Throughout its 14-year run, storylines included marital strife, rape, murder, kidnapping, assassinations, drug smuggling, politics, addictions, environmental issues, corporate intrigue, and criminal investigations.

At 17, Gary ran away from home and met 15-year-old waitress Valene Clements (Joan Van Ark) and quickly married her, producing a daughter, Lucy (Charlene Tilton).

Shortly afterward J. R. found her, taking Lucy back to Southfork to be raised by "true Ewings" and threatening Valene with a warning against returning to Texas.

Years later, youngest Ewing brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and his wife Pamela (Victoria Principal) found Gary working as a waiter in Las Vegas, and they convinced him to return home and visit Miss Ellie.

J. R., upset and jealous that his parents were now lauding Gary's new start, saddled him with a failing company, the pressures of which led to him choosing to leave Southfork before he relapsed into drinking again.

They meet their neighbors, Sid Fairgate (Don Murray), the owner of Knots Landing Motors, a Ford & Mercury new and used car dealership, and his wife Karen (Michele Lee), the parents of three children: Diana (Claudia Lonow), Eric (Steve Shaw), and Michael (Patrick Petersen).

Also living on the cul-de-sac is corporate lawyer Richard Avery (John Pleshette) and his real estate agent wife Laura (Constance McCashin), who have a young son, Jason.

Other neighbors include the young couple Kenny Ward (James Houghton), a record producer, and his wife Ginger (Kim Lankford), a kindergarten teacher.

In the meantime, Laura starts an affair with her boss, Scooter Warren (Allan Miller), and Abby soon dumps Richard when her ex-husband, Jeff (Barry Jenner), threatens to take her children from her.

Karen's brother, Joe Cooper (Stephen Macht), takes a job at USC as a bookkeeper and briefly stays with the Fairgate family before leaving town.

With the charges dropped against Sid Fairgate's killers, Karen seeks the help of federal prosecutor Mack MacKenzie (Kevin Dobson), whom she starts dating and eventually marries mid-season.

Karen learns that Chip's real name is Tony Fenice and that he's a fugitive wanted for assault and battery on a woman in Seattle, but is too late to stop Diana leaving town with him.

Abby hires a Ciji look-alike, Cathy Geary (also played by Lisa Hartman), to keep Gary distracted so he would not learn about her crooked business dealings.

Frank (Larry Riley) and Pat Williams (Lynne Moody) and their daughter Julie (Kent Masters-King) move into Laura's old house on the cul-de-sac.

Alex Barth (Boyd Kestner), the nephew of the Galveston housekeeper, blackmails Claudia for refusing to allow his ailing mother to receive treatment, thus leading to her death.

Mary Robeson (Maree Cheatham) arrives in Knots Landing and tells Valene she is Laura's biological mother and therefore Meg's real grandmother.

In the final scenes, back at Seaview Circle, Karen, Mack, Valene, and Gary prepare a barbecue as a new couple begin moving into Frank Williams' old home.

With the 2012 continuation of Dallas, rumors began surfacing that both Joan Van Ark and Ted Shackelford would reprise their roles as Valene and Gary Ewing on the new series.

Knots Landing was created by David Jacobs, whose original concept was a show based on "family issues and examining relationships at the middle class level".

William Devane, who played Greg Sumner, re-wrote most of his character's dialogue, to the point where, in co-star Michele Lee's words, "most people (on set) were (probably) frightened of him".

Bruce Campbell, who appeared in a 1987 episode, would later marvel at "the speed and clinical precision" of the production as opposed to the low-budget films and television series he had acted in up until this point.

Pleshette, however, was not a regular cast member during their tenure (only making a guest appearance in 1987), and harbored resentment because the writing team, who had been represented by his wife, moved to a different agency.

Season 13 saw a large ratings drop for the show after writer/producers Bernard Lechowick and Lynn Marie Latham left to create Homefront and creator David Jacobs had a health crisis and pulled back his involvement in production.

Not wanting to compromise what he felt had been a good run, series creator David Jacobs described its end as a "mutual decision" between Knots Landing's producers and the CBS Network, saying, "We don't know if they would have picked us up anyway...but even if they had, we would have had to pare away more to survive."

The series' signature cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle, was actually Crystalaire Place in Granada Hills, California, a suburban street in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley about 20 miles north of the Pacific Ocean.

The early Knots Landing background music cues heavily emphasized the brass section, and were often played with a very sparse bass line accompaniment.

In August 2024, WB TV Primetime Soaps began airing this show on Amazon Prime Video Channels, which was previously named Freevee.

In the 2005 Knots Landing Reunion special, the cast along with creator David Jacobs, said that the lasting legacy of the show was their dealings with many of the issues real middle-class people were having.

[17] Screenwriter Marc Cherry also confirmed the show was an inspiration to him when he created the hit series Desperate Housewives, describing it as a cross between Knots Landing, American Beauty and Twin Peaks.

[18] When asked which character from film and TV history he wished he had created, Mike Kelley, the creator of ABC's popular primetime soap opera Revenge, said: "Abby Ewing.