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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 204759" data-attributes="member: 22">Barbecue Two (DALLAS,  01 Jan 82) v Baths and Showers (KNOTS, 30 Jan 92)Miss Ellie and Rebecca share the same hope in BBQ2 that Bobby and Pam did in the original Barbecue. “We both want to put an end to the Barnes/Ewing feud and this seems like a good time to do it,” says Rebecca, explaining to Cliff why he has been invited to the barbecue. Like his daddy before him, Cliff attends, is insulted at the bar by JR the way Digger was by Jock, and likewise reunited with an old love — this time, it’s Sue Ellen rather than Miss Ellie.While Baths and Showers introduces us to naughty Vanessa Hunt, Barbecue Two introduces us to nutty Roger Larsen, as well as granting us our first glimpses of Sue Ellen’s townhouse, Katherine making furtive eyes at Bobby and (I think) Miss Ellie’s homemade chilli. Both episodes also establish the beginnings of a romantic (or at least carnal) quadrangle, between Afton, Cliff, Sue Ellen and JR on DALLAS and Claudia, Alex, Kate and Vanessa on KNOTS.Watched in hindsight, Lucy cheerfully interrupting Miss Ellie as she’s chatting away with Clayton and Rebecca (“When Jock gets back, we’ll all go out on the town together”) to tell her she has a phone call is a stomach lurch of a moment — and is immediately followed by the closest DALLAS will ever get to a big musical number as various characters and extras take to the dance floor for a prolonged Texas jig. The camera steers tactfully clear of showing anyone’s actual feet, but Katherine appears to be the most competent jigger.The most notable link between these two episodes is Donna and Val each being commissioned by their New York publisher to write a biography about a former senator, Sam Culver and Greg Sumner respectively. “I think everything my wife does is wonderful,” sneers Ray sarcastically upon hearing the news while Greg finds everyone’s concerns about Val probing into his private affairs laughable: “We’re not talking Woodward and Bernstein, we’re talking about a daffy blonde!”Just as the phone call Miss Ellie receives at the barbecue changes Everything Forever, so does Val’s book commission — well, sort of.Mack, Karen, Gary and Val all go out to dinner to celebrate. “The four of us, just like the old days,” one of them remembers — only those days never existed; it was never was just the four of them — Gary left Val and the cul-de-sac long before Mack married Karen and moved in. This reminds me a little of the Dallas Ewings continually hearkening back to those near-mythical times when the whole family sat down to dinner at 6 o’clock sharp.Edgar Randolph shows up on KNOTS as the owner of a tech company obliged to do with business with the Sumner Group. He has the same righteous intensity that he brought to his role on DALLAS, but here it makes him uptight and angry and utterly immune to Greg’s charms, whereas he initially fell for JR’s.Watched chronologically, the story of Alex Barth blackmailing Claudia over A Big Secret From Her Past (the circumstances of her mother’s death) arguably follows on a bit too quickly from the last Big Secret From Her Past (the love child she gave up for adoption). But watching this episode in isolation, the scene where she confesses everything to Greg, and he then shocks her by embracing rather than condemning her, is really powerful. I also love the subsequent scene where Greg summons Alex to his office for a job interview and then proceeds to run verbal and mental rings round him. Alex is really fun, kind of like the missing link between Steve Brewer and Chip Roberts.And the winner is ... Baths and ShowersBONUS BEATS:[MEDIA=youtube]kS06KFkGsXk[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?