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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 3779" data-attributes="member: 22">26/Jan/81: DYNASTY: The Dinner Party v. 27/Jan/81: FLAMINGO ROAD: A Mother's Revenge v. 29/Jan/81: KNOTS LANDING: Choices v. 30/Jan/81: DALLAS: Making of a PresidentOn DYNASTY, in an effort to get his hands on their leases, Blake Carrington invites Matthew and Walter, and Matthew's wife Claudia, to a dinner party at his mansion.Given Blake's financial problems, Krystle worries that the cost of her new wardrobe ($75-100,000 for the season, not including furs) is too extravagant - until Fallon tells her that it's all part of the game, and the game is called "Million Dollar Spit in the Ocean." Once Fallon has explained the rules, ("Every card comes down and dirty, and a strong bluff is worth more than a full house aces high") Krystle decides to play - a decision so momentous as to be marked by her breaking the fourth wall and looking directly down the camera lens. (This isn't quite a first for Soap Land - JR does the same thing during the first half of DALLAS Season 2.) Her first move is to stand up to Joseph in front of the other servants, insisting that Matthew is placed next to Blake at the dinner table.Krystle might be willing to play the game, and so is Walter - in fact, while feigning drunkenness at the Carrington party, he proves impressively adept at it - but Matthew is not. "Then you better go back to that school of geology and let 'em examine the rocks in your head," Walter suggests, "'cos if you don't play the game and play it well, then they're gonna eat you up."Last week's strangely lingering shot of Claudia at the drill site might be explained by a similar one of her at the party, highlighting her loneliness, or at least her solitude, amongst all the snazzily-dressed, heartily-laughing rich people. The programme's silent emphasis on Claudia at such moments suggests an empathy with her - embodied by Steven when she enters the library seeking refuge from the game players and finds him there. After all these years, the "library scene" is still exquisite.As with "Oil", "The Dinner Party" is peppered with references both political and cultural, serving to both broaden and deepen the context in which the story takes place. First, Fallon challenges Jeff's view that she should join the Young Republicans: "The Russians are in Afghanistan, the Vietnamese are in Cambodia, and you want me to stay at home and knit booties for orphans? Jeff, the whole world's an orphan." Meanwhile, in conversation with Claudia, Steven name checks historical notables "that have done a little time on the flip side: Nijinsky, Dostoyevsky, Peter the Great," before quoting that verse of Emily Dickinson's that has stayed with me my whole adult life: "Much madness is divinest sense to a discerning eye …" (And who says trash TV can't teach you nothing?) On KNOTS, by contrast, Sid Fairgate quotes George Halas: "It's not work unless you'd rather be doing something else." ("Who's George Halas?" asks Linda the Lady Mechanic.)DYNASTY breaks another soap taboo by having two of its characters, Fallon and Jeff, get stoned, go skinny-dipping and have a good time. Not until John Ross at his daddy's memorial service will anyone in Soap Land do drugs with such intoxicating impunity.But here's the kicker: it's not just drugs for drugs' sake. It's also Krystle picking up the tab for daring to believe she's got what it takes to play the game. When she follows Blake's lead and tries to persuade Matthew to bring his leases in "under the Denver Carrington corporate umbrella", Matthew turns on her, referring to her in the same way Jock did Bobby back in "Digger's Daughter" - as the company pimp. This leads to a heated exchange where he admits he still loves her. A stoned and giggling Fallon clocks everything and rubs Krystle's nose in it at the end of the episode after Joseph (getting his own petty revenge) has summoned Krystle, as mistress of the house, to deal with the two naked people in the family swimming pool.Following on from Fallon's "No blacks, no Jews, no Eskimos" speech in the DYNASTY pilot, this week's FLAMINGO ROAD provides Soap Land's second verbal acknowledgement that there is more than one race on the planet. As Field's election campaign hots up, it emerges that his chief opponent (played by the fat one out of Jeb Ames and Willie Joe Garr) may have once belonged to a white supremacist group. The episode even refers to the American South's history of racism, which is more than DALLAS has ever done.If DYNASTY is an airport blockbuster with a glossy, embossed cover, then FLAMINGO ROAD is a yellowing paperback in a second-hand bookshop with a lurid illustration on its front. "A Mother's Revenge" is an unexpectedly terrific episode, with a full-blooded guest performance from Alice Hirson - the future Mavis Anderson on DALLAS. (Her screen hubby-to-be Punk can be seen in this week's DALLAS, huddled in afternoon restaurant meetings with Jock and Ray, muttering strange words like "DOA" and "Takapa".) Hirson plays Mary Troy (if nothing else, the characters on FLAMINGO ROAD have great names) who has come to town looking the truth about her daughter Annabelle, who died in the mill fire back in the pilot episode. The fire was started by Sheriff Titus - whom, it transpires, raped and impregnated Mary twenty years before - yes, he inadvertently killed his own daughter! As befits such a dark and lurid tale, the episode is shot with lots of shadowy lighting and big close-ups - let's call it the soap noir look.On KNOTS LANDING, the more of a game player Abby becomes, the curlier her hair gets. In "Choices", it's almost a full-on perm. Val, meanwhile, doesn't even realise there's a game to play. "She tries so hard," Abby observes, "but Gary is growing by leaps and bounds. He knows what he wants and he knows where he’s going. He just outgrows his little country girl more every day."Following Sue Ellen, Val becomes the second Ewing wife in as many weeks to find out her husband has been unfaithful - thanks to Abby setting her up to find Gary and Judy together. There follows a great beach scene between Val and Gary where Val reviews their entire history together and tries to figure out where she went wrong, before slapping Gary and then collapsing into his arms. This is by far the most emotional reaction of a Soap Land spouse or partner to being cheated on since Ray Krebbs caught Garnet McGee in bed with JR in "Triangle" (DALLAS Season 1).Val's response is contrasted with that of Laura, whose suspicions about Richard and Abby's affair are also confirmed in this week's episode of KNOTS. "When I saw you going next door last night, you know what? I really didn’t care," she tells Richard coolly. Similarly, when we rejoin Sue Ellen and JR a full narrative week after the events of Lucy's wedding, their marriage has returned to the state of chilly indifference it was in before JR was shot. If Sue Ellen bothered to confront JR about him having sex with Afton in their marital bed, she did so off-screen.This week's FLAMINGO ROAD and KNOTS LANDING each ends on a question posed by its regular blonde vixen. "What would I have to do to get you to love me the way I love you?" pleads Constance to husband Field. Instead of answering, Field picks up a decanter of booze and exits the room, leaving an emotional Constance to take the freeze frame. It's at this point that Field stops being Bobby Ewing and turns into Brick from CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (which is who Bobby was supposed to be in the first place, according to DALLAS/F'LINGO producer Mike Filerman). Meanwhile, Abby takes an altogether more ambiguous approach. "Are you ready for me now?" she asks brightly, popping her head round Gary's office door only seconds after he has ended his affair with Judy Trent. In answer to her question, Gary won't actually be "ready" for more than a year, but no matter: both Abby and KNOTS are playing the long game here.Even though Gary and Val have been reunited by the closing credits, "Choices" does mark the end of one particular era of KNOTS. Laura might not confront Abby about seeing Richard enter her house, but the glare she gives her as they both leave for work the next morning makes it clear that this will never again be a show about a group of neighbours who are all genuinely good friends. The days of unequivocally happy episode endings are over.Ironically, in the week that he reclaims the presidency of Ewing Oil, JR is informed by Jordan Lee that he is finished as a power in Dallas. JR has been out of the office for thirteen episodes and things have has changed in the interim. Now it's as if everyone in Dallas watches DALLAS and has therefore cottoned to the fact that, instead of being just another ruthless good ole boy, JR is "the biggest cheat, the biggest liar and the biggest double dealer this town has ever seen." As a result said town refuses to do business with him. Enter Leslie Stewart, media consultant extraordinaire. When she promises to create for him “a halo so big, your shoulders will buckle just trying to carry it around,” it's a funny idea - but funny in a knowing way. JR the saint?? We're all in on the joke, audience and characters alike, because we all now view JR in the same way.JR falls for Leslie with unusual haste. It mirrors how quick he was to crown Abby "the most delicious conniver it's been my pleasure to encounter" in last week's KNOTS - yet on KNOTS, JR exhibited both a shrewdness and an insight into other people that are lacking in his dealings with Leslie. "I'm going to put you back on top," she vows and he instantly believes her, as if blinded by an urgent need to regain his power - in the same way that DALLAS itself now urgently needs to regain its mojo. After "Who Shot JR?" what can it do for an encore? To that end, "Making of a President" ends on JR's wildest, most reckless statement yet: "I want a revolution. I want those oilfields again."Andy Bradley pulls a double shift this week - labouring on Matthew and Walter's rig in DYNASTY on Monday, then celebrating an oil strike with the cartel boys in DALLAS on Friday. Freeloader of the week has to be Stacy Keach Sr. Three days after attending Lucy and Mitch's Southfork wedding as an unnamed guest, he shows up at Blake's table for "The Dinner Party". Spookiest DALLAS/DYNASTY overlap: Krystle's fashion designer or personal shopper or whatever-you-call-the-man-who-comes-to-your-house-to-plan-your-wardrobe-for-the-coming-season is named James Beaumont.And the winner is … DYNASTY2nd: KNOTS LANDING3rd: DALLAS4th: FLAMINGO ROAD</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?