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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 7555" data-attributes="member: 22">01/Dec/82: DYNASTY: Mark v. 02/Dec/82: KNOTS LANDING: The Best Kept Secret v. 03/Dec/82: DALLAS: The Wedding v. 03/Dec/82: FALCON CREST: The VigilThe last will and testaments of Cecil Colby, Jock Ewing and Joseph Gioberti have resulted in some uneasy business alliances in Soap Land. Colby Co is now owned jointly by Cecil’s widow Alexis and his nephew Jeff. Falcon Crest is currently run by Joseph’s daughter Angela in partnership with her nephew Chase. Ewing Oil has two of Jock’s sons each running half of the same company in direct competition with one another. The conflicts arising from each of these partnerships can be felt in this week’s episodes.Although Alexis and Jeff actually get along quite well on DYNASTY, problems arise when Alexis allows her son Adam to deputise for her while she is in New York. Jeff is not happy to learn that Adam plans to do business with the controversial Ahmed brothers. (Apparently, the Ahmeds are in London, which would explain why Rashid wasn’t able to assume his alias as Tony Cumson in last week’s FALCON CREST.) Jeff nixes the deal, leading to his and Adam’s first clash. Pretty soon, they’re arguing about everything from Adam’s real identity to the sexual appetite of Jeff’s wife.To reign Adam in, Jeff announces his intention to resign from his job at Denver Carrington and come over to Colby Co full time. Alexis is delighted, Adam is not. While Alexis toasts to "a wonderful future for the three of us together,” Adam and Jeff glower at each other over the rims of their champagne glasses.Over in the Tuscany Valley, Angela opposes Chase’s decision to develop an abandoned vineyard, claiming the venture to be too expensive. Chase smells a rat: "Two months ago, Falcon Crest was perfectly solvent and now its capital reserves are nearly drained.” What Angela hasn’t told him is that she has been stealing from the Falcon Crest development fund to buy up shares in the New Globe so she can take it over. "I’m bringing in an independent auditor,” Chase announces.Meanwhile, in DALLAS, Bobby breaks his promise to stay out of his brother’s half of Ewing Oil when the impact of JR’s variance becomes too great to ignore. While Chase’s auditor is poring over Angela’s business records on FALCON CREST, ("Money doesn’t just disappear, it goes somewhere”) Bobby has his accountants and geologists study the long-term implications of JR’s all-out oil drilling. He then confronts his brother during the Southfork cocktail hour: "Every one of those men thinks that you're tryin' to do is gonna ruin the future of Ewing Oil!” "Bobby," Ellie intervenes, "I'd like it better if you discussed this with JR in private." "I have tried, Mama,” he replies, "and I know how you feel about all this too: 'Let's not argue about business in front of the family', but don't you understand that when we're quiet about things like this, it plays right into his hands? It becomes a cover up for JR!”While there may not be an overriding family business on KNOTS LANDING for the characters to fight over, the ramifications of Gary’s inheritance provide a source of conflict between the Ewings and the Averys this week. Laura feels betrayed when she discovers Richard has struck a deal giving Abby and Gary a controlling interest in the restaurant. Unlike Jeff Colby, Chase Gioberti or Bobby Ewing, she is not in a position to assume control of the business or call for audits and reports. Instead, she visits Richard’s shrink for one of those circular conversations that leave her (and us) with more questions than answers.This week’s DYNASTY concludes with a great mother/son snarling match which reminds me a little of a scene from I, CLAUDIUS. “Jeff Colby is the enemy, Mother,” barks Adam, “our enemy - mine and yours … He’ll kill and strangle every plan we’ve talked about for you and me.” “Let me tell you something, Adam,” Alexis snaps back, "and don’t ever forget it. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the fact that I know who my enemies are and how to destroy them. I’ll decide if Jeff Colby becomes a real threat - not you, I.” This dynamic is reversed on FALCON CREST, where the young pretender affects nonchalance and the elderly dowager issues warnings. “I’m not worried about Chase,” Lance brags. “I can handle him.” “Well, you haven’t handled him so far,” Angela points out. "“Don’t underestimate Chase!"There’s more business conflict on KNOTS as Abby tries to interest record company mogul Jeff Munson in Ciji's career. Kenny sees Munson’s involvement as a threat to his own position as Ciji's producer. Nonetheless, Munson’s attendance at one of Ciji’s gigs is seen as a big deal by all concerned - all but Ciji herself, that is. “I’ve been excited before,” she shrugs. In contrast to the rest of the KNOTS characters, who are either struggling to overcome their pasts or hungry to build their futures, Ciji seems to exist almost entirely in the present. When she takes a break from rehearsal and looks around to see Chip has disappeared, she is sad. When Gary offers to take her for a ride in his car, she is happy again.Business isn’t the only source of drama in this week’s Soap Land. Having been goaded by Adam, Jeff argues with Fallon over her alleged attraction to her own brother: “I get the feeling you kind of admire him - in kind of a perverted way.” Under orders from his grandmother “to start acting like a father for a change," Lance visits his wife at Soap Land Memorial Hospital to offer his support … only to find Melissa receiving a comforting embrace from Richard Channing. He immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion (“You never change, do ya?”) and storms off. Meanwhile, on KNOTS, Diana drops by Mack’s apartment in an attempt to bury the hatchet … only to see “the lady who lives across the hall” emerge from his bathroom wearing just a towel. Diana immediately jumps to the right conclusion, makes her excuses and leaves.Two potential couples get off to an awkward start this week. Fallon meets Mark Jennings on DYNASTY and is on the verge of hiring him as La Mirage’s new tennis coach when she realises he is Krystle’s first husband. Meanwhile, on DALLAS, Lucy mistakes Mickey for an intruder when she finds him manhandling JR and Sue Ellen’s wedding present display. (They've certainly acquired more goodies than Mark Jennings and Krystle did for their nuptials. According to a flashback in this week’s DYNASTY, their wedding gifts totalled two hundred dollars cash and an assortment of candy dishes.) Even after Mickey introduces himself, identity remains an obstacle for the couple. “A grubby ranch hand isn’t good enough for Miss Moneybags,” he concludes bitterly after Ray advises him to keep his distance.Nine weeks after Karen and Mack's first dinner date on KNOTS LANDING, it’s time for Miss Ellie and Clayton Farlow to finally break bread together. For both couples, dead husbands are the main topic of conversation this week, with the widows Fairgate and Ewing comparing Mack and Clayton to Sid and Jock respectively. Clayton measures up quite well, Mack less so. “"You know, you and Jock would have gotten on very well,” smiles Ellie. "You have so many of the same qualities, the same kindness, the same strength. You really remind me of him very much.” “I had the best!” shouts Karen after learning of Mack’s fling with his neighbour. "Sid Fairgate never would have done this to me.” “I’m not Sid Fairgate,” Mack points out. “You’re damn right you’re not,” she replies.This week’s KNOTS and DALLAS each build up to a significant event at the end of the episode. On KNOTS, it’s Ciji's performance at Daniel’s in front of Jeff Munson. On DALLAS, it's JR and Sue Ellen’s wedding at Southfork. Both gatherings serve to bring all the regular characters together. Well, almost - Laura Avery and Lucy Ewing are both conspicuous by their absence.There is much silent staring-across-restaurants in the Ewing-verse this week. At Daniel’s, Val watches Abby watching Ciji and Gary laughing together - the triangle unexpectedly becoming a square. The square then becomes a pentagon as guest of honour Jeff Munson arrives and makes a bee line for Val. Abby laughs in spite of herself. Meanwhile, on DALLAS, there is a great reveal at the end of Clayton and Miss Ellie's restaurant scene where we realise Rebecca and Cliff have been sitting at another table the whole time. Rebecca notices Clayton and Ellie just in time to see him reach across the table to take her hand. The camera moves in close on Rebecca's dismayed reaction: the reluctant witness to the birth of a romance.Back on KNOTS, Ciji's song of the week is Dobie Grey’s "If Love Must Go”, a sweet little ballad about the end of a romance. Again, Ciji sings her heart out. Again, the camera circles round her, elevating her performance. Again, the regular characters are out front mirroring the emotions of the song they’re listening to, which then seem to feed back into the song itself. These elements fuse together until it’s impossible to see where one ends and another begins. During the song, the camera cuts a couple of times to Richard leaning against a wall with a drink, scowling in Ciji’s direction. Is he feeling anger towards her for turning his restaurant into a nightspot or has the song unlocked something inside of him to do with his own relationship with Laura? Meanwhile, Diana stares intensely at Ciji throughout her performance - what is she thinking about? Val too seems mesmerised by Ciji. It’s not until the song is nearly over, however, that we realise it’s not Ciji she’s been looking at all, but Gary and Abby. Karen is the one most clearly affected. Having put on a brave face ever since learning of Mack’s betrayal, she quietly starts to weep while Ciji sings, the song having broken through her defences.Just three weeks after Cecil and Alexis’s deathbed wedding on DYNASTY, it’s time for JR and Sue Ellen to retie the knot on DALLAS … or is it? It’s interesting to chart how dramatic Soap Land weddings have become over the past couple of years. When Krystle married Blake in the first episode of DYNASTY, her old flame Matthew turned up at the wedding - but only after the ceremony was safely over. During last season’s FALCON CREST, Melissa’s lover Cole showed up at her wedding to Lance in time to witness the exchange of vows - but did so from a discreet vantage point. Now Sue Ellen’s ex-boyfriend Cliff raises the stakes by not only attending the wedding as an invited guest of the groom but then springing to his feet when the minister asks if there are any objections to the wedding.This week’s FALCON CREST is penned by Scott Hamner, who wrote "The Rose and the Briar” for last season’s KNOTS. Both episodes feature the respective series’ most eccentric character on a greyhound bus. On KNOTS, it was Lilimae, entertaining the little girl in the seat next to her with her autoharp. On FALCON CREST, it's Emma Channing, who bores the old woman next to her with tales from her unlikely life. Just as "The Rose and the Briar” saw Lilimae seeking fame and fortune in Las Vegas, “The Vigil" depicts Maggie trying and make it as a movie writer in Hollywood. At one point, she seems to channel Lilimae when she uncharacteristically bluffs her way into a movie studio by pretending to have attended the Oscars with a passing payroll clerk.There are a few KNOTSian touches back in the Tuscany Valley as well. Maggie’s family each attempt to cook their own breakfast in her absence, with varying degrees of success. Them there's a scene where Cole turns to his father for advice, only for Chase to completely miss the point, which reminds me of a similar exchange between Sid and Eric in early KNOTS. Meanwhile, Angela secretly persuading a producer to take an interest in Maggie’s script in the hopes of driving a wedge between her and Chase mirrors the helping hand Abby gave Val’s writing career last season.Outrageous Soap Land outfit of the week: It’s a tie between the space vixen dress Ciji wears on stage and Sue Ellen’s NFL-themed wedding gown. (Shoulder-pads are now so commonplace in Soap Land that Krystle is even wearing them in a flashback to her and Mark’s wedding night sometime in the 1970s.)And this week’s Soap Land Top 4 are …1 (1) DYNASTY2 (-) KNOTS LANDING3 (3) DALLAS4 (2) FALCON CREST</blockquote>

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