KNOTS LANDING

[Chris 2]

Did Knots ever do anything cheesy like a fire where the regulars were trapped or an earthquake or anything like that? I don’t think they did because it didn’t seem to be their style.

[Vee]

I was not expecting a 'biker hell' episode of Knots Landing.

I had forgotten how elegant and addictive a soap with a simple geographic setup can be. Like Melrose, where you knew who was in each apartment and with who and why, Knots' enclosed world really works.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Vee

[Vee]

It's been brought up before here, but I'd totally forgotten where I knew Kim Lankford from. She was heavily featured in HBO's excellent docuseries The Jinx, all about Robert Durst. She was close to one of his victims, Susan Berman, and is one of the regular talking heads in the series. It's very worth a watch.

[Paul Raven]

Donna Mills article March 81 

For Donna Mills it's back to soaps "The nighttime serials are so much bigger. They allow you to do more, go more places, open up. I like that. An actor gets to act in that kind of show ..."

Donna Mills By Harry Harris Inquirer TV Writer

Donna Mills is completing a soap opera circle. Her first continuing TV assignments were in daytime serials "The Secret Storm" and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing," Now she's in a prime-time variation, CBS' "Knots Landing." Her chores have changed in more ways than time of day. In the early detergent dramas she was good. Now she's bad. Until quite recently she specialized in playing victims, now she's a victimizer. "It's much more fun to be the causer of problems than the causee," the blonde actress who plays "the female J. R.," Abby Cunningham, in the "Dallas" spin-off opined recently in the Beverly Hills Hotel's Polo Lounge. "In daytime soaps," she said, "I was so sweet that I was a threat to diabetics. "In 'The Secret Storm I played the night club singer named only Rocket that's still my favorite character name. "She was killed off quick shot by mistake. "In 'Many Splendored Thing' I was Laura Donnelly, a novice nun who left the convent and got married. "Poor thing, everybody was always doing her wrong. After three years I was bored to tears."

Three days after ending that agonython she was at work in her first movie as the sweet, victimized girl friend of Clint Eastwood in Play Misty for Me. Immediately after, she was cast still supersweet in her first prime-time series a short-lived 1971 half-hour NBC situation comedy, "The Good Life." Her husband was Larry Hagman, who later became the male J. R. "I haven't always been a good girl," Miss Mills said. "I've done some bad girls in movies for TV. In one, 'Superdome, I was a killer you can't be much worse than that! "I was hired by a gambling syndicate to kill some football players, to disable a Super Bowl team. "But mostly in TV movies in some way, shape or form I was a victim, always being chased by something supernatural. "I did three spooky thrillers in England with strange things chasing me. One was titled 'Someone at the Top the Stairs.' Another, about a haunted Rolls Royce I bought, was 'One Deadly Owner.' "In 'Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby' I was involved with a seemingly nice young man whose evil side took over. "In 'The Bait,' the pilot for a series, I was the bait a policewoman put out trap William Devane, who was more respectable a doctor when we worked together in 'Many Splendored Thing. "In 'Live Again, Die Again,' about cryogenics, I was frozen for 40 years after being a victim of rheumatic fever. When I was brought back to life my kids were older than I was."

Other Mills telemovie titles: "Night of Terror," "Curse of the Black Widow," "Smash-up on Interstate 5," "Fire!" and "Hanging by a Thread." "When people started asking me, 'Can you play anything other than a victim?' I decided, 'That's enough of that I'm an actress. I can play anything.' "I started turning down jobs. I didn't work much for a year and a half. In this town, if you want to change your image, you have to tough it out "I was offered victims, victims, victims and I kept saying no no no. "Abby Cunningham appealed to me because she represents a real change of pace. ,"The producers liked the idea of casting against type. "Abby is a troublemaker, but she's not the kind that makes everyone say oh-oh when she walks into a room. "Women don't feel threatened by me. They don't have to say, 'Uh-oh, look out' I'm not some big-busted gal sashaying around, showing a lot of cleavage. "A Dolly Parton I ain't. She should do a 3-D poster. I couldn't, because what would stick out? -Not much, unfortunately. Darn! "I wasn't anxious to do another series after 'The Good Life' unless I could really get involved. A series is too hard unless you like the character and the show. "On, Hunted Lady,' a female 'The Fugitive.' That had the potential for hundreds of situations with hundreds of different looks. That would have been fun. That wouldn't have become boring. "I do believe that everything works out for the best If I had done 'The Hunted Lady' I'd probably be in a home by now, The character was in every shot The whole burden of the show would have been on my shoulders. "Starring in a series means an enormous workload, particularly for a woman. That's because of the extra time required for makeup. A woman has to look nice. "

'Knots Landing' is easier. A lot of things revolve around Abby, but there are nine regulars. "Between 'The Good Life' and 'Knots Landing' I did 21 movies for television. They don't take that long to do, and I love to work. I'm happiest when I'm real busy. "There aren't a whole lot of terrific things to do, so I'm developing my own stuff, to be produced by my own corporation, Bonaparte Productions." She giggled. Why Bonaparte? "That was the name of a police dog I had. 

[Vee]

Lord, that is a very, very young Gary Sinise posing as Eric's contemporary at this beach party in S1 Episode 10.

[Vee]

I'm wrapping up Season 1. Sid's easy love, camaraderie and wisdom is really striking; Don Murray is as wonderful here as he was on Twin Peaks, and sexy with Michele Lee. He's the river to her fire. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Sid, knowing he dies and makes way for the powerhouse Kevin Dobson, but I'll miss him when he's gone. His rapport with Gary (who is notably backburnered until the finale) is really touching.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Vee

[Vee]

LMAO at drunk Gary's greeting of Richard: "Anybody need a bad lawyer?"

[DRW50]

I forgot you told us she was in that. I remember her main HBO stint being The Hitchhiker.

One of the most hilarious episodes ever. 

[Vee]

Watching the Dallas S4 premiere, post-Who Shot J.R, with its Gary/Val crossover appearance just before Knots S2 starts puts the shows in even sharper relief. I found the Dallas season premiere and its machinations largely tedious, hammy and predictable, while you go to Knots and see an extremely relatable neighborhood, set of families, and relationships which continue to surprise you. It is amazing this show is just sitting in the vaults, let alone the property itself which (like something like Guiding Light, which has some similar roots in its classical eras) could be revived or rebooted anytime, anywhere. And it was very bold of CBS/Lorimar to be willing to do such a strikingly different show as the companion to something as high-flying as Dallas, even if KL did grow more glitzy and hard-driving over time. The core is the relationships and neighborhood.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm not telling anything surprising or new when I note a very young Helen Hunt as one of Diana's classmates in the S2 premiere. Abby has arrived but not yet shown her claws. Her kids are a riot.

Lord, Eric is trying too hard with that wannabe mustache. Just shave, kid. He looks like Night Stalker, Jr.

Edited May 18, 2022 by Vee

[Vee]

It would be repetitious of me to note every soap alum passing through KL which I'm sure most people here know very well, so I'll just note how nice it was to see Jane Elliot turn up in Season 2, and also note Allan Miller (OLTL's Dave Siegel) as Laura's boss, Scooter.

[Vee]

Mid-Season 2 has dragged a bit after a strong start. Jane Elliot's incredibly fey drunk husband is a riot, but the story is a bit of a slog. I am beyond over the incredibly mind-numbing Kenny/Ginger story which makes me wonder how they possibly lasted four seasons (the single beat of the story is, Kenny is repeatedly told to stop fücking his psycho sidepiece if he wants Ginger back and his response is to grin, shrug, invade Ginger's bedroom late at night and say nothing of substance about the problem other than 'you're my wife!'), and the mob guys are a bit goofy. Diana's boyfriend follies bore me but Michael's ADHD rampage is a hoot. Everything with Richard and Laura is great. But I'm ready for this show to fully kick into high gear. Right now it seems caught between the character mining of Season 1 (which I found more engaging overall, so far anyway) and the full-on soap it will become, and is struggling to reconcile the two.

OTOH, J.R. just showed up and Abby seems determined to get down with him, so we'll see how that goes.

[yrfan1983]

I totally feel you, and sadly you'll have to wait for Season 4. Season 3 has plenty of great moments, but the focus of Karen as the mourning widow keeps things from really sparking.

Are you watching on an unlisted playlist? If so, could you please share, or send me a PM link?  There was a YT channel that had all eps, but I see that the channel now has zero vids.  Thank you

[DemetriKane]

I remember feeling the same way about S2, it’s been years since I watched it. But I believe things kick up just a bit at the end with Abby’s ex husband. 

[Vee]

J.R. giving Gary the lowdown on himself and his little brother's repressed desire for power was a great scene. I have a feeling I know what really kicks it into overdrive down the road, too.

I have heard Sid's engine is a key story element next season. I'm excited about that.

That is Denise Galik (Rhonda Wexler from GH) as the female mechanic at Sid's. Such a small industry.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Vee

[Vee]

The confrontation between Abby and Elliot's Judy Trent was an absolute riot. Jane was still raving about that scene decades later in an interview not long before she quit GH a few years ago. Interesting too that Abby has also already caught on to what J.R. tells Gary one episode prior - that Gary is evolving, growing into wanting power, growing past Val, and that's why she seems to want him too. A counterpart to her own aspirations, perhaps? And it makes me curious how far it goes later (presumably following Jock Ewing's apparent death, when I believe he inherits).

The stuff with Laura and Richard still carries any weak spots in the season for me, they're so good. I loved her realizing she just doesn't care where he goes or what he does. Like the Wards, it is beyond me how this marriage apparently lasts another two seasons (or in the case of Kenny and Ginger, their presence on the show at all).

However OTT and dated some of it was, I did like that the Michael ADD ('hyperkinetic' indeed) plotline is still threaded through the background of the show and storylines, it's not just an Issue of the Week. I appreciate that they do these things regularly with plot or character points on this show that hang over the larger proceedings or are part of the fabric of what's going on in that house or that part of the neighborhood, like real life. They would have to keep dealing with Michael's issue.

The show is heating up again with the Avery stuff as well as Abby's ex-husband on the scene, and Abby and Karen finally beginning to drop neighborhood pleasantries as Karen sees Abby clearly - I wondered how long that would take. I LOLed at Karen's weary reaction to Abby asking if she wanted to know if Abby was having an affair with Richard. "It wouldn't make my day." And the moment where Abby flat-out (and not horribly unkindly) tells Richard she likes him but doesn't need him is great. On another show she would've just called him a toad (which he is in many ways tbh) and squashed him, and I don't think she does think very much of him, but it was a nice bit of dimension.

It does seem like the show is genuinely sympathizing with Abby's take on being a single, free woman for the first time in her life with grander, downright 'masculine' aspirations, while also acknowledging her glaring flaws and moral failings (and showing Jeff Cunningham to be capable of marital rape and unstable). It's really refreshing and exciting, all these decades later with soaps and primetime soaps having veered far more moralistic since then.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Vee