The last of this Pyramid run for Constance.

The $25,000 Pyramid|Episode #0005

THE JOURNAL-REGISTER Medina, New York, Tuesday, August 10,1982

New Characters to Add Spice to 'Knots Landing' By VERNON SCOTT

Knots Landing," the poor man's "Dallas," lagged in the ratings last season but may be remedied in 1982-83 with a dash of spice and some new characters. Unlike the big, successful primetime soap operas — "Dallas," "Dynasty" and "Falcon Crest" — "Knot's Landing" is peopled by ordinary folk in a Southern California cul-de-sac coping with inflation and the blahs. The other series involve the obscene rich who live in Victorian mansions, manipulate far-flung financial holdings and jump into one another's beds with disquieting regularity. Viewers are no different from readers of Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon novels. They'd rather watch the rich and powerful than the working stiff next door with whom they can identify. The characters in the hit series are larger than life.

The four basic family groups in "Knots," while not pygmies, certainly are not giants. Males prefer to compare themselves to J.R. Ewing (Larry Hag ma n), the multimillionaire oil and cattle baron of "Dallas," than to Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford), the only poor Ewing, in "Knots." Females would rather look at the high fashion, faultlessly coifed women of "Dynasty" than the suburban, sometimes dowdy, wives of "Knots."

The man seeking to gain rating parity for "Knots" in its fourth year is producer David Jacobs, whoconceived "Knots" even before he created "Dallas," although the latter was snapped up by CBS first. "We're changing a lot of things on 'Knots Landing' this season," said Jacobs, a bald, articulate New York transplant. "But we're keeping the unique essence of the show. "There will be more melodrama and serialization, although not as extensive as in the up-scale shows. We're keeping our people middle class, which makes them more accessible than the millionaires of 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty.' "We can add spice and we win. Kevin Dobson is joining the cast and will become romantically linked with the character played by Michele Lee, after almost a full season in which she played a widow alone. "The relationship between Dobson and Michele will be volatile and sexy. They fight all the time, but they are also interesting, vital individuals.

"Lisa Hartman is joining the show as a nightclub singer and Michael Sabatino is being added, playing an opportunistic public relations man. They are different sorts of characters for our show. "We're trying for more flamboyant stories with a harder edge and, of course, sex will be a by-product of these changes." Jacobs ruefully admits there are fewer sexy subplots in "Knots" than other nighttime soaps. But he is convinced that titration and erotica aren't the reason for his low ratings. After all, the sexiest primetime soap was "Flamingo Road," which included a cozy neighborhood bordello. It bombed and was cancelled before the season was completed. "You can catch viewer interest with sex," Jacobs said, "but you can't hold them. Sex helps when you don't have power and wealth going for you. But the basis for any succesful show is good story telling.

"It's much easier to come up with stories for 'Dallas' than 'Knots Landing.' There is a high level of outrageousness in 'Dallas.' In 'Knots' we can't run the risk of offending the viewers or challenging their suspension of disbelief. "In 'Dallas' the characters involved are 'them' In 'Knots' the characters are 'us.' That's a disadvantage for the writers. 'They,* meaning the big rich, can get away with things 'we,' the less affluent, can't. "Some things can't be done on 'Knots.' None of our characters are able to get a $10 million loan to buy an oil field. There's more freedom on upscale shows which make them more fun to watch, "We paint on a relatively small canvas compared to 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty.' We are more fragile. We can't upset the balance of believability.

"But we do cut closer to the bone. Last year we had to deal with the death of one of the principal characters, played by Don Murray. We handled it more realistically than the other shows might have. "This year we hope to see our ratings go up a point or two."

Forty years ago this week the two hour premiere aired on 9/18/86 trying to jump ahead of follow week’s season premieres on NBC:

JVA really glammed herself up for that print ad, didn't she, lol?

That was the season KL (and CBS) went up against THE COLBYS, which it beat, but at the expense of thirty percent of their own audience.

4 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Forty years ago this week the two hour premiere aired on 9/18/86 trying to jump ahead of follow week’s season premieres on NBC:

An 18.4 rating, but the following week during the actual premiere week, it tanked in the ratings.

19 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

THE JOURNAL-REGISTER Medina, New York, Tuesday, August 10,1982

New Characters to Add Spice to 'Knots Landing' By VERNON SCOTT

Knots Landing," the poor man's "Dallas," lagged in the ratings last season but may be remedied in 1982-83 with a dash of spice and some new characters. Unlike the big, successful primetime soap operas — "Dallas," "Dynasty" and "Falcon Crest" — "Knot's Landing" is peopled by ordinary folk in a Southern California cul-de-sac coping with inflation and the blahs. The other series involve the obscene rich who live in Victorian mansions, manipulate far-flung financial holdings and jump into one another's beds with disquieting regularity. Viewers are no different from readers of Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon novels. They'd rather watch the rich and powerful than the working stiff next door with whom they can identify. The characters in the hit series are larger than life.

The four basic family groups in "Knots," while not pygmies, certainly are not giants. Males prefer to compare themselves to J.R. Ewing (Larry Hag ma n), the multimillionaire oil and cattle baron of "Dallas," than to Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford), the only poor Ewing, in "Knots." Females would rather look at the high fashion, faultlessly coifed women of "Dynasty" than the suburban, sometimes dowdy, wives of "Knots."

The man seeking to gain rating parity for "Knots" in its fourth year is producer David Jacobs, whoconceived "Knots" even before he created "Dallas," although the latter was snapped up by CBS first. "We're changing a lot of things on 'Knots Landing' this season," said Jacobs, a bald, articulate New York transplant. "But we're keeping the unique essence of the show. "There will be more melodrama and serialization, although not as extensive as in the up-scale shows. We're keeping our people middle class, which makes them more accessible than the millionaires of 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty.' "We can add spice and we win. Kevin Dobson is joining the cast and will become romantically linked with the character played by Michele Lee, after almost a full season in which she played a widow alone. "The relationship between Dobson and Michele will be volatile and sexy. They fight all the time, but they are also interesting, vital individuals.

"Lisa Hartman is joining the show as a nightclub singer and Michael Sabatino is being added, playing an opportunistic public relations man. They are different sorts of characters for our show. "We're trying for more flamboyant stories with a harder edge and, of course, sex will be a by-product of these changes." Jacobs ruefully admits there are fewer sexy subplots in "Knots" than other nighttime soaps. But he is convinced that titration and erotica aren't the reason for his low ratings. After all, the sexiest primetime soap was "Flamingo Road," which included a cozy neighborhood bordello. It bombed and was cancelled before the season was completed. "You can catch viewer interest with sex," Jacobs said, "but you can't hold them. Sex helps when you don't have power and wealth going for you. But the basis for any succesful show is good story telling.

"It's much easier to come up with stories for 'Dallas' than 'Knots Landing.' There is a high level of outrageousness in 'Dallas.' In 'Knots' we can't run the risk of offending the viewers or challenging their suspension of disbelief. "In 'Dallas' the characters involved are 'them' In 'Knots' the characters are 'us.' That's a disadvantage for the writers. 'They,* meaning the big rich, can get away with things 'we,' the less affluent, can't. "Some things can't be done on 'Knots.' None of our characters are able to get a $10 million loan to buy an oil field. There's more freedom on upscale shows which make them more fun to watch, "We paint on a relatively small canvas compared to 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty.' We are more fragile. We can't upset the balance of believability.

"But we do cut closer to the bone. Last year we had to deal with the death of one of the principal characters, played by Don Murray. We handled it more realistically than the other shows might have. "This year we hope to see our ratings go up a point or two."

Thanks for sharing. S3-S4 variety Knots is my favorite, so I much appreciate seeing DJ's "bald, articulate" thought process behind the transition into that era. It's interesting to me that he says there hadn't really been any sex in the show after the third season ended with several steamy moments with Gary and Abby. I never realized how sexless it was otherwise, but he's right.

"Flamingo Road" is regularly thrown around as the sexy/steamy primetime soap, but after having watched most/all of the run twice, I honestly can't tell you how it was particularly sexier or steamier than any of the other shows. Lute Mae had the place, but the upstairs activities there weren't really focused on. People act like Morgan Fairchild's mere presence was enough to make FR super duper sexy, but even Morgan has to chuckle at that.

2 hours ago, Khan said:

That was the season KL (and CBS) went up against THE COLBYS, which it beat, but at the expense of thirty percent of their own audience.

34 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

the following week during the actual premiere week, it tanked in the ratings.

Thursday 9 pm Knots Landing did the job CBS wanted it to do, finish off The Colbys, but Cheers clobbered both shows. CBS saw the error of their ways and moved Knots Landing back to Thursday 10 pm, but NBC countered by moving L.A. Law to Thursday 10 pm and Knots Landing got weakened further.

It will forever not be funny that L.A. Law first Thursday episode was Jeanne Cooper first appearance as Gladys Becker. I see what you did there NBC, you're not fooling me.

Michele Lee.

Celebrity Sweepstakes|Game Show|Nighttime #16

Brief interview and footage with Donna Mills around 14 minutes in, talking about her home renovations.

Entertainment Tonight - June 14, 2001 - Britney and Justin Death Hoax

On 9/15/2026 at 5:16 AM, Soapsuds said:

An 18.4 rating, but the following week during the actual premiere week, it tanked in the ratings.

It was moved down an hour and aired directly against Cheers + The Colby's. TBH, I think The Colby's probably hurt it more than Cheers, despite The Colby's not doing well. Once they moved it back to 10PM it bounced back.

Colby's also seemed to eventually bounce back a bit, not enough to secure a renewal obviously.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by te.