Knots Landing

[titan1978]

I agree. I think she gets stronger as they figure out that Paige doesn’t work as Abby-lite.

[Chris 2]

The Lechowicks weren’t the showrunners when the painting opening was used or when the sandcastle intro was used. The showrunner for those seasons was Lawrence Kasha (the Lechowicks were story editors for the first season of the painting opening, and producers for the second season, working for Kasha). I’m not sure we can blame them for the painting or the sandcastles.

Edited August 21, 2024 by Chris 2

[DRW50]

I agree. Bringing on Michelle Philips on a more regular basis helps too as they bounce off each other well.

[BetterForgotten]

I do enjoy the music arrangement of the sandcastles opening, if I am honest.

[Khan]

If there's ever a point in KNOTS' long run when following along becomes a chore for me, it has to be S13, when the show is being run by someone (John Romano) who displays no knowledge of KNOTS' history, no aptitude or affinity for the type of show KNOTS has always been and no willingness even to redefine the show in ways that could attract a new and different audience.  Even the Lechowicks at their most audacious still could keep you from tuning out, if only to see just how far they'd hoped to go with some of their [!@#$%^&*]; but S13, IMO, commits the even greater sin of being boring, something you could not ever say about any other season that comes before.

I agree.  It might be a little too "smooth jazz" for some, but I think it works perfectly for the post-Reagan era, when everyone was coming down from all the excess and getting back to basics, so to speak.  I think the only mistake they made that season with that opening was not including shots of each cast member as the camera surveys the sandcastles.

[kalbir]

If CBS hadn't been in their third place primetime mess era from 1987-1991, would Knots Landing have lasted as long as it did? To me it was effectively over Spring 1989 when Abby departed.

It's crazy to me how Knots Landing final three seasons overlapped w/ the high school years of Beverly Hills 90210 and the final season overlapped w/ the first season of Melrose Place.

Even if Knots Landing made it to Fall 1993, it would have looked old school. The primetime drama landscape then was peak Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place about to take off, NYPD Blue premiered, and ER was a year away. If by some miracle Knots Landing made it to Fall 1994, it would have been killed by ER.

Edited August 21, 2024 by kalbir

[All My Shadows]

I agree - headshots (or clips) would have made the sandcastles perfect. Even if they just faded clips in and out amongst the sandcastles/birds a la Dawson’s Creek. With the sandcastle cul-de-sac so prominently featured in the opening, was there an effort in the show itself to go back to basics and center around the cul-de-sac again? I’ve had it on as background noise for most of today while generally following along, but part of me wonders why it’s even called Knots Landing anymore. They just live in LA. There doesn’t seem to be a distinct community called Knots Landing anymore.

It seems like in season 7, the show slowly transitions from being a mainstream hit for a general audience to being older-skewing, alongside the likes of In the Heat of the Night and MSW. All of the big four nighttime soaps feel like “old people shows” that grandma watches as grandpa snores by 1987.

[soapfan770]

We’re in era of Knots were I started watching in the late 80’s so this season 9-10 opening was technically the first opening of Knots I really remember very vividly. Before that I and my brothers were usually sent to bed after Night Court lol. 
 

I know it’s very polarizing and I have my own issues with the Latham/Lechowick era (I agree with the others about the bad writing for Val!) but overall I enjoyed for better or for worse, until as @Khan pointed it was Linda’s traumatic murder at the start of S13 that left me in the cold about the show as whole.

I do hate Laura got written out they way she did. McCashin’s head spin in the opening was my favorite.

 

BTW the cement cracking above Peter’s grave is one of my favorite KL cliffhangers, although I think it is very messy. What did you all think Peter’s murder?

 

[titan1978]

I cannot imagine the show as it was sharing a timeslot against ER.

I think it suffered from what a lot of soaps do now- people in their 50’s or older stuck in place and a younger generation not being well placed to flourish. Paige was a successful character, but not really surrounded by others that lasted. Linda and the Sumner Group stuff they had been working on was a good direction. But they never found a young man as capable of building on as they did earlier with Greg.

What the show had going for it was its foundation. It could have gotten a couple more years if they had their Summer Group stories and then also refocused the rest of the show around smaller, more grounded stories like the original seasons. Well, better ones than what they tried. That foundation is why I always loved Knots and felt it was stronger than Dallas or Dynasty.

Edited August 21, 2024 by titan1978

[soapfan770]

Amazingly KL bounced back to #27 and #29 respectively for the 88-89 and ‘89-90 seasons, although I know for myself by fall ‘89 I was definitely watching LA Law more than Knots. Still unlike the other major primetime soaps it didn’t ever fall out of the top 50. 
 

Still funny to think it did overlap with stuff like Twin Peaks, 90210, Melrose, Sisters, Picket Fences, and Law & Order which of course later dethroned that #2 longest running drama claim to fame in 2004. 

Actually the 1992-93 season wiped out what the 91-92 season didn’t already obliterate, so it was definitely fitting end of the 80s that season as I can’t imagine Knots continuing on after that at all, unless CBS decided to swipe Chuck Pratt (Major shudder!) to “liven” it up.

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I will say at least the ‘87 episodes actually do a early 90’s vibe to them despite some hairstyles and music, which I think being more grounded in reality helped the show’s longevity and getting that Season 10 jolt. 

[Paul Raven]

So true.

And the issue with nightime, even more than daytime is that viewers (and the actors) expected those characters to be front burner season after season. Which made it difficult to come up with viable stories. And with one hour a week there wasn't a lot of time to have other stories playing.

Paige worked out OK, but Michael and Eric still came off as' the kids' rather than fully developed characters. Of course Stan Shaw dying was a tragedy.

And Lucy wasn't a good fit for Knots.

But I think had they been casting a younger set, those actors that had been there from the start would not necessarily been chosen.

[kalbir]

When Knots Landing ended in May 1993, it was CBS's fourth longest-running primetime drama series, after Gunsmoke, Lassie, and Dallas.

Since Knots Landing ended, five CBS primetime drama series have had equal or longer runs: NCIS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Minds, NCIS: Los Angeles, Blue Bloods.

[yrfan1983]

Loved the story, except for the rushed unsatisfying resolution with no lasting repercussions.

[DRW50]

I think Michael could have still stayed on the show, as a himbo (the way he was with Linda), but budget cuts were likely a factor and the character had no real purpose, especially as Karen had moved on and had a new child (a story I hated, but that's another topic). 

The biggest mistake was how they mishandled Olivia, especially how one-note she became in constant judgmental attitudes toward Abby. The marriage to Harold also trapped her, even though I liked Harold. She should have been so much more. 

As mentioned above, the show also had no idea how to introduce younger men. Peter Reckell's character, DIRTY COP DIRTY COP, the Tidal Energy guy who bedded Kate. I did like Claudia's son, but he was inexplicably killed off. I have never known what went on there.

[Khan]

Probably not.  Just as I don't think DALLAS would have lasted as long as it did, had Friday nights not become such a wasteland by then (ABC's "TGIF" lineup notwithstanding).

Definitely.  In order to have survived against a juggernaut like "ER" and the rest of the NBC Must-See-TV lineup, KNOTS would have needed to reinvent itself from the ground up, but do so with a severely reduced budget.  Frankly, I think that would've been impossible.

It's almost as if you could have put all three shows (or at least KNOTS and MSW, since I'm not sure when ITHOTN switched networks) on Sunday nights, lol.

Frankly, unless Olivia was, in fact, his killer, and Abby took the rap in order to protect her daughter, I didn't see the point - certainly, not the point of having his murder be any sort of mystery, since it didn't seem like that many had reason to kill him in the first place.