Los Angeles Hotel Room– After earlier pursuing the stars on the Hollywood walk of fame and hearing of Michael Landon for the first time, Jonathan Smith finally decided to check out his work.
“You know, it’s a little remarkable I hadn’t heard of him considering how many years he’s been on TV,” Jonathan remarked. “Yeah, I’ve been dead, but I’ve been on earth doing this angel gig the entire time and most hotel rooms have televisions, well, now they do anyway. I guess maybe that’s my excuse–I didn’t watch so much TV before I hooked up with Mark here.”
As Jonathan laughed uproariously, Mark stopped eating his submarine sandwich long enough to ask what that was supposed to mean.
“Anyway,” Jonathan continued, “Mark was so excited to see the star of this Michael Landon on the walk and said he was in shows like Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie. I happened to catch them on TV recently while we were waiting for a new assignment, and it was crazy: it’s almost like this guy is trying to be like me.”
Noting that Bonanza era Michael Landon seemed to mirror his life on earth while Little House on the Prairie Michael Landon seemed to mirror his angel life, Jonathan couldn’t get over how similar he is to Michael Landon.
“Now on Bonanza Little Joe is always kind of getting into trouble, he’s always up to something,” Jonathan observed. “Now you know when my wife has been my assignment, she did comment that I was always scheming.”
As a side note, Jonathan noted that it was “a little messed up” that the Cartwright family all lived together even though the kids were adults.
“Ben Cartwright really seems to have problems letting his boys grow up,” Jonathan remarked. “Now, if i had this family as an assignment, I would probably conclude that the reason Little Joe is always getting up to something is at least partially a reaction to this family dynamic. I’d like to think that I could really help a family like this. In fact, in my head cannon, Adam got help from an angel off screen and that’s why he was finally able to break away from the smothering family dynamic and get started on his own independent life. It is kind of funny, though–usually I’m focusing on reuniting families, but in this case, I would definitely be telling Ben Cartwright to give his kids some space.”
Moving on to Little House on the Prairie, Jonathan noted that the character of Charles Ingalls seemed really familiar.
“I felt like I knew the guy,” Jonathan commented. “The way he was always so involved in the lives of other people and fixing them up–it was like a page out of my own book.”
Jonathan went on to note the many episodes that Charles seemed to behave just like he did.
“I mean he cured that alcoholic father and repaired his relationship with his son,” Jonathan reflected. “Now if that is not my line of work, I don’t know what is. Then there was that time that he stayed with that family while buying horses and repaired the entire family after the father became an alcoholic when their son died in an accident. Again, you could totally see that being one of my assignments.”
As much as he enjoyed comparing Charles’ good works with his own, Jonathan did object to him being almost too perfect sometimes.
“What does that guy think he is, an angel?” Jonathan criticized. “We all know he wasn’t really an angel, not like I am. He sure did seem morally superior to everyone else though. But I did enjoy all the punching. Even as an angel, we all know there has been a time or two where I just had to let someone have it, so I liked seeing that represented.”
When asked if he planned to continue watching the shows, Jonathan hesitated to commit.
“I can’t really say,” Jonathan continued. “I did enjoy them and I can see why the shows are so popular, but the guy seemed so much like me, I don’t feel like I need to watch it on TV–I’m living it. Well, after-living it. You know what I mean.”
At press time, Mark was commenting that he thought they could both use a little more TV in their lives and little less talking.
