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!

This week, Mark and Jonathan meet yet another grouchy old man.

Episode 4.14 “Country Doctor”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on January 13th, 1988)

Grouchy old Dr. Hudspeth (Roscoe Lee Browne) is getting older and his health is suffering but if he retires, who will take over his practice?  Jonathan and Mark come together to show Dr. Hudspeth the importance of having faith in other people and also how much everyone in the town has come to love him.

This episode was sentimental in the typical Highway to Heaven way.  Grouchy old man are always secretly saints on this show.  That said, this episode didn’t do much for me because the doctor was a little bit too grouchy.  That’s a polite way of saying that Roscoe Lee Browne yelled almost all of his line and never quite came across as being as great a doctor as he was supposed to be.  Browne wasn’t alone.  Everyone in this episode overacted, including Michael Landon and Victor French.  Considering how over-the-top the show tends to be with everyone delivering their lines normally, having people shout pushed the show over the edge.

In the end, this was Highway to Heaven on autopilot.