International Broadcasts

[Billy Nolan]

Hello everybody. I am a fan from Germany. I would be very interested in the international broadcasts of the series. In Europe, the series was received and broadcast differently. It was most popular in France, Germany and England. In Italy, Spain and Sweden only half of the seasons or three quarters of the series were broadcast. Does anyone know if the series also ran in Eastern Europe, Poland or Russia? and what was its title there? I would love to see old international commercials of Knots Landing, too. I have some episode reports from different countries. I like to post them here.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

It was most popular in France, Germany and England.

At risk of being nitpicky, I'd say Knots was as popular in the rest of the UK as it was in England. I was introduced to the series through a Welsh aunt who was a big fan.

I would love to see old international commercials of Knots Landing, too.

Same here!

I have some episode reports from different countries. I like to post them here.

That sounds fascinating. I'd love to see them.

 

[Monzo]

If Germany was one of KL's most popular markets, it wasn't really popular elsewhere.

Knots Landing was called Unter der Sonne Kaliforniens (Under the Californian Sun) in Germany and was not broadcast on ARD, the station that aired Dallas with huge success. ARD never had interest in Knots Landing and was sure it would flop in Germany.

From January 1988, competing station ZDF aired KL on Saturdays at 5 p.m. 12 episodes of the first two seasons were not shown, including the pilot; instead, JR's visit to Knots Landing was the start in Germany.

ZDF tried to establish Knots Landing for two years, but ratings fell continuously, so that episode 6.04 was last episode to air on Saturday. Soon after KL was repeated on a daily basis at 9 a.m. in 1990. After repeats finished ZDF aired first runs on Mondays and Thursdays at 3 p.m., but with no success, so that ZDF last aired KL in December. Gladly fans had to wait just three weeks until KL continued on (back then) small cable station Sat1, this time with one episode per week on Wednesday afternoon. This broadcast ended after just four months due to bad ratings in Season 8.

In 1992 Sat1 repeated Knots Landing weekdays at 12:30 p.m. After they were finished new episodes of seasons 8-13 aired in this timeslot. For seasons 9 to 11 opening credits from season 8 were used, only from season 12 onwards KL had current opening credits again.

In 1994 Sat1 repeated Knots Landing once more on a daily basis, so that final season aired during summer of 1995. To date reunion has only been broadcast on pay TV, still not freely available to all viewers.

 

[Billy Nolan]

In 1994 Sat1 repeated Knots Landing once more on a daily basis, so that final season aired during summer of 1995. To date reunion has only been broadcast on pay TV, still not freely available to all

Thanks for the overview. 1996-1997 ran the first 3 seasons of the series on Pro 7 - and from 1998 to 2004 on pay TV. After that, for the first time in German TV history, all episodes were broadcast on RTL Passion from 2009-2010 on prime time . Also the reunion of 1997 was aired, which was shown on Austrian television in 2000.
Back then I collected numerous newspaper reports from the series - and I still have a large pool of TV magazines. Knots Landing had the highest ratings here in Germany in the summer to winter of 1989, when the 5th season aired. According to "Burda-Verlag", the audience rating scratched the 7 million mark. A big hit for an early evening series at the time in our country. The ratings collapsed when ZDF canceled the series in December and broadcast it again at a different time in the summer of 1990. I found a number of letters to the editor from angry fans who complained that they could no longer watch the series on Monday and Thursday afternoons because they had to work on their jobs. In fact, that was a more than stupid decision by ZDF!

 

[Billy Nolan]

At risk of being nitpicky, I'd say Knots was as popular in the rest of the UK as it was in England. I was introduced to the series through a Welsh aunt who was a big fan.





Same here!





That sounds fascinating. I'd love to see them.

even at the risk of coming across as ignorant:
sorry, I am not familiar with the stories about kingdom, country and the correct designation. - But thanks for clearing up.

 

[Billy Nolan]

Some episode clippings from the USA, Germany, France, the UK and Peru. I know I have some from Italy and even Spain - but I have to find them... I also have a lot clippings about the whole series. I have to scan them...

 

[Billy Nolan]

... about KL´s 1st broadcast in Germany in January 1988

 

[Mel O'Drama]

even at the risk of coming across as ignorant:
sorry, I am not familiar with the stories about kingdom, country and the correct designation.

Oh, don't worry. England's just one of four countries in the UK, and three of those countries (England, Wales and Scotland) are all on the same island. It confuses even us sometimes.

Some episode clippings from the USA, Germany, France, the UK and Peru.

These are great. I think I have that UK Gold clipping somewhere.

Something that jumped out at me was the unusual timings of the morning shows on ARD/ZDF, such as Dallas starting at 9:03. I suppose the three minute news bulletin was just squeezed in, and still left time for Dallas and its commercial breaks.

.. about KL´s 1st broadcast in Germany in January 1988

So good to see Knots being given some promotion.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

In Ireland, our national broadcaster RTE has aired the show three times (two full runs and one partial). RTE1 started airing the show in late 1989. It was scheduled daytime soap style, stripped 5 days a week across the afternoon schedule (it's final daytime slot being 4:30pm). They aired the first 9 seasons in this way before moving it to a once a week primetime slot on Thursday nights on RTE2. Here, the remaining seasons aired back to back without a break, with the final episode airing in late 1993. Up until the end of it's primetime run, the show featured in the Top 20 programmes of the week. It was then rerun in full in a late 90's/early 00's daytime slot on RTE1 that aired the big 80's soaps at 10:30am on weekday mornings. It's last outing on RTE was in 2011, when they repeated the first 7 seasons in the middle of the night on the weekends, sometimes in double or triple bills.

In addition to the RTE airings, Irish viewers with satellite or digital subscriptions could also watch reruns in the 90's, 00's and 10's on UK Gold and CBS Drama.

And in addition to all of the above, those of us with access to the British terrestrial channels, could watch the show's BBC airings as far back as when it started on BBC1 in 1980.

 

[Daniel Avery]

In the French clipping featuring Julie Harris's photo, are they actually identifying her as Karen's mother? Or is my French really rusty?

 

[Mel O'Drama]

In the French clipping featuring Julie Harris's photo, are they actually identifying her as Karen's mother?

Unless they're implying that Val is a Karen.

 

[Brian Kinney]

Knots Landing had the highest ratings here in Germany in the summer to winter of 1989, when the 5th season aired. According to "Burda-Verlag", the audience rating scratched the 7 million mark. A big hit for an early evening series at the time in our country. The ratings collapsed when ZDF canceled the series in December and broadcast it again at a different time in the summer of 1990. I found a number of letters to the editor from angry fans who complained that they could no longer watch the series on Monday and Thursday afternoons because they had to work on their jobs. In fact, that was a more than stupid decision by ZDF!

Actually at that time the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF got rid of all US series because the private broadcasters RTL and SAT.1 already started to buy everything through license deals. They didn't want to compete with them or they were just bad in dealing, I don't know.

Around that time ZDF also lost The Cosby Show, Star Trek - Next Generation and The Simpsons and didn't replace Knots Landing with another series. The ARD and ZDF changed their schedules on Tuesday and Wednesday (Dallas and Dynasty's former time slots) where they haven't shown US series since then. The ARD removed all US series from the 6-8 pm time slot (where Falcon Crest aired).

You know that hasn't changed. There are British and Scandinavian crime dramas but no other foreign series at ARD and ZDF. And those series are not attractive to RTL, Pro7 etc. I'm so missing the old days where we could watch US series without ads. However ARD and ZDF also had the terrible habit to cut off 2-3 minutes of content to fit in their 45 minute format.

even at the risk of coming across as ignorant:
sorry, I am not familiar with the stories about kingdom, country and the correct designation. - But thanks for clearing up.

Imagine everyone assumes we live in a country that consists only of Bavaria. I rather live here:

Scanned by me in the late 90's when the image resolution was tiny... from 'Entertainment Weekly'magazine, April 19,1991.

 

[Seaviewer]

Scanned by me in the late 90's when the image resolution was tiny... from 'Entertainment Weekly'magazine, April 19,1991.

That's great!

 

[Billy Nolan]

These are great. I think I have that UK Gold clipping somewhere.

Thank you! Do you have more clippings? I´d like to see some UK-Gold clippings.

 

[Billy Nolan]

they replayed Dallas and Knots Landing at 9:03 am. With regard to Knots Landing, ZDF chose this time and broadcast all old seasons (1-5) while the new episodes were synchronized. That was from January to June 1990. In the spring of 1990 I happened to be watching KL mornings during my Easter holidays. The episodes of the murder of singer Ciji Dunne were just running. That's when the series grabbed me. And that although I vowed never to watch a soap.

 

[Billy Nolan]

Here are a few articles that show the different broadcast times of KL in Germany.

1988


1989


1990


1991


1992


1993

 

[Billy Nolan]

1994


1995


1996


1998


2003


2010

 

[Billy Nolan]

Actually at that time the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF got rid of all US series because the private broadcasters RTL and SAT.1 already started to buy everything through license deals. They didn't want to compete with them or they were just bad in dealing, I don't know.

Around that time ZDF also lost The Cosby Show, Star Trek - Next Generation and The Simpsons and didn't replace Knots Landing with another series. The ARD and ZDF changed their schedules on Tuesday and Wednesday (Dallas and Dynasty's former time slots) where they haven't shown US series since then. The ARD removed all US series from the 6-8 pm time slot (where Falcon Crest aired).

Did you know that the private broadcaster SAT.1 was interested in broadcasting KL in Germany as early as 1986? They wanted to buy the series, but ZDF outbid SAT.1. ZDF bought the series, but did not broadcast it until 1 1/2 years later.

 

[Billy Nolan]

An article about the first broadcast in Italy. The article is from October 1981, but I couldn't find the series in the program section. But that may also be due to the fact that the program is very confusing - with a large number of (satellite) TV channels ...
Until 1985, the series´ Italian title was "Da Dallas a Knots Landing" (From Dallas to Knots Landing). In 1985, another broadcaster bought the series and named it "California". Unfortunately, KL was not fully broadcast in Italy. It only ran up to and including the 9th season, although there was also a corresponding fan base in Italy.

 

[Canon]

It was then rerun in full in a late 90's/early 00's daytime slot on RTE1 that aired the big 80's soaps at 10:30am on weekday mornings.

I thought Knots had been the only one not to get a full rerun at that time, I recall my mother being very disappointed when it disappeared from its mid morning slot. Like the 2011 rerun, I had thought they had only aired the first 7 seasons.