Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 13, 1993 TAG: 9305130039
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
But a series that logged more episodes than any other besides "Gunsmoke" and "Dallas" must be recognized as a television institution. At many TV sets, its passing will be mourned.
Maybe you were doing other things every Thursday night for the past 14 seasons. Watching "20/20" or "Hill Street Blues" or "L.A. Law." Reading the collected works of Proust. Or rearranging your socks drawer.
Whatever, over on CBS, "Knots" was sudsing up the suburbs with admirable regularity, boldly going where fellow prime-time soaps "Dallas," "Dynasty" and "Falcon Crest" dared not go - namely, a sodded land of tract homes and Weber grills.
The saga of Seaview Circle - the show's central cul-de-sac in an upper middle-class community in Southern California - "Knots" far exceeded a real-life quota of murder, adultery, international drug lords and industrial espionage. But relative to the other soaps, at least, the show maintained a sense of proportion: On "Knots," the American dream had not completely gone grotesque.
"This was the show of the people, the show with the common touch," says "Knots" star Michele Lee. "That's why it lasted for 14 years."
That era ends this week, with a two-hour finale tonight. And operating on the principle that plenty is never enough, CBS at 8 p.m. presents a pre-game special, "The Knots Landing Block Party," which turns the cul-de-sac into Memory Lane.
Two months after "Knots" production wrapped, current and former cast members reconvened in late April to tape this sentimental post-mortem. Foremost among them was Lee, who, as Karen Fairgate MacKenzie, was widowed, stalked by a maniac, paralyzed by a bullet meant for another, kidnapped - and hardy enough to survive the series' entire run of 344 episodes.
"When we got together for the special," Lee says, "we had had time to get a little distance from the series. It became very emotional, very cathartic. It's been 14 years!"
Well, 13 1/2 anyway.
Why, when "Knots Landing" premiered Dec. 27, 1979, there was a Democrat in the White House, Elvis was dead and Suzanne Somers was starring in a nausea-inducing sitcom.
On Thursday, "Knots Landing" ends much as it began: square, domestic, and, for millions of devoted viewers, neighborly.
"I'll be right in, Val," says Karen in her final line. "I just want to get some flowers for the table."
Karen always has been identified as the caretaker and emotional center of the show, and, beyond that, the alter ego of "Knots" creator-executive producer David Jacobs, whose mouthpiece she occasionally served as.
Meeting with a reporter last week, Lee recalls one of her favorite scenes, the so-called "Pollyanna speech" Karen delivers to next-door neighbor Gary.
"They are talking in Karen's kitchen, and he calls Karen a Pollyanna, and that sets her off. She says she used to be a Pollyanna, she wishes she still could be, but the times have taken that away from her. She takes off on how, in so many ways, things have gone wrong: having to install alarms in your house, not being able to leave your daughter in the front lawn so she can play on the green grass. It just pours out of her. And I know the audience was cheering. Karen is a character I love and adore and will miss - but I'll take her, trust me, wherever I go."
That may next be a sitcom or dramatic series (Lee has a production deal with CBS) or possibly a Broadway show (an accomplished singer, she first attracted attention in the 1960s in the original cast of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying").
"But for the moment, I'm just separating from the idea of `Knots Landing,' from the family, and from the steady paycheck." She laughs.
Just as she has tuned in "Knots" every Thursday for 14 seasons, Lee says she will be watching this week's three-hour extravaganza.
"I have a hard time in life separating," she explains. "I'm the kind of person who stands at the front door and waves goodbye to someone, and I won't leave that front door until they disappear."
Or fade out. On a shot of Karen, who can't believe the shocking sight she beholds. That is the farewell image awaiting "Knots" viewers as they bid the show goodbye.
The finale of "Knots Landing" airs tonight at 9 p.m. on WDBJ (Channel 7).
by CNB