Valene Ewing

Valene Ewing
Knots Landing and Dallas character
Actress Joan Van Ark as Valene Ewing, appearing in the show's fourth season.
Portrayed by	Joan Van Ark
First appearance	September 23, 1978 "Reunion" Part 1
Last appearance	May 9, 1997 Back to the Cul-de-Sac
Created by	David Jacobs
Spin-off appearances	Dallas
In-universe information Occupation Waitress at the Hot Biscuit (1978) Published author of "Capricorn Crude", "Nashville Junction", "Hostage" Waitress at the Waldorf Luncheonette (1984-85) Parents Jeremiah Clements (father; deceased) Lilimae Clements (mother) Siblings Joshua Rush (half-brother; deceased) Spouse Gary Ewing (1961-1983, 1991-) Ben Gibson (1985-1987) Danny Waleska (1990, deceased) Children Lucy Ewing Bobby Ewing Betsy Ewing

Valene "Val" Ewing (née Clements; formerly Ewing, Gibson and Waleska), portrayed by Joan Van Ark, is a fictional character in the CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing, a spin-off from the long running series Dallas, of which she also appeared. The character is introduced in the premiere episode as the newly married wife of Gary Ewing, the son of oil barons Jock and Miss Ellie Ewing. Initially a recurring character on Dallas, Van Ark's role in the franchise grew much more prominently when she was brought over to Knots Landing and bumped up to a starring role, though she continued to make small appearances on its parent series before exiting the show completely. Van Ark remained on Knots Landing for thirteen of its fourteen seasons, which made her one of the show's longest running stars. The character made her last television appearance in 1997, where she appeared in the Knots Landing reunion series Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac, and was reunited with several former castmembers.

Valene's storyline in the first season of Dallas focuses on the rebuilding of her former marriage to estranged ex-husband Gary Ewing. When Valene arrives in Texas to find daughter, Lucy Ewing, she is once again brought back into the drama of the Ewing family. Upon arrival, she is reunited with former husband Gary and the two slowly fall back in love. Once Dallas became a hit, series creator David Jacobs decided to create a spin-off of the show titled Knots Landing, which would feature both Valene and Gary prominently. The actress had strong input on how they would create her character outline. She recalled, "I remember going to wardrobe and getting a peachy pink waitress uniform, and the shoes. And then I was trying to get that Texas sound, her all important accent. And so we created her layer by layer."

Van Ark received positive reviews for her portrayal of Valene, and received two Soap Opera Digest award nominations in the category "Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role on a Prime Time Serial". Greg Hernandez said, "Her character of Valene was a best-selling author, but her personal life was always a mess. She had her husband, Gary, stolen by another woman, then got pregnant by him, her twin babies were kidnapped by a crooked doctor, she was given a drug overdose at gunpoint by her ex-husband's fiancee, and she racked up enough marriages to give Elizabeth Taylor a run for her money. But she and Gary Ewing (Ted Shackleford) made for one of television's most beloved couples and the audience never stopped rooting for them to get back together."

Development

Casting and creation

In the beginning of Dallas, the serial was centered around the lives of the wealthy Ewing family who lived in Dallas, Texas. Once the show became a success after the initial run of it as a five-episode miniseries, the producers of the show decided to expand the roles of certain characters. This included bringing on the parents of Lucy Ewing (Charlene Tilton), who had not been shown on-screen up until that point. Actress Joan Van Ark was contacted by series creator David Jacobs about joining the show. Her husband, John Marshall, convinced her to go for the opportunity and join the show. In an interview for an episode of Celebrity Weddings, Van Ark said: "At the time Dallas came up, I was doing two different jobs. They offered me to join Dallas, which would be shot in Dallas, Texas at Southfork. I read the script and it was buzzed about already...they were saying this was the hot new show. I said to myself, 'How can I be in Los Angeles doing this, down in Dallas, and then back in New York doing two days worth of Estée Lauder commercials?' He (my husband) read it and said, 'You've got to. It's a wonderful part. So, my husband talked me into a role that would become a fifteen year chapter in my life."

When asked about the casting process, Van Ark explained: "It all happened so fast. They sent me a script for a [Dallas] two-part guest shot, but I was supposed to be in New York recording commercials. My husband - much like Larry Hagman's wife, Maj, talked him into playing J.R. - basically talked me into playing Val." She later added, "I thought the script was wonderful, and [Valene] was a great character. But we created her within those two episodes. I remember going to wardrobe and getting a peachy pink waitress uniform, and the shoes. And then I was trying to get that Texas sound, her all important accent. And so we created her layer by layer." During the second season of Dallas, David Jacobs decided to create a spin-off for the vastly growing franchise. He initially wanted to create a television show based on "family issues and examining relationships at the middle class level". The Production Company, CBS, initially turned down his original idea, as they wanted something more "glitzy" to put on the air, with wealthier characters...which would become Dallas.

After the success of the show, Jacobs' presented his initial idea again and created Knots Landing, with some alterations of his original script. In an interview, Jacobs explained: " Well, that's pretty good, but you know-and then he pulled out the pages that we'd left for them a few years ago on Knots Landing, or a year before on Knots, and he said, 'Is there any way we can make this a spin-off?' I just took one of the couples and made it, you know, Val and Gary who had already been created on the parent series and putting them into the mix, but when you have four couples and you change one, you sort of have to change the dynamic all the way around. However, once I wrote the script, remarkably little changed from the script and the pilot as you would see it." Gary Ewing was originally played by actor David Ackroyd, but was unable to sign on for the spin-off, thus prompting Ted Shackelford to assume the role. Initially, it was presumed that Charlene Tilton would be joining Knots Landing as Gary and Val's daughter, but the network decided to keep her on Dallas in order to keep the two show's separate. She did, however, make a guest appearance in the first season.

Van Ark appeared in Knots Landing for thirteen of its fourteen season run before deciding to leave to pursue other interests. The actress reprised her role for the series finale of Knots Landing, where Val is revealed to have been alive the whole time. When asked about her departure in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she said:

"I could stay forever on the show and be safe. But three years ago I did Night of the Iguana in Williamstown (Mass.), and I had a quote from Tennessee Williams taped on my mirror, taken from an essay he'd written on success. It said, and I'm paraphrasing here: 'Security is in the shape of a kidney-shaped pool in Los Angeles, where you sit waiting for your residual checks.' I was in a comfortable spot on Knots, and an artist should not be comfortable. I'd forgotten that there was a character I'd loved for 13 years. She was the seed of the show. I am the sole person to spin off from 'Dallas' (because actor David Ackroyd originated the role of Gary on that show). Valene gave Knots a note of spirituality. There was a heart that was Valene. I hope they treat her with respect, that she is seen out with a resolution she deserves."

With the 2012 continuation of Dallas, rumors began surfacing that both Van Ark and Shackelford would reprise their roles as Valene and Gary respectively. However, the actress has refuted such claims, saying: "Well, rumor has it… I’m having lunch with Ted tomorrow. They asked him to come down and be part of it. It was several months ago, and he’s deeply into filming The Young And The Restless, the daytime soap for CBS. But if they asked Gary, maybe they’ll ask [for Val]." She would, however, love to be a part of it if the producers asked her, especially to torment fellow cast-member Larry Hagman. "There is no doubt about it. This man I loved so much, Larry Hagman… I was just at his birthday party several months ago… I would kill, that if Val came back, if it was trouble for J.R.. Because they were always at odds."

Characterization and relationships

Donna Mills as Abby Cunningham, the primary villain of the show, who seduces Gary Ewing from Val.

Throughout the course of the show, Val was often played up as the good girl character. When asked about whether Val was a weak character, the actress explained: "God, no. No she wasn’t. For the very reason that she went through so much and landed on both feet. She was strong in a realistic kind of way. So many people came through her life but she persevered. You know, there were two names attached to her: “Poor Val” and what Michele Lee called her, 'The Little Engine That Could.' I like that one … 'The Little Engine that could.' That was Val. I don’t think Val was week or needy. Otherwise I couldn’t have gotten out of bed to play her. That should be inscribed on a pillow. Karen is the saint of Seaview Circle, Abby in the sinner of Seaview Circle, but Val is the soul of Seaview Circle. I do remember that TV Guide did a quote that the three of us can be compared to Earth, Wind and Fire. Michele was the Earth, I was the Wind and Donna was the Fire. I think that really captured it." Van Ark was later asked about who she saw Val as today. She commented, "Of course the dysfunctional elements would come out. Why even bother otherwise? But of course they would persevere and still be together after all. I think Valene was headed to, and my sister’s like this, after years of doing everything for her husband and her children, Valene was going to further her achievements in the professional world. I think if you saw Valene today she’d be much more accomplished as a writer and would be very successful overall." The actress also analyzed:

Since Valene, I’ve tried to do anything and everything but play a goody-two-shoes. I love Val, I adore her. But I spent a total of 15 years—if you count the first year I played her on Dallas. That was quite an investment for me as an actress. If you were playing a goody-two-shoes today, the tabloid media would be dying to catch you on a bad day. Look at what they’ve done to Tiger Woods. Look at what they’ve done to that man. My feeling is his father—or the absence of his father in his life—is (the root of) what’s going on with Tiger and that marriage. But the media won’t leave him alone. No matter who you are, (the celebrity coverage) is obsessive and constant. It’s hurtful. For me, if they show my face in a bad photo, they latch into me hook, line and sinker. Even Entertainment Tonight now has blood on their hands. It's brutal. I wonder what they’ll do with Alec Baldwin now. He was my brother on Knots. They really threw him under a bus (when endlessly publicizing his infamous voice-mail rant against daughter Ireland, then 11, in 2007). He loves that child so much."

Valene's relationship with Gary is important in understanding her overall character. The Gary/Abby/Valene triangle was a monumental storyline for all three characters, which involved Gary cheating on Valene with Abby Cunningham, the show's primary villain. Van Ark described the storyline, "There wasn’t really anything I could think of, but I will mention that Ted and I went in way early, whenever Donna Mills came on the show, and told David Jacobs that it made total sense that Gary would fall for Abby. I can’t believe I did that but it really provided me with some great stories. Because they were celebrating Donna Mills and she became the center but Gary and Val were supposed to be this enduring couple. Ted and I were saying Gary and Val should break up and Gary should go with Abby. It was a pretty big deal to break up the couple that the show began with. So (the producers) were going toward this, then they pulled away but eventually returned to it. David Jacobs was against it but we convinced him. And it was the longest running story on the show. It took a long time for them to get back together. Eight years."

Ted Shackelford, who plays Gary, described the love story: 'I can't complain. I mean, Gary spent six or seven years being led down the primrose path by one stupid broad after another. So with Val... You'd think after 13 years, at the age they are [Val is 44, Gary is 46] and the amount of bullshit they've been through, they would have learned something! They'd probably have a very comfortable life by now. But it makes for a dead story line." When asked about his on-screen co-star, he said: "I don't know how it could get any better. She's remarkable, and I'm not blowing smoke up your ass. I'd tell you if I thought she was a pain in the ass, although sometimes she is a pain in the ass. But my best work is done with Joan." Valene's relationship with her daughter, Lucy Ewing, is also the subject of notable discussion. The actress replied to a question about it, saying: "The spine or the beginning of the series was Gary and Val, coming over from Dallas, so maybe there should have been more Lucy. I do know that CBS and the producers of both shows wanted to keep the two shows separate but in the beginning you had Larry Hagman and others going over to Knots. Once Knots got on its feet in the second or third year, they backed away from the two shows having anything to do with each other. But there was a delicious possibility to bring Lucy in, especially in later years, but CBS and the producers didn’t go for it."

Character Arc

Dallas

Valene's (Joan Van Ark, pictured in present day) storylines primarily revolved around her romantic relationship with Gary Ewing, the love of her life, with other characters often adding internal conflict.

Valene Ewing first appears on Dallas in 1978 as a recurring character. She is the mother of Lucy Ewing (Charlene Tilton) and estranged wife of Gary Ewing (David Ackroyd, later Ted Shackelford), the middle son and the black sheep of the Ewing family. Valene and Gary Ewing are first married in their adolescence (he is 17 years old and she is 15), but Gary is both weak and an alcoholic, who is often manipulated by his brother J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman). J.R.'s interference causes Gary and Val's marriage to collapse, and Gary deserts her. When Valene gave birth to their daughter Lucy, J.R. makes it clear that the child is a Ewing and will be raised by the Ewings themselves. Valene tries to flee and go to her mother, Lilimae Clements (Julie Harris), but is turned away. Valene is unable to stop J.R. from taking Lucy, and she is then prevented from seeing her daughter for many years.

Valene's bitterness over her mother's indifference, and the subsequent loss of Lucy, is not resolved for many years, until she and Gary move to Knots Landing in 1979. Much of this early backstory is told through flashback in episodes of Knots Landing, and only briefly referenced in Dallas. When Lucy finds her working as a waitress in a diner, she arranges a reunion for her parents in the fall of 1978. Gary and Val move back to Southfork for a short time, but their reunion is again undermined by J.R. In December 1979, Val and Gary are reunited once more in Dallas, and are remarried. Gary's parents Jock Ewing (Jim Davis) and Miss Ellie Ewing (Barbara Bel Geddes), and Gary's brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and sister-in-law Pamela Barnes (Victoria Principal) attend the wedding. Shortly afterwards, they move to California to live in a home that Miss Ellie had bought for them as a wedding gift. Valene also appears in the final episode of Dallas, during J.R.'s dream. In the dream she meets Gary for the first time, highlighting that they were destined to meet one way or another.

Knots Landing

After their re-marriage, Valene and Gary Ewing move to Knots Landing, a coastal suburb of Los Angeles, California. Valene is initially skeptical of the move, and describes Knots Landing as "no place to start over". She is particularly struck by her neighbours, the Fairgates, and their estranged daughter Annie, who reminds her of her own daughter Lucy. Gary is more determined to stay, and convinces Val to give Knots Landing a chance. Val and neighbour Karen Fairgate MacKenzie (Michele Lee) eventually become best friends, a relationship struck when Annie, on the run, turns to Val for help, and Val convinces her to return to the Fairgate home. Val remains one of the central characters on the show from 1979 to 1992. Gary and Val's daughter, Lucy, visits her parents in Knots Landing, and appears in one episode in the show's first season. Though largely uneducated, Valene discovers she has a talent for writing and writes a thinly-veiled expose of the Ewings of Dallas called "Capricorn Crude". Gary is extremely critical of the book, which has an impact on their marriage. However, the book is published and makes Val a best-selling novelist and independent in her own right. Val divorces Gary after his affair with neighbour Abby Cunningham (Donna Mills); she keeps the house in Seaview Circle, and is subsequently married to Ben Gibson (Doug Sheehan) and later briefly to Danny Waleska (Sam Behrens).

One of Val's most memorable storylines occurs during the 1984-85 season when she is told that her infant twins are stillborn. Val senses that this couldn't be true as she has a clear memory of hearing the babies cry. After suffering a nervous breakdown and disappearing from Knots Landing for some months, Val is later reunited with her babies, thanks largely to the investigations secretly undertaken by her neighbors Karen and Mack MacKenzie. Whilst working on an assignment to write a biography about Greg Sumner (William Devane) in 1992, Valene crosses paths with some shady mafioso type characters who are targeting Sumner. Fearing that she could expose them, they kidnap Val and she is later believed to have died in a car accident (Joan Van Ark had decided to leave the series prior to its final season). However, it is discovered that she was never in the car and she later returns to the cul-de-sac, having escaped her kidnappers, for the series finale in 1993. Valene is seen once again in the 1997 reunion mini-series Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac where she begins a new career as a screenwriter, and adapts her best-selling novel "Hostage" (which tells the story of her kidnapping five years earlier) into a film.

Reception

For her portrayal of Valene, Van Ark received two Soap Opera Digest awards in the category "Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role on a Prime Time Serial". Greg Hernandez said, "Before I go on, I have to confess that I was a die-hard fan of Knots Landing, the series on which Joan played sweet Valene Ewing for 14 years. Her character of Valene was a best-selling author but her personal life was always a mess. She had her husband, Gary, stolen by another woman then got pregnant by him, her twin babies were kidnapped by a crooked doctor, she was given a drug overdose at gunpoint by her ex-husband's fiancee, and she racked up enough marriages to give Elizabeth Taylor a run for her money. But she and Gary Ewing (Ted Shackleford) made for one of television's most beloved couples and the audience never stopped rooting for them to get back together. Joan keeps in touch with Ted (pictured with Joan, above at a "Knots" reunion a few years back), Michelle Lee - who played her best friend Karen - and the great stage star Julie Harris who played her mother." Knots Landing itself has experienced a tremendous fan following and dedication. Van Ark said of this, "It’s amazing. It’s like having friends everywhere in the United States. I heard that a group a fans from London were coming in just to see us at this (autograph convention). We get a lot of fan mail from Europe—France, Germany, Russia. Knots has a huge following, and I think fans of the show are loving and loyal. Not many shows last 14 years on prime-time. That’s a milestone, and I’m very proud of it."

References

• Curran, Barbara A. (2005). Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime-Time Soap. Cumberland House Publishing. ISBN 978-1581824728.