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Anyway, I got blindsided. I came home from school one day. My uncle was there with red eyes. And he sat my sister Leslie and I down and said, "Your dad has left. Your mother is upstairs. She's a wreck, and she needs you to comfort her." And that's when it all crumpled.

And it started with an affair he had with someone associated with Little House?

Landon: That's correct. On the set.

You explored these issues in the 1999 movie you made about your dad, right?

Landon: I did. The movie was centered around the divorce, and that was my main reason for making the film. I basically used the guidelines my father had set in his Life magazine article, the last interview he gave before he died. The movie put things in perspective from my point of view—the affair, his drinking, everything in the Life article. I went by the parameters set by my father in that article, and I was not going to disrespect those parameters. The only difference was that it was exploring what I was going through, and my brothers and sisters were going through.

Do you think the public remembers your dad as Little Joe and Pa and the angel on Highway to Heaven, as the ultimate good guy? Or do they remember the difficult side of your dad?

Landon: It depends on whether or not they were following that part of his life. If they were the hardcore fans and they stayed away from the reports or considered them lies, then that's probably how they see him—as those characters he played. But if they followed any of the stuff that went on, and if they read the Life magazine article, they would see the truth. I never want to negate from the work that he did, because I'm very proud of that work. But there is a very painful reality to the private, the real side of his life that we experience. I don't care if you're Michael Landon or the next-door neighbor—divorce, man, is brutal, absolutely brutal, especially when it's thrown away via an affair.

How have your father's failures on that front affected you as a husband and a dad?

Landon: I think the main thing is remembering the pain I went through. Otherwise I think people would be divorcing left and right. I am extremely protective of my marriage, and I create boundaries for myself with other women that won't allow any of that side to ever happen. We're going on 18 years of marriage, and I've been faithful to my wife. I see my three children and know that the last thing I'd ever want to do to them is be unfaithful to my wife, not only for her sake, but for their sake, for my sake and for my testimony. I refuse to ruin my testimony. So it's a combination of all those things—honoring God and wanting to run the rest of this race as best as I possibly can.

How old are your kids?

Landon: My daughters Ashley and Brittany are 13 and 10. And my son Austin is 6.

I understand your dad grew up in a home with a Jewish dad and a Catholic mom. Where did he end up landing, faith-wise?

Landon: He kind of landed outside of any organized faith. He had a belief in God, but that was the extent of it. The only church upbringing my sister and I had was going to church every once in a while with my grandparents.

So how did you end up becoming a guy of faith?

Landon: After my father left, I went through a few really tough years. I went from being an honor roll student to just barely getting by. I started experimenting with pot and alcohol. All these things came into my life and started to destroy it.

My mom's world was torn apart too, and she needed help. She started opening up to her manicurist, a woman named Louise. Louise gave her some great wisdom to work off of, and that's when she found out that Louise was a Christian. And then Louise took her to church, and then my mother got saved.

How old were you at that time?

Landon: I was 18.

And you were still raising hell?

Landon: I was absolutely raising hell. I was at USC at the time, and my mom started asking me if I wanted to go to church with her. I didn't want to have anything to do with it. And then finally just to get her off my back, I went. I couldn't tell you what the pastor was talking about that day, but it impacted me. But then I didn't go back. I fought it. I got kicked out of USC, because of my academics. I didn't bother going to class. It was that bad. So I finally went back to church again, resisted, went back again, resisted. And then I finally stopped fighting and gave my life to Christ, just before I turned 19.

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