Valene "Val" Ewing (maiden name Clements, formerly Gibson, Waleska),
portrayed by Joan Van Ark, is a fictional character in the CBS
primetime soap opera Knots Landing, a spin-off from the long-running
series Dallas, in which she also appeared. The character originated on
Dallas in 1978 as the mother of Lucy Ewing and ex-wife of Gary Ewing
(the second son of oil baron Jock and Miss Ellie Ewing). Van Ark made
several guest appearances on Dallas before becoming one of the main
stars of the spin-off Knots Landing in December 1979, though she
continued to make small appearances in Dallas for the next several
years. Van Ark played Valene in Knots Landing for thirteen of its
fourteen seasons, which made her one of the show's longest running
stars. The character made her last Knots Landing appearance in 1997,
when she appeared in the reunion miniseries Knots Landing: Back to the
Cul-de-Sac. In 2013, Van Ark reprised her character for the new,
updated version of Dallas.Valene's storyline in her first two episodes
on Dallas focuses on the rebuilding of her relationship with estranged
ex-husband Gary Ewing. When Valene arrives in Texas to find her
daughter, Lucy Ewing, she is brought back into the drama of the Ewing
family. Upon arrival, she is reunited with Gary with whom she slowly
falls back in love. Once Dallas became a hit, series creator David
Jacobs proceeded to launch a spin-off series titled Knots Landing,
which would feature Valene and Gary prominently. The actress had
strong input on how they would create her character outline. She
recalled, "I remember going to wardrobe and getting a peachy pink
waitress uniform, and the shoes. And then I was trying to get that
Texas sound, her all important accent. And so we created her layer by
layer."Van Ark received positive reviews for her portrayal of Valene,
and received two Soap Opera Digest award nominations in the category
"Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role on a Prime Time Serial". Greg
Hernandez[who?] said, "Her character of Valene was a best-selling
author, but her personal life was always a mess. She had her husband,
Gary, stolen by another woman, then got pregnant by him, her twin
babies were kidnapped by a crooked doctor, she was given a drug
overdose at gunpoint by her ex-husband's fiancee, and she racked up
enough marriages to give Elizabeth Taylor a run for her money. But she
and Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford) made for one of television's most
beloved couples and the audience never stopped rooting for them to get
back together." Valene Ewing Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter