IA.
KL's first season was strictly self-contained episodes, featuring stories with a clear beginning, middle and end that did not carry over to the next episode. As was typical of most one-hour shows from that period, some episodes were better than others, but all give you a good and proper introduction to the main characters, two of whom will remain until the series' end in '93.
S2, which introduced Donna Mills as resident schemer Abby, dipped its' toes in serialized waters, but the results were...not great, lol? So, in the back half of the year, there does appear to be a bit of course-correcting going on, as KL returns to its' original format of self-contained stories. (There is a cliffhanger at the end of S2, one that will bring about the first changes to the show, but I personally don't think the story that led up to it was all that great).
S3, on the other hand, is a sort of hybrid of self-contained episodes and ongoing storylines, especially in the first half of the season. By then-executive story editor Ann Marcus' admission, that was a conscious choice on the part of EP's David Jacobs and Michael Filerman, likely because they still weren't sure about turning KL into a full-fledged soap. However, the season ends with KL's first MEMORABLE cliffhanger, and the first real sign that the KL that Jacobs had originally intended is about to evolve into a completely different kind of show - a transformation that won't be complete, IMO, until the final moments in a pivotal episode in the next season that, for my money, is truly THE moment when Jacobs' KL "dies" and the KL audiences will come to love is born. (I'll leave it up to you to discover what that moment was, lol).
Not really.
I liked much of KL's final season, because it was a reminder of when KL wasn't playing Stump the Audience every week. But I will concede that S14 seemed good, because the previous season was just so bad. (So bad, in fact, that it forced Jacobs to shut down production, can the Co-EP/show runner and bring back Ann Marcus, who hadn't been with the show since the end of S3).
As @ReddFoxx points out, David Paulsen, who had worked on DALLAS and KL, tried to bring DYNASTY back down to earth in its' last season. IIRC, he wanted DYNASTY to be more aligned with what it was during its' first season, before it became a victim of its' own success (and excess). However, I think he faced the same problems that all the primetime soaps faced: dwindling budgets, and apathetic viewers. DYNASTY's last season isn't BAD, per se. It's just tired - exhibited, among other things, by a greater number of indoor, studio-bound scenes over lush, exterior ones.
Same goes for DALLAS: a once-mighty show that was running on fumes when it ended, hampered by several key losses, and probably ran for two or three years longer than it should've. (As @kalbir has said, you knew the end was nigh when Urkel started beating DALLAS in the ratings, lol).
If I had to vote for a WORST final season, therefore, I'd vote for FC's. A dark, violent, unrecognizable mess, one that bore absolutely nothing in common with the eight seasons that had preceded it.
By
Khan ·
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