Knots Landing

[Spin865]

 

Michael stays around till the end of season 12 and has a decent sized storyline in season 11.  I think Eric leaves the show sometime in season 8 and comes back a few times for the Michael/Eric/Linda storyline but unfortunately Steve Shaw passed away during season 12. I think Olivia's storylines were okay until her last season.  That was the season after Donna Mills left. 

Edited September 13, 2022 by Spin865

[Vee]

Wasn't Petersen in the opening for at least a couple seasons near the end? I have also seen him and Tonya Crowe in the yearly ensemble shots a la Lonow; I'm not sure if Steve Shaw ever made it into those.

[Spin865]

Petersen was in the opening in season 11 and 12. Shaw was never in the opening. Crowe was only in the season 11 opening but she probably had more actual screen time in the couple seasons before that. 

[Vee]

Yeah, that was my understanding. I just have never seen Shaw in the press shots of the cast for each season beyond the first (with all the families and their kids), whereas Petersen and Crowe both got to be in those as adults, as did Claudia Lonow and Lisa Hartman in Season 4 (pre-their opening credits additions). I think it's a shame if he never got to be in at least the press photos lol.

[yrfan1983]

I think Eric’s short-lived romance with Mary Frances was the show’s attempt to audition him in the young leading man role. After that, they eventually handed the young leading man mantle to Michael, and I guess they just didn’t find much purpose for Eric on the show.

[DRW50]

There was never really any real point of interest for Eric or Michael on that front. I think where Eric works best is as the soul of the family. Steve Shaw had a very powerful presence in that respect. The family is never really the same for me after he's written out - they just get colder and aside from some scattered moments between Mack and Karen I no longer feel any connection to them. But the whole show becomes colder as the '80s wind down and the POV shifts to the eyes of characters like Paige and Greg.

[yrfan1983]

Cold is a great word to describe the Paige and Greg vibe. They left me quite cold.  Talk about the opposite of Laura and Greg! Which I assume was the point, but it didn't keep my interest.

I never understood Paige in the heroine role. I guess I'm in the minority, as the show put all their eggs in the Paige basket for 6 seasons.  To me, she was always somewhat of a cold b*tch, and I preferred her as the schemer we initially met in season 8.

[DRW50]

I thought Paige was interesting, in that brittle way, but I was never interested in her love life, which took up a lot of time. Her relationship with Anne was her most compelling role, and maybe her corporate moments. 

[Soaplovers]

Paige was more of an anti-heroine than a heroine or vixen.  It's a hard character to write for, but had it not been for Nicolette Sheridan.. Paige wouldn't have been such a presence. 

When she first came in, she seemed to fill the Diana void of the troublesome daughter that caused angst for Karen and family.  Since she wasn't related to Michael, it made sense for the two to hook up.. causing even more conflict for Karen/Mac.  The one relationship never explored was the Karen/Paige relationship... they got along, but it wasn't a warm relationship... and it was interesting seeing Paige not fawning over Karen as the wise one like everyone else did.

I did like Greg/Paige together... but I always thought that deep down, she knew that Laura was the love of his life.. and that was part of the element that kept the two from truly making a go of it because she would always be #2 in his heart.

[victoria foxton]

I loved that Paige wasn't a stereotypical heroine. She always came off as snotty and bitchy. But i did love that she a had some flavor and bite to her.

[te.]

I imagine Dallas struggled a lot with rising cast costs early on, especially with Larry being a breakout star and already re-negotiating his pay after the Who Shot JR cliffhanger; it probably meant that a lot of other cast members started demanding raises especially with the show being an international phenomenom. Being a show about a family also meant that they just couldn't replace them easily.

Meanwhile, Knots wasn't a phenomenom and no one was really a break-out star like JR. Add that if someone tried to pull rank they'd just remind them that the character could move out and be replaced, so they didn't have the same negotiation power. Plus early on they lost four original cast members and kept costs down that way.

Edited September 13, 2022 by te.

[Vee]

I'm almost a third of the way through the first mega-sized season (30 episodes - I haven't dealt with that in a long time), so I'll probably reserve my early commentary on the first part of Season 6 for when I hit 10. I'm not doing them episode by episode again any time soon lol, but I do have a lot to discuss in addition to what I already have mentioned here in the last couple pages. So far it seems the show has simply gone from strength to strength, and as I've said it seems Gary and Abby are better than ever together at this point - honest with each other about who they are but still carnally in sync and passionately fulfilled, in part because of how they differ and counter the other. I'm also enjoying the gradual deconstruction of Greg Sumner's character, digging beneath the grinning, opaque master politician who, as his wife says, always keeps his mask up. He really is coming apart.

[Spin865]

I've been rewatching  season 6 and I have to say that episode 9 is one of the best episodes I can remember. The combination of Richard Gollance and Larry Elikan is a good one.   

Edited September 14, 2022 by Spin865

[kalbir]

Knots Landing isn't the type of soap we'd expect to see a messy wealthy matriarch but Ava Gardner as Ruth Galveston was everything. It's so funny that she preferred villainess Abby over the more virtuous Laura as the ideal mate for Greg.

[Vee]

I've been looking forward to Ava Gardner. I adore her in On the Beach and Seven Days in May.