BARRY LEVINE: Michael Landon scored three big hits on small screen

Most TV actors would be happy to have one long-running series. They would be ecstatic to have two distinctly different hit series.

Michael Landon topped that with three and was working on a fourth when he died from cancer on July 1, 1991, at age 54. No other actor has been involved in three distinctly different series from their inception that were not spinoffs.

Lucille Ball was involved in three series: “I Love Lucy” (1951-57), “The Lucy Show” (1962-68) and “Here’s Lucy” (1968-74). The final two, however, were spinoffs of “I Love Lucy.”

Landon got his big break as a 22-year old when he got the role of Little Joe Cartwright on “Bonanza,” which ran from 1959 to January 1973.

Along with Lorne Greene, who played Ben Cartwright, the family’s patriarch, and Victor Sen Yung, who portrayed Hop Sing, the family’s house boy, Landon was the only other performer to appear in all 14 of Bonanza’s seasons. He was involved in 427 of the show’s 431 episodes.

“Bonanza” is NBC’s longest-running Western, and is the second-longest-running Western series on network television, trailing only CBS’ “Gunsmoke.” It topped the Nielsen ratings for three years beginning with the 1964-65 season.

When “Bonanza” ended its run, Landon was asked to direct the pilot of “Little House on the Prairie” in 1974. He agreed but added the stipulation that he play Charles Ingalls, the patriarch of the Ingalls family. The show was adopted from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s series of books called “Little House.”

The show ran from September 1974 until May 1982. After Landon and Karen Grassle, who played his wife, Caroline, left the show following the 1981-82 season, it returned for one more season as “Little House: A New Beginning.”

Although not enjoying the same success as “Bonanza,” “Little House on the Prairie” ranked among the Top 20 shows in eight of its nine seasons.

Landon returned to TV for his third successful prime-time network series when “Highway to Heaven” aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989, a total of 111 episodes.

Landon starred in the series as Jonathan Smith, an angel who has been stripped of his wings and was now “on probation” and sent to Earth. He paired with his human partner and friend, Mark Gordon, played by Victor French, his “Little House on the Prairie” co-star. Jonathan and Mark are given assignments by “The Boss” (i.e. God), in which they are required to use their humanity to help various troubled souls overcome their problems.

The series addressed contemporary social and emotional problems, usually with humor.

The series usually ranked among the Top 25 shows.

Landon appeared on the cover of “TV Guide” 22 times, second to Lucille Ball’s 41. His three series totaled 28 seasons, a record virtually impossible to surpass.

Here are some of the TV stars, in alphabetical order, who appeared in two hit series. None, however, matched Landon’s trifecta.

Ted Danson – He is best-known for his role as Sam Malone, a former Major League pitcher and bar owner, on the sitcom “Cheers,” which ran from 1982 to 1993. He was nominated for 11 Emmys, winning two. He also was known for his role as Dr. John Becker on the sitcom “Becker,” which aired for six seasons (1998-2004). “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” ran from 2000 to 2015, and Danson played Dr. D.B. Russell from 2011 to 2015. However, he was not involved when the show started.

Andy Griffith – He starred as Sheriff Andy Taylor in “The Andy Griffith Show,” which aired for eight seasons beginning in September 1960. He returned to the small screen in 1986 as Ben Matlock, a highly successful Atlanta attorney, in “Matlock.” The show ran for 10 seasons, ending in 1995. Although he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1991, Griffith never won an Emmy despite being nominated multiple times.

Larry Hagman – He first appeared in a series, “I Dream of Jeanie,” as Air Force Capt. Tony Nelson. The show ran from 1965-70. He then starred as J.R. Ewing in “Dallas” from 1978-91, appearing in one of the most watched episodes in TV history, “Who shot J.R.?”

Ronny Howard – He had high-profile roles in two comedies as a youngster before becoming a director of feature films. He first starred as young Opie Taylor, the only child of Sheriff Andy Taylor, in the sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show” from 1960 to 1968. He later portrayed teenager Richie Cunningham in the sitcom “Happy Days” for seven years. The show ran from 1974 to 1984 and ranked No. 1 for several times.

David McCallum – He got his first starring role in a series playing Russian agent Illya Kuryakin in the “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” which ran from 1964 to 1968. He has been a regular on “NCIS” from its inception in 2003 through the present. He plays Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, a coroner.

Carroll O‘Connor – He gained fame in 1971 when he played Archie Bunker, the bigoted working man in the hit series “All in the Family.” He portrayed the main character in the show from 1971 through 1979 and in the spinoff, “Archie Bunker’s Place,” from 1979 to 1983. O’Connor received four Emmys for his work on the show. He then starred as Bill Gillespie, police chief in the fictional town of Sparta, Miss., in the crime drama “In the Heat of the Night.” The show aired from 1988 to 1995.

Tom Selleck – The mustachioed actor starred in his first series as private investigator Thomas Magnum in “Magnum, PI” from 1980 to 1988. Since 2010, he has played the lead character, NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan, in the police drama “Blue Bloods.” The show recently started its eighth season. He was nominated for several Emmys for his role in “Magnum, PI,” winning one.

Robert Young – He starred as Jim Anderson, the father of three, in “Father Knows Best” from 1954 to 1960. His final TV series was Marcus Welby, M.D., from 1969-76 where he played a veteran small-town physician. He earned Emmys for both shows.

Barry “The Old Rocker” Levine is an entertainment writer for The Albany Herald. He can be reached at [email protected].