A new special episode. It’s partly about probationary angels, and partly about something more.

The Highway To Heaven TV series originally ran from 1984 to 1989 (actually, the series finale was completed on early December 1988, but most of season five episodes aired all the way through the summer on the new year).

Some noticeable attempts to make a series about probationary angels helping other people were made before it, someone else attempted to replicate the series after its conclusion either leaning more on the religious side of the premise or more closely matching the series (Touched By An Angel, Heaven Help Us, more about them here). But they were all copies, or they were produced in the wake of Highway’s unexpected success that broke new grounds for religious TV series.

And someone effectively acknowledged Highway’s existence: the fox Network is rebooting the series in 2027 with new cast (of course, Landon and French both died within three years from the end of the original series) and new assignments. But that isn’t the only attempt to revitalize the old series.

The network Lifetime produced its own Highway To Heaven, although it reworked the premise to fit as a TV movie in a contemporary setting, with Jill Scott as the angel. No Landon Jr. unlike Bonanza.

It’s worth pointing out this attempt.

The Lifetime special Highway To Heaven is about a probationary angel named “Angela” who is sent to work as psychologist in a school where she’s assigned to help Cody, a troubled kid who just gave up on life after the death of his mother. And he is at strain with his grieving father at home. A family Issue assignment.

Her name is just Angela, so they probably have never watched the series or they would have called her Jane. Or maybe they did what her and thought it was an impossible feat to match, or just went for something different. And Stewart is her second name.

One curious thing: the original series was supposed to be titled “Jonathan Smith“, and Tartikoff proposed to changed it. And if they went for that one, this special would sound too outlandish.

Now, this new special is not meant to rehash the old series, so there’s no point in comparing them. However, some scenes do play out very similarly, being essentially the same premise. So, this will break down a particularly revelatory moment: the one in which Angela drops the first angel revelation of the special. And the last, of course. Here’s the setting: Angela the angel has been playing batting balls with Bruce (a surrogate Mark Gordon) the whole day. For no apparent reason. Except implying that Bruce likes Baseball (although he doesn’t show it around with any A’s cap).

And there’s even a blooper: when she bats, there’s a “Pizza” banner behind her.

And when he does it, that’s different.

Perhaps it’s part of her powers.

Her name is just Angela, so they probably have never watched the series or they would have called her Jane.

Or maybe they did what her and thought it was an impossible feat to match, and just went for something different. Besides, she has no second name. One curious thing: the original series was supposed to be titled “Jonathan Smith“, and Tartikoff proposed to changed it. And if they went for that one, this special would sound too outlandish.

Anyway, he asks to quickly come in to her place.

Not really angelic.

But it turns out he just had to use the restroom.

You know, he’s no angel: he has to mind his own pesky human needs, like Mark has. Although Jonathan has probably stopped tormenting his friends over those, after handling an assignment with no power and getting an idea of what it was like. He knows better now.

Besides, there’s an odd thing about that: when he says that he wants to go up her apartment, she looks confused, although being an angel, she could have used the mind-reading power to understand immediately what Bruce actually needed and realize there was no ill intent in his request.

Maybe she’s a probationary angel who has yet to unlock the mind-reading power, unlike Jonathan. Even though the way mindreading is used in Highway is problematic as well. In the first three seasons, it seems that Jonathan can’t use that or is unable to. Then, in the cold open for the episode Love And Marriage he casually displays it as though he has always had it. But that cold open was added two years later when the season went to syndication, so it’s not meant to be really official.

Anyway, back to the new Highway: the curious Bruce enters the restroom and, like any healthy human being, decides to search through it as though it were hiding a safe or something.

She has toilet paper, though.

Apparently, his pesky human needs also includes messing around other people’s houses. But he feels there’s something off: the restroom is spotless, there’s no sign of a person living there, no towels and no toothbrush.

Now it’s time for some confrontation. Bruce decides to go talk to Angela about his findings—which, so far, amount to nothing.

For he thinks about the important things, like Mark did in the Pilot.

The old razor argument.

And she begins making these weird faces like a child being scolded by a parent. As though it she found that amusing.

Really, that feels weird.

At first she tries to put some excuses like she hadn’t unpacked yet. Which is plausible: in this TV special or whatever it is, she’s never shown carrying any bag with her. They probably realized that Jonathan’s bag was useless in the first place too, so they did away with it.

Anyway, Bruce doesn’t buy it.

Now it’s becoming more like the old one, isn’t it.

Stop it.

He suddenly becomes a cop making all sorts of inquiries until she breaks down, and the truth is revealed: she’s a probationary angel sent to Earth to help people along the way, a mission she refers to as assignment.

Brush that smile off your face.

And this thing is getting to sound a lot familiar.

She basically drops the angel revelation the same way as in the old series, but with some religious touch as well. In particular, she says that her job is to bring a “light” to those who need it.

And here’s something new: in general, this new take on the series seems to lean more on religion in its being playful.

For example, it turns out that the only thing she pulled out of her mysterious bag (the convicted felony one that Jonathan carries too) is a sign inciting her or the reader to be a miracle to other people.

And that’s unusual for a number of reason: one, nobody is likely going to read that beside her, and it’s likely that she already knows that, so it’s rather pointless to keep a thing like that in your drawer.

Unless it’s meant to impress those in the audience watching this. Which means she knows she’s being watched by someone, and this was a TV series.

Another thing: she doesn’t specify whether an angel revelation is permitted by her superior or not (unlike Jonathan, who said it’s only for special occasions).

Anyway, that’s not necessarily a bad thing: in a way, this Angela isn’t meant to be exactly like Jonathan in that series. They are two different probationary angels and were probably two different people when they were alive (keep in mind that Jonathan used to be a man, and Angela was probably a woman under a different identity before becoming the angel). So it’s actually fitting that she’s more into religion than Jonathan (in the first ten episodes of season one it actually remained unclear whether Jonathan was embracing Christianity or any other religion, that was a nice strength of the series). In a way, it’s possible that she just believes putting religion in her assignment is more effective. Again, this special is no rehash of the old series.

Once she’s through, Bruce is pretty much like Mark in the Pilot.

Quite.

Although they cut the part in which he’s an alcoholic ex-cop who mistrusts all the people in the universe and lives with his sister. In this new version, he’s the school principal who does the hiring and who has a pretty healthy life.

Besides, he’s now played by Barry Watson, and he’s younger than Mark.

Anyway, he just looks confused for a moment, then he resolves to report Angela and fire her. But Angela becomes like Jonathan in convincing him that it’s the wrong thing to do and that she has a job to do.

And that’s pretty much it

There’s no display of her power in here.

That’s actually rather mysterious, because throughout the movie she does use The Stuff—even though it’s never actually called The Stuff, or given any other name, for that matter. At the beginning, for example, she uses it to make some flowers grow instantly.

For no apparent reason.

Unless it was intended as a reference to the pilot, when Jonathan did the same thing.

Eventually, Bruce calls the cops all the same, and it seems as though she’ll have to disappear before completing her assignment.

Of course, that’s not how it goes: he just leaves, allowing her to continue with her job.

Eventually, by the end of the movie, he’ll believe her. But her job wouldn’t allow men, so they part ways, and that’s the end of it.

The special concludes with Bruce who asks Angela to join her in her adventure traveling around helping people. He wants to be enslaved too.

However, Angela refuses and tells him that it doesn’t take an angel to do the angel’s job, precisely the same thing Jonathan told Mark in the Pilot, then again during the fourth season and then Mark told him back something similar in season one, when he said that acting like an angel makes people become angel in a way.

Anyway, that could have been a proper ending to the special: unlike Highway which was meant to be a complete TV series, this special was just a special with no perspective for the future. So it’s actually nice to see them going separate way, Bruce will try at least to take Angela’s advice and be a better person while Angela will continue her journey alone. In a way, it’s like this whole special was meant to be a glimpse inside her probation: she meets many people along the way but it doesn’t mean she’ll actually be joined by an assistant that will change the course of her probation forever; it’s more like any assignment that Jonathan ever had before letting Mark on the highway too.

Except it’s not: she changes her mind and jumps into Bruce’s car, which isn’t even a Ford LTD anymore. That could have been a nice little detail to preserve. Instead, they drive off together to begin a new adventure—a new season, essentially.

And that’s the end of it.

Perhaps the special was actually intended to lead to a new series. It’s weird to leave an open ending like that if this episode was just a movie, and not the Pilot for any new TV series.

Or perhaps it was simply an imitation of the old one. Whatever the case, that’s the end of the episode.

Or special.

Whatever.

So, at the end of the special, he will actually join Angela, so now these two unlikely people will be travelling the Highway To Heaven on a jeep, although their adventure won’t ever be shown to the audience out there. But there are two other guys who will join then Highway To Heaven eventually. And everyone can leave their contribution to the Highway, it’s part of a journey for everybody. That was the whole stuff.

And now, these two unlikely people are travelling the Highway to Heaven in a jeep, although their adventure will never be shown to the audience out there. But eventually, two other guys will join them on the Highway to Heaven. And everyone can leave their own contribution along the Highway—it’s a journey that belongs to everybody. That was the whole story.

And the real stuff.