Ad for the finale:

I remember that ad!

KL's finale was the best of the four. Not just because they tied up all loose ends, but also because they brought back JVA/Val and DM/Abby, two actresses who had been integral parts of its' identity.

Knots Landing final season overlapped with 90210 high school graduation season and Melrose first season.

The following season we saw peak 90210, Melrose take off, and new drama NYPD Blue and those would have made Knots Landing look old school so Knots Landing ending when it did was for the best.

I could have done without the final four seasons though as I found them a chore to get through, mainly because Paige practically ate the show. I feel the final four seasons happened because CBS was in their third place primetime mess era for two of them and in the other two CBS really didn't have much success with launching new dramas.

I'm putting the other Knots promo in the primetime soaps thread.

Forgive me if this is covered somewhere else in the thread, but where can I currently watch “Back To The Cul-de-Sac”? I just finished watching all 14 seasons of KL on Plex and it would be nice to see the return movie made just a few years later.

I cant seem to find anything on YT, but maybe I’m not searching for the right thing?

On 5/15/2026 at 9:56 AM, kalbir said:

Knots Landing final season overlapped with 90210 high school graduation season and Melrose first season.

The following season we saw peak 90210, Melrose take off, and new drama NYPD Blue and those would have made Knots Landing look old school so Knots Landing ending when it did was for the best.

I could have done without the final four seasons though as I found them a chore to get through, mainly because Paige practically ate the show. I feel the final four seasons happened because CBS was in their third place primetime mess era for two of them and in the other two CBS really didn't have much success with launching new dramas.

I feel like the show could have leaned into targeting an older audience. All those shows were coming into their own, but CBS was about to embrace stuff like Dr. Quinn, Walker, Diagnosis Murder, and Touched by an Angel. I think there would have been a place for Knots in that lineup, but only if they had refocused on the core characters in the cul-de-sac.

4 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

I feel like the show could have leaned into targeting an older audience. All those shows were coming into their own, but CBS was about to embrace stuff like Dr. Quinn, Walker, Diagnosis Murder, and Touched by an Angel. I think there would have been a place for Knots in that lineup, but only if they had refocused on the core characters in the cul-de-sac.

Even if Knots Landing continued past 1993, it would have been killed in 1994/95 by ER.

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

Even if Knots Landing continued past 1993, it would have been killed in 1994/95 by ER.

I agree. There's no way KL could've survived the rise of NBC's Must See TV era. CBS would've either canceled it or moved it to another night - maybe Fridays or Mondays? - which would've resulted in cancellation as well.

7 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

I feel like the show could have leaned into targeting an older audience. All those shows were coming into their own, but CBS was about to embrace stuff like Dr. Quinn, Walker, Diagnosis Murder, and Touched by an Angel. I think there would have been a place for Knots in that lineup, but only if they had refocused on the core characters in the cul-de-sac.

CBS' audience embraced those shows. Les Moonves, on the other hand ...

1 hour ago, Khan said:

I agree. There's no way KL could've survived the rise of NBC's Must See TV era. CBS would've either canceled it or moved it to another night - maybe Fridays or Mondays? - which would've resulted in cancellation as well.

I agree, although I wouldn't have minded one last revamp season. I struggle to get through 14, "improved" or not. The cast is very tired, in many ways, and not appealing to me.

1 minute ago, DRW50 said:

I struggle to get through 14, "improved" or not. The cast is very tired, in many ways, and not appealing to me.

The budget issues are really apparent in the final season.

5 minutes ago, kalbir said:

The budget issues are really apparent in the final season.

Very true. I think they are also still paying the price for how weak the cast was becoming in the last seasons. They made so many mistakes in 12 and especially 13.

This is a good one. The conversation is focused on mostly soaps. Donna says Joan has not been feeling well 😢

Olean Times Herald Thursday, December 17, 1981

Big Changes Tie Series In ‘Knots’ By JAY BOBBIN

Followers of the drama series “Knots Landing” recently witnessed a tragedy. Auto dealer Sid Fairgate, played by actor Don Murray, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car mishap arranged by underworld forces. While audiences might regret his departure from the program, it doesn’t upset Murray; in fact he requested it.

“I asked the producers to write me out of the series,” Murray states, “and I suggested how they could do it. I enjoyed my time on the showvery much, and I think it’s a good one to work on. However, it’s a show with ten stars, and there are limitations to what you can do.” Don Murray also has a yen for writing, and he was also able to exercise that talent on “Knots Landing”: “I had a good working relationship with the show’s creator, David Jacobs. He agreed from the beginning that one of the most difficult characters to write for was Sid Fairgate, so David carte to rely a great deal on my rewriting. Certain issues covered on the show really reflected my own views, expressed through Sid. I felt I could give the character much stronger words, since I was also arguing from my own standpoint.”

The gap left in the show by Sid Fairgate’s death will be filled through the development of other continuing characters. Both Sid’s wife Karen (Michele Lee) and daughter Diana (Claudia Lonow) will be given more attention in the new scripts. So will Valene Ewing, wife of Gary, who is related to the wealthy Ewings of “Dallas.” Valene has mostlybeen portrayed as a simpleton with old-fashioned values, but a certain event is giving new creative fuel to the actress who plays her, Joan Van Ark. “My personal bonus this year,” she reveals, “is the addition of Julie Harris to the regular cast, which is probably the most exciting thing I could imagine. She’ll be playing my mother, as she did in an earlier episode.” Harris inspired Van Ark to apply to the Yale Graduate School of Drama, where the latter “got a scholarship at the age of 18.1 was only the second girl to ever do that, the first being Julie Harris, so she’s very special to me.”