Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Highway to Heaven: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 16, 2023

Highway to Heaven aired on NBC from September 1984-August 1989 and instantly struck a chord with audiences with its touching narratives and spiritually attuned look at life and lifting up those who are struggling in this world. The show was created by Star Michael Landon, of course best known for his leading role on the classic TV series Little House on the Prairie, itself one of the greats of TV's more wholesome landscape of days gone by. That was the show that made Landon something of a TV Legend, even though it proceded his first hit, Bonanza, a show in which Landon cut his teeth as a dramatic writer and TV director, crafting some of that series' best-known efforts. With Highway to Heaven, Landon seized much of the creative control, directing the majority, writing many, and of course starring in all. The close-knit affair meant more intimate creative control, with co-star Victor French also directing a few. But this was unquestionably Landon's show, and despite a ratings drop-off towards the end of its run, it stands as one of the quintessential hallmark TV shows from the second half of the 1980s.

Official synopsis: Michael Landon ('Little House on the Prairie') and Victor French ('Gunsmoke') star in this family favorite hit series 'Highway to Heaven!' Jonathan Smith (Landon) isn't your average helpful handyman. He's an angel on a mission from God, or "the Boss" as he likes to say. Accompanied by ex-cop Mark Gordon (French), whose troubled life Jonathan once helped turn around, the two travel the country guiding the lost and suffering back toward the Highway to Heaven!

In retrospect, one cannot help but to watch Highway to Heaven and not see parallels to Quantum Leap, taking here more of a spiritual, rather than a Science Fiction, bend to the storylines. Both shows explore the role of an individual and a helper who interject into another's life with the aim of making things better. In both shows, each episode is self-contained and follows a familiar structure of new place (and time, in the case of Quantum Leap) and an introduction of a character and his or her issue. The bulk of the show then explores how and why the outsider lead characters are suddenly interjected into the character's life to make a positive impact on their life story. Much like Quantum Leap's Sam, Highway to Heaven's Jonathan finds himself "inhabiting" a particular role and experiencing a problem with more immediate intimacy and allowing for a more personalized response. Highway to Heaven is certainly more overtly spiritual, with Jonathan being an angel who receives his assignments from God ("The Boss" as the show refers to Him). Still, the similarities are uncanny at the core, and the process is often very similar, if not nearly identical, between the shows with only the framework and perspectives differentiating them.

Those comparisons aside, Highway to Heaven does finds its own footing, not only because it released prior to Quantum Leap but also because of its unique take on the world and the perspectives that it presents. The show holds to a core style and set of principles, but it is all over the map in terms of the people, places, and problems that Jonathan and Mark encounter in every episode. The show follows an incredible cross-section of humanity, and while it may look quiant today, and while many of today's human issues are not addressed, the show does offer ample insight into the base human condition that gives it a timelessness even if some of the specifics feel dated. That the show explores humanity often with a lean to the spiritual side of things, it does so rooted in more broadly familiar story strokes that allow spirituality to complement the material rather than outright define it. Divine intervention and the connection humanity shares with God are frequently subjects and a destination for episodes, but the material evolves these components from the story rather than build a story on these elements.

One of the show's real points for success comes in Landon's portrayal of the angel, Jonathan. Rather than present as a "classic" angel with a halo, wings, and wearing a flowing white robe, he's an everyman. Beyond Landon's good looks, he brings an everyday feel to the character who dresses like the world and even expresses the emotions of the world. The character is not a detached observer and quasi-divine interventionist, but he is instead those things blended with the form and function of a man who responds to the ups and downs of the various people he meets with genuine heart and a tangibly aching soul. Landon's absolute genuineness is not just "convincing" as part of a role; it's real, and that tangible soul and heart-on-sleeve presence and persona is much of what makes the show so good. In other words, he and the show are both infinitely relatable.

As with so many TV shows of this era, Highway to Heaven's run is peppered with familiar names that then might not have been of the household variety but many of which are today. The press release provides this list: "Helen Hayes, Jonathan Frakes, David Faustino, Kellie Martin, Ned Beatty, Lew Ayres, Helen Hunt, Barry Williams, Lorne Greene, Dorothy McGuire, Ed Asner, Eli Wallach, Giovanni Ribisi, Paul Walker, Shannen Doherty, Mark-Paul Gosselar, Ernest Borgnine, Didi Conn, Dick Van Dyke, James Earl Jones, Leslie Nielsen, Bob Hope, Donald O'Connor, Richard Bull and many more!"

Highway to Heaven: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The following text appears on-screen upon initial disc insertion: "Due to the age of these original programs and the high quality resolution that Blu-ray provides, you may or may not notice technical anomalies on this Blu-ray presentation that we are unable to correct."

The picture quality is not at all good, but the picture quality is not at all poor, either. Probably the most obvious shortcoming is a lack of color vividness and depth. The palette is very flat and washed out. Whether this is the intended look for the show I cannot say; I may have watched it as a child now and then but I certainly do not remember it, nor would I trust decades-old memories from a low-def signal, not to mention seen through the eyes of someone who would not have cared about picture quality at the time. Whether this is its look or not, there is no denying that even would-be deep tones, such as Mark Gordon's green and yellow Oakland A's ballcap, lack punch and depth. General attire is likewise dull, and so are natural greens and other support tones in homes and in various locales throughout the series. Skin tones are definitely pasty and pale, almost ghostly at times for the lack of life in them. Black levels are likewise fairly flat and unimpressive. They are at times prone to crush and at other times appear pale and empty.

On the flip side, detail is not poor. Neither is it great, but the picture offers serviceable HD elements that render faces, hair, period clothes, and various environments with adequate ease and efficiency. Certainly, this will not be mistaken for the sort of complex, film-sourced excellence found on the best presentations from the era (TV show or otherwise), but this is a serviceable image that captures basics with superior clarity and complexity than anything a standard definition version could offer. Grain is not organically presented; the image is largely free of obvious grain patterns, but the picture does not appear scrubbed down, either, at least not to a waxy, fully debilitating extent. In this area the picture could be vastly improved, but like the color it could have been much worse, too.

The picture does show some sporadic speckles and stray fibers. These are not overly distracting problems, but they do persist throughout the run. Compression is not at all poor. Could it be better? Absolutely. Could things be worse? Oh yes. While hardly a bastion of compression perfection, the work done here is just fine within the full picture context throughout the series run. In summary, the picture looks serviceably decent. It doesn't do much right, but it also doesn't get anything horrifically wrong, either. Videophiles will probably cringe with regularity, but more forgiving casual viewers should be more or less satisfied with this mediocre work.

Highway to Heaven: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Visual Entertainment Group brings Highway to Heaven to Blu-ray with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and a bitrate that holds at 0.1 Mbps. The track is center-focused and lacks any real sense of depth. It is as straightforward as TV soundtracks can be, especially from this era. The track barely musters any real energy but does offer basics like music, very minor ambient effects, and of course dialogue in appropriate balance but barely sufficient clarity. The opening title music certainly lacks definition. Listeners will never feel engaged with the audio, but the presentation gets the job done in terms of conveying the basics. The presentation style and parameters hold steady through the series run. Listeners will never be wowed, but Visual Entertainment Group at least ensures that everything is good to go in terms of carrying listeners through the show with the basics covered.

Highway to Heaven: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, for this entire boxed set, there are only extras on the very last disc, and those are comprised of a series of Bloopers & Outtakes (1080p, 4x3, 2:53) which are located under the "episodes" tab on the menu screen. This set ships in packaging similar to the studio's Stargate SG-1 release. The discs ship in a hugely oversized Amaray case (and a slipcover) and the discs are packed in plastic sleeves reminiscent of storage units for CDs. There is one such bundle of sleeves holding the entire collection, sans one disc; the last disc is included in a single sleeve all its own). The discs do ship one per sleeve so there's no stacking. They do require fingerprinting the bottom side to get out which may cause playback problems if they're not wiped clean prior to insertion.

Highway to Heaven: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Highway to Heaven offers a compelling and oftentimes moving portrait of life and its ebbs and flows. There is no shortage of heartache throughout the show, but there is no shortage of hope, either. This is a healthy, hearty, family friendly slice of nostalgia from a simpler time that reveals that human emotion, frailty, and the need for something bigger than self is a constant in tghe universe. The show is great, but the Blu-ray is iffy at best. The video and audio qualities are passable at best, and there are no extras beyond a couple of minutes of bloopers. Recommended primarily on program content rather than the Blu-ray proper.