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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 179287" data-attributes="member: 22">31 Jan 91: KNOTS LANDING: A Sense of Urgency v. 01 Feb 91: DALLAS: Designing WomenIn spite of its episode title, this week’s KNOTS is a pretty lightweight affair for the most part. Linda is frustrated at having to entertain Mrs Richfield’s sneezy niece, Val stir-fries the twins’ hermit crabs without realising, and Frank breaks a date with Charlotte in order to keep Julie happy — only it turns out Julie was trying to play matchmaker for them all along! When Frank realises the misunderstanding, he laughs longer and harder than anyone in the history of Soap Land (and possibly the world) ever has before. Oh, and Kate strikes up a rapport with the immediately likeable Steve Brewer, a freelance photo-journalist who wants to write an “aspiring athlete” article about her.Two of these storylines include references that specifically evoke the early ‘90s — first, Charlotte’s response when Frank suggests they take in a movie at the local multiplex: “Twelve screens, stale popcorn, deafening sound? Perfect!” and then Steve asking Kate if she watches THE SIMPSONS and COSBY. (The predominance of sitcoms in the TV landscape at this point is also reflected in the title of this week’s DALLAS.)Hair colour of the week: brunette. Kate admits to Steve that her red-haired look is out of a bottle and that her natural shade is Mary Frances-brown. Meanwhile, at Ewing - sorry - De La Vega Oil, secretary Jackie is suddenly a brunette.While Mack is trying to track down the missing Jason Lochner, Bobby Ewing is trying to find the missing Sheila Foley (real name Hilary Taylor). So preoccupied is Mack that he misses Meg’s stage debut (as a bumble bee in her school play). “Oh no! Oh damn!” he says angrily when he realises. “My father never came to anything I was in — no play, game, graduation. I was a varsity two letterman. Did he ever see me play? No.” As if heeding Mack’s words, Bobby takes the week off from his quest in order to spend some quality time with Christopher — including showing up to one of his baseball games the way Mack’s father never did. But even there, Bobby is plagued by dreams and visions of the happy life he and April were cheated out of. The contrast between these drippy dreams (during the baseball one, the lovebirds joke about the fact that huddle rhymes with cuddle) and the dark reality when Bobby wakes up alone in the dark, covered in sweat and filled with vengeance, are a very effective illustration of how much more interesting he is as an angry widower than a loved-up newlywed. In a way, Bobby’s dreams about April are the opposite of Pam’s about him in Season 8 — back then, his murder was the nightmare, and the start of their happy new life what she (eventually) woke up to. For Bobby, it’s the other way around.Back on KNOTS, Jason eventually calls Mack, asking for help. I’m always moved by the scene at the end of the ep where they sit in Mack’s jeep outside the Lochner house and Mack recounts the violence his father meted out to him as a child: “It’s hard for me to say out loud that he abused me and it was wrong and he was wrong … All you have to do is tell me you don’t wanna go in there. Tell me to take you someplace else, kid.” Last week’s DALLAS also ended with an emotional admission from a central male character, as Cliff — after years of being arrested for either shooting or murdering a Ewing brother or one of their secretaries — finally confessed to killing someone: Johnny Dancer. The only snag is that Carter McKay, in Soap Land’s speediest murder trial (two scenes and a newspaper headline), has already been tried, convicted and sent to Death Row. Not wanting to risk his career by having the whole case retried, the District Attorney gets McKay released on a technicality, but everyone still thinks he did it. His worlds in tatters, he shows up at LeeAnn De La Vega’s party this week breathing fire. “First I’m gonna nail Dancer’s murderer and then I’m coming after you!” he roars at JR.In fact, this week’s DALLAS could hardly be soapier. Rose McKay pays tribute to Sable Colby by first pointing a gun at her husband and then shooting a nearby lamp, just to prove she means business, before ordering him to sign a substantial property settlement. Vanessa Beaumont, meanwhile, is left to wonder why, when she calls JR’s hotel room in Caracas, LeeAnn is the one who answers — the very same thing Krystle used to wonder about Alexis and Blake when they were away on business.LeeAnn also plays Holly Harwood to Vanessa Beaumont’s Sue Ellen, first by befriending her, then by gradually chipping away at her confidence in JR’s fidelity, and then by falsely claiming that she and JR are lovers. “You’re lying,” Vanessa insists, just as Sue Ellen did when Holly said the same thing to her. “See for yourself,” LeeAnn replies, offering her a key. “This opens the door to my suite. Tonight, during the party, even with you there, JR and I will be up here making love.” As Vanessa reaches hesitantly to take the key, her eyelashes fluttering and mouth trembling, she even looks like Sue Ellen.Sure enough, at the party, JR tells Vanessa he’s slipping upstairs with LeeAnn for an emergency meeting. She follows them and then stands outside the room where JR and LeeAnn are kissing, just like Sue Ellen did outside Holly’s house eight years earlier. However, instead of opening the door, she changes her mind at the last minute and throws LeeAnn’s room key in a trash can — which exactly mirrors Paige’s response to her female adversary on this week’s KNOTS. When Linda hands her a report to give to Greg prior to an important board meeting, Paige dumps it in the trash.Then, also like Paige, Vanessa breaks off her engagement to her show’s most powerful man, and for the same reason — self-preservation. “I don’t like being suspicious and I was ashamed of turning into a spy … There’ll always be a LeeAnn in your life or a Ewing Oil to fight for … and I don’t want to share you with anyone or anything,” she explains. In other words, she’s too sane and lovely to spend the rest of her life in a soap opera. ‘Perhaps we were only meant to be together for brief moments and to share this bittersweet sort of love,’ she concludes. “Au revoir, my darling.” “We’ll meet again,” JR assures her. “Someday,” she agrees. I really hope they did.As well as adieu to Vanessa, we must also bid bye-bye to LeeAnn, the most delightfully miscast Soap Land character since Mandy Winger ran a newspaper on THE YELLOW ROSE. Ultimately, Barbara Eden is just too bright-eyed and chipper to convince as a woman driven by hatred and revenge, but it’s been a lot of fun watching her try. Having gotten even with JR — by busting up him and Vanessa, then dangling the promise of a full partnership in De La Vega Oil in front of him before snatching it away at the last minute — she happily announces that she’s “going home — I’ve had enough revenge to last me a lifetime!” However, she saves the best till the final seconds of the episode when she suggests to JR that he be nice to Michelle, as “she’s the new owner of what used to be Ewing Oil!”And this week’s Top 2 are …1 (1) DALLAS2 (2) KNOTS LANDING</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?