‘This Is’…‘Knots’ [Reboots]!

The 70th prime-time Emmy Award nominations, for television achievements for the 2017–18 season, were announced last Thursday [July 12, 2018]. One of the nominated series is mentioned.

I recently came across a YouTube-uploaded video in which actress Donna Mills, who starred from 1980–1989 as Abby Cunningham on the CBS serial Knots Landing, was interviewed on KTLA in February 2018.

Mills was asked, given this television trend of rebooting sitcoms from the past (NBC’s Will and Grace, originally 1998–2006; ABC’s Roseanne, 1988–1997; and, coming this fall, CBS’s Murphy Brown, 1988–1998), whether she would up for a reboot of Knots Landing.

“Nostalgia seems to be the way right now. In my opinion, Knots Landing was the This Is Us of the ’80s. It had much more depth and heart and real stories about real people than any of the other shows. So, it was more along that line. That would be the show to bring back.”

There is a timeliness to looking at Knots. This past May marked the 25th anniversary since its final episode aired May 13, 1993. It was broadcast from 1979–1993. Two other 1980s serials were rebooted in recent years: Dallas, which was on CBS from 1978–1991, by TNT in 2012 (and ended in 2014); Dynasty, which was on ABC from 1981–1989, was rebooted—with an entirely different cast—by the CW in 2017 (and it will get its second season this fall). So, it’s not like this would be unthinkable.

I think Mills was on to something when she drew a comparison to the current NBC drama series This Is Us. It’s that Knots, compared to the other 1980s prime-time soaps, was a more relatable, all-American prime-time serial. Why? I think it was economics. The economic class of most of its lead characters not having been born into money—and that, as adults, they earned their way. Those on Dallas, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest (CBS, 1981–1990, starring Ronald Reagan’s ex-wife, Oscar winner Jane Wyman) were already the 1 percent. For those on Knots, there was a deeper probing into the economic backgrounds of the characters: Karen Cooper Fairgate MacKenzie (Michele Lee), Valene Clements Ewing (Joan Van Ark), and even Abby (Donna Mills). Karen’s second husband, Mack MacKenzie (Kevin Dobson), was not born into money before becoming an attorney. The only two long-running lead characters who were born into riches were Dallas original Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford) and Greg Sumner (William Devane)—the former born into the oil business; the latter into a political family. Gary and Val, true loves from early adulthood, were from opposite ends of the economic class—a rich man/poor woman pair. Karen and her first husband, Sid Fairgate (played in the first two seasons by Don Murray), who was Abby’s brother, built their life from his automobile dealership, before his death in the third season, and Karen branched out afterward as a widowed mother, a business woman, and she rebuilt her life with her second husband, Mack.

A lot of this to which Mills was speaking refers to the 99 percent who, if they eventually have anything in the way of money, well they struggled before they could achieve. That is also the case with characters on NBC’s This Is Us. The period of Knots Landing covered parts or wholes of four U.S. presidents: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. Like the current period’s This Is Us, that period’s Knots Landing reflected the zeitgeist.

Since I mentioned the 2017–18 Emmy nominations were announced last week: This Is Us, which premiered on NBC at the start of the 2016–17 season, won Emmys last year for outstanding lead actor in a drama series Sterling K. Brown and guest actor Gerald McRaney. They, and others, are nominated again this year. So are two past winners from rebooted comedies: Will and Grace’s Megan Mullally and Roseanne’s Laurie Metcalf (who, at 63, is on a hot streak; she received, at the very least, nominations at this year’s Oscars, Tonys, and Emmys). Knots Landing, which broadcast 14 seasons, garnered nominations only for lead actress Michele Lee and supporting actress Julie Harris (as Val’s mother Lillimae) in 1982. (Donna Mills won a Daytime Emmy, for a guest performance on ABC’s General Hospital, in 2015.)

I don’t seriously give thought to whether I would want a reboot specifically of Knots Landing. But, come to think, I don’t tend to want to see any past series rebooted. I think the late film critic Gene Siskel (1946–1999) was onto something when he opined about movie sequels. What he said about those has me applying that to television-series reboots. I can’t remember the exact quote. It goes something like this: Why not redo something that originally was badly made? In other words: If a given production was fouled up the first time, that is a reason to try a second time; to get it right. Well, that isn’t how people tend to think. But, that is a pretty good way of looking at this.