SoapDope

ROTFL!!! at the thought of Gavin showing up on Oz. I bet it was a shock to see Grant pop up on Twin Peaks The Return. Thanks for finding that. We were discussing it here not long ago and it had been deleted.

Kind of like the Lawrence's on Family ? Priscilla Pointer could have been a casting choice as the wife of the KL older couple instead of that one off episode about tormenting Ginger.

Around the same time Jacobs did a short lived series " Married The First Year" that only aired for 4 episodes in spring 1979. I wonder if the nixed KL couple made it into that series ? Some future KL and Dallas actors appeared in that. Constance McCashin said she was offered the role of Laura at Christmas 1978 and the pilot was shot in Feb 79. Ted Shackelford said they filmed the rest of first season during summer 1979 and he actually met Larry, Patrick, and Charlene on KL before ever setting foot on the Dallas set. If you notice when they filmed the remarriage episode of Dallas, Ted's hair is shorter and he and Joan look a tad different from the KL pilot. I seem to remember reading years ago that the house used for Gary & Val's home belonged to someone who worked on the Dallas production crew and Jacobs, Filerman etc were invited over there for get togethers.

Kenny and Ginger were detached from the main storylines like Lucy & Mitch on Dallas. I noticed in Season 1 that in several episodes they redressed the Ward's home set to serve as J.R.'s Petrolux office where Gary snoops in the files etc...I even found the Ward home drab and boring. They barely had any furniture. I wonder if Jacobs and the other writers felt they made a mistake with casting Houghton and Lankford in those roles ? Since Jacobs wrote Gary & Val into Knots to make it a Dallas spin off, he should have just made a deal with Lorimar and had David & Janet Bradford from Eight is Enough be the fourth couple in the cul-de-sac after they got married.

Scoggins should have been the replacement for Pamela Sue Martin when she left.

I remember reading John Pleshette saying Constance was stand offish towards him in the beginning and gradually warmed to him. I have a feeling his real life personality was pretty close to Richard Avery's. Constant Companion was pretty much a vehicle for Langford. Houghton had very little part in it. That actor that played weird Arthur was so tiny and drove a little Gremlin. I laughed when he drove Ginger home and he ran out of the car before she even got out to look at her house. Later he keeps hanging around after dinner and tells Kenny they should swap records some time. Yes, Kenny the sleazy music producer screams 70's. I surprised Houghton didn't have a pornstache. Even if Houghton had been one of the best actors, his looks were a bit of a stumbling block. In his era most casting agents would see him no more than as a catalog model or TV commercial actor. Even the Knots writers didn't seem to trust giving him too many lines or heavy material. David Mason Daniels who played Tyler on Capitol was cut from the same cloth.

Maybe Sylvie could have killed Kenny in a jealous rage and framed a pregnant Ginger. It's interesting that John Pleshette and James Houghton admit they both disliked each other and didn't get along. Wonder what was up with that ? Maybe Pleshette thought Houghton was just a pretty boy with no acting ability. The writers really had no idea what to do with Kenny and Ginger from the very beginning. After the Pilot they don't show up again till episode 4 " The Lie" and then only briefly. The only episode that focuses on them in season 1 was " Constant Companion". Looking back at season 1 the show was written to represent middle class that the majority of the public aspired to. Even in the late 70's most of what was depicted was out of reach for most people. They all lived in upscale houses in a cul-de-sac near the ocean that would have costed a small fortune even in that Jimmy Carter era. Millennials' and Gen Z would probably see those houses as complete tear downs looking at them from their todays point of view.

A lot of people have said the first time they saw the show and the Avery's.....they expected Richard to start beating Laura.

Yes, Sid could be dumb as a stump when it came to trusting people, especially baby sister Abby who could do no wrong in his eyes. Seasons 1-3 of Knots (self contained episodes) was kind of a Family/Eight Is Enough/ Early Dallas mash up. Jacobs even admitted that he wrote those early days the way he had written Family. He also said Eight Is Enough was what influenced him to go with Lorimar because of their production values. His reasoning for self contained episodes was to draw an audience in and then gradually get them involved in continuing soap storylines. He was lucky to have started those shows in the late 70's and the network let him build them up...now days if a show doesn't make ratings grabs in 2 to 4 episodes it's gone.

Aames motivation for acting was making sure that awful 70's do was blow dried to perfection and that the tube sock in his pants was in place. He also thought of himself as a serious musician. 1979:

I never really warmed up to Dobson's Mac. He was like a bull in a china shop in most of his scenes yelling his lines and being cocky 24-7. He didn't know how to dial it back, but Michelle Lee could be guilty of chewing scenery as well. I really liked Don Murray's Sid, but he pretty much wanted off the show after season 1. I doubt Jacobs could have done anything to make him stay long term, even if they had gave him more money Murray saw himself as a movie star and after he did Endless Love he felt he could get his big screen film career reignited, which was a bust.

Incomplete episode from 1990 of Remote Control with cast members Brian Patrick Clarke, Lani O'Grady, and Adam Rich.

🤣........I could see that. I have never read the book the show was based on, but some people have stated that the real family had some disturbing stuff happen to them. One of the daughters was raped and had an abortion which went against the Catholic church. Another one of the daughters had mental health issues and was hospitalized. I guess the writers could have went back to the source material to get some heavy stuff if they chose to make it more dramatic. Heck...the real lives of the actors would be a gold mine of material to work with.

There have been conflicting stories as to it's cancellation. Lee Rich said he and the rest at Lorimar got fed up with the out of control cast members drug and personal issues. I say the ratings really sealed the deal and ABC killed it by moving it around. Dick Van Patten said he was ready to go back to work on Season 6 when he read the cancellation in the newspaper. That last season was a mess. The 1980 strike really caused some problems with the series. The trademark background music was replaced by cheesy crap for several episodes before it was brought back after the strike. They added Ralph Macchio to a already bloated cast and put a lot of focus on him when other characters were barely written for (like Elizabeth). It would have been interesting to see where the show went if it had lasted as long as Dallas and Knots Landing. The writers could have re-focused the series as straight drama when the show entered the 80's primetime soap era.

Old school 70's Boomer Mom's took no crap from their Gen X offspring. 🤣

Original Eight Is Enough Bumpers with commercials from 1979. I wish DVD releases would leave these in.

I remember Barbara Rush co-starring in a 1973 Disney film " Superdad". She played the wife of Bob Crane. Kathleen Cody (Dark Shadows etc...) played their daughter who was dating Kurt Russell. Dick Van Patten and Joe Flynn also co-starred. Bob Crane thought this film was going to revive his career. It didn't.

It's always great when these long lost shows appear. Bill Cullen hosted so many game shows back to back. He took over The Joker's Wild when Jack Berry died in 1984. One short lived show I enjoyed was the 80's version of " Dream House" hosted by Bob Eubanks. The producer had the master tapes in his basement and it got flooded and the show is lost forever. A few home video recordings have popped up on youtube in poor quality, but better than nothing.

May 7, 1980 NBC Game Show Lineup with original commercials. Its rare to find Chuck Woolery & Susan Stafford WOF episodes.

Name That Tune episodes with original commercials 1979

What was the point of Kurt Costner ? He was there to be a love interest for Shattuck's Ashley then they quickly paired him with Hope and then was gone. Leigh J. McCloskey seems to play every character the same boring way he did Mitch on Dallas. Grant Cramer also popped up as "Adam" a love interest for Ashley in the lab and only appeared a handful of times then disappeared. I guess Bell forgot he did that same story back in 1982 with Jay Kerr's Brian then went " Oh crap I did that all ready and nixed it" The 90's had some wacky writing.