KNOTS LANDING: THE PERFECT ALIBI/THE PERFECT CRIME {NINTH SEASON FINALE; EDITED VERSION FOR "THE BEST OF KNOTS LANDING"} (TV)
Summary
The ninth-season finale in this night-time drama serial, spun off from the series "Dallas," about the residents of the small southern California community of Knots Landing. This episode is a composite of the two-part finale, specially edited for CBS' "The Best of Knots Landing" summer series. The program begins as the actors gather together to watch the suspenseful, "creepy" episode. Jill visits Val to pick up the kids' toys, noticing that she has been given a prescription for sleeping pills due to her recent stress about Ben. Later, Jill plays with Bobby and Betsy and tries to uncover the truth about Gary and Val, later accusing him of cheating with his ex. He denies it, but she remains suspicious and tells him that she is leaving for a three-day conference in San Francisco. Later, in disguise, she buys a used car and stashes a gun in the backseat, and on the plane, she takes care to introduce herself to her seatmate, explaining that she is a lawyer and musing that murderers often make mistakes in plotting their schemes. At the conference, she meets a man named David and flirts with him, covertly drugging him and joining him in his hotel room. He passes out when they are in bed together, and she purposefully calls Gary on the phone, charging the call to her room, and then dons another disguise and quickly flies back to Knots Landing.
Pat visits Val and invites her over to watch the perfect-crime caper "Strangers on a Train," suggesting that Julie will babysit the twins. As she prepares to head over to the Williams', however, Jill arrives and breaks into her home, holding her at gunpoint. She explains that she is going to force Val to kill herself with the sleeping pills, railing angrily against her relationship with Gary and her constant "poor Val" attitude. Val protests that no one will believe her suicide is genuine, as Ben is soon returning to her, but Jill smugly reveals that it was she who faked the letters and phone calls from Ben, whom she states is actually dead. She shows Val the "suicide note" that she forged in her handwriting and orders her to take the pills, but Frank and Julie arrive at the door, and when Jill threatens to kill them as well as the twins, Val is forced to send them away. Back at home, Frank notes that their neighbor is "weird," but Pat is unconcerned. Eventually Val passes out and Jill leaves, making it back to San Francisco just in time to greet David as he awakens, making it seem as though she never left their room. At her home, Val lies on the floor by the phone, unconscious. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: 1989
- RUNNING TIME: 1:00:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:27060
- GENRE: Drama, night-time serial
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, night-time serial
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1979-1993
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Filerman … Executive Producer
- David Jacobs … Executive Producer, Created by
- Mary-Catherine Harold … Producer
- Lawrence Kasha … Producer
- Joel Okmin … Associate Producer
- Lynn Marie Latham … Writer
- Bernard Lechowick … Writer
- Kate Swofford Tilley … Director
- Joseph L. Scanlan … Director
- Jerrold Immel … Music by
- Craig Huxley … Music by
- William Devane … Cast, Gregory Sumner
- Kevin Dobson … Cast, M. 'Mack' Patrick MacKenzie
- Michele Lee … Cast, Karen MacKenzie
- Donna Mills … Cast, Abby Ewing
- Ted Shackelford … Cast, Gary Ewing
- Joan Van Ark … Cast, Valene Gibson
- Teri Austin … Cast, Jill Bennett
- Lynne Moody … Cast, Patricia Williams
- Larry Riley … Cast, Frank Williams
- David Hayward … Cast, David
- William Joyce … Cast, Carl
- Fredric Cook … Cast, Harry Palmer
- Kent Masters-King … Cast, Julie
- Deborah Benson … Cast, Stewardess
- Michael Vodde … Cast, Jerome
- Christian Cousins … Cast, Bobby
- Joseph Cousins … Cast, Bobby
- Kathryn Lubran … Cast, Betsy
- Tiffany Lubran … Cast, Betsy