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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 170857" data-attributes="member: 22">26 Apr 90: FALCON CREST: Crimes of the Past v. 26 Apr 90: KNOTS LANDING: My Love Always v. 27 Apr 90: DALLAS: The Southfork Wedding JinxFALCON CREST’s Michael Sharpe and KNOTS LANDING’s Karen Mackenzie are both under pressure this week. Richard Channing now has proof, in the shape of Johnny Sacco, that Michael was responsible for his own son’s car crash and makes him an ultimatum: “Have your lawyers draw up a transfer of deed of ownership [of Falcon Crest] or Mr Sacco tells his story … I wonder how Lauren and Anne will react when they find out, not to mention Danny?” Meanwhile, Karen’s self-proclaimed “truest fan” starts asking her to do certain things during the taping of OPEN MIKE — wish him a happy birthday, wear a certain scarf — so he’ll know she’s thinking of him.Even though the idea of giving into Richard is an anathema to him, Michael’s desire to start over with his ex-wife Anne and their son Danny (“Keeping the family together is what’s important now”) means he has no choice. Not so Karen: “I would no more wear that scarf than meet that man in a dark alley. If I gave him one clue I’d read those pathetic letters, I’d never get rid of him!” she barks.The toll this is taking on Karen is noticeable. She has grown insular, preoccupied, even harsh. She even refuses to sign autographs for waiting fans (although she immediately changes her mind). Only when presenting OPEN MIKE does the familiar Karen — warm, smiling, engaged — fully return. (I’m not precisely sure when I first saw this episode — sometime in the mid-nineties — but the tip Karen’s OPEN MIKE guest gives about snipping plastic six-pack rings before throwing them out, in order to prevent little fishies from choking on them, lodged itself in my brain then and I’ve never forgotten it.)Karen’s decision not to do her anonymous admirer’s bidding has consequences. “You didn’t wish me Happy Birthday. You hurt me, Karen,” he tells her over the phone. Shortly thereafter, one of the studio lights crashes to the floor, narrowly missing her. Is this a freak accident or the actions of a super-fan scorned? We can’t be sure. In fact, what sets this “psycho stalker” storyline apart from previous Soap Land ones — Roger Larsen’s pursuit of Lucy on DALLAS; Jeff Wainwright’s of Maggie on FALCON CREST — is that we’re almost as much in the dark as the Mackenzies are. Like them, we don’t yet know (for sure) where the threat is coming from — or how real a threat it is.The best scenes on this week’s KNOTS and FALCON CREST take place between a bad guy and his lawyer. Michael Sharpe’s attorney, Ed, has been a supporting character since the start of the season. He’s a vaguely paternal figure who retains his calm, businesslike demeanour in the face of Michael’s many explosive tantrums. Beyond that, we know little about him. He finds Michael, having signed over Falcon Crest, brooding alone in his darkened office and offers his sympathies: “I know how this must sting … admitting defeat. Never easy for a man like you.” Michael shrugs. “Richard Channing isn’t the issue anymore,” he declares. “Life is — a new life with Anne and Danny, weekends in the country, fresh air …” “Sounds great, but it doesn’t sound like you,” Ed replies. “Maybe I’m tired of being me,” suggests Michael. “You know what a burden it is being Michael Sharpe?” “You are so full of it, Michael," Ed scoffs. "I’d fall down laughing if I didn’t think you’d fire me.” “I didn’t know you were capable of laughter, Ed,” Michael replies, with an edge to his voice. “That was never a prerequisite to working with you, Michael,” Ed counters. There follows a tense pause — then both men start laughing. “Come on, Ed, be happy for me! You’ve been married to the same woman for thirty-three years. Why can’t I?” Michael asks. “Because that’s who I am,” Ed replies. “I have one job, one woman, one life. But you’re the future, Michael. It’s a cross you have to bear. This country’s economy depends on you and others like you. Guys like me, we just stand back and marvel — and try to be a part of it.” “I can have it all, Ed,” Michael insists. “Just watch me. Just stand back and marvel.”Like Ed, Danny Waleska’s lawyer Scott favours the plain-speaking approach when dealing with his client this week. This means refusing to accept the blame when Danny’s driver’s licence is suspended: “No, Danny — you get all the credit for refusing to take the breathalyser test and refusing to take the blood test … Refusing to take those tests means an automatic suspension of your licence.” “Now he tells me,” Danny mutters in reply, pouring himself a whisky. “You wanna blame your drinking on me too?” Scott asks him. “You wanna blame me for not knowing chapter and verse of the law?” Danny shoots back. “I blame you for evading responsibility for your actions,” Scott tells him — which is what we’ve been waiting for someone to tell Danny all season. “Take some advice,” he continues, before urging Danny to stay away from Val. “Don’t make things worse for yourself.” When Danny sneers at him in reply, Scott offers him one last piece of counsel: “Get another lawyer.” “Hey, you know what they call three thousand attorneys at the bottom of the ocean?” Danny yells to his retreating back. “A good start!”Michael Sharpe may have given into Richard’s demands, but that’s not the end of the story. Johnny Sacco then shows up at his front door, stoned and ridden with guilt. Michael’s not home so he mumbles his confession to Anne: “I’m sorry, lady, I’m so sorry … I didn’t know that he was gonna waste his own kid.” The threat against Karen likewise enters her home at the end of this week’s KNOTS when she finds a publicity photo of herself torn into pieces on her dining room table. When she puts the pieces together, she sees the message ‘I HATE YOU’ scrawled across it.What Michael craves on FALCON CREST — a devoted wife and son — is what JR suddenly has on DALLAS. “From now on, I plan on being the perfect wife for you,” Cally informs him in this week’s opening scene. “No more nagging or complaining, I’m gonna be one hundred per cent on your side.” James also claims to have seen the error of his ways. “You had every right to run Michelle out of town,” he tells his father. “You were just looking out for me.” “Our little family’s really coming around!” JR exclaims in surprise. “Your little family’s coming around all right,” James mutters once his father is safely out of earshot, “it’s coming round to cut out your heart!” The truth is that Cally and James have teamed up to get revenge against JR and are playing the roles of the perfect wife and son only to lull him into a false of sense of security. When Sue Ellen played the same game ten years earlier, the dramatic stakes felt a lot higher, but it’s still super fun to watch them glare malevolently in JR’s direction whenever his back is turned.Of course, JR doesn’t want a devoted wife. After the rest of the family have left for overseas, JR hands Cally a cheque for $200,000 and tells her to get off Southfork once and for all: “I want you packed and gone. I don’t wanna see your face again.” But she gets the last word: “I’m gonna have JR’s baby, James — only he’s never ever gonna hold it or touch it or see it, as God is my witness!” While Cally is making this promise, FALCON CREST ends with Anne revealing a similar secret she has kept hidden from Michael for over twenty years. Still reeling from the discovery that he caused their son’s accident, she strikes back by telling him, “Danny isn’t your child. He’s Richard Channing’s!”This is the third such revelation in recent weeks, following the twins’ discovery that Gary is their daddy on KNOTS and Lady Jessica’s casual admission that Atticus Ward was Dusty’s on last week’s DALLAS. Bobby and Betsy appear unperturbed by their paternal bombshell and are happy to run around their new father’s ranch playing with their new camcorder as Gary and Val look on contentedly — until, that is, one of their videos inadvertently reveals Danny lurking in the bushes (a spooky discovery reminiscent of Pat glimpsing Jill Bennett in Gary’s boathouse last season). Meanwhile, after visiting Dusty offscreen, Clayton expresses his surprise “at how calmly he took the whole thing” — the “whole thing” being the news that his father is really his uncle and his psychotic aunt is really his mother, the same mother who has just accidentally murdered his real father. Moreover, Atticus’s death means that Dusty inherits 25% of West Star, but for some reason, he is considered less competent to manage his affairs than his criminally insane mama who is given control of his voting rights. JR is somewhat less calm than Dusty when he learns that Clayton has petitioned to have himself made custodian of these rights with a view to running West Star alongside Carter McKay: “Are you out of your mind?!” JR barks. “He’s the enemy!”“You want my advice?” Harve Smithfield asks JR, following the latter’s attempts to gain access to the sanatarium where Jessica is being held in order to persuade her to sign over the voting rights to him instead. “Accept the fact that Clayton and McKay are gonna be partners and adjust your strategy accordingly.” Like Danny with his lawyer, JR ain’t listening. “Harve, there’s got to be some legal way of getting me into that booby hatch,” he insists. “Well, you could have your wife commit you!” chuckles Harve. He’s joking, of course — but a metaphorical light bulb just appeared over JR’s head.Several characters have departed Soap Land recently — Sydney St James, Eric Fairgate, Paula Vertosick, Olivia and Harold, Michelle Stevens, Stephanie Rodgers — but none more notable than the original matriarch herself, Miss Ellie, who exits DALLAS this week on a tour of the Orient from which she will never return. “We won’t be gone that long,” she assures Cally, somewhat inaccurately. Indeed, one searches in vain for some sense of closure in Ellie's final episode. The closest we get is Cally referring to her as “the only mama I’ve ever had” and Ellie herself holding a pair of baby booties (a gift to April at her wedding shower) and asking, “Can you believe that JR was once little enough for these?” “Yeah, but I heard his little booties had spikes!” boom-tishes Lucy, who is also on her way off the show and has chosen to spend her last episode of DALLAS for twenty-two years delivering nonstop wisecracks. These include her usual shtick about the Southfork wedding jinx. However, naming the episode in its honour appears has lifted the curse: April and Bobby’s nuptials are DALLAS’s least eventful since Pam and Mark’s in the dream season. Whereas that wedding was billed as the most expensive in DALLAS (and maybe even Soap Land) history, this one is a strictly low-budget affair. It was unusual enough to see the Ewing Oil secretaries as guests at JR and Cally’s wedding, but here they make up 50% of April’s shower — and that includes Kendall the receptionist. (Kendall! In the actual Southfork living room!) Meanwhile, the cardboard patio has never looked cardboardier and a strategically placed wedding bouquet cannot disguise the fact that the actress playing the bride is heavily pregnant. On the plus side, Rose McKay displays some Sue Ellen-style cynicism (“Weddings always did make me cry, but I’ve got a feelin’ this one’s gonna take the cake,” she drawls) and there’s some enjoyable badinage between JR and Cliff’s new date, Liz Adams.Liz is an old acquaintance of Bobby’s who has returned to Dallas to sell her late brother’s company. She and Cliff immediately hit it off — she makes fun of his trademark handkerchiefs, he tells her she’s a breath of fresh air. And she kind of is; it’s refreshing to see Cliff hanging out with a woman vaguely his own age. “I don’t want you to go back to New York,” he tells her, “if only because I’ve never met a woman with such a high tolerance level for the real me.” Likewise on FC, Michael doesn’t want Anne to return to New York either: “This feels so right, don’t go home yet.” Conversely on KNOTS, Paige actively encourages Soap Land’s other Anne to go back to Europe. “This is a vacation, isn’t it?” she asks her mother hopefully.Meanwhile, everyone’s leaving Southfork — the newlyweds on their honeymoon, the Farlows on their never-ending cruise, John Ross and Christopher to visit Sue Ellen in England and Lucy to run an art gallery in Rome. “Why does this remind me of rats leaving a sinking ship?” she asks, getting in one last corny quip before it's too late.And this week’s Top 3 are …1 (2) DALLAS2 (1) KNOTS LANDING3 (-) FALCON CREST</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?