{"id":10878,"date":"2023-06-16T14:16:44","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T14:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10878"},"modified":"2023-06-17T16:19:10","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T16:19:10","slug":"knots-landing-star-joan-van-ark-prefered-voice-overs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10878","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Knots Landing\u2019 star Joan Van Ark preferred voice-overs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 Joan Van Ark was among the most popular TV stars of the Eighties in the \u2018Dallas\u2019 spinoff \u2018Knots Landing\u2019 but she told me she made more money doing voice-overs for commercials and cartoons.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s as good a salary as you get from acting,\u2019 Van Ark said. \u2018Of course, I work for Lorimar, so how good can it be? You can print that, I don\u2019t care. Unless you\u2019re Larry Hagman. The reason the rest of us are doing floors and windows is because of what Larry\u2019s making. You know, we clear up the sets after it\u2019s all over. I make more, and I always have, from my voiceover work than from any other form of acting.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The New York-born, stage-trained actor, who turns 80 today, grew up in Colorado and, for a school project, landed an interview with stage and screen star Julie Harris (left) that was published in the Denver Post. The meeting was providential as Harris urged Van Ark to apply to the Yale Drama School straight from high school just as she had.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018She said I should write to Yale and tell them that we had talked,\u2019 Van Ark recalled. \u2018I did that and ended up getting a scholaship to Yale.\u2019 Things came full circle when Harris joined the cast of \u2018Knots Landing\u2019 as Valene\u2019s estranged mother: \u2019We had never worked together on the stage but the experience of working with her was as deep and profound as any theatrical experience I\u2019ve ever had.\u2019<\/p>\n

Van Ark appeared on stage in plays such as \u2018Barefoot in the Park\u2019 and \u2018The School for Wives\u2019 and garnered small parts in movies and episodic TV before \u2018Knots Landing\u2019. She began doing voice-over work, she said, after she was told that her \u2018scratchy, crazy kind of cuckoo voice\u2019 was perfect for it.<\/p>\n

\u2019I read for a product \u2013 margarine \u2013 and got the job,\u2019 she said. \u2018It paid some phenomenal amount so I signed on and I\u2019ve been doing them ever since.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She was the voice of Estee Lauder among many other brands, voiced \u2018Spider-Woman\u2019 in an animated series and did a lot of cartoons for ABC Saturday morning shows. \u2018You know, if you can get the right client, you can play a creative part and it\u2019s really fulfilling,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Donna Mills, Michelle Lee and Joan Van Ark<\/p><\/div>\n

She was introduced as Valene Ewing in \u2018Dallas\u2019, wife of J.R.\u2019s brother Garry and mother of Lucy Ewing played by Charlene Tilton, and became a regular when \u2018Knots Landing\u2019 was created co-starring with Ted Shackleford as Garry and Michelle Lee and then Donna Mills as neighbours in the cul-de-sac of the title.<\/p>\n

I spent a day with her on a location shoot for the show in 1981 at the vast Dominguez Hills campus of California State University, just south of Los Angeles. An off-duty blimp minded its own business in the haze over the nearby Goodyear airship field while scores of coeds broke from their studies to watch the television crew at work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pale sun of California winter bounced gleaming off large shiny-boards and a huge carbon lamp. Light blue smoke flowing gently from its funnel, added to the illusion of midsummer brightness. Van Ark was shooting a simple outdoor walking scene. A 25-yard track was set up on the pathway outside the school library for the camera to toll along. Plastic slabs, looking like concrete, bore the fictional name of Western Community College. Students from the real college, recruited as atmosphere, discovered the true boredom of filmmaking as they lounged at the edge of the massive playing field waiting for the set-up to be completed. Finally, the camera rolled and the actress began her walk. Within seconds, it was over and someone muttered, \u2018That\u2019s it?\u2019<\/p>\n

For Van Ark, the day had been anything but boring and that definitely was not it. \u2018Knots Landing\u2019 was an ensemble show but, of all its central characters. Valene Ewing suffered more than most. \u2018Before this season began, the year looked real dismal for me in terms of what would happen to Valene,\u2019 Van Ark said. \u2018They were bringing in Donna Mills for Garry-o but there didn\u2019t seem much for me. But since then I\u2019ve had my husband leave me for this trollop. I\u2019ve had cancer and I\u2019m getting raped. So, for someone who thought she was in for a dull time, it\u2019s been a full year.\u2019<\/p>\n

Van Ark played Valene through 327 episodes from 1979 to 1993 and in a reunion miniseries, \u2018Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac\u2019 in 1997. She appeared in the daytime soap \u2018The Young and the Restless\u2019 for 55 episodes in 2004 and played Valene in an episode of the rebooted \u2018Dallas\u2019 in 2013. Voice-overs have continued to keep her busy with TV series \u2018Doom Patrol\u2019 in 2019 and \u2018Curious George\u2019 in 2021 plus the videogame \u2018Redfall\u2019 in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 Joan Van Ark was among the most popular TV stars of the Eighties in the \u2018Dallas\u2019 spinoff \u2018Knots Landing\u2019 but she told me she made more money doing voice-overs for commercials and cartoons. \u2018It\u2019s as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1263,2257,15,1],"tags":[5383,5382,5386,5381,5384,1794,5385],"class_list":["post-10878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-recalling","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-dalaas","tag-knots-landing","tag-donna-mills","tag-joan-van-ark","tag-julie-harris","tag-larry-hagman","tag-michelle-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10878"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10901,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10878\/revisions\/10901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}