I Promised My Dad: An Intimate Portrait of Michael Landon

It was a toss up between giving two stars or three....because I love Michael Landon I opted for three, but in my heart it's two. Like many, I have adored his characters and the personal character he displayed to the public (who doesn't?). This was one of the only quasi-biographies I could find on him. I really loved the way it started out, the retelling of the stories of what life at home was like for him and his family, as told by his step-daughter, who was a young girl when her mother met him (she had spent quite a bit of time living - quite miserably - with her paternal grandparents, so no super high marks for the woman she almost canonizes in this book). After her mother married Landon and became pregnant they offered for her to move back in with them. She then gleefully accepted a very loving and paternal relationship with Michael ("Mike"). She waxes on about being his daughter, but continues to highlight the role of her biological father, his disdain for Landon and the bit of loyalty conflict that ensued for her. Unlike his other non-biological children, he never actually adopted her.Again, truly heartwarming to ready virtually idyllic stories about their home and her upbringing, which are constantly punctuated ad nauseum about Landon's obsession and passion for her mother. How he reveled in his adoration of her, how he could not let her out of his sight, how he followed her everywhere and was constantly affectionate with her to the embarrassment of friends when they were in public. How he would/could NEVER love another woman like he loved her. She was so instrumental in his writing, inspirational for story lines, a true "partner"...it goes on and on. And when the reader is keenly aware he divorced this woman, married another and had another family at the time of his death it was quite uncomfortable reading because it seemed rather clear much of this was a passive-aggressive swipe at the new wife and children. Cheryl was very bitter over him leaving their family. She writes of her financial struggles, times where she was having to sell her jewelry and wedding gifts to make ends meet and buy food. Of course this is to lead the reader to question what kind of man was Michael Landon who would basically allow his children to starve?At the end she details the last months of his life, the strict visitation rules the new wife had put in place (only on weekends), her anger at the will being changed at the end of his life (she very clearly believes it was because he was influenced by his then wife), her son's education trust not being continuously added to ("He knew the cost of education would go up!!"). Really? Um, your kid. Your responsibility. It was his money. Only he earned it and it was 100% within his right to leave it the way he saw fit. If needing to believe he wasn't in his right mind then I guess whatever gets you through the day. What started out as precious memories from a child ended on a note of bitterness and jealousy. She never reconciled her parent's divorce and at no point at all did she ever lay an ounce of fault at the feet of her mother. That woman is truly a saint who was ravaged...in her 35 room Beverly HIlls Mansion, of course, ringing her bell for dinner to be brought by the servants. Infidelity is a symptom that something else is wrong in a marriage and I highly doubt whatever it was was entirely Michael Landon's fault. For a book that started out tasting like candy ended up leaving a bitter taste. Not for Michael Landon, but for a step-daughter with her own agenda in writing this memoir.

I received the book in beautiful condition! Very clean and bright! And for those of us who love Michael Landon, this is an excellent memoriam to him!

Did not feel it was worth the price

I've always been a fan of micheal landons through all his tv shows and became a bigger fan in how honorably he dealt with his demise , I think his daughter wrote a wonderful story about her father , flaws and all for us to appriecate and better understand the man , i myself read this book years ago , but I bought this copy for my best friend who also liked Mr. Landon's work as a Christmas present this year , thanks book was in perfect condition .

They use to film Little House by where i grew up in So Cal. Mike was the nicest guy, always had a smile for everybody.

There were so many negative comments about this book I just had to read it for myself. I must say, I don't get all the negativity surrounding this book. It is so similar to his "Triumph and Tragedy" but goes on to tell more of Cheryl's relationship with Michael as well. All in all, a great read, she really loved her Dad. A fine tribute.

disappointing from many angles I also strongly felt far too much time was spent by the author if divulging her life and her personal struggles with drugs and other topics would not recommend

We gave our Autistic son this book on his 13th birthday. He lives and breathes Bonanza and identifies himself with Little Joe. He is unable to read but we are reading it to him. He sleeps with this book at night. The book was in excellant condition. It is well loved by our son! Many Thanks! Mike & Linda

When people think about Michael Landon, they most commonly refer to him as his possibly best known character - Charles Ingalls. So it comes as a shock to people when they discover that he was a heavy smoker, could knock back neat vodka like it was water and despite being a notoriously jealous and possessive man of his wife, had affairs.Should this cloud your judgement of him though? No. As his oldest (although not biological) daughter, Cheryl, repeatedly states, he was Michael Landon NOT Little Joe. Not Charles Ingalls. Not Jonathan Smith. He was her dad.And she never let us forget who her dad was during this biography. The amount of times she full named him. We get it. He’s Michael Landon. We know who he is. And then she dropped it down to Mike, and then to Dad (despite the consternation of her biological father), it then reverted back to Michael Landon again.Cheryl is also guilty of repeating stories and jumping back and forth in time. The biography is not told in a linear fashion and whilst sometimes it can be hard to read a biography from birth to death, the constant leaping about in time annoyed me. She also talks more about Bonanza than Little House, I feel like there was a whole period of time skipped over, but Cheryl was getting older by that point and had her own stories to tell (like the horrific car accident she was in.) The repetitiveness of some of the stories gave me a severe case of deja vu more than once.I do feel that this biography is written with a tang of bitterness about it. There’s a lot that could be gathered in hindsight, but reading this, which was clearly written shortly after his death (the postscript is written on the first anniversary of his death), it still feels like there is a lot of anger towards his affairs (Cheryl mentions one, Cindy, although I’m sure Melissa Gilbert mentions a different one in her  biography , although I may be misremembering) and the lesser inheritance that she got after he died.I wish she’d talked about her siblings more, as I knew Leslie from various appearances in Little House and another brother, Christopher, has gone into  directing . But I suppose they have their own stories to tell and this book was more about her dad than anything. Little is mentioned of her marriage and her son, particularly after she got married and I feel that the book could have been expanded upon, to include more of her adult life, post marriage.It is a good book, albeit only 224 pages long. It’s short chapters as well, so you can fairly read through. The finale of the book, the lead up to his death, is particularly hard to read, and would have been particularly hard to write for Cheryl too. There are plenty of photos included on glossy paper, although they are black and white (the photos on the dust cover are colour.)This book does have its issues, but it is a good biography of Michael, with slight bitterness. You do learn a lot about his life and his apathy towards his first and second marriages. It would be interesting to see if any of his other children release biographies in the future. biographydirecting

I have just begun to reads this book so cannot give my full comment but it seems to be a personal biography of ML ( I love biographies if written well) and says much about the person behind the camera. I think it will be a good book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the works of ML.

Down to earth account of Michael Landon. It is honest but affirming of the father who overcame many difficulties to become a well known good actor and writer. He is an inspiration to anyone facing major or minor difficulties in their lives. His writing and acting show his philosophy of life. Either give in and become a 'blob' or fight for a valuable life in spite of, or even because of one's limitations.

I read it

I read this due to my interest in 'Little house on the Prairie'. Seemed like a good person.