Knots Landing
Knots Landing was an American primetime television soap opera that aired from 1979 to 1993. It was a spin-off of Dallas.
A related miniseries, 1997.
The series, created by Michael Filerman and David Jacobs, had been pitched to the US network CBS prior to Dallas. When Dallas was picked up as a series, and became a hit, they asked for a spin-off, and Filerman and Jacobs returned to their original Scenes From a Marriage concept to create Knots Landing.
When the series opened, Gary Ewing (Ted Shackleford) and his wife Valene Ewing (Joan Van Ark) moved into a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle, in the Los Angeles suburb of Knots Landing. Their neighbours were Sid Fairgate (Don Murray) and his wife Karen (Michele Lee), Richard Avery (John Pleshette) and his wife Laura (Constance McCashin), and Kenny Ward (James Houghton) and his wife, Ginger (1979 to 1992 by Joan Van Ark): The love of Gary's life, and the mother, with Gary, of Lucy Ewing (Charlene Tilton).
- Karen Cooper Fairgate MacKenzie (played the entire time by Kevin Dobson). The mother of Diana, Eric and Michael Fairgate.
- Sid Fairgate (played from 1979 to 1981 by Don Murray): Karen's first husband, and the owner of Knots Landing Motors. Sid was killed when his car was sabotaged.
- Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner (played from 1980 to 1989 by Donna Mills): Sid Fairgate's sister, and the neighbourhood troublemaker. She destroyed Gary and Val's marriage, and married Gary herself.
- Richard Avery (played from 1979 to 1983 by lawyer, and a cruel, shallow man. Unhappily married to Laura, he struggled to assert himself after she launched a successful career in real-estate.
- Laura Avery Sumner (played from 1979 to 1987 by Constance McCashin): The wife of Richard Avery, and later, Greg Sumner (William Devane). She, Karen and Val were best friends. She died of cancer.
