Knots Landing Reunion: Together...

Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again
I'll say it right away: Knots Landing is my all-time favorite show. So you know I was totally looking forward to this two-hour reunion of the cast of the third-longest-running hourlong drama, which ran from '79 to '93. For the most part, I was not disappointed.

What I loved:
- The quick recap of all 14 seasons using several of the actors narrating was hilarious and well written.
- Speaking of hilarious shut up that Joan Van Ark and Ted Shackelford did a Wonder Woman episode right before Knots began. Joan calling Ted's costume a big "silver condom" was great.
- Excellent choices of classic scenes shown such as Sid driving off the cliff, Val getting the twins back, Joshua falling off the roof, Sumner and Paige's naked croquet game and Cathy Geary's first appearance. My favorite scene was Val's return on the final episode with the dark, curly wig and Gary's reaction to it.
- The few Desperate Housewives references made me happy since every episode of DH contains Knots-type moments.
- Everyone for the most part looks fabulous. You can tell that several of the women have had face work done with varying degrees of success. One of the women has that "mommy, mommy, my pigtails are too tight" look, but I won't say who.
- Speaking of the reunion scenes, it was appropriate that, besides Joan and Ted, they had my goddess Michele Lee, Kevin Dobson, Donna Mills, William Devane, Lisa Hartman-Black, Michelle Phillips and eventually Julie Harris there.
- I liked that Nicollette Sheridan was at least interviewed and took part in the opening recap same with Alec Baldwin and Don Murray.
- Nice "Before They Were Famous" sequence featuring scenes with Halle Berry, Billy Bob Thornton, Gary Sinise and best of all, Marcia Cross and Doug Savant (coincidentally, Doug's scene was with Nicollette).

What I didn't love:
- The cheese factor was fairly high. Not as high as last year's Dallas reunion, but close. It had an almost infomercial tone to it like at any given moment, someone was going to sell me a Knots DVD collection. That aspect didn't bother me as much as
- The huge list of former costars who were either completely ignored or skipped over. Hello! Where was Constance McCashin? Laura was a lead character from '79 to '87 and was not shown in any clips, only in still photos, and they even blurred out her face during the pivotal scene in which Laura talked to all her friends via videotape before she died. Leaving her out was unacceptable. At least they showed John Pleshette, Doug Sheehan and the late Larry Riley in a few scenes, but where were Teri Austin, Kathleen Noone, Joseph Gian, Lar Park-Lincoln, Paul Carafotes, Lynne Moody, Victoria Ann Lewis, Michael Sabatino, Robert Desiderio, Stacy Galina, Lorenzo Caccialanza, Kim Lankford or James Houghton? Kenny and Ginger were shown in a group shot, but that's it. Worst of all, what about the kids? Yes, they showed a few scenes with Claudia Lonow, Tonya Crowe and Brian Austin Green, but not one scene with Pat Petersen (Steve Shaw tragically died in a car accident in 1990). No reunion is complete without key family members. Perhaps when they produce the next one, they'll invite more people.  Dave Anderson