KNOTS LANDING

[DRW50]

This was my favorite season finale, a real kick-ass cliffhanger which affected so many characters and had some hyperdramatic moments. Kevin Dobson is fantastic in that chilling last scene - "I got them, Karen." How I loved that image of Gary running from a traumatized Val to try to save Abby, as the limo with the Wolfbridge baddies drove away...this was one of the seasons which really built KL into a consistent ratings performer and secured it a long future on CBS.

Gary/Abby were one of my favorite couples on the show, so much could have been done with them.

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Edited August 15, 2010 by CarlD2

[DRW50]

The start of this clip has a CLASSIC Gary scene, it's hilarious yet also so very Gary ("WE'RE HURTING PEOPLE!!!!"). I can't believe I had forgotten this. And the last has another great cliffhanger. Remember when cliffhangers didn't suck?

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[Soaplovers]

I totally loved them as a couple along with Val/Ben. Somehow, I always believed that Val and Gary truly loved each other but were unhealthy for one another. It seemed like Abby and Ben helped bring out Gary and Val stronger sides (if that makes sense). Plus, Abby/Val seemed to always be civil/friendly during that period... which surprised me given all the crap Abby pulled on Val.

[DRW50]

I always thought that deep down there was some respect between Abby and Valene -- Abby did tell Val that her babies were alive (thank goodness Donna Mills fought for that).

I never believed Gary and Val were right for each other and I never enjoyed their relationship. It's not entirely the fault of the couple, because the show just gave up after they got back together in season 12, but I don't think they ever belonged together. They were teenage sweethearts who never knew how to grow up. Whenever they were back together they would regress. Ben/Val and Gary/Abby were far superior couples. Gary/Abby were so sexy and you had the drama of Gary knowing how "evil" Abby was but still loving her and knowing she represented his darker side. You had a lot of comedy with Ben and Val. I loved it. I still remember when he put on a kilt and played the bagpipe in bed. I don't remember Gary and Val ever laughing. I don't believe Gary, Abby, and Val were ever the same after those relationships ended. You had Abby pining for boring Michael York, Gary and Sally's Friend or whoever that was, Valene and the psychos of the season. The only Gary stuff I enjoyed then was with Jill and that wasn't because of their relationship but because I loved watching her go nuts.

Edited August 15, 2010 by CarlD2

[quartermainefan]

I liked Gary and Val. Part of what makes them right for each other is the fact that they were not right for each other. She was 14, he was a drunk, but they wanted it to work out even though everything was against them.

The only thing I like about Abby in this equation is she represents his fall from grace. Well ok, he was perpetually off grace from falling so often he could not get back on, but he did love Val and Abby basically stole him. I like that they both tried to move on but in the end true love conquers all. After 15 years of them suffering, they deserved the happy end.

[Soaplovers]

I still don't see the point after all these years of making Jill go completely crazy? If the point was to reunite Gary/Val, why did it take another two or three seasons afterwards to reunite them?

From what I've read, the writers just decided to make Jill go crazy.. no buildup, no long-term planning.. just have her go crazy. Viewing all the reruns, I liked that Jill was one of those gray characters. She was neither good nor evil and she fit in well on the show. She got along with karen/Mac, had an interesting relationship with Gary, had good bitchy rapport with Abby and later Paige. I just think she had potential to be a longer-term character especially given the exits of later characters.

[DRW50]

I think that they just had no story for Val if she wasn't being terrorized by someone.

I never had a lot of interest in Jill until she started going nuts, although I blame that on the boring backstory with that Hunt Block character.

My favorite Jill scene was when she hit Paige with her purse which contained her brother's ashes in an urn. It was just hilarious. Paige was like "OW!" and Jill tried to pretend it was an accident.

[DRW50]

From the 3/2/82 SOD.

CRITIC'S CORNER

"Knots Landing" Critical Condition

From its inception, "Knots Landing" has been a solid show with good scripts, good acting, and good production values. But this season's second episode transcended all of its previous levels. Watching it, I kept telling myself that this was a television play. It isn't real, I said, and because it isn't real, Sid won't die. There's got to be a happy ending. There's got to.

But as in reality, there was no happy ending. Sid Fairgate (Don Murray) took the biggest gamble of his life and he lost. He died. Sid and Karen (Michele Lee), those charming make-believe people, faced a crisis that faces many real people, and like real people, they employed no histrionics. They made jokes, and edged around the awful possibilities just as they would have were Beachview a real hospital. The hours dragged by for Karen while Sid underwent very high-risk surgery. And when Sid was dead, the doctor didn't have to use words to tell Karen. She knew - from the look on his face. Karen didn't go into hysterics, because you don't - not in real life. The reality is too awesome, too horrifying, to be grasped in its totality. You leave the hospital, you drive your family home. You don't talk much because there isn't anything to say. Shock has a numbing effect on the brain. The sensibilities that cushion you, make you able to do the things that must be done, while all the time you try your best to be brave. Karen is going to arrange things the way Sid would want her to. She will face life with the same courage and dignity with which he faced life and death. The tears, the anger, the anguish will come later, as it does in reality.

Don Murray and Michele Lee deserve every accolade there is for their performance in "Critical Condition." So do the writer, Diana Gould, who is Executive Story Consultant for the series, the director and that night's supporting cast. They dealt with real human tragedy with dignity and nobility.

It's easy - and somewhat chic - to disparage American television because, with very few exceptions, it fails to measure up to the quality of much British work we see on our screens. This segment of "Kntos Landing" can stand beside any television show ever aired and still be outstanding...even memorable shows from the Golden Age of "Playhouse 90."

"Critical Condition" was devastating in its impact. There wasn't a false note anywhere. Bravo.

- Kay Madigan Solmo

Edited August 17, 2010 by CarlD2

[All My Shadows]

Critical Condition is a phenomenal hour of television, but that article just goes down all wrong for me.

[DRW50]

I see what you mean, it's a bit "let me show you how much I was affected." I do like seeing KL get some praise though, especially in their earlier, underrated years. I couldn't help laughing a bit when they talked about the superiority of British TV -- at this time I think aside from some random PBS stuff the only thing you were likely to see in the US was a Benny Hill rerun.

[quartermainefan]

The best serialized drama you will find

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[DRW50]

I watched a bit of the early episodes but couldn't after that, too depressing...beautiful acting and filming though.

I know that Thatcher-era England was seen as producing a big wave of quality, cutting-edge drama, like Brookside and the Boys from Blackstuff (?), among others, but that was a few years after 1981-82.

Actually now I wonder if one of the reasons I enjoy season 3 of KL so much is because it did go more for a serial drama, and less of a soap (not that there's anything wrong with a soap, just that I think some characters like Karen were better in less melodramatic situations). I think that season was Michele Lee's best work and also some of Donna Mills's best work, John Pleshette's, on and on.

[quartermainefan]

Brideshead is the best and it just gets better and better as the episodes go on. AW fans may want to check out Charles Keating in it. It's a dramatic but not a melodramatic soap. But it has everything you need, including an impossibly rich family where everyone is miserable.

[All My Shadows]

That's exactly it. I don't like the idea she's pushing that the way KL did it was the absolute only way to ever deal with the issue. The whole "this is what you do" thing bugs the crap out of me. No. Not everyone reacts that way. Sid and Karen? Karen and the kids? Yes, those characters do. But it's not always like that in real life. I don't even like the way she just says that there are no happy endings in real life. The whole thing is kinda smug. Thanks for sharing it, though, because it is indeed nice to see some praise for KL

~~

Watched Lilimae's first hurrah...Julie Harris played the hellllll out of that character, it's no wonder they wanted her back as a regular. The singing, the screaming, the sly little hints of trouble (nudging Karen to pay the taxi driver), etc. Loved every second of it.

I will admit, though, the sight of Val running barefoot in the woods in a slinky little dress, big wavy curls rolling around on her head, had me laughing my behind off!

Edited August 19, 2010 by All My Shadows

[DRW50]

Lillimae worked best as a recurring character. Julie Harris was breathtaking in that episode, and one of the reasons why was just how damaged Lillmae was. That episode is also one of Joan Van Ark's best performances -- that scene where she just starts KEENING and WAILING is exactly how raw Val was.

Later on the problem was that Val was such a stagnant character that they still mostly just had Lillimae as her support system, which is probably why after Julie was sent packing via cost measures they brought in the (nothing against you Mrs. Voorhies) pointless Aunt Ginny.

One of my favorite scenes in the later seasons was when Val was leaving her house for good and she heard flashbacks of bathing the children, Lillimae singing, etc.

Edited August 19, 2010 by CarlD2