Season 2 Overview

Airdate: 11/13/1985

Directed By: Michael Landon

Just like every season, there’s a sports episode here too, and this one centers around baseball. Because, who doesn’t like baseball in America (Mark certainly loves it). And if someone believes football is more popular, there’s also going to be a football episode later — but that’s different story.

Complete show available here.

Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are assigned to help a struggling baseball team win the league while giving support to the local neighborhood.

In the assignment, Jonathan and Mark work as a pair of sport journalist with the intention to give some publicity to the Toros Baseball team, which has lost literally every game so far. So, it is a sport assignment.

But it’s also an unusual job: on most sport episode in the series (as in One Fresh Batch Of Lemonade, and some future episodes as well), every time they have an assignment like make some people win in a competition or whatever, they work as their coach or trainer, while this time they are just some journalists.

And that’s a fictional column, too.

In that way, it’s quite peculiar, yet it’s for a good reason: in their assignment, they do not have to just help the team, but also the neighborhood, which includes such Mr. Tilly, a retired player who has just lost his stand outside the stadium. Most importantly, in their effort he is insistently in love with his neighbor. So, the second love assignment of the season (compare to Cindy for the first one).

But it remains a sport assignment, and as any good sport episode, it concludes with a ball game.

It’s the first baseball assignment of the series, and they probably wrote it because they were tired of skipping a week show for the Word Series game (as they did here) so they made one to compete with them.

• Background

As for the dates, the assignment takes place in the summer, as suggested by Mrs. Taylor, when Tilly explains that he couldn’t help her sooner with her window, and she replies she already knew that by her students.

The span of the episode is unclear: over the assignment, the Toros team wins nine games in a row, and the final match is supposedly their tenth. So, assuming there’s one match every week (although they never explain that), it could be possible the assignment spans for some two or three months. If that were the case, it means the episode lasts for the whole 1985 summer, plausibly beginning right after A Song For Jason (which was set in early summer fro a couple of weeks).

Also, by taking it that Jonathan and Mark’s job is basically just to encourage the team in their first games, and that they only have to be there the day of the game, it is likely during the weeks between games they leave and work on something else in the meantime (as it had happened here), plausibly some assignments they never show in the series.

Instead, as for the setting, there’s something peculiar to point out: the Toros team is not a fictional one created for the series just because they couldn’t pay for the Oakland Athletics, but it was real professional baseball team.

Apparently, they were founded in the 1960s as Tucson Toros, then in 2008 they changed their names to “Sidewinners” and in 2011 they closed down.

Mark’s is better.

Still, what’s important to point out is that the team was based in Tucson, and that’s where the episode takes place as well. That is confirmed also because the newspaper Jonathan and Mark work for (and that most characters read in the episode) is called The Tucson Tribune, (not “consolidated news” as Jonathan mentioned earlier, but maybe they just write for two different newspapers at the same time)

Anyway, it’s the second time they create a fictional newspaper (the first time was the “Rose Beach Sentinel” right one episode ago), and there are going to be more fictional newspapers in the following episodes. Yet, what matters here is that it confirms they are out of California, and are currently working in Tucson; but just this time.

• Characters

It’s the first episode of the series dealing with baseball, a sport that Mark likes, if his cap weren’t enough h to prove that. Although it’s quite weird to see him with that on: I mean, he works for a real baseball team, but he hangs around wearing the cap of some rival team, and nobody ever mentions that.

Also, in the episode he’s actually shown throwing the ball around with some kids.

That’s something he will be doing again in the series.

• Production and Setting

The episode was produced from September 3rd over the course of one week. So, it was produced immediately before the Halloween Special two episodes ago, and one month before the preceding episode (it’s unclear why they pulled it off for so long).

As for the writing, there’s one curious thing to point out: the episode was written by Vince R. Gutierrez, who is already Highway sound editor and occasionally writer too. But he’s not entirely a highwayman, both because he’ll be writing more in the future seasons, and also because he was not unfamiliar with Landon and French before this series. Apparently, as he wrote in an article, he started his career as editor trained by his uncle who used to work for Paramount. Then, he moved to sound editor for Bonanza and Little House too. So, thanks to his credits on those series, he became friend with Landon and began a new career as writer, starting with the sixth season of Little House and writing again for its eight and ninth season, including episodes as The Wild Boy (the impressive one with Anthony Zerbe, who also appeared in the Halloween Special here) and Look Back To Yesterday (the final movie with Matthew Laborteaux, who also appeared by the conclusion of season 1 here). He also wrote a bunch of episodes in Father Murphy (the Landon’s series nobody watched) and then followed Landon as his sound editor on Highway. Now, after one season in that role, he’s decided to write something, the way he did on Little House.

Curiously, he’s the second screenwriter who had worked on Little House to have also collaborated on Highway — the first one is Paul W. Cooper, who already wrote two episodes of Highway in the first season and who is coming back on this second season as well. And that’s it: there’s no other writer from Little House that came back for Highway too. But at least they kept two of their best.

Then, as for the settings, the episode is set in Tucson, and it was produced there as well. It’s quite amusing: basically every episode in the series was produced in California, and the very few exceptions out of Cali are all in Tucson (like the final part of the pilot). I mean, it’s either there or California.

Anyway, this time at least they used the Tucson setting because that’s where the real Tucson Toros played, and they allowed production to use their real image for the show, including their official shirt and their stadium, the Hi Corbett Field.

The stadium is currently used by the University of Arizona baseball team.

• The “Stuff”

In this episode, we get another look at the “Stuff.” Right from the start, Mark is listening to a baseball game on the radio when it suddenly stops working—just like that. It shouldn’t be new for Mark; he’s no stranger to having a faulty radio (remember To Touch the Moon), though that time, Jonathan had deliberately tampered with it. But now, there’s something different. When the radio shuts off, Mark tries to fix it by thumping it, and then complains that his superior won’t let Jonathan use the “Stuff” for some reason.

Now two things to notice here: the first is that in As Difficult As ABC, when Jonathan got stuck in an elevator, he used the old way and thumped it and to get it start working again — and served it to tell Brian (the illiterate basketball player) that everyone can do anything if they believe it.

Yet now that Mark is thumping the radio, this old way of fixing things doesn’t work anymore. So, that goes to show that Jonathan used the Stuff on that episode, and what he told Brian was partially untrue.

Anyone can repair anything with the Stuff, it’s not fair.

The second thing to point out is that Jonathan seemingly confirms what Mark was saying, that his superior won’t let Jonathan use the Stuff.

This introduces two key points: the first one is that Jonathan can’t use the Stuff without permission. It’s unclear whether Jonathan needs to ask for permission to use it, or maybe he can try using it and, if it doesn’t work, that’s the indication he wasn’t allowed to. Either way, it suggests that Jonathan doesn’t have unrestricted access to the Stuff.

For instance, when Jonathan had to defend Mark from some thugs in the Pilot, he just takes one and lifts him in the air. So, maybe Jonathan didn’t ask for permission to do that, but he just took the initiative and, upon seeing his otherworldly strength, he realized he was allowed to use the power.

However, this rule will be bent in a few episodes, leading to two possible conclusions: the first possibility is this episode takes place before the one where Jonathan dies and comes back, as it would be possible that, after his rebirth, he’s given full access to his powers without restriction (more about this at “The Stuff” entry on that episode). The second possibility is that Jonathan lied to Mark and can actually use the Stuff whenever he wants, but he told Mark otherwise.

Glossary:

Angel Revelation: in the final game, Jonathan makes the angel revelation to Tilly as an encouragement.

And also to give him the “Stuff” to win the match.

Otherwise he had no chance.

Anyway, there’s an important difference to point out: unlike the usual angel revelation instances so far, now it occurred at the beginning as soon as Jonathan met the one involved in the assignment, this marks the first time he drops it at the conclusion.

Blooper: there are two large instances here. The first one is about the fictional “Tucson Tribune” newspaper Jonathan and Mark work for. Apparently, it looks just like a regular newspaper, and production tried to make it seem as realistic as they could, even putting Jonathan and Mark’s names near the fictional headline, to make it look as if they actually wrote that fictional article. The problem is that it’s just a front, and the pieces just feature the same three sentences printed over and over.

And they even put “By Jonathan Smith and Mark Gordon” under the headline.

It’s unclear whether they copied it from a real newspaper article, or if they just made up three random sentences and filled everything with those. Either way, all the columns have the exact same sentence about some Government Taxes and a some public outcry. And somebody ran out of ink or something, because in the fourth column they even printed the same sentence twice (“A suggestion that… by the commission“, likely because it was the shortest one). Or maybe they ran out of material to copy from.

Anyway, that applies to literally all the newspapers that appear in the episode, that have those same exact sentences over and over, just printed with a different layout each time. The only partial exception is the first article that Jonathan and Mark write and that Mr. Rogers is reading out loud.

This time, on the first paragraph (under the bull image) they printed the lines Mr. Rogers is reading out loud: “According to Doc Brisby, the problem starts at the top of the owner box…” and that shouldn’t be a problem, because the character is supposedly reading an article about him from the newspaper; so, now, they actually printed something different. The problem is that in the paragraph, at the end of the sentence “No leaders means no wins” there are three dots and then the comment that Mr. Rogers is supposed to say out loud, the part “Yeah, and no wins means you’re gonna be through, Doc“, which is followed by other three dots before concluding the article. I mean, it seems more like they just printed the lines the actor had to say in the scene, and he’s just reading them — in plain sight.

He improvised that “well”, at least.

Or maybe that was actually part of the article, but I’m not sure how many newspaper would write the word “Yeah” or whatever. Maybe that’s why Jonathan and Mark will never work as journalists again in the series.

Then, after he concludes the paragraph, the rest of the newspaper is still about Government Taxes. I mean, it’s not even related to sport.

The second blooper is the final game of the Toros, and Landon puts everything he has into it — with the crowd.

This wasn’t the first time Highway had to use a background stand-in for an episode, but it was definitely the biggest instance of it. And when the players are on the field, it appears that there are no empty seats.

However, that’s just a front (like with the newspaper): once they glance toward the back of the field, there’s an entire section on the left that’s completely empty.

Even though they had the crowd stand up on the right to partially hide that it remains largely visible.

The Angel And Mark: when Jonathan introduces him to the Toros coach.

And my underling, too.

Cute: one instance, when Jonathan makes a joke about playing baseball in heaven without stealing base. Which basically means they do not play at all.

Time-Compressing: there’s one instance, when everybody is training and there’s a series of Tucson Tribune newspapers reporting the Toros are winning each match (although it’s the same sentences).

Actually, there’s something to point out: unlike other instances of time compressing part where David Rose composed a new score (for instances, as it happened here, just to name one), now he uses a rearrangement of Take Me Out To The Ballgame, a 1908 sport hymn. And it’s an important one, as the episode is named after an excerpt from that song (“Buy me some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks“); at least it explains the title, because they never show neither Popcorn nor CrackerJacks nor anything (if it hadn’t been for the hymn, the episode would have probably been included in the list of puzzling titles, like One Fresh Batch Of Lemonade and One Winged Angels in season 1).

Anyway, that marks the third time in the series David Rose makes a new rearranged version of a real composition: the first time was at the conclusion of Another Song For Christmas (with the Christmas tree) and the second time in The Banker And The Bum (when he used Bringing In The Sheaves, which was likely a reference to the Little House hymn).

Little House Actors: there are two familiar faces from Little House here, who were a guest star and and recurring character there. So, the first is Moses Gunn who plays Tilly, the former baseball player turned memorabilia shop owner that Jonathan helps get on the Toros to earn enough money to retire peacefully.

He had previously appeared on Little House as Mr. Keagan, a retired boxer turned farmer thanks to Charles and the family. That sounds similar to what happens here, though now with an angel.

Anyway, he was credited as guest character, but he appeared five times over the course of the series, starting from “The Fighter” in season four, followed by three appearances in season five and one last in the seventh season. Then, apparently, the character died after the conclusion of that season and before the beginning of the eight one — apparently, becau they just cut him out of the series and but nobody mentioned him again.

Also, this wasn’t his only collaboration with Michael Landon after Little House, either: he also appeared in Father Murphy, the short-lived series that nobody watched from around the same time as Little House’s eighth season (the same series this episode’s writer contributed to). Actually, Landon wasn’t actor on that one, just producer, but whatever.

Instead, the second Little House actor is David Friedman, as Kevin the bully of the neighborhood.

He had already appeared in the ninth season of Little House — which was the one almost no one watched — playing the recurring role of Jason, the youngest son of the family that dared to moved into Charles and Caroline’s house when they left the series.

They are the surrogate family.

But he’s not the only actor from that surrogate family that came back working on Highway: the actor playing John (his father, or a surrogate version of Charles) will act in Highway during the fourth season.

Anyway, as Jason he appeared in more than twenty episodes over the course of the season (including the three final movies) and got the chance to work extensively with French, who also directed him several times — and occasionally with Landon, who wasn’t much involved in the season yet directed from time to time.

So, this was the second episode of Highway featuring two Little House actors including one who had a major role (in this case, Friedman was recurring, not a guest); the first time was The Right Thing in season 1. But, although Friedman was an prevalent character on Little House, he has quite a small role here with just and two lines.

The Job: sport journalist. Likely they got it with Jonathan’s connection. And they are certainly doing it great, by repurposing three random sentences unrelated to sport whatsoever. Also, it’s a job Landon is not particularly fond of, considering his relationship with the press. Even Mark is quite puzzled by that.

Me neither. So weird.

And the odd part is that, in one interview dated 1985, Landon confessed that he always handwrote the script, because he didn’t like typewriter and stuff. So, having Landon work as a journalist and write with a machine, it really feels odd. Maybe that was supposed to be one of those references to the actors’ life by taking distance from it (as it just happened on the Halloween episode).

References: there is a very random reference to one of Landon’s all time obsession. That’s the moment he accuses Mr. Rogers of being too selfish and greedy, but now he has a plan to make him turn around, mentioning a book character as example.

He had to point out that one. His kids must still have nightmares for that book.

And Mr. Rogers even knows him, although he’s the same man who reads the newspaper with three random sentences printed all over. It’s definitely unexpected someone that can read a full article with the same thing over and over has actually read a real book — with multiple sentences.

You see, never judge people.

But maybe he never actually read it and just heard about it, otherwise he knew that he becomes good at the end of the book.

Or maybe he really tried to read the first page, and soundly fell asleep after the first page — like Mark did in his attempt one Christmas ago.

Also, it was likely a way to force another obsession, the “bum” one. Although he’s not a real bum in the book.

The “Stuff” Power: Jonathan uses the Stuff first when he gets into the stadium after being kicked off.

In that case, they should have their security checked sometime.

And it happens again.

That’s a lie, he enjoys it.

The second time occurs when Jonathan uses air to carry objects around, when the teacher drops her ticker for the game and he makes it appear right at her doorstep, as if it had been carried by the wind or something.

This power will be used again later on in the season.

But the most important use of the Stuff happens at the end, when Jonathan helps Ted throw the winning pitch in the championship game, securing the victory for the team.

This part is important because of a future episode in the season, in which Jonathan will scold Mark for asking to use the Stuff to make a baseball team win. Although that’s exactly what Jonathan is doing here.

Ratings: 33 million audience. 21st in TV programs, 3rd in TV genre show.

In terms of ratings, the episode performed well, though not as high as some of the earlier episodes of the season (even though it aired one week after the birds one). But still went better than most of season one.

However, this season had a strong track record for ratings, so track of ratings, so it was hard to stand out anyway.