NEED TO KNOW
Joan Van Ark, Michele Lee and Donna Mills appeared at the Southfork Experience at the Renaissance Dallas Richardson Hotel in Richardson, Texas, on Aug. 9
The costars looked back at the Knots Landing writers’ decision to kill off certain characters on the show
The castmates recalled their reactions to Constance McCashin, who played Laura Avery Sumner, being written off
Joan Van Ark, Michele Lee and Donna Mills are looking back at their Knots Landing days.
The three actresses appeared at the Southfork Experience, opening up on a panel dedicated to the beloved primetime soap opera, at the Renaissance Dallas Richardson Hotel in Richardson, Texas, on Aug. 9.
Moderator William Keck asked Mills, 84, about the women’s reaction to when costar Constance McCashin was written out of the show. McCashin played Laura Avery Sumner from 1979, when the show first debuted, until 1987.
Onscreen, Laura dies from a brain tumor, with the show’s 200th episode centering around the character’s funeral. Offscreen, Mills recalls processing the decision at a cast gathering.
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CBS Photo Archive/Getty
Joan Van Ark, Michele Lee, and Donna Mills for “Knots Landing’
“We were invited for a weekend, the whole cast, to come to David Jacobs’ house and sit around and ad lib on the death of Laura. We came as our characters and each of us reacted and acted and spent a whole weekend talking about it,” she recalled.
“With cameras following us!” Lee noted. “We paid no attention to the cameras, honestly, but for instance, if Joan and I walked together outside the house, there would be someone that would follow us, and so it was finding our voice.”
Van Ark says they were mourning “the soul of the character” while capturing “moments and exchanges that would be real, that would be gentle.”
Asked about how they found saying goodbye to the character and also to McCashin as she was let go, Mills noted that the actress is “The number one requested person that people want to hear from and see,” on their rewatch podcast, We’re Knot Done Yet.
“I think many people were really bummed when she left the show,” she shared.
“It isn’t a good goodbye,” Van Ark noted. “It would never be with an actress of her stature, but it leaves a scar in a tiny way, and she was invaluable.”
Mills also pointed out that McCashin was “very hurt” by the executive’s decision to write out her character to save on production costs.
Van Ark went on to tease that not only is McCashin an upcoming guest on the podcast, but that “She gives an amazing interview.”
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