Joan Van Ark has invested 13 years of her life in a character she originally didn't want to play.
A television fixture as Valene Ewing on "Knots Landing," now entering its 13th season, Van Ark began playing the part even earlier on "Dallas," when she was offered the part for what was supposed to be a two-week stint back in 1978."I didn't want to take the job," she said. "She was so unlike anything I had done. I had been playing sexy women, and Valene was so sweet and innocent.
"But my husband talked me into it."
Van Ark's husband, John Marshall, a newsman for the NBC station in Los Angeles, apparently saw possibilities in Valene that Van Ark didn't in the beginning.
"He really kept after me about it. I mean, I really didn't want to do it," Van Ark said.
"You know, it's funny. Just like I didn't want the part of Valene, Larry (Hagman) didn't want the part of J.R. (on "Dallas"). And (Hagman's wife) Mai talked him into it. Jack did the same for me."
Originally written into the "Dallas" plot as the long-lost mother of Lucy Ewing, Van Ark went from playing vampish women to a heavy dramatic role.
"It was an intense couple of weeks," she said. "Two weeks that turned into 13 years."
A rather intense 13 years for the character of Valene. Over that time span, she has:
- remarried her first husband, Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford), a recovering alcoholic and compulsive gambler.
- been re-divorced from Gary when she discovered he was having an affair with Abby (Donna Mills).
- become pregnant with Gary's children just as Gary was about to marry Abby (Donna Mills) and Val was about to marry Ben (Doug Sheehan).
- given birth prematurely to the twins - who were then kidnapped. (Val was told they were dead.)
- gone off her rocker because of the strain.
- regained custody of her twins and married Ben.
- had her life endangered when Ben turned out to be mixed up with some really bad guys. (He later disappeared - and was apparently killed - in Central America.)
- was nearly killed when Gary's crazy girlfriend, Jill (Teri Austin), tried to do away with her and make it look like suicide.
- married Danny (Sam Behrens) - who later turned out to be a rapist and wife abuser. (Danny tried to kill Gary, then was drowned himself in a neighbor's pool.)
"It's certainly been interesting, hasn't it?" Van Ark said with a laugh.
But last season, the actress was considerably less than thrilled with much of her story line. Val, on the verge of marrying Gary yet again, contracted a rare virus that induced temporary mental illness.
"I feel (the writers) were making fun of what she was going through," Van Ark said. "It's a scary thing to lose control of your mind. We didn't investigate that part of it. It was almost played for laughs sometimes.
"I think it was a much stronger story line for Gary as the supportive one than it was for Val."
Not only that, but the rather severe haircut that Valene got while she was, uh, crazy wasn't exactly the image Van Ark wanted.
"Well, New Yorkers really liked it," she said. "And people of . . . how should I say this? . . . alternative lifestyles liked it.
"I lost the guys writing and asking me for a (picture) in my bathing suit."
It wasn't the first time Van Ark has expressed displeasure with the writing. She's often voiced the wish that Val would become stronger and less dependent.
"She does acquiesce," Van Ark said. "Val's an old-fashioned girl. But I don't think there's anything wrong with that."
And she was so upset when her scenes were cut out of the two-hour season finale a couple of years ago that she threatened to make last season her last season.
"That really hurt me," Van Ark said. "I was very upset when I said I'd quit."
For the moment, anyway, she's relatively happy. Val recovered and finally remarried Gary again toward the end of last season, and Van Ark is excited about the developments that lie ahead for the couple (the season premiere is Thursday at 9 p.m. on Ch. 5). She doesn't worry that their recent remarriage will take some of the spark out of the relationship.
"They're going to be happy together," she said, speaking of the television couple as if they were real people. "They're going to go through some problems, but the marriage isn't going to fall apart again."
Those problems surround an impending financial disaster that will cost Gary most if not all of his money and send the couple back to the house on the cul-de-sac they moved into when the show premiered in 1979.
"Val is going to buoy him up," Van Ark said. "She's going to support him and help him through things."
After all these years, however, Van Ark may finally see an end to her time as Valene although "in theory they can keep this show going forever."
"I don't know if I'm starting to wean myself," Van Ark said. "I still feel an instinct for her (Val). But I don't feel as committed. I don't feel as consumed.
"I care desperately for her. I used to think I could play Val forever. Now I don't know. There are other things I want to do. Blanche Dubois is someone I've been dying to do.
"But, who knows? Maybe I'll end up doing another 13 years."THE POWER OF TV: Long before he became Frank Fontana on "Murphy Brown," actor Joe Regalbuto did a stint on "Knots Landing."
He was the guy who ended up with Valene's kidnapped twins and wouldn't return them for a number of months.
"You know, that was when I really learned the power of television," Regalbuto said. "I'd be walking down the street and people driving by in their cars would yell `Give the babies back!' at me."