Morning Men Classics: Men of “Knots Landing”

During the first several years of Knots Landing, I had such a crush on James Houghton, the handsome actor who played Kenny Ward. I don’t know why Kenny and Ginger had to move away from the cul-de-sac during the fourth season but I was not happy about it!

Sadly, it was revealed last week that Houghton died over the summer at the age of 75.

According the The Hollywood Reporter’s obit, Houghton said he didn’t want to leave the show, but with other characters on the Dallas spinoff becoming more popular and getting bigger salaries, he understood.

“There comes a time when you’ve got to throw some ballast overboard in order to make room for something else,” he said. “You know, it’s a pretty surgical process. I didn’t take it personally.”

He went on to play U.S. senator Cash Cassidy — a bitter rival of Charlton Heston’s oil mogul Jason Colby, on the second season (1986-87) of the ABC primetime soap The Colbys, a spinoff of Dynasty. He later received four Daytime Emmys as a writer on The Young and the Restless.

While I crushed on Kenny, I was also all about Gary Ewing. Swoon! Ted Shackelford played Gary for the entire 14 year run of Knots Landing and he ended up being my absolute favorite of the men on a show that was really about the amazing women portrayed by Michelle Lee, Joan Van Ark, and Donna Mills.

But there were plenty of other hunky men on the Knots including a rising star by the name of Alec Baldwin who played Joshua Rush during the 1984-85 season and who fell to his death after being yelled off a rooftop by his mother played by the great Julie Harris.

Other very attractive guys on the show during stretches of its long run included the late Kevin Dobson (Mack MacKenzie), William Devane (Greg Sumner), Pat Petersen (Michael Fairgate), and the late Doug Sheehan (Ben Gibson).

Who was your favorite?