Highway to Heaven
The Smile in the Third Row
TV Flash files “The Smile in the Third Row” as hour 32 of 108 in the TV Flash guide — Highway to Heaven (1984–1989) on NBC, season 2, episode 8, aired 1985-11-20, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E08: listed hour 32 of 108 in the Highway to Heaven guide, hour 8 of 24 in season 2. It aired 1985-11-20 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Popcorn, Peanuts and Cracker Jacks” (S02E07). Next is “The Secret” (S02E09).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Jonathan is as skeptical as everybody else when the lead actor in a failing Broadway play claims that God is attending the show's performances, sitting in a third row orchestra seat.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Smile in the Third Row sit in the Highway to Heaven guide?
S02E08 is listed hour 32 of 108 — hour 8 of 24 in season 2, season 2 episode 8.
When did Highway to Heaven S02E08 air?
The Smile in the Third Row aired 1985-11-20 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Is it just Little House on a highway?
Spiritual-successor energy, same preacher. Landon wrote, directed, and kept the sincerity. The partnership with Victor French is the new instrument — kindness as a job, not Walnut Grove.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Michael Landon as a probationary angel and Victor French as the bitter ex-cop riding shotgun: weekly redemption on American highways when grit was the fashion. Landon wrote, directed, and preached with Little House sincerity intact. If you can stomach the lump-in-throat moral, the partnership is the real miracle — two men treating kindness as a job.
The instrument is a sermon the decade did not dress for. NBC's *Highway to Heaven* (1984–1989) puts Michael Landon as probationary angel Jonathan Smith and Victor French as retired cop Mark Gordon on American highways when grit was the fashion. Landon writing, directing, and preaching with Little House sincerity intact. Spiritual-successor energy to those prairie values, now in a car. The lump-in-the-throat moral is the house style. The blotter will file the multi-hyphenate control. The text is two men treating…
Filed against
- Michael Landon as Jonathan Smith
Michael Landon’s Little Joe Cartwright is the matinee face of Bonanza — the youngest son as Sunday-night color, the through-line who remained when the Ponderosa roster broke. NBC’s glossy family western treated the ranch like a parish;…
- Victor French as Mark Gordon
Victor French’s Mark Gordon rode shotgun on Highway to Heaven — Michael Landon as a probationary angel, a bitter ex-cop on American highways when grit was the fashion. Landon wrote, directed, and preached with Little House sincerity…