Airdate: 10/01/1986

Directed By: Michael Landon

This is the second half of the uplifting adoption story that opens the show’s third season. And it’s the only two part episode of the season. Also, it marks the last appearance of Scotty and Diane, and it basically encapsulates all the features of the episodes with those two characters.

Complete show available here.

Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are assigned to work as coaches at the Special Olympics.

The context remains largely the same, but the assignment is now slightly different: Jonathan and Mark are working as trainers for the Special Olympics—a real sporting competition for athletes with mental impairments of any age. There, they befriend Todd (notably, the only child in this episode portrayed by an actor without disabilities) and train him for the competition. At the same time, they help Scotty and Diane, who have just learned they cannot have children, be open to the idea of adoption — and let them become Todd’s friend after meeting him during his training.

So, part one concluded with Todd misunderstanding Scotty’s motivational speech as an intention to adopt him, and the kid now is convinced that if he wins the upcoming Olympics, Scotty and Diane will take him in.

In part two, after weeks of training, everything is ready for the actual Olympics.

And, just like for Deke in One Fresh Batch Of Lemonade, there’s Scotty there.

So, it’s Todd’s turn now.

It seems like Scotty is a bad presence: when there’s a sport assignment where he’s involved, the subject of the assignment always loses.

But Scotty and Diane decide to adopt Todd after the race.

And, just like on the Deke’s assignment, everybody is happy all the same.

At least now they are not pretending to clap.

However, they didn’t consider that Todd’s biological parents only placed him in a foster home, but never gave the kid up for adoption — and do not intend to do it now — sparking a battle for the custody.

As with Scotty and Diane’s appearance in The Monster Part Two, this episode becomes a courtroom assignment. Basically, Scotty’s first appearance was in a sport episode, his third in a court one, and now, for his last, they combined both.

But, it’s a surprisingly realistic take. Unlike To Touch the Moon, where a random kid essentially becomes adoptable after having a laugh with his future mother in a very 1980s scene, now they go through the actual difficulties and detailed procedures of adoption.

• Background

The episode picks up presumably some time after part one, as it concluded with Todd training for the Olympics, while now they are in the actual Olympics. Then, it likely spans a couple of months. That’s apparent because, when Jonathan and Mark go visit Scotty and Diane to see how they’re getting along with Todd, they mention he’s been with them for six weeks.

That is then followed by the time it takes to settle the adoption when Todd’s parents won’t give him up, so it’s likely the episode spans at least two months. Now, considering part 1 was similarly of a couple of months, it means this two part episode is one of the longest spanning one of the series. Actually, they also mention that Todd has to go to school, which plausibly means it doesn’t take place in the summer, but maybe he attends some kind of different school that’s open all year long.

However, there’s also the unresolved question of Mark’s remark at the end of A Song for Jason, where he thanked the kid for the time he had spent there.

Now, the series never clarifies whether he did, or how such return would fit within this season’s episodes. It’s possible Mark went back for the camp for one week, and the series didn’t show it (it’s been established that the series doesn’t show all the assignments Jonathan and Mark work on). However, if that were the case, it would be hard to place that as before or after this episode, which seemingly keeps him busy three months. Or maybe he just never got back there.

Give him a break, will ya.

• Characters

This episode is notable as it marks the last appearance of Scotty and Diane, the two most recurring character of the series.

Actually, they are going to come back in a flashback during the episode Love And Marriage later on in the season. However, that’s just for a scene in the prologue — and that prologue wasn’t part of the original episode, but was added later when the series went to syndication — so it’s not really new material.

Now, considering it’s the end of their story, it might be useful to recap how they got there: Scotty Wilson was introduced in the two part episode One Fresh Batch Of Lemonade, where he was an aspiring attorney, and a friend of Deke, the subject of the assignment.

It seemed like he was just like any other background character of the series, making a guest appearance once and never again.

But then, unexpectedly, he came back in the episode A Match Made In Heaven, now with a practice of his own. There, Jonathan and Mark set him to fall in love with Diane, an up and coming architect who is also Mark’s cousin.

So, Jonathan and Mark try to match them. And thanks to Scotty’s help, she gets a promotion at her job, and her attitude becomes more like this.

Then, they got caught up a near-fatal car accident. But they recovered, and eventually got married and lived happily.

Not quite.

Diane called Mark up in the episode The Monster one season later, and it turned out that she quit her job that she liked so much (and that Scotty helped her land) to then get it back because Scotty couldn’t find any client for his practice.

But, no panic: Jonathan helps him find a client, Scotty wins the case and she can be back housekeeping, and planning to become mother.

So, that’s where they were in Part 1: Scotty makes a summary of what they’ve been up to.

Not really.

Eventually, they are convinced to adopt a baby, until Jonathan matches them with Todd, a mentally impaired kid who mistakenly believes Scotty and Diane want to adopt him.

So, after learning Todd’s intention, Scotty makes it clear that he only likes the kid.

And his attitude now becomes more like this.

Of course they were going to adopt him.

But only after a lengthy battle with Todd’s parents.

And Scotty and Diane’s journey along the Highway stops here. Now, they can move on.

It seems they all got what they wanted except for Mark, who is not going to have a nephew carrying his name (as Diane promised him in The Monster). But he can still hope in his sister for that.

Curiously, the direction of Scotty’s character was improvised: originally, Scotty was meant to appear as a secondary character just in that season one episode with Deke, and be like all the rest of the guest characters in the series (one appearance and then move on). But then he was convinced by French to write a script for an episode that could expand on the character by drawing on his personal experience and marriage to Theresa Troesh, so they made A Match Made In Heaven (more details about it at the “Production and Setting” entry here). And by the time they made that episode, Troesh was talking with Landon about another episode where Scotty and Diane would become parents. And here we are now.

While new recurring characters will appear in the show (they haven’t been introduced yet), none of them will last as long as Scotty and Diane, the couple made in Heaven. By a probationary angel and an alcoholic former cop.

• Production and Setting

In terms of production, part two was filmed in July over the course of a week following part one. The production took place during the actual Special Olympics held at UCLA in 1986 (which apparently took place by July 13), so the episode was produced around that time, at least one week earlier than season two.

But the idea for the episode is dated back to season one: in a 1985 interview with the Arizona Republic to promote the episode of A Match Made In Heaven, it’s reported that James Troesh had proposed Landon a new episode featuring Scotty trying to become parent. However, for some reasons, that idea was held for season three (and used in this episode), while the character came back in season two for an assignment unrelated to that (about his job and domestic life). Also, this episode is being written by Gordon, just like that season two episode. Maybe that explains why Scotty and Diane on that episode appear so different compared to A Match Made In Heaven (Diane quit the job she craved for, Scotty wasn’t an attorney anymore): they weren’t written by the same person, and maybe Gordon had a different idea of what to do with the characters. But he could do that, because he created the character in the first place: he wrote the episode Scotty was introduced in, Troesh only joined in later.

Anyway, likely something must have happened if Troesh didn’t write the script of this episode partly inspired by his premise, and had to put off that premise for two seasons — and then it got written by someone else. Maybe he wrote a script but it was so heavily edited that he withdrew from it, or maybe he wanted to make it more about Scotty and Diane being parents than Special Olympics, adoption and family issue.

Glossary

Family issue: it’s the category of the assignment.

Actors (Highway Lifetime, Little House actors): as for the actors, most of the kids with mental impairment have been cut out, because the assignment is not about the Special Olympics anymore. Now, they have introduced Todd’s siblings and mother.

The eldest brother is Josh Brolin, who by then had already appeared in The Goonies, and whose father James Brolin would curiously appear in season five of Touched By An Angel, the religious copy of Highway that partially tried to replicate its success (more details about it here). His son was more prescient, choosing Highway instead.

The eldest daughter is played by Michelle Bennett, who had a recurring role in the series The Yellow Rose and then got on Highway, and then made another guest appearance in another TV series and retired from acting.

Instead, the character of Todd’s mother is played by Sheila Larken, who is not a new face to French and to the Little House audience.

She had a part on Little House in the season nine episode Sins Of The Father, where she played a wealthy woman who had just moved to town, and who hides a secret. Even though that was a background character appearing in a couple of scenes. And being in season nine, the second least watched season of that series, doesn’t help much — but she was there. On that episode she was directed by French, even though his character didn’t appear, so they didn’t play together — and Landon was completely absent.

Now, she can be directed by Landon and play with both. And she is the first Little House actor of the season.

Anyway, there are three Highway actors in the episode: one is Paul Walker, in his second appearance in the series (the first one is here, as a different character), while the other two actors are James Troesh as Scotty and Margie Impert as Diane, both in their last appearances.

In particular, after this episode, James Troesh continued his career as actor on various TV series, and writer too — he revealed in a 1985 interview with the Arizona Republic that he was writing his autobiography Tragedy Transformed, and that he had intended to publish it by the end of the year, but that never happened. Still, he had a couple of stints, but his career “slowed down” after this series. In 2005, he won a writing contest, and began working on the pilot of a his own TV series, “The Outsiders“, about a weird alien who comes to Earth to be famous and after some years is chewed out by the public and becomes a bum (there has to be some inspiration from Highway there). But that pilot was never produced, apparently. Then, he appeared on a couple of TV series, including the ABC sitcom Special Unit that never moved after the first episode.

What did happen was his own sitcom, The Hollywood Quad, which was partly inspired by his own life and career. However, it concluded in 2011, when he died at the age of 55, as noticed by many people, the same age French and Landon both were by the time of their own death 20 years prior him.

Instead, Margie Impert’s role is of much importance: this episode marks the end of her entire career. After this Highway show, she retired from acting at the age of 38 and little is known about what she has done since. Apparently, in 1982 she got married to fellow actor and producer Ronald Rubin, who similarly retired around those same years (his last credit as producer is dated 1987, followed by a movie in 1991 as writer), so maybe they did something together; or maybe she did like Diane in the series, who seemingly loved her job when she’s introduced in A Match Made In Heaven and then turned into a housewife upon marrying a man.

That’s what she retired for, and Highway inspired her.

Either way, she is now a Highway Lifetime actress (someone who concluded the career with one episode of this series).

Sunday Suits: when the characters go to court, Jonathan and Mark decide to wear the Sunday suits, the first time in the season.

However, Mark’s remains largely the same while Jonathan’s is noticeably different. Why this change was made is unclear, especially because Jonathan later returns to his usual one in future episodes.

Curiously, that’s the second time in the series: Jonathan looked like that in the second season finale too.

The Job: they still work as Special Olympics coaches, although they are basically never shown working there. Also, it seems like Jonathan never uses the Stuff in the episode, except when he puts Josh up to meet Todd.

Ratings: 29 million, 24th weekly TV programs, 4th TV genre show.

As for the ratings, the episode aired in October 1986, one week after the part one (the season began one week later than usual), around the same time the UN declared 1986 the “year of the Special Olympics” (weird coincidence). Maybe the season began one week later than usual because they were waiting for the announcement.

Anyway, it improved the ratings of Part 1 by one point. However, the general ratings were not particularly high compared to the second season. Actually, they were just on par with the Season 2 finale, which was the least watched episode of that season. It’s worth noting that the first part of the episode saw a dip in audience numbers, so the increase in ratings, even though by just one point, was positive. Still, it remained to be seen how the series would perform in the upcoming episodes. But again, the ratings are the same as those in season one, which was good, so there’s nothing to be worried about, yet. Maybe the audience just didn’t want to hear another adoption story.