‘Knots Landing’ Cast Returns For Four-Hour Movie

You can go home again.

Just ask the cast of “Knots Landing,” who reunite for the four-hour drama, “Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac,” airing at 9 p.m. Wednesday and Friday (on Spokane’s KREM-Channel 2).

Making the movie, explains Kevin Dobson, “was like meeting an old friend you haven’t seen in a couple of years. You pick up where you left off.”

It’s been four years since “Knots Landing,” the spinoff of “Dallas,” left the airwaves after a remarkable run. “Knots Landing” ties with “Dallas” as the second longest-running dramatic series in TV history 14 seasons. (“Gunsmoke,” which ran for 20 seasons, is first.)

The majority of the series’ regulars are back for this project, including William Devane (Greg Sumner), Dobson (Mack MacKenzie), Lee (Karen MacKenzie), Donna Mills (Abby Cunningham), Ted Shackelford (Gary Ewing), Joan Van Ark (Val Ewing) and Michelle Phillips (Anne Matheson).

Of course, the writers have filled the four hours with enough romance, murder, dirty dealings and other juicy plot developments to get fans tied up in “Knots” once more.

Mack and Karen’s stable marriage is on the rocks because of Mack’s midlife crisis and the fact they disagree about whether to tell their adopted daughter Meg (Francesa Smith) her father is the powerful Greg Sumner.

Meanwhile, Val is working on a screenplay with a boozy Hollywood hunk of a writer (Michael Woods), who seems more interested in seducing her than in completing the script. Greg’s niece Kate (Stacy Galina) returns to the California cul-de-sac with a 4-year-old blond daughter she claims is fair-haired Gary’s child. The scheming Abby is so desperate for money to pay back taxes that she moves in with Karen and Mack. She makes a big mistake, though, when she goes to Greg for help.

Lee says fans have been asking her for four years when there would be a reunion movie. “We had such an enormous audience,” she says. “It’s been relentless.”