A Warts-and-All Look at ‘Michael Landon’

John Schneider (Bo Duke in the hillbilly comedy series “The Dukes of Hazzard”) dons a curly haired wig with considerable elan to portray one of TV’s most beloved stars in “Michael Landon, the Father I Knew” on the “CBS Sunday Night Movie.”

The immensely popular Landon died of cancer eight years ago at age 54. He had cultivated an all too wholesome image in three long-running family series--”Bonanza,” “Little House on the Prairie” and “Highway to Heaven.” Now we get a warts-and-all portrait from the point of view of Michael Landon Jr. The son in real life directed this movie and also supplied the soul-laid-bare autobiographical story of the quick-with-a-grin star who blithely leaves emotional carnage in his wake.

We encounter Landon as a loving spouse to wife No. 2 Lynn (ex-Charlie’s Angel Cheryl Ladd) and a too-good-to-be-true father to 10-year-old Michael Jr. (Shawn Pyfrom) and 12-year-old Leslie (Rachel Duncan). Dad rushes home after work, has time to take the kids fishing and even is cheerfully supportive about junior’s bed-wetting.

But little Mike is anxious about losing Dad to his ubiquitous fans; his fears are depicted in increasingly troubling recurrent dream sequences that also bridge the years. We leap ahead to find Mike Jr. an adolescent (Trevor O’Brien), and Dad under stress at work while dallying with a young makeup artist. At this juncture, Linda Bergman’s teleplay gains emotional traction as the strain turns the marriage volcanic and turmoil rapidly befalls Mom and the kids.

Ladd movingly projects betrayal and loss, but Michael Jr. bears the brunt of the family’s trauma. We flash ahead to his booze-sotted young college years unable to stay in school or hold a job. Thrown out by his mother, he moves in with sis (Sarah Lancaster), who is by now in the throes of bulimia. And no wonder: We see her recoiling in horror from tabloid headlines gleefully announcing her dad’s romantic exploits.

Despite all the buffeting, however, the characters manage to skate over self-pity, thanks to a stark sense of candor that purchases sympathy for all involved. When confronted by his hurtfulness, on the other hand, the elder Landon strikes out with his own self-pitying ruminations, emerging as flawed more by self-absorbed insensitivity than by cruelty. Mike Jr.’s cynicism grows as we see Dad brush off older children so he can dote on a fresh set.

Even when the inevitable medical death sentence is pronounced, the sense of separation only deepens. A final encounter that should invoke redemption for father and son seems lost over some unfathomable gulf as we become aware that the older man’s scars are too old and too deep to heal in this world.

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* “Michael Landon, the Father I Knew” airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on CBS. The network has rated it TV-PGL (may be unsuitable for young children with special advisories for coarse language).