The Susan Howard appreciation thread

Was Ray Krebs hung?

Listening to this audio interview and her talking fondly about the 2 gay actors she worked with on Dallas who later died of AIDS (at the 17:00 mark) she mentions "what a waste of a life." Is she saying that because they "chose" their lifestyle which lead them to contact the AIDS virus? Not sure if I'm reading too much into it, but it just rubbed me the wrong way.

The classic bar scene at 3:00

I liked her on Dallas, but the fact that she's a gun activist and NRA member is off-putting.

R2, Susan is a Texas right-winger and an NRA advocate now, but in listening to that clip, I didn't take her comments as homophobic.

Timothy Patrick Murphy would not have kept in contact with her during his AIDS illness if she had been.

She mentions Tom Fuccello as well later in the interview who also died of AIDS.

Excellent actress.

Separated at birth?

She looked so much better with long hair on the earlier Dallas episodes. By season 9 they had every actress looking like Joan Collins on Dynasty.

She's a really hateful right-winger.

I'm watching Dallas (1986-87) and the other day, someone described Donna as a Texas conservative. Odd, because I always thought Donna was written as a democrat. What the hell do I know, though. At any rate, Jenna Wade is moving in on her man but I think Donna's over it.

For anyone who watched the other prime time soaps... what party did Gregory Sumner on Knots belong to? Reagan Republican?

Angela Channing on Falcon Crest: California Republican.

Richard Channing: Libertarian?

I thought Greg was a Democrat of some sort-Karen initially supported him when he ran for office in his first season.

I’m old enough to remember her on “Petrocelli”, always thought she was pretty. And I know she has long supported the NRA, but I don’t know if she’s made any hateful statements.

Don’t like her

I only like BernNadette Stanis

She was born and raised in Texas and lives there now so it's not surprising that she's a conservative.

R8 She does not look like Ozzy.

It's like the producers took the caterer's assistant and gave her a role.

Wasn’t she a regular on Pat Robertson’s 700 club ? She seems pretty fringy , evangelical right wingy. The type that would let a gay do her hair and makeup. And then make cracks about him to her girlfriends later.

She had pissed the producers off in the dream season. Donna was supposed to abort her baby and she fought the producers on it. She also gave them grief about the Barbara Carrera storyline; when Anjelica Nero first appeared with her assistant Grace, there was a lesbian subtext between the two of them that wasn’t so subtle.

In general Dallas seemed to be a pretty sexist set, and the women were treated like shit. But in her case she pissed them off by trying to dictate her storyline, and the storyline of others.

I think she wrote a couple of the episodes in the dream season that centered around disabled kids. Not surprisingly, both of them made the "worst of" list for Dallas episodes.

Politics aside, I thought she was great on Dallas. I loved that Donna always called out the Ewings on their hypocrisy and bullshit. One of the most interesting storylines on Dallas when Donna and Miss Ellie had a falling out when Donna was writing a book that exposed Jock's shady endeavours. Miss Ellie always looked the other way when it came to Jock and JR and I'm glad Donna dished out the truth to that frumpy farm bitch.

I hated the storyline that revolved around Donna and her school of handicapped kids. Nobody tunes in to a prime time soap to watch that drivel.

[quote] that frumpy farm bitch.

Blasphemy! Miss Ellie was a fine lady.

A lesbian relationship between Donna and Jenna Wade was a missed opportunity.

The more I'm reading about her the more I'm thinking she actually was being homophobic in the audio @ R2

I thought longtime friends and former college classmates Bobby and Donna should have ended up together if Donna had stuck around for another season. It would have made sense.

[quote] Blasphemy! Miss Ellie was a fine lady.

That old cow let JR run amok!!! She should have aborted that bastard!!

I don’t know her—

Ken Howard

I enjoyed her on Dallas, she seemed very earthy and compatible with Ray Krebbs. And I also think Ray was hung like a horse, since Lucy seemed to enjoy their occasional rambunctious romps together in the hay loft... *Happy Prime Time is Over on DL, and I can now post. :-)

"Dallas" producer Leonard Katzman was also the producer for "Petrocelli".

Except for Donna, the mothers on Dallas were horrible.

Sue Ellen drank while she was pregnant , drank while John Ross was growing up and made him witness an abusive relationship with JR.

Pam walked out on Christopher right after he found out he was adopted.

Jenna refused to admit who fathered Charlie and barely let Lucas see his father, Bobby.

Val was separated from Lucy as a baby by Jock and JR; but even when she was an adult they had no relationship.

Rebecca Barnes left Pam and Cliff with a drunk who she witnessed murder a man.

Sue Ellen’s mother pushed college aged Kristin to seduce JR, since she wanted him as a son in law and she knew JR and Sue Ellen’s marriage was rocky.

Miss Ellie let Jock turn JR into a monster and let Jock and JR drive Val and Gary away, leaving Lucy an orphan.

R24 The could've compromised and combined both storylines - Donna decides to have the Downs baby, Ray leaves Donna, Jenna Wade comes to Donna's defense, Donna hooks up with Jenna, and the two of them raise the baby together.

Cousin Jamie was the true carpet muncher of Dallas!

I got a lot of primo dick, which more than compensated for not having parents around.

Susan Howard portrayed the first Klingon woman depicted in “Star Trek”-dom, a full decade before “Dallas”.

She'll always be Helen Lawson to me.

A silly but funny “Love American Style”, featuring Howard, Alan Sues, Susan Oliver, Laraine Stephens, and Dick Patterson.

Howard really was perfect on DALLAS and gave it some much-needed Texas authenticity (only she and and Larry Hagman among the cast had genuine Texas accents).

She was a much better actor than Steve Kanaly, but the Donna/Ray relationship felt real and made sense. Their eventual split made NO sense and seemed like a case of writers not knowing what else to do with the characters (his subsequent pairing with Priscilla Presley - the worst actress on the show, hands down - was painfully boring. Kanaly and Presley had not an ounce of chemistry between them.

Howard's firing at the same time as Victoria Principal's departure really marked the beginning of the end for DALLAS, as it started shedding its core characters and completely losing its identity,

Authenticity was never the goal, si?

[quote] Priscilla Presley - the worst actress on the show, hands down

She really was. Jenna Wade's whole mental breakdown over Bobby's death storyline was one of TV's all time worst performances.

Is Susan Howard MAGA?

Does she own an AR-15?

I remember hearing in the mid 80s (before Bobby “died”) talk of a 2nd Dallas spinoff focused on Ray and Donna. Does anyone else remember that?

The Ewing women were made to feel like shit for having a job by their husbands-Donna, Pam, Lucy….

She was the only cast member to go to Donna Reed's funeral.

[quote]For anyone who watched the other prime time soaps...

They were all pretty vague. The early '80s daytime soap Capitol probably being the best example of that. It seems to be implied in the early seasons of Dallas that Donna and Bobby were both Democrats, then, a few episodes before she leaves, she's having lunch with Bobby in Washington and they joke about Reagan in a way that implies they're Republicans.

Greg Sumner seemed to be Democrat when he was first introduced, but by the time he ran for Mayor it seemed he was a Republican.

Over on Dynasty it was clearer: Fallon stated Blake was a Republican in season one, so that means Alexis must've been a Democrat when she ran against him for Governor in season eight.

DALLAS:

JR - Republican Bobby - Republican (though he wouldn't have voted for Trump and perhaps switched parties) Jock - Republican Miss Ellie - Republican until Jock died though she likely would've supported Hillary Clayton - Republican Pam - Democrat Donna - Democrat Ray - Republican and probably insanely MAGA (one of the many ways he and Donna differed) Sue Ellen - Republican til she ditched JR and switched to Democrat. When she ran for governor in the revival, it was implied that she was doing so as a Democrat Cliff - openly Democratic (though corrupt) Lucy - aging brainless brassy blonde, insanely MAGA

I think they were all Republicans, in slightly different ways — except, maybe — Pam.

R38 is an IonaTrailer more like a FordhamTrailer, a SetonHallTrailer or a StJohn’sTrailer?