Airdate: 09/18/1985

Directed by: Michael Landon

It’s September 1985, and a new TV season is about to launch—bringing fresh programs and familiar faces. Among them, Highway to Heaven is back on NBC. Apparently, against all predictions and despite network executives’ doubts, the first season turned out to be successful enough to earn a second. And this new season will prove even more successful than the first—but first, rejoice: the series is back.

Today, exactly 40 years ago, the second season of Highway To Heaven officially began its journey. The probationary angel and his ex-cop human companion continue their job, helping people one assignment at a time.

But first, the intro.

It’s the same as the first season: the sky, the “convicted felony” tone, the shift in setting when Mark drives his car, the glance, the chuckle—and there they go, with that triumphant Little House score recycled in the background. Nothing new here, unlike Little House, which tweaked its intro slightly every season—why they did that, who knows—but anyway, that’s another show.

The episode is available here.

Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are assigned to work at a Summer Camp for children with cancer and help them in their daily problems.

That was a very hard assignment. Right from the start, it’s about ill children. One of the early episode in the first season opened with children’s illness (To Touch The Moon), but that time it was actually put in the background to talk about adoption. Instead, now, the illness is the main assignment, and it’s depicted in a very unflinching way: no time compressing scenes of characters randomly laughing, no fantastical moment of the moon landing on Earth, it’s all damn real and serious now.

That’s clear right from the start and the casting: most of the child actors here (with the exclusion of three characters) are actually non-professional child actors with cancer. And even the three kids that are “professional actors”, first, they are all at their first role of their career (Landon liked to work with “real kids”) and second, they went serious for the role: I mean, two of them decided to have bald hair. It may sound quite silly, but it can be hard for a kid to accept: Landon has talked multiple times about how important his hair is to him and how confident it made him feel to the point that, when he was forced to cut it in back in College, he couldn’t play ball as good as he used to and lost his scholarship for that. So, its hard to tell whether these three young kids liked it or cared much about their hair or not, but it is to appreciate the commitment they had for the role.

Anyway, in the assignment, Jonathan and Mark will have to take up a job at a Summer Camp for children and teenagers with cancer and help them. The episode was divided in two parts: in the first one, the assignment is going to a hospital and recruiting as many kids as possible for the Summer Camp; basically, it’s mostly an introduction for the characters (but pretty much important nonetheless). Then, on part two Jonathan and Mark actually get to the camp. If Mark drives them safely.

No Joey Chitwood today, cowboy.

But it’s been established that he can drive anything, like a backhoe and a truck, but he has to do that without causing any accident now.

The assignment doesn’t revolve around someone in particular; instead, it’s centered on everyone that needs their help in some way. So, like the episode Hotel Of Dreams in season 1, the assignment is related to the job, rather than a person— although there are going to be some characters more relevant than other, such as the titular one.

• Background

Now, the second season picks up where the season one left off: it’s summer 1985, and Jonathan and Mark are driving to their next assignment. Supposedly, at least, because it’s unclear whether Season One Finale were chronologically the last episode of the season (more details here). Either way, this episode is set on Summer (as it is a Summer Camp) and it’s either 1985 (the first episode of the season) or, less likely, 1986 (which would make this episode the last one chronologically of season two).

Good to be back

Also, if the first Season Finale was actually the last episode of the season, they must have had some time off, considering Jonathan’s clothes are different here, yet it shouldn’t come as unexpected by now: it’s known that there’s at least two or three days off between assignments, and that the series doesn’t show every assignment they work on (more details here). So, it can be it’s been some days, and he changed clothes now (even though Mark is always the same).

What’s unknown instead is where they were coming from, considering that he never goes buying something. But maybe it’s just something he put in his mysterious luggage he carries in the introduction and that he brings One Winged Angels before vanishing from the series.

The second season has other mysteries, of course.

Anyway, as for the time span, Part 1 lasts about one week: the first day is when Jonathan and Mark get to the Hospital, the second when they convince everyone to go the camp, and the third when they are leaving. It’s likely (but unclear) they didn’t go to the camp the day immediately after talking to Curtis and everyone else, but some times later, which would make the time span longer.

However, a very peculiar aspect is the setting: this episode, unlike almost any episode in season one, is set in a real, existing place, where actors blend in with people who were directly involved in the real-life background. That’s because the camp where the assignment takes place is Camp Good Times, an existing camp which still stands now (although with a different name).

And clearly Mark has never heard of it.

So, it was one of the first summer camps in California specifically created for children living with serious illnesses.

According to the Camp’s history, it was founded by a woman whose ill son was denied entry to a traditional camp due to lack of medical support and general unwillingness to take responsibility for his care. Realizing there were no suitable camps for kids with such conditions, she resolved to create one herself—with the help of her family. Apparently, she initially used her uncle and aunt’s ranch to set up the camp, and officially launched it in California in 1982, supported by the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles and the L.A. Rams football team.

At first, the camp had only a few places available, but it quickly grew in popularity and within a few years, it was equipped to accommodate over a hundred children, even offering group support and counseling for families. In 1984, just one year before this episode aired, the camp launched a successful fundraising campaign with the help of actor Dustin Hoffman, and received support by Michael Jackson (not the impersonators, but the real one) and actor Richard Chamberlain, best known for Dr. Kildare (not the version with Lew Ayres, but the new one).

Thanks to the great help of Michael Jackson and now this episode by Michael Landon, the camp was thriving—and hopefully gave some good times back as well.

However, it didn’t follow up smoothly: in 1993 the camp’s founder was ousted by the new board with the official reason that she has become inadequate to her role, although she suspected it’s because she took some of the camp’s kids to Bill Clinton’s inauguration, and the board didn’t like that (there are some articles about this matter).

Eventually, she created a new camp, Happy Trails For Kids, which was originally meant to be exclusively for children with disabilities, although now it has expanded to serve only kids in foster care.

Anyway, the idea of a specialized camp for children with serious illnesses gained widespread popularity, and similar camps began popping up all over the U.S. and abroad, including one in Washington and two in Canada. So, this Highway episode to kick off the second season is partly a tribute to this real-life camp, with some of the kids who were attending the camp back in 1985 featured in the episode, including those really ill.

But the camp and some of the real kids in there are not the only feature of the episode grounded on real events: both the characters of Jason and Curtis in the episode are based on two kids around the same age (Jason Haddock and Curtis Shafer) that the series headwriter Dan Gordon met while visiting the camp to make research for the episode.

In particular, the character of Jason, the first ill kid to befriend Jonathan and Mark, seems to mostly serve as composite character that represents the many ill kids staying at the camp. But he’s not entirely fictional: he’s based on Jason Haddock, a kid who was diagnosed with an illness at the age of 9 and who started attending the Camp Good Times, in 1984, as it was the only place to accept him. During an interview in 1985, his mother Nancy expressed gratitude to the camp, explaining she had a similar experience to the camp’s founder and it was a relief to have a place where kids “can just be kids”.

Eventually, Jason passed away that year, on July 27, during production of part two of this episode, and the character of Jason here wants somehow to honor his memory. Actually, the episode is not intended to tell the story of Jason Haddock specifically, but rather to use him to tell the stories of multiple other kids who have been through a similar condition. And that also explain, for instance, why they changed his surname from Haddock to Winner (that doesn’t sound random).

Also, that could explain the title of the episode, where “Jason” is the only character mentioned even though the assignment features multiple important ones (for instance, Curtis): it’s as if his character is one of the many stories of kids with illness, and the whole episode is a “song” dedicated both to him, to his life (which is very personal) but, at the same time, expanded to all the kids with similar conditions, in some way.

It’s the second episode of the series based on a true story (the first one is A Match Made In Heaven); there are going to be a few more of them.

• Characters

Jonathan and Mark remain the two old pals from season one.

As for their background, this episode makes a curious reference: at the beginning, when Mark tells Jonathan he doesn’t want to work with kids and complains they have everything nowadays, he also adds that, when he was a kid, he had to work hard on his grandpa’s ranch.

That was revealed in the Season 1 episode Going Home, Going Home, when he visited such ranch in Oklahoma (actually, California). But, on that occasion, he only said that he was sent working to the ranch during WWII, not that he grew up and worked there like all his childhood. However, it’s likely they had already fixed such detail in the Season One Finale, when he made reference to his upbringing and revealed he spent his childhood there. So, from now on, it is apparent he actually spent a good part of his childhood there with his grandpa.

• Actors (Little House actors, Highway actors)

The episode features many actors (both professional and non-professional one): for instance, the character of Curtis is played by Giovanni Ribisi, in his first role. Although he’s bald and younger here, and even credited as “Vonni Ribisi,” it’s definitely him—the same actor from Avatar and Friends; the name change is likely because he wanted to sound more American—people with foreign-sounding names don’t always get the. same attention, and his real name would probably sound too old-fashioned even in Italy for that matter. One curious thing: in an interview with Variety, he reported that when he was a kid, his mentor and model as actor was Geoffrey Lewis, a name that should sound familiar for Highway audience (he was “Honest Eddy” from season one) and that worked extensively with both Landon and French on Little House before that. So, this episode was sure a great lesson for him.

Then, it’s also the first role of Michael Bacall, who plays Jimmy.

However, this episode doesn’t only have kids actors, but also some familiar adults: the character of Cindy, the nurse who shows Jonathan and Mark around the hospital, is played by Charlotte Stewart, who had already met and worked with Landon during Bonanza some years back.

Then, she worked with him again (and with French for the first time) on Little House, where she played the regular character of Miss Beadle from the first to the fourth season, and was directed by Landon and French on multiple occasion there.

Of course, she later became Mrs. Simms in season 4, but to most people, she’ll always be Mrs. Beadle. I mean, people wouldn’t say “Mrs. Kendall” to talk about Mary, isn’t it.

Anyway, she has appeared in over 40 episodes in the series: excluding Landon and French, she is the second recurring actor from Little House to be on Highway (the first was Matthew Laborteaux in The Right Thing) and the third major actor from Little House (after Laborteaux and Richard Bull in season one).

Apparently, she didn’t read any lines for the part: as personally revealed, Landon called her up one day and told her they had a small part in a Highway To Heaven episode that they thought she might want to take, and she accepted it.

There’s a curious anecdote about her life: in her autobiography, Stewart revealed she became lover with French around 1977, shortly before his second divorce, and they remained close friends for a long time. They kept the relationship private, but it’s amusing and kind of awkward to see him smile at her when she introduces herself to Mark, pretending they don’t know one another.

That smile knows more.

Also, it’s unclear whether Landon knew about French and Stewart’s relationship: considering how close he was close with French, likely he told him at some point — as Stewart personally confided, “they were both adult men, and best friends”, so she suspects that too — but still, here Landon is like caught in the middle. Even if he knew, he’d have to pretend otherwise for the character, and shake her hand as if he were completely oblivious.

It sure is hard being an actor.

But there’s also a Highway actor in the episode: in particular, the actress Robin Riker plays Sherri, the overly protective mother of Curtis (her character is fictional, even though her son is not).

She will come back in the series on another episode during the fifth season, playing a different character (still a mother though). Curiously, that episode she is coming back to is one of the few in the series to be based on a true story (just like this).

• Production and setting

The production of the second season began with this episode on July 14, 1985 (so, four months after concluding season one). Part one and part two where produced separately, and part one lasted one week.As for the setting, it’s just California (that country surely has a lot of problems if Jonathan and Mark are stuck in it), but at least the Summer Camp Good Times is a real one.

Apparently (as reported by The L.A. Herald in 1985), the series headwriter Dan Gordon first heard about the camp in a Life article, and decided to write an episode about it. So, he visited the camp on December 1984, during the winter session, in order to make some further research on the subject and get familiar with the environment. On that occasion, he observed the kids, talked with the counselors there and got the chance to meet Jason Haddock, who was attending the camp on that time and who would later become the inspiration for the titular character. Around that time he also got to know Curtis Sharf, the kid serving as the basis for Curtis in the episode.

This episode marks the second of the series to be grounded in a true story or a true setting; the first one was A Match Made In Heaven, which was real story told through fictional characters.

Glossary

Cute: when Mark complains about his stomach ache (although it’s a scene exclusively available on the DVD version).

References: there are two references here. The first one is when Mark tells Jonathan about his upbringing in his grandpa’s ranch, that has already been discussed in the episode “Going Home, Going Home“.

The second one, instead, is not from this series, bur rather to Little House, although it can also be a coincidence. It’s when Jonathan meets Jason’s mom, and he informs her of what they are going to do at the camp.

That sounds like a gross reference to Little House On The Prairie and the peculiar relationship between Laura and Mr. Edwards, who teaches her how to spit in the Pilot of that series.

That event is very important in their friendship, and many characters make reference to it on multiple occasions throughout the show, so it can’t pass unnoticed. Also because the Missus here follows up by saying that she thinks it’s gross but “Jason likes him”, and then corrects the sentence.

That really sounds similar to the way Caroline feels about the whole situation on Little House; so again, it can’t be a coincidence. Although it’s Jonathan talking here. But maybe that’s because if Mark had been there instead of Jonathan it would have been just too obvious.

Deleted scenes: in the original episode there are two additional scenes that has been removed from the edited 2014 version available for free — instead, they are on the DVD one. The first is right at the beginning while Jonathan and Mark are driving towards the hospital, and Mark complains to Jonathan about some stomach problem stemming from his lunch (and drops a “cute” in the process). The second one is toward the conclusion, when Sherri awakes her husband and Curtis to take him to the hospital; then, Curtis was supposed to be actually visited by a doctor, who reassures her nothing’s wrong with her son. Then, the scene in which Jason tries to talk Curtis into going to the camp is actually longer.

The Job: summer Camp counselor. They obtained it through Jonathan’s magical references. It won’t be the last time in the series they’ll have to work in this environment.

However, Jonathan also deploys the power a second time, to get a job as hairdresser and get back at the bully who mocked Jason earlier.

Fishing: they make references to fishing, and curiously they won’t be shows fishing on the next episode. Anyway, there is a curious feature to point out: Jimmy shouts from the van that he brought Jason some new baits for their fishing together.

Jonathan wouldn’t like that, as he told Mark in One Winged Angels when they went fishing.

Friendly Jonathan: there is one instance here in the episode, when Mark is talking to him about the bully and Jonathan disappears while his friend is still talking to him.

And he even checks under a plant.

As if Jonathan shrunk there.

That was likely French improvising, but it was quite random this time.

The “Stuff”: only used in one occasion, when Jonathan vanishes to give the bully a new haircut (in this season, he’ll be using this power more often).

Ratings: 32 million people. Weekly ratings: 6th in TV programs, 1st (out of 21) in TV drama show.

The episode aired on September 19, after concluding the rerun of the first season through the summer (the last episode aired just one week before this, and it was The Banker and The Bum). That string of rerun surely helped the series build the audience and lead up to this first episode. But its ratings were uncertain: the first season began enjoying success only after January, with no apparent explanation, surely it wasn’t clear whether this second season could keep up with that. Luckily for producers, it was successful: with almost 19 point of ratings (which is roughly 32 millions people), it increased on the first season finale, although it was not the same level as the Pilot one year earlier (20.6 ratings and 35 million audience), but that was a special 90 minutes episode, so its ratings are not well representative of most episodes in the season. Also, the Pilot was the most watched episode of Season One (and quite a successful one), so it would be hard to go better than that. But that’s exactly what happens with part two up next, which won’t even be the only episode in the season with ratings that good.