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, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

It’s time to work at another youth center!

Episode 3.12 “Oh Lucky Man!”

(Dir by Dan Gordon, originally aired on December 10th, 1986)

Jonathan and Mark are working at a youth center …. again!

Don’t get me wrong.  There’s nothing wrong with Jonathan and Mark working at a youth center.  From what I’ve seen of this show, Michael Landon seemed to have a natural rapport with kids and Victor French’s grouchiness was always put to good use whenever he had to deal with someone younger.  It’s just hard not to notice that Jonathan and Mark seemed to go to several youth centers each episode and they almost always dealt with exact same issue.  Some kid is angry or insecure.  He may not have a father in his life.  Jonathan helps the kid admit his anger and learn to trust whoever wanted to adopt him.  Usually, this seemed to involve helping the kid find the courage to play a sport or something similar.

In this episode, the youth center is run by an ex-con named Jake (Thalmus Rasulal).  Mark was the one who arrested Jake and sent him to prison but Jake so impressed Mark with how he turned his life around that Mark ended up testifying in favor of giving Jake parole.  Jake opened up a youth center to “keep the kids out of the gangs.”  And again, there’s nothing wrong with that.  I admire anyone who comes out of prison and attempts to do something good for their community.  One of the truly shameful things about our justice system is that it’s been forgotten that prison is meant to rehabilitate.  We focus so much on punishment that we end up forgetting that we’re supposed to be a nation built on second chances.  Jake has made something out of himself and now, he’s giving back.

(And yes, that is your When Did Lisa Marie Become A Bleeding Heart? moment of the week,)

The problem is that his youth center desperately needs money.  It looks like everything is going to be alright when Mark wins $5,000,000 while taking the kids out for lunch.  Mark plans to give the money to the youth center.  He also plans to be there for a troubled kid named Brady (Ian Michael Giatti).  But when Mark is approached by Nina Van Slyke (Shannon Tweed), those plans change.  Nina claims to be the head of a charity and she convinces Mark that her charity could do a lot more good with the money than the youth center.  Mark finds himself falling in love with Nina and he even tells Jonathan that they’re partnership might be over.  However, Nina is actually a con artist who just wants to take Mark’s money for herself.

Will Mark see the error of his ways?  Of course!  And he’ll apologize to Brady for missing Brady’s big game and he’ll keep the youth center open by giving the money to Jake.  This is Highway to Heaven.  There’s not a cynical note to be found in this show.

That said, this episode was a bit uneven with the soap opera-like scenes of Nina and her partner (Roy Thinnes) plotting to cheat Mark never gelling with the more earnest scenes of Jonathan helping out at the youth center.  As always, this episode was well-intentioned and about as sincere as you can get.  The strength of this show is that it’s so sincere.  But Shannon Tweed felt like she was acting in a totally different show from Highway to Heaven.  As a result, this episode never quite came together as a cohesive unit.

Oh well.  At least Brady’s going to get a family!