William Devane (Greg Sumner) was widely praised for his portrayal of President John F. Kennedy in the 1974 TV movie The Missiles of October, which dramatized the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1963, Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, who used a rifle. The character of Pierce Lawton, played by Bruce Greenwood, tries to assassinate Greg Sumner with a rifle in season 12. Greenwood himself later starred as President John F. Kennedy in the 2000 film Thirteen Days, which also dramatized the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Madison Mason, who plays John Coblenz in Knots Landing, also appears in Thirteen Days, as Admiral George Anderson.