Jump to content

Knots Landing


Sedrick

Recommended Posts

  • Members

Another great Avery episode is "Night" in season 3 when Richard snaps and holds Laura and Jason captive in the house. Poor Laura, every time she tries to free herself from Richard, she finds herself going back. 

Richard was gross from day 1, but you couldn't help watching him and Laura any time they appeared onscreen.

Re: Gary & Val.....Gary was pretty much over his marriage to Val after he fell of the wagon at the end of season 1. By Season 2 he was barely tolerating her and was  often pissy any time she spoke to him. He even blew her off when she asked his help when she was helping Karen with her show. In season 3 Gary was screwing around with Abby right in front of her. He was looking out the window, climbing the walls, and walked out of the house in front of her to go be with Abby. She also asks him point blank and he gets up from the bed and slams the bathroom door in her face refusing to answer. Wake up Val !!!

Val was desperate to hold onto Gary she made a fool out of herself time and time again....then again, so did all the Ewing women with the brothers. Bobby is always touted as the good Ewing brother, but he often treated Pam like crap and mentally abused her with his macho ego. No wonder she tried to throw herself off a roof.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 3.5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

  • Members

Richard was a very complex, nuanced character to me. His relationship with Karen is incredibly special, and his horrible spiral and treatment of Laura grew partly out of shared behavior that was codependent or mutually destructive. When she was up he was down, and when he tried to be up he could never sustain it, both because Laura had long since lost any respect for him (largely by his own doing) and because while trying to be an upwardly mobile man and provider of the '80s he always fell into a comedy of errors. He'd never found himself. Some of John Pleshette's dialogue and monologues were just brilliant, on par with the great tour de forces William Devane delivers upon his arrival.

As for Gary and Val, I think when they did first reunite on Dallas they were both kind of still arrested adolescents frozen in their past love, and when real life interfered it quickly started to disintegrate. Gary would go through deranged highs and lows of devotion to Val or pure misery, like his bender at the end of S1 and his apeshit meltdown when she had to go into the hospital in S2, and that is not stable behavior. I don't think either of them began to mature and actualize themselves until Season 3-4 (Val) and Seasons 4-5 (Gary). After that they're totally different people from the first two or three seasons. Which is why I can see them reuniting in future.

Edited by Vee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

That's a very good analysis of those characters. Laura was so sad and pathetic in S1 when she would bend over backwards to please Richard (even sleeping with Chip Todson) to help Richard get ahead in business. 

Yes, Val & Gary were in arrested development when they reunited. For a long time on Dallas, it seemed cruel the way Jock talked about Gary being weak and running away from responsibility. Well, Jock turned out to be right, Gary was weak and self destructive. He even thought it would be better if Val were to die than survive with a colostomy (because it would be too hard for him). I loved it when Bobby ripped him apart over it. It took years for Gary to grow a pair and deal with life head on.

I hate that smug shrug he would do when anyone confronted him about one of his screw ups. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

As I think other cast and crew and certainly Michele Lee pointed out, Murray was supposed to be kind of the big get from movies, etc. when the show began. (He's amazing in Advise and Consent and capped his career not long ago with a wonderful performance in Twin Peaks Season 3) He later noted he regretted leaving after the show ran on and on and on. I really liked him and Sid, but I agree it was for the best. Those first two eps of S3 are absolutely brilliant and it opened up everything that came after.

Episodes like the biker gang from hell (Born Free), Cricket, the ridiculous S2 hostage crisis (Moments of Truth), Three Sisters, the Lilimae Vegas romp (Rose and the Briar) and Silver Shadows all show the upper limits of this approach, so yes it was time to change. And I happen to like Three Sisters and Silver Shadows, but they are off-brand lol.

Edited by Vee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

That episode about Cricket was one stupid episode. I didn't get why they tossed that into the mix. The S2 hostage crisis episode was cheesy kind of fun, but really served no purpose. If that episode had been during S3, Gary may have secretly wished Val would be offed and Abby survive so he could be with her guilt free....LOL

I wonder why Abby never made Gary legally adopt Brian and Olivia so she could declare them Ewing heirs ? Jeff just disappeared after he kidnapped them and was never mentioned again. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Normally I would skip the first couple of seasons, but this time I’m going to watch it all.

I just got through Lilimae’s intro. I really appreciate that even in later seasons she still maintains her self-centered, at times delusional behavior.

The Avery’s are the kind of complex couple that you could easily have seen on prestige television today. I could see them on Mad Men, on Succession, etc.

They were lucky to get Joan Van Ark. This time around I am really paying attention to her, and she has to carry a lot of the emotional weight of the first few episodes.

Val gains a core of strength and Gary grows up. Abby is a catalyst, but the truth is they all needed each other to get where they wanted/needed to be.

Even with ribbons in her hair and her sweet dresses, Valene is always herself in each stage of her life. And Gary is so uncomfortable with himself until he gets to the ranch, and uncovers Abby’s betrayals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Season 6 where he knows it all (well, mostly) and accepts her as is ("God help me") is the peak of their relationship for me, and probably one of the key reasons it is my favorite season. I totally wasn't expecting that turn and him being secure in their match for what it is. I understand why it ended but that could've gone a bit longer in that state.

I always found that so strange. He should've returned to be a thorn in her side.

Edited by Vee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The Val/Gary/Abby triangle ushered in Knots Landing peak era and drove so many storylines for years. The triangle worked not because of the triangle itself (let's keep it real here, Gary was no prize) but because of the character arcs it lead to. Val moved on with her life after losing her first love, Gary manned up, and Abby got the come up that she was all about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

We have talked about this before, but I love their relationship and now that I have seen most of the big moments play out again, I see the more nuanced sides too. Gary knows nothing he does would destroy Abby. He can hurt her, but not the total heartbreak it causes Val. That gives him some freedom to grow.

And I stand by the belief that Abby does love him. She used him too. I think the first chipping away in her love for him was when she sees him in detox after Ciji. But they come back from that, and even though she is stealing from him to set herself up in case it happened again, they find their way to being more like equals in season six. Until Val is pregnant, and she knows they are his. Once that happens, I think the love is pretty much gone.

As stupid as the Chopper Bunch episode is, Valene’s conversation about the police and the good ole boys could be used today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

To be honest, once Laura got with Greg she pretty much became second fiddle to him. I thought the direction they seemed to take her in season 5, where she was poised to be a more morally ambigious character and not quite have the killer instinct that Abby had, but at the same wanting to get hers was interesting. Unfortunately, it just feels like they dropped the ball on her once she wasn't in the manic cliffhanger and taking her away from the cul de sac lessened her relationship with Val and Karen. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Somebody at Lorimar must have liked Barry Jenner as he was on all three CBS primetime soaps. He was on Falcon Crest for two episodes in 1989. 

For me and many of my generation (1990s teens), Barry Jenner will forever be Lieutenant Murtaugh of Family Matters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Hotel was The Love Boat on land but a little soapier. I will forever maintain that Hotel was a time slot hit. I don't believe that 1983/84 Hotel was a better show than Knots Landing.
    • The Golden Girls key episodes by ratings September 14, 1985: The Engagement (series premiere), rating 25.0, #1 Season highs February 22, 1986: Adult Education, rating 25.2 October 4, 1986: Ladies of the Evening, rating 27.3 November 8, 1986: Isn't it Romantic, rating 27.3 February 6, 1988: My Brother, My Father; rating 24.6 November 26, 1988: Sophia's Wedding (Part 2), rating 24.3, #1 September 23, 1989: Sick and Tired (Part 1) (season 5 premiere), rating 23.5 January 12, 1991: Sisters of the Bride, rating 19.3 May 9, 1992: One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest (series finale), rating 18.9 Season lows October 19, 1985: The Triangle, rating 18.6 May 16, 1987: Empty Nests (season 2 finale), rating 17.8 February 20, 1988: And Ma Makes Three, rating 18.0 April 29, 1989: Rites of Spring, rating 18.7 April 28, 1990: All Bets are Off, rating 15.8 February 16, 1991: Older and Wiser, rating 11.6 October 26, 1991: Mother Load, rating 10.9 Ten highest-rated episodes October 4, 1986: Ladies of the Evening, rating 27.3 November 8, 1986: Isn't it Romantic, rating 27.3 January 3, 1987: The Sisters, rating 27.0 November 22, 1986: Family Affair, rating 26.8 January 10, 1987: The Stan Who Came to Dinner, rating 26.6 January 24, 1987: Before and After, rating 26.4 February 28, 1987: Whose Face is This, Anyway?; rating 25.8 September 27, 1986: End of the Curse (season 2 premiere), rating 25.6 November 15, 1986: Big Daddy's Little Lady, rating 25.3 February 22, 1986: Adult Education, rating 25.2 Ten lowest-rated episodes October 26, 1991: Mother Load, rating 10.9 September 28, 1991: The Case of the Libertine Belle, rating 10.9 October 19, 1991: Where's Charlie?, rating 11.0 February 15, 1992: Ebbtide VI: The Wrath of Stan, rating 11.3 February 16, 1991: Older and Wiser, rating 11.6 December 14, 1991: The Pope's Ring, rating 11.7 April 25, 1992: Home Again, Rose (Part 1); rating 12.3 October 5, 1991: Beauty and the Beast, rating 12.7 November 2, 1991: Dateline: Miami, rating 12.7 December 7, 1991: From Here to the Pharmacy, rating 12.8
    • The timing is strange, though. How far in advance would they normally be on location? The Achille Lauro hijacking was on October 7, 1985. Nancy had arrived in Egypt in the storyline by October 18. But the character of Hawk, Chris' Native American friend from Arizona, had already appeared onscreen by September and brought a letter telling Chris to be in Egypt by October 25th.  Why did they already have the link to Arizona before the reason to cancel the shoot in Egypt?  The dust and the jar it came in were from Egypt though. Nancy bought it there and sent it to Mac as a gift before she came back to the states and followed Chris to Arizona.
    • Actually that is not what happened. Nor is the timing right for it to have been. We learned from a WOST interview with Pete Lemay  in 2006, which can be found on YT, that it was Fred Silverman's idea to do the 90 minute show. I don't know how much you know about him but he had these amazing successes as head of daytime at both ABC & at CBS. Then he came to NBC where basically everything he touched turned NOT TO GOLD but to shite. Some of the most expensive shows ever produced up to that time were huge flops. Although even he, like a broken clock, could be right on occasion. However, as we know, he was not right about the 90 minute show. As a matter of fact, afterward,  NBC programmers, who worked FOR him, were asked why they did it & they were quoted as saying it was because they couldn't think of anything else to try. It was a stupid idea from a man who had reached the point where he was throwing anything at the wall to see if it would stick.
    • Tamara Tunie at Baltimore event May 10, 2025 https://www.lewismuseum.org/event/a-lewis-table-talk-with-tamara-tunie/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DJH0ZQayihs/ Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore lewismuseum

      Please register in order to view this content

      Clear your calendar for the Lewis Museum's post gala celebration! On Saturday, May 10 at 2pm, we're bringing the elegance, wisdom, and brilliance of Tamara Tunie to The Lewis! From her powerful performances throughout her career, to her bold new project “Beyond the Gates,” this is your chance to hear it all—up close and personal. Hosted by the always fabulous media personality LaDawn Black, this conversation will be real, inspiring, and unforgettable. Kick off your Mother's Day weekend and come on down to The Lewis. Come ready to be moved, motivated, and in great company! Saturday, May 10 2:00-4:00pm Reginald F. Lewis Museum Register today by visiting the link in our bio! #thereginaldflewismuseum #lewismuseum #thelewis #beyondthegates #tamaratunie #lawandordersvu                            
    • I stopped watching Another World in 1990. Simply, lost interest in the show.  I had watched the show from 1973 to 1990. The 90 minute show started the decline of AW.  NBC panicked with expanding AW due to the GH hoopla. As mentioned above, 1982 was a trainwreck for AW.  The introduction of the Shea family, the movie storyline involving Jamie, and Steve Frame favoring Rachel over Alice. The writers went into that direction due to the forgettable performance of Linda Borgeson. 
    • Please register in order to view this content

       
    • Ive seen that theory thrown out but the one thing against it is that Leslie and her family lived in Chicago. She only came back to DC last year after her husband died. Unless they say Alan made a trip to DC and died while away, she wouldnt know about that. However I do think the angle of her finding out that Martin was involved could work as that gives her leverage against Bill too for covering it up. She'd want to get revenge on him by threatening to have him disbarred
    • What a good write-up @Errol! Nice seeing the nod to Duplaix's lead.
    • The Egypt location shoot was cancelled because of the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy