Karen MacKenzie
| Karen MacKenzie | |||||||||
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Michele Lee as Karen Fairgate-MacKenzie
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| Knots Landing character | |||||||||
| Portrayed by | Michele Lee | ||||||||
| Duration | 1979–93, 1997 | ||||||||
| First appearance | December 27, 1979 Pilot |
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| Last appearance | May 9, 1997 Back to the Cul-de-Sac |
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| Created by | David Jacobs | ||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||
| Occupation |
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| Residence | 16972 Seaview Circle | ||||||||
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| Siblings | Joe Cooper (brother) |
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| Spouse |
Sid Fairgate (until his death in 1981) Mack MacKenzie (1983–present) |
| Children |
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| Grandchildren | Unnamed grandchild (through Michael) |
Karen MacKenzie (maiden name Cooper; formerly Fairgate) is a long-running fictional character in the CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing. Karen is portrayed by actress Michele Lee, and has appeared on the show since its pilot episode, first broadcast on December 27, 1979. Knots Landing follows the trials of four middle-class families living on a suburban cul-de-sac known as Seaview Circle in California. Lee portrayed Karen for the entire run of Knots Landing, being the sole cast member to appear in every episode of its fourteen seasons. At the time, her appearances in all 344 episodes set a record for an actress on American primetime television. Karen's storylines focus on family troubles, addiction and kidnapping. In her early years on the serial, the character had much more of an "edge" in order to test the audience on who would be the most like J. R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), the primary character of its parent series Dallas. (The bad girl role would later be taken on by Abby Cunningham, Karen's sister-in-law.)
Over time, she became much more of a wholesome character. Series creator David Jacobs said "Karen is the tent pole. She says the things I want to say. She's the voice of the viewer." Entertainment Weekly also described Karen as being "efficient, kind, and understanding". During the course of her existence on the program, she was married to both Sid Fairgate (Don Murray) and second husband Mack MacKenzie (Kevin Dobson). Many other characters would try to undermine her relationship with Mack, such as his daughter, Paige Matheson (Nicollette Sheridan), and former love interest Anne Matheson (Michelle Phillips), though she learned to accept Paige as his daughter later on.
Due to her long-running tenure, television personality Joan Rivers commented that Lee was, in theory, the "First Lady of Knots Landing" during her guest appearance on The Late Show, which Rivers hosted at the time. The characters of the serial often represented what was happening in society at the time. Lee acknowledged that, saying: "Karen wanted to be a Pollyanna and wasn't ashamed of that. Remember in our society, maybe people don't remember, but remember when we could go over to other people's houses and come in through an open back door? I remember when I was a little girl and my mother and father would have people over and they'd walk into an unlocked door in our house."
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