Knots Landing

[Soaplovers]

I think that the problem with Laura was that she had grown to love herself and saw her value in both herself, her career, and her marriage.  She had this inner strength and confidence that Lynn/Bernard didn't know how to harness/write for because they were more interested in generating conflict amongst emotionally immature people.

Karen/Mac and Gary/Val were all immature/stubborn to a fault even though they all had grown/evolved.  So the Latham's could key into their essence/history to generate the standard soap opera tropes and stories for them.

Even the season 8 conflict with Laura's pregnancy and Greg not being cool with it didn't diminish Laura's fire and strength.  You saw how she was able to move on and live her life as a single mother because she'd already done that after Richard took off.  

I saw her response to Greg's kissing Paige as 'that's my husband and I can't change him.. but once I find something better, I'll toss himself'.  She wasn't emotionally tied to him nor his money.. and I think that was partly why she was such a unique and interesting character in the nighttime soap world in the 80s.

[DRW50]

And her evolution was so subtly done. There was nothing like the depraved shows later on, like Game of Thrones, where they said a woman needed to be raped in order to find empowerment. The layers of Laura were what got me hooked on Knots, somewhere in the season 3 repeats. And I agree that her becoming a therapist would have made sense - look at how much her trauma over her mother drove her decisions early on.

[DemetriKane]

Laura was at such a cool place by season 7. There were many exciting avenues to take the character, I wish they had explored the different dynamics within the friendship circle. Watching Karen and Laura have more conflict, with Laura becoming the advice giver to Val is something I always wanted.  And why wait until she dead until you bring on her mom?

Yep. Yup. I didn't care for it.

Edited May 8 by DemetriKane

[kalbir]

Did anyone like Greg/Paige as a couple? There was an age gap (in 1988 William Devane was 49 and Nicollette Sheridan was 25) but the ick factor to me was Paige being the daughter of Greg's frenemy Mack and at one point it was thought Greg was Paige's father.

Also I didn't feel that Greg/Paige were a genuine love, it seemed more like mid-life crisis/rebound. Of all of Greg's main pairings (Abby, Laura, Paige), to me the only genuine love was Laura.

[Khan]

I was fine with Greg and Paige as a couple (ick factors and all, lol).  What I didn't like was how juvenile their push-and-pull was, with Greg alienating her repeatedly and arbitrarily, and Paige leaving him and/or The Sumner Group in a huff, only to come back together, like, thirty minutes later, lol.

I get that Greg was not someone who enjoyed sharing his feelings with others, but c'mon.  He was a little too old for all that on-again/off-again [!@#$%^&*]; and so was Paige, and so were we.

Mary Robeson wasn't her aunt, though.  Thanks to WBTV's Primetime Soaps app, I was able to rewatch all of S14, and I learned, in fact, Mary was her aunt - which I guess made Joe her uncle?

Truly, I thank the streaming gods for being able to rewatch the final season, because, for the past 30+ years, I never was able to understand how Mary and Joe, Nick and Vanessa, Val's disappearance and Treadwell (and Abby) all fit together; and even now, it still seems a trifle sketchy to me.  (The shortened season and reduced budget wreaked some havoc on the storytelling, did it not, lol?)  But I do appreciate the attempt, because it's probably the first time since Val's pregnancy that the show even attempted to tie the cast together under the same story umbrella.

And even if she was trepidatious (sp?) about raising Meg alone, she wasn't the type to express those feelings outwardly.  Laura wasn't going to fidget and cry like Val, or get wild-eyed and shouty like Karen.

Edited May 9 by Khan

[kalbir]

In the interview posted on knotslanding.net, William Devane described the Greg/Paige storyline as "juvenile". 

From that interview I also got the impression that William Devane was on his way out near the end so he wouldn't have returned if there was a season 15.

[Soaplovers]

Greg and Paige were an interesting choice for a couple.  I do think the lack of focusing on the generational differences hindered their long term potential.

I think Laura had learned to keep her feelings close to her vest, especially after the hell she went through in her early years on the show.  The last scene of her trying to keep her tears inside as she drove away was the first time we had seen Laura really express what she was feeling after two or three seasons of her keeping her true self hidden from everyone.. even Greg.

[Khan]

Well, I'm glad to know Devane and I are on the same wavelength, lol. 

But seriously.  I don't believe there's any other word to describe the machinations that the producers constructed in the name of keeping Greg and Paige apart.  Greg and Paige made Sam and Diane look mature by comparison!

Which would have been just as well, since a character like Greg Sumner didn't really belong in the '90's, as the storyline with the task force proved only too well. 

If KL had returned for another season, it would've needed a MASSIVE overhaul, including ditching Greg, Paige, Claudia and Anne.  Mack and Karen would've needed to be there for the sake of continuity; and maybe some mileage could've been gained from exploring Gary's new life as a widowed single father.  (I still would've loved to bring back Julie Harris and have Lilimae help Gary take care of the twins).  Otherwise, it would've been a new era for KL, one without The Sumner Group, or stories like Wolfbridge and Empire Valley.

[kalbir]

@Khan I've pointed out before that Fall 1993 Knots Landing would have looked old school next to peak 90210, Melrose taking off, and new drama NYPD Blue, so perhaps it was for the best it ended when it did.

[Khan]

ICAM.  KL needed to end in '93.  I'm just glad David Jacobs resisted CBS' efforts to convince him otherwise.

[DemetriKane]

I thought the story had it’s moments, I much preferred the story once Greg was meddling, trying to keep her away from Tom Ryan. I loved them together!

 

And there was a story they could have developed from this. Laura stopped having a lot of scenes with the ensemble. She's the only one missing during the big finales of seasons 5&6, and I would have been cool to play on that! For one, Laura being a more cutthroat business executive just made sense to me.

Also, the point I was trying to make regarding Mary Robeson was that I wish they had focused on a story from her family /background beforehand. You could play the Vin artist from many angles.

[DRW50]

 

I get what you're both saying, and I think the show was lucky to have even made it that long, but I think they could have still maintained a certain audience - Second Chances did before the earthquake. CBS was an older network anyway. I think the premise of Knots was still usable, it was more the characters who were a problem - many of the older figures were played out. If the show had done a better job building up its younger cast instead of making so many poor choices in the late '80s and early '90s, they could have kept things going a little longer. 

[kalbir]

Even if by some miracle Knots Landing continued, 1994/95 it would have been killed by ER.

[DRW50]

Oh in terms of ratings I think it would have been in a dicey place probably even before then. I mostly was just thinking of if the show could have carried on creatively. 

[Stillwitty]

Mack was the show's moral compass and his groundedness complimented Karen's hysteria perfectly. Also, Kevin Dobson was the best looking male cast member with a huge fan base. He was never going to be killed off...