TV by the Decade :: December 22•28

Lorimar

We’re in the thick of Christmas week and the only real surprise here is that a major network chose to debut a new scripted TV series between Christmas and New Year’s eve 1979. This is virtually unheard of today, but CBS took a chance and actually struck gold. NBC also threw caution to the wind in 1979 but did not fare as well as their rival network. Other than those two shows, nothing else debuted at the end of any of the decades that end in 9.

1959

No new series premiered this week in 1959.

1969

No new series premiered this week in 1969.

1979

December 27 — Primetime drama Knots Landing premieres on CBS, a spin-off of the network’s popular nighttime soap Dallas. The show, however, was conceived before Dallas and CBS rejected it, wanting something more ‘saga-like’ which led to the creation of Dallas. Once that show was established, David Jacobs was able to incorporate characters from the show into his original concept and Knots Landing was then accepted by the network. The show itself was inspired by the 1957 movie No Down Payment as well as Ingmar Bergman’s 1973 mini-series Scenes from a Marriage. At the beginning, the series focused on four married couples liviing in a cul-de-sac in the fictional Los Angeles suburb but as the series progressed, domestic issues gave way to more soapy elements like rape, murder, kidnapping, assassinations, drug smuggling, corporate intrigue, and criminal investigations. The show actually ran longer than its parent, lasting 14 seasons and producing 344 episodes, generally remaining in its Thursday 10:00 PM timeslot for the entire run. The series also weathered many cast changes during its run with only two original members, Michele Lee and Ted Shackelford, listed as regulars for the entire 14 seasons … although Lee was the only one of the two to appear in all 344 episodes. (Shackelford did not originate the role of Gary Ewing on Dallas, taking over from David Ackroyd on Season 3 Episode 14 during the 1979-1980 season, which aired a week before Knots Landing‘s premiere.) The other longest-serving cast member was Joan Van Ark, a regular for the first 13 seasons and a guest during the two-part series finale, appearing in a total of 316 episodes. Donna Mills joined the series in its second season and quickly became a popular villain, a la Joan Collins on Dynasty, but left the show after nine seasons, missing only one episode during her run and also returning for the two-part series finale. Don Murray opted to leave the show at the end of its third season with the writers killing off his Sid Fairgate character (husband to Lee’s Karen) which led to the introduction of Kevin Dobson’s Mack MacKenzie (Season 3-14), who eventually married Karen, becoming the series’ rock after breaking up the original power couple of Gary and Val Ewing (Shackelford and Van Ark), the original Dallas characters who helped launch Knots Landing. William Devane joined the series in Season 5 as Greg Sumner and quickly became a popular co-villain with Mills’ Abby Cunnuingham, who married Gary and then left him for Greg. Nicolette Sheridan joined the show in Season 7 in the recurring role of bad girl Paige Matheson, and was upped to a regular in Season 9. A young Alec Baldwin was a regular for two seasons (6-7) as Joshua Rush, who was famously ‘shouted off’ a rooftop to his death by his mother Lilimae Clements (Julie Harris, a regular from Seasons 4-9). The show had to deal with the unexpected death of cast member Steve Shaw, who played Karen’s son Eric Fairgate, after he was killed in a car accident in 1990. Season 12 episode ‘An American Hero’ was dedicated to Shaw and Lee sang the closing song during the credits, although Eric’s absence from the series after this was never addressed. The series also had some notable fictional deaths to deal with. Lisa Hartman recurred in Seasons 4-5 as singer Ciji Dunne, whom Gary had taken an interest in, but the character was killed off, sparking outrage among the fans. Hartman was brought back as a regular for Seasons 6-7 as look-alike Cathy Geary, whom Gary wanted to help get a new start on life. It was revealed that she was hired by Abby to distract Gary, and she eventually married Joshua. Most notoriously, the series often featured crossovers with some Dallas cast members, usually during Sweeps months but that was all up-ended when Patrick Duffy decided to leave his Dallas role of Bobby Ewing at the end of the 1984-1985 season, the producers unwisely killing off the character. This affected the Knots Landing storyline as Gary dealt with the death of his brother, and wife Valene giving birth to twins, naming the boy Bobby in his honor. When Duffy suddenly returned to Dallas a year later, rendering the entire 1985-86 season a bad dream of his wife Pam, Knots Landing then existed in its own alternate universe where Bobby Ewing was still dead, and there was never another Dallas crossover. Among the show’s other regular cast members were Constance McCashin (who quit the show in 1987 with her Laura Avery Sumner character dying from a brain tumor), John Pleshette, James Houghton, Kim Lankford, Patrick Petersen, Claudia Lonow, Tonya Crowe, Douglas Sheehan (as Val’s second husband Ben, whom audiences never really accepted and was disappeared somewhere in South America never to be seen again), Teri Austin, Michelle Phillips,Larry Riley, Stacy Galina and Kathleen Noone. Actors who recurred at some point during the show’s run include Brian Austin Green, Robin Strasser, Chris Lemmon, Kristy Swanson, Ray Wise, Louise Sorel, Stephen Macht, Michael Sabatino, Joanna Pettet, Danielle Brisbois, Hunt Block, Doug Savant, Lar Park Lincoln, Lynne Moody, Peter Reckell, Betsy Palmer, Sam Behrens, Joseph Gian and Bruce Greenwood. Guest stars included Chuck McCann, Don Stroud, Conchata Ferrell, Ron Rifkin, Pam Grier, Jerry Hardin, Mimi Kennedy, Richard Herd, Jack Wagner, Molly Hagan, Dana Ashbrook, Billie Bird, Karen Allen, Helen Hunt, Gary Sinise, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Howard Duff, Ava Gardner, Dick Sargent, Ruth Roman, Michael York, Red Buttons, Stuart Whitman, Halle Berry, Marcia Cross, David James Elliott, Lance Guest, Mary Lou Retton, Shiri Appleby, Brian Dennehy, Priscilla Pointer, David Ackroyd, Lew Ayres, Jessica Walter, Wendie Jo Sperber, Russell Johnson, Grace Zabriski, Bruce Campbell, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Don S. Davis, Graham Jarvis, Eric Stoltz, Daniel J. Travanti, Michael Dorn, James Karen, June Lockhart, K Callan, Jerry Lacy, Stephen Tobolowsky, Dennis Haysbert, Bibi Besch, Gary Oldman, Liz Torres and Billy Bob Thornton. Dallas actors Patrick Duffy, Larry Hagman, Charlene Tilton and Mary Crosby guested in various episodes in Seasons 1, 2 and 4. Season 4 Episode 6, ‘New Beginnings’, was a direct sequel to the Dallas episode ‘Jock’s Will’ which aired on the same evening. Many of the cast returned for the 1997 two-part mini-series Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac, and again for a non-fiction special Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again which aired in 2005. With Dallas revived in 2012, Shackelford reprised his Gary Ewing role for three episodes during the show’s second season, with Van Ark joining him for one episode as Val, arguably alternate universe versions of the characters since Bobby Ewing is very much alive in the revival. The pair had also appeared in the 1991 Dallas series finale in an alternate reality where Larry Hagman’s J.R. Ewing had never been born. Knots Landing‘s popularity peaked in the 1984-1985 season where it ended the year at Number 9 in the ratings. The show’s cast and creators give credit to the show’s success to the storylines which dealt with more realistic, every day topics than shows like Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest which were shows about the rich upper class. Audiences could relate to the show’s episodes dealing with parenting, drug addiction, spousal issues, women’s issues, HIV/AIDS, and the spread of crime. When the series ended in 1993, it was the third longest running primetime drama on US television after Gunsmoke and Bonanza. It’s now tied for ninth with Criminal Minds, but that show has few episodes at 314.
December 28 — Sitcom Joe’s World premieres on NBC. The series starred Ramon Bieri as Joe Wabash, a hardworking house painted with a wife and five kids. K Callan played wife Katie with former The Brady Bunch star Christopher Knight as son Steve. The other children were played by Melissa Sherman, Michael Sharrett, Ari Zeltzer and Missy Francis. Russ Banham, Misty Rowe and Frank Coppola rounded out the cast. The show was pulled from NBC’s schedule after the third episode aired on January 2, 1980. The remaining eight episodes were burned off beginning May 10, 1980 with the final episode broadcast on July 12, 1980.