kalbir

Corrected that for you.

1987/88 was the season primetime soaps went off the rails and to me it feels like the natural end point for primetime soaps. Knots Landing goes off the rails for me in the aftermath of Laura's departure. Constance McCashin has always kept it real by saying she was salary dumped.

Roger was such a big part of the early 1990s golden era. MZ acting and the writing all came together. MZ/Roger had such a presence but I didn't feel either the actor or the character took over the canvas. MZ/Roger should get his flowers for being the OG and GOAT of CBS soap opera villains. He ran so JR and Victor could walk.

When Knots Landing ended in May 1993, it was CBS's fourth longest-running primetime drama series, after Gunsmoke, Lassie, and Dallas. Since Knots Landing ended, five CBS primetime drama series have had equal or longer runs: NCIS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Minds, NCIS: Los Angeles, Blue Bloods.

It was the combination of Roger's return and Robert Calhoun becoming EP that got GL to finally hit it's stride after some really bad years. It's so funny that by the second half of 1989, CBS daytime was at full strength (all four soaps hitting their stride plus the game show block) but CBS primetime was an absolute mess.

If CBS hadn't been in their third place primetime mess era from 1987-1991, would Knots Landing have lasted as long as it did? To me it was effectively over Spring 1989 when Abby departed. It's crazy to me how Knots Landing final three seasons overlapped w/ the high school years of Beverly Hills 90210 and the final season overlapped w/ the first season of Melrose Place. Even if Knots Landing made it to Fall 1993, it would have looked old school. The primetime drama landscape then was peak Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place about to take off, NYPD Blue premiered, and ER was a year away. If by some miracle Knots Landing made it to Fall 1994, it would have been killed by ER.

Re: Victor/Lorie/Nikki, I wonder what Bill Bell's original plan was. Victor met Lorie while he was married to Julia, and he was drawn to Lorie. Also Lorie had business property Victor wanted: Prentiss Industries shares, so he could take over the company. After his marriage to Julia ended, Victor saw Nikki climbing the pole and was intrigued by her so he took on the challenge of transforming a working class young woman into a young woman suitable for high society, but then Victor's project turned into love. To me it seemed Bill Bell was setting up Victor/Lorie as a high society/business power couple but then the Victor/Nikki My Fair Lady storyline took off, plus I think MTS real-life pregnancy and JLB departure shifted whatever Bill Bell had planned.

In the first page of the Time Slot Hits thread.

Spring 1983-Summer 1984 Gail Kobe/Pamela Long got the ratings up from the post-Marland slump and set in motion the final 25 years but it was too much chasing 1980s trends which wasn't sustainable and caused long-term damage. The ratings from Fall 1984 onward reflected this. The early 1990s golden era that started shortly after Robert Calhoun became EP. I loved the Calhoun years and it will always be a disappointment to me that the ratings during his run did not reflect the quality of the show.

Season 5 was excellent and it's my second favorite season. Knots Landing tanks for me in the aftermath of Val's babies. Empire Valley became a mess and Joshua's descent into madness and eventual death were difficult to watch. I didn't like season 8 either, those storylines were awful. I never thought of any of the male cast members of Knots Landing as any type of hotness. Maybe because I was too young to have watched in real time. The final five seasons were a chore for me to get through mainly due to Paige practically eating the show.

Season 6 was the peak of the whole series.

RIP Phil Donahue and thank you for your contributions to daytime television.

It was the additions of Kevin Dobson and William Devane that gave Knots Landing a more masculine energy. I feel their castings were strategic to get the male audience away from Hill Street Blues and it worked.

Snooty lady of the manor Nikki needed to be knocked down a peg or two. Remember in the 1994 episode we saw during the classics, Victor even reminded Nikki of her past ("you were considered a gold digger once"). AFAIK Ashley never brought up Nikki's past in their confrontations. Also when there was that brief Nikki/Christine rivalry, Christine didn't bring up Nikki's past either. Nikki Reed was introduced as a troublemaking promiscuous girl but all she wanted was to be loved and adored and cared for. Nikki was lacking in both book smarts and street smarts, thus the shady modeling agency fronting for prostitution ring, the cult, the pole. Climbing the pole lead to Nikki Reed becoming Nikki Newman the OG ho turned housewife who then became snooty lady of the manor and is now messy matriarch/grande dame.

Traci is the heart of the Abbott family and she deserves to have happiness in her life.

Exactly. EB knows that a good portion of his fanbase in this country are African-Americans. Whenever he trends on Twitter, it's almost always African-Americans that show him the most love.

100% this. I love how he shuts down racist posters on Twitter. All these racists think that a white man born in Germany in 1941 is going to be of their mindset and they end up being proven wrong.

EB showing love to Steph Curry made my day Then a racist poster came after EB and he was not having that.

OMG this is epic!

Knots Landing final three episodes of 1983/84 compared to the rest of the big four primetime soaps. March 8, 1984: Finishing Touches, rating 22.1, 7th for the week. Finished ahead of Falcon Crest (March 9: Little Boy Blue, rating 21.7, 10th). Dallas (March 9: Fools Rush In, rating 26.8) was #1 and Dynasty (March 7: Steps, rating 25.9) was 2nd. March 22, 1984: Yesterday, It Rained; rating 22.4, 6th for the week. Dallas (March 23: Strange Alliance, rating 26.0) was #1, Dynasty (March 21: The Voice (Part 2), rating 25.1) was 2nd, and Falcon Crest (March 23: The Final Countdown, rating 23.0) was 5th. March 29, 1984: Negotiations (season 5 finale), rating 23.3 (season high), 5th for the week. Dynasty (March 28: The Voice (Part 3), rating 25.2) was #1. No Dallas and Falcon Crest on March 30.

With Knots Landing being a community-based show, we don't expect it to venture into action thriller/James Bond territory but Wolfbridge worked because it still gave us high emotional stakes character driven storytelling that impacted the whole canvas. 1983/84 Knots Landing was excellent and missed being a Top 10 show by very little. I've pointed this out before, but I don't believe that Hotel was a better show in 1983/84 than Knots Landing was. 1984/85 Knots Landing finally finishes in the Top 10 and it would be its only Top 10 season. I break down Knots Landing run as Seasons 1-3: Building the foundation. Seasons 4-6: The peak. Full-on primetime soap. Season 7 and 8: Tanking. Season 9: Signs of going off the rails are showing. Seasons 10-14: Off the rails plus budget mode.

Was anyone checking for Peter Simon BITD? I always thought of the P&G shows as placing talent above looks but then again it was the early 1980s when ABC youth movement was killing it in daytime.

But it wasn't on the level of JW 1999 opening credits

Wink Martindale and Bob Eubanks are still with us, and they seem to be the last game show hosts left of that generation.

Another song battle If I was Julie Andrews, I would have bitch slapped Ariana Grande for this rip off. At least Rodgers & Hammerstein estates get 90% of the royalties from 7 Rings.