Season 1 Overview

Airdate: 02/27/1985

Directed By: Michael Landon

The series had to regain some territory after the previous episode’s ratings, so they opted for some sort of angelic episode. Now, the word “Bum” might sound outdated (in some cases, even offenside), but it’s used so prominently in the series that it would be unfair to just omit that.

• Assignment

Here, the assignment begins in a dramatic way: Jonathan and Mark have to fulfill the wish of a dying bum — a kind of assignment they had already done earlier in the season. But then it turns to a comical one: a mean banker trades place with that good-natured bum for a day. That’s right, it’s pretty clear from this where the inspiration comes from: Trading Places was released in 1983, two years earlier. I mean, they didn’t try to hide it that much. Maybe Landon is obsessed over this story like he is for the Christmas Carol and Cinderella.

Now, one important feature: as this was a body-swapping episode, it’s the second “unrealistic” assignment of the series, after the Christmas Special. Now, it’s important to clear this out: most of the episode in the first season can be considered realistic; of course, there are some magical effects from time to time (the “Stuff” is an example), but they remain well grounded in reality. Actually, by removing those angelic effects, most of them would still take place as they do, almost unaltered in any other way. Instead, this episode and the Christmas Special are the only assignments in the series to prominently feature this magic, unrealistic premise. And the Christmas Special was unrealistic because it took outspoken inspiration by the classic book, while this episode is just one without any apparent reason. It could also been proposed that Hotel Of Dreams and Going Home, Going Home were quite unrealistic too, but at least not as much as this: Going Home was all just some hallucination, and there wasn’t actually any other otherworldly feature (unlike the Chrsitmas Special, where they go “whizzing around”, Mark’s line from the episode); instead, Hotel Of Dreams is quite unrealistic, but just on his Cinderella assignment, the rest of them instead remained possible. Still, it’s better to get used to that, because in the following seasons Landon will sway away from the realistic settings of much of this first season’s episode to move towards this more whimsical, magical territory.

But, there are two reasons that mark the episode as an important assignments: it’s the first episode about people living the life of somebody else (there’s one in the second season as well) and, as the title says it, finally an episode about bums, as part of the Bums, Bins, Drugs assignments. It’s the first entirely about them, certainly not the last. Now, the word “bum” might sound outdated to say the least, but it’s featured so prominently that it would be unfair to just omit that.

• Background

This episode takes place over the course of a two days in Los Angeles (apparently). They never actually reveals it’s L.A. but whenever it’s unclear, that is assumed to be the settings. As for the date, there are two possible collocations for the events: it is likely that the episode takes place concurrently to some other assignments (a plausible one is right the previous episode, for instance). But it can also be the case it takes place around the same time as the assignments of A Child Of God, where they payed an apartment for a month though the assignments lasted one week. So, if that were the case and they were consecutive episodes, then A Match Made In Heaven actually took place either before or after them.

• Characters

This episode is a peculiar one for the characters: one is about the assignment. Because, in this episode, the Banker is called Melvin “Rich” and the bum is Willy “The Waver”. I mean, very subtle. Actually, this was not the first time they named a character like that: in the Christmas Special episode, the assignment was “Honest” Eddy, who wasn’t really honest. At least this time thy didn’t play with the contrasts and didn’t call the Banker Melvin “Broke” and the Bum Willy “Booze”, for instance.

Then, about Mark, for some reason they made him wear some different clothes in this episode, similar to the one he used to have on To Touch The Moon and early episodes.

No blue sweater this time. Maybe the weather was getting too cold for that.

However, the most important feature is right at the beginning when, upon meeting the Banker, Jonathan reveals his true identity.

This was the first time in the whole series that Jonathan reveals his true identity. And he does it just like that, with no apparent reason. There was an episode in which he was actually close to reveal his true identity, in Help Wanted: Angel, at the beginning, but he didn’t, and he’s been keeping it a mystery to everyone he’s met so far except Mark in the Pilot. The only reason he does that here is because, again, it’s a body-swapping episode, so it’s one of the most “unrealistic” of the series, and there couldn’t have been any other way to justify what happens to the Banker and the Bum respectively.

But, again, it’s something the audience is going to get used to: in the second and third season, the producers made many more of these “unrealistic” episodes and Jonathan will basically tell anybody he’s an Angel each assignment.

Eventually, by the last two seasons of the show Landon recalled that he wanted to teach people how to be “angels” without being an “angel” so he won’t be doing that anymore. Still, this marks an important precedent for the series.

• Actors (Highway Actors)

This episode was a pretty unusual one for the actors: first, there’s a highway actor back in the series: the butler who works at the Banker’s house is played by Ivor Berry, who has already appeared in the series in the Christmas Special. And that time he played Honest Eddy’s own butler. So, the second appearance in the series as the mistreated worker of the man Jonathan and Mark are assigned to help, and in the “unrealistic” settings. That can’t be a coincidence, maybe Landon thought he has a face like a butler. Actually, on that episode his name was never revealed in the credit, so it’s unclear whether they are the same character or it’s some sort of reference.

However, he’s not the only highway actors here: both roles of the Banker Melvin and the Bum Willy are played by Ned Beatty, the same actor. Now, there’s so much going on: this marks the first dual role of his career, and he’s the first and only actor to have a dual role in the series.

More in detail about his life, Highway was not his first time collaborating with French, as they had met before in their career.

Here, one curious anecdocte: on 1973, Beatty made an appearance in the first season of The Waltons, for just one show playing “Curtis Norton”, a blacksmith who was a friend of the titular family.

Well, that character was featured twice in the series; however, the second time, which was during the second season of the series, Beatty wouldn’t come back — and he was replaced by French to play the same character.

Hollywood is really a small world.

Anyway, they don’t quite look the same: I mean, Beatty seems like a farmer and has some mustache while French is perfectly shaved and looks like a city man.

Also, notice that the Waltons episode with French was released one month before the Pilot of Little House, where he plays a famous character with scruffy beard. It’s currently a mystery how during all the 1970s, while French famously starred as the gruff Mr. Edwards on Little House on the Prairie, he also managed to appear on other TV shows that aired (and were presumably shot) at the same time, in which he was clean and shaved, like he is for The Waltons here. I mean, how he was able to portray these clean-shaven looking character while also playing one in another series with a mossy, dense beard is a mystery to this day. He must have had the fastest-growing beard in Hollywood. The way he pulled off to have his beard grown instantly is a secret the French family keeps close.

Anyway, on The Waltons they were only playing the same character, but they would actually meet and work together for the 1975 Gusnmoke episode The Hiders, where French didn’t appear as actor but was rather the director (one of the first efforts as director of his career), and Beatty played the antagonist.

And another curious anecdote: that episode of Gunsmoke also starred Mitch Vogel, the actor from one episode of Bonanza playing the part Mark has in the A Child Of God episode (which was a recycle of that Bonanza one). Of course, he was not the inspiration for Mark in the whole series, but just on that occasion, where Vogel and French played basically the same role in their corresponding episode.

Anyway, Beatty and French had already met each other but never actually played together until Highway, now both directed by Landon (whom Beatty had never met before). And they will be playing together again in the future: Beatty is going to be coming back for another episode in the third season, making him one of the few actors to have appeared multiple times in the series (Highway Actors here). But there’s another curious detail: that episode in the third season when Beatty comes back was directed by French, like the first time they met on Gunsmoke.

Actually, that third season episode is particularly emotional, as it’s the last show ever directed by French in his career: after that episode in 1986, he’d still keep on acting as Mark (he won’t leave the series), but for some reason he wouldn’t direct any other episode for the whole fourth and fifth season. And he wouldn’t direct anymore in his career, as he died on 1989, three years later. Somehow, it’s quite a coincidence: that season twenty of Gunsmoke was the one French made his debut as director on movies and TV, and years later his last directorial work of his career would be again for an episode starring Ned Beatty, coming back where it all had begun ten years earlier.

• Production and Settings

It’s unclear when the production of the episode took place but, considering his immediate predecessors, it’s likely by the first week of February 1985 for one week. There would be the problem with Beatty’s dual role though: Willy the Bum has a thick beard, and Melvin hasn’t any. Of course, it can be they produced the episode on two separate times, waiting for his beard to grow back. But, realistically, how could they afford to delay production for that? Maybe Beatty had some quick-growing beard tricks up his sleeve, which he may have learned from French, who gave away his secret. Or maybe it’s just that Willy’s beard was fake.

Likely the second one: that’s not a real beard.

Instead, as for the settings, most of the episodes take place in Los Angeles. In particular, the place where the banker trades place with the bum is a real existing park, not any studio set.

Curiously, there’s one detail to point out: that building serving as the workplace of Melvin Rich, greedy, selfish and wealthy banker who can’t stand homeless, is located in Wilshire and it’s actually a Social Service office.

Without the “J. Melvin Rich Building” sign, of course.

Production likely did that on purpose.

Finally, Melvin’s mansion is the Fremont place.

The statue of the Lions there are similar to Lance’s one in Catch A Falling Star, but the house is different.

• Highway Of Mysteries

There are two random, unrelated mysteries here. The first one is at the beginning, when Jonathan tells Melvin’s secretary that he’s an Angel. The problem is that he does that without any apparent reason: it’s reasonable he tells Melvin about it, because they randomly materialize in his workplace and Melvin should be at least puzzled by that. However, the secretary was really useless, as they could have just turned invisible from the first moment and sneak up. Jonathan simply justifies the angel revelation as: “I thought it would save us time now”, but that doesn’t really work at all. Of course, unless Jonathan actually believed that man was going to believe them. But his face suggests otherwise.

He’s probably thinking now: “If you’re the Angel, then I’m the bum”.

Another slight mystery is actually about Mark: it is shown that Jonathan remains with Willy through all the assignment, while Mark suddenly disappears at some point. Think about it: when Melvin and Willy spend the night in each other’s identity, they only show that Jonathan stays with Willy and gives him some pieces of advice on how to save the marriage, but they skip what Mark does with Melvin instead, whether they stay together, or Mark invited him to sleep wherever he’s sleeping. And, of course, where Mark is currently sleeping is still a problem, but that can be justified by considering this episode as set at the same time as A Child Of God and Mark still on that apartment.

Glossary

Bums, bins, drugs: it’s the episode’s assignment.

Reckless Spending: when in the second half of the episode Willy just gives a pay rise to anybody who works for him, without even asking how much they earn in the first place. And it’s the second time in the series that somebody acts like it: the first time was in the Christmas Special, upon realizing how despicable Eddy was towards other people. However there’s an important difference: on the Christmas Special, it was really Eddy’s idea to give his money away, while now it’s the Bum disguised as banker doing it. Basically, nothing would prevent the banker from paying them as usual once he’s back.

Friendly Jonathan: Now, this episode features a couple of such instances. One is at the beginning: when Jonathan and Mark are walking in the park, Mark is talking to Jonathan about how lunatic the bum looks talking to himself, and Jonathan quietly walks away leaving Mark talking to himself.

So, Jonathan is trying to teach the audience never judge people who appear to talk to themselves in public—maybe they were talking to someone very impolite who simply left without them realizing. Or maybe they are talking to an angel. Actually, this was not the first time in the series he does that: there has already been one exact instance on To Touch The Moon, when the runaway kid stole Mark’s car.

Another instance is at the beginning, when Jonathan gives away his identity to Melvin’s secretary, who immediately calls the guards, but he becomes invisible with Mark.

Then, when they get to Melvin and he calls the security, this time Jonathan leaves Mark visible and lets the guards forcibly carrying Mark away. There was just no reason to do that: Jonathan could have simply turned Mark invisible as well, and that wouldn’t have been against the rules of the “Stuff” (whatever they are), as he had just done that the previous scene to sneak up to Melvin’s room. But even though he didn’t want to do that for any reason, he could have simply used the Stuff to do anything else, like preventing Melvin from alerting the security in the first place, by just breaking up the phone for instance (as he had already done on another episode).

He could have done anything with the Stuff, but he just waits to see his friends being carried away until he decides to do something. It’s likely he felt like playing some trick on his friend, as it’s clear from that sneer when Mark believes he’s still invisible.

But Jonathan knows better.

New “Stuff” power: Jonathan doesn’t actually use the Stuff directly to trade places between the Melvin and the bum. Sill, in the episode he unlocks the power of invisibility, for the first time in the series.

It’s important to point that out as he’ll use it much often in the series. Also, this time he allowed Mark to be invisible as well. It’s the second time in the series Jonathan uses the Stuff to make something to both him and Mark, the first time was on the Christmas Special when he let Mark part of that weird dream. The hallucination doesn’t count because it’s unclear whether it was real or just a dream

The second “Stuff” power is forcing people on a chair: it occurs when somebody pushes Melvin’s chair on the desk whenever he tries to stand up.

So, basically the power of having someone pushing other people’s chair to annoy them.

References: the episode has a very unique Little House features that couldn’t possibly passed unnoticed by whoever has ever watched the series. It’s in the part when Melvin and Mark go to a soup kitchen charity and David Rose plays something eerily familiar.

The composition will be instantly recognized by those who has watched Little House in any season: it’s the religious hymn “Bringing In The Sheaves“, prominently featured throughout that series when the characters attend church on Sunday. It’s very popular in the context of that series, while it’s so random here. Maybe it just makes reference to its meaning, but likely David Rose suddenly recalled when they featured it on Little House and thought it could work here as well.

Punchline: there are two particular punchlines that will be recycled in the second season, and neither come from Jonathan now. Actually, one it’s at the beginning, when the banker has just finds that his body and the one of the bum has been traded one another. So, he’s clearly much puzzled about it, and nobody even mention where Jonathan and the bum went now, as they were there when the “swap” took place and then they’re gone. However, Mark doesn’t seem the least bothered by this occurrence (probably after spending so much time around an angel he has learnt to adapt quickly to anything without questioning it). Instead, he quietly takes Melvin for a walk and drops him a punchline.

So, Melvin replies with something that resembles a reverse punchline.

Both lines (Mark’s old saying and Melvin’s reaction) are going to be recycled almost exactly the same in a second season episode about two people trading places for a day. Though that time, it will be Jonathan telling that old saying to Mark, who has that clever reply. Maybe if Mark would have recalled this old saying (that he’s the one telling now), he could have spared them an assignment.

Instead, the second one is a frequent line that Willy drops randomly when he’s done talking, before walking away.

This line hits familiar to Jonathan: it’s something he used to say when he was alive (as he will reveal later in the series), and it will serve as a key punchline to save one character’s life. Actually, it’s so important it will be used as the title for that second season episode.

So, Jonathan must have felt quite envious he didn’t have any punchline in this episode, and he just stole these two from other characters to be using them in the upcoming season.

Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are assigned to help a selfish and corrupt banker and an ill and good-hearted homeless man to live under each other’s identity for a day.

The episode begins with Jonathan and Mark walking through a park—no driving this time. Mark spots a bum, and Jonathan explains that the man—whom is called Willy the Waver (because he randomly waves at people)—is going to die soon, and their assignment is to fulfill his wish. In order to do that, they will have to go to Melvin Rich, a wealthy businessman running for mayor who is planning to cut healthcare funds and drive the homeless away.

Willy’s wish is simple: he just wants to tell Melvin to be nice. And that’s all.

So, Willy really believes that Rich is someone who could benefit from hearing a random advice from a bum who spends time waving at people at the park.

If “being nice” means waving randomly at people, Willy, you’ve got a long way to go then.

Anyway, that’s exactly how Rich feels about it: Jonathan and Mark go to his job and forcibly take him to the park.

Who knows where the real Ned Beatty is here.

As promised, Willy tells him he’s not a nice person. The wish is fulfilled, Jonathan tells Melvin that’s it—it’s now up to him to decide what to do with his life.

Of course, Melvin learns nothing from this and replies he’ll continue to do what he pleases.

But Jonathan immediately contradicts himself and rings that his superior isn’t going to like this choice: the wind picks up, similarly to to the moment Jonathan found the car on Plane Death some episode ago.

Maybe in the series the weather is signaling that something’s about to happen.

Then, the storm calms, Jonathan disappears and Mark is left standing with Willy, who now sounds oddly like Melvin. And then it hits: they’ve switched places—or, more accurately, traded places.

Don’t worry about that: it’s a fake beard, you could take it off anytime.

Meanwhile, Willy (as Melvin) took it easy, and goes home. As they drive, Jonathan tells Willy that he’s going to remain invisible for the rest of the time—just something to keep in mind. Once they get home, Willy pauses to have a chat with the driver. And he immediately offers the driver a pay rise.

Why do people in this series always think that suddenly giving someone a raise will solve all their problems? It’s like whenever a wealthy character realizes they need to be nicer, they throw money at the problem. Eddy did the same thing in the Christmas episode. It’s not entirely bad, but it’s so reckless and not very thoughtful. I mean, if you just hand out $100,000 to everyone who asks, you’ll be broke in no time.

Also, it’s not really the banker giving the money, but the bum, and when they trade place back, nothing assures Willy that Melvin will actually keep the promise and give them a raise (because it wasn’t Melvin’s promise in the first place). It seems like he’s fooling them.

But don’t count on it: it’s just as long as Melvin is a bum.

Once inside the house, a butler is waiting for Willy. Of course, he offers the butler a raise too—without even asking how much he makes. I mean, that guy could be overpaid, and maybe it’d make more sense to redistribute some of that money among the other workers. But no. Let’s offer him a raise just like the rest of them.

At this rate, Willy is going to turn Melvin Rich into Melvin Broke very soon.

Finally, Willy sits down on a ridiculously plush couch in a weird living room that has a fake plant in the background.

Then, a lady suddenly walks into the room, and Willy assumes she works there too. I know where he’s going with this: he probably wants to give her a raise too — without even asking how much she’s making in the first place. But he’s caught off guard when she gets irritated with him.

Then Jonathan reveals that she’s his wife, Carlotta, who is just stranding away from him. Willy manages to strike up a conversation with her, she invites him to dinner by the fireplace. He immediately asks Jonathan if that’s okay, so Jonathan tells him to just take it easy and it’s fine. You know, before he ends up breaking any commandments or something.

Meanwhile, there’s Melvin who tries to come back home—but the driver takes him as a bum and tosses him out onto the bushes, which isn’t nice at all, unlike what Willie told him earlier.

Also, why is Mark just sitting there like he owns the place? Maybe he thought he was still invisible.

Anyway, Mark takes Willy to a charity that serves meals to the homeless, but there’s no room for them.

So, he has to go sleeping down some street, while Mark will comfortably be back the next day. At least supposedly, because they do not show where Mark is going to spend the night, and maybe Jonathan made him an angel for a day and wants him to stay hang around Melvin even by night.

The next day, Willy holds an important debate on behalf of Melvin as part of a campaign running for mayor, and informs everybody on TV that he bought votes from the council to boost the campaign. And then just cut short the debate.

Melvin overhears it on the radio and thinks he’s doomed, but then everyone starts cheering as the politician is finally being honest. Just learn from here: if you’re corrupt, just admit it, and you’ll get away with it. Actually, it will boost your image, and people will love you.

Now, Melvin rushes back home and, upon entering the front door, his butler calls him “Sir”, and he realizes he has suddenly come back to his original body again.

Although the actor playing the butler is British, so he would have called anybody “sir”.

Then, he goes to his room and finds his wife, who tells him that she loves him and also mentions that he’s gained popularity after the debate, which is what he really cared about.

In the meantime, Willy lies down on a bench and passes away. Sometime later, Melvin and his wife visit the park to honor him.

Here, two things to notice: it’s unclear to determine the time that has passed now, but it couldn’t possibly be right the next day, because they made a monument for Willy (it takes time to do that); it could imply the last part of the assignment takes place at some later moment, likely concurrently to A Child Of God or even later on.

Then, it’s quite unclear why is Melvin’s wife is there: her husband has always been neglecting her, then all of a sudden he becomes a selfless, caring person and now he asks her to attend a funeral for a bum that she’s likely unaware her husband ever met, unless he told her about the experience of traded identity. In that case, there would be two characters now knowing Jonathan’s real identity (except for Mark, of course, and Melvin’s secretary, who likely doesn’t believe it).

Likely Melvin told him that Jonathan wasn’t lying, or this man thinks they are all crazy.

Jonathan was right in the Pilot: people stopped trusting each other. Especially when they are angels.

Anyway, Melvin publicly thanks Willy for teaching him how to be nice, and builds a board dedicated to Willy’s memory.

“Willy, he gave a raise to everyone” would be more like it.

This episode was unique in that it prominently featured magical elements, and it marks the first time Jonathan reveals the his true identity. Working on a 1983 success turned out well for the show: it garnered strong ratings and seemed to suggest that this direction was the right one for the series. In fact, many episodes from the second season directly build on elements from this episode: the “change of life” premise, the “Keep smiling” punchline, the casual revelation that Jonathan is an angel to those people on the assignments — these are all features that will return in the second season. And that one turned out to be more successful than the first, so the series benefited from it.