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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 22921" data-attributes="member: 22">2 Apr 86: DYNASTY: The Vote v. 03 Apr 86: KNOTS LANDING: The Legacy v. 04 Apr 86: DALLAS: J.R. Rising v. 04 Apr 86: FALCON CREST: Unholy AllianceThere’s a sense of impending end-of-season doom as Denver Carrington’s stock plummets on DYNASTY, a direct consequence of the scandal caused by Ben and Alexis’s recent lawsuit. Meanwhile, balloon payments (whatever they are) loom large on both DALLAS and FALCON CREST. “If it were anyone else borrowing this amount of money, I wouldn’t recommend that they take the risks involved,” JR’s banker warns him ominously. "If you default you could lose Ewing Oil." Meanwhile on FC, Peter Stavros offers to postpone Richard’s balloon payment on Tuscany Downs "for another year … contingent on certain considerations on your part.”Back on DYNASTY, Ben offers to use his newly acquired fortune, gained of course at Blake’s expense, to bail his brother out of trouble, in return for a couple of seats on the Denver-Carrington board of directors. Over on KNOTS, Abby Ewing makes a similar proposition to Greg when she offers to sell him Empire Valley (which Gary has recently signed over to her as part of their divorce settlement). "It’ll only cost me a couple of television stations, several million dollars and a choice seat on the board of Galveston Industries,” says Greg looking over her letter of agreement. While Blake responds to Ben’s proposition with hostility (“I try to deal with clean money and decent people — that’s something you haven’t been since the day you let Mama die in that fire!”), Greg regards Abby’s with suspicion (“You’re too kind to me all of a sudden”). He is right to be wary. Abby has just stumbled on the fact that Galveston Industries "dumped several hundred metric tonnes of acid and arsenic” at Empire Valley and the whole place is toxic.A week after Abby blackmailed her estranged husband Gary into giving her Empire Valley on KNOTS, DYNASTY’s Claudia blackmails her estranged husband Adam over the power of attorney he tricked Blake into signing when he was ill. Claudia finds the incriminating document when routing through Adam’s desk at Denver-Carrington. The last time we saw her doing such a thing was when she was spying Jeff for his Uncle Cecil in Season 2. Back then, her actions were fully understandable and she was an achingly sympathetic character. These days, the motives for her erratic behaviour are a complete mystery. It’s as if she’s floated beyond our reach. As a result, her present wackiness is both fun and oddly poignant.“You put my picture on the cover of your magazine … and I’ll have your head!” Blake Carrington tells pushy World Finance reporter Gordon Wales following a combative interview. “I don’t care about those magazines,” declares Mandy Winger on DALLAS, turning down an overseas modelling assignment that would mean appearing on the covers of Paris Match, Elle and Vogue. She'd sooner remain in Dallas on the (increasingly remote) chance of reconciling with JR. Conversely on KNOTS LANDING, Cathy Geary is on the brink of getting involved with Ben Gibson when she decides to leave town to go on tour. FALCON CREST’s equivalent songbird, Apollonia, is currently on tour in Paris from where she sends Lance back the jewellery he gave her as a going-away present — an indication that she won’t be returning.The alliances between Ben Carrington and Peter Hollister and the women financing their respective (fraudulent) claims to their fathers’ estates have each taken a turn for the complicated. “Alexis, we’ve never really trusted each other. We never will, so why start now?” Ben asks just before attempting to seduce her. “Peter, we’re partners. If you can’t trust me, who can you trust?” coos Abby just before blackmailing him for “51% of everything you get from Greg Sumner." When Ben kisses Alexis passionately, she reciprocates, yet still seems somewhat preoccupied. (I particularly like the way she pauses to reapply her lipstick in the middle of their make out session.) Meanwhile, Abby and Peter continue to flirt even as she urges him to bed Jill Bennett.Trend of the week: Characters sitting behind someone else’s desk. “May I ask what the hell you’re doing in here?” asks Blake when he finds Alexis seated at the head of the Denver-Carrington boardroom on DYNASTY. “Well, it might be that I’m mentally designing this room,” she replies. "This chair — I think I’d be much more comfortable with something that doesn’t swivel so much." “Get your feet off my desk and get out of my chair,” Police Captain Rueda orders Matt Cantrell on DALLAS. “What is that ridiculous chair doing here?” demands Angela Channing as she returns from Europe to find Peter Stavros making himself at home in her study.The boardroom showdown between Blake and Alexis is centrepiece of this week’s DYNASTY. While hardly striking any new dramatic ground — he reminds her of the last time she sat at the same table in the same room and made the same vow to take over his company — it doesn’t diminish from the drama of the situation. Somehow the show still manages to make it matter. Ditto on this week’s DALLAS where the scenes in which JR tries to win back Sue Ellen for the umpteenth time are the closest the episode gets to recapturing the show’s former sizzle.Part of the reason Blake and Alexis’s longstanding feud suddenly feels so fresh is due to Blake’s decision to finally fight fire with fire. “Let’s get ‘em. Let’s get Colby Co!” he snarls as he launches a counter takeover of Alexis’s company. Steven, caught once more between his feuding parents, feels obliged to point the dangers involved: "Colby Co is bigger than we are. A takeover’s a risky move." (There’s a similar David and Goliath vibe in this week’s DALLAS when Pam observes that “this is the first time JR’s ever had total control of Ewing Oil — I don’t think Cliff’s any match for that.”)Over on KNOTS, Laura Avery attempts to instil some of Blake's can-do attitude in Greg Sumner during a scene that is both unexpectedly excellent and unusually long (a full six minutes!). Greg is being his familiar world-weary self during lunch in his office when Laura suddenly snaps. “Cynicism may be fashionable, but it is really, really boring,” she begins. "You are one of the richest men in the world. At least be good at being rich. I mean, move to Cannes or Scotland or bring irrigation to the Sahara or jobs to the reservation. Do something with your money! … Stop posturing, stop playing at being a shaker and a mover, stop giving lip service to having a passion for something and get passionate!” This outburst elicits two responses from Greg in quick succession. The first is a proposal ("Hey, whaddya say we get married?” he asks. “I appreciate the offer and I’ll seriously consider it,” Laura replies), the other is a sacking (“You’re out,” he casually informs his fake brother Peter).“It won’t be over till we’ve got the whole town pitted against each other. We’re going to destroy all those people who murdered our father,” Michael Tyrone told Sandie Swanson on FLAMINGO ROAD four years ago. That was how we discovered Michael and Sandie were secretly brother and sister out to avenge the death of their father. "Galveston destroyed our parents. They were a business obstacle to him yet he killed them as sure as if he held a gun to their heads and fired … I’m gonna make them pay for what they did," Peter Hollister tells Jill Bennett at the end of this week’s KNOTS. So it is we learn that Peter and Jill are secretly brother and sister out to avenge the deaths of their parents.As Peter and Jill’s true identities are revealed on KNOTS, Angelica Nero’s fake one is accepted on DALLAS as she reenters the US brandishing a phoney passport and a cryptic smile on her face. But whereas Angelica’s return goes undetected by the Soap Land authorities, Angela Channing’s does not. No sooner is she back from Europe than she is arrested and subjected to the same fingerprint/mugshot indignity as Miles was on THE COLBYS two weeks ago. She is then placed in a holding cell with a bunch of fallen women just as Sue Ellen was at the beginning of this season’s DALLAS. Whereas an incarcerated Linda Gray howled and writhed for all she was worth, Jane Wyman plays her equivalent situation for laughs. “This cell is becoming a no-smoking area,” she announces crisply, snatching a cigarette from a stereotypically dressed hooker’s mouth and stubbing it out.On last week’s DYNASTY, the alcoholic Franklin was the key witness who fell apart on the stand — he was too drunk and broken to make coherent sense, much less exonerate Blake of any wrongdoing in his mother’s death. On this week’s FALCON CREST, that role is taken by Miss Jones, the private eye initially employed by Angela to hijack Chase’s trucks and who is currently in Richard’s pocket. Having been promised immunity, Miss Jones was all set to testify against Angela, but now that Richard has struck a deal with Peter Stavros, she instead feigns flakiness on the witness stand — claiming to take career advice from her pet cat and boasting of psychic abilities. As a result, the case against Angela collapses and she is a free woman once more.Whereas Miles’s arrest followed hard on the heels of Jeff and Fallon’s wedding on THE COLBYS three weeks ago, the same order of events is reversed on this week’s FC. No sooner are the words, "I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth,” out of Angela’s mouth than we cut to a scene of her and Peter exchanging vows in a church ceremony. As Soap Land weddings go, this is actually quite sweet and is a good deal more affecting than Jeff and Fallon’s much grander ceremony. Instead of Blake and Steven crossing over from DYNASTY in honour of the occasion, Julia is released from her "sanctimonious penitentiary” (as Richard later describes it) to attend the ceremony. “I always enjoy your weddings,” Julia tells her mother, which is a fair indication of the lighthearted tone of much of this week’s ep. More effective for me are the darker scenes — the ones involving Jeff Wainwright, for instance, or the fascinating encounter between Richard and Julia where she asks forgiveness “for all the pain I’ve caused you. Nothing I can ever say will bring your mother back to life.” Richard responds with a compelling combination of compassion and cynicism. “I find all this very touching … You want me to spring you from the convent?" By the end of their conversation, one is left with the sense that Julia is not quite so neatly reconciled to her new life of penitence as has previously been suggested. It’s a great scene, one that recalls the darkly sinister FALCON CREST of old.A week after Gary recalled his first drink on KNOTS LANDING, Sue Ellen recalls her "last great lost weekend” on DALLAS. “I’m a firm believer that blackouts are a blessing in disguise,” she says wryly.  Miles Colby, currently under arrest for a murder he can’t remember if he committed or not, might beg to differ. So might Jordan Roberts on FALCON CREST. As Jenna Wade did a few weeks ago, she is seeing a psychiatrist to get to the bottom of her memory lapses — “the blackouts and the missing hours and days." Also like Jenna, when her doctor gets too close to the truth — in this case, the possibility that she is suffering from some kind of multiple personality disorder — she panics and leaves (“I am not insane! … It was a mistake to come here!”), choosing instead to retreat further into her fantasy world — which leads directly to Angela Channing returning from her honeymoon to find her naked in Lance’s bed.It’s a cool week to be Soap Land kid. While Danny Carrington gets his own pizza-delivering robot on DYNASTY, John Ross’s daddy takes him for his first lunch at the Oil Baron’s Club on DALLAS. Elsewhere in the same ep, Jack Ewing gives Charlie Wade a shooting lesson, using some old cans as target practice. In this relaxed environment, Charlie is transformed into a totally cool and laid-back young chick chatting about boys and New York and stuff, without a trace of a whine in sight.Meanwhile, Eric Fairgate and his former girlfriend Whitney are each the subject of a dramatic storyline without having to do very much themselves. Eric spends this week’s KNOTS unconscious in a hospital bed suffering from an unknown illness (which eventually turns out to be arsenic poisoning) while Whitney, now answering to the name of Jackie Devereaux, doesn’t even appear in this week’s DYNASTY, having run away from home after learning that Dominique lied to her about her paternity. In her absence, Dominique finally admits to Garrett Boydston that he is the daddy.This week’s DALLAS and FALCON CREST throw up contrasting cultural references: “Maybe I watched too many Doris Day films growing up,” sighs Sue Ellen as she frets about her love life. “She always knew what to do in a romance.” (Well, she can’t have watched that many — surely the whole point of those rom-coms Day made with Sammy Jo’s father is that she didn’t know what to do?) Maggie Gioberti, meanwhile, is surprised and then disturbed to receive a first edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy as an anonymous gift. It turns out to be Jeff Wainwright’s way of announcing his arrival in the valley. “Did you know a woman named Beatrice inspired him to write all his work? He even named a character in the book after her,” he tells a freaked out Maggie, evidently better informed about Dante than Sue Ellen is about Doris.And this week’s Top 4 are ...1 (2) KNOTS LANDING2 (-) FALCON CREST3 (3) DYNASTY4 (1) DALLAS</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?