Knots Landing

[DRW50]

 

I didn't even remember the Perfect Strangers theme. This first one looks like they had a completely different concept for the theme (one that looks like it came from 1979...) and said "Screw it - but keep the footage" and shot the rest. 

 

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[Vee]

I'd forgotten about the blatant Falcon Crest spoof mid-Too Many Cooks.

Edited February 3, 2019 by Vee

[pdm1974]

The budget in the last season had a definite impact on telling the story arcs because characters couldn't really be utilized as needed. There was one episode, I believe, that had just Karen, Mack, and Anne with supporting players as filler.

[Franko]

I'm such a dork. I always thought the first Perfect Strangers intro was sweet. Calculated as hell to be touching? Oh, absolutely. "America or Burst," indeed. But it worked for me.

 

Michelle Lee even took a pay cut just to be in every episode that season. If Knots stuck around for 1993-94, who knows what would have happened?

[DRW50]

 

Oh it is kind of sweet. Just...odd.

 

That was very nice of Michelle but I could have done without so much Karen. Then again, when the alternatives were Kate, and that annoying British woman, I suppose I should be grateful. 

 

Logically, the last season must have been better than the infamous season 13, but I don't remember enjoying most of it, at all. 

[Franko]

I've always loved Knots, but you could make an argument it was past its sell-by date.

[DRW50]

 

It's a shame because I think season 12 took some real steps in refreshing the show for a new era. Then everything started going very badly off the rails in the finale. I've rarely seen a finale that feels so wrong.

[Khan]

 

Agree.  Nothing about that finale made any sense.  Nothing.

[DRW50]

 

Even now the scenes of Karen going all road rage on the paintball kids still bewilders me. And Claudia unintentionally murdering her own son, which genuinely made me angry. That type of what I assume was meant to be Greek tragedy just had no place on KL. And it obliterated Claudia as a character. She was never the same and should have been written out immediately. I say that even though I thought she was a great addition to the show up to that point. I remember when they had her attempt suicide and then had Karen essentially beg and guilt Kate into forgiving her (I don't think Karen knew what she'd done to her son, but still, I didn't believe Karen would have pushed so hard - it felt like the show belatedly trying to manipulate viewers and using a beloved character to do so).

[Khan]

 

Yep.  And I'm still figuring out how Brian Johnston went from kinky business executive to psychotic fugitive over some damn sex tape.

[Soaplovers]

 

What I thought was short-sighted was killing off of Kate's half-brother... who had an interesting rapport/chemistry with Paige.  The cliffhanger showed the cop shooting at him, but the season 13 writing team killed him off.  Had Ann Marcus taken over at the start of season 13.. I think she could have made the season 12 finale work long-term.

 

The one positive of the horrible season 13 writing team (pre-Ann Marcus coming back mid season) was that they wrote Val with more respect and with an arc that actually fit her character (helping a lost misguided waitress learn to read... it was in character of Val to help those in need especially younger lost soul women and children).

[DRW50]

I agree. I know it was seen as boring but I liked the Val story. It fit her more than most of what had been done with her the previous 4-5 seasons. 

[pdm1974]

• I never understood the whole point of the Karen road rage plot was. Maybe is Jason had died in the accident it would have lead to something.

[juppiter]

 

Yuck! I can't, with any of that scene. Can't and won't ever.

 

I adore Michele Lee as Karen. But that scene doubled down on her worst impulses and the writers' worst impulses with her character. I really love early seasons Karen. After she had her drug addiction, it seemed like Karen's [!@#$%^&*] could never stink ever again, and it hurt the character/the show IMO. No, you're not a Pollyanna, later seasons Karen, you're a Mary Sue.

Edited February 3, 2019 by juppiter

[DRW50]

 

It felt like some kind of attempt at social commentary, and the class divide, which was very "in" at this time. The show also focused on this by having Anne lose all her money and her home. It just didn't really fit KL, in Anne's case because you knew she wasn't going to be homeless for long, and the outcome was her spending way too long with an annoying overweight comic relief figure, and in the case of the Karen story, because the family of the boy she unintentionally killed seemed to be straight out of someone's basement production of The Grapes of Wrath.