Movie-TV Credits
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(television series; 9/12/91 - 9/?/92)
A prime-time soap opera that ran for 14 years, Bruce Greenwood was brought in during the second to last season as the love interest for one of its biggest stars, Nicollette Sheridan. Despite some chemically steamy love scenes early on, the heroic Pierce Lawton was changed quite suddenly into a villain when it was determined the public wasn’t accepting the love-sick storyline fashioned for long-standing bad girl Paige (Sheridan). The resulting scripts abruptly shifted Greenwood’s character into an obsessed homicidal maniac responsible for an attempted murder and two preposterous kidnappings. While it’s always fascinating to watch Greenwood deal with multi-layered characters, this directional change was a bit beyond believability. Greenwood honored his year contract, however, even dropping by for the first episode of the next season to finish up Pierce Lawton's bizarre ending.
Much has been written about the demise of Knots Landing, which started as a hugely popular spin-off for the insanely successful Dallas in 1979. In 1991 the permanent writing staff left and several new plots were introduced that many fans of the series felt were inconsistent with the show’s spirit. With ratings waning, the former writers were induced back, and they in turn dramatically altered several storylines with Pierce Lawton’s being perhaps the most prominent. Greenwood was only with the show for a single season and the ensuing year - with storylines far removed from his - saw the show draw to a bittersweet conclusion. While not an altogether successful collaboration for either the series or the actor, the year spent on the show was certainly one of high-profile, and the large ensemble cast allowed him enough free time to pursue other parallel career opportunities, including a stage play in Los Angeles and a movie in Florida.
While the series has never been produced as a video it’s had a fruitful after-life, running continuously for many years on the cable station TNT and still available over Soap Net.
Lorimar Productions