What did you think of the ...
Question: What did you think of the
Knots Landing reunion? It had very much the same setup as the
Dallas one, but I think this one was a lot more successful. Maybe it's because the cast seemed to genuinely like each other. Seeing the clips really made me miss it, and as much as I love
Desperate Housewives, it can't compete with
Knots. As crazy as the plots could sometimes get, the characters were always believable, and I think that is what put it above the rest.
Answer: The
Knots reunion was indeed better than the
Dallas debacle, but then, the show itself was better than
Dallas through most of their concurrent runs.
Knots was always my favorite of the classic '80s prime-time soaps, and even when I was alone on that critical limb, I was never ashamed to declare myself a fan. It was the most consistent, the most sustained, the best acted and written and (within reason) the most realistic of the evening soaps, yet also deliciously campy when it chose to be. There's little question that
Desperate Housewives owes a stylistic debt to
Knots, which in its prime was also a model of clever construction and barbed dialogue, albeit not nearly as satirical or broadly comic.
On a similar theme, Adam K. writes: "I've been watching Pasadena in syndication on SoapNet, and I've quickly come to the realization that Desperate Housewives owes everything to this show. The mixture of humor, mystery, and American Beauty pathos is just teeming from this short-lived show. And Dana Delany basically channels all four Desperate Housewives women in one. Would you agree with this assertion?"
Talk about your lost treasures. If Fox had aired the full 13 episodes of Pasadena, Dana Delany would likely have another Emmy on her shelf: She was that great. Kudos to SoapNet for resurrecting this show, which got better and weirder in the episodes after Fox yanked it. That said, Pasadena's quick fade means that it probably had little to do with the genesis of Housewives, but watching it now, it clearly was ahead of its time. If it were being pitched and produced today, chances are it might actually have succeeded.
