Worst Knots Landing Characters

[Billy Nolan]

I never understood Diana's hatred of her mother . I liked Olivia but not her turning on her mother either. I read that the writers had intended on Olivia to be Abby Jr. but for whatever reason, dropped it.

I know a lot of the KL fans hate the negative mother-daughter dynamic between Olivia and Abby, and Diana and Karen in particular, BUT:
In my opinion, THAT makes the authenticity of the series! The conflicts are anything but the "ideal world" of many other soaps. No drug-taking daughter will listen to the mother's well-intentioned advice. No daughter madly in love with a man will believe her mother and her hated authoritarian stepfather when they tell her the guy's a criminal and not good for her.
Anyone who has children of their own and tries to remember their puberty with all the rebellion will recognize that "Diana" and "Olivia" were just real characters. And in particular Claudia Lonow has, in my opinion, achieved a brilliant acting performance in her interpretation of a real and rebellious teenage girl.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I agree, at least in terms of how TV needed (still needs) to depict raising children more realistically. The soap genre really is the worst when it comes to depictions of "genuine" children. They even invented SORAS (Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome) as a method of avoiding having to write for kids of certain, difficult ages. Knots likely thought that having one "problem child" at a time would be enough, though, since too many problematic children at once would be...well, a little too realistic. So Olivia became the resident problem child once Diana moved into adulthood, while Eric, Michael, and especially Jason and Brian remained perfect "soap kids" who were mostly seen and not heard.

 

[kenneth]

If the answer to this question is not automatically Diana then you have no soul.

 

[Mustard]

How old are Vanessa Hunt and Kate Whittaker supposed to be?

 

[Daniel Avery]

In "Blind Side" (season twelve, the second episode) they state that Kate is 20. I assume Kate and Vanessa are the same age, though I'd believe them if they were to say Vanessa was a few years older. They apparently knew one another from tennis tournaments. This is the episode where Claudia sabotages a tennis scholarship Kate is offered because the college is "back East" and Claudia wants to keep Kate close to her.

 

[Mustard]

In "Blind Side" (season twelve, the second episode) they state that Kate is 20. I assume Kate and Vanessa are the same age, though I'd believe them if they were to say Vanessa was a few years older. They apparently knew one another from tennis tournaments. This is the episode where Claudia sabotages a tennis scholarship Kate is offered because the college is "back East" and Claudia wants to keep Kate close to her.

Yes, I think Vanessa is about 3 years older than Kate, and Vanessa was better at tennis (no scholarship because she's British), but soon squandered her promising tennis career with her hedonistic sexual liaisons, while Kate's tennis career ended unfairly and accidently when she broke her arm in a collision with Gary, as well as her mother Claudia having tried to sabotage the scholarship. A lot of this is why Kate does have a certain resentment towards her old friend Vanessa, especially when Alex starts messing her about and flirting with Vanessa.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Vanessa's tendency to use and abuse everyone around her likely showed itself early in their "friendship", but Kate being the forgiving type (and something of a wimp) was likely part of why Vanessa popped up again in Kate's life and quickly took advantage of situations. The Kate that Vanessa knew in the tennis circuit was just the middle-class daughter of a couple of college professors--there was no link to her mega-wealthy uncle, Greg Sumner. Now she was not only interacting with Greg, but her mother was running the Sumner Foundation, so Vanessa saw a chance to weasel her way into the life of an heiress. As always, Vanessa's plans were not very well thought-out and she was her own worst enemy...but she would learn her lesson soon enough.

I also think a lot of the undercurrent of resentment toward Vanessa might be because Kate wishes she could be a bit more like Vanessa. Claudia had to have been a "sMother" running Kate's life, making her repressed and like I said, a bit of a wimp. She saw Vanessa and envied her somewhat, but probably did not want to go full-out scheming 'ho bitch like Vanessa. Kate's fondness for Paige was likely a compromise of sorts: she liked Paige's ability to take up for herself and be a bitch at times, but also liked that Paige was not a scheming 'ho bitch like Vanessa who had no moral compass.

 

[Toni]

D
I
A
N
A

Because she's the antichrist.

 

[Grant Jennings]

Johnny f***ing Rourke is the single worst character on Knots Landing and one of the worst characters in the history of television. No, make that the history of entertainment. No, make that the history of mankind. Even a story told by the least evolved Homo habilis was likely to have better developed characters than Johnny f***ing Rourke. The biggest problem with Johnny f***ing Rourke is that he was played by Peter f***ing Reckell, a creature totally devoid of talent, charisma or any other characteristic that would deem one worthy of appearing on television.

I believe an executive at Lorimar (who would have been better suited at a career in a sewage treatment facility than one in the entertainment industry) got the brilliant idea to hire Reckell and another creature devoid of any appeal - Kristian Alfonso - away from Days of Our Lives to star, respectively, on Knots Landing and Falcon Crest. I don't know who this Lorimar executive was but I will identify them. I will find them and I will kill them. I will feed them to feral dogs.

As for Reckell and Alfonoso: they should have been sent back to Salem. Not the fictional Salem of Days of Our Lives but late 17th century Salem, Massachusetts where they would be accused of witchcraft and hanged. And we, the viewing audience, would have been spared Johnny f***ing Rourke and Pilar f***ing Ortega and, if there were any justice in this world, Ana Alicia/Melissa Agretti would have remained on Falcon Crest.

I hate Jean Hackney, too.

 

[Daniel Avery]

He was a flop, wasn't he?

Which is odd since KL's track record with hiring former/current daytime soap stars in supporting (and even a few principal roles) is actually pretty good:
Kathleen Noone (All My Children)
Doug Sheehan (General Hospital)
Robin Strasser (One Life to Live)
James Houghton (The Young and the Restless)
Alec Baldwin (The Doctors)
Jane Elliot (GH, Guiding Light)
Sam Behrens (GH)
Maree Cheatham (Days of Our Lives, Search for Tomorrow)
Phillip Brown (SFT)
Robert Desiderio (OLTL)

Though Donna Mills's first major TV role was on The Secret Storm and she achieved a degree of fame from another role on Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, I would certainly not characterize her getting the role of Abby as being a result of her early soap work.

 

[Sarah]

I HATE ABBY.

Could never understand the fuss. Hateful woman.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

I HATE ABBY.

Could never understand the fuss. Hateful woman.

To me Abby was like JR, the villian you love to hate. She also had the same wicked charm as JR.
Another thing the writers and actress did was develop her character so she had several layers to her. Donna Mills did a great job,imho.
That being said, if I was stranded on a desert island with no food and I came across this blue-eyed she-devil with a picnic basket, I'd keep going.

 

[Sarah]

To me Abby was like JR, the villian you love to hate. She also had the same wicked charm as JR.
Another thing the writers and actress did was develop her character so she had several layers to her. Donna Mills did a great job,imho.
That being said, if I was stranded on a desert island with no food and I came across this blue-eyed she-devil with a picnic basket, I'd keep going.

Aye she wishes she was like JR.

Cant bear her or that weird top lip thing she does.

 

[Mustard]

I hate Jean Hackney, too.

Not Ben Gibson, are you?

 

[Chris2]

I liked Diana, until she went off the deep end and became Mrs. Tony Fenice. But prior to that, I liked how she provided conflict in the otherwise perfect Fairgate family, particularly Karen. She made them more relatable, IMO.

I also liked Anne during her second stint on the show. Yeah, Michelle Phillips didn’t have the greatest acting range, but she made that work for that character.

Kate was played by an appealing actress; it’s too bad the character was so dull.

Johnny Rourke is the worst. I do not understand the appeal of that actor.

 

[ClassyCo]

Tom Ryan

Now that I've watched almost all of KNOTS and I've seen the Tom Ryan episodes, I can speak of him. I actually liked Tom and his relationship with Paige. I honestly wished she would've ended up with somebody like Tom over Greg. But that's just me.​

 

[Stillwitty]

Yes, I think Vanessa is about 3 years older than Kate, and Vanessa was better at tennis (no scholarship because she's British), but soon squandered her promising tennis career with her hedonistic sexual liaisons, while Kate's tennis career ended unfairly and accidently when she broke her arm in a collision with Gary, as well as her mother Claudia having tried to sabotage the scholarship. A lot of this is why Kate does have a certain resentment towards her old friend Vanessa, especially when Alex starts messing her about and flirting with Vanessa.

If Vanessa is the reason Kate never hooked up with Alex, she should have thanked her...

 

[Billy Nolan]

Well, unlike many other series, KL offered very well-developed and multifaceted characters in its first 11 seasons. Unfortunately, that changed in the last two or three seasons. Claudia, Kate, Vanessa... these characters were too one-dimensional for me.

And my absolute least favorite character in this series is:

CLAUDIA WHITTAKER.

A horrible, cold-hearted witch!

 

[ClassyCo]

Well, unlike many other series, KL offered very well-developed and multifaceted characters in its first 11 seasons. Unfortunately, that changed in the last two or three seasons. Claudia, Kate, Vanessa... these characters were too one-dimensional for me.

And my absolute least favorite character in this series is:

CLAUDIA WHITTAKER.

A horrible, cold-hearted witch!

Really? I liked Claudia and thought Kathleen Noone did a good job with her performance. But to each their own.

 

[Billy Nolan]

Really? I liked Claudia and thought Kathleen Noone did a good job with her performance. But to each their own.

Yes Noone is a great actress. But I really don´t like the character she portrayed.