Bradley's Buzz

Back To The Cul-de-sac... Again!

Well it has finally happened – after 13 years off the air – you can now enjoy my obsession with me! That’s right my beloved Knots Landing has finally had its first installment in the DVD world! Featuring all 13 episodes from the first season, plus a little mini reunion between Val & Gary (Joan Van Ark and Ted Shackelford) and commentary by the beloved duo on 2, yes 2 episodes. Let me just tell you Knots Landing Season 1 is a little slice of suburban Heaven!

We get to follow along as we are introduced to the families of the cul-de-sac; Gary & Val who get guest star appearances from Gary’s family including his bad ass brother JR Ewing and his nice brother Bobby; their daughter Lucy in which we get commentary from Ted and Joan and my beloved Lilimae Clements – mother from Hell to Miss Valene.

Karen and Sid Fairgate get the brunt of the pilot episode when Sid’s daughter from a previous marriage wreaks havoc all over Southern California – played brilliantly by Karen Allen. Then Karen goes through a preganancy scare where she is both livid and pleased at a new baby so late in life – this episode is great just for the performance of Claudia Lonow as bratty teen Diana. Karen also feels the love from a young hot teacher at Diana’s school with unconvential teaching methods, and a visit from Sid’s ex-wife who like her daughter is prone to create drama in the suburbs.

Then there’s my ultimate fav Miss Laura Avery who spends her afternoons in a cocktail lounge where a man gets a little friendly for Ms. Avery’s liking, while her pesky husband – the swarmy Richard finds himself in deep deep debt and not willing to help our independent lady in waiting help him.

Of course added to the mix is my beloved Ginger Ward – who spends season 1 with her himbo husband, record producer Kenny Ward. Kenny might as well just let his little Ward blow in the wind for all the women he comes on to, or come on to him in this first season including for some god awful reason one of the worst things ever to hit the stage – Sylvie! Just Sylvie, one word like Cher or Madonna only with a big ass nose, no real singing style and a love for Kenny Ward.

But Ginger really shines in an episode where mysterious gifts begin to come to her door step and to her school where our gal is Teacher of the Year – to me anyway.

So as you can see, there is much to love in this little drama that could, so run, do not walk, do not run in a cul-de-sac circle, just go to your local video store and buy Knots Landing Season 1!

And visit the official website which includes photo gallery of my hottie tottie Gary Ewing, and some video clips:

www.warnervideo.com/dallas-knots/KnotsLanding.html

and finally, here's my little review of what I've seen so far:

After all these years of acting like Dusty Springfield as we were wishin'
and hopin' and prayin' - we finally got what we wanted - the DVD of the
first season of our beloved gem of a soap! I'm sure I'm not the only one who
ran to the nearest video store to claim my prize - well, actually my pal
called me from Tower where she picked up her copy as we were planning on
watching together last night - but regardless, how I got it - I got the
thing and I love it!

Some have complained about the packaging being rather minor, but I kind of
like it. Although I must admit, I make a lot of DVD/CD covers and it does
look like something I could create on Photoshop, but that's not the point -
the point is they took the time to give it a bit of a Sea Breeze feel, with
a pic of Val and Karen on the top and bottom of the cover and a color pic of
three of the four couples in the middle - it also has little color pictures
from almost all the episodes, though a pic of Gary & Val from the dream
sequence of season 6 is included for some reason...

but the real treasure trove lies within the discs themselves - 13 glorious
episodes of our knuts with Ted Shackelford & Joan Van Ark commenting on two
episodes - though I was surprised at the choices. The episodes they comment
on are the pilot (which I kind of guessed at) but where I thought the other
episode they would talk was going to be "Bottom Of The Bottle" they instead
talk about "Home Is For Healing" the episode in which our little cherub of
boobs, hair, lip gloss and stiletto heals (that would be Lucy) comes to
visit.

The commentaries are hilarious, okay Ted Shackelford is hilarious, while
Joan Van Ark is a little, how do you say "out there"... But they seem to
know each other quite well and I realize there is an awful lot of Ted
Shackelford in the character of Gary. Particular the parts of the series
where we see Gary's sense of humor - it was most definitely influenced by my
Teddie's sense of humor. He is saracastic, yet truthful and always on the
mark...

My fav parts include the "inside joke" of Ted & Joan whose favorite line in
the pilot is "Did Bobby get off all right?" A running joke they still talk
about almost 30 years later. Of course there is some interesting tid bits of
information included like the fact Barbara Bel Geddes was supposed to be the
one in the pilot who introduced the Ewings to Knots Landing, but she didn't
want to do it. Joan figures she was shy, Ted figures she wasn't going to be
paid enough money.

Also, we learn through a somewhat warped little interlude that Lisa Hartman
actually played her songs live while filming - the reason this comes up is
because that god awful Sylvie shows up in the episode "Home Is For Healing"
in which Joan declares she was a fabulous singer and completely builds Ted
up to hear it, only to for Ted to say "That's dubbed" and never really
saying anything else - he is so polite.

Also, Joan gushing and gooing all over Karen Allen's performance is note
worthy for the fact that Joan is absolutely right - Karen Allen is great in
the pilot episode. My boyfriend declares that they made a mistake by only
having the character on for one episode, but what does he know?

Ted's comments are a complete crack up with him noting the tension between
Sid & Karen - "I don't think that marriage is going to last. I think he's
going to fall off a cliff by next season." and then adding, "She (as in
Karen) probably hired those goons to drive him off the cliff."

There are only two problems I really have with the commentaries and they are
failry minimal - one is the fact that I want them on every single episode. I
think it would be great to hear their comments on everything... the second
is the fact that actors sometimes forget things or if they aren't
immediately involved in a scene, they just don't know about it - one comment
is about whether or not we ever meet Annie Fairgate's mother. Ted doesn't
remember and then thinks she was played by Millie Perkins - Joan remembers
Millie playing Sumner's wife, and the whole thing is dropped while I'm
shouting to the television, "Joan, Ted don't you remember it's in the
episode 'Civil Wives' it's there in season 1, just grab the next tape and
you should be able to see that she did come to town. Joan you did a
wonderful job by sitting on the sofa trying to communicate with the snotty
woman from back East." But alas, they just don't hear me... one more problem
I have with the commentary....

I noticed the sound isn't exactly in stereo so they didn't or couldn't fix
much of that but I did notice the picture quality of the episodes is better
than the ones shown on Soapnet and for sure the ones on the VHS tapes I have
taped from Soapnet.

Now I eagerly await our next season, and can only hope we have more
commentary from Ted & Joan, and wouldn't it be awesome if it was Ted, Joan &
Donna talking about their lives in the cul-de-sac? I would die...

as for picture and sound quaility - I eagerly await season 4 - not only
because it's Lisa's introduction of course but also because there were a few
episodes in that season which were green in tint - particulary "Abby's
Choice" and I hope there's a way of cleaning that stuff up.

So there you have some of my comments, I'll keep adding them as I think and
watch more of our show, which of course you know I will just have to do,
over and over and over...

posted by swivek @ 10:53 PM