Knots Landing

[Franko]

Rest in Peace, Solid Old Ben.

[yrfan1983]

Gasp! We were just talking about him. So young

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 RIP

[kalbir]

RIP Douglas Sheehan. Agree @yrfan1983, 75 is young.

[DRW50]

@Vee Thanks for the tag, and for all your reviews thus far, which have reminded me of just what a special addition Sheehan was to the show (easy to forget at times after how bad his end run was). 

Sheehan was such a bright leading man, with a twinkle in his eye and a toothpaste smile, yet with glimpses of strength and darkness underneath. He would have been a perfect balance to the likes of Jimmy Stewart or a good film noir lead in '40s or '50s works. 

He was a real breath of fresh air when he showed up on Knots, given the heavy stories at the time, and the deeply toxic Val/Gary relationship. He made me smile and made me care about a character who could often exhaust me. He brought a purity back that was essential to her and to the show.

I'll always see him as Val's best partner. 

(and for his later years, I did love the scene where he puts Liliemae in a headlock)

[Khan]

OMG, I just made the same comparison in the In Memoriam thread, lol.

I agree about what a special addition he was to KNOTS, and to Val/JVA.  To me, he was more of a "regular guy" whom the audience could relate to than even Kevin Dobson, whose Mack seemed to become more irritatingly strident as the seasons passed.  That's why - as I said in the other thread - it's so difficult to watch anything from his final storyline on the show.  Given everything that we had known up to that point about Ben, it made no sense; and it absolutely did not play to Sheehan's strengths at all.

 

[DRW50]

Absolutely. Knots finally course-corrected a little with Mac around the time of the Jacon story, but I hated him for years before that point and it did truly affect my enjoyment of the show and the characters around him. There was still more of a goodness and heart in Ben, in spite of some very very poor stories at the end.

[kalbir]

I liked Ben as well, and agree that his exit story wasn't very good.

I also liked Val/Ben together. Val's love for Ben was a grown adult love that allowed her to move on with her life.

[te.]

RIP Sheehan.

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The claim was that they did try to get in contact with him during the season 9 Jill storyline, but apparently he was just off the radar at the time. The good ole' days!

[SoapDope]

I never really warmed up to Dobson's Mac. He was like a bull in a china shop in most of his scenes yelling his lines and being cocky 24-7. He didn't know how to dial it back, but Michelle Lee could be guilty of chewing scenery as well. 

I really liked Don Murray's Sid, but he pretty much wanted off the show after season 1. I doubt Jacobs could have done anything to make him stay long term, even if they had gave him more money Murray saw himself as a movie star and after he did Endless Love he felt he could get his big screen film career reignited, which was a bust. 

[Khan]

Frankly, I don't blame him.  Sid could be such a dope, particularly when it came to the people he cared about the most: his wife, his kids, Abby, Gary, etc.

[te.]

Don Murray left because Knots was bordering on cancellation between seasons 1-3. So he thought there were better options, but later admitted that a 14 season paycheck would've been nice.

[SoapDope]

Yes, Sid could be dumb as a stump when it came to trusting people, especially baby sister Abby who could do no wrong in his eyes. Seasons 1-3 of Knots (self contained episodes) was kind of a Family/Eight Is Enough/ Early Dallas mash up. Jacobs even admitted that he wrote those early days the way he had written Family. He also said Eight Is Enough was what influenced him to go with Lorimar because of their production values.

His reasoning for self contained episodes was to draw an audience in and then gradually get them involved in continuing soap storylines. He was lucky to have started those shows in the late 70's and the network let him build them up...now days if a show doesn't make ratings grabs in 2 to 4 episodes it's gone. 

 

[te.]

I just had a certain someone who is experiencing this show for the first time and is on episode three say that "Richard Avery is a creep, Laura is an idiot" 

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 I've said, yes, Richard is and looks like a rat, but stay with Laura, she ends up being a sarcastic goddess (but underutilised).

[SoapDope]

A lot of people have said the first time they saw the show and the Avery's.....they expected Richard to start beating Laura.

[titan1978]

I loved him as Ben, and what I have seen of his Joe Kelly. Ben/Val and Abby/Gary were my preferred partners for them. They really missed an opportunity with those cable stations and Ben considering how important cable news became. I think there was way more ground to cover there with he and Abby at odds than an affair with Cathy or whatever the hell that last season story was for him.