Airdate: 03/02/1988

Directed By: Michael Landon

The fourth season of Highway is drawing to a conclusion: after the emotional weight of the previous episodes, (and a weirdly unique one), the series places another impactful installment—one that Mark finally likes.

This episode was the last of the season to air at the usual 8:00 PM Wednesday slot.

Complete show available here.

Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are assigned to help a retired singer confined to a wheelchair accept her condition and move on with her life.

As the title suggests, Jonathan and Mark seemingly travel to another state—one that should be quite familiar to them. But it’s a lie.

In any case, the assignment requires them to take jobs as handymen for Aulani, a fictional Hawaiian retired singer who suffered a serious accident that left her wheelchair-bound and now wants people to take care of her.

She’s essentially like Deke in season one.

At the same time, they discover that her neighbor Danny, an active singer, may secretly be in love with her.

But she just turns him away.

So, it’s a love assignment for them. The first one of the season.

Excluding We Have Forever, of course—that was too peculiar.

It sounds simple enough: an assignment about physical impairments (like One Fresh Batch of Lemonade) and some love (A Match Made In Heaven), what the series has explored many times before.

However, things are complicated when Jonathan and Mark learn that Danny, the neighbor in love, is ill and has only a few months left to live. And it becomes an illness assignment. Certainly not the first illness assignment in the series: there have been several before, such as A Child Of God or the first season finale or Man to Man in season three. In all those cases, however, the illness was almost always the same: anemic diseases, cancer, or some other unspecified rare problem. This time, the show chose a different and particularly urgent issue for the period.

This was unexpected, wasn’t it.

One curious aspect is how the episode handles such a sensitive subject. At the time, many television programs would heavily promote episodes dealing with controversial or serious issues as “Special Episodes” to distinguish them from the rest of the series. This was especially common for sitcoms, which generally centered on comedy and wanted viewers to know when a more serious story was coming. But it was often used by one-hour show as well.

And this show didn’t: Highway to Heaven regularly addresses difficult subjects—including but not limited to physical impairments, dope, contamination, bums (the three Landon’s obsessions), discrimination—without resorting to promotional stunts or special labels.

In a way, this series only has “special episodes”. Not that Landon’s other productions lacked serious material—Little House certainly had its share—but Highway addressed issues more frequently and with greater boldness.

And the late ’80s AIDS features have reached Highway too.

• Background

Despite what the title may suggest, the episode is set in Los Angeles; you can find anything in Cali, can’t you.

Sure.

So, they are not really going out there.

There’s everything you need there.

The exact timespan is unclear, and in these cases it’s generally assumed to cover a week to ten days. No indication is given as to when it takes place in relation to Jonathan’s sweeping assignment, which lasted two months. So this episode could be set either before that one (before January 1988) or after that (March if not later).

• Characters

As for the characters, there are a few notable details. The first one is the title itself: they made it to Hawaii.

Almost.

There’s a running gag: in the first season, there was an episode in which Jonathan and Mark worked in a rundown neighborhood, and Mark complained that they never get assignments in better places like Hawaii. He repeated this complaint in the first-season finale.

And after three years, it appears they have finally made it there.

And Mark is overtly excited about this.

But it turns out to be another illusion: the “Hawaii” is merely the name of a motel. And they remain confined to the old city of the angels.

Anyway, one curious thing: at some point, Mark recalls with Danny a vacation he had in Hawaii.

That’s the only time in the series Mark ever mentions he’s been there. It was implied by those other two episodes in season one, although it was also possible that he was just using Hawaii to make a point on bad neighborhoods.

But it seems he was not: he really knows it.

Another detail: at some point, Danny’s car breaks down and he offers to help.

No idea where he got the reference for that.

Really, he has never worked as mechanic before. Perhaps is just pretending.

There are some details involving Jonathan, too: when he and Mark introduce themselves to Aulani, he tells her that he had been informed of her apartment for rent by a “friend”.

He has made amends with his friend.

Early in the series, when a character asked Jonathan how he could know things that had just happened or how he created objects (as in the Pilot), he justified that by saying he has this “friend” (probably his superior).

But after season one, he stopped saying that. As though they weren’t friends anymore. And two episodes ago, they had that argument.

But they’re over that now.

He may also be talking about a friend he has actually made (like the one in A Match Made In Heaven), but that’s less likely the case.

Another detail: at some point, he mentions that he knows Aulani for her career as a singer.

That implies that Jonathan, too, has been to Hawaii. Maybe back when he was Arthur, or maybe he had solved an assignment there before meeting Mark. Or maybe he did that without ever telling him. What a friend.

But it seems he even likes Hawaiian shows.

Or maybe he used to like them when he was still a man with a wife.

He then tries to motivate Aulani, he tells her that he has met many impaired people in his life trying to go on with their life.

He’s probably talking about Frank and Scotty; and the blind kids. Even though those impairments are different.

But he did some accurate research: it’s a realistic figure.

Yet another curious aspect: it’s one of the few episodes in the series in which Jonathan does never use the Stuff. The only exception is when he already knows that Danny is ill, though it’s possible his superior let him know it.

Anyway, other examples of episodes without the Stuff include Playing For Keeps and All The Colors Of The Heart earlier this season. Weird: season three had almost none. And it had plenty of angel revelations.

• Production and Setting

As for the production, this episode was filmed in late January 1988 after The Correspondent and the additional We Have Forever shooting. It was written by Perine, the same as Time In A Bottle earlier this season, and An Investment In Caring earlier in the series.

He started writing in season one, then quit the series for two years and came back this season four; he’ll gradually become more involved in the series by the next season.

The setting is not in Hawaii, of course. Instead, the residential complex where most of assignment takes place is a real apartment complex in De Longpre Ave in Little Armenia (not quite there).

Although its name was changed for the episode.

This was similar to what they did with the “Leisure World” retirement center which became “Clearview” for a third-season episode, remember that?

Again, no need to go all the way to Hawaii for an episode. There’s no point in making the effort and the costs of moving everyone there.

Glossary:

Cute: a bunch of this dropped by Mark the moment it turns out they are not going to Hawaii.

And Jonathan knew it.

Doozy: that Aulani is such a doozy.

But at least she recognizes that he’s insistent too.

Finally, someone tells him.

Illness: part of the subject.

Punchline: there is one kind of punchline that definitely feels recycled. When Danny confesses to Jonathan that he is sick, he adds that he’s come to terms with his disease, and that he feels hopeless about it due to the government decision to spend more money on ways to kill people than on helping them by researching.

That certainly strikes a familiar chord: it is very similar to a speech given by Harold, the 200-year-old probationary angel, in a season-two episode.

And that same line was later recycled by Jonathan in the season-three Washington episode, when talking about how crazy their plan of going to Washington was.

It seems likely that Perine watched that earlier episode and decided to borrow from it while writing this one. Or perhaps Landon suggested the addition, believing it was an appropriate moment to reuse one of his favorite themes. It’s not the first time Landon recycles a punchline from an old episode: just a few episodes ago, Time In A Bottle used a punchline from Wally’s puppet show; or A Child Of God recycled a punchline from Little House (which was already a recycle from Bonanza, and they were all written by Landon; that man can’t help it).

Highway Lifetime: this episode features one rare Lifetime actor, the group of actors who concluded their career with a Highway episode (or whose last credit is for this series) and then retired permanently. Or passed away before making anything else.

It’s the first case here: the subject of the assignment, Aulani, is played by Merllyn Mokihana a native Hawaiian actress and singer.

Apparently, she began her career as a stage actress when she landed a supporting role in the musical South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein in the late 1950s, and she moved to the mainland to continue her acting career, first on stage and then on television as well. After this Highway episode, she retired from acting at the age of 57, although she continued making appearances at various regional celebrations, like the former Aloha Week (now Festival). Then, six years after this episode, at the age of 63, she passed away for a lung disease.

She joins the Highway Lifetime group, alongside Jean Allison, Georgia Schmidt, Harold J. Stone and the rest.

One curious anecdote: apparently, more than twenty years before this Highway episode, she was struck by a truck, leaving her paralyzed for several months and partially impaired for the rest of her life.

That’s exactly the same thing that happened to her character in this episode: a singer who is struck by a car and is forced to walk with a cane for the rest of her life.

It’s a striking coincidence—or maybe it was intentional.

Another detail: Alvin Ing, the actor who plays her lover whom she repeatedly picks up on, also began his career in stage musicals like her. Actually, he even played the lead in Flower Drum Song, a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, again. Once again, weird coincidence.

Also, they are both from Hawaii, so the casting was accurate—unlike the Vietnam episodes, which mostly called Hawaiian actors for Vietnamese roles instead. Of course, if the producers had already hired Hawaiian actors for those episodes, it was only natural that they would cast them in this one as well. Unless they wanted to call Vietnamese for this.

Sunday Suit: it’s a special one. When Jonathan and Mark go to Danny’s act, they both have their grey suits for the occasion.

And when they go for a second time at the end of the episode, Jonathan still has it—while Mark has now changed to something less formal.

That’s the only time in the series he shows that. No idea where he bought that.

Maybe it comes from Jonathan’s magic handbag. Like his country jacket and hat.

Friendly Jonathan: there are a bunch of such instances. One occurs at the beginning, when Jonathan already knows that they are not headed to Hawaii, but he fools Mark all the same.

The second one occurs when they rent Aulani’s apartment.

That’s right: he’s the angel, he doesn’t have to sleep or eat, he’s the one who walks into the apartment and says it’s fine for Mark too.

The job: it seems that Jonathan and Mark work as Aulani’s hadnymen. But there’s one odd detail about that: when Jonathan tries to get the job, he doesn’t resort to his usual references; this time, he uses a real one.

And when did that happen, 40 years ago?

This is peculiar because Jonathan has never held such a job during the series, nor has Mark, for that matter.

There are two possible explanations. The first is that Jonathan is simply lying, which is entirely plausible: the series has established that angels are occasionally permitted to bend the truth when necessary. Like he did to appear reliable and get a job, or receive something off the rent—as he does in this episode—or like Jennifer did the first time she met Jonathan (unless that far-fetched confession and her being abandoned by her lover was partially inspired by her own story, in some way).

The second explanation is that he really worked as one during an unseen assignment. This is equally plausible, since the series has repeatedly confirmed that viewers do not witness every assignment Jonathan and Mark undertake, and that there’s a two-day downtime between episodes (more about it at the here). Otherwise, that line could imply it was Jonathan’s job as Arthur—before he died and became a probationary angel.

More likely, it’s a lie.

So, maybe even when he said he knew Aulani from her singing career, that was a lie too. And he has never been to Hawaii before. If Jennifer could lie about her fake love story with a man back East, Jonathan surely can lie about his job.

Ratings: 21 million audience. 42nd weekly TV program, 9th TV genre show.

This episode was not successful at all: when it aired in early March 1988, it lost over one rating point to last week’s episode, more than three rating points compared to Jonathan’s unique two-part episode, and it’s over five points behind the episodes airing this time of the year in the third season. It effectively became the second least-watched episode of the entire series, surpassed only by the Halloween episode in October (the werewolf show). But at least it’s already March 1988, and ratings usually decline in Spring, on every TV series. So, it’s not as bad as the Halloween episode, which aired in a time when the series should enjoy its greatest popularity. At the same time, though, it’s very much behind any episode of the series.

This particular season already slogged in ratings compared to its predecessors. And these ratings were certainly not encouraging, especially with the season nearing its conclusion and the network having to decide whether or not to renew it for another year.

The drop was also rather unexpected, considering that the season seemed to have regained some popularity after January, thanks to the We Have Forever shots. If producers had hoped that episode had successfully helped the series get back to a modicum of success, this episode killed it. And now, there are just a few episodes left. (Most of them will air this month, and the season finale will be sent alone.) It’s very hard for things to improve right now.

Anyway, one curious thing: this episode was the last of the season to air at 8:00 PM, which is the timeslot Highway had been airing for the last four years, all its run. Then, starting from the next episode, they’ll move it to 9:00 PM to preempt the new series Aaron’s Way on the 8:00 Highway’s timeslot. Maybe they were preparing to drop the series by Fall, after seeing the ratings of this season four, and were preparing a replacement. That won’t happen: this Aaron’s Way never received a second season, while Highway eventually returned that Fall for its fifth season.

Or maybe they thought moving it up would do some good to Highway’s ratings too. Even though it won’t exactly: the ratings will never recover completely from this episode, ever again.