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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 18126" data-attributes="member: 22">24/Oct/85: KNOTS LANDING: A Little Assistance v. 25/Oct/85: DALLAS: Mothers v. 25/Oct/85: FALCON CREST: EchoesOn DALLAS this week, Mark Graison declares his intention to open up a medical research centre that specialises in rare blood diseases. He'd better get his skates on if he wants to find a cure for Lilimae Clements' (admittedly nonexistent) ailment on KNOTS LANDING. In this week’s episode, Joshua tells Cathy that she has six months to live at the most. The sad news obliges Cathy to abandon plans for her and Joshua to move into the cherished apartment she has already paid the deposit on. She takes one last look around the place as her own version of "Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” (a big hit for Rose Royce in ’78, but by this point probably more associated with Madonna) plays on the soundtrack. This marks the first time a song on KNOTS (or anywhere else in Soap Land outside of the modelling montages on PAPER DOLLS) has been used extra-diegetically (i.e., it cannot be heard by any of the characters on screen, only by the viewer at home).Elsewhere on KNOTS, a reluctant Jill Bennett has been assigned by the governor to assist Mack in his investigation into illegal adoption rings. The investigation itself takes a backseat to Mack and Jill’s verbal sparring, reminiscent of (but not as funny as) one of those old screwball comedies where the romantic leads trade insults in the workplace to mask their mutual attraction. Mack even starts dressing like something out of the thirties — a straw boater, a bow-tie, old-fashioned pants with suspenders — to evoke a jaunty, Cary Grant-like feel."You're my son and I love you with all my heart, but we don't need to be together to keep that love,” Miss Ellie told Gary when he crossed over to DALLAS for Bobby’s funeral. Since then, both characters have made an effort to bridge the gap between their respective series. On last week’s DALLAS, Miss Ellie received a call from Gary and on this week’s KNOTS, Gary receives a package from his mama containing a framed photograph of himself and Bobby when they were kids.The after-effects of Bobby’s demise continue to be felt on both sides of the Ewing-verse. While JR lobbies to have his brother named Oil Baron of the Year, Donna and Ray follow Val’s example by deciding to name their baby Bobby, “if it’s a boy.” Meanwhile, Gary and Ellie each take out their grief on those closest to them. “Tomorrow? What the hell do you know about tomorrow?! Ask my brother about tomorrow!” Gary shouts angrily at his step-daughter Olivia. “I don’t know what the answer is — to anything!” Miss Ellie snaps irritably at her stepson Ray. While Gary "has responded to the recent death of his brother by withdrawing from this mundane and material world,” as Greg Sumner amusingly puts it, the news of Bobby’s death also prompts Sue Ellen’s mother Patricia to pay her first visit to Southfork for six years.The subject of Sue Ellen’s mother is also raised during a session with her psychiatrist. Sue Ellen explains how Patricia raised her "to marry somebody important — to love, honour and obey. And she made it very clear to me that if I couldn’t love and honour, I could sure as hell obey.” “That’s valid, Sue Ellen,” the doctor replies. "Years ago, a lot of women thought that way, but the world has changed.” "Not for her — and not for me,” Sue Ellen admits. Not for Joshua on KNOTS either. When Cathy expresses reluctance at singing on his TV show again (an idea that originated with Ben as a way to stave off a decline in ratings), he gets angry.Eric Fairgate’s observation that “living in this cul-de-sac’s like living in the middle of a soap opera” is especially applicable to Val’s house. With so many storylines under one roof — the twins’ paternity, Lilimae’s secret illness, Val and Ben attempting to redefine their relationship in one room while Joshua is hitting Cathy in another — it feels like a miniature version of Southfork during the early years of DALLAS. As everyone pretends to believe Cathy's claim that she bruised her face on a medicine cabinet, an atmosphere of secrets and lies set against a veneer of domestic normalcy descends on the household.While Patricia Shepard is alarmed to discover that Sue Ellen is receiving treatment for alcoholism, she is even more upset to learn that her daughter’s marriage to JR has deteriorated so badly. Her question to Miss Ellie on the subject, “Where were you when all this was going on — sitting at the head of the big Ewing dinner table and watching?” could also be directed at Lilimae regarding her son’s marriage on KNOTS. Lilimae has been turning a blind eye to Joshua’s increasingly aggressive behaviour for months and when Val suggests that he may have struck Cathy, she insists it can’t be true. In fairness to Lilimae, she does then attempt to broach the subject with Cathy, albeit in the broadest terms. In fact, her generalised advice to her daughter-in-law (“Being married sometimes puts a lot of stress on one partner or the other …“) is mirrored by Patricia’s to her son-in-law JR on DALLAS ("Every marriage has problems …”).While Lilimae and Patricia each refuses to acknowledge how seriously wrong her child’s marriage has gone, they react in polar opposite ways. Where Lilimae continues to bury her head in the sand (“Oh, that darn medicine chest — I have done that myself so many times!”), Patricia believes she can bring about a reconciliation between Sue Ellen and JR through sheer force of will (“You allowed that marriage to fall apart,” she accuses Miss Ellie. "I’m going to put it back together again!”).Over on FALCON CREST, another woman of a certain age is also in denial of sorts. When Greg and Angela accuse Anna Rossini of setting the fire that killed her husband years before as revenge for him getting Julia Cumson pregnant, she angrily refutes the allegation. In the final scene of this week's episode, however, we see her steal into the Channing house and set fire to the hallway leading to the bedroom where Angela is sleeping. A murderously unstable older woman, a back story involving a house fire that killed a family member and an illegitimate birth that was hushed up, plus a second murder attempt in the present day — this is essentially the Lady Jessica storyline from DALLAS with some of its components reordered.One can pinpoint the exact moment on this week’s KNOTS where the depiction of Olivia Cunningham shifts from sweet young girl to troubled adolescent. Halfway through a scene where she is expressing concern over Gary’s state of mind, she abruptly rounds on her mother, accusing her of neglecting the family. If Olivia’s now a teenager, Abby’s status also changes by default, and in a later scene where she appreciatively eyes up Greg’s new assistant, Peter Hollister, describing him as both "a very clever young man" and “young, bright and very attractive”, it becomes clear that she is now officially An Older Woman.Peter’s super-efficiency and determination to work closely with his show’s anti-hero suggests he's the male equivalent of Jordan Roberts, Richard’s new attorney on FALCON CREST. Thus far, Jordan’s main function has been to act as a sounding board for Richard as he hatches a plan to coax his would-be assassin out into the open. Unusually for a season finale whodunnit, the question of “Who Blew Up Richard and Maggie?” hasn't dominated the new season. The only person concerned with solving the mystery seems to be Richard himself. Meanwhile, each of the suspects involved continues on about their business, untroubled by either accusations or false arrests.What we learn of Angela's past romance with Peter Stavros on this week’s FC mirrors what we already know of Alexis's with King Galen on DYNASTY. Each was a brief teenage entanglement (Angela and Alexis would both have been about sixteen) that neither party has ever fully gotten over. "I’ve thought of you so often during these years, Alexis, of what nearly was, of what might have been,” admitted Galen last season. "Oh Angela, the things we could have achieved together, the wars we could have won, the children we could have had,” sighs Peter this week. He then asks Angela to marry him, but she is too concerned with regaining Falcon Crest to seriously consider the proposal, just Alexis was otherwise occupied with thoughts of marrying Amanda off to Prince Michael when Galen attempted to woo her in Moldavia.And this week’s Top 3 are …1 (3) KNOTS LANDING2 (1) DALLAS 3 (4) FALCON CREST</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?