# Knots Landing (1979)

> Five families on a quiet Southern California cul-de-sac trade affairs, schemes and neighborly grudges across fourteen seasons of primetime soap.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/2467

## Facts

- Seasons: 14
- Episodes: 344
- Episode runtime: 44 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama
- Created by: Michael Filerman, David Jacobs
- Network: CBS
- Cast: James Houghton, Kim Lankford, Michele Lee, Constance McCashin, Don Murray, John Pleshette, Ted Shackelford, Joan Van Ark
- TMDB rating: 6.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078638/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: melodramatic, glossy, wistful, intimate

## What critics say

Critics broadly praise the glossy, well-acted early seasons of this long-running soap, while faulting its later years for cast turnover and thinning storylines.

## Synopsis

Knots Landing (1979-1993) is an American primetime soap opera created by Michael Filerman and David Jacobs for CBS. Spun off from Dallas, it follows five families living on a single cul-de-sac in a small California community. Kenny Ward (James Houghton) and Ginger Ward (Kim Lankford) anchor the early seasons as a young couple testing their marriage, while Karen MacKenzie (Michele Lee) and Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford) carry long-running romantic and professional entanglements. Valene Ewing (Joan Van Ark) and Abby Cunningham Ewing Sumner (Donna Mills) supply the sharper rivalries, and Laura Avery Sumner (Constance McCashin) and Richard Avery (John Pleshette) bring further marital drama. The engine is simple and relentless: neighbors want what their neighbors have, and every affair, business deal and betrayal ripples across the shared lawns and kitchens. Running fourteen seasons and over three hundred episodes, it is a serialized soap that moves at a leisurely pace, with each episode built from interpersonal conflicts. The tone is melodramatic and glossy, with an 1980s sheen of sunshine, wealth and quiet unease. Fans of Dallas, Dynasty and Desperate Housewives will find familiar pleasures in its mix of domestic intrigue and sudden reversals.

## Shows like Knots Landing

- [Dynasty (1981)](https://ember.film/tv/3585)
- [Dallas (1978)](https://ember.film/tv/35)
- [Another World (1964)](https://ember.film/tv/4326)
- [One Life to Live (1968)](https://ember.film/tv/826)
- [Falcon Crest (1981)](https://ember.film/tv/81)
- [Beyond the Gates (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/163834)
- [Melrose Place (1992)](https://ember.film/tv/4134)
- [Soap (1977)](https://ember.film/tv/3136)
- [Mistresses (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/39901)
- [Dallas (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/34717)

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