This will be a special one: the unproduced, unaired Highway To Heaven season four episode.

Today, exactly 37 years ago, the series finale of Highway To Heaven aired on NBC; so, this will be a special about a season four lost episode.

Just some context, to make things clear: for every season of the series, the writers used to submit more episodes than those producers needed and intended to make that year. Only a selection of those scripts was produced, while the rest were set aside. Occasionally—though quite rarely—an unproduced script would be eventually brought back and selected for a later season. More often than not, however, those scripts remained unproduced.

That is evident from the scripts themselves: each one includes a “Story No.” at the top, making it possible to date them each back to a particular season. For example, during the first season, the writers completed 34 scripts (the last was “No. 34” for The Right Thing), 12 of which were discarded; eventually, one of those unused scripts was selected and reworked for the second-season episode Heaven On Earth, albeit with some revisions.

Even the season four finale is actually an unproduced script from season three. (Similarly, it’s known that Little House On The Prairie had over 220 scripts, and 20 unproduced scripts)

Most of these unproduced drafts, however, remained unused for the remainder of the series. By the fourth season, the writers had submitted 122 story scripts, of which around 30 were left unproduced. It’s an entire season of unused scripts. A few of these would later be adapted during the fifth and final season, but the other drafts never made it to the series.

Many of these unproduced scripts have been now lost. But not all of them have.

In season four, one of these unproduced script is written by Lan O’Kun, one of the series’ most frequent collaborator, and it’s “Outward Bound”. Thus, this episode will be a special one, about this unaired, unproduced episode, dated July 1987 with no revisions.

Before getting started, a couple of clarifications are in order—beginning with the script’s origin. The way they used to decide which scripts were produced and which were discarded remains unclear, so there is no way of knowing why Outward Bound was eventually passed over. However, when a script was not scheduled for production, it wasn’t generally copied and distributed to the crew members and the actors. The wide circulation of this particular script—at least another one exists and belonged to a crew member, Irwin “Eppy” Epstein (a collaborator of Michael Landon for all his series), and it had already been auctioned before this—suggests that, at some point, the producers seriously considered turning it into an episode.

That’s further confirmed by the last page of the script: it indicates that it was copied at Barbara’s Place, which printed many Hollywood scripts from the 1970s and 1980s, including virtually all episodes of Little House On The Prairie and Highway. If the script was printed there, it means that the production had already begun preparing it for distribution to the actors and crew members, and that they were actually planning on making this episode. For some reason, the process was halted and the episode was never realized, though.

Now, it’s impossible to report the reason this happened, but some suggestions are plausible: the script was written in July 1987 for the fourth season, which was ordered to have 24 episodes, as was customary for Highway. It’s important to keep in mind that both We Have Forever (the episode about Jonathan losing faith) and A Dolphin Song For Lee were both originally written as single 45-minute episodes, and only at a later point were they expanded to ninety-minute episodes and divided into 2 parts. And that decision was made after those episodes had been selected.

It is then plausible that, by the time they selected this Outward Bound to be an episode and the script sent to print, Landon still didn’t know that We Have Forever and Lee would both become two part episodes. And when that occurred, he may have decided to scrap plans for this episode, which would have been the 25th of the season. As a result, Outward Bound never materialized in the original run of the series.

However, it wasn’t entirely abandoned: some portions of it were incorporated and used into A Dolphin Song For Lee, an episode which is essentially about the same thing. But that will become apparent later.

This episode is an illness assignment: it resembles A Dolphin Song For Lee, or a combination of that with A Song For Jason but for adults. It’s a very emotional Highway episode, and the very fact it came so close to being produced is a mystery.

One last thing: the assignment has an ensemble with many characters. It might be hard to keep track of all of them without a point of reference, so it could be useful to picture them—and given that it’s an episode about camping, it sounds like a Little House outing trip. Therefore, the names of some Little House cast members will be used here—plausibly enough. (A second way was artificially generating the pictures, but the result was embarrassing; besides, the use of real people’s likenesses is unethical).

Gotta have faith.

Assignment: Jonathan and Mark are assigned to lead a group of women with cancer through an “outward bound” expedition.

This sounds tough.

The episode is supposed to open with the subject of the assignment, a lady “in her late 50s” named Bea, purchasing a diary. And that’s a job for Bonnie Bartlett, who played Mrs. Grace Edwards in Little House: by the time this episode was supposed to be produced (season four aired from 1987 until 1988) she was in her late 50s, so that fits perfectly.

While Bea (or Bartlett, or B.) is buying the diary, she is unwittingly observed by Jonathan and “Moe”, a mysterious bald man, early 60s, who flashes “a little smile”.

She chooses a diary and walks away while Jonathan turns to Moe and simply tells him that he’ll keep an eye on her.

He’s definitely William Daniels, or Bartlett’s husband. He’s never been on Highway, but he’s fine.

Anyway, Jonathan gets in Mark’s car as Mark asks him who was the guy he had been talking to. But Jonathan only replies “Moe”, no further inquires.

Which irritates Mark.

Friendly Jonathan.

Of course, after working four seasons, he still won’t share what they have to do in the assignment. But he’s about to show him.

Meanwhile, B. goes back to her daughter’s home, where she’s been living for some time. Now, for the daughter Trudy, given the subject of the assignment, you can imagine the role being Margie Impert’s, (although not as Diane) or even Robin Riker (who was in A Song For Jason).

So B. starts up in her room, takes her new diary out and begins writing to Moe, in a voice-over. Now, just wait a second: this episode was supposed to have this unusual trope; it would have been only the fifth episode of the series to feature a character’s voice-over throughout the entire episode, not just at the conclusion. The other episodes are Sail Away, the season three Christmas Special, The Hero and We Have Forever, and two of these three episodes are written by O’Kun; that man can’t help it.

Anyway, she’s addressing “Moe”, and she writes some rather odd stuff in her diary: it turns out that Moe was Bea’s husband, and he actually died of cancer 8 months earlier, which means that the figure Jonathan was talking to at the beginning was probably Moe’s angel, or a ghost, or some hallucination. But the revelations continue: it seems that even B. is severely ill, and doesn’t give herself much of a chance.

There’s a great deal of questions from this: if Moe is an angel (he appeared at the beginning alongside Jonathan), then how come he’s not assigned to help Bea the way Jonathan was assigned to help his wife (and she was assigned to help him back) and a fellow probationary angel too?

Unless Moe has not become an angel, but was just sent back to Earth to see his wife one last time; which is plausible: it already happened a few times that some characters would pass away and come back in a sort of hallucination (like in The Torch in season two).

But then, how could Mark see Moe back at the beginning, but nobody else could: has he become an angel too? Better not to dwell upon this any further, for this episode has many other mysteries.

Now, B.’s grandson Bernie comes back home and asks her if she’d like to go for a walk in the woods. It sounds like a very Little House kind of activity. But all actors from Little House would be too old for this; and the role will go to Brandon Bluhm, who plays Jerry in Highway.

And the “Kid. No. 3” too.

Anyway, B. refuses, because she feels tired and is ill and wants people to do things for her. Basically, she’s like Deke in season one before turning into a professional athlete in a couple of weeks under the training of an Olympic real athlete. Or like Aulani in season four. Though she never got better.

Then, everybody has supper, which leads to an argument between Trudy and her husband Arnold (probably Merlin Olsen) over how they should deal with B.’s illness: Trudy wants her to eat her prescribed diet while Arnold wants her to have some meat as well.

Jonathan wouldn’t approve of that—unless it were for a good cause, like winning your daughter back.

Or fishing.

The entire scene plays out much like the one in A Song For Jason, when Curtis came home and his father bought him a cake while his mother refused to let him eat it.

Now, during supper, it dawns on them that there’s a support group meeting at the hospital with fellow ladies going through similar illnesses, and Trudy basically forces her mother to attend. She drives her there, leading to a dialogue between them that is basically an exposition for the audience.

Essentially, B. reveals that she left her home and moved in with her daughter after the death of Moe, her husband whom she relied on to do everything, and she can’t move back to her house anymore because she can’t stand “his presence” there.

They then arrive at the hospital, the meeting begins, and that’s where Jonathan and Mark finally get in: essentially, they are going to be working at the hospital.

Here, Jonathan finally presents the assignment: he wants the group of women to attend the titular experience, a training in the woods.

And it’s a real thing: apparently, the Outward Bound is a real group experience invented in the early 1940s to strengthen people’s resilience by sending them out on an adventure in the wilderness.

Jonathan goes on to explain that they will learn how to survive in the woods and climb up a mountain, with the goal of helping them regain their inner strength they need in their fight with cancer. And it will last a month.

That’s a long time for a single assignment (it’s usually ten days). It’s probably one of the longest spanning single assignments of the entire series.

But, before moving on, they introduce the other women in the group: it’s reported that they should be 10, including the protagonist Bea, however the script only identifies six women.

And with some help from the Prairie, they are:

• Nel, a TV host with leukemia (maybe Hersha Pardy, or Alice from Little House).

• Margie, a more courageous version of B. (the toughest, but it goes to Ketty Lester, the head of the blind school in Little House)

• Phyllis, “a company executive” (imagine Charlotte Stewart, or Mrs. Beadle or Mrs. Simms from Little House, or Cindy the nurse from Highway);

• Billy, a lively woman who admires Nel (she’d be Katherine MacGregor, or Mrs. Oleson if they were able to convince her, she quit TV acting in 1983 immediately after Little House season nine)

• Della, friendly but sullen (she’s Karen Grassle who played Caroline);

• Joan, the youngest of the group (and Melissa Sue Anderson will do fine)

The remaining two missing women are ghosts.

All women but Joan are in their “late 50s” like Bea (only Bartlett and Lester would be, nevermind), and they are all bald except Margie; the reason will be revealed later.

That’s quite striking. Just picture how this scene plays out: a circle of bald women in their 50s all gathered together at the hospital. They had already shaved some of the child actors in A Song For Jason in season two, but this will probably go further.

Anyway, the women discuss this.

And many seem to like this idea.

Some are undecided about whether going far up into the woods is a good idea in their condition, but Jonathan eventually talks them all into it—except Bartlett, of course.

So he goes all the way to her house and speaks with her daughter, who seems eager to let her mother go away for a while. As they are talking, the grandson Bernie wakes up and calls for his mother, so Bartlett goes upstairs to check on him. It turns out he only wants to know whether the doors and windows have all been locked.

And if you know Highway, you know where this thing is going.

The grandma reassures him and puts him back to sleep. Then, as she comes back downstairs and tells everybody what Bernie was crying for, her daughter explains to Jonathan that he’s been waking up every night for months to make sure all doors and windows are locked up, and it all started when grandma moved him with them.

There, Jonathan turns into a psychologist and reveals what this was all about.

Hold on right there: that’s exactly the same explanation used in A Dolphin Song For Lee, the season four episode about a teenager with cancer; her younger brother woke up every night to do the same thing and his parents told Jonathan and Mark that he did that for the same reason.

One curious thing: Lee’s episode was written before this (its draft is dated July 8, this episode is July 14); at the same time, though, the “Story No.” reported in the first page of this episode precedes Lee’s. And that line already appeared in the script for Lee’s show. So, either this episode copied from Lee (in this case, it’s a recycle), or Lee borrowed it. Maybe when this episode was eventually turned away, they liked this line so much it was recycled in A Dolphin Song For Lee. That further explains the reason this particular episode was excluded: they probably felt it was too similar to that one—they are both illness assignments about people with cancer. But instead of throwing everything away, they somehow merged these two episodes, and Lee grew to run ninety minutes (it was originally written as a single, 45 minute installment).

Anyway, after this explanation, she is somehow convinced to join this Highway “Outward Bound” experience.

So, her daughter drives her to the bus station. But B. is still reluctant.

And she tearfully leaves, while her mother rejoices for the first time in the episode.

That really sounds like the end of A Song For Jason part one, but reverse: on that episode, Curtis wanted to leave for the camp and his mother cried because she didn’t want him to, while in this episode B. doesn’t want to leave and her daughter is crying because she wants her mother to get off her.

These two episodes share many similarities; more to come.

Next, commercial break. And then they are in a bunkhouse, where the Prairie women get ready for the days ahead, when they’ll hike through the wilderness toward a mountain. If this episode had been filmed, this scene was probably intended to be shot at Donnell’s Reservoir in the Stanislaus National Forest, the same location used for Man To Man in season three.

There’s a mountain there.

And it’s the same mountain that appeared as “Jonathan’s mountain”: not Arthur Thompson’s, but the mysterious Borgnine’s Jonathan in Little House season one.

It would have been a fitting setting for this adventure and, perhaps most importantly, it would have allowed the production to remain in California—exactly what Landon was asking.

Anyway, Jonathan orders everybody it’s time to hike.

Maybe she’s right: that’s what Arthur used to be.

However, B. and Joan (or Melissa Anderson) refuse to go and would rather stay at the camp. So Mark quietly approaches Jonathan and tells him they have a few defectors, but Jonathan doesn’t care.

And Mark, who likes being bossed around by Jonathan, simply complies: he plays the heavy on the women and yells at them that they can’t stay, and they all start out.

After this, it’s night, and they are all having supper with a soup.

As they enjoy this, it’s time for some group therapy: the women begin sharing their life, one at a time. Just get ready.

So, they begin by complaining about their painful treatments, and only then do they notice that Margie (or Lester) isn’t bald like them. It’s time to drop a revelation: she isn’t getting any therapy, she willingly interrupted it because she thought it was no use.

Presumably, by the end of this adventure in the woods, she’ll find new strength to resume the treatment.

After Margie’s confession, Della (Mrs. Grassle) admits that she feels ugly now that she’s bald and hopeless, and lost her confidence and strength.

At this point, Joan (Mrs. Sue Anderson) gets in the conversation.

So B. jumps in and cheers Joan up by remarking that her studies allowed her to be independent from other people. Then, she glumly remarks that she never had to work on her independence as she relied on her husband Moe for everything. And that shifts the discussion toward Love and Marriage—a familiar subject, isn’t it.

Now Joan replies that she has no one in her life and feels profoundly lonely.

And Nel (or Pardy the TV host) tries to lighten her by joking that she’s been married so many times she can barely remember her husbands.

Lastly, Della says she has spent nearly her entire life married to the same man, much like B., but that her illness has changed everything and now her husband can hardly bear to look at her.

(Of course, if Della were really played by Grassle, they would realistically take ten years off the marriage).

They all go talking one over the other with no one really listening to each other anymore.

And this was a religious series. They’ve never gone that far.

Until Nel suddenly chants a Bing Crosby’s 1938 song.

Picture it as the epilogue of A Song For Jason, again.

Too emotional to recollect.

Also, Ketty Lester was a singer; so if she really were in the episode, perhaps it would have been better to let her handle it.

After a while, B. stands up and “walks off into the night” (sounds unsettling). Then, Jonathan silently follows her (even more unsettling), and sneaks up on her as only he knows how to.

That’s pretty much what would have happened.

He finds her staring at the mountain they are going to climb. She notices Jonathan and tells him that she doesn’t know how to reach the summit. And Jonathan gets his punchline ready.

Up next, the women have to cross a “log over the stream” and B. is next. After some initial reluctance, with the support and encouragement of her fellow Prairie women, she makes it safely to the other side.

Then it’s nighttime again, and B. is quietly sobbing as she tries to fall asleep. Upon hearing her squeaking, Mark goes over to her bunk and gently asks what’s wrong. She tells him that she doesn’t know why she’s crying, which only makes her feel sorry for herself and cry even harder. But Mark knows it’s really about Moe, and realizes she feels guilty about loving him and blames him for preventing her from dealing with the real life. He then reassures her she shouldn’t feel sorry, but she can’t remain stuck in the past.

And quite unexpectedly, he makes moves on her.

It’s an extremely random moment—this scene was probably added because they feared the episode would otherwise have been too short. It felt weird and out of place. However, using these two actors, it’s better.

Probably their first kiss on set in ten years.

And on to the next day, everyone is slaving off: Mark is chopping down a tree while B. and Nel (remember, she’s Pardy) strip the branches from it.

Seems like French is back being a lumberjack—as the one he used to be in Little House; although he’s none in Highway. And he hates it.

Do you remember that?

As they happily work like they used to in Little House, something happens: Jonathan walks by, and Nel stops her lumberjacking to look at him.

You know, maybe she’s talking about Mark, who is literally by their side.

But she’s not, and she even asks if B. doesn’t feel the same way.

They’re really making jokes about Landon’s looks here. It took the series four seasons to build up the confidence to do it.

At Nel’s remark, B.’s immediate response is to state her age, as though she were somehow too old to find a man attractive.

And keep in mind that she’s five years older than French as Mr. Edwards as well, but that was fine. (Although the original script for Mr. Ed’s Homecoming, the episode introducing Grace, describes that she had to be in her late 30s and younger than him.)

Back to Highway: once this awkwardly comical skit is done, another commercial break (unless Landon messes up once more). And B. decides it’s time to write something in her diary again, again placing the fault on her late husband because he never made her feel independent and free.

And next, they all jump into a raft down the river.

What follows is a rafting montage where everyone is having a great time—just imagine it set to some cheerful Rose’s music, perhaps a recycle from the bike scene in the pilot.

That will do.

But then, it becomes a tragedy: as the Prairie Women get off the raft, Margie loses her footing and is swept downstream by the river. Instinctively, everybody yells at Jonathan to do something, while B. jumps in the water to save her.

Think of it as Laura and Nellie’s campout in season two, which was shot at the Donell Reservation, for that matter. Again, that’s the only spot they could have used for this episode.

Anyway, Jonathan is calm and tells Mark to let them take care of themselves.

He probably wants to see them dead and turned into probationary angels.

It also resembles the Little House Pilot, when Charles refused to let the family’s dog stay in the wagon when they crossed the creek, and the dog nearly drowned.

That man is a danger.

But Mark (or French) probably remembers that episode and defies Jonathan’s orders, going into the water to rescue them women. Eventually, he finds them soaked and hysterically laughing.

he asks them what’s wrong, and they act even more hysterical.

This place is probably driving them crazy.

Later that night, everybody prepare to hit the sacks, and B. can’t sleep. She approaches Margie to confess her that she now realizes she’s been using her husband as an excuse to shield herself from her own guilt and fear of acknowledging she doesn’t have a life and solely relied on him.

As she pours this heartfelt confession, suddenly, she realizes that Margie isn’t listening and is probably asleep.

Maybe she wants to scold her for getting bored by her confession in this emotional moment. However, she just quietly holds Margie’s head, and blankly stares at her.

What the heck is going on.

That’s right: the next day, B reveals through her voice-over in her diary that Margie has died, and now the group is upset and plans to give up.

This episode is really a more brutal take on A Song For Jason.

Now, the women are unsure of what to do, and gather by the fireplace as Mark leaves with Margie’s body.

No idea how he will be able to do that: they are far into the woods, it’s unlikely there’s enough room for his Car. Or any car.

Which means he’s carrying the body all the way down, with no help.

Unless there’s a horse, and he’s doing it like old wranglers would from Bonanza and Little House. That’s more like it. Even though his relationship with horses in this series is problematic.

But even in that case, it’s plausible that these adventures has been going on for a few days, so it’s certainly going to be more than two days before Mark can descend the mountain and go back.

At this point, Jonathan could have been the one to do that, implying that he’d use the Stuff. But he’d rather let his enslaved friend carry a body.

Anyway, at the camp, an argument breaks out: some of the Prairie women—especially B., Joan, and those who had been the most apprehensive about the trip—want to continue the journey in honor of their late friend. The rest of them—Phyllis, Billy, and those who had been the strongest supporters of the trip from the beginning—want out.

Now the probationary angel has to take the floor: Jonathan tells them that, a few days earlier, Margie personally gave him a letter to read in case something happened to her. He reads it out loud, revealing that Margie confessed she was afraid she wouldn’t make it to the mountain, but she thanks the group for being so kind at a moment she felt so bad in her life, and incites them to reach the summit for her.

One curious thing: in the script, it’s specified that Jonathan is supposed to be reading out loud the letter, and Margie’s voice-over would gradually replace his voice. Now, considering that something like that never happened in the series, it’s quite amusing to imagine how they were going to make it: you’d hear Landon’s voice, and it suddenly becomes a woman’s. Perhaps they would have just played it straight and kept his voice throughout.

Anyway, after hearing the letter, the women all come to the same conclusion, and the journey continues.

That is followed by a lengthy description of the walk: they stagger, they fumble, they struggle, they rest, they press on, and that keeps going for some times.

During one stop, Mark offers B. some help when she stumbles, but she refuses, adding that after eating his cooking and living enough to tell it, then she can make it alright.

And Mark drops a cute.

Then, he comes back to his tent with Jonathan, and tells them they have quite a group there.

This will be Jonathan’s last line in the episode.

Eventually, after this arduous experience, this journey comes to an end: they reach the summit of the mountain, underscored by a “triumphant” music.

The women are at Donnel Reservation mountain, and Rose already has what the scene needs: he’d probably recycle the Little House score from The Lord Is My Shepherd in season one, when Laura ran up the mountains and met “Jonathan” and the episode concluded with a triumphant music and a sweeping view of the mountain as Laura and Charles go back home.

And it’s in the Stanislaus Forest too.

It wouldn’t be the first recycle by Rose from Little House to Highway (the opening of each episode in the first three seasons is a Little House piece in season nine, and the opening from the last two seasons is another piece from season six; his record is not clean). So, picture this scene with that score.

Immediately after that, they are suddenly back. It took them Prairie Women almost a month to climb that mountain, and a day to come down. Maybe they used some angelic powers. Actually, now that powers are mentioned: it seems like Jonathan hadn’t used the Stuff a single time the entire episode. That’s rare. But again, it’s O’Kun, and he writes like highwaymen.

Anyway, at the bus stop, everyone is greeting their relative, and B. has Trudy (maybe Robin Riker) and Arnold (Mr. Olsen). The moment she sees them, she immediately feels lively, and tells them that she feels ready to go back living on her own at her home.

In the epilogue, B. is at her old home, from where she calls her grandson and promises him to go berry hunting the next day. Again, very Little House.

Finally, she takes her diary.

She tells her husband that she feels relieved and stronger now, that she won’t be obsessively writing to him anymore unless there is something really big or important, and that she’s ready to move on with her life—no matter how long her illness will allow her.

And then, she quietly smiles.

This episode was something: really, it’s clear why this looked like A Song For Jason with adults.

And it’s also clear why this episode was eventually scrapped: it’s basically an illness episode, they already had one in the season (A Dolphin Song For Lee, which was supposed to be a single episode), and when that episode became a two-part assignment, they probably realized it was excessive to have yet another illness assignment in the same season.

Whatever the case, this episode would definitely have been a peculiar one for Highway, if they had actually made it.

Anyway, the script is dated July, so it had already been submitted in the first batch for the first half of the season; that suggests it was probably going to be shot in the first half of the season. Then again, even Lee’s episode was written in July and wound up scheduled in February 1988, so anything is possible. It’s likely that the episode would have been directed by Landon, as he single-handedly commanded the entire series from the second half of season three until the series finale—and it wouldn’t have scored ratings as high as the rest of the series, considering how season four was suffering a blow.

Nevertheless, it would have really altered its trajectory into something bold compared to what Highway had been used to so far. Perhaps it doesn’t have to remain unproduced forever: the network Fox is producing a new Highway To Heaven reboot series to air starting from the 2027 TV season, which is 38 years after the end of the original run, and 43 years from the Pilot. Maybe they’ll decide to select some of the 30 unproduced scripts of the old series to use for the new one.

Or they’ll ask Dan Gordon to contribute to some of those episodes—he’s the only writer from the original series to be still alive and active; the other writers are either dead (basically all of them) or have retired permanently (Henry Thoreau quit in the 1990s, for example).

Or maybe those old scripts are bound to be lost forever. There’s one full season-worth of unproduced episodes in the series. And they’ll hardly see the light.