Rewatching Knots Landing

[Soaplover]

I think one of the keys for reviving the primetime soap genre is to start out with self contained episodes. It was one of the reasons why BH 90210 & Melrose Place became popular in the 90s was because they both started out with self contained feel good episodes and eventually evolved into soapy dramas.

Even David Jacobs said that was the issue with other prime time soaps that started out in the 80s like Paper Dolls, Berrengers, Bare Essence, etc.

 

[Toni]

I quite agree with the above. I remember being really frustrated with season 3 the first time i did a re-watch when it was all shown again on CBS Drama in the UK in the 2010s. But I was so desperate to watch the missing seasons 5 & 6 that I had missed first time round that I didn't have time for all the little side stories and guest characters that came and went, never to return.

However, now season 3 is one of my faves, so many interesting moments, like the Christmas episode One of A kind where Karen's old ex turns up and thinks Diana is his daughter. Even 'Rose and The Briar' which exposes Lilimae's deviousness, and The Three Sisters have a weird charm about them that is uniquely Knots - when else will we see Abby relegated to the trunk during a vacation trip?

I also agree Dallas and Falcon Crest also had some good standalone episodes early on in their respective runs. I enjoyed Season1 of Falcon Crest much more during a recent re-watch. The second episode is very stand-alone, 'A time for Saboteurs' when Chase's flying buddy turns up and nearly gives Maggie a brain tumor when they low fly over her head. It is interesting in character building, fleshing out Chase's character motivations and his Vietnam past, and also bringing in Julia's vulnerabilities early on when Paul tries it on with her.

Episode aka "The one with Julia showing what a drunk b***** she really was"...

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

Appears to be an unpopular opinion based on another thread I read, but The Three Sisters I found hard to pay attention to.
Cricket too. What a boring episode.
I am reminded of Triangle and Runaway on Dallas. Snoozefest.
On a more positive note, I must be getting older because suddenly I find Gary/Ted to be handsome as heck. I never, ever thought anything of Gary in any watch through of Dallas or KL previously, he was just there, but now I'm like mm yeah, I get it

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

My goodness, I’m only five episodes into season 4 and I’m already sick to death of hearing Ciji sing. If all that stuff about music rights being the reason they couldn’t release the DVDs years ago is true (I assume it’s all sorted now since it’s streaming, though outside the US it’s unavailable, so a lot of us, myself included, are watching the old ‍ copies), then honestly… to hell with that. Just cut the singing scenes. LOL

 

[Svengali]

My goodness, I’m only five episodes into season 4 and I’m already sick to death of hearing Ciji sing. If all that stuff about music rights being the reason they couldn’t release the DVDs years ago is true (I assume it’s all sorted now since it’s streaming, though outside the US it’s unavailable, so a lot of us, myself included, are watching the old ‍ copies), then honestly… to hell with that. Just cut the singing scenes. LOL

maybe you should stop watching and watch an other show

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

maybe you should stop watching and watch an other show

Nah, love me some KL, just not the singing

 

[Daniel Avery]

Everyone has parts of the show that do not resonate. Sometimes they add things in with the intention of attracting certain viewers, but the "fine line" is adding new viewers without alienating the old ones. I do think that they could have had the same effect by sometimes having her start a song, then cut to her finishing it within ten or fifteen seconds. Everything ground to a halt while the song was performed, and soaps should be working its plots all hour long.

The good news of course is that if you hang around a while the part you don't like moves on to something you do like. It's what makes soap fans so much more loyal than the average viewer.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Dynasty and Falcon Crest were the most over-the-top soaps but Knots had some truly wacky episodes and, apart from Dallas' infamous dream season, it was the only prime time soap with structurally unconventional soap narrative here and there. Although it could be argued that the nightmare sequences in Falcon Crest and The Colbys were quite Dark Shadow-y. And, yes, the UFO.

The Three Sisters and Silver Shadows can be appreciated as novelties but they were spin-off adventures that stalled the soap.
The self-contained Dallas episodes never seemed irrelevant but they benefited from the all-important Ewing name that glued it all together.
Pam could literally go to the moon and the first question would be: how is this going to affect Jock Ewing? (or Cliff, if it was a Cliff episode!).

 

[Stillwitty]

My goodness, I’m only five episodes into season 4 and I’m already sick to death of hearing Ciji sing. If all that stuff about music rights being the reason they couldn’t release the DVDs years ago is true (I assume it’s all sorted now since it’s streaming, though outside the US it’s unavailable, so a lot of us, myself included, are watching the old ‍ copies), then honestly… to hell with that. Just cut the singing lol

Agree! Not a fan of Lisa Hartman's singing at all - decent enough actress, but should have left the singing to her husband, Clint Black. That said, a LITTLE would have been enough torture, but they had her singing complete covers of Journey songs, etc. and the copyright laws were apparently not adhered to or royalties not paid, I wouldn't mind cutting out the singing totally...

 

[Karin]

I really like Lisa's singing. I have all four of her albums on CD and also copied to my phone so I can listen to them whenever I want to.
One of her songs that really did work on the show is "If Love Must Go". I mean all those close ups on the characters faces. The music did work really effectively in that scene.

Also the Ciji plot might seem slow at the beginning but it's building up to a great crescendo towards the end of the season!

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Self-contained episodes can be frustrating in a first watch because you want to see the full-on soap opera, but once you've watched the whole series then those early episodes become increasingly fascinating - and many of them were actually quite good to begin with

The Three Sisters and Silver Shadows can be appreciated as novelties but they were spin-off adventures that stalled the soap.

All these things are true, yes. These novel situations were used to explore character (and sometimes the psychology of characters) in ways that may not have been possible had the same hour been used more conventionally.

The payoff really comes on a rewatch and sometimes not even then. I've really only come to appreciate the extent of the ties to characters' pasts and the foreshadowing of future episodes through discussion (and sometimes dissection) on the forum.

 

[Soaplover]

The Three Sisters was really a portrait into what role each of the women played on the show, or how the showrunners viewed them. Val was the 'gullible' one that everyone felt sorry for and worried about, Lillimae was the annoying tag along, Karen/Laura were the leaders, Abby was the prankster, and Ginger was just a spare like a 1st runner up of a beauty contest if the winner was unable to fulfill their duties (she was 1st runner up to Val).

Silver Shadows was a good view of Abby and her conflicting wants and needs. It shows that she takes people for granted if they aren't needed (the guy she was dating that ends up asking Karen out), she knows not to bite the hand that might feed her (the elderly man with money), she knows in order to make money she needs to get money from someone (the business venture that Gary says needs more money), showed that Val didn't dislike Abby if her focus is on something other than her husband, and the last scene shows that Abby did care for man and has a heart deep down.. but is so insecure about going without that she sacrifices love/happiness for financial security.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

Wise Seaview Circle residents, tell me, was it in Ted's contract that we're to see his body more often now?

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

This Chip/Ciji/Diana thing has really heated up.
I’m honestly a bit confused and starting to question my own critical analysis, lol. When Diana was playing along with Chip’s hostage behaviour, I assumed she was just trying to pacify him, keeping him calm because she was terrified. But now that she’s been rescued by Mac, she’s giving Karen this icy glare.

It's great writing and acting that I find these people all infuriating

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

We, Lilimae? We?

ETA: Several episodes later (episode 7) and they've done the impossible, made me feel empathetic towards Lilimae. First time in 5 seasons...

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

Coming up to the last 8 episodes of season 5 and it's back to the drama I was here for.

I don't know a thing about Claudia Lonow but my goodness, Diana took a nosedive as a character. What a bummer as an actress
There was a scene where Eric, Michael, and Diana were walking on the ranch talking about Chip/Diana/Karen and I laughed out loud at Michael saying something along the lines of "oh yeah, mom was so wrong about Chip" If Karen had said that, Diana would have sulked for weeks. I love the sibling dynamic they have.
Abby, Abby, Abby. Started her marriage on a terrible foot and now all scared playing a game she's not control of.
Ted/Gary still looking good.
Val's hair looks great this season too.

Sidenote, but this season is such an example of the kids being nothing but annoying characters the writers have to remind themselves exist. Jason who? Olivia? Brian? We had all that drama about ensuring Laura kept Daniel all for Daniel to might as well not exist. (I meant Daniel the baby, but I'm now wondering what happened to Daniel the restaurant. Ciji died and we never heard about the restaurant business again).

 

[Laura Avery-Sumner]

I'm now wondering what happened to Daniel the restaurant. Ciji died and we never heard about the restaurant business again).

Richard signed it over to Laura when he skipped town. We see her destroy the kitchen because she's pissed.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Later they had Laura say she sold the restaurant, but in an off-handed way that said the writers didn't want to talk about it any more. They had a tendency to make businesses into important plot centers, only to basically abandon the business once they moved onto other "story locales". They gave lip service to the disappearance of Knots Landing Motors (barely) but once-bustling settings like Daniel, Lotus Point, Pacific World Cable and Gary Ewing Enterprises suddenly didn't matter any more and were hand-waved away.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

Took me a while to get back to the last few episodes of the season.
Cathy was a big fat bore towards the end. Such a blah of a plot. Nothing came of it. So pointless.
Ben too. What was the point of all the he's going, he's lost, he's back stuff? They just didn't want to have actor in more episodes? Lilimae is basically gone (hallelujah lol) but just off screen. The Ben might move away thing was so silly.
Season 6 episode 1, they're using the music instrumentals from the early seasons and ahh I am thrown back to the tragedy of those early years. If I didn't know Karen was in the entire series, I'd be thinking right about now that she was about to go the way of Sid.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Season 6 episode 1, they're using the music instrumentals from the early seasons and ahh I am thrown back to the tragedy of those early years.

Jerrold Immel was the composer for Buying Time, and most if not all of the reprises were his compositions, from episodes he'd previously scored.

What I really enjoyed about the reprises here was the chance to hear them performed with a fuller orchestra. The music from The Lie, played during Karen's surgery, has never sounded so beautiful (even though it was a little odd to use it for Karen when fans generally consider it 'Laura's Theme').

Immel composed some truly memorable pieces for the series' underscore. This episode is a favourite (the S4 finale is another).

I've said this far too many times, but I'm still not over the fact that the Film Music Society promised us an Immel Dallas/Knots soundtrack somewhere around 2009 and it hasn't happened. To this day, it's still mentioned on their site as upcoming.

Our line of compact discs, featuring recordings of scores and songs restored from original production masters, will soon be expanding with releases including a never-before-heard interview with Miklós Rózsa, Jerrold Immel's music from Dallas and Knots Landing, the documentary music of Paul Sawtelle, and many other fascinating productions. Some of our CDs are available to members only; others include member discounts.