What If...KNOTS had a 15th season?

[ClassyCo]

I know it's going to sound silly, but considering KNOTS LANDING is my favorite of the primetime soap operas that cluttered TVs back in the 1980s, I really wish they could've squeezed out a 15th season. Yes, I know ratings were down, and I'm aware of the budget cuts that altered the final season by limiting the appearances of the higher-paid cast members.

But my question is, what would you have done with a 15th season? Would you have brought everyone back and how would you have tied up (most of) the loose ends?

 

[Chris2]

I would have used it as an opportunity for a soft reboot. Move the timeline up a few years. Karen and Mack continue as the neighborhood’s stable couple and are dealing with teenaged Meg. And they’re surrounded by new neighbors. And yes, I would have written out the Ewings - how many more times could they break up and reunite?

 

[ClassyCo]

I think the "soft reboot" could've worked, but I don't know if that's the route I would've gone if we're saying Season 15 would've been the last season. With that, I wouldn't move the timeline forward, although I might've aged Meg up just a little to deal with some different issues (soaps are notorious for rapidly aging their characters, and even KNOTS had done it before, to a degree).

Yes, Karen and Mack would've stayed the focal, strong couple. They served that niche of the show quite well, even though I might have them take something of a backseat in some of the storylines.

It's hard for me to think about KNOTS without Gary & Valene in the mix. I'd probably go with Valene coming back at the close of Season 14, and I'd let Season 15 be Gary & Valene's most blissful season. They could've fell in love again like school kids and everything tossed their way (even though I'd probably avoid those "they might breakup" stories) would simply make them love each other more.

Keeping some of the plots of Season 14 and its finale canon, I'd definitely bring Abby back to the cul-de-sac as she does at the end of Season 14. I'm undecided whether or not I'd still have Claudia more away, or if I'd set-up some triangle with Abby/Claudia/Anne concerning the Sumner Group. Of course, Paige and Sumner would get back together, but I'd probably send Kate on a hike of the Smoky Mountains and probably get lost, and they'd find her dead, or least mortally injured. She'd be healed up before the finale (considering she didn't die).

It's a little difficult for me to imagine where I'd take KNOTS post-Season 14, primarily because I haven't finished the series just yet. Once I get all the show in the can, I'm sure I'll have more specific ideas about where I would've taken the characters and plots had CBS been willing to do Season 15 -- which, I've heard, the network wanted a 15th season, but David Jacobs was ready to throw in the towel.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The financials were mostly responsible for the decision to end the series; there seemed to be an agreement at the end of season 13 (when CBS seemed more ready to pull the plug) that the show was just too expensive to continue in the style it had been produced. There were only so many ways to cut costs before they ran out of corners to cut. I recall that period of time when the show was, to use a modern term, "on the bubble," with the result being an agreement to do S14 as the final season. The fact that it would be done 'on the cheap' (a slightly shortened season with the rotating cast members thing) wasn't immediately revealed, though they were always upfront about the financial considerations in a general way. The producers likely had to get a renewal agreement from CBS before they could decide just how the season would look, and what plotlines they could do, since the license fee (the amount of money CBS was willing to pay per episode) would dictate just what sort of plots they could 'afford'.

I can't help but think that if CBS had opted to renew the show for a 15th season (out of nowhere), it would have caused a LOT of unintentional chaos, since everyone went into that season believing it was going to be the last. The actors and crew had already made peace with the show ending, so miraculously offering to resurrect it after many months of operating as if the series was ending would have been...well, oddly disruptive to their lives. Cast or crew members may have already lined up other work; heck, the studio space might have already been leased to another production company.

 

[ClassyCo]

The financials were mostly responsible for the decision to end the series; there seemed to be an agreement at the end of season 13 (when CBS seemed more ready to pull the plug) that the show was just too expensive to continue in the style it had been produced. There were only so many ways to cut costs before they ran out of corners to cut. I recall that period of time when the show was, to use a modern term, "on the bubble," with the result being an agreement to do S14 as the final season. The fact that it would be done 'on the cheap' (a slightly shortened season with the rotating cast members thing) wasn't immediately revealed, though they were always upfront about the financial considerations in a general way. The producers likely had to get a renewal agreement from CBS before they could decide just how the season would look, and what plotlines they could do, since the license fee (the amount of money CBS was willing to pay per episode) would dictate just what sort of plots they could 'afford'.

I can't help but think that if CBS had opted to renew the show for a 15th season (out of nowhere), it would have caused a LOT of unintentional chaos, since everyone went into that season believing it was going to be the last. The actors and crew had already made peace with the show ending, so miraculously offering to resurrect it after many months of operating as if the series was ending would have been...well, oddly disruptive to their lives. Cast or crew members may have already lined up other work; heck, the studio space might have already been leased to another production company.

You always have such insightful trivia about these shows and I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts.

 

[Chris2]

I remember David Jacobs saying in an interview years ago that he talked to CBS about the possibility of continuing with the Mackenzies and the Ewings and a new cast. He wanted to revitalize the show and also address the expensive cast issue. But I don’t think he was passionate about it either, and neither was CBS. The ratings had dropped and the 80s were over.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I'm reminded of a similar situation that occurred when the daytime soap One Life to Live was cancelled by ABC. A production company came along saying they wanted to revive OLTL (along with All My Children) online, but without the ABC studio sets and facilities as well as the ABC budgets for actors and writers, it was a disaster.

 

[TaranofPrydain]

I still think it could have happened. As it stood, the season after it left the airwaves, CBS had an unstable slot, NBC's LA Law had fallen to 36th place, and ABC still had that cheap news show on the air.

As crazy as it might have sounded, I think CBS should have wildly increased the budget for one final season (since there wasn't much competition in the timeslot) , bring Joan and Donna back onto the show, maybe even find a way to bring back other long departed regulars either as their old characters or as new ones ... just not as far fetched as the Ciji/Cathy scenario. CBS famously had a hard time of it in the 90s. High budget for the show or not, they would have likely wanted to keep one of their few hits around for another year.

 

[TaranofPrydain]

Incidentally, speaking of Donna Mills.....

TV Icon Donna Mills on ‘Knots Landing,’ ‘Nope,’ and Reviving Her Career at 81

She found fame as Abby in “Knots Landing.” Now starring in Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” she talks independence, sexism, becoming a mom in her fifties, and reviving her career at 81.

www.thedailybeast.com

In one of her favorite scenes she filmed on Knots Landing, Donna Mills recalls her character, arch-manipulator Abby, talking to the powerful Paul Galveston (Howard Duff). He patronizingly, repeatedly calls her “Cookie.”

“You may think women belong at home, barefoot and pregnant, but you’ve never dealt with me before,” Abby tells Galveston in the Season 6 scene, before getting in her car and adding the parting shot: “Oh, by the way, don’t call me Cookie.”

If Knots Landing is ever magically reborn, Mills told The Daily Beast, she “wouldn’t hesitate” to return to the role that made her world-famous in the 1980s. Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner Scott was the show’s glamorous queen of mean—huge of hair, capacious in cunning, and waspishly cutting to her adversaries—and Mills would relish reprising the role. “I would give anything to play her again,” Mills said. “I would do Knots Landing again in a nanosecond. Absolutely.” “The storyline I would love to play is Abby being homeless, then clawing her way back to the top to take over everything again,” the actor said. Would a homeless Abby keep her famously dramatic eyeshadow on point? “Oh, the eyeshadow would still be perfect,” Mills said, laughing.

 

[WarriorsFan]

I still think it could have happened. As it stood, the season after it left the airwaves, CBS had an unstable slot, NBC's LA Law had fallen to 36th place, and ABC still had that cheap news show on the air.

As crazy as it might have sounded, I think CBS should have wildly increased the budget for one final season (since there wasn't much competition in the timeslot) , bring Joan and Donna back onto the show, maybe even find a way to bring back other long departed regulars either as their old characters or as new ones ... just not as far fetched as the Ciji/Cathy scenario. CBS famously had a hard time of it in the 90s. High budget for the show or not, they would have likely wanted to keep one of their few hits around for another year.

Knots Landing would have looked quaint in 1993/1994 compared to Melrose Place, which became a pop culture phenomenon that season. 1993/1994 was also the season Beverly Hills 90210 peaked, NYPD Blue premiered, and Seinfeld surged in the ratings (going from 25th in 1992/1993 to 3rd in 1993/1994). Funny thing is, the highest rated drama series that season was Murder She Wrote (finishing in 11th) which was in its 10th season.

 

[TaranofPrydain]

Knots Landing would have looked quaint in 1993/1994 compared to Melrose Place, which became a pop culture phenomenon that season. 1993/1994 was also the season Beverly Hills 90210 peaked, NYPD Blue premiered, and Seinfeld surged in the ratings (going from 25th in 1992/1993 to 3rd in 1993/1994). Funny thing is, the highest rated drama series that season was Murder She Wrote (finishing in 11th) which was in its 10th season.

Perhaps true. CBS was the station with the oldest viewership at the time though so maybe it would not have mattered much, since Fox was the youth network and ABC had al those family and kids sitcoms at the time. NYPD Blue (in my opinion the best cop show in TV history) might have done better in the ratings that first year if there hadn't been around 57 ABC stations that refused to air it that year; and one in Biloxi never did air any of the series.....

Incomplete chart of the ratings of the first post-Knots season that year (a few mid-season shows were AWOL)

 

[TaranofPrydain]

Although David Jacobs said that the budget would have to go down again if it was to go forward, it seems that it was Jacobs not CBS that cancelled the show by having it end in 1993. Ted Shackleford said in a later interview that CBS was so pleased by the slight uptick in the ratings that they wanted to renew it for a Season 15 and a Season 16, which would have kept it on the air until 1995. Of course though, it seems as though Devane and Sheridan's contracts were coming to a close in 1993, so if the series finale was used as a door into two more seasons, it would be back to the core cast of Gary, Val, Karen, Mack, and Abby. Interesting to think about.

 

[ClassyCo]

Although David Jacobs said that the budget would have to go down again if it was to go forward, it seems that it was Jacobs not CBS that cancelled the show by having it end in 1993. Ted Shackleford said in a later interview that CBS was so pleased by the slight uptick in the ratings that they wanted to renew it for a Season 15 and a Season 16, which would have kept it on the air until 1995. Of course though, it seems as though Devane and Sheridan's contracts were coming to a close in 1993, so if the series finale was used as a door into two more seasons, it would be back to the core cast of Gary, Val, Karen, Mack, and Abby. Interesting to think about.

Hey, I wouldn't have minded loosing Paige. I liked her, sure, but there was too much overexposure for her. As for Sumner, I would've missed him more.

Having the show slide back to be about the people living on the cul-de-sac -- Karen & Mack, Gary & Val, and Abby -- would've been a neat way to tie up the loose ends and give some good swan song seasons.

 

[Ewing4]

Although I was sad to see Knots end, I was happy it wrapped up the storylines and it was a planned season finale. The biggest mistake Dallas made was not doing the same and deciding when to end the show and give it a proper finale.
The second half of the 2 hour KL finale was the nice way to say goodbye to a great show and wonderful cast of characters.

 

[WarriorsFan]

Although David Jacobs said that the budget would have to go down again if it was to go forward, it seems that it was Jacobs not CBS that cancelled the show by having it end in 1993. Ted Shackleford said in a later interview that CBS was so pleased by the slight uptick in the ratings that they wanted to renew it for a Season 15 and a Season 16, which would have kept it on the air until 1995. Of course though, it seems as though Devane and Sheridan's contracts were coming to a close in 1993, so if the series finale was used as a door into two more seasons, it would be back to the core cast of Gary, Val, Karen, Mack, and Abby. Interesting to think about.

If Knots Landing made it to 1994/1995 and CBS kept it in the Thursday 10 pm time slot, it would have been killed that season by NBC's new Thursday 10 pm drama ER.

 

[Monzo]

Without Greg and Paige, KL could have gone back to its roots: neighborhood and friendship. If done right, KL could have survived until the Bruckheimer shows made CBS successful again.

 

[TaranofPrydain]

If Knots Landing made it to 1994/1995 and CBS kept it in the Thursday 10 pm time slot, it would have been killed that season by NBC's new Thursday 10 pm drama ER.

CBS had moved the show that was in that timeslot in 1994 (Chicago Hope) after just two episodes of ER. They could have done the same with Knots by putting it up on Wednesdays opposite Law and Order (which was still not a juggernaut at that time)

 

[Daniel Avery]

I recall the prevailing opinion of that move was because Chicago Hope and ER were seen as too similar in subject matter.

It would have been problematic for CBS to move Knots after building such a base in that Thursday at 10pm slot. Perhaps the trajectory of ER would have been lowered a bit by having KL still there, but I agree ER would have done what Hill St. Blues and LA Law failed to do, which was kill Knots Landing.

 

[juschill]

Although David Jacobs said that the budget would have to go down again if it was to go forward, it seems that it was Jacobs not CBS that cancelled the show by having it end in 1993. Ted Shackleford said in a later interview that CBS was so pleased by the slight uptick in the ratings that they wanted to renew it for a Season 15 and a Season 16, which would have kept it on the air until 1995. Of course though, it seems as though Devane and Sheridan's contracts were coming to a close in 1993, so if the series finale was used as a door into two more seasons, it would be back to the core cast of Gary, Val, Karen, Mack, and Abby. Interesting to think about.

Doug Sheehan returning may have been an inexpensive option that could have generated half a dozen stories.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I always want DALLAS to have one more season (though not the way the show had been going for two or three years) and for DYNASTY to have one more season (with Paulsen at the helm to continue cleaning things up). I never find myself pining for tenth season for FALCON CREST or for more from KNOTS.

KNOTS started out looking like a bit of a daytime soap shot on 35mm film for primetime, but quickly redeemed itself (not that it needed to) by becoming the best -- and most creatively flexible -- of the four shows by far.

But by the last couple of seasons, KNOTS had slipped back into its original daytime soapy pattern -- only an early-'90s version of that instead of a late-'70s version .... in other words: an excessive number of good-looing-but-dullish kids with the grownups wandering away (as opposed to the vaguely rednecky neighborhood dynamic from the early days).

I'm not entirely sure that KNOTS might not have benefitted from ending in 1990 or 1991, but I thought the 1993 wrap-up (with Valene's reappearance) was quite acceptable -- but they likely wouldn't have had that had the show gone on for another year or two.

So I vote "no". And Donna Mills was right that the return to the cul de sac reunion just a couple of years after the cancellation was "too soon."

And, yeah, whatever happened to Ben???