Knots Landing

Knots Landing
Logo used between the ninth and tenth seasons
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	David Jacobs
Starring	James Houghton Kim Lankford Michele Lee Constance McCashin Don Murray John Pleshette Ted Shackelford Joan Van Ark Donna Mills Julie Harris Kevin Dobson Claudia Lonow Douglas Sheehan William Devane Lisa Hartman Alec Baldwin Teri Austin Nicollette Sheridan Hunt Block Patrick Petersen Tonya Crowe Michelle Phillips Larry Riley Stacy Galina Kathleen Noone
Theme music composer	Jerrold Immel
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	14
No. of episodes	344 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Michael Filerman David Jacobs
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	Roundelay Productions (1979–1982) (seasons 1–3) Roundelay-MF Productions (1982–1993) (seasons 4–14) Lorimar Productions (1979–1986) (seasons 1–7) Lorimar-Telepictures (1986–1988) (seasons 8–9) Lorimar Television (1988–1993) (seasons 10–14)
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	December 27, 1979 (1979-12-27) – May 13, 1993 (1993-05-13)
Related
Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac (1997) Dallas (1978) Dallas (2012)
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Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired on CBS from December 27, 1979, to May 13, 1993. A spin-off of Dallas, it was set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles and initially centered on the lives of four married couples living on a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle. Throughout its 14-year run, storylines included marital strife, rape, murder, kidnapping, assassinations, drug smuggling, politics, addictions, environmental issues, corporate intrigue, and criminal investigations. By the time of its conclusion, it had become the third-longest-running primetime drama on U.S. television after Gunsmoke and Bonanza ^{[Note 1]} and the last scripted primetime drama show that debuted in the 1970s to leave the air.^{[Note 2]}

Knots Landing was created by David Jacobs (one-time writer of Family and later producer of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) in conjunction with producer Michael Filerman (who would also later co-produce Falcon Crest). Although a spin-off of Dallas, the concept predates that series, and was rebuffed by CBS in 1977, as the network wanted something more "saga-like". Jacobs then created Dallas, which the network accepted and premiered in 1978. After Dallas became a hit, Jacobs was then able to adapt Knots Landing as a spin-off series by way of incorporating the characters of Gary and Valene Ewing who were first introduced in Dallas. The series was largely inspired by a 1957 movie No Down Payment and also by the 1973 Ingmar Bergman television miniseries Scenes from a Marriage.

Though initially not as popular in the ratings as Dallas, Knots Landing ultimately outlasted it and garnered much critical acclaim. There were 344 episodes spanning 14 seasons of Knots Landing from 1979 to 1993. In 1997, much of the cast reunited for a two-part miniseries titled Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. In 2005, they reunited again for the non-fiction special Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again in which the cast reminisced about their time on the show. Dallas itself was revived in 2012, with Gary and Valene Ewing appearing in its second season. During nearly the entire run of the original series, Knots Landing occupied the same timeslot: Thursday nights at 10:00 p.m. For a while, it was moved to the 9:00 p.m. timeslot when Falcon Crest was moved to Thursday nights for the final four episodes of its run. When Falcon Crest ended its run, Knots Landing was moved back to its 10:00 p.m. timeslot and stayed there until it ended its run. On two other occasions, Knots Landing was also moved to Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. to make room for two short-lived dramas, Jessica Novak and Kay O'Brien.
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