Michael Landon

One of our favorite programs is "Highway to Heaven" and we look forward to Wednesday night even for the reruns on NBC. Michael Landon is to be congratulated as well as thanked for giving us clean, enjoyable, morally uplifting stories, all with good lessons for young and old. He has demonstrated to the murder-sex-violence crazed producers, writers and directors that their TV trash is really not what we want in our homes any more than the garbage we...

William Anderson, 84, former owner of the Ponderosa Ranch western-themed tourist attraction on Lake Tahoe's north shore, died June 4 at his ranch house in Dayton, Nev., his family said. Anderson opened the Incline Village park in 1968 and was its owner and president for more than 30 years. It was the fictional home of the Cartwright family on NBC's "Bonanza" television show, starring Lorne Greene, Michael Landon and Dan Blocker. The show's 428 episodes ran from 1959 to 1973. Among other attractions, the park featured a replica of the Cartwright house and barn, a wax figure of Ben Cartwright, wagon rides, gold panning and food such as "Hoss" burgers.

A male model was sentenced in Santa Monica Wednesday to three years in prison for stalking and threatening the teen-age son of the late Michael Landon. Christopher James Taylor, 19, pleaded no contest to the charges and Superior Court Judge Robert Altman sentenced him to prison with an order never to contact the younger Landon. Taylor, described as a transient originally from San Bernardino County, was also ordered to undergo psychological evaluation and counseling.

As members of his victims' families wept, a longtime mental patient admitted in court Friday that he killed two Universal Studios guards while stalking actor Michael Landon. The man was then found not guilty by reason of insanity as part of a plea bargain that prosecutors say will likely keep him confined for life. Nathan Nicholas Trupp, 43, was committed to a state hospital for the mentally disabled for the Dec.

A prosecutor Tuesday gave a municipal judge a 50-page police report, containing interviews with the accused killer of two Universal Studios security guards, that raises doubts about the suspect's competency to stand trial. Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling E. Norris gave the sealed report to Municipal Judge David S. Milton during the arraignment of Nathan N. Trupp, 42, who has been charged with the Dec. 1 slayings of the two guards.

A former mental patient accused of fatally shooting two Universal Studios security guards and three people at a bagel shop in Albuquerque, N.M., reportedly because he believed they were Nazis, will be prosecuted in California first, authorities said Tuesday. Nathan N.

A former mental patient charged with the fatal shooting of two Universal Studios security guards last year is competent to stand trial, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled today. After reviewing a report from a court-appointed psychiatrist, Judge Florence Bernstein ruled that Nathan Trupp, 43, has progressed enough while under psychiatric care to be able to assist in his own defense. Trupp, who at the time told investigators that he believed he was killing Nazis, is charged with the Dec. 1 slayings of Jeren Beeks, 27, and Armando Torres, 18. Both unarmed guards were shot to death at the main Universal Studios gate after they turned away Trupp, who had walked up and asked to see actor Michael Landon.

After a serious week witnessing the struggle for power in the Soviet Union, television jokes and celebrates itself as the "The 43rd Annual Emmy Awards" emphasizes TV comedy past and present. Dennis Miller, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jerry Seinfeld will host the show, which honors television's best from the 1990-91 season, beginning Sunday at 8 p.m. on Fox (11)(6).

Despite her rapid rise to stardom after portraying an anguished deaf janitor in "Children of a Lesser God," the hearing-impaired actress Marlee Matlin says she feels that "there are still barriers for disabled and hearing-impaired people." "I pray and even hope that these can be broken," said the winner of this year's Oscar for best actress.

He addresses the screen from a classroom setting, boyishly charming in his sports jacket and tie while recalling his academic woes as a student and athlete. But isn't he. . . ? Such an eerie encore. Yul Brynner, William Talman and John Wayne spoke to TV viewers posthumously. Now Michael Landon, the admired TV auteur who died July 1, is doing the same, as a salesman for educational seminars.