Festive Names

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 5414" data-attributes="member: 22">22/Dec/81: FLAMINGO ROAD: The Little Foxes v. 24/Dec/81: KNOTS LANDING: Secrets v. 25/Dec/81: FALCON CREST: The HarvestChristmas arrives in FLAMINGO ROAD a week later than it did in KNOTS LANDING. The decorations are a tad more excessive - even the barrio slum dwellers have draped their doors with tinsel - but while Lane Ballou's version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" pre-empts Karen Mackenzie's by nine years, "Silent Night" remains the carollers' festive song of choice. Overall, it's a less sentimental ep, with Michael Tyrone behaving positively Scrooge-like. "I want you to evict those Cuban trespassers," he orders. "On Christmas Eve?" asks a surprised Titus. "There are no holidays for men like us," he replies. "Their eviction notices will be in their Christmas stockings," Titus assures him.Where FLAMINGO ROAD has the Cuban Sanchez clan, FALCON CREST has the Mexican Nunouzes, a family of manual labourers headed by Gus Nunouz, Chase's right hand man in the vineyard. The budding romance between the Weldons' son Skipper and Alicia Sanchez on FL'RD mirrors the one between the Giobertis' daughter Vicky and Gus's son Mario on FALCON CREST. While Alicia's brother Julio disapproves of her associating with a rich Anglo, Mario's mother (also named Alicia) fears Mario's relationship with Vicky will jeopardise his college prospects. Unlike FL'RD, FALCON CREST does not address the issue of race directly. "We come from such different backgrounds" is as close at it gets - suggesting class as much as ethnicity. Vicky's cousin Lance, however, repeatedly taunts Mario, calling him "a picker" and managing to make the word sound like a racial epithet. After Lance sees Mario dancing with Vicky at The Hideaway (the young people's hangout of choice in FC - a somewhat less groovy version of The Blue Whale in DARK SHADOWS or the Hideaway in PEYTON PLACE) and stabs him with a broken bottle, Angela offers the Nunouzes a deal: a college scholarship for Mario if they drop assault charges against her grandson. They accept the bribe gratefully and without hesitation. By contrast, Julio Sanchez regards even an invitation to the Weldons' Christmas party as a handout and angrily declines it. Only when he is approached by Skipper's sister Constance, to whom he is clearly attracted, does his attitude soften.Minor trend of the week #1: One character casting a critical eye over the financial records of another. On KNOTS, Scooter Warren goes through the receipts of his estranged wife Miriam, questioning why he should be expected to pay $212 for her lover's green silk kimono, among other items. On FALCON CREST, Angela is so unimpressed with Lance's bank statement ("How can you spend such an exorbitant amount of money in one month?") that she cancels his checking account. And an entire subplot of this week's KNOTS is devoted to Karen and Gary's very entertaining attempts to first decipher Abby's bookkeeping entries and then persuade her to return to KLM in time for an audit by the IRS. (For her eventual meeting with the auditor, Gary notes that Abby has gone for the "silk blouse and no bra" approach.) On FLAMINGO ROAD, a document of another kind enables Eudora to realise that Claude has forged her signature in a fraudulent attempt to sell the barrio to Michael Tyrone.Minor trend of the week #2: Characters speaking and/or pretending to be Spanish. "Meester Avery no en casa," says Laura on KNOTS when a woman she mistakenly believes to be sleeping with Richard calls the marital home. Meanwhile, Lance converses in their mother tongue with the Mexican labourers Chase has hired to harvest his grapes, using a mixture of bribery and intimidation to persuade them not to turn up for work.On KNOTS LANDING, Richard's boss (played by Kyle Bennett, the lawyer who came to Sue Ellen's aid after she was arrested for shooting JR) has him handling what Jock Ewing used to refer to as the three Bs - booze, broads and booty. In other words, Richard now finds himself, reluctantly, in the role of company pimp. Following a party for some prospective Japanese clients, he tries to revive a comatose prostitute (a former colleague of Krystle Carrington no doubt fallen on hard times) in much the same way Nick Toscanni did Claudia following her recent overdose on DYNASTY, but more directly modelled on a scene from THE APARTMENT with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Meanwhile, Scooter takes Laura to the same swanky house currently occupied Michael Tyrone in FLAMINGO ROAD (a location that will eventually appear in all five soaps) for a bungled seduction. By the end of the episode, the Averys' relationship starts to resemble Claude and Eudora's self-described "sham of a marriage" on FLAMINGO ROAD.This week's KNOTS also features what I believe to be the only use of the word "orgasms" in the entire history of Soap Land (ironic considering this is a genre where characters are continually having the best sex of their lives). It's Abby who drops the O bomb during a fun scene at the DALLAS Cattleman's Club with Karen.The bulk of this week's FALCON CREST has been adapted from the series' unaired pilot. Having grown weary of Lance's various misdemeanours, (tardiness, profligacy, violence, etc.) Angela begins grooming his cousin Cole to be her successor instead. Playing one potential heir off against another is a potent idea and this storyline pre-figures the reading of Jock's will in DALLAS by a full year.Cole's head is seriously turned when Angela presents him with a super-sexy sports car, (following the Rolls Royce convertible Blake surprised Krystle with a few weeks ago and the cars Scooter and Richard each presented Laura with in last week's KNOTS, jalopies are clearly the Soap Land gift du jour) and so begins the battle for Cole's soul. There's a very interesting scene where Lance appears to be warning his rival for his own good: "You're hooked, cousin, whether you know it or not, because first, you took the car and now you're in the house. One more step, you'll be trapped for the rest of your life … Lots of people get caught in Angie Channing's web so be careful, cousin." The distant sound of Emma's insane laughter as he speaks only serves to underline his words.FALCON CREST and FLAMINGO ROAD each end on a semi-religious note this week. Anonymous carol singers serenade Eudora and her Christmas party guests with "Silent Night", Titus undercutting the spiritual mood with a "Bah humbug!" in the final shot. On FALCON CREST, it's Harvest Day and no sooner has a Catholic priest blessed the Gioberti grapes than the pickers Lance scared off return to lend a hand. It's a miracle! A glowering Lance watching from a distance provides the equivalent of Titus's humbug.And this week's Soap Land Top 3 are …1 (2) FALCON CREST2 (4) KNOTS LANDING3 (5) FLAMINGO ROAD</blockquote>

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