James from London
International Treasure
18 Feb 88: KNOTS LANDING: Lawfully Wedded v. 19 Feb 88: DALLAS: Farlow's Follies v. 19 Feb 88: FALCON CREST: Legacies
Two weeks ago, FALCON CREST’s Maggie and Richard ditched their plans for a big wedding and tied the knot in a quickie ceremony instead. Abby and Charles do the same on this week’s KNOTS. The morning after, Abby summons her attorney to annul the union — thereby making it Soap Land’s shortest marriage since Alexis and Cecil Colby’s five years earlier.
Despite this brevity, Abby has somehow found time to deposit a cheque for $2,000,000 — a wedding gift from her groom intended to finance the marina expansion at Lotus Point. Her financial gain is in contrast to Maggie’s financial loss. Upon marrying Richard Channing, she activated a codicil in Chase’s will that transferred her inheritance to Angela. And at the start of this week’s FC, which is full of the kind of atmospheric darkness and urgency lacking from last week’s ep, she hands over control of Chase’s winery to her new mother-in-law.
When Abby accuses Charles of marrying her under false pretences, he admits that “I came here for Lotus Point, but I didn’t expect to fall in love with you again … Let’s forget Lotus Point.” Over on DALLAS, JR delivers almost the exact same pitch to Kimberly Cryder: “What started off between you and I as a game, as part of a business deal, has grown into much more and I’m not gonna give you up, with or without West Star.” Neither woman is entirely convinced, but while Abby calls Charles’s bluff directly (“OK, let’s sell Lotus Point.” Silence. “That’s what I thought. Bye, Charles”), Kimberly is slightly more circumspect (“If you’re not man enough to make the move that I was willing to make, maybe you’re not worth waiting for”).
Elsewhere on KNOTS, Frank Williams is turning into an amalgam of Ben Gibson and Richard Avery at their most unstable. He loses his sales job but is too depressed to care, is overly protective of his family, and sees danger behind every suburban corner. The clatter of a trash can, the silhouette of a meter reader, an intrusive question from a nosy neighbour — each innocuous incident causes him to break into a cold sweat and/or reach for the nearest baseball bat. During the course of the episode, the reasons for his strange behaviour are gradually revealed. “How did your testimony go?” he asks Pat after she returns from a mysterious overnight trip. “Were they in the courtroom when you testified?” Later, during an argument, he blames his crummy job prospects on her “little agreement.” Finally, during an even bigger argument, a woman called Christine in whom Frank and Pat appear to confide comes right out and says it: “The Witness Security Programme has never lost a witness who followed procedure!”
Meanwhile on DALLAS, an unobserved Miss Ellie catches Clayton in a seemingly intimate situation with Laurel for the second week in a row. When Sue Ellen found JR in bed with Kimberly last week, she surprised him by not falling apart and hitting the bottle. Here, Miss Ellie surprises everyone by falling apart and downing the best part of a bottle of whisky.
These two storylines — Frank and Pat’s, Ellie and Clayton’s — have next to nothing in common, except that this week’s episodes provide the female half of each partnership with a flashy scene in which to strut her stuff. In both cases, it’s not a moment too soon. Since Pat’s arrived on KNOTS, one’s had the sense of her trying too hard, in front of both the neighbours and the viewers. To Mack and Karen, she’s been trying desperately to come across like a normal person leading a normal life. To the audience, she’s been working hard to sell the idea that she and hubby are still hot to trot after however many years of married life. Miss Ellie, meanwhile, has spent much of this season either bursting into tears or meekly acquiescing to Clayton. Such behaviour is even less reminiscent of the stoic, earthy matriarch of the first five or six years of DALLAS than Donna Reed’s more regal take on the role. Now they've been given the chance to bust loose, Pat shows what she’s made of while Ellie reveals an aspect of her personality that we’ve never really seen before.
Pat’s outburst is prompted by the reaction of her handler (Christine) to the news that “the guy next door is some kind of special investigator for the governor.” Christine insists the Williamses need to be relocated once again, but Pat has had enough. In a speech that’s fiery, passionate and, let’s face it, black, she embraces what Gary and Abby once negatively described as “life in a goldfish bowl”: “You want us to move because we have nosy neighbours?!” she asks. “They seem nosy to us because they’re interested in us and they’re just lousy at hiding it. They don’t lie well. Honey, I like people who don’t lie well … We have an obligation to give Julie the very best life that we can, a normal life … I want her to able to play hopscotch on the sidewalk because it’s her sidewalk … I don’t want to leave.”
Whereas Pat wants to join the world that KNOTS has to offer, Miss Ellie “just wants the world to go away.” Her equivalent outburst is angry, heartbroken and, let’s face it, drunk: “You wanna talk about the mysteries of life, Sue Ellen?” she asks her hapless daughter-in-law. “Let’s talk about disappointment … People who let you down, who break your heart, who make you wish you were someone you weren’t … Those are the good subjects, Sue Ellen. You wanna share your expertise on one of those subjects?” While it’s ironic that Sue Ellen should be the one to find Ellie in such a state, it’s even more ironic that she turns out to be no more equipped to deal with an embittered drunk than anyone else. It’s great to see Ellie sink her teeth into this material, even if her three-dimensional reaction to a two-dimensional storyline (man fixates on painting, man buys painting, man and girl in painting become platonic friends) feels a little out of whack.
As one relatively minor movie star (Michael York) exits Soap Land, another arrives to take his place. Rod Taylor turns up in FALCON CREST as Melissa’s not very Italian-looking uncle, Frank Agretti. His backstory, as recounted by Angela — “Carlo robbed you of your half of the Agretti vineyards and threw you out of the valley” — is a familiar one, recalling similar sibling feuds between Jock and Jason Ewing and Blake and Ben Carrington. Likewise, the reasons for his visit — a terminal illness and a wish to reconcile with family — echo those of Miss Ellie’s brother, Mack Mackenzie’s father and Chance McKenzie’s mother.
There are other fresh faces too: Harold Dyer (though he has yet to be identified as such on screen) speaks his first lines on KNOTS, senatorial aide Kay Lloyd debuts on DALLAS and Rosemont, the wonderfully creepy head of The Thirteen, emerges out of the darkness on FALCON CREST to utter Soap Land's line of the week: “Channing is my kind of soul — good at the centre with just a little taint of evil around the edges.” Counted alongside Pat, Frank and Julie on KNOTS, Rosemont is currently Soap Land’s fourth significant black character — something of a record.
Charles Scott may have left KNOTS LANDING with his tail between his legs but, intriguingly, his storyline remains. “We’re in business,” Harold informs The Dealer, who in turn gives Johnny Rourke the thumbs up. DALLAS and FALCON CREST’s current business plots each take a similarly unexpected turn in this week’s closing scenes. While JR declares war on Dr Styles (“If it’s war you want, JR, you’ve got it,” the good doctor replies), Richard joins forces with The Thirteen and proposes a toast “to the destruction of Angela Channing.”
And this week’s Top 3 are …
1 (3) KNOTS LANDING
2 (1) DALLAS
3 (4) FALCON CREST
Two weeks ago, FALCON CREST’s Maggie and Richard ditched their plans for a big wedding and tied the knot in a quickie ceremony instead. Abby and Charles do the same on this week’s KNOTS. The morning after, Abby summons her attorney to annul the union — thereby making it Soap Land’s shortest marriage since Alexis and Cecil Colby’s five years earlier.
Despite this brevity, Abby has somehow found time to deposit a cheque for $2,000,000 — a wedding gift from her groom intended to finance the marina expansion at Lotus Point. Her financial gain is in contrast to Maggie’s financial loss. Upon marrying Richard Channing, she activated a codicil in Chase’s will that transferred her inheritance to Angela. And at the start of this week’s FC, which is full of the kind of atmospheric darkness and urgency lacking from last week’s ep, she hands over control of Chase’s winery to her new mother-in-law.
When Abby accuses Charles of marrying her under false pretences, he admits that “I came here for Lotus Point, but I didn’t expect to fall in love with you again … Let’s forget Lotus Point.” Over on DALLAS, JR delivers almost the exact same pitch to Kimberly Cryder: “What started off between you and I as a game, as part of a business deal, has grown into much more and I’m not gonna give you up, with or without West Star.” Neither woman is entirely convinced, but while Abby calls Charles’s bluff directly (“OK, let’s sell Lotus Point.” Silence. “That’s what I thought. Bye, Charles”), Kimberly is slightly more circumspect (“If you’re not man enough to make the move that I was willing to make, maybe you’re not worth waiting for”).
Elsewhere on KNOTS, Frank Williams is turning into an amalgam of Ben Gibson and Richard Avery at their most unstable. He loses his sales job but is too depressed to care, is overly protective of his family, and sees danger behind every suburban corner. The clatter of a trash can, the silhouette of a meter reader, an intrusive question from a nosy neighbour — each innocuous incident causes him to break into a cold sweat and/or reach for the nearest baseball bat. During the course of the episode, the reasons for his strange behaviour are gradually revealed. “How did your testimony go?” he asks Pat after she returns from a mysterious overnight trip. “Were they in the courtroom when you testified?” Later, during an argument, he blames his crummy job prospects on her “little agreement.” Finally, during an even bigger argument, a woman called Christine in whom Frank and Pat appear to confide comes right out and says it: “The Witness Security Programme has never lost a witness who followed procedure!”
Meanwhile on DALLAS, an unobserved Miss Ellie catches Clayton in a seemingly intimate situation with Laurel for the second week in a row. When Sue Ellen found JR in bed with Kimberly last week, she surprised him by not falling apart and hitting the bottle. Here, Miss Ellie surprises everyone by falling apart and downing the best part of a bottle of whisky.
These two storylines — Frank and Pat’s, Ellie and Clayton’s — have next to nothing in common, except that this week’s episodes provide the female half of each partnership with a flashy scene in which to strut her stuff. In both cases, it’s not a moment too soon. Since Pat’s arrived on KNOTS, one’s had the sense of her trying too hard, in front of both the neighbours and the viewers. To Mack and Karen, she’s been trying desperately to come across like a normal person leading a normal life. To the audience, she’s been working hard to sell the idea that she and hubby are still hot to trot after however many years of married life. Miss Ellie, meanwhile, has spent much of this season either bursting into tears or meekly acquiescing to Clayton. Such behaviour is even less reminiscent of the stoic, earthy matriarch of the first five or six years of DALLAS than Donna Reed’s more regal take on the role. Now they've been given the chance to bust loose, Pat shows what she’s made of while Ellie reveals an aspect of her personality that we’ve never really seen before.
Pat’s outburst is prompted by the reaction of her handler (Christine) to the news that “the guy next door is some kind of special investigator for the governor.” Christine insists the Williamses need to be relocated once again, but Pat has had enough. In a speech that’s fiery, passionate and, let’s face it, black, she embraces what Gary and Abby once negatively described as “life in a goldfish bowl”: “You want us to move because we have nosy neighbours?!” she asks. “They seem nosy to us because they’re interested in us and they’re just lousy at hiding it. They don’t lie well. Honey, I like people who don’t lie well … We have an obligation to give Julie the very best life that we can, a normal life … I want her to able to play hopscotch on the sidewalk because it’s her sidewalk … I don’t want to leave.”
Whereas Pat wants to join the world that KNOTS has to offer, Miss Ellie “just wants the world to go away.” Her equivalent outburst is angry, heartbroken and, let’s face it, drunk: “You wanna talk about the mysteries of life, Sue Ellen?” she asks her hapless daughter-in-law. “Let’s talk about disappointment … People who let you down, who break your heart, who make you wish you were someone you weren’t … Those are the good subjects, Sue Ellen. You wanna share your expertise on one of those subjects?” While it’s ironic that Sue Ellen should be the one to find Ellie in such a state, it’s even more ironic that she turns out to be no more equipped to deal with an embittered drunk than anyone else. It’s great to see Ellie sink her teeth into this material, even if her three-dimensional reaction to a two-dimensional storyline (man fixates on painting, man buys painting, man and girl in painting become platonic friends) feels a little out of whack.
As one relatively minor movie star (Michael York) exits Soap Land, another arrives to take his place. Rod Taylor turns up in FALCON CREST as Melissa’s not very Italian-looking uncle, Frank Agretti. His backstory, as recounted by Angela — “Carlo robbed you of your half of the Agretti vineyards and threw you out of the valley” — is a familiar one, recalling similar sibling feuds between Jock and Jason Ewing and Blake and Ben Carrington. Likewise, the reasons for his visit — a terminal illness and a wish to reconcile with family — echo those of Miss Ellie’s brother, Mack Mackenzie’s father and Chance McKenzie’s mother.
There are other fresh faces too: Harold Dyer (though he has yet to be identified as such on screen) speaks his first lines on KNOTS, senatorial aide Kay Lloyd debuts on DALLAS and Rosemont, the wonderfully creepy head of The Thirteen, emerges out of the darkness on FALCON CREST to utter Soap Land's line of the week: “Channing is my kind of soul — good at the centre with just a little taint of evil around the edges.” Counted alongside Pat, Frank and Julie on KNOTS, Rosemont is currently Soap Land’s fourth significant black character — something of a record.
Charles Scott may have left KNOTS LANDING with his tail between his legs but, intriguingly, his storyline remains. “We’re in business,” Harold informs The Dealer, who in turn gives Johnny Rourke the thumbs up. DALLAS and FALCON CREST’s current business plots each take a similarly unexpected turn in this week’s closing scenes. While JR declares war on Dr Styles (“If it’s war you want, JR, you’ve got it,” the good doctor replies), Richard joins forces with The Thirteen and proposes a toast “to the destruction of Angela Channing.”
And this week’s Top 3 are …
1 (3) KNOTS LANDING
2 (1) DALLAS
3 (4) FALCON CREST
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