I thought I was going to be watching a heartfelt, true telling of Michael Landon's off camera life with character traits that resemble something of his TV writings. Instead I learned he was much less than perfect and broke his son, Michael's heart, which lasted throughout every scene.
There was nothing I learned about his father other than he was an intensely selfish, lying cheater. He hurt his children, and that hurt was made to be the blame for Michael Jr's failure at SC, his inability to grow up, to move on, to be his own person minus all the financial favors his parents provided him.
How I wish the rich could walk just a few blocks in my shoes, or those of others whose blue collar, alcoholic, bigoted Archie Bunker fathers were never, one day, there for them. Many of us chose to enlist in the military and from there build our lives as we knew best, never expecting a handout, never having the sort of support the TV industry provided.
Try reaching Masters level while being the poorest pauper in the county who collected soda bottles lying alongside the highway as he made his way to class. With those bottles, I redeemed them for enough money to eat in a supermarket buffet - the one meal of my day. Such a cry baby this Michael was,
I read somewhere that Michael Landon used to give boxes of T-bone steaks to special friends, that he craved and ate red meat constantly. Could that not have created the development of his illness?
There was nothing I learned about his father other than he was an intensely selfish, lying cheater. He hurt his children, and that hurt was made to be the blame for Michael Jr's failure at SC, his inability to grow up, to move on, to be his own person minus all the financial favors his parents provided him.
How I wish the rich could walk just a few blocks in my shoes, or those of others whose blue collar, alcoholic, bigoted Archie Bunker fathers were never, one day, there for them. Many of us chose to enlist in the military and from there build our lives as we knew best, never expecting a handout, never having the sort of support the TV industry provided.
Try reaching Masters level while being the poorest pauper in the county who collected soda bottles lying alongside the highway as he made his way to class. With those bottles, I redeemed them for enough money to eat in a supermarket buffet - the one meal of my day. Such a cry baby this Michael was,
I read somewhere that Michael Landon used to give boxes of T-bone steaks to special friends, that he craved and ate red meat constantly. Could that not have created the development of his illness?