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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 7564" data-attributes="member: 22">08/Dec/82: DYNASTY: Kirby v. 09/Dec/82: KNOTS LANDING: Emergency v. 10/Dec/82: DALLAS: Post Nuptial v. 10/Dec/82: FALCON CREST: ConfrontationsThe oil surplus that has served as a backdrop to much of the action on this season’s DALLAS now hits DYNASTY, where it also provides a springboard for a new story-line. It’s a little complicated, but from what I can make out, the surplus - or “oil glut” as Blake and co refer to it - means that the government have lost interest in finding alternative sources of fuel - which was what Denver Carrington’s research into oil shale extraction (the very research Cecil Colby had Claudia spy on Jeff for last season) was all about. "The government," grumbles Blake, "beg us to come up with alternative energy answers, we go into hock to accomplish it, and suddenly an oil glut comes along and we’re yesterday’s option.” The upshot is that Denver Carrington is now financially vulnerable.Meanwhile, on DALLAS, the same surfeit of oil is causing many to wonder what JR could possibly  be doing with all the crude he's been pumping since he got his variance. Two OLM members - including KNOTS LANDING record producer Jeff Munson, seen chatting with Abby Cunningham at a polo match in the previous night’s episode - share with Bobby their own theory - that JR is selling the oil to an embargo nation. Bobby spends the rest of the ep investigating this possibility. He’s got his work cut out for him as JR’s machinations are also pretty hard to keep track of. More confusing than either DALLAS's or DYNASTY’s business storylines, however, are FALCON CREST's. At the last moment, Richard Channing foils Angela’s attempt to take over the New Globe by issuing a thousand new shares onto the stock market. I have no idea what the last sentence I typed even means.So here we have three of the '80s super soaps with complex business plots that they choose not to simplify for the viewer at home. This isn’t necessarily a criticism - given the choice, I’d rather struggle to keep up with the programme I’m watching than be drumming my fingers, waiting for it to come to the point I’ve figured out ten minutes earlier (or worse still, already had spoilt for me online) - but as this is a genre where characters routinely exchange chunks of exposition for our benefit, why are their business stories are so densely complicated? Was the climate of the early '80s such that an average viewer was assumed to have a comprehensive working knowledge of big business, or did the programme makers credit us with being able to juggle such permutations in our heads as we went along, or are all these stories simply MacGuffins - dramatic devices that we at home are simply meant to take on blind faith and follow the consequences of, even if we don’t fully understand how we got there in the first place?So far as this week’s Soap Land goes, the complexity of the business stories works most favourably for DALLAS. With JR playing everything so close to his chest, we are in the roughly same position as Bobby and the rest of the characters, i.e. trying to figure out what he is up to. We may not be able to keep up with every connection Bobby is making, (I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen this episode, but as soon as the off-screen oil gets to Galveston, I’m lost) but we’re in roughly the same ballpark. The exact source of Blake’s problems on DYNASTY are harder to pin down, but the consequences are so big and bold (poisoned paint, anyone?) that it doesn’t really matter. The New Globe takeover story in FALCON CREST is the most bemusing. Richard’s last-minute manoeuvring might be utterly authentic, but to someone as ignorant about stocks and shares as I am, he might just as well have magicked a thousand shares out of thin air.Of course, it’s when the characters' business ideals collide with their personal lives that sparks really begin to fly. On DYNASTY, Blake invites Adam to Denver Carrington in the hopes of burying their differences. Having apparently reached an understanding, Blake is called away from his office, giving Adam the opportunity to sneak a peek at the oil shale contract file marked “confidential” left lying conveniently on Blake’s desk. Quick to take advantage of what he reads, Adam then suggests to Jeff that Colby Co bail out Denver Carrington in exchange for the use of their oil shale extraction process. Given that the extraction process is far more valuable than the loan, Jeff dismisses Adam’s proposal as “rotten". “The name of the game is winning,” Adam insists. “There happens to be room for both empires,” argues Jeff, "I mean, do we have to be barracudas to exist in this world?” "There comes a time in this business where you have to decide if you’re gonna make it or play by the rules.” That last quote comes not from Adam but from Abby in this week’s KNOTS as she justifies to Gary her decision to dump their partner Kenny in favour of Jeff Munson as Ciji’s record producer.Not that Kenny isn’t above a little inter-family betrayal himself. At the beginning of the ep, his wife Ginger hands him a demo of a song she has written with a view to recording herself. She is later stunned to hear Ciji performing it at Daniel’s. The sequence where she silently accuses Kenny of betrayal and we see the guilt on his face as Ciji continues to sing is really powerful.Ciji’s reaction when Ginger confronts her about the song is really interesting. She does not apologise for singing it without her permission or even thank her for writing it in the first place. "If I like a song and it’s good for me, I’m gonna sing it,” she states matter-of-factly. Instead of empathising with Ginger or indulging her hurt feelings, she acts as a mirror, reflecting Ginger’s own insecurities back at her: “If I’m up there doing something you wanna be doing, that’s your problem, not mine.” And it’s a such a blast to see mousy little Ginger reimagined as the kind of furious, wild-eyed Soap Land character who storms into rooms making ultimatums and swearing revenge: “You don’t care who you use or who you hurt,” she tells Ciji. "I’ll get you for this!"There’s some unexpected betrayal on FALCON CREST too, where we see Angela’s loyal attorney/lover Phillip Erickson consorting with a mysterious, unnamed blonde of mature years. The fact that Phillip and Angela's personal relationship has been conducted almost entirely off screen provides a kind of space around the character that allows a scene like this to come as a total surprise. Phillip may have been in the series since the first episode, but here we suddenly realise we know very little about him. So when Richard approaches him later in the episode and asks him to come and work for him, (and presumably betray Angela at the same time) we have no idea which way he will jump.Even more surprising is the scene where FALCON CREST's resident good wife, Maggie Gioberti, passionately kisses film producer Daryl Clayton on a Malibu beach. This transgresses Soap Land's unspoken sense of morality in a similar way to good guy Mack Mackenzie sleeping with his neighbour behind Karen’s back, as revealed in last week’s KNOTS. Sure, previous “good wives” have swooned in other men’s arms before now - Krystle Carrington, Pam Ewing and Karen Fairgate have all teetered on the brink of affairs - but in each case, Soap Land has taken care to show that they had been driven to such a position by a strong sense of unhappiness stemming from their husband’s neglect, or in Krystle’s case, a belief that Blake was already cheating on her. Maggie has no such excuse. She is happily married, fulfilled in her work and the only obstacle between her and Chase has been one of geography, as she has spent the last episode and a half working away from her family in Hollywood (and even then Chase has made at least two visits to see her). Following the kiss, Daryl invites her to join him “upstairs” in his beach house. Left alone to shower, Maggie comes to her senses in the much same way Pam did after kissing Alex Ward in San Serrano (DALLAS, Season 3). While Pam decisively locked the door connecting her and Alex’s hotel rooms, Maggie self-righteously accuses Daryl of "seduction", as if it were a spell he had cast or a mickey he had slipped her. Thus exonerated of any personal responsibility for the kiss, her status as a “good wife” is retained, just as Mack’s explanation that he slept with Patrice because he was frightened by the depth of his feelings for Karen effectively absolves him of his infidelity.Amidst all this duplicity, DALLAS newlyweds Sue Ellen and JR make a solemn commitment on their honeymoon: "No other women, no games. A total commitment, all the way.” In the best scene of this week’s FALCON CREST, Lance and Melissa also discuss their marital commitments. Having brought her son Joseph home from the hospital, they are watching him sleep when Lance asks for a divorce. “What Angela has joined together, let no man put asunder,” Melissa tells him, adding, "This was never supposed to be a love match. It’s a marriage of state - the joining of two empires.” Like those terrific JR and Sue Ellen nursery scenes in DALLAS Season 2, it’s the juxtaposition between the innocence of the child in his crib and the jaded, cynical adults looking down at him that makes this scene so good. “If that kid knew what was going on around him, he’d sleep with line eye open,” Lance remarks. “He’s the heir that joins Falcon Crest to the Agretti vineyards,” replies Melissa. "Long live the King.”Melissa’s hospital vigil for her child might be over, but Karen Fairgate’s is just beginning, following Diana's collapse during a weekend away with Abby and Gary. Blake Carrington’s Moneypenny-ish secretary Marcia, seen briefly the night before admitting Adam into his father’s office with a knowing smile, dons a white coat to become the kidney specialist who diagnoses Diana with renal failure.KNOTS LANDING is in a very interesting place at this point. With most of the characters now in business with each other and all the women wearing lots of eyeshadow, it’s on the cusp of bursting into a full-blown supersoap ... when it is brought sharply down to earth by the semi-realism of Diana’s kidney failure. There's nothing glossy or romantic about chronic dialysis, and it’s safe to say KNOTS is the only one of the soaps that would refer to traces of blood in a major character's urine. (Admittedly, Daryl Clayton makes an unexpected reference to bodily functions on this week’s FALCON CREST. “It’s not our creative juices we’re reacting to,” he lasciviously informs Maggie, who is promptly sick in her mouth.)Diana’s condition catches the characters, and maybe even KNOTS itself, unawares. Gone is the brave stoicism and quiet dignity with which Val greeted her cancer scare in "The Loudest Word” or Sid his paralysis in Season 3. Post-Sid, the world of KNOTS is off its axis. The scene where Karen frantically tries to stop Diana from pulling the shunt out her arm (“I just wanna die!”) is one of Soap Land’s most emotionally extreme to date. (It reminds me a bit of one of the bedroom scenes in THE EXORCIST.) The same hospital waiting area that was large and well lit when the Fairgates kept vigil for Sid is transformed, under the fevered direction of Larry Elikann, into a place that's claustrophobic and dark, even nightmarish.Only once does this week’s DALLAS reach a similar level of hysteria - during Cliff’s fight with Afton where they shout the word “emotionality” at each other about four times and she comes dangerously close to admitting that she slept with Gil Thurman before they abruptly start making love on Cliff’s bed. (A fairly raunchy scene at the time, the sight of Afton in her woolly jumper seems suddenly light years away from John Ross and Emma crawling around in their underwear in New DALLAS Season 3’s wowza of an opening scene.)In stark contrast to Diana, now so ill she appears to have turned silver, her counterpart on FALCON CREST, Vicky Gioberti, this week completes a 10k run in 45.05 minutes. (I can’t even get that on the treadmill - oh, the ignominy of being outrun by a fictional girl.) While DALLAS’s perpetual teenager Lucy breaks into floods of tears after a kiss from a client triggers memories of her recent ordeal, DYNASTY presents its own new ingénue - the major domo’s extraordinarily pretty daughter Kirby, returning from three years' schooling in Paris. At present, her concerns are more lightweight than mystery illnesses or rape flashbacks. She’s mainly focused on tortoises and matchmaking.The tone of this week’s DALLAS, at least in its first act, is also pretty light. The fight that erupts at JR and Sue Ellen's wedding is the first of Southfork’s bona fide “duels in the pool,” and after umpteen viewings, it still makes me laugh (even if the logic of who punches who and why doesn't hold up to close scrutiny). As well as establishing a DALLAS tradition, the sequence also feels like a response to the infamous catfight at the end of last season’s DYNASTY. Each is a visually comedic set piece that serves as a satisfying climax to an ongoing feud between two characters, (Krystle and Alexis on DYNASTY, JR and Cliff on DALLAS) but without actually furthering the narrative. In other words, one could skip both fights without missing any of the story. However, the differences between the two scenes emphasise the contrasting tones of their respective shows. Alexis and Krystle’s cat fight is campy and glamorous with a kind of knowing, acidic wit to it; the DALLAS punch up is essentially a bar room brawl transposed to a wedding party: masculine, traditional and Western, with just a hint of self-parody. While the Carrington women duke it out, the Ewing ladies are left watching in helpless dismay; they’re there to be fought over, not to do the fighting themselves. The DALLAS sequence fades out on Larry Hagman chuckling in the Southfork pool, implying that JR is somehow in on the joke, whereas the DYNASTY catfight ends with God’s eye view of a dazed and defeated Alexis collapsed in a heap in the corner of her wrecked studio - which seems to suggest that she is the joke.And this week’s Soap Land Top 4 are …1 (2) KNOTS LANDING2 (1) DYNASTY3 (4) FALCON CREST4 (3) DALLAS</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?