Re-watching the Ewingverse ... alphabetically!

[Julia's Gun]

Each time I watch the Abby-less second half of Down Came the Rain, the more I love it. It’s a such a bold, ingenious psychological game of cat and mouse that I almost end up thinking “Abby who?”

At the time I remember thinking this cliffhanger was a bit of an anti-climax. Given the previous year's shock of Jill appearing to murder Val, or Abby burying bodies under cement before that, this one seemed a bit lame. But as you say, it was an intriguing and complex storyline with a slow-build to the Greg/Ted showdown. The crime/film noir thing with Murikame was all stylishly done, and links back to that earlier 'Double Indemnity' episode that was directed by William Devane himself.

I think I was just sad that Abby had gone, but I respect how the writer's were confidently saying, look keep watching, there's still plenty going on here.

Perhaps the icing on the cake would have been a scene added with Gary turning up at Val's house to propose to her. I'd have preferred their reunion to have happened then, rather than being dragged out for another couple of years....

 

[Seaviewer]

an intriguing and complex storyline with a slow-build to the Greg/Ted showdown.

Similar in its way to the heart-stopping conclusion to season 5; I quite clearly remember that dilemma of (literally) which way she would turn.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I think the viewer felt the choice Paige had to make in the cliffhanger was kind of predictable, since we all knew Greg was an important lead character whose portrayer had an iron-clad contract, whereas Ted Melcher (whose portrayer I mentally refer to as Mr. Judith Light since I have trouble remembering how to spell his last name) was a male recurring player who had come out of nowhere on a show that loved to write male recurring players who came out of nowhere and ended up dying gruesome deaths once their evil plots were foiled. Greg vs. Ted didn't look like much of a choice to those who followed soaps and knew how these things work.

 

[James from London]

Greg vs. Ted didn't look like much of a choice to those who followed soaps and knew how these things work.

It’s not just about the destination (i.e., Paige’s ultimate choice), but how you get there. The conventional thing would have been for the storyline to conclude with Abby’s departure, so after she’s gone and everyone’s still running round after each other, it feels like we’re in uncharted territory which continues into the next season. The way it aired in the UK, I wasn’t even certain where one season ended and the next one began, which was disorientating in the best way. I thought I “knew how these things work”, but I find this group of episodes (the last few of Season 10 and the first few of Season 11) really unconventional in a way that rewards repeated viewing.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

I thought it was an original way to end a season that was the last for a major character. Abby sings a happy tune while slinking out like a cat, while for the next hour characters contend with the aftermath of her manipulations. Abby's gone, but the long shadow of her eyelashes still haunts Paige, Greg and co.
I love how Abby can rationalize anything. Re: Gary. "We fell in love. Nobody could have predicted that." Nobody but you, Mrs. Cunningham Ewing Scott Sumner. You manipulated everything from day one to get Gary, including having his wife babysit your daughter while you seduced him. I think The Who had you in mind when they sang, "Behind Blue Eyes." Actually, no, that doesn't work. You were having way too much fun to be the person in the lyrics., but the title fits
In my imagining of Abby's story, after Japan she finessed her way to a seat on the CFR or the Trilateral Commission, making her more powerful than Greg or JR.

 

[Seaviewer]

No doubt that ultimately Greg would have been left standing but in the moment she could have gone either way leaving the fallout for the next season to resolve.

 

[James from London]

Ellie Saves the Day (DALLAS, 30 Nov 79) v Emergency (KNOTS, 09 Dec 82)

Ellie Saves the Day and Emergency each belong to the season of their respective show (DALLAS’s second, KNOTS’ fourth) where the series finally makes the leap from stand alone to fully serialised episodes. Both of these eps, in very different ways, seem to revel in the freedom that come from not having to wrap up all the story threads with a neat forty-five minute bow.

Ellie Saves the Day is an early DALLAS classic. Just as a typhoon hits Ewing Oil’s offshore drilling platforms in South East Asia, Daddy and Mama learn that JR has mortgaged Southfork and it looks like the Ewings will lose everything. Despite the ranch being represented only by the cardboard patio and some obviously inserted stock footage, the episode has a really epic Texan atmosphere, mostly down to the unusually haunting dialogue. (One of the credited writers is a David Michael Jacobs. If that isn’t who it sounds like, it might as well be.) Evocative line follows evocative line: “There’s just no way you could build another Southfork, not in six lifetimes.” “Ewing Oil’s going to be destroyed — not by your brother but by mine.” “He gave his eldest son the biggest toy a father can give — Ewing Oil — and within two short years, he broke it.” “This feels like the end of forty years of sweat and hopes and dreams.” My personal favourite is from Jock: “I trained JR, taught him everything he knows, gave him the fever for big business — but I never taught him when to stop.”

Whereas Ellie Saves the Day feels mostly insular and introspective, with each of the Ewings reflecting on what it would mean to lose both the home and company that define them, Emergency, as its title suggests, has a palpable sense of urgency. My favourite Ewingverse director, Larry Elikann, uses his trademark BIG close-ups and knack for making familiar locations look unfamiliar (I don’t think there’s ever been a scene set on the Wards’ front lawn before this ep) to makes it feel like everything that’s happening is happening NOW.

Ginger’s wistful Season 3 daydreams of becoming a singer are abruptly transformed into a soaptastic tale of thwarted ambition. Her wordless reaction to hearing Ciji “steal” her song is priceless, as is Kenny’s reaction to her reaction. And the subsequent scene where she barges angrily into Ciji’s dressing room is deliciously out of character. If Ginger’s vow of “I’ll get you for this!” is the first harbinger of the whodunnit to come at the end of the season, then Ciji's demise is also foreshadowed visually. A curious Abby makes her way through a crowd of people at the polo field to see what they’re all looking at — only to find her own niece Diana unconscious on the ground; it's the exact same way Gary will discover Ciji’s body on the beach.

Just as KNOTS is on the cusp of bursting into a full-blown supersoap, it is brought sharply down to earth by the semi-realism of Diana’s kidney failure story. There's nothing glossy or romantic about chronic dialysis, and it’s for sure you're never gonna hear about traces of blood in the urine of a Texas Ewing. But as we’re no longer in plot-of-the-week territory where Diana’s plight can be resolved by the end credits, where can this plot be going?

Her final ominous line, “I may never forgive you for this, JR” notwithstanding, Miss Ellie remains impressively stoical throughout … Saves the Day. By contrast, her matriarchal equivalent on KNOTS, Karen, falls fascinatingly apart when faced with the gravity of her daughter’s condition. Michele Lee is probably at her most compelling as an actress when she’s too preoccupied to think about being likeable.

What can save the Ewing empire? What can save Diana? These are problems too big to be solved within a stand alone episode. In each case, however, a possible solution arrives at the eleventh hour and from the least likely person. How ironic that overhearing Sue Ellen tell Little Josh that he’ll “never know the beauty of this ranch” is what spurs Miss Ellie to go against her daddy’s wishes and allow JR to drill for oil on Southfork. Fast forward thirty-three years to Changing of the Guard and it’s Little Josh himself who declares that he is “long past caring about Miss Ellie’s precious little wishes” as he campaigns to drill on the ranch. Meanwhile on Emergency, it slowly emerges that two story strands — Karen’s antagonism towards Abby (blaming her for Diana’s collapse, then coldly snubbing her at the hospital in front of Val) and Abby’s ruthlessness as she prepares to screw Kenny out of Ciji’s record contract — are like trains set on a collision course as Karen realises Abby is the only one who can save her daughter!

And the winner is ... Emergency Saves the Day

BONUS BEATS:

 

[Billy Nolan]

Just as KNOTS is on the cusp of bursting into a full-blown supersoap, it is brought sharply down to earth by the semi-realism of Diana’s kidney failure story. There's nothing glossy or romantic about chronic dialysis, and it’s for sure you're never gonna hear about traces of blood in the urine of a Texas Ewing. But as we’re no longer in plot-of-the-week territory where Diana’s plight can be resolved by the end credits, where can this plot be going?

Her final ominous line, “I may never forgive you for this, JR” notwithstanding, Miss Ellie remains impressively stoical throughout … Saves the Day. By contrast, her matriarchal equivalent on KNOTS, Karen, falls fascinatingly apart when faced with the gravity of her daughter’s condition. Michele Lee is probably at her most compelling as an actress when she’s too preoccupied to think about being likeable.

perfect viewing. Thanks @James from London
Diana's kidney disease and breakdown really relegate Knots Landing to its origins and continue its claim to be a more down-to-earth soap opera. I have often asked myself if the storyline is disturbing - and if it messes up the whole process of season 4. Today I have to answer the question in the negative. It "does not throw the audience back", but rather reminds of the actual claim of the series, which also stands out from other soap operas of its time.
A similar episode of season 4, which is reminiscent of episodes from earlier storylines, is the storyline about Karen's childhood sweetheart Teddy. However, that rather annoyed me. Inwardly I had to roll my eyes and thought 'Another story by two men for Karen's favor' ... It felt like you had seen it 100 times before.

 

[James from London]

The Emperor's Clothes (KNOTS, 21 Feb 85) v En Passant (DALLAS, 06 Dec 85)

It’s a “Written by Joel J Feigenbaum” double bill!

Unusually, KNOTS is all about the men: While Val hovers quietly in the background nursing a scratched finger and post-Verna amnesia, Ben interviews the residents of Wesphall about the chemical poisoning Galveston Industries accidentally-on-purpose inflicted on them. While Abby and Karen are surprised to find themselves in agreement over what kind of views the Lotus Point cabins should have, Mack wrings a murder confession out of a Galveston hitman and Gary threatens to halt construction on Empire Valley unless Paul Galveston himself returns from wherever he’s disappeared to. Where he’s actually disappeared to is a private hospital room where he’s hooked up to one of those bleepy machines. His only visitor is a facially obscured mystery woman who marries him on his deathbed. Elsewhere, Laura contemplates marriage to a man who gets involved with shadowy organisations that threaten her children on an annual basis.

Meanwhile, DALLAS, is mostly about the women. Jack goes to Pam for business advice, Angelica Nero accuses her male underling of behaving hysterically and the show takes Sue Ellen’s resolution to put her newly sober life to good use seriously. Over at the Krebbs house, instead of Ray being the depressed one slobbing round the house during a time of crisis, it’s Donna, following her miscarriage. Although the Dream Season has yet to lose its lustre at this point, a slight feeling of preciousness is starting creeping in. “You never loved him … not the way I did,” Ray told JR back in Adoption when he was grieving over Jock. Whereas that felt very touching, Donna similar's insistence that Ray’s pain over the loss of their baby cannot possibly equal hers feels somehow grating and self-righteous. Likewise, Sue Ellen’s response to her mother’s concerns about her social standing as a newly separated woman borders on the pious: “Would you believe, Mother, that I haven’t given any of that a moment’s thought?” It kind of makes you miss the Sue Ellen who thought of nothing but her social standing.

And the winner is ... The Emperor's Clothes

BONUS BEATS:

 

[James from London]

Encounters (KNOTS, 14 Oct 82) v End of the Road (1/2) (DALLAS, 16/23 Jan 81)

It’s a “Debut of the Strangely Named Songstress” double bill!

Just as Gary is immediately captivated by Ciji when he catches her rehearsing in Encounters, so JR is by Afton when Lucy brings her future in-laws to dinner at Southfork in End of the Road. While Sue Ellen registers her husband’s interest and glares accordingly, it’s Ginger rather than Abby who initially looks most disturbed about her man’s fascination with Ciji. Abby’s jealous too, but about Gary's preoccupation with Val rather than Ciji. Back on DALLAS, Pam wishes she could make Bobby jealous. “Would you mind if I danced with Alex?” she asks him at Lucy’s wedding. When he nods indifferently, she ups the ante: “Would you mind if I went to bed with Alex?” If looks could kill, Bobby wouldn’t be coming back in the shower any time soon.

The 80/81 season of DALLAS is the last to make its alphabetical debut and it just might be the most fascinatingly weird year of the entire series. Partly, this is due to the stock library music the show is obliged to use for the first half of the season which gives even the most innocuous scenes a slow, ominous “shark approaching” kind of vibe. There’s also a strange sense that, following the worldwide Who Shot JR phenomenon, the Ewings’ real world fame has somehow bled into the show’s fictional world. “Ever since Mitch wrote us about the wedding, I’ve been reading up on your family,” Afton tells Lucy. “When you marry a Ewing, you’re very easy to follow in the newspapers,” Clint Ogden tells Sue Ellen. Sue Ellen’s own line to JR — “That laugh of yours is positively evil, but I love it” — chimes directly with his real life persona as “TV’s man you love to hate.”

As soon as JR and Afton clap eyes on each other, it’s a foregone conclusion that they’ll end up in bed together. Sue Ellen’s aware of it too. It’s almost as if all three are DALLAS viewers as well as DALLAS characters, and so know exactly where this storyline is going. This could easily be smug and annoying, but instead the predictability adds to the fun. This being the episode where we learn that JR’s been sleeping with his secretary Louella all along, his throwaway line to his father, “Do you suppose Afton can type?” is really funny. “So, the real JR Ewing has finally come home,” Sue Ellen says without a flicker of surprise when she finds his and Afton’s crumpled bedsheets during Lucy and Mitch’s wedding reception. (There’s a direct link between this scene and the one 33 years later at another Southfork wedding, this time between Sue Ellen’s son and Afton’s daughter, when Sue Ellen says to the mother of the bride, “The worst thing JR ever did was you.”)

“Miss Texas to Mrs Southfork — devoted wife and mother, loved by all who know her,” says Clint describing the Sue Ellen he’s read about in the newspapers. Over on KNOTS, Val’s publicist Bess Riker describes the Texas Ewings somewhat differently, as “one of the most notorious families in the country.” Val’s frustration at the idea that the only way to interest the public in her Texas-based novel, Capricorn Crude, is to emphasise its links to her larger-than-life in-laws works as a perfect metaphor for KNOTS’ struggle to cut its ties with DALLAS and be allowed to forge its own identity. Val and Gary’s crossover appearance in End of the Road a year earlier can also be read as KNOTS making a bid for independence, as they use Ray turning out to be Jock’s son as a reason why they need never return to Southfork again. And sure enough, Val won’t be seen in Dallas in DALLAS for another thirty-four years. Mind you, a year later in Encounters, it sounds like she’s had enough of life in Seaview Circle as well. “I don’t wanna be here. I don’t wanna live in this house or coo at their babies or make small talk at the mailbox anymore!” she yells.

At almost the exact same moment that Gary stumbles upon Ciji, Richard stumbles upon his future restaurant (and a whole new vocation). It’s exciting — almost as if KNOTS were being reinvented in front of our eyes.

And the winner is ... Encounters

BONUS BEATS:

 

[Julia's Gun]

I love the Encounters episode. It is exciting as you say, but that final scene in the car park is one of those classic, pivotal Knots moments when it's really over for Gary and Val... Well, for a decade at least.

 

[James from London]

The Enemy of My Enemy (DALLAS, 11 Jul 12) v Enigma (DALLAS, 17 Oct 86)

In both episodes, the mistress of Southfork — Ann Ewing in 2012, Ellie Farlow in 1986 — is deeply disturbed when a long lost keepsake (or two) associated with a previous spouse resurfaces. A locket sent from ex-husband Harris Ryland reduces Ann to a sobbing mess. The discovery of Jock’s buckle and knife in the possession of Southfork’s new foreman Wes Parmalee sends Miss Ellie into a tailspin. Tellingly, both women choose not to confide this crisis to their current husband, Bobby and Clayton respectively. While we know what’s bothering Ellie (namely, Wes’s claim that Jock’s belongings “are mine — and always have been”), we’re as much in the dark as Bobby as to what’s troubling Ann. Nonetheless, he bursts into Ryland’s office and takes a swing at him anyhow. (At this stage in New DALLAS, Harris and Sue Ellen are the only two characters who even have an office. John Ross seems to be operating out of the Southfork bedroom he time shares with his daddy.)

It’s interesting to chart Bobby and Sue Ellen’s fluctuating morality over the years. In End of the Road (1981), Bobby was so appalled by Jeremy Wendell’s plan to put small independent oil companies out of business that he resigned from Ewing Oil rather than honour a deal with West Star. In Enigma (1986), he cheerfully concludes that if you can’t beat Wendell, you might as well join him, suggesting to JR that they take advantage of the current oil crisis by buying up as many struggling independents as they can. JR readily agrees: “Like Daddy used to say, ‘When things get tough, buy, don’t sell!’” By the time of The Enemy of My Enemy (2012), the Ewing brothers are on opposite sides once again as Bobby and Christopher battle to stop JR and John Ross drilling for oil on Southfork. But when Christopher stoops to blackmailing John Ross over a sex tape of him and Marta Del Sol, Bobby is disappointed. “A lifetime of dealing with JR has put me on both sides of blackmail. It never pays off in the end. It’s not just that it’s wrong, it’s bad business,” he counsels. (“John Ross and Christopher get along so well,” Pam observes contendedly in Enigma. Not anymore they don’t.)

Sue Ellen has also learned, and relearned, from her mistakes over the years. Her plan to discredit JR using a private detective backfired horribly in Divorce Ewing Style (1980) when he made her look like a delusional drunk instead. Six years later in Enigma, she has learnt to deploy the services of a PI much more subtly. Realising that Sue Ellen’s having them followed, JR tells Mandy they need to keep their relationship on the down low. Frustrated at being a kept (out of sight) woman, Mandy defies his wishes and auditions to become the Valentine Girl. Little do JR and Mandy realise this is what Sue Ellen had planned all along.

Twenty-six years later in New DALLAS, however, Sue Ellen is as reluctant as Bobby to return to her scheming ways. She’s running for governor and is determined not to compromise herself. (“If I start down that road …”) This cuts little ice with John Ross when he asks her to pull some political strings to get Ryland to transport the oil he’s drilling on Southfork. “You’ve been compromising everything with me since I was born!” he snaps at her. Her maternal strings tugged, Sue Ellen does indeed start down that road.

And the winner is ... Enigma

BONUS BEATS: