Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, we will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Tubi and other services!
Episode 4.9 “Why Punish the Children?”
(Dir. by Michael Landon, originally aired on November 25th, 1987)
In this Thanksgiving episode, Jonathan Smith (Michael Landon) and Mark Gordon (Victor French) take on roles as history teachers in a women’s prison. It seems a compassionate social worker named Melanie Canner (Sally Spencer) has been fighting hard to improve the lives of the women on the inside and has been getting close to nowhere with prison warden Thomas Inman (Bruce French). The first positive step that Melanie has been able to secure for the inmates from the warden are these history classes. Once on the inside, we meet inmates like Maria Rojas (Tasia Valenza), a young woman who’s just about to have her first baby, and Reba Williams (Bebe Drake), a mother of five. Both women want to straighten out their lives in order to give their children a better chance in life. It soon becomes clear that Jonathan, Mark, and Melanie are on a mission to convince the warden to open up more opportunities for the women to improve their lives and spend more quality time with their kids. The warden isn’t an easy case, as he seems convinced that the women shouldn’t be given any real favors as they pay their debts to society. As you might imagine, Jonathan has a couple of divine tricks up his sleeve.
I liked this episode of HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN even if it’s not the most realistic story you’ll ever see. Each woman we meet has 100% accepted the error of their ways and are determined to be a productive member of society if they can get just one more chance. The cynical part of me has to overcome this unrealistic element of the story, and the “women in prison” movie lover in me would have enjoyed a couple of good catfights. Alas, this is HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN and director Michael Landon is not in the business of going for complete realism or providing B Movie fan service! Rather, Landon is interested in creating a world where basically good people have done wrong, honestly regret how their choices negatively impact those they love, and vow to do better for their children. This series built its five seasons on the prospect of people turning their lives around, and I’ll admit I got pretty emotional again with this one. This episode really focuses in on a mother’s love for her children, and I certainly want to believe that these women would do anything for theirs. Each mother is given a beautiful moment, at Thanksgiving no less, and the chance that they need to be the mom their children deserve. I’m getting a little misty just thinking about it as I type these words. The character of the warden is there to learn the lesson that we all need to learn, which is to try to see situations from different points of view. He gets a little angelic help in this area, which is quite heavy handed and completely in line with the show’s expectations.
Overall, I again enjoyed this episode as a nostalgic trip down memory lane with a series I grew up watching with my mom. The fact that I got a little emotional is also no surprise because the older I get the more I cry when watching movies and TV shows. The fact that I was bawling in my office while I watched the show at work could have been a little hard to explain… luckily, nobody came by during those waterworks moments.
Through the Shattered Lens 
The Revisionist History Fraud the post WWII United Nations, which makes a public pedophile …
chet8757
chetyarbrough.com
Interesting. I agree with your view of Ike. I think his Presidency is under appreciated. I disagree with your assessment of Trump. I think his transactional view of life is too tied to his ego. How much money you have is no measure of human value. If one is poor, it is always their fault in one who measures wealth as a marker for what is good or bad in a person.Wealth is power to do good and harm. A transactional view of life is as likely to do harm as good—a great risk for a Democracy. Trump is a danger to America and Israel.
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Cannot speak of President Trumps’ domestic policies, except from an outsiders perspective. Prior to the Covid-19 plague employment for minorities blacks and mexicans in particular reached record breaking success. Its the minority populations who generally qualify as distressed populations. The proof to the pudding – in the eating; record high voting numbers of blacks and mexicans voted for Trump.
Trumps’ Foreign policy I feel confident upon. In this article I shared with you I showed how the US European alliance had skewed and dominated US foreign policies strategies and perspectives.
IKE having fought in WWII, hardly a supporter of Europe dominating US strategic policies. The US pulled Britain & Frances cookies out of the fire and not the reverse!
Hence IKE used the 1956 Suez Crisis as an opportunity to smack down the top tier status of arrogant Limeys and Frogs.
LBJ reverted back to the Truman era European approach. IKE despised Truman. Truman’s foreign policy stood on two legs. 1. The Marshal Plan 2. The Containment Policy. The former Aid in exchange of US military bases stationed in foreign countries, resulted in US military bases in over 155 countries according to Ron Paul when he chaired some US foreign policy Congressional Committee. Consequently I trust his opinion as an authoritative Primary Source. The latter leg, shaped the Two-State Solution which so utterly dominated LBJ’s foreign policy, as well as President Truman his predecessor. The two-state solution dominated the Korean and Vietnam Wars!
This British foreign policy of imposing two states – a Xtian NT kingdom divided against itself old and utterly bankrupt corrupt idea. This foreign policy defined how the Roman ruled their empire.
Its important not to focus upon personalities steering the boat but rather the course taking by the ship of State. Trump Derangement Syndrome seems bat shit crazy in my estimation. The Democrats have lost the helm direction of the ship of State precisely over their rabid anti-Trump insanity.
Utterly abhor and detest Obama as President. And based upon what Tulsi Gabbard and others have revealed the corruption post ’16 elections the worst scandal in US History. And that’s saying a lot. Recall that Trump ran on the slogan of cleaning up the Washington SWAMP and the Heads of the FBI, CIA, NSA worked in conjunction with CNN NBC CBS and ABC!!! I hope that Trump breaks this Government established media monopoly on the order of Teddy ‘Big Stick’ Roosevelt.
Trump succeeded through the Abraham Accords. This IKE like Foreign policy slapped down the EU/UN alliance. Recall Trump rebuked the EU over its contributions to the NATO alliance in his first term. This policy goes hand in glove with Washington and Jefferson absolute distrust of making strategic alliances with Europe.
The foundation of the US decision to hitch its wagon to Western Europe began with the Wilson Government to made the Government Central Bank monopoly of private banking/Federal Reserve. He slipped this clear refutation of President Andrew Jackson’s closure of the 2nd National Bank in 1825 with only 3 people sitting in Congress prior to Xmas!!!! What a disgrace!
The New government private banking Central Bank monopoly butt fucked the American economy. Its duplicated the European tradition of Central Governments establishing Corporate Monopolies. Recall the US revolutionaries throwing.
The British empire sought to break the Chinese Tea monopoly, dominated by the Qing Dynasty. The British East India Company was initially interested in tea for its popularity in Britain. British officials discovered that the climate in regions like Assam and Darjeeling was suitable for tea cultivation.
As a matter of perspective, the British likewise developed a stain of long stand cotton in Egypt in 1864. Hence England did not join the Confederacy attempt. British textile industries absolutely relied upon Southern long stand cotton prior to Egypt developing a stain of long stand cotton in 1864.
English tea monopoly in India, such as the Assam Company (founded in 1839), were established to manage tea production and export. These companies controlled the entire supply chain, from cultivation to export, effectively creating a monopoly over Indian tea. The establishment of the English tea monopoly in India had lasting effects on the economy, society, and culture, shaping the tea industry as we know it today. This same fact equally applies to Wilson’s government established monopoly known as the Federal Reserve in 1913.
The US joined the British and French alliance during WWI & WWII consequent to huge loans which the non elected Federal Reserve unilaterally decided to give to the governments of London and Paris!
Post WWII Europe stood exhausted and utterly bankrupt. Hence IKE in the Suez Crisis immediately slapped the British and French down. Israel’s government of Ben Gurion agreed to return the captured Sinai with no Egyptian compensation for damages in return for IKE removing England and France as top tier ‘Great Powers’ in the Middle East.
LBJ, tied down in Vietnam, permitted London and Paris to write UN Resolution 242. This UN Resolution serves as the foundation of all hostile UN Condemnations of Israel to this very day! Obama’s UN Resolution 2334 sucked the butt’s of England and France. What an absolute disgrace!
President Trump’s Abraham Accords directly compares to the policies of IKE during the Suez Crisis of ’56. British and French divide and rule hostile imperialism argues that peace in the Middle East depends upon dhimmi stateless Arab refugee populations scattered across the face of the Middle East! President Trump slapped the European hogwash straight across their fat jowls! He argues that peace in the Middle East first and foremost must come from independent nation states in the Middle East making shalom with Israel. And NOT carving up Israel into two hostile states like as did the post WWII Allies did with Germany!! Trump argues its simply not the place of the “international community” rhetoric propaganda to determine NOT the Capital of Israel NOR the international borders of the Jewish state. NO the Arab states who make peace with Israel, like as did both Egypt and Jordan, these peace treaties, THEY and THEY alone determine the international borders of the Jewish state.
As of late many countries in the “fraud” international community of nations, have taken up the kudgel to unilaterally recognize an independent Gaza following the Oct 7th abomination. President Trump rejects this arrogance with complete utter revulsion. Reward Arab terrorists for the Oct7th surprise attack upon Israel? You fool foreign countries have utterly lost your rational minds!
Therefore, based upon this general comparison of US foreign policy based upon the roots of the US as an independent nation, I support and approve of President Trumps leadership.
Domestically the 37 Trillion dollar debt takes America straight back to the 1860-65 Civil War. Doge closure of fat corrupt Federal “carpet bagger” bureaucracies – which in ’16 Trump referred to as “The Swamp”, this policy argues that the States of the Union have the Rights (based upon the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution) to bureaucratically regulate all intra-State trade and commerce independent from Big Brother carpet bagger Federal bureaucraps.
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Great review, unbelievably I have never seen this show. My own experience with Michael Landon’s work involves three things: 1) the Bonanza episode with Marlo Thomas in yellowface; 2) the tv movie where his mother would hang his soiled bed linen out front, to dry; and 3) the classic Tonight Show appearance where Landon outed Hop Sing.
Suggestions for explaining the workplace tears. 1) Explaining, again, that the Double Irish was eliminated in 2015; 2) explaining, again, that there is no benefit to placing an IRA within an Annuity; 3) say you are practicing Rutger Hauer’s “Tears In The Rain” monologue, just 42 words, but the trick is to really know it, like so…“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”
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A few things…. I only focus on a double Scotch, and that has nothing to do with taxes! Second, what about the guaranteed lifetime income and market downturn protection provided by combining an IRA with an annuity?? Finally, I’ll have to work on that monologue!! I think I need to go back and read Rutger’s book “All Those Moments” again to really get back into the groove!
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