{ ~ Michael Landon's A&E Biography ~ } ( FULL SHOW )

foreign [Music] this is biography [Music] he starred as Little Joe and in Little House on the Prairie but there was nothing small about Michael Landon's talent and ambition he created programs about ideal families while promoting himself as a perfect father and husband in fact the reality didn't quite match the image Landon was raised in a family perfect only in misery he was a boy caught between two feuding parents and two religions but Michael grew into a gifted actor and writer often creating stories that centered on the unconditional love he sought he touched a chord with television audiences and spent three decades as an admired symbol of family values Landon once said that if you can give the audience a good cry they'll keep coming back he did and they did too gee I was a skinny kid wasn't I we have welcomed Michael Landon into our home so many times over the years that by now we feel we know him but of course we've only just glimped the outline of the man he's a kind of a critter that doesn't really exist anymore he took responsibility for his show you're the most infectious and just a silly almost boyish kind of giggle he was a big kid yeah he lived a life of love and laughter with a generous dose of the kind of emotional complications that come from having three marriages the drive that turned him into a television icon is the stuff of motivational textbooks I I still am amazed by the number of people that I meet who will talk about sitting down in front of a little House episode and crying he has continued to face this battle with humor and honesty and a personal sense of dignity that characterizes a man would you welcome Michael Landon a Critic once noted that everything Michael Landon touched turned to apple pie but in reality his life was not completely above reproach and the first person to tell you that would be Michael Landon I'm far from being a saint or a squeaky clean kind of a guy and really just your average family man the only difference is I'm on TV a lot aside from that and I'm like anybody else here except for when I walk on water just a nasty habit [Music] Michael Landon began his life as Eugene Maurice orowitz born October 31st 1936 in Forest Hills New York his sister Evelyn was already three and a half years old the children had show business in their blood Peggy O'Neill was an outgoing Young Beauty who found an outlet for her flamboyant personality dancing in a Broadway Chorus Line [Music] Peggy met a studio executive named Eli orowitz in charge of East Coast publicity for RKO pictures though Peggy was from an Irish Catholic Family and Eli was a Jew the couple married anyway they grew to hate each other and turned Landon's childhood into a holy war his childhood was was a difficult one he had parents who fought constantly and when they didn't fight they didn't speak they didn't speak for months six seven weeks would go by you know one sitting here I'm sitting here mother's there and tell your father dinner's ready you know dinner's ready by the early 1940s Eli's once promising career at RKO pictures had stalled with a family of four to feed Eli had to be practical he swallowed his pride and took a job managing a string of movie theaters in New Jersey [Music] the orowitz family moved to a brand new home in the blue collar community of Collingswood New Jersey Eli started spending long hours at the movie theater which meant he wasn't around to protect the children from their mother's increasingly erratic Behavior I know that they were hit a lot from my grandmother she would she would go off on these rages and she would grab Michael by his ears and swing him around and let's and she would say let's dance around the room you know she Peggy arowitz was prone to depression and half-hearted suicide attempts she seemed to take out most of her personal frustrations on the children and one of the saddest things dad told me was when he was just a little boy I believe he had turned six and his mother said you know I don't like little boys you're not cute anymore [Music] he once told me he used to run out of the house he had a hiding place and he used to pretend to be other people and he used to play different roles and just take on a whole different life by pretending the future star began dreaming about a perfect family in order to escape his own family's more depressing reality he later blamed himself for talking his parents into staying together my mother and father just flat out didn't like each other and it was partially my fault that they ever stayed together I was always the one to beg please don't leave [Music] well unfortunately they were listening to a seven-year-old [Music] Eugene wet his bed until he was a teenager and his angry mother tried to humiliate him into stopping by hanging the soiled sheets outside his bedroom window even so he never confided to friends about his miserable home life in those days if we had problems we pretty much kept them to ourselves it's not like today where everybody knows everybody's business you know and those days kids didn't say much about what was going on in their homes [Music] at Collingswood High in the early 50s Eugene orowitz was just another scrawny teenager with a funny sounding nickname Oogie was what we called him it was Eugene but we we all called him Oogie he felt tormented at home but Oogie put up a funny facade in public we had a teacher Mrs snoke who was the type of teacher you didn't say boo and everybody was scared to death but all of a sudden after five minutes she'd say Eugene did you do your homework from last night and he would laugh and say no and she would lose control of the class and that upset her greatly I remember used to sit next to me in Spanish class and really got very good scores but somehow they're always past the course I think the teachers just loved them because he had so much charm and and such a lovable way about him Oogie orowitz was turning out to be a likable underachiever he was too small to play football or basketball but he was fast enough to make the track team that's when he discovered the javelin he was 135 pounds soaking wet about five seven five eight but he just had a very live arm and a lot of whip in his arm where the fellas are much much bigger than him just didn't have that whip for the first time Oogie had found something he was really good at and he finally buckled down he practiced the javelin six days a week he would take his Javelin home with him or walk to school with it and I mean I'd seen him more more than once you take the javelin and walk to school and just throw it walk up pick it up just like you would a golf ball throw it and go pick it up and get the golf ball if he would throw the javelin 200 feet and then my little 115 pound body would get the javelin run back 100 feet with it and then throw at the other hundred feet so he could keep practicing and he just worked and worked and worked so hard I mean it was amazing to see this little scrawny skinny kid just build himself up tremendously and I remember seeing him pushing doing one-arm push-ups with his left arm because he was Lefty and he just became tremendously strong foreign [Music] the teenage Landon saw the 1949 movie Samson and Delilah with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr Samson killed the lion with his bare hands the once scrawny now strong teenage boy was overwhelmed by the Larger than Life image he saw on the screen this is the mark of you about it's your hair in his own mind the teenager identified with the long-haired hero Samson Landon's own hair had always been dark thick and curly now he started to believe that his hair might actually be a source of superhuman strength I've taken away your strength Samson that fantasy was custom made for a teenage Misfit trying to comprehend his Newfound ability not surprisingly Oogie never told the guys about his hair brain theory he just kept showing off he had a white picket fence around his house and he took his Javelin and threw his Javelin and knocked every one of those pickets off the fence he staying up on the lawn and throwing a job and knock a picket out and then pick it up and knock another pick it up so then he said okay now go get the Hammers we got to put it all up before my father comes home before before he gets all upset about it Eli spent most of his time at work when he was at home his unhappy marriage made him distant and remote Eugene began looking around for substitute father figures friends say he became close to their High School Janitor whom he often went to for advice he dated occasionally but never seemed to take high school life that seriously our senior year he was running for a class office is giving his speech and I remember he said friends Romans countrymen lend me your homework [Music] elastically Boogie orowitz was in Fierce competition for last place he finished 199th out of a class of 201 the only saving grace was that he won first place in Javelin at the state championship which earned him an athletic scholarship to USC even his own friends never expected Oogie to amount to much when Michael was in high school he was never dedicated to anything but fill in the javelin so then to see him on these TV shows you could never imagine that if he had that inside him because at an all through high school he never showed any of that Talent Landon discovered that Talent only by accident and only because he had hardened himself enough to find victory in the jaws of defeat in the fall of 1954 seventeen-year-old Michael Landon still known by his real name Eugene arowitz moved to California with dreams of Olympic Glory when I came to California I was on a scholarship to at USC for throwing the javelin and I figured I'd throw the javelin College four years and then I'd go in the service and hopefully I'd get in the Olympics and then I'd decide after eight years what I was going to do all of that changed when a torn shoulder ligament ended his Javelin career his dreams shattered Eugene left College within the year he took various blue-collar jobs but money was so tight he could barely eat I was processed surfing at the time and selling blankets door-to-door I used to cry and tell them that my my father had had a heart attack and was losing the store and I had to try to dispose of these blankets to pay his hospital bills and people would women would generally want to give me a cup of tea and ask me to sit down take it easy Landon had always craved the closeness of family through a friend he met and married a legal secretary named Dodie Frazier Dodie was seven years older than her husband and had a six-year-old son named Mark whom Landon adopted he had like a skinny leans but heroic way about him you know dark curly hair and I said hey what's your name he goes Gene as well I'm a mark and we just hit it off a few years later the family adopted a second son named Josh Michael told the children the fishiest stories he could imagine I used to wear big blue sweatshirts under my regular shirt my oldest son was convinced I was Superman because I let him get a pop look at that one day and I told him now look I want you to know something it's between you and I I am Clark Kent I'm Superman he was seven years old what I said if you tell anybody I can't fight crime well of course he went out and told every kid in the neighborhood and let me give you the topper I went upstairs and my kids down in the den looking at a book and I went to hook the screen and I leaned forward and fell out the window right in my jockey shorts I fell out the window and landed on the patio but I went by the window he was sitting at and I got up I mean his luck would have it I was a little sore but I wasn't hurt and I walked back into the I opened the door walked back in the house and he's standing in the hall like that he said what did you just do I said I flew down to see if the paper was here and I went upstairs when he was 22 years old I finally had to tell him the truth on unhappy childhood Landon managed to put up a brave front now that hard-earned inner strength was about to come in handy after following a friend to a studio audition he set his sights on acting and he managed to tough it out through rounds of humiliating rejections it's telephone time telephone time in 1956 was his first Big Break little person little that is a child child we were all little children once like her Casper yes by now the young actor had already discarded his ethnic sounding real name of Eugene orowitz and invented something with more star power everybody had an actor's name in the early 50s you know you had Rock and Lance and uh and all these people you know as rock there's Lance and Eugene not just didn't see it work out for me his new last name came out of a phone book and so we said it a couple times my homeland yeah and it clicked the newly minted Michael Landon showed surprising diversity in his early roles you hear that you hit that a big party big party for the champ he got an early Taste of the uncertainties of Hollywood when he made this pilot that never even aired seems to me a day never went by when I was a kid that you weren't lecturing me on on decency and integrity and morality and I'm happy to see that my lectures bore fruit in high school confidential he was Typecast as a clean-cut athlete hi I'm Steve Bentley oh that's too bad I'm friends with the Rangers and wound up in the trenches in a turn of Fate I'm going to prove to you and through you to the entire crew that I'm not yellow in my book you're still a murdering yellow gutted louse I never felt I was gonna make it as an actor because to me actors were tall and handsome and with great voices Michael London in a powerful performance as the boy possessed in 1957 the 19 year old finally made an impact with the campy classic I was a teenage werewolf foreign got released he ran in my room and he said man take a look at this and I read the headline girls go ape over werewolf his ears stuck out so much that producers had to tape them back and Landon later had them professionally fixed nothing you've ever seen the movie which cost less than ninety thousand dollars to make or nearly 7 million and helped establish the market for teenage horror flicks he went from being a werewolf to playing an albino in God's Little acre and then became a soldier in the legend of Tom Dooley Landon was not destined to become a movie star but he was about to find a permanent home on television in 1959 cbs's Gunsmoke was decimating the competition when NBC decided to put on its own Western there was some opposition initially from the headquarters of NBC to the casting because all four of the leads were relative unknowns the young cartwrights didn't look like they could be remotely related to each other but the Bonanza audience swallowed a far-fetched story that explained everything now that's impossible impossible man I don't think you'd say that if you could have seen host's mother isn't she your mother too that big gal oh no although the boys shared the same father they had three different and three conveniently deceased mothers Bonanza had plenty of Shoot Em Up scenes and it also brought a lighter touch to TV westerns half of these rabbits happen to be mine you ain't skinning these rabbits Joe oh yes I am no you ain't skinning these rabbits not today you ain't Joseph you're making you're making me mad I'd reconsider that little brother well I'm telling you right now I'm telling you I'm gonna tell them oh I'm gonna one way or the other brother horse I'm gonna get into one of these cakes [Music] come out here during the first season Landon knew enough about television not to get his hopes up about Bonanza after we sang the theme song I thought I thought the sets would go dark all over the world I've got a flair for women everywhere Bonanza Bonanza [Music] can't sleep I'm not afraid of any pretty maid Bonanza Bonanza the lyrics were horrendous and we didn't use it after we used the music but not the lyrics after the pilot would you turn away from me cut right behind the scenes Bonanza was about to play an important role in the Network's ingenious business plan NBC's parent Corporation RCA was trying to sell color television sets color the Touchstone of reality I congratulate the RCA scientists researchman and Engineers my father made the decision ultimately that we should put this show on in color Bonanza jump started the sale of television sets because as the show went up in the ratings people had to see it in colors Bonanza became a ratings Juggernaut in its third season when it moved to Sunday nights it was undoubtedly the most important show of its day and dominated the network schedule for the rest of its 14-year run it was one big party I mean here are three guys I mean Lauren was making a few bucks but Dan and I we didn't have a dime and all of a sudden we're going places for NBC you can order as much food as you want and that was important we used to have breakfast you wouldn't believe I'll have the three dozen oysters and the two stakes to start you know they just keep going room service we couldn't believe it and they paid us Landon had originally celebrated his big new job on Bonanza by going out to eat and Friends noted that Landon measured his own success by the food he could put on the table we were ordering dinner and Michael ordered a platter of crab legs you got another large appetizer and then he ordered a double filet mignon honestly I thought it was for everybody and he made it very clear when I said well I don't think we need any other appetizers he said well I don't know what you need you know you guys order what you want it wasn't that he was such an enormous eater this was his way of substantiating the fact to himself that he had made it Little Joe and his big brother Haas quickly became the show's most popular characters Joe anytime you get that look in your eye I always get in trouble Little Joe of course was a heartthrob who romanced women from one end of the Ponderosa to the other I want you more than anything else in the world I want you for the rest of my life I love you more than anything else in the world oh sure sure I love you I I love you like a sister assistant Landon was shrewd enough to capitalize on his Newfound popularity by making lucrative personal appearances all over the country he also managed to spend countless charitable hours with sick and disabled youngsters [Music] he knew how to give the audience what they wanted and often appeared in his familiar Bonanza costume back home the young star's marriage was in trouble in a futile attempt to keep the marriage together the landans adopted a third baby named Jason in the meantime Landon had met a glamorous young model at the studio named Lynn no who would become his second wife Michael and Dodie divorced in 1961 and Dodie was awarded custody of the children but she decided to return her third son for re-adoption Baby Jason never saw either Dodie or Michael again Josh had been with us for a while Jason only a year and mom was going through this you know it hurts to be left you know she was feeling you know like she couldn't concentrate on raising a kid and Dad wasn't close enough to Jason at that point you know you know the bond hadn't happened it would have made sense to keep him Michael Landon had made it to the big time but he already wanted even more and he knew just how to get it [Music] when Bonanza began in 1959 Michael Landon was a 23 year old starving actor where are you you I'm over here playing childish games with brother Haas kept him laughing all the way to the bank having remarried Landon was already beginning to plan his future beyond the Ponderosa [Music] [Laughter] Landon's notoriously contagious laugh brought an unmistakable charm to the series [Laughter] I like that wonderful giggle that no one else has it's just it's very distinctive yeah and he threw himself into the physical side of the show as well [Applause] off-screen Landon had fallen head over Keels for his second wife Lynn whom he married in 1963. his co-star Dan Blocker was his best man at the wedding Lynn had a daughter Cheryl from an earlier marriage and the family settled into a comfortable Suburban home about a half hour's drive from the studio the newlyweds started building their family right away they had a daughter Leslie and a year later their son Michael Landon Jr was born the children grew up watching their father transform into Little Joe on television I seen him with my own two eyeballs a little man no bigger than that my brother Mike and I actually thought that my dad became very small and would climb in the back of the TV set that's kind of how we've thought about it when we were really little and we also thought that he could see us because when he would do live shows or parades and things and he'd say hi to to my brother and I we would yell back hi Dad for this week's hullabaloo Little Joe Bonanza Michael Landon Landon flew to personal appearances nearly every weekend was even an occasional guest star on network specials in 1965 he gamely stepped on stage for the musical variety show hullabaloo [Music] foreign [Music] was not a singer and unlike the rest of his Bonanza co-stars he had little training as an actor he made do by putting up a tough front first started Bonanza when he first started Bonanza he was the laundry I was an insecure guy I mean all of a sudden I was a big star and uh got stuff to handle because you don't know why so therefore you when you're insecure and you you're a star and don't know why you tend to strike out and act like you think a star should act and if you have any brains you outgrow it honey Little Joe after six seasons Pernell Roberts left the show he had reportedly always felt that Bonanza was beneath him oh you would have died of a real bad case of slow Landon was never content just to star in the series use the Bonanza set to school himself in all aspects of production we had a gentleman who was associate producer named of John Hawkins at lunchtime Mike wouldn't eat lunch he'd go up into John's office and John would tell him to write a scene about such and such and Mike would go out and write on the arm of the chair because no one had a desk for him and he'd write take it back in John would critique it for him but in a nice way not being nasty and that went on for months and that's was a springboard to his not only a success but also his power in the in the industry I don't get all out of sorts I'm just trying to be enterprising he hounded producers until they let him write in direct shows he loved trying things with new lenses diopters and all these things which were new in those days he loved this experiment and when he started directing you'd always have the camera crew bring in different lenses we do tests and try them out brother Austin I used to come here we were kids in 1972 Dan Blocker passed away suddenly at the age of 43 from a lung clot Mike would have to cry in a scene and he was asked how do you how do you can you just turn on tears and he said I think of Dan and what he meant to a show Bonanza stumbled after blocker's death and was canceled the next season by now the landans had welcomed a third daughter Shauna but they faced a crisis when a devastating car accident left their oldest daughter Cheryl in a coma Landon made a pact with God that if Cheryl survived he would make television that made a difference I think you can do it to a great deal in this world to uh to pay back good fortune Bonanza had made him financially secure enough to never work again but his bedside bargain had given Landon A Renewed sense of direction and he was about to work harder than ever before [Music] you going in the salon Hey Joe I promise Paul I'd keep you out of trouble getting in trouble I just got an idea to get us out of trouble what more trouble we got out of yesterday the 14 years Michael Landon spent on Bonanza had made him famous as a loving son and an impish younger brother who did I trap him did I trap him into a bed [Music] he launched Little House on the Prairie in 1974 and the long-running show made him an ideal Father Figure to a whole new generation of fans can we give him names PA sure I think we should seeing as they're part of the family now oh this one patty Patty it is better than this one Pat good boy Laura I'm trying to be in a heap of trouble if she didn't know the difference between boys and girls really Charles that Patty it is everybody up and away Little House on the Prairie was based on the popular series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder who was played by a nine-year-old newcomer named Melissa Gilbert I made a special report for school paw his snaps and everything well let's take a look at that he was very much like a um a second father to me my own father passed away when I was 11. so um Without Really officially announcing it Michael really stepped in Landon picked Melissa to play his daughter because she was so natural and seemed like a real little girl instead of just an actress Melissa who had never even seen Bonanza had no idea she was working with such a big star she was impressed though with Landon for other reasons he would be smoking it was real cold he had these big leather gloves on and he put a cigarette out in his glove and then just you know flick the butt away and I just thought that was I'd never seen anything like it that was the coolest he was the toughest Landon was earning a reputation as a Maverick but a Maverick with a Midas Touch [Music] critics didn't like little house they panned it the network wasn't going to put it on the air NBC took it to a screening house about three different times and it got a higher rating than anything that they'd ever had to date be back before dark love you good luck little house was a throwback to the perfect television families of the 50s and 60s by the mid 70s most producers thought those shows were passe All in the Family was the top rated hit and the bunkers were a dysfunctional bunch of bigots dingbats and Meatheads by contrast Little House on the Prairie was a personal Touchstone for all the family values Landon held dear don't see how they can get closer to God than they are right here Michael's co-stars knew the show reflected the kind of Life a lonely little boy from Collingswood New Jersey had always yearned for one of the things that Michael was always quite open about was that he had a really horrendous childhood he was able to take what was a very negative experience and turn that into an experience that's been positive for Millions millions of people little house was also a professional milestone for Landon having schooled himself in television production during the Bonanza years he was now able to take unprecedented control of his show [Music] well English family as soon as you get done soaking your feet we got a wagon to unload Landon single-handedly shouldered the workload of four highly demanding jobs he performed not just as leading man but also as writer director and executive producer I just don't feel that that she can make it a really terrific product if there's a large committee second guessing each other all the time I like input from the people I'm working with uh but I don't want a whole bunch of people who really are not part of the company in the first place Landon kept a grueling schedule he never needed much sleep and was usually awake at five in the morning to work on Scripps by seven he was on the set preparing the daily shooting schedule before the rest of the cast walked through the door I don't think there's any question that Michael had to have a large ego to be willing and able to do the things that he did but he didn't suffer from his ego like so many people do because he never wore it around with him he was confident within the framework of his knowledge of of what he was doing how it would be done baby are you happy Landon embraced fatherhood both on screen and off in 1976 Lynn gave birth to their fourth child Christopher making the 40 year old star the father of seven having outgrown their modest Suburban home the family moved to an enormous mansion on a seven acre estate in Beverly Hills Landon's young co-star Melissa Gilbert spent weekends with the family the house was huge we ran like banshees through that house and Mike would hide behind doorways and jump out and scare us hide and go seek was fun in our house because we'd have friends come over and they'd never find my brother and I because we knew all the great places to hide it was you know it was 15 bathrooms and I mean it was it was a big house on weekends the Landon family escaped to a hideaway in Laguna Beach though only an hour's Drive south of Los Angeles it was a million miles away from Hollywood and the pressures of stardom wonderful entering into a child's world um he would he could find that child inside of him and I think that's what helped us bond with him so easily and it was just so easy for him to be with us and play with us and there was just this intimacy that we had with him during the week family ground rules were strict first off there was no television though Landon had become one of the most powerful stars in television history his own children were not allowed to watch the medium that had made him rich and famous the only exception of course was Monday night and Little House on the Prairie I love you I love you too paw Landon never focused on grades but he did encourage his children to try their best in school he himself had never been a good student and he made sure they didn't follow in his footsteps we definitely had to do our homework my dad would check our homework which made me nervous especially with math because he was very quick with numbers and I wasn't Landon was also trying to teach his children the value of money which is hard enough for any parent much less a multi-millionaire whose children were growing up with servants and ponies on a seven acre estate the children were given chores to do around the house and Landon was fiercely determined to keep them from turning into spoiled brats to teach his children that they cannot live their lives being dependent on anyone other than themselves that they have to make their own way in life he's a very generous person but his children grew up thinking otherwise [Music] no no more I Surrender I can't run another step who's the best day ever wasn't it oh that it was creating the perfect television family came at the High Cost of long hours away from his real-life home Landon tried to compensate as best he could most producers when they decide to take a a crew on location discourage them from taking their families but Michael was just the opposite Michael thought of these as family Adventures you know he'd say hey bring the kids we'll have a great time and at the end of a long work day and I mean a long work day um he would then go back to the motel and play with the children in the pool and throw them up in the air and find all kinds of funny things to say to them and talk about boogers and you know just really relate to them hide and go seek I'm it one two a playful man Landon organized ball games and Horseshoe contests with his young co-stars in between scenes and he targeted them for some of his outrageous pranks I mean he used to drive the kids nuts because he would uh would be on location somewhere and he'd start to talk and he'd have a frog on his tongue he put frogs in his mouth he we had a script supervisor she had this chair with these pouches on the sides and she would carry it from set to wherever we were shooting from spot to spot to spot throughout the course of the day and there was one day where he was sneaking up and putting rocks in the pockets of the pouches and the chair got him here and she said oh you could be lifting the chair would completely close but of course everybody else knew thanks to Landon there were always plenty of outtakes for the gag reel now to be milked for the children I don't care about the children I'm fed up with the kids you gotta look on the bright side just think what a big meal we'll have tonight we eat that sucker [Music] oh my butt 14 years on Bonanza it still hurts when I ride you're all right my face [Music] by the mid 70s Little House on the Prairie had made Michael Landon one of the most beloved father figures on television but the exhaustive workload was taking an increasing toll on his long-term marriage to Lynn in 1976 the landans discovered that 22 year old Cheryl Lynn's oldest daughter from her first marriage had developed a serious drug habit Cheryl blamed the problem on painkillers she had taken to recover from a nearly fatal car accident Landon had zero tolerance for either the abuse or the excuse it was a very very tough situation but it's a situation that I don't know a family that doesn't have a relative somewhere along the line that's got a that's got a drug problem at least one it's just something you work out together and the younger ones learn a lesson hopefully the experience was enough to launch a lifelong Crusade against drugs Landon teamed up with Paul Newman's anti-drug Foundation Andy appeared with first lady Nancy Reagan in support of her famously simplistic campaign just say no Landon used Little House on the Prairie as his personal soapbox that you took from Dr Baker now don't lie to me you took it didn't you then yes I think Michael uh wanted to deliver a message in every show sometimes that message would be very forthright I mean it was it was dishonesty doesn't pay or uh you know jealousy is is not something that's going to enhance your life and and Michael uh made you feel them more than anything Michael had a wonderful sense of of getting to our emotional core I defy anyone to watch a little house in the prairie and not end up getting teary-eyed at some point they were all so moving and that all came from him that all came from who he was and and what he believed in and and how strongly he wanted to live that Dr Ingles often Landon himself was the one getting teary-eyed because his own emotions were so close to the surface in this show he cast his real-life daughter Leslie as a plague victim I wonder if I'm gonna die my dad got almost too emotional for the scene and so he stopped it and had to start it again all right he had such a softness about him um it's funny because I think people often think of their mothers as being the ones that get emotional and show crime you know that display crying Etc and it was really my dad in our family open up the windows and open up the doors let the sun shine in besides being the chief creative force on Little House Landon also knew how to manage the nuts and bolts we both had the same philosophy you hire somebody you let them do their job we also had a couple of rules that went along with that if you want us holler and yell and carry on you're going to be gone by the end of the day and don't come back Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie had made Michael Landon a fixture in people's living rooms for nearly two decades he was beloved by the audience but roasted by critics and largely ignored by the industry it was not uncommon for example for him to get the People's Choice Awards but not get any nominations by the television Academy and I think that that was hard for him he continued to portray The Ideal Husband on television but off-screen Landon was growing apart from his real life partner you know as a child you don't understand the Dynamics that always go on between two adults and especially with your own parents at times and I really had no idea you know that anything was wrong but things at home were very wrong and they got even worse when Michael met 18 year old Cindy clerico she was working as a stand-in on the set and Michael was quite simply Thunderstruck yeah I had no clue you know I had no clue whatsoever it was my first day on the set and he said he looked through the camera and there was just something about your way Michael's initial attraction to Cindy deepened into an even stronger emotional bond and divorce from Lin became inevitable it was terrible it was awful it's it's an absolute failure when people break up well we were married for 19 years I mean you can't how many people are with a company for 19 years I mean 19 years is a long time and and just because people grow apart at that point in their lives it doesn't mean that everything that preceded it was a failure with a fortune at stake the land in divorce turned into a nasty legal battle community property laws left Lynn with a multi-million dollar settlement in a sense our world was shattered at that point the issues of disillusionment and anger and and the fear that takes place I just think that those are those are the things that I experience on Valentine's Day in 1983 Michael and Cindy were married in a simple ceremony at their home in Malibu their first child Jennifer was born later that same year and Cindy gave birth to a second child a son named Sean [Music] Landon's Public Image was undeniably bruised but his fans ultimately would turn out to be much more forgiving than his own family oh [Music] Hey Kevin you're all right what happened it's over everybody has to be out by Sunday afternoon oh no after nine long years on the network schedule by 1983 Little House on the Prairie had finally run its course the children had grown into young adults and Landon was distracted with his new NBC show the short-lived father Murphy starring his good friend Merlin Olson when it came time to close the book on Little House on the Prairie Michael Landon made sure it went out with a bang I wanted to destroy the entire town which I did everybody needed a catharsis on that show we were together for nine years and that's why we blew it up that plus the fact I didn't want anybody making a trashy movie in Walnut Grove because I like that town everybody sort of said goodbye and and and wandered back up to the trailers to get changed and and Mike and I were were left alone and we were both just weeping uncontrollably um sitting on a log and um he said to me he said you know what this is just the beginning for you it's only the beginning and it's gonna be okay I sit down occasionally or when one of these reruns that comes on and uh uh and there's just something warm that happens inside of me and I I really it makes me feel good because I remember how much I enjoyed getting up and going to to work to be on the set with Michael what do you say I think that's a downright mean let's do it yeah I could go home and take my kids who are really quite young at the time and sit down and say this is what your father does uh there aren't a lot of shows on television that I would want to do that with today [Applause] when little house ended Landon hoped to focus on his directing career he was offered many potential projects but was reportedly off put by the blatant sexuality and violence once again he took matters into his own hands writing and directing a semi-autobiographical movie entitled Sam's son for nearly a quarter Century everything Landon touched had turned to Gold but Samsung was a different story it tanked in theaters and failed to launch the full-time directing career he had envisioned I made a feature and it did zero in the theaters it was a nice little movie and it did very well on television you know I was on 14 years on on Bonanza and nine years on Little House I think an audience tends not to want to pay for something they get for nothing I'm a television name and a very important name in television in order to be an important name in features at this point in time in my life I'd have to be 30 years younger and I'm not I'm a 50 year old man who is not going to become a superstar at this point in his life and and films in 1984 Landon went back to the small screen with Highway to Heaven at first the show didn't have a prayer with the network thanks NBC wanted something to compete with Dallas and Dynasty shows which epitomized the Raging materialism of the 1980s like Little House on the Prairie Highway to Heaven was a reminder of a simpler time they're beautiful oh thank you it's nothing like some flowers to brighten up a place once again Landon was the star of the series though by now it was his least favorite occupation we're gonna do uh we're gonna do another single without cheating to look up something Michael enjoyed directing more than anything he liked the creativity of directing and going on the set and working with the actors working with the crew he really enjoyed that and then we'll just continue on with it bring him up he'd like to write but felt it was a very lonely profession he liked acting the least but he was smart enough to know that the actors get the money Landon had grown accustomed to taking complete control he admitted that he had trouble sharing responsibility but within the industry there were rumors that Landon was too controlling somewhat inflexible and even abrasive I'm not abrasive I have no reason to be abrasive I'm very very secure in what I do I'm very good at what I do you find people that are abrasive are are people who are panicky because they're trying to put up a front pretending they know what they're doing this this town is loaded with them found out firsthand what Landing was like to work with a minute Harold you know how he feels about this well what's wrong with turning a little water into why I mean it was perfectly acceptable that was for an entirely different reason and you know it I want you to turn it off come on turn it off he was the man in charge uh and it was the swiftest shooting in episodic television at the time I believe because of his expertise you you got the feeling that with this rapidity with which he shot with the way his crew worked and the actors responded that there was very little opposition and that he would not Brook much opposition I see things day in and day out things that make me sick inside the Moment of Truth came when Asner disagreed with Landon about how to Stage an important scene he wound up finding Landon surprisingly flexible what can he let me go he wasn't too proud or too egotistical to accept change when he was still able to read the quality in a uh and an opposing opinion hey B common Mark Highway to Heaven laid the groundwork for the 90s hit Touched by an Angel but unlike that show Landon's message was less about religion and more about just doing the right thing he was not a practicing religious man and a sense of of uh of having to go to church every weekend or of making a show of being religious but uh I think in his relationships with others uh and then the way he lived his life I think he was a very religious man it's a God go I another episode Dick Van Dyke starred as a homeless man who was eking out an existence on street corners thank you I found his set to be unusual it was a family everybody was relaxed I've never seen a director more relaxed than Michael he just enjoyed himself he obviously loved what he did look uh if you want booze or money I could save a lot of stuff but I haven't got any Van Dyke of course was legendary for his talent at comedy but Michael Landon wrote an episode that showcased his other abilities well let me down to sleep I pray the Lord if I should die before I wake up and it would just easier it just came yeah Michael had big tears in his side well he was very emotional man Michael was very emotional and sensitive I like the way he wrote it he's not a the whole television industry is so obviously so afraid to put any spirituality in a show any mention of it I don't know it's not hip or something and the character I played uh just before he died said he saw God nobody but Michael would have the nerve to do that and you know because you touched the face of God and so will you tonight Michael knew how to touch people's hearts and he really did I'm always taking back to the Frank Capra movies of the 30s and 40s you walked out of the theater feeling good about yourself you had a good feeling and always it did something for people and Michael's television shows did that after you watch them you kind of felt good about yourself and life looked a little brighter and what else is entertainment for but that Highway to Heaven was a bona fide hit but Landon was after something more he was about to do something everyone else said would never work on television I bet you're wondering who I am and what I'm doing here you're wondering that aren't you well I've been elected by the birds of Rose Beach to be their spokesman after nearly a quarter Century on television Michael Landon definitely knew how to get people's attention because they're dead by the mid 80s Landon was using his third prime time hit Highway to Heaven to campaign for the causes and the people he believed in you can only make the kind of show that that you really feel you want to make that in my case I feel is needed I think it's important that people think a little bit if they're not going to at least read if they're going to sit there and watch this thing until they vegetate uh at least let them think a little bit it might force them to pick up a book all right you kids ready for camp [Applause] one of highway to Heaven's most memorable stories focused on a summer camp for cancer patients I'll make you a deal you take off your hat and I'll take off my leg what do you say okay Camp is so wonderful it allows these children to be with a bunch of other kids first of all that understand what cancer is so they're they get to be regular kids nobody gives a damn if you're bald-headed because you've been on chemotherapy because there's a bunch of bald heads around here conscious that'll give it away gotta pretend that camera's not there so I noticed as the camera went by when good the inspirational story was based on a real-life camp for desperately ill children even louder [Applause] the whole idea was to help kids forget about cancer for a while and Michael Landon was head cheerleader [Applause] you're not going to find these kids depressing you may feel a little guilty about what you've been bitching about over the last year or so but uh [Applause] foreign I don't think that the stories we did about cancer really there was no inner thoughts there was no feeling that oh maybe someday I'll be sick or something I think it was just that he had met a lot of people and had known a lot of people who had been ill with this disease they may have eight hamburgers please some of the children who appeared in the show were actual cancer patients and without any Fanfare or the usual Hollywood publicity Michael Landon did something wonderfully unexpected he was amazing he could have left every day and instead he stayed and had dinner with the kids and he signed autographers and he sat around the campfire and he was just one of the counselors he was terrific this went on for a whole week as we start down here loosen to what you have to do to hold disabled children we're close to Landon's heart another episode of Highway to Heaven focused on the Special Olympics [Applause] I just want to be part of us I want to be part of this world and given a chance to to live like we do and they can all right all right already impossibly rich and internationally famous Landon raised the bar with which he measured his own success now he was focusing on how many people he could help [Applause] Landon hired quadriplegic Jim troche who wrote and starred in an episode that included one of Landon's personal trademarks tough love put somebody scared me yeah you Tom Sullivan who was blind since birth wrote three episodes of Highway to Heaven you sat me down there on purpose did you I didn't think you noticed I told you don't try to pull a fast one on a blind guy he was willing to stretch the envelope and do it with humor in a way that made us all figure if he thought we were that good we were hey that wasn't true right watch where you're going I certainly wish I could Sullivan never wanted and never got any special treatment from Michael Landon you repelled down that clip and you can't see the only way I'd repel down a sheer face like that wouldn't take a chance if I was cited it's much too scary he kept saying we had to climb up the cliff and and it was really it was real rock climbing and somebody had said to him you think we ought to have a stunt guy do this for Tom or do you think we ought to get a crane in here and put Tom up there what do you think whatever they said and he said I'll never forget the line he said no no it's great that he's blind because he's the only guy that doesn't have to worry about looking down during the second year of Highway to Heaven Landon's son Mike Jr asked his father for a job he had no training or experience in production I had the opportunity to be an assistant cameraman on the show for five years he was by far the the best boss in this business up until that point Mike Jr had been adrift he later admitted dabbling with drugs as a teenager flunking out of college and working in a restaurant as a busboy whatever difficulties Mike Senior let his children make mistakes but was there when they needed him you don't have to teach them to fail they're going to manage that one just teach them not to be afraid of it because it's not horrendous it isn't bad most people are I think injured more by success than they ever are by failure foreign part of his past came back to haunt Landon when he decided to resurrect the campy cult film I was a teenage werewolf for a dream sequence he directed on Highway to Heaven we're going to dump this wall okay we're gonna start here well come on Whose idea do you think it was I mean I was the teenage werewolf I am now a middle-aged werewolf of course it was my idea okay I like some pork and steak Tartar and you guys can go to lunch too another part of Landon's past was catching up with him it had been two decades since he had played Little Joe Cartwright now his son was getting a shot at a bonanza Revival he wants to be behind the camera but all of a sudden he has the opportunity to be in front of the camera and they're making a new Bonanza series for syndication and he's going to play my son in that show which absolutely flips me out I mean I think it's fabulous but when the second generation failed to recapture the old Bonanza magic the series rode off into the proverbial sunset Landon's youngest daughter Jennifer always wanted to be an actress and he cast her in one of his final episodes of Highway to Heaven [Music] she had one line in the show her line was Merry Christmas great great great great great grandfather there's a ogre about how many great greats there was going to be when I said Merry Christmas she did the scene now that night we have a little memo pad on the refrigerator down at the end of the pantry that also has a little recorder on it so you can push the button in and leave a very short message she was down I could hear her talking down there so she was down at the end of the pantry and she was saying her line into this little tiny recorder and playing it back so I then she saw me looking at her I said honey what are you doing she said dad now this is a five-year-old where she gets that is there any possibility that I could Loop that line geez I'm doing it much better here in the pantry I mean I couldn't believe it all he would do is talk about the kids and he knew exactly what every one of his nine children were doing he goes oh it's eight o'clock Jennifer is in a ballet recital um we ended up going to the mark and he said I tell you that my son Mark got a job in the mornings working in the market that's all he knew about he knew everything each of his kids were doing um he was just unbelievable when it came to the kids I have wonderful children no one likes it I've got my priorities straight that working is not the most important thing in my life your chick has turned itself and is pipping away at the large end of the egg in 1990 Art Carney starred in Landon's last TV movie where pigeons go to die I tell you what inspired me two words Michael Landon when you're connected with something with with Michael Landon's name on it you got a class act Landon named a character in the story after his business manager I'm Dennis corn from Jason Realty that Mr Jason just called me on the car phone he's stuck at a deposition he's running a little late he wanted to find a tall dorky looking guy to play my part and he kept sending me pictures of the weirdest looking people say this is going to play your part that was Michael believed in people and at the time series were shooting for maybe a million one million two somewhere in that range and Michael because the crew was so committed would bring the shows in for maybe 800 000 bucks or whatever it was well his deal was that obviously the money belonged to him it was paid by the networks and it went to the production companies what nobody knew was that he was putting that money aside and whenever there wasn't a land and series on the air principal crew people still got paid I mean he carried them he never wanted to lose them he took care of the crew he took care of everybody I mean it should be at the last shot of the day and I'm sitting there on the dolly and feeling something so I'm not being pocket and of course go home get ready get a shark here's that envelope now opened up and check five thousand ten thousand [Music] away from work Landon enjoyed pushing the envelope he couldn't wait to be buckled into the back seat with the Blue Angels the Navy's team of precision Pilots oh it was absolutely unbelievable I mean it was uh it was gorgeous I mean you just touched that plane and shoot it goes the Blue Angels managed to bring out the Daredevil and Landon but then again that wasn't too hard to do he was afraid of nothing he was absolutely Fearless we took off in a helicopter once in Denver Colorado to go back to get a plane back to Los Angeles we'd made some kind of appearance and the pilot said whoops and there's lightning all around us and sitting in the backseat of the helicopter Hyatt moments of some worry and he uh he said no no no no over here I said what are you nuts and I probably said oh we can't go into he said no I want to get closer to the lightning a true thrill seeker Michael Landon had wound up cheating death many times over his luck though was about to run out [Music] but I think all of us create our own miracles on April 8 1991 Michael Landon called a press conference to announce the shocking news that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer Landon was essentially announcing his own death sentence but he handled it the way he had managed most of his life head on it was that way from day one and that's why Michael had called a press conference telling everybody what he had so there would not be any speculation and stories and all of that he just sort of wanted to lay it out on the line from day one [Music] I think every moment just gets a little more important after something like this he called us at the house and he said Michael has something sorry Cindy said Michael's got something to tell you it's not good no I'm okay I cried then I'm crying now because it wasn't good he meant an awful lot to a lot of people and uh there'll never be another one like him never he was genuine he cared for people the sweetest man I ever know the things that you probably wouldn't notice become important word of Landon's illness ricocheted around the world and before long the post office was deluged with stacks of mail thousands of letters a week no one was more surprised than Michael himself Michael never looked at himself as a as a star as a big star and I know that this house was filled with boxes of letters and books and I remember we were sitting there one day reading he was looking through some of the letters and I think it was very touched by the fact that he had felt that he had actually had and made a difference in the lives of some people because of his shows that meant a lot to him for the past month he has continued to face this battle with humor and honesty in a a personal sense of dignity that characterizes a man would you welcome Michael Landon some of the letters were sympathetic and some suggested the most far-out therapies imaginable Landon chose to talk about one of his favorites during his final appearance on The Tonight Show which became one of the highest rated tonight shows of all time the one guy wrote me he told me that the reason you got it yeah you got the Big C was that I did not get enough sex so he thinks it was only the nine times Michael had been a guest of The Tonight Show many times and in private he and Johnny Carson were close personal friends but this visit was clearly different for Landon this time he had something he wanted to get off his chest about the Tabloid press it seems so totally insensitive to me especially since how do they know what my little kids have been told in my own home that that a tabloid would write four weeks left or it's over can you imagine that will a tabloids have never been can you imagine known for their decency I mean it's unbelievable that people can be that way [Music] that's a cancer Jennifer told me um just a couple weeks ago that after we'd said dad had cancer she said you know Mom I went in my room and cried never said anything because I knew dad probably wasn't going to make it so we wanted to protect her but we also wanted not to have them think the dad was going to be alive if there was the possibility he wasn't we wanted to be very honest with him I remember like he would explain it to us in terms that we could understand especially for my brother because he was so little he was really young and like my brother said that he wished that my dad was a crab so that he could cut through the clouds and come back down Landon had been feeling ill for quite some time in retrospect his daughter Leslie realized that something was seriously wrong at her wedding just a few months earlier I said I look back and he was probably sick at that time with the with pancreatic cancer it was probably one of my most wonderful days in my life was my wedding day with my whole family and it was it really was it was like it was a magical day for me yeah it was I feel very lucky that way because I know I have I have younger siblings sorry I'm just thinking of Jennifer you know I was just thinking you know she won't have that experience she wouldn't have my dad doing that with her [Music] Landon's life was becoming completely chaotic every move he made reporters and photographers were waiting publicly Landon had always said he would fight cancer until the very end some of his closest friends knew otherwise you know I was a little worried about this interview tonight you've made me feel much better [Laughter] Michael Landon's appearance on The Tonight Show with his good friend Johnny Carson was surprisingly uplifting though facing the bleakest of Futures Landon found humor in the worst situations I asked before I went if there was anything that he wanted and they told me that all he really cared about doing at that point was laughing which was very important to him I spent you know 10 years basically crawling around on the ground laughing with tears streaming down my face because of him it was very hard to see this man who you know was this big tough guy who put cigarettes out in his hand who to me always looked like an upside down triangle he was so built and so strong and he never wore a shirt and you know he was just this vital solid guy and he was so sick and so gray in in his skin and and so weak and and it just it wasn't him Landon was undergoing conventional treatment while also experimenting with alternative therapies oh I take coffee enemas anybody out there ever heard of a coffee enema yes I've heard of him huh you must be fun at breakfast yes he was starting to feel better when doctors gave Landon the sobering news that the cancerous growth had actually doubled in size that's when he decided to pull the plug on his aggressive Medical Treatments we did have a couple of discussions about this about the medicine and and I still feel myself that there there is medicine available and so did Cindy and and uh and he felt that common medical knowledge at the time had more or less consigned him to the scrap AP was about to be through and so he wanted to give up and give it let everybody get on with their lives and that was frustrating I think he began to realize that he then had a choice of how much pain he was going to be in and how much he would be able to enjoy his family during the last time and family was such an important part of his life that his choice was very simple he said I want to be able to spend some time with with my kids and and with my wife you know he didn't want to he didn't want to spend that time dazed and and not able to really communicate so the end result was that he really probably suffered quite a bit in the last part of his life I thought to myself this is very good and he knew it we all knew it but you know there's always this feeling in your heart that when you love somebody it's going to be all right and somehow because he was invincible to us he could do anything he would do anything he'd chance anything he'd go anywhere so you never felt that anything was going to happen to him but we were wrong once the Press got wind that the end was near a ghoulish Death Watch began outside the Landon compound Landon passed away quietly on July 1st 1991 at the age of 54. it was terrifying to think that the privacy of someone who was ill and who had died and the family who had just experienced it was experiencing a war zone I looked out the window and there's a helicopter is circling overhead and just trying to shoot down and people were lined up on the street I called a friend if I knew what the sheriff's department and they had a just a regular van from The Undertaker and we took down a part of a fence and they backed it in and under a porch so that we could get them out without anybody seeing them my husband did the best he could to make sure that it was not caught on tape unfortunately in the moment Cindy was very upset and very emotional and ran after the van as it was leaving and they caught it and of course at the time she didn't know and it was probably the furthest thing from her mind but it was terrible it was terrible Landon had meant to make a videotape to say goodbye to each of his children but he became too weak too fast but he had composed a letter for his wife Cindy it was on Mother's Day and it was his wishes for me um about my life basically you know and hoping that he would be here five ten years from now that we you know we could sit and read this together but it was basically him telling me these are things that I feel and things that I wish for you when I'm not here one person who chose not to visit Landon during his final days was his second wife Lynn to whom he had been married for 19 years Lynn told her children that their divorce had already been like a death to her and when death eventually claimed Michael Landon Lynn was one of the few who chose not to attend his memorial it was it was a day of of tremendous emotion and ups and downs and of sharing favorite stories of talking about the difference that Michael had made in our lives if there was a message Michael had for his friends and family they knew it was best expressed in a line he wrote for Little House in the prairie which was read by actress Patricia Neal remember me with smiles and laughter but that's how I remember you if you can only remember me with tears then don't remember me at all Michael Landon passed away a mere three months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer he was only 54 years old in many ways Landon's death served to unify the family he had left behind but it also caused significant splinters in the Landon family tree foreign the immediate issue was Landon's multi-million dollar estate who got what some children went public with complaints others hired independent Auditors to review Landon's Financial records the estate plan didn't satisfy everyone when you have as many beneficiaries children in this case Michael you're bound to have different interpretations of what is right and what isn't certainly by my standards and I think by most people's standards he left each of his children wealthy the Landon Family Feud had become a tabloid staple and after his death there was a morbid curiosity about his Rich Young Widow Cindy Landon for several years after her husband's death tabloid photographers followed her every step well yes there was a lot of effort for some reason to scandalize her independent photographers and writers would try and find something to sell their story to the various tabloids so they literally followed her in cars whenever she went out out to a restaurant there'd be a couple of cars and photographers parking right behind her I mean Cindy finally moved her two children to the south of France for a year to escape all the public scrutiny but within a decade Michael Landon's name was back in the public Spotlight and some say being dragged through the mud in the spring of 1999 Michael Landon Jr unveiled an unflattering portrait of his father in a highly rated television movie Mike and I spoke about the movie he told me what he was doing and he felt that this was something that he needed to do and basically it was something that he thought he could do for his career the movie focused on Landon's divorce from his second wife Lynn and marriage to his third wife Cindy Landon was portrayed as a selfish and callous man TV Guide even wondered whether the portrayal should be called daddy dearest Michael Landon Jr wrote and directed the story at least I hope it that it's a very balanced very truthful story I believe television has a right to do whatever they want in terms of fiction that's what television is about I don't think it's fair to fictionalize real life action it's always easy to say there's a dark side after somebody's dead because he can't fight back I doubt very much if anybody would want to say that if he was alive Mike Jr traded on his father's name in order to jump start a career as a director but his version of events struck many family friends as wildly inaccurate and privately they were heartsick that Mike Jr had tarnished his father's reputation Landon himself had never claimed to be a saint be good to each other and don't judge each other we've all got our problems thanks to three decades on television exemplifying strong idealistic characters Landon had always been held to a higher standard he had come a long way from the lonely miserable childhood he had endured as a scrawny little boy named Eugene orowitz he had invented a new name and a new life for himself as a handsome young star called Michael Landon then he took that name and turned it into a brand name making it synonymous with wholesome family entertainment along the way he strove to create the loving family he had always wanted his mother was physically abusive with him um and very emotionally abusive I think he's still hurt about some of those things that happened in his past because they were quite painful [Music] when his mother died I think he had a sense of relief at that time but I think there was also still that sense of loss you know of things that could have been different but somewhere in the process he basically said what matters is family what matters is relationship what matters is uh people connecting it always amazes me how people who are so lonely so devoid of love in their lives still consider themselves successful Mike was the kind of guy that if you uh met him for the first time he would impress you because he had such an energy around him people talk about auras uh I don't know that I believe in that or not but I know around Michael there was such an energy that everybody that met him was captivated little kids had We love kids he thought they were so honest and genuine and just so he could be who he was and he didn't have to be people weren't looking at him like you know this movie star they were more honest with him more real I remember Michael as being the happiest craziest I never saw anybody with such a quick wit in my life it doesn't matter what you were talking about he had a joke for it we got in the card game AC deuces all Michael wanted to be sure of is Jay left the airplane with no money and Jay was Michael's business manager so when we took all of Jay's money Michael stopped the game so Jay could not earn the money back when we arrive at the hotel Michael tells of bellman take all the luggage to Jay Eller's room Jay had already gone up to his room and the Bellman says fine so Michael and I hide in the hallway we're behind a door and all the luggage that delivered to Jay's room he doesn't have a dime to tip the guy he's embarrassed like you would not believe and um the Bellman leaves Michael and I come out from behind the door Michael gives a Bellman an unbelievable tip and he says to do me a favor go back to the man's room and complain and so the Bellman knocks on Jay's door Jay's already embarrassing the Bellman says you know anybody can afford to stay in a fancy hotel like this can afford a tip and Jay is bright red and completely embarrassed and Micah was just cracking up and he kept telling everybody that's my business manager that's the guy who handles my investments um every time I call my son Michael I can kind of hear him laugh probably thinking you named him after me what are you nuts couldn't you have named him after Winston Churchill or somebody who did something really good it's like don't take life so seriously take your tasks you know your work seriously don't take yourself so seriously he was really into that don't get hung up in yourself one of his theme songs to Michael was a pragmatist he knew that the minute they told him that that was the final sentence he indulged the rest of us by following through and with some pursuit of alternative remedies um but in his heart as well as his mind he knew that um the responsible doctors that told him he had two months to live without equivocation would not have told him that if it wasn't true so the rest of the the Motions that he went through and he did go through them he tried but they were they were for the rest of us you know I just remember um I remember there was one distinct moment though when my brother was helping my dad up the back staircase and he was carrying my dad's oxygen tank and watching them both go up the back stairs that moment for me was a a release of um I mean it was a lot of release of emotions but I realized at that point that he really was going to die and that I needed it I needed to let that be okay because he I could tell he was suffering and that was not the quality of life that he wanted for himself I mean he was ready to go [Music] there's a whole new generation of young people growing up with a little house out there and I think they love it as much as the last generation did and I hope that that goes on and on and on because it's one of the very special legacies that Michael has left to us set a standard that I would like to have seen the rest of the television industry follow for family entertainment do you hate the word sweet or saccharine but you know if it reaches the heart please live every minute guys [Music] Melissa Gilbert and husband Bruce Boxleitner consider their child a miracle he was born 12 weeks premature weighed three pounds and spent his first six weeks in a hospital when it came to naming the baby Melissa called him Michael after another fighter who had meant so much to her Melissa and many others remain upset by the television movie directed by Michael Landon Jr the younger Landon was widely accused of making a profit while destroying his father's image and reputation [Music] thank you happen [Music] ing for the web's best bios log on to our website at biography.com [Music]

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Length: 90min 23sec (5423 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 15 2023