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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 8703" data-attributes="member: 22">26/Jan/83: DYNASTY: Madness v. 27/Jan/83: KNOTS LANDING: A New Family v. 28/Jan/83: DALLAS: A Ewing is a Ewing v. 28/Jan/83: FALCON CREST: Deliberate Disclosure“When you do things I don’t know about or hide things from me, I get crazy,” Gary tells Abby. Indeed he does - almost as crazy as Jeff Colby when he’s high on toxic fumes. This week, DYNASTY’s Jeff and KNOTS LANDING’s Gary are both in meltdown - the former as the result of being maliciously poisoned by Adam, the latter because he’s back on the booze.Jeff is suffering from a bad case of paranoia. He believes his teething son is dreadfully ill, that his father-in-law holds him accountable for his late uncle’s crimes and that his wife is sleeping around. Gary is having similar fears about Abby conniving behind his back - the difference is Gary's concerns are based in reality. For instance, Abby really has exploited their friendship with the Averys to gain a controlling interest in their restaurant. (Gary learns this when he pays a drunken visit to Richard in his restaurant kitchen. Interesting that Gary's first port of call while on a binge should be to see his old drinking buddy from “Bottom of the Bottle".)A few drinks later, Gary disrupts Ciji’s recording session where several regular characters, including Abby, are in attendance. His inability to get through to Abby is neatly underlined by the glass of the recording booth separating them as he yells at her: “We’ve got to stop this! We’re hurting people! We’re ruining LIVES!!!” (It also anticipates a different kind of glass that will seal him off from Val at the end of the season.) Pam has similar difficulty in reaching Bobby with her warning at the end of this week’s DALLAS - “Everybody’s going to get hurt, especially you. Can’t you see that, Bobby?” In Bobby and Pam's case, there is no physical barrier between them - they are sitting opposite each other in a restaurant - but what keeps them apart is Bobby’s preoccupation with what’s going on at the bar, where the prostitute he has hired to set up George Hicks, JR’s inside man on the Texas Energy Commission, has just made her first move.When Gary trips over some recording equipment, most of the other characters in attendance - Laura, Diana, Ciji, Jeff Munson - rush to his aid. Abby is the exception. She doesn’t move from the raised seating area where she has been watching Ciji sing. Instead, she looks down at Gary as if from a throne - regal, imperious, steely. It’s a very powerful image. It’s repeated later in the ep when a dishevelled Gary returns to the beach house from his binge and half-collapses on the staircase. Abby stands above him at the top of the stairs, dressed for bed but still immaculately made up. As she scowls contemptuously at him, she could be Cersei Lannister in an '80s Lorimar version of GAME OF THRONES - but instead of ordering his beheading, she tosses a blanket at him and issues the following edict: “Don’t you come near me. I mean it."“The money was supposed to give us pleasure,” Gary tells her despairingly the next morning. “Instead, it’s a wedge between us." Viewed in this context, JR encouraging Lucy "to toast the fact that your daddy’s gonna keep his inheritance” at the beginning of this week’s DALLAS feels ironic in more ways than one.Jeff Colby and Gary Ewing are also caught up in imaginary affairs this week. Jeff thinks Fallon is having an affair with Mark Jennings, while Chip Roberts has everyone believing that Gary is cheating on Abby with Ciji. (Tracking the journey of this little rumour round the cul-de-sac and beyond is one of the pleasures of this tightly woven episode of KNOTS.)Adding to the confusion, Ciji is also involved, with Laura, in what one might term “a phantom affair”. Theirs is a unique relationship in Soap Land. It sprang to life six episodes ago as an immediately intense, if somewhat contrived, friendship. Straightaway, it became part of a triangle, with poor old Richard left increasingly on the outside looking in. As the Avery marriage has deteriorated, it’s been clear that Laura prefers the company of her new best friend to that of her husband. Along the way, there have been jokey, throwaway references - to Ciji "licking the bowl", to Ciji and Laura sharing hot tubs and watching dirty movies - that seem innocuous individually, but which collectively could be interpreted as hinting at something else. To that, one might add Laura’s shorter, slightly masculine haircut, which makes its debut this week.“I just don’t understand why so many people are mad at me,” weeps Ciji to a sympathetic Laura after the recording studio debacle. "It just feels like every time I turn around, someone’s coming down on me for something. Kenny and Ginger and Richard, now Abby.” She has a point - things are getting so out of control in KNOTS, it’s as if nearly every character is inhaling the same mind-altering fumes as Jeff Colby. “You’re the only person I can turn to,” she continues. At this point, Laura's and Ciji's eyes meet and you get the feeling that if they were going to kiss, it would be now. There is a close exchange of another kind instead, as Ciji confides her pregnancy and Laura then comforts her. However, if one were to interpret Ciji taking Laura into her confidence as a substitution for a more sapphic expression of intimacy (this being CBS in 1983 and not TNT in 2014), then Laura's behaviour from this point onwards takes on new significance. When we next see her talking to Richard, she behaves evasively, even guiltily. When he touches her, she recoils.The climax of Jeff’s breakdown on DYNASTY (at least in this episode) comes when he discovers Fallon in Mark Jennings’ hotel room and tries to strangle her, calling her “rotten as a person and worse as a wife and a mother” as he does so. In the equivalent scene in KNOTS, it is a jealous Richard who loses control when Laura rejects him in bed yet again. “You are my wife!” he insists. "You can stay up all night with Ciji, comforting her … I could use a little comforting too!” His outburst isn’t as violent as Jeff’s - he only grabs Laura by the arm to stop her from walking away - and he does not require a punch like the one Jeff receives from Mark Jennings in order to stop. Just the sight of his bewildered son Jason at the bedroom door is enough to bring him to his senses. (Significantly, Jason appears just as Richard is about to ask Laura precisely what is going on between her and Ciji.)There is no such outburst from JR when he decides to “get Miss Harwood” in this week’s DALLAS. He remains very much in control, his actions clearly premeditated, as he lures Holly into his office after hours, locking the door behind them, and then coerces her into sex. There is no threat of violence, but the dialogue between them is very much the language of rape: “I don’t want this.” “You have no choice.” “You won’t enjoy it.” “You better make damn sure I do.""I have something some men want,” concluded Kirby after her rape by Adam on DYNASTY two weeks ago, "and next time, I’m going to make sure that I get what I want in return.” Holly does precisely that following her encounter with JR - and what she wants is to regain control of her own body. Later in the episode, she entices JR to her bedroom with the promise of more sex. When he touches her, she pulls a gun on him. The words she then uses to describe him are almost an exact match for those spoken by Kirby last week to compare Adam with her ex-lover, Jean Paul. "You’re both so sure of yourselves, so arrogant,” Kirby told Adam. “You arrogant pig,” Holly tells JR, "you’re so full of yourself, so damn sure of everything … You ever touch me again, you're a dead man. Now get out!” Aside from Lute-Mae pressing charges against Peter Horton’s character in FLAMINGO ROAD, this is the first instance of a Soap Land rape victim (or "unwilling sex partner", if that’s too specific a term) taking a stand against her attacker.I was reminded of this confrontation after watching the remarkable scene in the mid-season finale of New DALLAS Season 3 where Pamela Rebecca finds John Ross with Emma. In each case, the viewer’s expectations, and those of the male character involved, are toyed with and then overturned. When JR finds Holly reclining provocatively on a bed in her negligee, champagne chilling in an ice bucket, he anticipates a seduction - instead, he gets a gun in his face. In the New DALLAS scene, when Pamela Rebecca reaches into her coat, John Ross think she’s going to produce a gun - instead, she takes him, and us, somewhere very different. In each instance, the woman plays the man at his own game, using his appetites and instincts to blindside him. (That these women are operating by men’s rules to begin with means, inevitably, that both DALLAS series get to have their cake and eat it too - sure, the gals get to turn the tables, but they do so while posing provocatively on a bed in not very many clothes.) After JR leaves Holly’s bedroom, it is his face the camera lingers on rather than hers. It is his mask of bravado we see slip, revealing him shaken and vulnerable - humanised if you will. We are not privy to an equivalent moment with Holly because, ultimately, Holly’s feelings - aside from the need to avenge herself on JR - are not germane to the story. By contrast, in the New DALLAS scene, Pamela Rebecca’s feelings are the story.“You have to let me out of the marriage,” Fallon tells her father following Jeff's attack on her. “It’s over!” Meanwhile, on FALCON CREST, Lance defies his grandmother by filing for divorce against Melissa. While Blake offers Fallon a sympathetic shoulder. Angela responds by throwing Lance out of the house with a promise to disinherit him.Just as his former FLAMINGO ROAD self, Michael Tyrone, had an affair with devious married heiress Constance as part of a much bigger scheme, so Richard Channing has finally slept with Constance’s FALCON CREST equivalent Melissa as part of an attempt to get his hands on the Agretti vineyards (and subsequently the entire California wine industry). But whereas Michael was the one who deceived and betrayed Constance, here it’s Melissa who double crosses Richard when she reneges on her promise to sell him her father’s land. Richard’s revenge proves swift and effective.Although “Ewing" continues to be a name that sells newspapers - while the story of Val’s leaked manuscript is still front page news, JR makes it onto the cover of Tempo Magazine - the headline of the week belongs to the New Globe which screams ACCUSED MURDERER FATHERS FALCON CREST HEIR - a story alleging that Cole Gioberti is the real father of Melissa’s baby.All of this press coverage in Soap Land has major repercussions. The tabloid scandal surrounding Val’s manuscript has already contributed to Gary falling off the wagon in KNOTS, and when Val hears that he is drinking again, it sends her into a kind of equivalent emotional relapse. Meanwhile, Abby considers suing Val for libel and defamation of character but is persuaded that the resulting publicity would only make matters worse. On FALCON CREST, Melissa is given the same advice when she threatens to take legal action against the Globe for their story. Unlike Abby, however, she is undeterred and slaps Richard with a $20,000,000 lawsuit. This, in turn, serves to further strain Richard’s relationship with his father, Henri Denault. Meanwhile, on DALLAS, JR’s huge media profile gives Cliff the idea to lure him out of the oil business and into politics.Angela Channing’s reaction to a newspaper headline questioning her great-grandson’s legitimacy is intriguing. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of Jock Ewing’s when the equivalent story about his grandson made the front page in “Paternity Suit” (DALLAS Season 2). Whereas Jock demanded legal action be taken to defend the Ewing family honour, Angela simply dismisses the story. “That article means nothing,” she insists, even though Lance has supplied the Globe with paternity test results proving the child is not his.This week’s Soap Land also contains its fair share of romantic gestures, albeit of an unsolicited nature. Mark J surprises Alexis with the gift of an expensive brooch. She is touched but makes it clear that she has nothing to offer him in return but "love in the afternoon”, as she is otherwise occupied with destroying her ex-husband. "Hate is as strong a passion as love,” she explains. Mark G, meanwhile, shows up at Pam’s workplace again, this time, laden with champagne, roses and commiserations over Miss Ellie’s courtroom defeat. Like Alexis, Pam is impressed by the gesture. “Mark, what you did was really sweet and thoughtful and lovely,” she tells him, "but I don't want you to do it again.” We can tell she’s softening towards him, though. The most extravagant, and least welcome, romantic gesture of the week comes in FALCON CREST. At first, Maggie is thrilled to learn that her script is to be turned into a Hollywood movie, even more so when she is offered the role of associate producer. (Her fee? $100,000 - the same amount Blake offered Sammy Jo to keep her baby in last week’s DYNASTY.) The snag comes when she learns that the offer comes courtesy of sleazy Daryl Clayton and that he will be directing the film. Reluctantly, she accepts the job anyway. Chase is not happy.There’s a fab (and at nearly seven minutes, unusually long) scene at the end of this week’s DYNASTY. When Alexis, concerned that Jeff has been overworked, decides to take over his office at Colby Co, Adam is obliged to tell her how he has been poisoning Jeff via the toxic panelling in that office. At first, she is appalled, but then Adam drops the other shoe: Alexis is now in a position take over Denver-Carrington, “if Jeff is disorientated enough to sign over control of all those shares [his own and his son’s], leaving Blake Carrington out in the cold - on his knees, begging.” Alexis is clearly tempted by this idea but refuses to go along with Adam’s plan to keep messing with Jeff’s mind. So Adam resorts to blackmail. If she doesn’t cooperate, he tells his mother, “I’ll have to tell everyone concerned that I was simply following your instructions, how the whole thing was your idea in the first place. Think of it, Mother. How would it feel to run the Colby empire from a prison cell?" “What kind of a monster are you?” she whispers in horror.Over on KNOTS, Lilimae also learns an unwholesome truth about a young man living under her roof: it was Chip who stole Val’s manuscript. When she tells him to pack his bags and move out, Chip - like Adam - uses blackmail, but this time of the emotional variety. “Val and you are my family now,” he tells Lilimae tearfully. "You’re the only family I've ever known.” She relents enough to let him stay, but with a warning: “You do anything to hurt Val again, just one little thing, and the jig is up."Like DYNASTY, FALCON CREST ends with a young buck blackmailing an older female relative: “You don’t dare cut me out of your will because I know enough to ruin Falcon Crest!” shouts Lance at his grandmother. “Get out!” barks Angela in reply.Adam’s proposal to Alexis that they take advantage of Jeff’s condition in order to gain control of an empire is mirrored by the proposition Abby’s attorney, James Westmont, comes up in this week’s KNOTS: “You asked me to find you a way to protect yourself,” he reminds her. "I thought up some contingency plans for Gary Ewing Enterprises, a corporation with you and Mr. Ewing as full and equal partners.” Like Alexis and Adam with Jeff’s shares, all they need is Gary’s signature for Abby to have full access to his fortune - but no sooner does Abby gets Gary to Westmont's office for a meeting than he walks out in search of another drink.Amidst all the melodrama in this week’s Soap Land, there is still room for two smaller stories of a more domestic nature, each involving a nineteen-year-old and one of their parents. "You were a kid for a lot of years. Now you’re an adult. I have to learn how to think of you as an adult and treat you as one. It won’t be easy, but I promise I’ll try,” Karen tells Eric on KNOTS in a touching scene where he admits how excluded he felt by her elopement with Mack. “You’re a young adult who doesn’t seem to have any direction in life,” frets Chase on FALCON CREST after learning of Vicky’s affair with an older married man. Instead of the kind of heated confrontation one might have expected, Chase struggles manfully to understand where his daughter is coming from. It's a tender father/daughter scene of the kind one might more readily expect to see on KNOTS, or maybe even THE WALTONS.And this week’s Soap Land Top 4 are …1 (2) KNOTS LANDING2 (1) FALCON CREST3 (3) DYNASTY4 (-) DALLAS</blockquote>

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