They’re one of TV’s most iconic couples — but if Joan Van Ark got her way, Valene and Gary Ewing would have looked a lot different.

On the April 8 episode of their new podcast

, hosts and former stars Van Ark, Donna Mills and Michele Lee remembered their early days on the series. Van Ark, 81, recalled specifically asking that Ted Shackelford not be cast as Gary Ewing, the ex-husband of her character Valene.

Valene first appeared on Dallas — the show Knots Landing spun-off from — in 1978, in a guest spot. David Ackroyd played Gary, the middle son of the Ewing family, and Charlene Tilton played their daughter Lucy. Valene and Gary were first married as teenagers, but their relationship fell apart thanks to pressure from Gary’s brother J.R. (Larry Hagman).

When the show’s creator David Jacobs decided to spin off Dallas, and the couple, into Knots Landing, the part of Gary was recast. “I had just done a Wonder Woman [episode] with Ted,” Van Ark explained on the podcast. “And we are so alike, I feel, on set where it's a high energy,” she explained, noting that they both love to talk and run around set.

“And David Jacobs, the one who created both Dallas and Knots Landing, called me and said, ‘We've been looking for Gary Ewing for you and we're really kind of interested in Ted Shackelford. And we understand you just worked with him. So what do you think?’ ” Van Ark remembered.