Larry Hagman

larry was a reaganite

Loved Marilee Stone. Loved Dallas. Consistently wonderful. They had only one busted season unlike another nighttime soap beginning with a D.

The first few seasons were more or less straight, albeit campy, melodrama. I think after the show became a phenomenon, Larry started playing it more tongue in cheek. I thought Dallas was great up UNTIL the dream season. The dream season was dreadful, and it never really recovered. I thought the last two seasons were unwatchable.

Dallas was a FAR better show than Dynasty.

Dallas started to lose steam when Pam and Bobby broke up.

They strung us along with that storyline for YEARS.

Let's list all of the Dallas actors who died of AIDS

Dack Rambo

Timothy Patrick Murphy

Tom Fuccello

Ben Piazza

Susan Howard is a Christian fundie who threatened to quit the show during the dream season when she got wind of a proposed lesbian affair between Barbara Carrera's and Marete von Kemp's characters. She told the producers she would quit if they pursued the storyline, so the lesbian angle was quietly dropped. Hard to believe an actress who played such an ancillary boring character would have that much clout.

R7, I can just hear Susan Howard now in her slapjaw, podunk accent saying--instead of "Raaooooaaaaaaay"--"They're gaaooooaaaaaaay?!?"

It's not like they were aiming for Masterpiece Theater,

Dallas was never as campy as Dynasty, which is why Dallas was never really a gay favorite.

Leigh McCloskey was J/O material for me when I was a gayling.

R10- That is NOT true.

PLENTY of homos liked Dallas- including me.

Hagman had been kicking around for years then finally got the biggest break in his career. He loved every minute of it and who wouldn’t? When he walked out over a salary dispute they threatened to replace him but the producers knew that would kill the show so they gave in. The show would not have been successful without him.

OP- When I was in high school I was totally HOT IN THE PANTS for Bobby Ewing.

r12 exactly. Dallas was far superior to Dynasty. It’s aged better too.

Why was Hagman so mean to Donna Reed when she briefly replaced Barbara Bel Geddes? Was it just a move to force Donna to quit and get the producers to offer Barbara more $$$$$ to return? Or was Hagman just an ornery ole bastard?

r7 It is bizarre they gave in to her given they axed her at the end of the next season.

The latter r16.

R7 They also kicked around a lesbian storyline on Falcon Crest with Jane Badler's nanny character but then Jane Wyman put the skids on that because she was a conservative.

Back in ca. 1982 I would watch Dallas and even my ( VERY straight brother) would watch it sometimes because he thought the woman ( Lucy Ewing and Kristin Shepard) were PIECES OF ASS- his phrase.

R11- Whom were you more attracted to Leigh McCloskey or Timothy Patrick Murphy?

TPM for me.

On Dallas there was something gay about Sue Ellen. She was vulnerable and yet she could be bitchy- especially toward Bobby and Pamela when she was close to JR and not fighting with him.

Vulnerable and Bitchy- sounds like a LOT of gay men.

They really watered down Pam into a simpy little victim after they unexpectedly hit gold with JR and Sue Ellen and they were moved to center stage.

Larry was a well-known liberal, though he did once play Santa Claus at a Christmas Party in the Reagan White House.

He was also enjoyable in Mike Nichols' "Primary Colors" as former Florida Gov. Fred Picker, who seemed to have been loosely based on Jerry Brown.

Did anyone else like the reboot? I thought it was quite well done - super stylish and the lead guys were hot as fuck. Then they introduced the gorgeous Pablo Di Pace who was just as hot. Judith Light chewed the scenery for days and was absolutely unforgettable - she should have gotten an Emmy. Perhaps it was too camp/gay for the TV academy? Worth a watch if you haven’t seen it - such a shame they cancelled it after three seasons, on a cliffhanger no less. Dumb move. Does TNT even do original programming anymore? Who knows or who cares. It’s like the channel evaporated.

Sorry, here's the link from r24, properly formatted:

Ted Shackeklford, one of my huge crushes, aged terribly.

R16, I’ve heard that he wanted his mother, Broadway icon Mary Martin, to play Miss Ellie. I don’t know how much truth there is to that.

The dream season was horrible and they were right to being back Duffy. The show had started to get ratty before he left. IMO, it really jumped the shark after Victoria Principal left. They couldn’t decide if they wanted to recast Pam, kill her off, or just hope that Principal would come back. In the end, they decided on the latter, which was a terrible mistake.

How I loved the reboot! Larry was a force of nature right up til his death midway through. But Judith Light, Mitch Pileggi, and Josh Henderson could have carried it, they were so good. Such a shame it was axed.

r24 beat me to it, but Larry and Maj Hagman were very much in the liberal vein, they lived up in Ojai for many years and were well know in that community as such. Maj in particular had a lot of what we'd call "New Age" beliefs - I have family who lived in Ojai for many years in the 60s/70s/80s and were well acquainted with them.

Yes, campy, but it was so bad it's good. (Hagman's acting in Dallas.) Suellen (Linda Gray) as well.

God, I remember when that was essential TV viewing; way before Tony Soprano came along, Hagman's man child JR made a terrible guy human and pitiable, rather than just a complete asshole.

I was disappointed to learn that South Fork is a surprisingly small house (by TX standards) in real life.

As a kid, I remember being so impressed by the Ewing vanity plates. That's how you knew that they were COOL!

R28, I've heard that same thing about Hagman wanting his mum to play Miss Ellie 2.0. Thankfully that didn't happen and Barb Bel Geddes came back. Rewatching it has reminded me what a stellar actress she was...even with just a look or a smile, she owned the scene. I've also noticed she never wears pants...always dresses, just like my grandmother around her same age.

R33, I attended the 30th 'Dallas' reunion in 2008 at Southfork (yes, I'm that gay), and I, too, was shocked how small the house is. Of course in the show, they just "added on" bedrooms as they needed them. I think in the actual Southfork when I took the tour at the reunion, they just had JR's room, Lucy's room, Ms. Ellie's room, and maybe Bobby's room set up. It's very small. One can even stay overnight in the house for $1978! (Get it...the year the show premiered.)

I loved Dallas, but never understood the basic premise, that wealthy volatile family members and their spouses all lived together in the same (small) house.

Who wasn't moved by Bobby's death scene?

Did Hagman want Mary Martin to play Miss Ellie before or after Donna Reed had been hired?

I was in Romania in 2000. They had started showing Dallas reruns. Hagman was on huge billboards.

Ideas about TV were so much more innocent back then. I remember that "shocking" season finale where Cliff Barnes finds a dead woman in white in the Southfork pool, and we're left all summer wondering who it was: Pam, Sue Ellen, or Kristen, who were all wearing white in the cliffhanger episode. Of course, looking back, it had to be Kristen, since Mary Crosby was really the only expendable of the three actresses; Principal and Gray, the stars of the show, were going nowhere. We as viewers are so jaded now.

R37, it was before Miss Reed was hired. I'm surprised he didn't have enough clout to pull it off. I think the producers were still hopeful that Barb Bel Geddes would come back, though. From all accounts, Donna Reed was left out of the loop on all of it and just felt used. Per Wikipedia:

"When Bel Geddes agreed to return to the role for the 1985–86 season, Reed was abruptly fired. Reed failed in attempts to stop the 1985–86 season from going into production while she tried to get reinstated in the role of Miss Ellie. She sued for breach of contract, later settling out of court for over $1 million."

At the time, I didn't think Reed was bad, and the new wardrobe they gave the character was very classy and chic. However, re-watching her episodes years later, she was utterly awful, totally out of her league.

It was fun watching JR (and Lucy and Kristin) on Knots Landing, though David Jacobs pretty much curses any Dallas/Knots crossover episodes. It was interesting watching the larger-than-life Dallas collide with the middle-class early Knots.

I read years ago that Larry Hagman was nasty towards Dack Rambo because he was gay, so he wasn't that liberal.

Maybe Larry Hagman was homophobic because his mother Mary Martin was a DYKE.

Larry Hagman made the Dallas reboot. He was similar to Chadwick Boseman in that he worked without complaining while terminally ill.

I can actually remember being 15 in the summer of 1980 and these t-shirts being for sale. I think I had one. The public was anxiously waiting to find out the answer in the fall.

I highly doubt Hagman was homophobic. I think the issue with Dack was more about Larry being miserable during the Bobby-less season because he missed Patrick and felt Dack was being shoe-horned as Patrick's replacement. There was also the power struggle behind the scenes between Larry, Leonard Katzman and Phil Capice that was going on around that time.

Larry, Patrick and Linda were all incredibly close friends.

All the original cast was super tight, except for Victoria Principal. She mostly kept her distance. I think Mary Crosby was also part of the Larry/Linda/Patrick clique, as Larry gave her away at her wedding years later.

It was a fun show!

What the fuck was up with Sue Ellen's ever-changing accents?

R50, Linda Gray changed accents about as often as she did hair styles and shoulder pads. Even in the same ep, it might've varied wildly. Bless her!

Linda Gray was so pretty up until the early 1982. When she returned for the 1982/83 season she had a new UGLY 80's hairstyle that she kept for YEARS.

Larry was super nice. I think he liked the booze but I did an event once managing the step and repeat shots for the press. Larry comes in with his wife and I grab him. I say Larry can we get some shots of you and your wife? He throws his arm around me and says "sure thing son" as if I wanted the pictures. He was a lil tipsy. His wife grabs him and pulls him to do the shots for the press...then he grabs me and says 'I want one with this son of a bitch,'

R52, you're so right! I'm watching S6 right now and Sue Ellen miraculously got the mullet cut from the S5 finale to the S6 premiere (when Cliff was in the hospital after committing suicide).

R53, great story! I've heard from all accounts that Larry was great to the fans and press.

I think they wanted Mary Frann for Sue Ellen, which was supposed to be a throwaway part. But I guess they saw something in Linda Gray. For the life of me, I have no idea what that "something" was because she was pretty dreadful. Even rewatching the episodes now on Amazon, she was pretty awful. Principal and Tilton were no great shakes either. Thank goodness for Bel Geddes, who always brought it, and even Tina Louise, who was pretty good early on as Julie Gray. As I much as I loathe Susan Howard's politics, she was the strongest actress on the show next to Bel Geddes.

^The same thing happened with Donna Mills on Knots between seasons 5 and 6. She had long hair during the S5 cliffhanger, but when S6 picked up, her hair was dramatically shorter.

[quote]I highly doubt Hagman was homophobic.

I doubt it too. When he was on So Graham Norton years ago he seemed to have a great time and when he was on Parkinson (a UK chat show), Stephen Fry was also a guest that night and he seemed to enjoy Stephen’s stories.

Larry was a liberal. Here he is with his wife and two teenage kids nude in the whirlpool.

Besides Kristen (Mary Crosby; Colleen Camp), Digger (Keenan Wynn; David Wayne), and Gary (Ted Shackelford; David Ackroyd), were any characters played by more than one actor? Many soap replacements never work out, but for these three roles, the second actor wound up being the better remembered and more popular than the first one.

R59, Morgan Fairchild was the original Jenna Wade, followed by Francine Tacker then by the horrible Pricilla Presley. Fairchild was the best of the three. I always wished when they brought Jenna on as a main character that they had hired Fairchild back instead of saddling the audience with Presley, who just simply could not act.

Agreed, Presley was the least talented of the three, but she had the best chemistry with Patrick among the three. Tacker was the best actress of the lot, but totally miscast.

Poor Susan Howard. They kept putting Donna in the same orbit with known homosexualists like Tom Fuccello and the guy who played Mickey Trotter. I wonder how she felt about that. She worked on and off with Fuccello pretty much throughout the life of her character.

I have ti disagree, R61. I never thought Duffy and Presley had any chemistry whatsoever. It made the Pam-Bobby-Jenna triangle tedious because all I could ever think of was why Bobby would want to be around someone as whiny and annoying as Jenny (not to mention Jenna's whiny and annoying daughter Charlie). And it was only exacerbated whenever Victoria and Patrick had a scene together and the screen crackled with chemistry. When the next scene with Bobby and Jenna came on, all the air was taken out. Just flat.

I loved Dallas. I stumbled across it one Friday evening when I was 11 years old. It was one of the first episodes to air on Friday after the show was moved from Sunday nights. It was the one where Julie Grey, played by Tina Louise, was killed off by falling off a building while being chased by a couple members of the Cartel. I was hooked and watched the rest of that season, then caught up in summer reruns on that whole season.

I think the show was very good for several years. If you count the original 5 episode miniseries from 1978 as the first season, it was good up until Season 8 when they killed off Bobby Ewing just the day after he and Pam finally reconcile (after the writers tortured us for a few years of keeping them separated). After that season, it was never the same, even when they brought Bobby back.

Hagman created one of the greatest TV characters of all time in JR. It was completely original at the time--the villain you love to hate as a main character who continually got away with his various schemes. You'd almost root for JR to win. But the show understood balance, with the noble Bobby and Pam as his foils. Cliff Barnes was at first, but he became as nasty and scheming as JR in the end. In the later seasons, JR became almost cartoonish, but up through Season 8 it was a great show with a good balance of characters and interesting storylines.

Nice assessment, r63! I agree that the show was really good up until the dream season, and then never really recovered, even after Duffy came back.

Sorry, I loved the dream season, and thought the show sucked thereafter-

R64, I don't think it ever recovered because as much as JR was the breakout character who got all the attention, Bobby and Pam were the show's heart. They were the star-crossed lovers, the soulmates who needed to be with each other and the audience rooted for them. The show then killed off Bobby, which was an emotional gut-punch to fans. It was like a knife through the heart of the show.

The Dream Season was ok-ish, but I remember not being as interested. Bobby was gone and he and Pam would never be together again. The heart of the show was gone. The balance was gone, too. You needed to have JR and Bobby be adversaries.

Then we had the next season tell us viewers that all the emotion we went through as viewers in losing Bobby never happened. I know people are split on the dream explanation, but I think Dallas lost all credibility when it did that. I never liked the dream explanation. They shouldn't have killed off Duffy in the first place. I think they should have had Bobby ask Pam to get back together, but she just can't because she doesn't think it's fair to Jenna. Then Bobby feels heartsick and knows he can't marry Jenna because Pam is his true love, so he just hightails it out of Dallas and lives somewhere else. Maybe he goes to Ewing Oil's overseas operations? Something. It was a mistake to kill him off, then tell the viewers all you went through never happened.

Even after Duffy came back, it just all felt off. I think that was mainly because although as glad a most fans were to have him back, we felt emotionally cheated after mourning the character's death. Then Victoria left after Duffy's first season back. The show was on life support and that just pulled the plug for me. I never got back into the show after that.

[quote] They shouldn't have killed off Duffy in the first place.

As I recall, that was his idea. He wanted to leave and he told the producers to kill Bobby on camera so that he couldn’t come back.

R67, it was Duffy's idea, but the writers and producers should have known it was a bad one. After all these years, I still can't believe they made such a bad decision, only to follow it with an even worse one by saying it was all a dream. Both decisions ultimately led to the show's downfall. Still, eight quality seasons is remarkable when you think about it. For primetime soaps, only Knots Landing ever matched that, and even exceeded it.

Patrick Duffy is shacked up with 70s Happy Days icon Linda Purl now!!

I was watching S1 Dallas on sceipted television dubbed in French no less. What a hoot!

Looks like an awful show. The men's hairstyles and Hagmans ugly hair piece are awful and Barbara Bel Geddes is mannered.

Larry Hagman has the same gait as Dirk Diggler. Coincidence or conspiracy?? Watch closely and I dare you to prove me wrong!

JR’s son held his father’s wide gait... not that I would know.

Did J.R. ever have sex with Jack in any of the episodes?

I also loved the Dallas reboot.

And I so wish that Victoria principal had made the decision to return when they discovered Pam was not dead.

But being the rage filled "Sticky Vicky Principal" bitch she is said NO.

She was just angry that her plastic surgeon husband fucked up her face!

[quote] I guess they saw something in Linda Gray

In her starlet days she was a stunt double. Very useful for such a show.

Mama like!