20180625

KNOTS LANDING

"Gary," next-door neighbor Karen Cooper said haltingly in one episode of 'Knots Landing' in 1992, "I, I just wanted to say that — well, we really missed you on the cul-de-sac, and it's good to have you back." 'Entertainment Weekly' observed, "Cul-de-sac — Just a fancy word for dead end." Scott D Pierce noted, "At its heart it was about relatively normal, middle-class people living on Seaview Circle - a Southern California cul-de-sac." 

'Knots Landing' concluded after 14 years in 1993. The 1997 reunion mini-series, 'Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac', Kevin Dobson as Marion MacKenzie told the 'Los Angeles Times', "was like meeting an old friend you haven't seen in a couple of years. You pick up where you left off. I think CBS, in their determining they wanted to move on to something else ('Angel Falls'), was premature in yanking this ('Knots Landing') ... This show was on for 14 years. I always said it would go for 20." 

Set in the postcard-scenic village of Angel Falls, the series of the same name sought to attract the female demographics. In his review, David Zurawik remarked, "At its core, 'Angel Falls' is closer to 'Knots Landing' than it is 'Twin Peaks'. That means it's more mainstream melodrama and less hip quirkiness. It's set in the present, but the Montana setting gives it a western or frontier feel at a time when viewers seem interested again in the frontier (such as 'Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'). It's got three generations (Jean Simmons, as James Brolin's mom, represents the third), which gives it broad demographic potential." 

Michele Lee maintained, "(Viewers) identified so with those people on the cul-de-sac because we were them … We went through four presidencies (Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton) and you saw it reflected on the cul-de-sac. You wouldn't see life reflected and changed in that manner in the mansions or the ranches or the vineyards. 'Desperate Housewives' is more interested in that particular cul-de-sac than the world in general." 

Donna Mills as Abby Fairgate made the point, "It bridged a whole generation of people and all aspects of their lives." On reflection, Michele Lee acknowledged, "We're so good at flipping and flopping that the audience can always expect us to get out of a bind." Joan Van Ark as Valene Clements voiced, "The best-laid plans mean nothing. If they see that a storyline isn't working, they bail. And I count that as a plus." 

David Jacobs insisted, "Karen is the tent pole. She says the things I want to say. She's the voice of the viewer." Michele Lee believed, "I think one reason we've lasted so long is that we've always really cared about our audience. There's a familial connection between us. I really feel it because I'm a 'Knots' viewer, too." 

In 2004, Arthur Swift spoke to writers Lynn Marie Latham and Bernard Lechowick. Art Swift reported, "The process of writing 'Knots' was similar to other continuing series, Latham said. Before the season began, the writing staff would spend two months composing a 'bible', similar to a novella, ranging from 100-150 pages that covered everything that would happen that year on the show. From there, the writing staff would take that prose document and break it down into outlines for each episode. Week by week, one writer would take the composed outlines and write an individual script."

Lynn Marie Latham informed, "We had a week of seven working days. We started on a Monday and would finish on the following Wednesday. But we never worked on a hard and fast schedule. Sometimes the episodes were easy to complete, sometimes they were very difficult. The outlines are the hard part; the scripts are easy, that's fun, that's dialogue, that's a breeze. In one-hour drama, it goes in four acts. And we used to say there was the unnatural fourth act. That goes back to Aristotle, when drama falls into three acts. But what you find in soap operas is that there are three acts of a complete story and the fourth will often be the first act of your next show." 

Donna Mills made the observation, "One of the nice things about 'Knots' is that we always had a sense of humor about the show, about each other and what people do in life. Even if you don't like somebody you kind of laugh about it sometimes. We tried to make it not too deadly serious all the time. I think that helped the show a lot." Michele Lee concurred, "The one thing that 'Knots Landing' had which was not seen on the continuing dramas of the day was a delicious sense of humor."

Bernard Lechowick recounted, "Ted (Shackelford) could do comedy and Kevin could do comedy, and they were effective because they were not punching it into the ground. In a heavier story they knew how to handle humor." Lynn Marie Latham told Art Swift, "Originally I was a comedy writer. I wanted to do half-hour sitcoms. Well this was a time that the comedies were disappearing and hour-long dramas were coming in. And I wanted to work so I told my agent, 'If you can get us a job, we will keep it because we're very hard workers.'"

Donna Mills concluded, "We all became very protective of our characters. I think that's one of the reasons why the show lasted so long, because our characters stayed true to themselves and didn't go off into total, weird tangents." Michael Filerman added, "'It was humanity. We dealt with people's problems. I don't think there will ever be another series that will last as long.'' 

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