Airdate: 01/21/1986ì7

Directed By: Michael Landon

It’s a new episode of Highway, filmed as Christmas was approaching for the production, and everybody wanted to go home.

Complete show available here.

Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are assigned to help a blind musician reconcile with his bigoted lost wife.

Sounds like many familiar love assignments. Jonathan and Mark are aimlessly wandering around.

Suddenly, by chance, they happen to meet Gabe, a pianist— and most importantly, an old friend of Mark he hasn’t seen nor heard of in years.

That marks the fourth time in the season Mark and an old friend meet again: the first one was Love And Marriage (his old colleague), then Man To Man (his childhood friend) and Oh Lucky Man (a criminal he had arrested); that excludes the episodes his family was the assignment (his cousin Diane in A Special Love and his sister Leslie in Jonathan Smith Goes To Washington). They really changed the direction of the series.

Anyway, this Gabe suffers from a heart condition but won’t give up on his music career. So, he becomes the new assignment, and Jonathan and Mark resolve to help him settle down for a while—at least until he fully recovers.

In order to do that, they bring him to a nearby congregation willing to put him up, unaware that the preacher leading it happens to be his lost love—the woman he left years earlier to pursue his career as a pianist.

What a small world. Or a small Los Angeles.

Now that they are reunited, this love assignment is done, isn’t it.

Now, Jonathan and Mark can be back driving for another ten hours.

But the complication lies in the woman’s character: she is the head of a very strict congregation— the kind of congregation that talks at people’s backs and shuts off whoever disagrees with their methods—and although she still loves him, she has never forgotten his abandonment.

Then Mark has to watch out.

At the same time, she is at strain with her own daughter, who lives like a 1980s teen.

So, the assignment becomes fixing the life of these women, as well as Gabe’s. Basically, it’s like A Child Of God in season one, but turned into a love assignment instead of an illness one.

Of course, it couldn’t possibly be that the the preacher has always loved Gabe and has been waiting for him to come back while she has the perfect relationship with her daughter. Otherwise, this assignment would have been too easy, and Jonathan and Mark would have continued driving for another ten hours.

Give ’em a break, will ya.

• Background

The episode spans is never clear, so it’s likely one week as usual. Of course, two characters are falling in love that fast.

Seeing everybody getting married that fast, no wonder even Mark wanted to do the same then.

The setting is never clear either: at the beginning of the episode, Mark reveals that he has been driving for ten hours.

In California, of course.

So, either they are heading out of California, or they are heading back there.

It’s likely the second one: just a few episodes ago, for Christmas, they went to New York, so now they had to come back home. Actually, it was unclear whether they went to New York by car or by Jonathan’s Stuff, and it’s known that the episodes do not follow a chronological order (more details about it here) So, maybe they were already back.

• Characters

The subject of this assignment is Gabe, who happens to be an old friend of Mark’s from his cop years, though notably not a former colleague.

Perhaps the writers realized they could not continue introducing a new colleague every time (especially while never acknowledging who helped Mark through his alcoholism), so they opted to introduce a distant friend instead. However, unlike prior instances (as in Man To Man), this time Gabe is a friend that Mark met at a club Gabe was playing in, while Mark was serving as a cop. Something similar had already happened in Oh Lucky Man, where Mark met a criminal he had arrested years earlier.

Anyway, this episode is one of the few times in the series Mark is the one introducing Jonathan to other characters (not like the usual “I’m the angel” thing).

After three seasons, Mark can get to do some talking.

Of course, he knows basically everybody in this assignment.

Now, two curious things about Mark, but Jonathan as well: one, the reverend is portrayed as a bigot—someone who scolds people for the way they dress, the music they listen to, and even for smoking. At some point, she lectures Jonathan and Mark about these matters, explaining them why many members of her congregation have turned their back on her.

And Mark clearly does not appreciate it.

He’s like: “That was too painful”.

Keep in mind that Mark used to smoke in season one (episode Hotel Of Dreams, season one).

And keep in mind that French went to the disco once. At least a roller one. That was not a pleasant memory, though.

And he was drunk too.

That will never go away.

And a second thing to point out: at the beginning of the episode, when Gabe is lying in the hospital, Mark decides to go pray for him.

That’s the second time in the entire series Jonathan and Mark are shown going to the church (to pray, not to someone’s wedding or because their assignment is set there). The first time was for A Child Of God in season one.

Though they didn’t dress fancy like this now.

It seems like, sometimes, they go to church too. More rarely than an angel should, though.

Also, while at the church, Mark talks to his superior about his friend.

So, Mark joins in the list of characters who go to church and talk out loud to pray to his Superior (like Jonathan does sometimes, and other angels too).

• Production And Setting

As usual, the episode was produced in Los Angeles. However, unlike other episodes set in churches (such as A Child of God, the season one finale, or The Last Assignment), this time they didn’t use a real one but instead created a fictional one.

As for the production timeline, filming began on December 4—coincidentally the birthday of Victor French—and concluded one week later.

From the first season, it seems like French couldn’t take his birthday off: in season one, his birthday coincided with the conclusion of production for Plane Death (which he also directed). In season two, it fell on the second day of production for Change of Life, and now it happened during the filming of yet another episode.

However, according to the production schedule for the episode, on the first day they only filmed a scene that didn’t involve any of the main characters (Jonathan, Mark, or Gabe). Maybe they were all busy celebrating his birthday before preparing to shoot the rest of the episode the following day.

Also, Landon didn’t have it any easier: his birthday was during production of The Monster in season two and Basinger’s New York in season three.

Anyway, it’s unclear what happened after this episode: it was either the last one they made in 1986, and then got on their usual Christmas Holiday’s break, or they made another one and then knocked back. In both cases, though, they were so ahead of the schedule (the next two episodes after this had already been shot before) that they got almost 4 weeks off. They were going very fast in the production of this season.

The script was written by Dan Gordon and actually had two drafts. The first one is dated June 1986, making it one of the very first episodes written for the third season.

The second draft—the one they used—is dated December 3, just one day before production began.

Curiously, in the original script (the June draft), Gabe was supposed to be a singer. In the updated version (the one used for the episode), however, they changed it and made him a pianist instead. This appears to be the only difference between the two scripts, which explains why the revised draft was submitted just a day before filming started. The actors essentially had the same lines; they simply removed the scenes in which Gabe was supposed to sing.

Perhaps they tried to cast an actor who could sing but were unable to find him, so they just went for something easier (that could be masked by never actually showing him playing the piano, like Jonathan does in Keep Smiling). And it was already challenging enough for James Earl Jones to portray a blind character, so asking him to learn to sing (in a convincing way) might have been just too much.

Glossary:

Bag: there’s one curious thing. When Gabe leaves the church and Mark takes him away, Jonathan is shown packing up.

That’s Mark’s bag (Jonathan has the convicted felony one). It seems like, sometimes, he’s friend enough to do that for him.

Blooper: this episode has one blooper at the conclusion, and it’s a familiar one. When the preacher breaks down crying after being left by her daughter, shortly before Gabe holds her face in his hands, there’s a shadow on the left wall.

There!

It’s a boom mic, a little shaky.

In the production schedule, this scene was made on the last shooting day: perhaps it was late, the guy holding it was tired and they all wanted to go home.

Give him a break.

Anyway, this marks the second episode of the series with a blooper somehow related to the boom mic and the crew member holding it (a similar one was in The Secret, in which that happened twice).

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

Friendly Jonathan: the episode opens with a friendly Jonathan, while Mark impatiently asks how long it will take to reach their assignment.

Jonathan remains mysterious and tells Mark to pull over if he’s tired.

This is somewhat odd, since in previous episodes Jonathan has driven Mark’s car without issue, while Mark was asleep in the back. Now he insists that Mark drive—or perhaps Mark refuses to let Jonathan drive. The last time Jonathan was behind the wheel, in Close Encounters of the Heavenly Kind (season two), he let go of the wheel just to scare his friend.

But, at least during the first season, whenever Jonathan drove, they usually arrived at their destination much sooner (of course he used the Stuff).

Quiet Quitters: the episode concludes with Jonathan and Mark sneaking out while everybody is distracted.

It happens the usual way: Jonathan and Mark are watching their assignment.

Then, Jonathan turns to Mark, who knows what that means.

And obeys, like he’s used to.

That means they have to go away.

Horselaugh: when Jonathan mentions food at the beginning, Mark decides that his assignment must be to eat, and there’s the horselaugh—now oddly reminiscent of The Secret one season ago.

Really, he tilts back the head the same way.

Landon the Mechanic: finally, first time in the season, Landon is back fixing cars.

The “Stuff” powers: in the episode, Jonathan rarely uses the Stuff. The only sure moment is when he startles the preacher’s daughter who had just run off.

But he does.

Anyway, there’s an odd moment about the Stuff that is worth pointing out: when Gabe is unsure about his future and wonders whether he will recover, Jonathan reassures him that he will.

So, Gabe asks Jonathan if he’s sure about it.

While Mark looks at him.

That doesn’t mean anything.

Actually, it implies that Jonathan has received word from his superior that Gabe will get better. That’s like one of those instances in which Jonathan receives superior knowledge about something.

The Job: as they wait for the man to recover, Jonathan and Mark stay there as housepainting for some time.

That marks the second time in the series they have this job: a similar one was in the first season.

And another job as handymen on multiple occasions, as in Alone in season two.

Curiously, back then, Jonathan used the Stuff and outdid Mark in the job, and annoyed him. Instead, now, they seem both intent on working the not-angelic way.

Ratings: 33 million audience. 21st Weekly TV programs, 4th TV genre show.

The episode aired in late January 1987 (the time when season two skipped one episode one year ago) and scored strong ratings, quite similar to the immediately preceding episodes that New Year. By this point, the season seemed to be settling into a good territory, rather than fluctuating with each episode as it did earlier on. That showed that something changed after Love And Marriage, but the show was able to get back on its