MARVIN KITMAN SHOW NBC, for goodness sake! en" premiering tonight at 8 on NBC is a very strange show. There is no violence, no sex, no cars turning corners on two wheels. There is one pick-up truck in the two-hour movie introducing the new series starring Michael Landon as an angel. But it doesn't work, until Landon "Highway to Heav- Executive Producer fixes the distributor or something. "Highway to Heaven" is about goodness. It's about people doing good and being kind. It's about how love and kindness to fellow men help make life better. It's the most totally bizarre program of 1984. I had to pinch myself while watching the cassette. Were they on drugs when they bought this? Was this a new show on cable? No, it's NBC, the station of the A-Team and, the V-Team ("Miami Vice") and the A-C Team (Loni Anderson and Lynda Carter). But a whole series devoted to goodness? The first week of the season when they're killing themselves to catch your attention, hitting you between the eyes with the explosions and exposed bosoms! NBC has gone certifiably insane. I'm still stunned that it got it on the schedule. I can't believe it. Maybe Michael Landon, who plays a miracle worker in the series, made a stop at the executive offices of NBC in Burbank, and unbeknownst to Grant Tinker, made him do it. At the risk of ruining my reputation as a hardboiled, tough critic, of being accused of taking leave of my senses, or having sold out to the forces of good, I'm going to admit right away that I enjoyed the first episode. It was so different and beyond the range of the average TV experience today, seeing so much goodness, that I found it mesmerizing. Michael Landon is a guardian angel. He is also the creator, writer, producer and star of the show. He has come back to earth to pass some kind of Arts & Entertainment starts on Page 57. service exam, something like getting promoted from a G-5 to G-6, or earning his wings. He never will, for the duration of the series at least. In his first solo-flight tonight, he comes back as Jonathan, the independently wealthy maintenance man. He does good at a senior citizen's home. He gives anybody he meets reason to live, enthusiasm for life. Not by having them win the lottery, which of course does not solve all one's problems, but by looking at the other side of the situation, seeing the good in it. He turns the coin of life, so to speak. And when Jonathan the maintenance man miraculously finds a puppy for Helen Hayes, the toughest case in the senior-citizens home, to take care of, that was something that brought tears to my eyes. It's a soft shoulder on this "Highway to Heaven." Michael Landon, the father of the century on "Little House on the Prarie," is appropriately angelic as the angel. Sometimes he is a little intense making the role into a kind of Jesus of Malibu. Sure, you could get a sugar high from watching guardian-angel test. They make it seem like : a civil it, too. Consult with a doctor if you have to control ingestion of sweets. And it can create psychological problems dealing with new emotions. I'm so used to relating to prime time-soap families, who are rich millionaires, and rich kids who all hate each other, and are trying to destroy each other, TV is so corrupt and evil, it's a little hard to focus of the good side of life out of the clear blue sky. But I like the notion of a good guy as a hero, a man like Landon floating around the countryside, unashamedly helping people out, just to be kind. Showing human kindness is an end in itself. Of course Jonathan the maintenance man is not a real person. They have to make him otherworldly, like he's from another planet, a visitor, an extraterrestrial like E.T. or somebody. Is : a guardian angel a fancy name for a UFO? But why can't there be a series about a good person? That's the next thing somebody might try. No gimmicks or tricks, nothing to do with angels, just good people as heroes. Nobody is corrupt or evil. Nobody is sleeping with their friends' wives or relatives. I'm talking about a show about old-fashioned good people, unsung heroes in society, people who do good, a teacher, a librarian, a social worker, a LILCO electrician who goes out in storms and restores power. That would be an achievement! "And when that happens, I'll believe in God, too." my friend the atheist explained. There should be at least one show about good on the air, a kind of redemption center, equal time to balance out all the bad. All the shows have heroes who are competing to be more corrupt and evil than J.R., more violent than the A-Team. They take so many shots at making shows about the bad guys. Let's hope that NBC, which really deserves praise for this experimental program, doesn't discover that no good deed goes unpunished. If it doesn't get good ratings, there is no God. /11 Michael Landon as the angel on probation