Kirk Thornton | Through the Shattered Lens

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, Lee dies.

Episode 4.22 “A Dolphin Song For Lee Part 2”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on March 23rd, 1988)

Remember how, last week, Lee (Bess Meyer) was told that her cancer had gone into remission and she was going to live? Well, this week, the cancer comes back and Lee dies after a month.

What a depressing episode!

Lee gets to do a lot in that month. She goes out on a boat and saves a group of dolphins from some hunters. She testified before Congress and, through emotional blackmail, gets them to pass a bill protecting the dolphins. She swims with a dolphin! And then she dies and its suggested that she’s been reborn as a dolphin.

Normally, I would complain about how shamelessly manipulative this all is but you know what? I like dolphins. I’ll forgive a lot when it comes to dolphins.

And, also, I am going to give some credit where is credit is due. Not every story has a happy ending. Sometimes, people die. It’s not fair but it happens. Highway to Heaven admitted that in this episode and I was in tears by the end of it.

This week’s episode of Highway to Heaven deals with death and is the best of season 4 so far.

Episode 4.7 “Amazing Man”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on November 11th, 1987)

When a cop who was trained by Mark is killed in the line of duty, his family becomes Jonathan and Mark’s next assignment. While Lorraine Douglas (Jane Daly) comes to terms with being a widow and a single mother, her young son (Garrette Ratliff Henson) plays with an Amazing Man action figure and seems to be in denial about his father’s death.

This was a surprisingly low-key episode, up until the final few minutes. That’s when Amazing Man came to life, in the form of Michael Landon wearing a super hero costume. It says something about the sincerity and the likable earnestness of this show that this episode still worked despite having Michael Landon turn into a version of Superman. I mean, really, it should have been a ludicrous scene. It should have made my cynicism go into overdrive. Instead, I couldn’t help but smile. Landon’s big heart came through in this episode.

This was a well-done episode and certainly the best of season four so far. That said, the one-year anniversary of my dad’s death is approaching and this episode was about a father dying and, as a result, it left me feeling rather depressed. I don’t particularly want to spend too much more time thinking about this episode because, right now, that’s just going to make me more depressed. That said, the important thing is that show’s the good intentions came through. This was a sweet episode. I hope everyone involved with it was proud of the final result because they had every right to be.