Highway to Heaven is an American fantasy drama television series that ran on NBC from September 19, 1984, to August 4, 1989. The series starred its creator and co-director Michael Landon as Jonathan Smith, an angel sent to Earth in order to help people in need. Victor French, Landon's co-star from his previous television series, Little House on the Prairie, co-starred as Mark Gordon, a retired policeman who travels with and helps Smith with the tasks or "assignments" to which he is referred. Landon directed most of the show's episodes, and French directed many of the remaining ones. It was Landon's third and final TV series and his only one set in the present day, unlike Little House on the Prairie, and Landon's first TV series, Bonanza, both of which were Westerns. It was the final screen appearance for French, who died two months before the final episode aired, aged 54 years old; Landon went on to appear in two films, one of which was a pilot for a new series, prior to his own death at 54 in 1991.