Khan

It's weird how pushed back into the background Linda Evans was following the Rita storyline. I don't remember her having anything much to do.

Once you've battled your doppelganger and saved your husband from certain death, what more is there to do? I just wish Krystle had developed talents other than looking beautiful in expensive clothes. It might have helped provide her with more story opportunities.

Similarly, when Douglas Marland inherited GUIDING LIGHT (after leaving GH) from the Dobsons in 1980, he commented as well that his predecessors had left the show in terrific shape.

Cenedella was not "lucky," he happens to have been already on the show as one of her two assistant writers BEFORE the Steve-Rachel-Alice story began.

I would argue that Cenedella was fortunate to have inherited the show from AN since Nixon apparently left AW in good shape. He didn't have to resuscitate the show the way some HW's do when taking on a new show.

Breaking up couples is common, but that particular writer (Henry Slesar) had a habit of breaking up couples and NOT allowing them to eventually re-unite.

But isn't that more-or-less reflective of real life? Frankly, I find it admirable that Slesar had the courage to split up couples without the emphatic promise of an eventual reunion. Otherwise, it lends itself to fostering a supercouple mentality and mystique on the part of certain viewers that, IMO, has hurt this genre immensely and irrevocably.

Given their turbulent history, Kim and Susan back at odds over each other should have been fun to watch. Unfortunately, the opportunity was wasted on such a nothing story.

Yes, she did, but that series in general is just too horrific to talk about.

Honestly, all I remember about "New Leave It to Beaver" was how fat Jerry Mathers looked at that time.

God forgive me, though, if her husband on the show wasn't dreamy.

What ladies? That's JR and Jamie in drag! (j/k)

Her hats! I always did love her head attire

Alexis and Joan would fit right in with the congregation at my parents' Baptist church.

I think they should have had Gary sell the ranch and move Val and the kids back to Texas -- not Dallas, per se, but maybe Galveston?

I never understood why they paired Gary/Kate. It just felt like "these characters have no other story left." If they hadn't demolished Claudia when she killed her son, I would have paired them up.

To be perfect and frank, I think Ted Shackelford stayed on KNOTS about two years too long. Unless the show was willing to break its own rules and SORAS Bobby and Betsy into teenagers or young adults, there was little left for Gary (or Val, for that matter) to do that wouldn't have felt like a retread of earlier (and better) stories.

And if anyone in the history of KNOTS was a true lesbian, it was Jill Bennett. I'm just saying.

I don't think a reboot would have to ignore much from a Knots remake though. Only Kate and Gary's daughter would have to be remembered, maybe Paige leaving.

Gary and Kate's daughter is a big reason why I'd choose to ignore the reunion movie. Perhaps, if Gary and Kate had been a much bigger couple, I'd be fine with it. But why must KNOTS remind us (with that child) of the time they attempted to pair Ted Shackelford with Stacy [!@#$%^&*] Galina?

In a way, I think TS was right to turn down the offer. Not because of his complaints, but because they'd have to explain whether or not Gary knows that Bobby didn't actually die. Bobby's "death," along with the whole "dream season" following, didn't have much of an impact on DALLAS in the long run (aside from viewers' discontent with the decision, of course), but KNOTS used the event to affect a good deal of story on their show, so much so that David Jacobs severed all ties between the two once DALLAS reversed their decision, thereby keeping the two shows in separate universes thereafter.

Can we at least bring Ginger back as a lesbian?

I'm not getting into that argument, lol! I will say, though, if you have to make a character gay in order to give them story, something is wrong with the character.

It's a shame how TPTB chose to marginalize Bob, along with the rest of the Hugheses, during the period of time when he was married to Miranda. Yeah, that union made no sense even "on paper," but I feel like a quadrangle involving Bob, Miranda, John and possibly Kim might've been good and fun to watch.

I think there's still tons of potential angst between Meg and Sumner. For sure. Lots of storyline potential there.

I think the fact that Meg has now grown up knowing she's Greg's daughter is something that would color their dynamic, for sure. However, I see grown-up Meg as a smart, independent woman (like her mother...both of them, actually) who views Mack as her "real" dad; and I see Greg as the type who wouldn't ignore or refute that necessarily. Greg might attempt to get Meg to work for him on his big return-to-politics gubernatorial campaign, but he would just smile and curse in his quintessentially Sumnerian way when Meg tells him, "Not a chance."

Not to mention there's Brian and Olivia, Abby's kids. Olivia's another character who practically writes herself.

I'd want Brian there as a roadblock of sorts for Bobby and Abby's May-December relationship. Olivia gave up on her mother and her machinations long ago, but Brian is as concerned as the Ewings about the fact that his cougar mom is dating a younger man as well as someone who, at one point, was her own stepson. I see Brian being a temporary or recurring character, though, not one driving any story. For me, the whole point of the Bobby/Abby relationship is the sudden twist it takes when, in the first-season finale, Abby learns she has lung cancer.

I love the affair idea behind Abby and Bobby. Gold.

Of course, there is the fact that Abby was involved, however obliquely and reluctantly, in his and Betsy's kidnapping. Given that it was perhaps KNOTS' biggest-ever storyline, too, they'd be insane not to reference it. But it's exactly those kinds of knotty complications, built on history, that I live for as a soap fan.

Other ideas for KNOTS 2.0:

* Gary and Val no longer live at Seaview Circle (and thus, Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Ark are credited solely as "special guest stars" in their recurring appearances on KNOTS 2.0). Several years ago, Gary managed to buy back his beloved ranch. However, Miss Ellie left them the deed to their former residence in her will. Ergo, Gary and Val choose to rent out the house; and in the premiere episode, we meet their latest tenants: a Hispanic couple, newlyweds; the wife, a product of a well-to-do family, who went to school with Bobby and Betsy; the husband, one of several children in a large family from East L.A., who has only a G.E.D. and works as an auto mechanic.

* Mack retired his law practice and moved with Karen upstate, to Berkeley, where he now teaches law. In their place as the show's older "anchor couple" are a thoracic surgeon and his African-American wife, a doctor as well. Both have been married before, in fact; and both have children from those marriages, too. The doctor husband's teenaged daughter is another Abby and Paige, a vixenish type who has her daddy wrapped around her proverbial little finger. She has a rivalry of sorts with her stepsister, who is roughly the same age as she but isn't as self-centered; and the stepbrother is a quick-witted pre-teen whose life remains relatively uncomplicated (...for the moment).

* Remember the newlyweds who moved into "the Circle" at the end of KNOTS? Well, they were a(nother) attorney and his wife, respectively. They have no children; however, they have a BIG problem: the husband is a closeted gay man, who is falling for the young, hunky UCLA student who does the couple's gardening.

Regardless, I wouldn't want her (Nicolette Sheridan) to be involved whatsoever with KNOTS 2.0. Same goes for Anne, and even Karen and Mack. (OTOH, Greg Sumner should be there, at least initially, as Bobby Ewing's business mentor and nefarious influence.) I see potential in continuing Abby, Gary and Val's stories through the twins that I don't with the Mackenzies, primarily because the BIG story of Meg learning she's Greg and Laura's daughter was told before the series was over. Plus, depending on how well DALLAS 2.0 does on TNT, the network (and really, I think the only network that would be interested in this concept is TNT) probably will mandate that KNOTS 2.0 be more Ewing-driven than the last series.

Moreover, I am of the opinion that the reunion movie should not be included in any backstories for KNOTS 2.0. IMO, that movie was a true, unmitigated disaster.

If those responsible for KNOTS' hypothetical reboot (for lack of a better word) were at all concerned about maintaining some ties to the former series, then, yes, I would bring aboard Abby, Betsy and Bobby.

In fact, I have it in my mind now to do some story where Bobby, now in his mid-20's, hooks up with Abby. That would have Betsy, Gary and Val up in arms. And when the big physical showdown between Bobby and Gary results in Gary's heart attack and possible death...? All I can say is, Abby betta watch her back, lest she wants "poor Val" to come after her ass, lol!

Beyond that, though, I would want "KNOTS 2.0" to achieve a sort of diversity that the first KNOTS never could. I mean, fourteen years, and the closest we got was one Black family that only lasted, what, three seasons?

Unless one is really up on his ATWT history, watching even 10 consecutive episodes from the early and mid-'80's, for example, could be a frustrating experience for the viewer, if only b/c so much about enjoying the old shows depends on knowing and recalling the context surrounding them.

I'd love to see Donna Mills on something.

Y&R missed a golden opportunity not casting her originally as Gloria Fisher. As good as Joan Van Ark was in that role, I feel like Donna had the ability to make that character an integral part to the show's continued success.

And I still cannot believe Michele Lee is joining a web series. If this can happen, though, then I'm keeping hope alive for Constance McCashin's grand return to acting (and to television) with a role as a medical examiner or attorney on a procedural series.

Frankly, I'd love to see a modern-day continuation of KNOTS where Seaview Circle has all-new residents. Characters from the "old" series could make cameo appearances as stories dictate, but I feel like trying to continue the (mis-)adventures of Abby, Karen, Mack, Gary & Val, and others would be a big mistake.

Michele Lee is on a web series? I hope they didn't pay her scale.