Let’s discuss the TV show Dallas, Part 3

TRAVILLA!

At the end of the last thread a poster wrote that Jenna was Bobby's wife. She was NEVER Bobby's wife.

Am I right that Kimberly Foster doesn't and never has partaken in any of the fan events and she doesn’t seem to be close to any cast members like Sheree who played her sister April? Sheree, Cathy Podewell, Charlene Tilton and Linda Gray all seem friendly but Kimberly never seems to get mentioned. Any behind the scenes dish on her?

if the first few seasons of DALLAS were like the last four seasons, the show never would have lasted.

It was a mess.

Two rare standouts were the return of Afton (she was the closest to Cliff after Pam) and the scene Cliff had with Miss Ellie where Dandy's behavior gave Cliff a new perspective on the Barnes/Ewing feud.

r4 I was so disappointed how little they did with Lucy in her two season return a year before the show ended. Lucy would have been a very fitting and apt part of the final season with just a bit of thought and effort. In the absence of the other three original female characters-Miss Ellie, Pam and Sue Ellen, axing Lucy seemed stupid.

r2 Very true!

Knots had the most fitting finale; Greg and Paige were teased as being together (tho ideally Laura would have come back).

The best part was Gary, Val, Karen, Mac and Abby all back in the cul-de-sac.

Instead of that silly it's a wonderful life story Dallas did, I'd have preferred Ray and Donna reuniting; Pam coming home and reuniting with Bobby, and Sue Ellen and J.R. making peace. Lucy's back and Mama and Clayton are coming home too.

I swear, I'd wish they shoot happy endings before certain actors were to leave; keep 'em in the can and air them in the finale.

Hi Abs.

r7 Good thinking

the first reunion movie, JR Returns, wasn't that bad.

A lot of actors came back for it; about 10, I think.

Though what I would have loved is Victoria to have reprised Pam and then, throw in Ray and Donna, and Lucy. too. Maybe Mitch.

Give us the happy ending that Dynasty did.

r10 I think the revived Dallas should definitely have included Ray and Donnas adult daughter Margaret

R11, YES.

Even J.R. would admit that Margaret was a Ewing -- even though she was from the 'half-breed' side of the family.

I AM NOT AN ALCOHOLIC.

I’m Miss Ellie stuffed in the trunk of Clayton’s crazy sister Jessica’s car when she absconds across the state. They played overly-dramatic string instruments to signify our jaunt across the Texas plains. The mad pursuit by the Ewing family and their bribed law enforcement officials was the icing on the cake.

They had ALL that tension in the search for Miss Ellie, and the only stunt Barbara had to do was to have her hands tied in front of her and lie in the trunk of a car.

r15 It was brilliantly done

I agree. the whole buildup with Crazy Lady Jessica Montford (what a name!) was great.

Miss Ellie asked her how she slept one night and Alexis brilliantly took a long ass pause before informing Miss Ellie: "I always sleep well."

It was creepy. the audience got it, but Ellie, alas, did not.

LOL I forgot all about that I loved Ellie getting kidnapped and all the crazies involved with it.

I was surprised they didn't actually show the ceremony of Clayton and Ellie getting married.

We saw JR and Bobby walk her out of the foyer into the driveway, presumably, to the driveway where so many got married.

The show brought Clayton onto the canvas smartly. Ellie went to visit Clayton and Sue Ellen with JR once and Ellie snarked that Jock wouldn't like John Ross not living at Southfork; another time, Clayton ordered his men to put down their rifles when JR tried to use Miss Ellie to get John Ross off the Southern Cross; it was as if Clayton was protecting her (not that his men would have shot her but still.)

The thread is still going! To response to a few comments on the old thread:

[quote]While the return of Bobby Ewing was a bold move that generated significant buzz, it ultimately proved to be detrimental to the show's long-term success. It's a prime example of how a shocking plot twist can backfire if not executed carefully.

While true, it’s most likely that “Dallas” was already doomed by that point. Bringing Bobby back was a Hail Mary for better ratings, but as noted it backfired. (I also don’t think it would’ve been possible to orchestrate a plausible plot twist for an on-comera death. Some daytime soaps have tried it with similarly poor results.)

[quote]The late 80s saw a shift in television viewing habits, with the emergence of cable channels and a wider variety of programming options. Dallas' formulaic approach began to feel outdated.

Yup. A lot of people have forgotten that “90210” premiered during the final season of “Dallas.” It set the template for future nighttime soaps: aimed at teens & twentysomethings, and most memorably “Melrose Place.”

[quote]Overall, the prequel was considered a successful addition to the Dallas franchise, providing valuable context for the main series and satisfying the curiosity of longtime fans

Huh? “Dallas: The Early Years” was a failed “backdoor” pilot. This reads like many of the PR flack-esque posts towards the end of the last thread.

[quote]I was surprised they didn't actually show the ceremony of Clayton and Ellie getting married.

R19, I'll remind you of when they got married: in 1984, when Barbara Bel Geddes was having health issues. Filming a wedding is actually pretty exhausting – consider the sheer number of people whose actions will be caught on camera at some point – and it's not like Miss Ellie & Clayton were some sort of "fan favorite" couple. It obviously wasn't an arranged marriage, but it only happened because Jim Davis unexpectedly died.

[quote]Have any of you been to the real Southfork? Was it worth it?

I grew up in Dallas, so yes, I’ve been there quite a few times! I’ve said it before on the earlier threads, but the house itself is unremarkable in person. It’s a more or less ordinary McMansion that was only 6-7 years old when the producers opted to use it as a location. It’s also changed quite a bit over the years, plus the producers – for reasons I never understood – intentionally never filmed the house from certain angles. That’s why the pic off of Tripadvisor, showing a rear staircase off the rear balcony, is so jarring: it was never shown on the show, much like the house's front was almost never seen until the reboot. (It did, however, have a smaller, circular stairwell.)

I admittedly haven’t seen it since the TNT reboot, and that’s germane for a very specific reason: the reboot producers decided to base the show’s Southfork on the actual Southfork interior for the first time. (On the original show, the producers decided the house’s interiors were far too humble for a family that owned a ranch with over 300,000 acres. They found an actual mansion in Dallas proper that was roughly the same layout as the Southfork house, and used it for the show’s entire shoot – including in L.A., after they relocated production there during the third season. (They photographed every inch of the actual interiors & recreated them on Lorimar’s soundstage.) This was a GRAVE error IMO: it’s simply too much of a jolt to go from a house actively depicted as a 10-bedroom mansion, replete with huge living & dining areas and a kitchen larger than most people’s houses, to a generic open-plan living area.

How much does the “Southfork Experience” cost? I’d probably pass if it’s more than $10 or so, and if they’ll let you do a self-tour, I’d definitely recommend that as an alternative. Just keep in mind that the pool area & driveway will be the only two familiar areas if you go to check it out. (Unless you’ve seen the TNT reboot and get to see the newer interior, that is.)

R20, nah, I don't buy that on Clayton and Miss Ellie. They could have shot it in the living room (or the pre-dinner drinking room) with just family.

"Mama wants to have something simple in light of what happened with Jessie!"

Have Punk and Mavis (Mavis was wed to Scotty Demorest in real-life, btw) attend and shoot Barbara's close ups earlier in the day and then do the rest with her stand in.

It so easily could have been done.

I've written this many times, but Bobby never should have died okn camera.

Katherine kidnaps him, takes him into a van, the van turns the corner and explodes and the bodies are burned beyond recognition.

Tell Season 9 the same way only in the finale, Mark and Pam are on their honeymoon in Paris and Mark goes to a business meeting he can't get out of. Pam's out shopping and she sees at some famous tourist attraction -- Bobby!

Freeze frame on Pam! We learn next season that Bobby has amnesia; he gets his memory back, but will he get Pam back?

R23, it's with considerable irony that I'll point out Bobby had an on-camera death because it was perceived – at the time – as the only "guaranteed" type of character death on TV. Even *daytime* soaps weren't pulling this kind of shit: they made have had hundreds of characters disappear and develop suspiciously huge numbers of amnesiac conditions, but "onscreen dead" used to mean exactly that.

But then they went to the theatre of the absurd to revivify Bobby, and even AMC brazenly ripped the whole thing off during its final season when David Hayward "magically" brought back numerous "onscreen dead" characters, most notably Dixie.