Welcome to 'Star Chat' where you put forward questions to this months very special guest 'David Jacobs'.

 

 

 

Allison from Sanford, FL asks "Did you have any story lines that you wish that you could have tackled at the time for Knots"

David - Because it was a hit but not a huge hit we had more freedom than what you would think. There was some discussion about the baby story not being in the best taste and I was kind of uneasy about it too but I can't recall any story now that I wish we had done. We had 14 years and you run out of ideas and we were really struggling at the end.

Jackie from CA asks "Knots Landing was so beloved and on the air for so long, with the nighttime soap genre in the toilet, how about creating a new Knots style soap? Maybe even with some of the same characters? I know I would watch it! Soap fans are hungry for your style of soap!"

David - That's nice to hear. If it does come back it wouldn't be for me, Iv done it.

Jake from Norway asks "Will there be another Knots Landing reunion film?"

David - I don't think so, it didn't do very well the last one, it wasn't very good either.

Adam Markle from Denver CO asks "Why did you retape Laura's video to Greg for the reunion movie? It didn't sound like Constance"

David - That's interesting, we must of had trouble making a deal but I'm not sure of that.

kl4me from Montreal asks "Was Laura written out in a way to keep her the door open for her possible return?"

David - No, Laura was only written out, not because she wasn't working, but because the show was beginning to get older and we were having to get rid of characters every year because it was getting to expensive. So we got rid of Richard, Laura, Julie Harris which broke my heart. That's one of the reasons Mike and I stopped doing the show, it was our decision not the network, we felt like we were amputating our own limbs.

Interviewer - Didn't Michelle Lee do some unpaid episodes?

David - The series before the last, they said we would have to loose some more characters, Mike and I said no but all we could do was get the actors to agree to do fewer shows. They all did 16 , 17 instead of 22 but Michelle wanted to be in every show so she agreed to do those shows for scale.

Val&Gary from Montreal ask "Knots was pitched to CBS before Dallas was. So were the characters of Val and Gary introduced on Dallas solely for the spin-off?"

David - Not initially, David Ackroyd was originally Gary and offered the part but wasn't available. Now later in episode 16 where Miss Ellie buys the house that was introduced solely for the spin off.

ChrisSumnerMatheson from San Antonio Texas asks "Why did Claudia Lonow leave the show? Rumor is she was unpopular with viewers"

David - Yeah that's part of it, she wasn't very happy anyway, later she became terrific but its very hard for kid actors, she was a very good actress but her character was not popular.

Holly Kinkade from Guthrie, OK asks "You've probably been asked this before, but how did Knots Landing stay on the air for 14 years?"

David - I think CBS forgot to cancel it (laughs). No I think it stayed on as long as it did because it captured a very steady audience, enough to ensure its renewal, it had a very good audience in terms of demographic and I think it stayed fresh. I don't think it stayed fresh for the last four years maybe but when it wasn't good it wasn't because it was stale, it was because we were trying something that didn't work. I think making the show a little harder towards the end, a little more jeopardy, a little noirish, the darkness of the stories didn't work.

Interviewer - Towards the end it seemed to loose the glamour, the money side, such as Karen not being able to pay Mac's bail.

David - That was another good thing about Knots Landing, because the people were so middle class it was able to show what the economy was like. When the country was getting richer in the 80's we made everybody richer, the resort, Sumners riches, you could always reflect that.

Ewings from UK asks "Did you feel prouder of Dallas or Knots Landing"

David - Prouder is a funny word, I think we did better drama on Knots Landing and I'm very proud the way we handled certain issues, certain issues of health, certain issues of friendship, it was very realistic. The worse episodes of Knots Landing in the early years was when we had to use a Dallas cast member because it screwed up the scale. But Dallas its hard not to be proud off, I always felt I just got lucky, the time was right, I was the right writer, with the right project at the right time.

David Nisbet from Scotland asks "Were any of the families on Knots based on real life people that you knew?"

David - Sort of when we started out, a couple of people were based on real people I knew. But as soon as you cast a television series with good actors it begins to evolve and change, it becomes as much the property of the actor as it becomes of yours.

Al from Phoenix, Arizona asks "When creating Knots Landing, how did the name come about? "

David - I couldn't think of anything to name it and in my head it was based on 'Palos Verdes' which is a little Peninsular south of Los Angeles which had cul-de-sacs. But it looked like it could of been called Landing, there are a lot of places in America which are called 'landing' which are on bodies of ocean, and then 'Knots' was a little joke, married people.

Kyle from New York asks "How did you come up with creating the character of Abby? Did she save the show from cancellation?"

David - No she didn't save the show from cancellation, we were doing ok. I always planned her, because it was technically a spin off from Dallas everybody expected there to be a JR so I wanted to make sure there wasn't a JR. So when we started the second season I brought in a woman who drove a Volvo station wagon and had two kids and so she was to become the villain but she was a great addition to the show. But Knots Landing did very well the first season so we would of been picked up anyway. Actually the year we got into most trouble was the year we lost Don Murry and we did some of the greatest stories we ever did, but the show became a little depressing I think and it started to fade a little bit, so if anyone saved that show, it was Kevin Dobson. But it wasn't really saving it, I don't think we were really in trouble, it was just we knew we needed to punch it up. We needed a strong male lead and Kevin was just terrific.

Interviewer - What was the story behind Don Murry leaving the show?

David - He had done a movie called 'Endless Love' and we were able to release him early to do the movie. I think he just got the bug of wanting to do feature films again, we all talked about it and we said ok. We thought we needed something to shake it up, killing him would be interesting but actually it hurt us because it was the third year. Don Murry was at a reunion at the 'Broadcasting Museum' and he said he left because he "wanted to see if there was more to life than fame and fortune" and he said "yes there was , obscurity and poverty"

Kyle also asked Why was the Gary Ewing-Pat William's affair never finalized?

David - People consummate too easily on the show, so lets get some tension. I tried not to have people sleeping around, its hard for the characters to recover from that. But we did it a lot anyway (laughs)

Interviewer - I actually liked how characters like Karen didn't stray from their marriage

David - I never would of let them, the nice thing about Gary and the Greg character, was that he could be good one season and bad the next. But it was out of the question for Mac and Karen to have affairs, in Val's case it was very hard to make her tempted as Joan was very defensive of that character.

Julie_mac from Illinois asks "How would you describe Knots Landing?"

David - My initial thought was that it would be scenes of a marriage times four, but it became a dramatic exploration of the way people related in the post sexual revolution world and how they kept their marriages together if they could, what the relationships meant to them. To Abby it was currency, sex equaled currency, that's how she got money. Some of our stories were weaker than others but we always tried to keep the characters realistic and true to their relationships or what we were trying to say.

Jason from Cardiff asks "What other TV shows or projects are you involved in?"

David - Iv actually retired, teaching a little bit, writing a little bit and traveling for the last couple of years. But the idea of doing a Dallas movie was really attractive but I don't really have the urge to do another television project.

The interview then ended but David Jacobs offered to return to take more questions Live in the Chat room, so stay tuned.

Special thanks to David Jacobs for taking questions and many thanks to all the fans of Dallas and Knots Landing who took the time to submit questions.

If you would like more information on the Dallas movie then check out http://www.Dallasthemovie.com or stop by the Live Chat room at http://www.ewingoil.net

Interview conducted by Colin Hunter admin@ultimatedallas.com

Transcribed by Christina Gioberti

Special mention to the Knots Landing and Dallas message board community for their support.

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