Michael Landon: Memories with Laughter and Love | Pt.4

Spreading your wings and taking flight, living life to the fullest no matter what the obstacles, and a family and a home to come back to when day is done. These were the themes not only of my father's work, but of his life. You know, you, people and pigeons are curiously much alike. That is to say, the lovely birds have those qualities of fidelity, affection, and love, courage, determination, and pride, which are qualities humans may boast of when they are at their best. If they display jealousy, and pettishness, quarrelsome moments of gluttony, they should be forgiven, for their sins are small. Indeed, we humans should be forgiven as well. Now listen. This is what's going on that we can't see. Your chick has turned itself, and is pipping away at the large end of the egg. It'll be born soon, Doc? Be born soon? Very soon. My very own bird, born on my very own birthday. What will you call him? Dickens. The last day of filming, and that night, Michael wrote me a beautiful letter. I want to share it with you, if I can. He slipped it under the door in my room in the hotel. And I'm so glad, so thankful that I kept it. I'd like to read it to you. Dear Art, you and I are both quite shy, so you can understand why I'm writing this brief letter, rather than talking to you in person. I would have difficulty saying it, and you would have difficulty accepting it. Working with you has been one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I so wanted you to be like the man I have enjoyed all these years. You were that man, and more. An amazingly honest actor, and a joy to be with every moment. On behalf of my crew and myself, thank you. Your friend, Michael Landon. The next two scenes are from the Us pilot, starring Barney Martin and Casey Peterson. It was my dad's last endeavor as a writer, producer, actor, and director. When asked about doing a fourth series, he replied, I think my best work is yet to come. What's she calling here for? It's over. It's been over. You got to get on with your life. What are you talking about? She's having a problem with our boy. He's not your kid. Maybe he's not my kid. She had to tell him the truth now. He knows he's got a father. He's my kid. She raised him. If he's got a problem, it's her fault. Look, you're just getting started again, Jeff. What do you need her problem for? Look, just drop it, Dad. I don't want to talk to you about it. Oh, sure. Don't listen to your father. What the hell does he know? If you'd have listened to me in the first place, you wouldn't have screwed up your life. All right, that's it. I'm out of here. Oh, sure. Run away, just like when you were a kid. I didn't run away when I was a kid, Dad. You drove me away. There's a difference, you know? I drove you away? I try to give you good advice. Is that driving you away? You could have gone to college, Jeff. You had the grades. But no, not you. You get a girl pregnant, you got to marry her. I married Ellen because I loved her. I'd have married her if she couldn't have a kid. What the hell am I doing this for? We had the same stupid argument 19 years ago. 19 years, and nothing changes with you. Oh, and with you, something changes, huh? She's going to dump that kid on your problems and all. You'll see. Dump the kid on me, huh? You know what books I used to read when I was in prison, Dad? Books about raising kids, and from year one, about how you hold them and look at them and how quick they get to know you, and the terrible twos and the potty training and the first days in school, about the joys and the fears. Then I used to lie in my bunk at night and try to get myself to dream I was doing those things with my kid, teaching them to swim and how to throw a ball. And you know what, Dad? In my dreams, my kid loved me. Just the same as I love him and his mom. All right, let's say they didn't catch this guy and I spend the rest of my life in prison. Are you trying to tell me that you would have been better off spending the fourth Saturday of every month talking to me through a pane of glass? At least I would have known you. I would have come. I would have come every Saturday. Yeah, well, maybe I didn't want you to come, OK? Same as I didn't want your mother coming anymore. You know what it's like in there? It's like dying. It's like spending your life dying. And then once a month, the people that you love have to come and watch you die. Well, I didn't want that. I made the decision. I didn't want it anymore. Can't you understand that? When, uh, when Mom told me about you, I got so angry. I, I, I don't know. It was like, well, Paul didn't want me. And then I find out I have a real father and he didn't want me. So you wrote a rotten letter and took off. It was a lousy thing to do to your mom. She deserves better than that. She took care of you alone for a lot of years. She should have stayed alone. She shouldn't have married him. We were getting along fine. Oh, no, you were getting along fine. What, your mother doesn't have a life? We had a life, a good life. I took care of her. Oh, come on. Oh, you were the man of the house, huh? I was, till she met him. And what happens when you move out? What happens when you move out, you get married, you got a family of your own? What happens to your mother then? Come on, what happens to her? What, maybe she gets lucky, gets to visit you the fourth Saturday of every month? Come on, kid, it's time for you to start thinking of somebody besides yourself. Now, come on, I'm taking you home. I'm not going back. Hey, look, this isn't Paul you're talking to. I don't want to be your buddy. I don't want to be your pal. I'm your father and you're going to do what I tell you because I spent 18 years of my life loving a kid I never. Get in the car. From 50 yards away, I'd start this month. Because I knew what was coming at me was kind of robust and made you feel good. Because he felt good about life. He was an encouraging person. And he made me laugh. He made me laugh all the time. Smile and laugh all the time. I think one of the things that separated Michael from a lot of other people was his courage. He chose a very difficult tech professionally. Family shows, family programming, that's a tough way to make a living. Michael Landon was a person who went beyond his boyhood to find and determine himself as a man and to express this maturity by exchanging what he had with other people so that people could have a better understanding of themselves. You could always count on Michael, you know? You knew that if you were there for him, then he was going to be there for you, 100%. There was so much of him in his work and in his words and in what he wrote, all of the good stuff that he believed in. He wasn't afraid to let it out and to let people see it and to show it. And because he wasn't afraid, it made me proud to be able to say those words and to help him to show that. And I think that's a very, very special quality for someone to have, to not be afraid of letting their true heart be seen, you know? To not feel like they have to close it off and be this guy. He wasn't. He was sensitive. He was funny. He was an amazing man. I think Michael had within him the kind of heart and mind and spirit that was tapped in directly to what the majority of us feel as human beings every day. Michael was like a prophet. I really think this. I have a feeling that he's up there now, that he's left his horse, the Bonanza, he's got on his wagon and gone across the little house, left the house on the prairie. He's no longer the angel from highway to heaven. He's up there now planning a new show. I don't know which network is going to do it, but if he calls me, I'll come. I'll come. I'll do it with him. That's the kind of man he is. I enjoyed working with him and I will really miss him. And I found Michael to be a normal human being. There was absolutely no dissembling or hypocrisy about him. He was who he said he was. And I admired him so much over the years because the man obviously had a mission. He knew what kind of programming he wanted to put out and he stuck to his guns in a business which increasingly pressurizes you to pander to the lowest common denominator, to sensationalize and grab an audience. Michael stuck with what he believed in in putting in front of the audience. And thank God there was a great loyal audience that stayed with him. And he's going to be missed because there are no Michael Landons around right now. Did anybody talk about his ears? He heard everything. No one on that set could be within 30 feet saying something if they didn't want Mike to hear it. The most remarkable thing to me about Michael was he seemed to be without fear of anything or anyone. Most fear comes from, I guess, from doubts about ourselves. He seemed to have none of those. He seemed to be willing to stand up to anybody and everybody. As a matter of fact, seemed to sort of enjoy it and love to win an argument. But he had the stuff to back it up. Generally, people would maybe try to fight him for a while but finally give in and say, well, Mike, you're probably right anyway. Michael Landon never backed off his convictions about the American family and the relevance of the American family in our society. And at a time when we've become a little bit cynical about the place of the American family in society, the nation is crying out for the continuation of the Michael Landon legacy. And for those of us who were privileged enough to be touched by Michael, if you're listening, Mike, we guarantee that we're going to keep trying. I'm Cindy Landon. From the time my husband was diagnosed, we have received hundreds of thousands of cards and letters from people all over the world, from all walks of life, all of whom had one thing in common, a love for a man they had never met. I'd like to thank all of you for your love and support and all of your thoughts and prayers. It meant so much to my husband and all of his family, knowing so many people were reaching out with genuine love and concern. My father left us with a legacy we'll be able to cherish from one generation to the next. The shows touched our hearts, our souls, and our minds. You helped teach us the value of life and the importance of family. You know, my father always wanted to make this world a better place. He did. I wrote this for a Little House episode called Remember Me. Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that's how I'll remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at all.