Rewatching Knots Landing

[Miss Texas 1967]

I'm not sure why, but I took a break and now I'm back into Season 6. Val has just debuted her new haircut, and I'm getting flashbacks to Miss Ellie telling Pam she likes her perm.
The show suddenly feels like I've been dropped straight into the '80s.
Anyway, Abby and Gary are flirting like crazy here. Gary doesn't stand a chance with Abby in that outfit. Two hot people on screen making sure my attention stays exactly where they want it.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

I am physically anxious watching Val go through these pre-labour cramps. I've completely forgotten all the details of how this storyline unfolds but the general plot exists in my mind as one that was well done. Val's pregnancy has felt incredibly long, but it's all coming to a head now. And Abby's involvement in everything, without her knowing (as far as I'm aware, at Donna's request), is building such great anticipation. Confused Abby is basically a whole new character lol.

Karen and Mack, I am delighted they're back together. I just adore these two as a couple.

The Joshua/Cathy storyline is anxiety-inducing as well. I don't quite remember how it all goes down, but it's a bit like watching Chip's trainwreck and knowing that, sooner or later, everything is going to completely fall apart. That's both the best and worst part of a rewatch.

Seeing Lotus Point again was like unlocking a memory. I had almost no recollection of the physical location in my head and think I'd somehow merged it with Empire Valley (which I assume is coming up in another season or two?). But the little stream running through the reception area immediately had me thinking OMG this place. It was one of those things that had only existed as a foggy memory until now.

After losing Kenny and Ginger, and then Richard, I'm not surprised Laura is next to depart at some point. It feels like the writers don't really know what to do with her right now, and they haven't seemed to know for the last several storylines either.

 

[Laura Avery-Sumner]

After losing Kenny and Ginger, and then Richard, I'm not surprised Laura is next to depart at some point. It feels like the writers don't really know what to do with her right now, and they haven't seemed to know for the last several storylines either.

And every opportunity to do anything is thwarted by their plans for the other ladies.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

And every opportunity to do anything is thwarted by their plans for the other ladies.

Why is that? I'm struggling to think of what Laura has actually been given to do lately. She worked for Gary, but then got swept up in all the Wolfbridge Group drama. She also had a fling with Greg, and that relationship is still ongoing.
She's a real estate agent who was quite successful selling property through an agency separate from the Seaview Circle crowd. She has two sons, neither of whom has been given any significant storylines.
Was Constance McCashin not particularly favoured by the writers?

 

[Laura Avery-Sumner]

Why is that? I'm struggling to think of what Laura has actually been given to do lately. She worked for Gary, but then got swept up in all the Wolfbridge Group drama. She also had a fling with Greg, and that relationship is still ongoing.
She's a real estate agent who was quite successful selling property through an agency separate from the Seaview Circle crowd. She has two sons, neither of whom has been given any significant storylines.
Was Constance McCashin not particularly favoured by the writers?

No one who really knows has said so out so loud so this is just my speculation: Timing is everything and since CMC was a little younger than the other ladies, she was still in the phase of life where pregnancy could get in the way of work. I think the writers were fine the first time around (and actually kind of celebrated Daniel more than other soap kids would get). By the time she was pregnant with Meg, I think the combination of having to write in another story of pregnancy and the fact that they still didn't know what to do with her character, got her on the chopping block. It's a shame because Laura WAS different from the other ladies and that difference got her in the position of Greg's only confidante. That made for great tv but it still ran as an undercurrent to everything else that was happening. They let Laura simmer during big plots and then use her as the catalyst for the resolution because she's constantly put between the rock of Greg and the hard place of the cul de sac.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

I've crushed through several episodes over the last few days, and I keep coming back to the same thoughts.

• Why is Ben still on the show? The Ben/PJ Kelly relationship is so boring, even though they're clearly trying to make it seem interesting. Kelly is incredibly pushy, Ben is obviously not into it at all, and yet they keep making us watch it.
• In my recollection of events, Abby found out the babies were alive much closer to the end of the storyline, and had to make a big decision about what to do with that information. So I was almost completely caught off guard by the fact that it's basically the opposite. This plot is good! Val's disappearance afterwards, and Abby's conflicted feelings about whether she even wants Val found, is delightfully complex.
• Paul Galveston is so brusque he belongs on Dallas. When Greg said something like "I hate when he calls me Laddie," I had to agree. Gag.
• Val as Verna is interesting (Lilimae's comment about Verna being Val, not Lilimae, was insightful), but it was/is going on for too long. Watching it week to week must have been painful.
• I feel better about Empire Valley and Lotus Point being connected in my head now, because they're extensions of each other's land (I think?), so I wasn't too far off.
• Joshua's slide into religious madness is stressing me out. It's such a quintessentially '80s televangelist plot, but in a lot of ways it feels very current too.
• Michael and Eric. Gosh, I just love those two. Diana being gone has really improved things.

ETA: I am thrown off by this actor, he looks way too much like Mack (it's the hair) to me. I keep getting confused while watching and initially wondering why Mack is showing up in the Galveston Industries scenes.

 

[ClassyCo]

I've thought about re-watching KNOTS LANDING considering it's finally available for streaming, but I can't do an Episode 1 re-watch. I might start at Season 3 and see where it goes from there.

 

[Julia's Gun]

By the time she was pregnant with Meg, I think the combination of having to write in another story of pregnancy and the fact that they still didn't know what to do with her character, got her on the chopping block. It's a shame because Laura WAS different from the other ladies and that difference got her in the position of Greg's only confidante.

Also, by this time the show's creator David Jacobs did not have so much involvement in the day-to-day running of things. He initially created the part of Laura for Constance and they were friends.
But by season 6 and 7, he was working on other projects like Berengers and Dallas: The Early Years. I think Constance wasn't particularly liked by the newer writers and producers that he hired to run the show, as she has hinted in some interviews. I think that had something to do with her not having many storylines, and then putting her and Lili-mae on the chopping board first when cast cuts had to be made in 1987 after the Telepictures takeover of Lorimar.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Why is that? I'm struggling to think of what Laura has actually been given to do lately. She worked for Gary, but then got swept up in all the Wolfbridge Group drama. She also had a fling with Greg, and that relationship is still ongoing.
She's a real estate agent who was quite successful selling property through an agency separate from the Seaview Circle crowd. She has two sons, neither of whom has been given any significant storylines.
Was Constance McCashin not particularly favoured by the writers?

In the Wolfbridge plot and in the 2-3 years afterward, Laura seemed to be their "bridge" character between the show's middle class, cul-de-sac characters and the growing super-rich contingent who sort of represented the "non-cul-de-sac" newcomers. She moved easily between the two groups and sort of played devil's advocate when needed. As the writers (esp. Latham/Lechowick) grew more enamored of the "richer" side of town they moved Laura out of that "bridge" role and placed her squarely in the richer, powerful group via marriage to Greg, but still gave her the ability to act as Greg's conscience. That sort of relationship was actually very interesting and the two actors had insanely good onscreen chemistry. Unfortunately the show decided to make her into a supporting/sidekick character who didn't have her own stories; she reacted to what her husband was up to.

It was said* that there was one particular person in the production team who made an effort to de-emphasize the charactrer of Laura, that this person for whatever reason wanted the show to write less and less for her. Since this was stated in a format that did not allow follow-up questions we never got much more than this side comment. We speculated at the time who that person could have been but we never come to any conclusion. It wasn't even clear if that person just disliked the character or if it was a dislike of the actress. Whatever the case, it's more likely (and easier to believe) that Laura got "lost in the shuffle" as the show tried to write for all the others who nagged the producers for more airtime and/or front-burner stories.

* The "source" if you will was Daniel Weisman, who visited the "old" site pre-crash to answer a few questions and share some anecdotes about his mom, since she was much more reluctant to do interviews and such back in those days. Since the interview/chat was lost with the old site when it crashed I can only go on what I remember about it.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

I've thought about re-watching KNOTS LANDING considering it's finally available for streaming, but I can't do an Episode 1 re-watch. I might start at Season 3 and see where it goes from there.

This is what had me stopping and starting the show so many times. I didn't love the slow start or the self-contained episodes, even though the show was arguably very good and entertaining in its first few seasons. If I hadn't heard so many great things about it before watching (which was much later than most people here, around 2017–2018), I might never have made it past those early episodes.

Over the past few years, I think I started a rewatch two or three times and, for whatever reason, never got beyond "Bottom of the Bottle" (I think tbh I was not interested in revisiting Gary's alcoholism). This time, though, I pushed through, and it's been completely worth it.

If you want a refresher on the plots without rewatching the episodes, Wikipedia has 1-2 sentence summaries for each episode. That said, the early episodes do provide a solid foundation for establishing the characters and who they are.

@Daniel Avery very interesting above commentary. I definitely recall the first time I watched the show one day thinking to myself, remember when this show was all about the cul-de-sac?
Also, do you know whether there's a reason Laura seems to be contained to the "Greg's hotel room/office" set in season 6? Did they film all of these scenes condensed? I feel like I haven't seen Laura out and about for a long time.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

WTF are these values? Everyone seems to be standing by and watching Joshua increasingly treat Cathy like garbage, controlling her, manipulating her, and speaking to her in a patronising, patriarchal way. Yet no one is calling him out or telling him to pull his head in and stop being such an asshole.

I'd like to say it's a sign of the times, but that doesn't really hold up when this show is full of strong women. Cathy herself is strong, repeatedly telling Joshua to stop, and yet he just keeps pushing on regardless.

I get it, it's the plot, it's building, but OMG infuriating.