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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 13107" data-attributes="member: 22">19/Dec/83: EMERALD POINT N.A.S.: The Rescue/Hide and Seek v. 21/Dec/83: DYNASTY: Carousel v. 22/Dec/83: KNOTS LANDING: Witness v. 23/Dec/83: DALLAS: Past Imperfect v. 23/Dec/83: FALCON CREST: No TrespassingFor the second Christmas in a row, none of the soaps acknowledge the festive season but find an excuse to throw a party anyway. A year ago there was the La Mirage opening, the Ewing barbecue, the Seaview Circle block party and the Tuscany Valley Founders Day Parade. This year we had the annual barbecue on last week’s DALLAS, and this week there's the Carousel Ball on DYNASTY, a soiree on FALCON CREST to mark Chase acquiring sole ownership of the winery, and a slightly less glamorous press reception at Sumner campaign headquarters on KNOTS LANDING.The grandest of these events is easily the Carousel Ball which incorporates DYNASTY's fictional characters into a real-life social event ("the party of parties, Denver's night of nights”). The closest Soap Land has previously gotten to combining the unreal with the actual was Val’s appearance on THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW during last season’s KNOTS. Then the intention was to show how successful Val was becoming within the fictional world of KNOTS. The unspoken message on this week’s DYNASTY, however, seems to be “look how popular the Carringtons, and therefore DYNASTY itself, have become in the real world.” To that end, we see Blake, Krystle and Alexis cheered by a real life crowd as they arrive at the party as if they were, well, Hollywood TV stars arriving at a charity ball. Where Val and Lilimae were thrilled to encounter Zsa Zsa Gabor and an ex-Munchkin in Mike Douglas's green room, Blake and Alexis are shown to be on an equal footing with President Gerald Ford and Dr Henry Kissinger. Kissinger’s rabbit in the headlights response to Alexis’s ad-lib, "I haven’t seen you since Portofino - it was fun", is still laugh out loud funny. As he wanders uncertainly out of shot, he actually seems smaller and less believable than the fictional Carringtons and Colbys. Strange to think this is the same man whom Greg Sumner quotes on the following night’s KNOTS. “What was it Henry Kissinger said?” he asks Abby. "‘Power is the greatest aphrodisiac.'"There’s also a parallel between the Carousel Ball on DYNASTY and the American military on EMERALD POINT. Both are venerable real life institutions - the Ball, we discover through carefully placed dialogue, raises money for the Children’s Diabetes Foundation - whose reputations must not be tarnished in the on screen pursuit of soapy sensationalism. While the recent Oil Baron’s Ball and Good Ol' Boys rodeo on DALLAS were also established as fundraising events, we neither knew nor cared what charities they were supposedly affiliated with and so the characters were free to behave as disreputably as they wished. It’s safe to say there’ll be no Barnes/Ewing style punch-ups — or Krystle/Alexis cat fights, for that matter — at the Carousel Ball.In fact, almost everyone is on their best behaviour. There are even familial reconciliations during the party, between Blake and Steven, and Alexis and Adam. Viewed in a Christmassy context, these take on a sentimental sweetness. To leaven the sugary taste, the Ball also marks the return to DYNASTY of former senator Neil McVane, as consumed by hatred towards Alexis ("that witch!”) as ever. Nice to know the sick kiddies ain’t too proud to accept donations from a disgraced (and borderline deranged) politician.There’s also a powder room scene equivalent to the one at the Oil Baron’s Ball, where Fallon and Krystle encounter Alexis at the make-up mirror just as Pam, Katherine and Afton did Jenna and Sue Ellen. The DYNASTY ladies are as glittery as their DALLAS counterparts were but far less bitchy. Krystle telling Alexis she’s not invited to her and Blake’s nuptials is as cutting as it gets. There are icier glares between the ladies at Soap Land's other parties this week. On FALCON CREST, Maggie encounters estranged sister Terry, who was pointedly not invited to the Gioberti shindig but arrives on Michael’s arm anyway. "Don’t let me keep you from circulating,” says Maggie. “You do that so well". The main purpose of the press reception on KNOTS, meanwhile, is to bring Abby face to face with Jane Sumner, Greg’s wife. While their exchange is oh-so-civilised, Jane seems to immediately sense the true nature of Abby and Greg's relationship. (Given the original “scenes from a marriage” premise of KNOTS, it’s always interesting when the show gives us a glimpse into the lives of a married couple who exist outside the environs of the cul-de-sac. So far we’ve seen Earl and Judy Trent in action and now the Sumners. While Greg and Jane behave with far more dignity and restraint than the volatile Trents, they don’t seem to be much happier.)There are no parties on EMERALD POINT, but in the second of this week’s double bill of episodes a delightfully bonkers story develops involving a sex tape, a blackmailer, the murder of said blackmailer and a pair of lovers blackmailing each other over said murder — with an evil Russian agent, a dose of espionage and an attempted rape thrown in for good measure. It's the “Bobby finds Jeff Farraday dead in his apartment” story-line on steroids.Minor Soap Land trend of the week: Grown children disapproving of their parents’ new partners. Chief among them is JR on DALLAS who finds the prospect of Clayton marrying his mama and replacing his daddy on Southfork utterly unacceptable. On EMERALD POINT, Tiffany Case moves into the family home of lover Harlan Adams (partially as a result of that insane blackmail/murder plot) to the vocal disapproval of Harlan's daughter Hilary. “Well, you certainly deserve the blue ribbon for getting what you want,” she scowls at Tiffany. Hilary is a spoiled, willful princess reminiscent of a young Fallon Carrington minus the wit, but with a brittle poise similar to that of early Sue Ellen. Over on DYNASTY, it’s contempt at first sight when Alexis introduces son Steven to new boyfriend Dex Dexter. And while no one in the Carrington household actually disapproves of Blake remarrying Krystle, the family's reaction to their reengagement is somewhat muted — understandably so given the complicated dynamic that now exists between Jeff, Kirby and Adam, all of whom continue to live under the Carrington roof, even though Kirby is divorcing Jeff whilst carrying the baby conceived when Adam raped her.On KNOTS the shoe is on the other foot as Lilimae continues to convey her distaste for Val’s beau Ben. Val goes some way to soothing her mama’s feelings when she dedicates her new novel, “Nashville Junction”, to her. Lilimae is delighted — even more so when she reads the book and finds it is based on her own life. Meanwhile, on FALCON CREST, Maggie Gioberti starts researching a series of articles about her mother-in-law Jacqueline Perrault. And on DALLAS, JR begins digging into his stepfather-to-be's past and uncovers a long-lost sister. While Lilimae is deeply touched by Val’s interest in her story (“Nobody’s ever written a book about me, no one’s ever done anything like that for me”), Clayton is incensed by JR’s in his. (“What the hell do you mean, poking around in my life?!”)On this week's DYNASTY, Krystle admits to her doctor that she hasn’t given up on her dream of having a child, in spite of the medical odds stacked against her. She might take heart from KNOTS LANDING's Val, who finds out this week she is finally pregnant after failing to conceive during her second marriage to Gary.Val’s delighted reaction parallels Kirby’s in last season’s DYNASTY. Both mothers-to-be initially assume that the prospective father is the man they’re currently involved with — boyfriend Ben and husband Jeff respectively. Then comes the bombshell, casually delivered by the unwitting doctor — in Val’s case in the same scene, but in Kirby's several episodes later — that the pregnancy is much further along than they initially thought. This means Kirby’s rapist and Val’s ex-husband are the real fathers of their respective children. On DYNASTY, Kirby looked to her father Joseph for support in her hour of need but settled for Krystle when he proved unavailable. On KNOTS, Val’s first instinct is to turn to Karen, but her escalating pill problem means that it’s down to Mack to fulfill the duties of best girlfriend. This he turns out to be touchingly, if incongruously, good at.The final scene of this week’s DYNASTY echoes the end of last week’s EMERALD POINT. Both involve a small private plane erratically piloted by a male character and carrying one female passenger. On EMERALD POINT ex-lovers Casey Denault and bad girl Hilary struggled to stay airborne during a storm; on DYNASTY Peter de Vilbis shows off his loop-the-loop skills to Fallon as Jeff watches in dismay from the ground below. The final shot of the ep is Jeff walking away from his ex-wife and her boyfriend, having accused Peter of endangering “the mother of my child" with his reckless behaviour. KNOTS ends similarly with Gary walking away from his ex-wife after a chance meeting in a parking lot, during which Val neglects to mention she is now carrying his child.And this week’s Top 5 are …1 (4) DALLAS2 (1) KNOTS LANDING3 (3) FALCON CREST4 (5) EMERALD POINT N.A.S.5 (-) DYNASTY</blockquote>

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