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Knots Landing - Moments of Truth (1981)

Directed By:
Written By:
Starring: James Houghton, Kim Lankford, Michele Lee, Constance McCashin, John Pleshette, Ted Shackelford, Joan Van Ark, Claudia Lonow, Donna Mills and more
Guest Starring: Glenn Withrow, Gary Graham, Rita Taggart


Knots Landing was a spinoff of Dallas, following Gary and Valerie Ewing and the adventures of the people living on a cul-de-sac in Knots Landing, CA.

The storyline of this one is fairly simple - the women of Knots Landing are having a baby shower for Ginger (Lankford), who will be the first woman on the cul-de-sac to have her baby while living there. The other women have children that are older, and they're all sharing their advice and stories. Meanwhile, their husbands are out at a local bar hanging out.

As the party continues on, two armed thugs, a man named Cal (Graham) and a woman named Rose (Taggart), break into the house and demand the jewellery and money from the women. The daughter of one of the characters escapes and goes to the police. Soon the police are on the way, and the baddie's lookout (Withrow), rushes into the house to tell his fellow henchmen the cops are surrounding the house. With the husbands now informed of the danger and getting on the nerves of the local police, the women are trapped with a stressed Ginger, who begins (of course) having trouble with her pregnancy. Rose refuses to let any of them go - she uses Ginger as a bargaining chip. If they get a car to escape in, Ginger can see a doctor.

Meanwhile, Abby (Mills) starts to seduce Cal, who is hopped up on drugs. Rose is his ex, so you can imagine how well it's all going over. Glenn plays Danny (according to IMDb, but I honestly thought he was called Mikey at one point and Donny at another ... ), the youngest member of their little robbery crew, who is anxious to let Ginger go.

Abby gets chewed out for her behaviour from one of the other women, and when Cal hits Karen (Lee), Rose stops him. Karen uses the opportunity to try and reason with Rose, but soon realizes that won't work - Rose resents their money, their families and everything they have in their lives. Karen starts to believe that if they don't do something, they won't get out alive.

As the police surround the house, Abby tries to seduce Cal once again and manages to get his gun, while the women take out Rose. Honest to God, I don't know where the hell they sent Danny/Donny, who finally crawls out of the plot hole he fell into when the cops start pouring into the house. The whole time the women were tackling Rose and Abby was fighting off Cal and the police were rushing into the house, I was all "Where the %*@# did Danny/Donny go?!"

The women are safe and reunited with their husbands, while the police bring out all of the bad guys (yes, Glenn's character is STILL ALIVE at the end of it. I know! Bad guy/guns/cops - I figured he'd be dead on the carpet by the end of the episode). Apparently the Knots Landing police have only one cruiser, since they put all three bad guys the backseat together. I figure maybe the Ewing's can donate for a second cruiser since they got their butts saved and all.

The quality of the episode wasn't the greatest, but I got a few screencaps anyway.

Purchase Information

DVD - Season 2 has been shelved by Warner Brothers due to poor sales of Season 1.

Pictures
(Click to enlarge)



Danny/Donny being a good lookout.



The hostages huddle together while Danny/Donny looks on.



Danny/Donny tries to convince Rose to let Ginger go.



And again, because I like the jacket =)



Danny/Donny and Rose area little jumpy, holding their guns on the women when they accidentally knock over something.



Danny/Donny, his big gun, Cal and Rose listlessly wait for the cops to respond.



Rose and Danny/Donny keep an eye on the women.



While Rose holds a gun on Karen, Abby shows up with a shot gun to save the day.



Danny/Donny tries to convince Rose to put the gun down. It's like he knows that at any minute he could end up dead on the carpet lol.



Alive! ALIVE AT THE END!
 

Video Clips



Glenn's character tries to convince Rose to let the pregnant woman go.