The BEST Episodes of Highway to Heaven
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Dec 14, 2020
Network: NBC
The series stars Michael Landon as Jonathan Smith, an angel sent down to earth "on probation", and his human companion Mark Gordon, played by Victor French, Landon's co-star from Little House on the Prairie. Jonathan and Mark are given "assignments" by "The Boss" (God) where they are required to use their humanity (and sometimes a little bit of "The Stuff") in order to help various troubled souls to overcome their problems. Examples of these problems include families dealing with sick loved ones; wealthy and greedy businessmen being encouraged to use their wealth for good; and discouraging prejudice in regards to people of different ethnicities, appearances, or socioeconomic backgrounds or who have disabilities. While dealing with these situations with sensitivity, Highway to Heaven also used humor – particularly between Jonathan and Mark. Their personalities often clash (Jonathan being more sensible and compassionate but naive, and Mark being more pragmatic and cynical), but they always support each other. Jonathan's mission on Earth is to do enough good so that he could earn his wings and, presumably, ascend to heaven. Due to the close relationship that builds between Jonathan and Mark, this becomes a contentious issue as Mark does not want to lose his friend, and sometimes tries to prevent it from happening.
#1 - Heaven Nose, Mister Smith
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired Mar 30, 1988
Jonathan has to stop an angel who's back on Earth and intent on breaking up his son's marriage. To stop him, Jonathan must enlist aid of a special kind.
9.00 
#2 - Keep Smiling
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired Feb 5, 1986
Jonathan is given one of the most emotional assignments he's ever had ... to help his own widow regain her love for life.
8.83 
#3 - The Inner Limits
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired Jul 21, 1989
A young man is considering institutionalizing his brother, who has been completely paralyzed and speechless for many years, against the wishes of their mother who insists that the brother is not vegetative but can truly understand. When Jonathan and Mark prove that far from being mindless the brother does indeed have a brilliant mind locked in his disadvantaged body, the man must confront his guilt and shame as well as the brother he gave up on.
8.75 
#4 - Man's Best Friend (2)
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired Sep 23, 1987
Alex finally meets the family of his dreams, those dreams are soon shattered when the turners want to adopt Alex. Alex wants to take Jake with him but the Foster family lives in a place where dogs aren't allowed. In order to make his dream come true Alex runs away with Jake to the family he first fell in love with. Michele and Paul had been hoping to have a baby on their own but soon learn that adoption maybe their best option.
8.70 
#5 - Hello and Farewell (2)
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired Dec 7, 1988
Commander Michaels continues to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder she also discovers she has son who came in to the emergency room do to a motorcycle accident. David wants to meet his biological mother but makes his adoptive parents worry about the meeting.
8.67 
#6 - With Love, the Claus
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired Dec 23, 1987
It's Christmas time and Jonathan and Mark's latest assignment is to try and get two divorce parents who are bickering and using their son as a pawn against each other to stop and start being parents.
8.50 
#7 - A Mother and a Daughter
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired Feb 4, 1987
Jonathan and Mark's assignment is to reunite a Hollywood actress with her estranged daughter who is writing a book about her life with her mother in a negative way because she was never told the truth about her father. Meanwhile, another angel reveals to Mark that if Jonathan is successful with this assignment it could mean he will be moved up to heaven and Mark isn't happy about the idea of loosing his best friend.
8.45 
#8 - To Bind the Wounds
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired Feb 19, 1986
Jonathan and Mark help a whole town to remember how a young soldier who was killed in Vietnam touched their lives when the attempts of his father to have a memorial made to commemorate his son are ignored.
8.45 
#9 - A Dream of Wild Horses
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired Dec 2, 1987
Jonathan and Mark are hired to help honor ranch. They must try to convince a grandfather that he is still needed and isn't too old to do anything just because he thinks he is.
8.43 
#10 - Wally
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired Jan 14, 1987
Jonathan and Mark tag along with an elderly street puppeteer who's also an angel - but doesn't know it.
8.36 
#11 - Parents' Day
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired Feb 25, 1987
Jonathan and Mark, as police detectives investigating drug selling in schools, become involved when the son of a famous news anchorman and leading anti-drug proponent learns that his father is a secret cocaine user and informs the police, leading to a cover-up and betrayal of trust by the father.
8.36 
#12 - Birds of a Feather
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired Nov 6, 1985
Out of fear of losing their jobs, workers at a factory ignore ground-water contamination (even though the contamination is making their children sick), and Jonathan must resort to drastic measures to force them to face the facts - but the consequences may be just as fatal to him.
8.31 
#13 - Alone
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired Jan 8, 1986
A homeless boy wishes that someone would love him and so Jonathan comes to him and offers to make his wish come true. They go to a man whose separated from his wife who refuses to let her see their son. And he also refuses to believe that his son who's confined to a wheelchair is because of something psychological.
8.31 
#14 - Basinger's New York
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired Dec 17, 1986
It's Christmas time and Jonathan and Mark's assignment is to prove to a cynical reporter, who doesn't believe that there's any goodness in the world, that there is.
8.29 
#15 - The Source
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired Jun 9, 1989
Jonathan tries two teach two kids the right way to report a story. But after a bus accident they report the story incorrectly leading to the bus driver losing his job.
8.25 
#16 - For the Love of Larry
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired Oct 8, 1986
After his owners are trapped at the bottom of a hill in car accident, a precocious dog tries to lead Jonathon and Mark to them.
8.24 
#17 - A Father's Faith
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired Mar 4, 1987
When Jonathan and Mark decide to take some time off, they visit Mark's friends to go fishing. When they arrive, they discover, the son of Mark's friends was in an accident a few years ago and after being taken off life support is still alive and is a convalescent home. And the father spends all his time with his son practically ignoring his wife. And the tension between them causes problems for their daughter who hasn't visited her brother because she was with her brother when he had his accident.
8.20 
#18 - A Divine Madness
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired Nov 7, 1984
Jonathan and Mark have started their assignment by meeting with one of the people that Crock Jr. wants to bulldoze, a sweet middle-aged lady named Gwen,who runs a veterinary clinic. Jonathan convinces Gwen to go with him to plead her case before Mr. Crock. Poor Gwen is nearly scared out of her wits when she meets 'King Arthur' and is ranted at for being an invader to his realm. Jonathan very smoothly convinces the man that he is a humble subject of the realm who has accompanied the Lady Guinevere, who wishes to petition her liege. The king promptly knights Jonathan and accepts the petition, stunning the lady again by offering his loving heart to her.
8.17 
#19 - As Difficult as ABC
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired Jan 23, 1985
Brian Baldwin learns that his hopes of being a college basketball star are dashed when he is diagnosed with cardiac insufficiency. Now he must face another challenge the challenge is that he cannot read. He tries to hide that fact but doesn't hide it very well.
8.16 
#20 - The Monster (1)
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired Dec 4, 1985
Julian Bradley is a young artist with a facial deformity that is treated badly by the town folks. Julian meets a blind girl named Rachel and they fall in love, but an operation that could restore Rachel's sight may also destroy Julian's hopes for love.
8.15 
#21 - Hello and Farewell (1)
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired Dec 7, 1988
Jonathan helps Commander Michaels deal with flashbacks of Vietnam as well as try to convince her to go to therapy. Mark deals with his fear of flying.
8.13 
#22 - Children's Children
Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired Apr 30, 1986
An overzealous TV reporter files a report on a home for teen-age mothers. The report threatens the very existance of the home. Also, a high school senior seeks advice from Jonathan on how to handle his future education, his angry father, and his pregnant girlfriend and unborn son.
8.09 
#23 - The Gift of Life
Season 3 - Episode 25 - Aired May 6, 1987
Jonathan and Mark's latest assignment is to try and get cold hearted businessman R.R. Benson to change his ways. When subtlety fails, Jonathan decides to try the direct approach and tell Benson who he is and why he is here. When Benson refuses to change, Jonathan tells him to read the Bible. And it's during the night that a burglar breaks in and shoots Benson. Later Jonathan and Mark find Benson but he's now a spirit. That's when Jonathan takes him on a tour of his life and what he has done. Upon seeing that Jonathan tells him he's being given the opportunity to relive the last week of his life. And he tries to do the right thing this time.
8.09 
#24 - Heaven on Earth
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired Feb 26, 1986
Mark becomes deeply stricken with grief after believing he caused two tragedies involving young girls - one of them a victim of a car accident, the other trapped in a house fire - in a matter of hours. That, along with a litany of other complaints, prompts Mark to make a demand: That Jonathan erase everything that's happened and allow him to create his own vision of "Heaven on Earth."
8.08 
#25 - The Hero
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired Feb 18, 1987
Joe Mason is a Vietnam Vet who is trying to get the VA to help him pay expensive dental work but because his condition is not related to his military service, he is denied.
8.08