KNOTS LANDING

[te.]

I feel like they could've also just explored more with LilliMae's background and why she was so against proper mental health care... they seemed to hint a lot that there was something very wrong going on there during the Chip storyline, then of course Val's breakdown, then Joshua's religious fervour. I think it would've given Julie Harris Emmy-worthy material (even if she wouldn't have won anything of course lol), but maybe it would've been too heavy-handed for Knots at that point?

[adrnyc]

Interesting to hear other's thoughts. Although there were some spoilers in there, I don't really care about that. It's a 40 year old show after all! But it sounds as if I'm really going to hate AB's storyline as it goes on. When the channel comes back (as it always does after a period of time,) I may just skip all his scenes. 

I hadn't even thought about the mental health angle. But, y'all are correct. With Valene's breakdown and Lillie Mae's straddling the fence of a sane mind, that would've definitely been an interesting option to explore.

[Soapsuds]

I'm still half way through season 7. Hope to finish it soon.

[Faulkner]

[Vee]

So I've finally found some breathing room in my life after spending the last few months dealing with a lot of work and unexpected health and family stuff keeping me preoccupied (as well as other classic soaps I needed to catch up on), and while I'm still dealing with some stuff it's not as hectic as it was. As it continues to flood in LA and I have nowhere to go I thought I'd finally put a few random, brief thoughts out there on the last 3 episodes of Season 6 written months ago, not that anyone cares at this point (my last post about it is all the way back on page 139). Anyway, take 'em or leave 'em.

• The Ruth Galveston subplot has felt truncated to me for some time, likely owing to Ava Gardner's limited number of episodes; she just seems to fade in and out of the background throwing bon mots and barbs and then dissolving into the shadows. Ruth calling Laura a failure at the start of the Galveston family dinner and needling her about Richard was hysterical, but I don’t think I’ve seen enough of a build to the two women's now very open aggression. I was amused at how bluntly Ruth told a gobsmacked Abby 'your marriage to Ewing has run its course' and that it was time to mate with Greg. They could've done more with Ruth to close out this running thread for another handful of episodes in the following season IMO, but it's clear with the way this is being handled that the incoming Dallas creative team just wants to clear some decks where possible. (By this time they have likely already gotten the upstairs edict to get rid of Alec Baldwin and Joshua ASAP in S7, which may partially explain why Joshua and Cathy are totally missing from the finale.) For fans of Ava Gardner BTW, her very very strange fantasy romance Pandora and the Flying Dutchman with James Mason has been touring repertory movie houses across the country. It is weird as hell and I recommend it, but i think it's also on Tubi or Prime.
• Greg and Laura bantering in the bathtub after their latest fight over Ruth was fun, with Devane likely improv'ing hanging himself from his tie. “Tell me something," Laura pleads with Sumner, trying to get him to commit to his feelings. "Anything, I'm easy. Tell me something I wanna hear." "You mean a lot to me," Sumner allows, but adds "some things are not easy for me. Things that I feel. I need you." That is a lot to drag out of Greg in my experience so far, but it is enough to get him to tell Ruth to lay off at least.
• Abby showing up on the Galveston ranch in a bathrobe for Laura to see it is a stupid, stupid trick, assuming she came onto the property that morning just to do that since Greg is utterly clueless to her presence. It’s sub-Melrose Place, feels like a lazy late-stage Dallas ploy. Again, it just feels like the writers want this done. Amusingly Greg figures out Ruth's paltry scheme and sends her packing all offscreen between the last two episodes, with zero goodbyes or capper on the storyline. I wonder if they couldn’t afford Ava longer or if she was simply exhausted. At least Laura's hair is amazing now.
• More great work by director Nick Havinga in the equally infamous penultimate episode of this season - I imagine anyone who knows KL exists has seen either clips from these last two shows or from the first showdown with Abby and Val back in Season 3. Another fun soap cameo from GL's own Don Stewart as a shady contact re: Empire Valley. A storyline which now appears to be spinning its wheels in preparation for Season 7 after Gary was supposedly already clued in on the truth, and a story where we know the new writers again got the order to kill this Dunne-crafted umbrella arc as soon as possible.
• Karen to Mack about Ackerman: "I know obsessive personalities!" No shít! The famous ending of Episode 29 is nicely structured stage-wise, with Mack, Karen and their nurse eyewitness all arriving separately slowly at the bridge tournament for Ackerman to see, with the sinuous music cue building almost like the mounting stakes in that damn card game. The payoff with the chase and parking lot finale we've all seen by now almost makes the interminable bridge game quest over the last 5-10 episodes worth it.

And then there's Episode 30 (The Long and Winding Road):

• The opening from longtime director Alexander Singer is great: Very punchy, handheld Hill Street Blues-esque cross-cutting without music, just sirens and local sounds, strobelit by police lights as Ackerman's home is ransacked while Karen is still in shock over the suicide, being questioned by the police. This is where prosecutor Mack, the most skeptical player in this baby saga of all, commits himself fully by desperately, illegally ransacking Ackerman's house. Again, no primetime soap that I know of, then or in the '90s, was shooting or presenting material like this. Get used to me returning to this tiresome old point repeatedly over the next few items.
• Because it's time for post-coital bagpipe-playing Ben! Oh, Ben, no. Joan Van Ark gets the hilarious deadpan understatement over this adorable sequence: "This is getting a little weird." There's more character to thirty seconds of this kind of cute throwaway bit in between plot mechanics on this show than anything in late-stage Dallas, which is why the upcoming creative swap is that much more fascinating to me.
• They ratchet up a kind of Hitchcockian clock-watching tension throughout the finale, as the audience is waiting, waiting, waiting on Joe Regalbuto's Harry Fisher to see the Ackerman suicide headline in the daily paper while Karen, Mack and Ben are running out of time to move on the adoptees. Would Fisher keep a Google alert on this today, or would he be too cautious? The hour beautifully follows one long day as Fisher finally finds out about Ackerman and plans to make a hasty break, and how our lead characters start to come together and prepare themselves for the moment. It's not just a frenzied rush through the alpha plot.
• Also great: Abby doing the right thing on Val's beach. As soon as she knows she's protected re: the information she tells Val about the babies, but we already can tell Val isn't too shocked, just at peace. This gives us the awkward, beautiful scene of the two rivals in the car, alone with the radio and some tinny country music as an edgy Abby is increasingly unsettled over Val's silence and serenity. "I always knew they were alive," Val says simply.
• The writers (Joel Feigenbaum is credited in this case) lovingly elongate these character interludes as the episode just keeps building itself up; that's how we get stuff like Gary and Karen hanging out on the Pacific Coast Highway waiting for Mack and Ben, each of them struggling with knowing what to do or talk about. Instead every pair of characters in the mix has the same shared question about the Fishers (or Val): "What are we gonna say?" Again: Sorry, Dallas just cannot compare. 
• The climax at the Fisher house is staged operatically by Singer - it looks and feels like a standoff in an old Western, with everyone planted across the street in various pole positions for the camera. This heightens the drama when Val looks back at all of them as she arrives with Abby, and finally realizes that they all know. Incredible blocking and visual/emotional geography.

I've taken a long enough break from my KL/Dallas dive, so it's time to go back and begin diving into the great creative team swap: KL Season 7 and the legendary Dallas Dream Season. I will talk about it (starting with the S7 premiere followed by Dallas' crossover premiere "The Family Ewing") when and where I can assuming people have an interest.

Edited February 20 by Vee

[Khan]

Here's how I would describe S7 of KNOTS: imagine what happens when a nice kid who's into art and theatre decides to start taking HGH so he can join the football team and finally impress his emotionally distant father.

[kalbir]

@Vee I loved your recaps of the peak years. I'm sure you're aware that you're now heading into the tank years. Perhaps you might feel differently than I did when I watched season 7.

[Soapsuds]

 

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[Vee]

I'm aware that the peak is over, lol. I hear wildly mixed things from many people about the Latham/Lechowick regime, etc. and I am fascinated by the concept of the insane Dallas/KL switch before them which sounds like oil and water so I'm very curious about it all still. I don't expect it all to be awful from hereonin, but it'll definitely be a different experience. I do think it's a real shame we didn't get those HD remasters before I watched the first six years, particularly since broadcast TV took on a different and more current look overall in the late '80s/early '90s where the difference may not be as striking.

Edited February 21 by Vee

[titan1978]

There is such a driving engine from the affair starting in season 3 between Abby and Gary through the first couple episodes of season 7. The whole show is just entertaining. Then it just kind of stalls out and people start acting off in season 7.

I do think it wasn’t a bad idea to move Val off the frontburner for a bit after the babies- she drove years of story and deserved a little time in supporting.

I ended up loving Paige as a character so the years she becomes a focus aren’t bad for me. I do think the worst season of Knots is still more watchable than those later Dallas seasons.

[Khan]

I agree.  To me, the latter seasons of DALLAS are little more than Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy squaring off against a barrage of pretty, young blondes who can't act and have no real reason for being on the show.

Edited February 23 by Khan

[Vee]

My Dallas roasts in that show's thread over the last year or two go on quite awhile and I haven't even gotten to those latter post-dream seasons. I've pretty much stopped doing them as I imagine people are sick of hearing me trash a beloved show.

I know Knots transforms quite a few more times and has good and bad periods, but those changes and the drastic new shapes still fascinate me. I hope to find a lot to love in the latter half despite the peaks and valleys. Plus, as I've mentioned in the past it's given me a new outlook on the final, resurgent season of Melrose Place which was apparently masterminded by Peter Dunne. It wasn't a perfect year by any means but had stronger characters, an over-arching storyline (Matt's diary and its secrets about the complex), long-running elements (Amanda and Eve's teenage secret), and Eve herself was basically a singing Ciji analog by another name. By the time it ended it should've been allowed to keep going as it'd had a bit of a creative revival whereas 90210 was on fumes. Ah well.

[Chris B]

There are things that didn't work but I really love the later years of Knots. Full transparency, the first time I watched, I originally started watching with the season 6 finale, so the later years are what made me a fan. Since then, I've seen the complete series several times and they still hold up for me.

On my most recent re-watch I had a newfound love for season 8, which is Latham and Lechowick's first season. I know reviews are mixed on that season, but I loved the overall look and style of the show, especially after the excess of the previous season. Those regular revamps kept the show fresh as opposed to a show like Dallas which felt so dated in its later years. I loved Karen's kidnapping, the backstory surrounding it and the introduction of Paige. 

 

[kalbir]

It was a pattern across all three CBS primetime soaps to salary dump the long-time female cast members and bring on sweet young things hired on the cheap. I have my own theories for that but I will hold myself back from stating them so as not to derail this thread.

[Soaplovers]

No one believed Val when she said her twins were alive...she was dismissed so she eventually retreated into becoming Verna and went to start a new life.  It seemed like a nice peaceful life...closer to what she might have lived in her waitressing years post being kicked off the ranch and pre Dallas.

Lastly...during the Jill saga...Val could have pointed out no one believed her about her babies so why doubt her about Jill.

To me...Karen was kind of a lousy friend to Val...Laura would have believed her I think about Jill.