Revved up 'Knots' drives
into uncertain future.
By Matt Roush
Prime-time soaps traffic in cliffhangers,
but Knots Landing has lately weathered some doozies of its own.
Always CBS' most reliable Thursday night
performer, Knots slipped dramatically in its 13th season, as
an inexperienced staff fumbled ill-advised story lines with
miscast new characters. It got so bad production stopped in
November so a new writing team could fix the last seven episodes.
"We've refocused the show and created
real Knots Landing stories," says creator David Jacobs.
Tonight's episode at 10 EST/PST, marking the new regime's debut,
is the first in six years he put through his word processor.
"Whether it's enough to get the audience back remains to
be seen."
Also surprisingly unclear is how talks
between CBS and Knots studio Lorimar will turn out regarding
a 14th year. With its larger cast, Knots is costly, and Jacobs
thinks the network may reduce the fee it pays Lorimar to produce
the show.
"We have some formulas on how to
do it, but we can't try to apply them unless we know we'll be
back. you can't ask the cast for accommodations if it's just
iffy," Jacobs says.
That's one bottom line. The other, which
most concerns longtime fans, is the sassier, more concentrated
suds being generated by the new stories.
"I've always felt that, even with
the more melodramatic cliffhangers, the psychological ones with
Sumner are the important ones. Everything we're doing now really
is brought to bear on Sumner," Jacobs says.
The charismatic mogul played by William
Devane has just started a wry affair with Anne (Michelle Phillips)
while flirting with her daughter, his rehired protege Paige
(Nicollette Sheridan)/ he's the target of a revenge campaign
by Paige's ex (Bruce Greenwood). And this week, demure Val (Joan
Van Ark) is hired to write a tell-all bio of Sumner.
Add a few young trouble makers - Boyd
Kestner as blackmailing Alex, and New beautiful brat Vanessa
(Felicity Waterman) - and a surprise seduction, and maybe Knots
will have unraveled its bad tidings just in time.
"I can accept people having tired
of the show . . . but our fans weren't bored, they got angry
because we went too far and got stupid," Jacobs says. "That's
why I desperately want another season. I don't want it to end
because it got terrible."
USA TODAY 1992
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