There it goes: a very weird episode. It’s not really peculiar in terms of assignment, but rather in how it was handled; which is similar to what happened with For The Love Of Larry part 1, but different at the same time.

So, here’s the context: usually, most episodes of Highway run 45 minutes. Instead, this episode originally aired as a single one hour and ten minutes show; however, when it was sold into syndication, it was divided into two parts. This is similar to what happened with the Pilot, which originally ran for 90 minutes (two hours including commercials), so when it went to syndication they divided it in two parts.

The problem here is that, unlike the Pilot, this episode isn’t 90 minutes long, but only about one hour and ten minutes. That makes it too short to function properly as a two-part episode, yet too long to fit into a single 45-minute TV slot — it’s important to keep in mind that TV has fixed slot, and a show must run either 30 minutes or one hour, both cases including commercials (double episodes can get one or two hours). The original network can stretch the slot according to the show (usually, the span of Highway episodes is 46 to 50 minutes), but syndication is stricter, and the time has to be exactly 44 or 45 minutes for a show.

So, initially, the episode Love And Marriage aired as a single one hour and ten minutes episode (which got one hour and a half with commercials). But later, when it was sold in syndication, they realized it could work neither as a one-parter or as a two-parter, as syndication is stricter on time. In one interview, Kent McCray (longtime Landon’s friend and producer of some of his series) revealed that one episode of Highway (this episode) was 90 minutes long (including commercials), and in syndication, a ninety minutes show is “worthless”; to fix that, Landon decided to write a new 30 minutes prologue (twenty minutes and commercials) that would be added at the beginning, and then split the episode into two parts to sell it to syndication.

It’s unclear when it was shot, though it’s likely early 1988, as the third season went to syndication that year.

To prevent going overbudget, McCray (who also decided the production schedule of each episode) slipped this new segment in while they were having a “slow day” making another episode, in order to use the budget for that episode to make this prologue, instead of spending more money as if it were a new episode.

Something similar had already happened a few episodes earlier on For The Love Of Larry; however, on that occasion they added only a 10-minute scene unrelated to the episode. This time, instead, they inserted an entirely new prologue—that contains some huge revelations within the context of the series. Of course, the most important difference is that, in For The Love Of Larry, it was actually unclear whether the cold open was added later or not, while for this episode the producer Kent McCray confirmed that it was something new Landon specifically wrote when the episode went to syndication, and that they shot it later, during season four or five. Also, in For The Love Of Larry, that was a random cold open that had nothing to do with the actual episode, while this prologue will be somehow related to the assignment later.

But it’s mostly about Landon and French and their friendship.

Assignment: Mark is “assigned” to remind Jonathan of their anniversary

Apparently, Jonathan and Mark are staying at a motel—and there’s already a couple of issues to address here.

One, that’s a recycle from Change Of Life, where Jonathan and Mark were staying exactly in that same motel.

The recycling isn’t the real problem—this certainly isn’t the first time the series does it, nor will it be the last—but the fact that this same location will be recycled again after this prologue (on the actual Love And Marriage show), although that assignment supposedly takes place somewhere far away from that motel.

Then, there’s Mark, and something immediately feels off: he looks different. Not that he’s played by a different actor (to name one, Merlin Olsen, just a random name), but in his appearance.

He’s partially shaved, and his beard has turned white. That’s a huge indicator that something isn’t right, because throughout the series he’s always looked more or less the same, with a brown beard and long hair (compare to Love At Second Sight, one episode ago).

Here, he’s clearly different.

In fact, in the first three seasons he has always remained the same, while in the fourth season he strats looking different. And the way French looks now is exactly how he is in season four, when his character first starts to appear slightly different, with a shorter beard and grey hair; then in season five, the beard is mostly white and he will also trim his hair.

Jonathan, on the other hand, looks exactly the same from the Pilot and To Touch The Moon (which was produced around four months later) all the way through the series (largely because Landon himself didn’t change much, aside from dyeing his hair to look younger).

Anyway, Mark’s different beard and hair (or rather, French and his new hair) are a further confirmation that this scene was produced way later: it wasn’t written for this episode and wasn’t shown when it originally aired. Instead, it was done in one day and then added to Love And Marriage when the third season was sold into syndication.

Now, there are three possible slots to place the production of this prologue: one is in Spring 1987 between the end of season three and the beginning of season four. However, that’s hard to believe, as Kent McCray revealed in his interview that they shot this opening during a while making another episode on a “slow day”, which means this episode was shot concurrent to something else.

Considering that (according to a Los Angeles Herald Examiner article dated 1988) the third season went to syndication in September 1988, it’s likely this prologue was made that year: more specifically, either in January (during production of season four), or in May, around the time of the first episode of season five. With a poker-flush confidence, it’s likely it was produced around the same time as “A Dolphin Song For Lee” in January 1988, by the conclusion of season four. That’s largely because the dates are fitting, and the beginning of that episode also takes place in a motel with the characters wearing the same clothes. Or at least Mark does, because Jonathan has never changed that blue shirt (except when he puts on his Sunday Suit), but whatever.

Anyway, Mark is putting candles on a birthday cake while Jonathan tells him he’s missing a game on TV. Mark brushes him off, saying he’s almost done, then brings out the cake.

Happy anniversary to you.

But there are some very big issues here. And it’s not that it’s the first time the characters are shown celebrating their anniversary as though they had never done that before. That could be justified by assuming they just didn’t show the way they spent their three prior anniversaries in the series (the same way they skipped one Halloween holiday in the series).

Actually, the problem is elsewhere.

Now, this episode is in the third season, and considering that one season takes about a year, and that the Pilot is set in early 1984 (more about it here), this would place this episode in early 1988, when the fourth season takes place. And Mark’s hair and overall look are exactly how he appears in the fourth and fifth seasons, as though this episode really took place then, and not during season three. So, if that’s really their fourth anniversary, and Mark looks like he will in season four and five, it’s impossible for this episode to occur in the third season (which is when Love And Marriage is supposed to be set).

But it’s also impossible to place it in the fourth or fifth season the same way, because in the rest of the episode (after this prologue, or cold open or whatever), Mark will look exactly the same as he did in the season three, which supposedly takes place in 1987, not later. Of course, that’s obvious, because only this prologue was shot and added later (during either the fourth or fifth season) — while the rest of the “Love And Marriage” show was shot in 1986, during the summer, when Mark (or rather French) looked the same as always.

So, there’s no way this episode could take place earlier than 1988 (i.e., earlier than the fourth season), when Mark starts looking like that — but at the same time, the way Mark looks in the rest of the show after this improvised prologue matches his third-season appearance, which was set between 1986 and concludes in 1987 (with the exception of one episode, which took place in 1988, seemingly).

But that was really just an exception.

What it all boils down to is that, assuming this episode really does take place during season three (and for some reasons Mark would not look like this for the rest of the episode), then it means this episode is set in 1987, and it would be the only exception to the idea that the Pilot is set in 1984 (more details about it at the guidelines). In that case, the Pilot would be set on November 1983 (their fourth anniversary being now). But again, this prologue isn’t entirely part of the series — at least, by the time it aired it wasn’t part of it. Actually, it was even removed from the latest DVD release of the series. Besides, the point that the Pilot is set in early 1984 has been indirectly confirmed multiple times throughout the series.

More likely, Landon wrote this while they were at the conclusion of season four, which means it would have been their fourth anniversary together (again, possibly during A Dolphin Song For Lee). Except he forgot this segment was meant to be added to a season three episode.

So, this episode (or rather, this prologue) is just an anomaly that isn’t supposed to be there. And everything the characters say here will be an exception, sometimes even a contradiction compared to what happens in the rest of the series.

Now, back here: Mark reveals that it’s their fourth anniversary— although the precise date of this day is a mystery. And Jonathan has completely forgotten about it.

Some friend, isn’t it.

Now, Mark tells Jonathan to turn off the TV and have some cake.

Two things are odd here. First, Mark, the man who almost never get his A’s cap off, would rather share cake with Jonathan than watch a game on TV (and asked a probationary angel to use the Stuff on a game).

Another sign that he’s not quite the same person.

Second, he’s offering Jonathan cake. After all these years, he still forgets that Jonathan is an angel, and doesn’t have to eat (unless he has a reason to, as in Keep Smiling from season two).

Anyway, they set the cake on the table to blow out the candles and celebrate their anniversary.

And Mark entices Jonathan to tell him what he wished for.

And Jonathan ruins the moment.

What.

Hold on a second: that means Jonathan has just read Mark’s mind. There’s no other way he could know. This is the first time in the entire series that he does anything like that—and it happens in a random prologue whose status as official episode is unclear at best.

And what does it mean he can’t help it: as thought he were always listening to other people’s thoughts, like all the time.

But also, if Jonathan can read Mark’s mind (and “can’t help it,” too), how come he didn’t know what Mark was up to when he brought the cake? It really doesn’t work.

Anyway, Jonathan tries to reassure Mark.

I thought that Mark wouldn’t want to be on probation when he becomes an angel.

Now, it’s hard to believe that Mark would want to stay on Earth forever, working the angel’s job (and complaining he never gets a holiday). But apparently that’s what he wished for, same as Jonathan too.

So, you’d rather stay on Earth with your buddy that being in Heaven, alongside your wife.

It’s hard to believe that Jonathan wished for that too: he has a wife, and he’s eager to spend eternity with her in Heaven (as he will reveal in a fourth-season episode).

This prologue is already starting to show its first problematic features, and there’s plenty more to come next.

As they cut the cake, Mark feels nostalgic.

Except it should be two years.

Nobody reminded Landon that the prologue was supposed to air in season three, even though they were going to make it during season four.

Suddenly, Mark reveals what it’s all about.

You mean as a character or an actor?

So, it’s a cold open with two buddies talking about friendship. Not when they met on Bonanza: he’s talking about the Pilot. This episode is the first one of the series to include flashbacks using archival footage from earlier episodes (there’s will be only another one with this feature in season four). In fact, the entire prologue works this way, with Jonathan and Mark making some recaps of past events from the series.

In some way, it’s basically the same as the Little House Years in 1979, a three-hour Thanksgiving special episode of Little House in which the characters gather around the table recollecting memories from earlier seasons, with flashbacks from one episode from each season. It’s possible that this Highway prologue is a recycle of that idea. Because Landon didn’t want to waste any more time writing a prologue for this Highway episode, so he thought he might as well recycle an old idea from Little House once more (not the first time either).

Curiously, that Little House special aired on TV during the sixth season but is only optionally sold in syndication and was never released on DVD, while this Highway prologue never aired on TV alongside the rest of the third season but exists only in syndication and in the early DVD versions (it was then removed from the most recent one).

Anyway, now that the cards have been revealed, the prologue begins with the first flashback, and it starts from the Pilot, which had aired twice by the (once originally in September 1984, and once again in the spring rerun of season one during May 1985, after the season finale). So, by the time this prologue was made, it’s been four years, and maybe someone in the audience doesn’t remember that.

It’s been too long even for Mark, as he doesn’t clearly remember the moment he first met Jonathan.

Except it wasn’t night. You forgot already.

Curiously, Mark introduces the scene as “The night I met you”, but he had actually met Jonathan earlier in the episode, at Leslie’s apartment. Even though they didn’t interact on that occasion.

Anyway, more specifically about this night, Mark is talking about the moment he was drunk and two thugs started beating him up. So, that scene from the Pilot of the series plays out.

Do you remember that?

It’s the moment Jonathan used his otherworldly strength for the first time in the series, lifting up a thug (likely using a box placed between them).

Jonathan turned the other cheek.

Then, after that, there’s another memory from the Pilot: when Mark confronted Jonathan after finding nothing in Jonathan’s empty house.

He asked about the more pressing issue: how can Jonathan be perfectly shaved like that.

And Jonathan had to confess his identity to Mark (without ever mentioning the wings, in case people still believed they have something do with this).

So, after this double flashback from the Pilot, they come back to the present (season three, season four or whatever).

And you’re right: from season three, that was just two years ago.

Anyway, once they are done with the Pilot, they move on: Jonathan brings up another assignment.

That’s from the season-two episode Change of Life, and there’s a flashback to that as well.

Of course: that’s the most successful episode of the entire series in terms of ratings—the only one watched by more than 40 million people—so it was inevitable they would include it in a “best of compilation” episode like this.

Curiously, Jonathan doesn’t remember the name of the actress.

But Mark does.

Now, Jonathan forgetting an assignment is already strange, but it’s even more unusual that he wouldn’t simply read Mark’s mind to find it. If he really has unlocked the mindreading power by now.

Again, his power is strange.

But now there comes the most outlandish part of all. After concluding with the trading place episode flashback—which lasts only one minute compared to the others, likely because Landon realized this prologue was getting too long and there was still an episode to get to, one that is mostly unrelated—Mark asks Jonathan one question.

And it’s that question, a big one.

That’s it, we’re getting there.

Jonathan is evasive.

And, after briefly looking around, he replies.

Now, two things to point out: one, that he has used the Stuff again to hear what Mark was thinking, but he briefly looked around to do that. It seemingly implies that he either had to ask for his superior’s permission (which means reading other people’s mind is one of those classified powers), or maybe that Jonathan was just waiting for Mark to have an idea.

Also, Jonathan’s answer is weird: he’ saying that he shares Mark’s assignment too. However, it would be reasonable if the most important assignment for Jonathan would be that one in season two helping his own wife, in Keep Smiling, and it’s unlikely Mark would have liked that more than others.

Either way, that’s it: now Mark is about to reveal what was the best assignment so far. And there’s plenty of them he can choose from: maybe he is thinking about their job as counselors at the camp in A Song for Jason, which concluded with Mark telling the kids he had spent the best week of his life there. Actually, that particular episode suggests Mark will work as summer counselor for the rest of his life (more details about it at the “Characters” entry here). And that seems confirmed when, on season four, Mark and Jonathan will briefly part way (episode “We Have Forever“), and Mark decides to go to work again at a different camp alone, implying that he’ll set with this job as counselor for the rest of his life after the series, even when Jonathan will eventually end his probation and they will be separated.

So, A Song For Jason sounds like a solid bet here.

Or maybe Mark is thinking about the peculiar assignment in Help Wanted: Angel and his love story with Stella— emotional, dramatic, and and important one to him. And they even got married at the end of that episode, that’s not something you can quickly dismiss like any other assignment.

It could even be The Good Doctor, which begins with Mark exclaiming that it’s the best assignment of them all simply because they’re going to work with a football team (even though the episode is actually about drugs, but Mark doesn’t know yet).

This assignment is less likely, but he had actually said that.

Basically, there are several potential episodes that Mark might be thinking could be the best assignment.

And Jonathan totally defies the audience by revealing the truth.

No way.

The best assignment ever was getting his cousin Diane to fall in love with Scotty in A Match Made in Heaven.

Out of all the episodes they could have mentioned, it’s that one.

Then you should remind your friend of the many better assignments you’ve worked on.

The only way to justify that is that Mark easily forgets stuff, which isn’t something new: one example of that is in Heaven On Earth in season two.

And the problem is that even Jonathan remarks that was the best assignment. Even though they barely even participated in that assignment—they disappeared at the beginning and only return when things start going wrong. Mark, in particular, contributes nothing.

And Mark even admits this here, saying that Scotty wouldn’t have married Diane if Jonathan hadn’t convinced him.

That’s the point: Jonathan convinced them.

Mark didn’t do anything to help them.

Now, of course, this reference was made because it ties to the rest of the episode (it’s about Love And Marriage, clearly), but the problem is that Landon (who wrote this) forced the reference to that episode by having Mark call it the “best assignment,” which feels far-fetched given everything Mark has been through over the course of the series.

Also, if they really chose it because A Match Made In Heaven is a love episode about “Love And Marriage”, then Help Wanted: Angel was partly about marriage too, so they could have mentioned that. Probably it wasn’t popular enough (it’s still the least watched episode so far, although it will be negatively surpassed soon). Which would be more of a reason to talk about it, for that matter.

But maybe they talked about it because French was inserting his own opinion: in an article dated 1988 on the Los Angeles Times, he mentioned that one day he came home to watch a Highway show “that had a quadriplegic actor in it“, and he reportedly started crying, being glad to be part of this series an actor like that “is able to do that“. It’s implied he was talking about A Match Made In Heaven (although he didn’t specify it further, and it could be The Monster too).

Or maybe they talked about this episode because there were Scotty and Diane in it, and they are the two most recurring characters of the entire series (more details about their evolution here). So, they play an important role, and they had to be in this random prologue too.

Also, their flashback uses an old scene with both actors, James Troesh and Margie Impert, even though they do not appear in the rest of Love And Marriage. But this episode is the last credited appearance of Margie Impert in her career (she’s a Highway Lifetime actor, who retired after making this series). But, again, it’s actually old stuff, so her last “new” credit remains in A Special Love, a couple of years before this prologue was put together, eventually.

Anyway, now that the memories are over, and after Mark eats all the cake by himself, the phone suddenly rings, and Jonathan already knows who that is.

Jonathan is excessively irritating in this episode.

Really, he has never had the mind reading power before, and now he seems he has always used it to poke Mark.

He has endured four years of Friendly Jonathan.

Anyway, it turns out it’s Mark’s friend from the police calling to announce that his daughter is about to get married and wants Mark to be there too.

When Mark starts telling Jonathan about it, he’s interrupted again.

Two odd things stand out here. First, how many friends does Mark supposedly have in the police force that nobody had never heard of—and why do they keep reappearing now? Mark was drunk, suspended from the police, and seemed to have no friends at all until the Pilot, when Jonathan met Jonathan and helped him overcome his alcoholism and become a better person. None of these friends were there then. Then, a cop wrote a letter to involve him in some dangerous drug operations, then another cop invited him to spend time with his family by the beach, and now, a cop he hasn’t heard from in years calls him to invite him to a wedding. What happened in the meantime? Did everyone abandon him and then suddenly remember he exists?

This isn’t even the first time the series does this. Again, Plane Death begins the same way, with a police friend Mark hasn’t heard from in years suddenly writing him a letter asking for help—without knowing whether Mark has reformed or not.

The second odd thing is Jonathan’s behavior. He keeps interrupting Mark, persistently and seemingly just to annoy him, by telling him what Mark is thinking. But he’s never done this before. Of course, he’s always been friendly, but never like that. In fact, he’s never used mind reading at all. So why the heck does he have to do this.

Then stop it, or you’re a liar too.

It’s definitely the most annoying of the Friendly Jonathan instances.

Anyway, Mark tells Jonathan they have to leave soon.

Because nobody said Jonathan could go to the marriage, but he’s following Mark all the same. Even though nobody at the marriage knows him.

It seems like Jonathan is more afraid Mark will go out get drunk if he’s not there.

You don’t trust your friend, that’s it.

Also, Mark has to get his stuff, while Jonathan is “ready”, which is weird: he has a bag too.

That’s another mystery.

Before leaving, Jonathan predicts that Mark ought to go to the bathroom before heading out.

And what power is that: future foretelling?

Mark initially dismisses him.

And suddenly, he rushes off—dropping several cutes along the way.

Now, one thing is having the power to perceive thoughts, but another is actually telling the future: here, Jonathan knows what Mark had before Mark did. That’s way too big of a power for Jonathan. And he does never use that in the series.

It seems like Landon wrote this prologue without worrying much about how it will actually fit with the rest of the series.

But Jonathan laughs, and something feels off: it isn’t the usual way Landon used to laugh. It seems to have been dubbed by someone else at a later point.

And that unsettling sneer.

So, they go, and the actual episode begins then.

Now, this prologue is certainly peculiar, and revelatory as well. It’s clear that this prologue is a later addition for multiple reasons: besides McCray’s interview in which he confirms it, another is that in the new DVD version of the series it was distributed the original way, without this weird cold open (which can only be found in the first 2003 DVD release, that used the syndicate version of the episodes). Then, the episode’s introduction is different as well: they used the opening introduction and music from seasons four and five, which is slightly altered compared to the first three seasons (this incorrect opening is likely a result of distribution issues). In the original airing (in 1986, without this prologue), the episode probably had the usual opening and theme song, but when it was sold into syndication, episodes that were originally meant to be single-part and later split into two used the newer opening instead (the same thing happened with the Pilot).

But the most important different is that the actors look different, and act different: Mark is older (the way he will be in season four and five), Jonathan has one power (reading people’s ideas) that has never been used before in the first three seasons (but he will be using it in season four and five), and another power that he’ll never use anymore (foreseeing the future).

And then they celebrate the fourth anniversary, which matches the year they made this prologue (likely in early 1988) but not the season it was placed in. Landon wrote it without context.

But, in retrospect, it’s a much earnest opening: it was created when the third season was sold into syndication during the fourth season—by that point they likely knew that the series wouldn’t have much of a future (because of the fourth season’s ratings). And they were sadly right, since the fifth season was the last.

So, this prologue isn’t just an introduction to a random third-season episode: in some way, it gives the characters— and the actors — the chance to look back on the years they spent together on the series. And their wish from the beginning, that they’ll “always be working together“, sounds like French and Landon talking about each other (and the crew behind Highway), knowing they were realistically going to have one season left, and wishing they’ll be able to work as long as they could. And maybe someday do something together again.

They couldn’t work together anymore though: in 1989, just three months after making the series finale and before the fifth season could finish airing its few shows, French was diagnosed with a lung disease, and died on June of the same year. And in 1991, two years later, Landon was diagnosed with a similar disease while he was working on a new show (that he immediately interrupted upon learning of his condition), and died on early July of that year — before he could make another series after Highway. Despite all the contradictions and problematic aspects, this “anniversary” in one of the last chances Landon and French had to be together in their careers.

That hits different now.