On 1/9/2026 at 12:33 AM, DRW50 said:

They made them both look past their best, especially Ted, who just looks rough here.

I especially don't like the way Donna Mills' hair is styled in that photo. It somehow makes her look older.

Edited Monday at 04:40 PM1 day by Khan

Like you said @Khan Kathleen Noone preferred playing parts like Claudia... but like you said, her strength was playing mother/daughter scenes. Not only was she at her best opposite Galina as Kate... but on Sunset Beach, her wacky/over the top man eater character Bette lacke depth/purpose until the show created her daughter for her.. and then her character took off.

If you have a gift, why fight it.

In regards to Strasser, she was of a certain age and wasn't going to be getting roles with depth and range like she did on daytime even though she proved she was more than capable in the mini series Baby M. To a part like Dianne on Knots Landing, you have to infuse it with layers.. and I don't think she was able to successfully do so.. but she at least did come out on top at the end.

Maybe she should have been the one to play Claudia on KL instead.

7 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Maybe she should have been the one to play Claudia on KL instead.

Or she could've played a (recast) Jane Sumner, since I never bought Millie Perkins as Greg's ex-wife.

31 minutes ago, Khan said:

Or she could've played a (recast) Jane Sumner, since I never bought Millie Perkins as Greg's ex-wife.

For whatever reason, Knots Landing didn't go the long-suffering younger wife route in the vein of Sue Ellen Ewing and Julia Newman with Jane Sumner.

38 minutes ago, Khan said:

Or she could've played a (recast) Jane Sumner, since I never bought Millie Perkins as Greg's ex-wife.

I was actually thinking Noone should have played a recast Jane had the show not killed off Mary Francis recklessly so fast. Perhaps Jane had developed great business acumen after running her second and now dead husband’s company who happened to be a wealthy industrialist as well.

Jane could easily have come back under the guise to be close to Mary Francis but also look to reconnect with Greg and snag his company for her own. At least we might have gotten a more age appropriate Anne/Greg/Jane triangle out of it.

Instead we got the identical cousin (already done with Ciji/Cathy but also clearly influenced by Twin Peaks at the same time lol), complete with this classic moment:

Karen: Greg has a sister…????

Mac: Of course, I’m sure I’ve mentioned Claudia numerous times over the years!

(Don’t worry Karen we were just as puzzled too! 😂)

3 hours ago, Khan said:

Or she could've played a (recast) Jane Sumner, since I never bought Millie Perkins as Greg's ex-wife.

I wonder if Barbara Parkins would have worked as Greg's ex wife ?

Assorted thoughts and questions from late Season 7 and early Season 8:

-- Just what type of show was A Better Tomorrow once it was exclusively Cathy's? Was it just her singing for 30-60 minutes? Maybe she should have been a VJ, or had celebrity guests. I can't imagine Cathy answering fan mail, giving advice or, god forbid, attempting to preach on the show.

-- This might be a generalization, but Greg & Laura are kind of the smart man's J.R. & Sue Ellen. Laura's eyes are open about Greg. She doesn't have to experience the annual indignity of the "This time he's changed! ... How could you betray me?!" routine. Things came close to that in the home stretch of the Empire Valley saga, when Greg only cleaned up Lotus Point because he couldn't afford politically not to.

-- I wonder where "Holister" came from. Maybe it was Mrs. Simpkins' maiden name. Also, I kinda wish that Peter had to dramatically change his name, like Dorothy/Jill did. Going from "Petey" to Peter doesn't count. How do we feel about "Ezekiel"?

-- Peter's sham claim as a Galveston heir is kind of the successor to Val's lie about Ben fathering Bobby & Betsy. Everyone knows or could know the truth, but mostly are keeping up appearances.

-- Eric & Michael's catfight (it's too emotionally charged to be a brawl) is just as campy as I imagined it to be.

-- While I appreciate someone's bull detector being active regarding Paige, I'm not sure Lilimae should be the one voicing concerns. Especially the one about insinuating her way into Karen & Mack's home. Uh, Lilimae, remember how you wound up at Val's?

-- I'm sure we've discussed this, and she probably wasn't interested in doing a soap again, but I keep thinking Pamela Sue Martin could have brought some presence to the role of Jean Hackney. Not only that, but it couldn't have hurt CBS' mission in moving Knots to 9 p.m. Thursday for the fall of '86 -- deliver the killing blow to The Colbys on ABC. (Something Cheers was more than capable of doing.)

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Franko

2 hours ago, Franko said:

-- While I appreciate someone's bull detector being active regarding Paige, I'm not sure Lilimae should be the one voicing concerns. Especially the one about insinuating her way into Karen & Mack's home. Uh, Lilimae, remember how you wound up at Val's?

This is one of the choices that suggests there was little left for Lilimae on the canvas. I just wish they had given her a better exit and that Valene had been a stronger character to where losing her mother would not encourage the show to make her increasingly dumb and irrelevant.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by DRW50

25 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

This is one of the choices that suggests there was little left for Lilimae on the canvas. I just wish they had given her a better exit and that Valene had been a stronger character to where losing her mother would not encourage the show to make her increasingly dumb and irrelevant.

Oh, very much agreed. I'm not looking forward to Val's "village idiot" years.