Kenny & Ginger Ward- the OG young couple of ‘Knots Landing’

David Jacobs had a few ideas for the young couple Kenny and Ginger but the network would not let him do any of it at the time. The Kenny we knew was a young guy who was new to the music industry and working his way up, but he had his foot in the door and had a job. David Jacobs didn’t want that. He wanted Kenny to be desperate to get his foot in but was going nowhere so he would essentially force his new wife, Ginger, to do things with the the guys in the music industry to try and help him get in, ultimately forcing her to have an affair with someone important so he could get a job. Basically, exchanging his wife for favor. That was what Jacobs wanted in the first season but the network stepped in and shut that down and said that would never fly with viewers (of the time).

In season 2 Abby was originally supposed to have an affair with Kenny. You actually see signs of this happening within the first few episodes of season 2, where Abby is briefly flirty with Kenny outside and you can tell he caught her eye, but this was ultimately abandoned. No one knows why Jacobs decided to nip Kenny and Abby from having an affair and instead had her and Richard have an affair instead in season 2, but James Houghton himself said he feels they felt Kenny was not mature enough a character for Abby and he himself wasn’t mature enough in look or acting experience to play well opposite Donna.

So those are two storylines right there that could have been for the Wards but ditched.

Kenny should have been a male prostitute to earn furniture money.

Or perhaps posed in a men's magazine.

Kenny and Ginger were incorporated more in season 4 because the show had now become more serialized and Jacobs was forced to hire some new people for the writing team and one of those people was James Houghton himself. He is who created the storyline of Kenny getting Gary into the music industry because Gary just inherited $10 million dollars so Kenny saw that as a way to make money for himself and wrote numerous storylines and parts of episodes for season 4 and he wrote some for season 3 also, including a whole episode, with his sister.

The characters were the most interesting in their final season, with the Ciji storyline. Stupid of James Houghton to leave then. He didn’t have a great acting career after that although he eventually had many years of successful writing for daytime soaps

He wrote while on Knots and his sister was a soap writer. He brought her over from the daytime soaps to Knots. He could have went back to acting on daytime soaps if he wanted but he preferred writing.

He is one of the original Young and Restless actors.

Well Kim claims he quit and told her about it after the fact. He claims otherwise, saying they were let go. He admitted it was hurtful but he tried not taking the fact that Kenny and Ginger were “extendable” on the show personal and understood from a writers standpoint that some characters needed to go to make room for new characters to take over.

He said the Fairgaite’s and Ewing’s were the primary characters on the show, followed by the Averey’s and the Ward’s were at the bottom. They got rid of Kenny, Ginger and Richard to make room for new characters and create new storylines. They kept Laura around though because there was so much history between Laura and Richard breaking up and getting back together that her ending up alone was believable and made sense while that wouldn’t have worked with Kenny and Ginger. Plus Laura was a loved character.

[quote]Plus Laura was a loved character.

You bet your hairy balls I was!

Kim Lankford did fine, I’m sure, as one of Robert Durst’s girlfriends after she left Knots.

[quote]David Jacobs had a few ideas for the young couple Kenny and Ginger but the network would not let him do any of it at the time.

True. Gary talked them out of it.

Went/gone

Oh, dear.

R8, I knew Lankford was good friends with Susan Berman. I had no idea she had dated Durst.

Toward the end of the run, a divorced Ginger was supposed to come back as a possible love interest for Greg Sumner. Kenny and Ginger felt dull initially but on rewatch, I grew fond of them. Their usual lack of a storyline felt very true to life, like people you know who just live their lives in a holding pattern.

James Houghton seemed rather handsome back in the day.

I was pretty sure they were fired. I'd never before heard Lankford say Houghton quit. Surely he would've seen what happened to Don Murray and he was no Don Murray.

Ginger's long-ago abortion story is probably my favorite Ward episode. I think it's called "Constant Companion".

R13 - Of course people age and change, but damn I can't even recognize Houghton anymore. It's like an entirely different face yet I don't think he had work done. Strange.

R15 because that’s a different person