In 1984, Michael Landon began the final chapter of an extraordinary run as one of television’s most familiar faces.
Highway to Heaven premiered on NBC on Sept. 19, 1984, 42 years ago today. The fantasy drama became Landon’s third and final television series after his long runs on Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie. It was also the only one of the three set in the present day.
Created by Landon, Highway to Heaven starred him as Jonathan Smith, an angel sent to Earth to help people in need. Victor French, who had previously worked alongside Landon on both Little House and Bonanza, played former police officer Mark Gordon, who discovers Jonathan’s true identity and joins him on his assignments. Landon personally chose French for the role.
The idea came to Landon during an ordinary drive through Beverly Hills.
“I was driving through Beverly Hills to pick up my kids on a Friday night, and people were honking at each other,” Landon told The Los Angeles Times in 1988. Watching the anger around him made him wonder why people couldn’t spend that same energy simply being nice to one another.
NBC executives weren’t immediately convinced. They reportedly worried that the premise could make the show an easy target for critics, but Landon was so confident in it that he offered to make a second pilot without pay if the first failed with test audiences.
He didn’t need to.
Highway to Heaven finished its first season as the No. 19 show on television and remained among the Top 25 for each of its first three seasons. It ultimately ran for five seasons and 111 episodes, with Landon directing most of the episodes and French directing many of the others.
Its ending also marked the end of an era for Landon. When Highway to Heaven concluded in August 1989, it brought his roughly 30-year relationship with NBC to a close. French had died from lung cancer that June at just 54, two months before the final episode aired. Landon died of pancreatic cancer in July 1991, also at age 54, less than two years after Highway to Heaven aired its finale.
But 42 years after its premiere, Highway to Heaven isn’t finished yet.
According to Deadline, FOX has ordered a new television version of the series for the 2027-28 season from Friday Night Lights and Parenthood producer Jason Katims, Amblin Television and Michael Landon Productions. The contemporary reimagining will retain the original show’s premise of a “probationary angel” sent to Earth to earn his wings by helping others.
“Highway to Heaven has always been about connection, compassion and the idea that small acts can have big ripple effects and make a lasting difference,” Landon’s widow Cindy Landon said of bringing the series to a new generation.
More than four decades after Landon first took Jonathan Smith down that highway, his final TV series is getting another journey.
Related: Beloved NBC Drama, With 97% Rotten Tomatoes Score, Just Named the Greatest Sports TV Show of All Time
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