer: theme music (111 episodes, 1984-1989) | | Tom Gleason | .... | music editor (5 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Charles M. Price | .... | orchestra manager (3 episodes, 1986-1987) |
| | David Cates | .... | music editor (unknown episodes) | | John Rotondi | .... | scoring engineer: Y4 (unknown episodes) |
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Series Transportation Department | | Gary Claridge | .... | transportation (110 episodes, 1984-1989) | | Clyde Harper | .... | transportation coordinator (5 episodes, 1986-1987) |
| | Bob Goodrich | .... | transportation captain (unknown episodes) |
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Series Other crew | | Kevin King | .... | payroll coordinator (25 episodes, 1984-1985) | | Dan Gordon | .... | executive story editor / story editor (16 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Erica Wernher | .... | script supervisor (12 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Gary L. Wohlleben | .... | production controller (5 episodes, 1984-1987) | | John Warren | .... | location manager (4 episodes, 1984-1987) | | Kenneth E. Fix | .... | location manager (3 episodes, 1986-1987) |
| | Jane Ficker | .... | script supervisor (unknown episodes) | | Don Gallagher | .... | dialogue replacement (unknown episodes) | | Michael Landon | .... | developer (unknown episodes) |
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