dallas
1 9 7 8 - 1 9 9 1 (USA)
 When
the popular soap closed its second season with the fiendish J.R.
taking two slugs from an unseen shooter, it stepped up from TV hit
to worldwide obsession.
The show made the cover of Time magazine and "Who
shot J.R?" became the slogan on everyone's lips.
Thanks to several decoy scripts, even the Dallas stars
were surprised by the culprit. The success of the plot made cliff-hangers
a standard TV device and inspired a host of decade-defining
greed-fests such as Dynasty and Falcon Crest.
The saga began when the partnership between two wildcatting
oilmen, Jock Ewing and Digger Barnes, dissolved and Jock ended up
with the lion's share of the business and Digger's true love,
Ellie Southworth.
Forty years later, Ewing Oil had grown into an empire, and Jock
and Ellie had produced three sons.
The first son was J.R (pictured at right) , who, after marrying
the feisty, former Miss Texas, Sue Ellen Shepard, and assuming his
father's place as head of the company, drives hard for success, no
matter what the cost.
J.R. was the man viewers loved to hate. He was unscrupulous,
power-hungry and conniving in his business dealings. He was also
habitually unfaithful to his wife.
The second son Gary bolted the Ewing spread, Southfork, but
left behind his precocious teenage daughter Lucy.
The third (and favourite) son was Bobby , whose marriage to Pamela
Barnes , daughter of Ewing nemesis Digger Barnes, re-ignited the
famous feud between the two families, and was further fuelled by
the unscrupulous J.R. and Pam's half-brother, Cliff Barnes.
Dallas ranked as one of the top ten most popular shows
during almost all of its ten seasons, capturing the top ranking
for the 1980-81, 1981-82 and 1983-84 seasons.
As it entered its 13th season, Dallas found itself
facing another exciting multiple "cliff-hanger"
question: "How will J.R. answer to the fact that his former
wife Sue Ellen has produced a revealing and potentially damaging
film about his nefarious ways?", and "Who is the person
or persons behind the threatening phone calls that April Stevens
is receiving?", and "What mystery lies ahead for Miss
Ellie and Clayton surrounding the strange key that was mailed to
Southfork patriarch Jock Ewing, who has been dead for seven
years?"
As the season opened Southfork was again bustling with
activity.
J.R., newly wed to his young and innocent bride Cally and
rested from their Austrian honeymoon, is searching for the film
that could make him the laughing stock of Texas and is also
scrambling with brother Bobby to return Ewing Oil to the powerful
company it once was.
Bobby, meanwhile, has come to the rescue of his fair-haired
maiden, April Stevens, by moving her into Southfork to protect her
from the mysterious and frightening phone calls.
Miss Ellie and Clayton are off on a quest to search out the
meaning of the enigmatic key that was mailed to the long-deceased
Jock, and Lucy Ewing , living back at the ranch after the break-up
of her marriage, takes an interest in Cally's artistic talents and
leads her to a somewhat unscrupulous group of art dealers.
Those living off the ranch are dealing with their own set of
concerns as well. At the close of last season, Cliff Barnes was
left lying unconscious in a Baton Rouge hotel as a result of his
trying to locate the woman he loves, Afton Cooper; and Carter
McKay, chief of the mighty Weststar Oil, faces the loneliness of
living without his beloved daughter Tracey and wayward son Tommy
while trying to fend off the battling Ewing brothers in the
fiercely competitive and ruthless oil business.
Joining the rich and powerful Dallas folk that year were
April's younger and seductively sly sister Michelle who comes to
the city in search of the means - or man - who can lead her to her
fortune; Alex Barton, an up and coming art gallery owner who takes
more than a professional interest in budding young artist Cally
Ewing; and the devious James Richard Beaumont, the supposed son of
the only woman to ever break J.R. Ewing's heart, Vanessa Beaumont.
Most of the conflicts revolved around J.R. He sold worthless
Asian oil leases to the family banker Vaughn Leland and a number
of other investors, mortgaged Southfork without telling his
parents, attempted to get Sue Ellen committed to an institution
for alcoholism, fought off the efforts of unscrupulous Alan Beam
to marry Lucy and get his hands on part of the Ewing fortune, and
left a trail of disillusioned mistresses discarded like
yesterday's old news. It was one of these mistresses, his wife's
sister Kristin who became the centre of attraction for the major
TV story of 1980.
In the last original episode of the 1979-80 season, J.R. was
shot by an unknown person and rushed to the hospital in critical
condition. All summer the question raged on through much of the
world - "Who shot J.R.?"
Finally on 21 November 1980, the world found out: Kristin had
pulled the trigger.
Pregnant with J.R.'s child, and about to be framed by him for
prostitution because she refused his order to get out of Dallas,
she shot him for revenge. The episode in which her guilt was
revealed was seen by more people than any program in the history
of TV up to that time. Nearly 80% of all viewers watching TV that
night were tuned to Dallas.
However, J.R. lived on and Kristin was never prosecuted but she
did finally leave town. J.R. recovered and waged a new war to
unseat his brother Bobby, who had taken over Ewing Oil during his
rehabilitation.
There were also two Ewing marriages that season. Lucy married
young pre-med student Mitch Cooper and Ray Krebbs (who was
revealed to be Jock's illegitimate son, and therefore a Ewing)
married politically powerful widow Donna Culver.
J.R. was as mean and vengeful as ever, engineering a foreign
coup to regain some of his holdings as well as hiring a sexy
public-relations woman to promote a new image for himself as an
"All-American Businessman."
As time went on, marriages alternated with divorces. J.R. and
Sue Ellen divorced and later remarried, but neither remained
faithful to the other. Lucy and Mitch also divorced and she had an
ill-fated romance with Mickey Trotter.
Mickey was seriously injured in a car accident caused by a
drunken Sue Ellen. While he was lying brain-dead at the hospital,
Ray Krebbs pulled the plug on his life-support system. The jury
called it manslaughter.
Meanwhile, Pam had a nervous breakdown, separated from, and
eventually divorced, Bobby. She kept custody of their adopted son
Christopher (Kristin and J.R.'s child).
Pam's brother Cliff went to work for his mother and his
manipulations became more complicated as the stakes got higher.
When he became president of Barnes/Wentworth Oil, he had hopes of
besting J.R. in the world of dirty business transactions.
His conniving and beautiful half sister Katherine Wentworth
first tried to befriend J.R. to break Cliff, and then fell in love
with Bobby - who was back together with an old girlfriend, Jenna
Wade.
Miss Ellie found a new romance after Jock died in 1981 (actor
Jim Davis had passed away), marrying the wealthy Clayton Farlow.
Bobby and J.R. continued to fight over control of Ewing Oil.
Eventually, they ended up running the family business together,
constantly trying to outmaneuver the other to gain total control.
In the 1984-85 season, another troublemaker, cousin Jamie, was
added to the cast. She teamed up with Cliff to fight J.R. for a
piece of Ewing Oil. She and Cliff were eventually married.
Donna struck oil in an independent venture, causing a strain in
her marriage to Ray. J.R., in between battles with everyone, found
time to pursue hard-to-get Mandy Winger.
Brother Bobby didn't have a very good season that year. First,
he was shot by an assassin who was gunning for J.R.; then he broke
up with Jenna - who married and then was convicted of killing -
Marchetta, and finally, he was killed in a hit-and-run accident.
Bobby's demise left a major hole in Dallas. During
1985-86, his two loves tried to find happiness in new
relationships - Pam with Mark Graison and Jenna with Jamie's
brother Jack Ewing.
Marinos Shipping executive Angelica, was the new manipulator
who sided with Cliff while flirting with Jack.
J.R.'s alcoholic wife Sue Ellen, who was committed to an asylum
and bailed out by her mother, had a fling with Dusty and wound up
in a really bad custody battle with J.R. over son John Ross.
When Bobby's childhood friend Matt showed up looking for an
extension of the financing Bobby had given him for an emerald mine
in South America, renewed memories of Bobby were brought back to
the forefront. Pam gave him the extension and a series of
adventures in the jungle ensued.
 With
ratings sagging, fans wanted not ghosts from Bobby's past, but
Bobby himself.
Star Larry Hagman made a personal appeal to Patrick Duffy to
return to the cast. But what about the fact that his character had
been killed and buried in an elaborate funeral?
Not to worry . . . In one of the most celebrated returns
in TV history, the 1986-87 season opened with a very alive Bobby
taking a shower at Pam's house. How did he get there?
Pam had dreamt the entire 1985-86 season and Bobby had not died
at all . . .
And so it began again with Bobby torn between Jenna and Pam. Pam,
however, was seriously injured in a fiery car accident and then
just disappeared, while Jenna was preoccupied with her
trouble-prone teenaged daughter Charlie.
A bitter Sue Ellen found a new way to embarrass J.R. by
manufacturing a line of "Valentine's Girl" erotic
lingerie - which became an instant hit with Mandy as the model.
A ranch hand named Parmalee showed up, claiming to be the
long-dead Jock Ewing, causing great turmoil in the family. The
Krebbes' marriage was completely torn apart when Donna went to
Washington as a lobbyist and started sleeping with Senator
Dowling. Jack's ex-wife April was the latest newcomer scheming to
snag a piece of Ewing Oil.
The Ewings suffered a major setback in 1987 when proof of
J.R.'s illegal dealings finally caused him to lose partial control
of Ewing Oil. But slick and cunning J.R. worked with Casey Denault
to regain some of his lost power. He also tried his bedroom
tactics on Kimberly Cryder, the beautiful wife of his new enemy
Winston Cryder.
Jenna and Ray were married; Bobby was pursued by Lisa (who
wanted custody of his son, Christopher) and April, and Miss Ellie
threw Clayton out of the house.
There were three major stories in the 1988-89 season. J.R., on
a hunting trip to Arkansas, seduced a rural woman named Cally and
was imprisoned on a work farm by her vengeful brothers and their
friend, the local judge.
He escaped only after agreeing to marry her, then spent the
next two seasons trying to get rid of her while she managed her
way into his affairs and even gave birth to a son.
Sue Ellen bought a movie studio and hired screenwriter Don
Lockwood just to make a filmed expose about J.R. that would surely
"destroy him."
Colorado rancher Carter McKay teamed up with Weststar Oil
chairman Jeremy Wendell to rage a full-scale war against the
Ewings, as well as to take over complete control of Ewing Oil,
which was now controlled by Bobby. McKay had his own family
problems with wife Rose, drug-addicted son Tommy, and daughter
Tracy, but Weststar (which he eventually took over) and Ewing Oil
battled it out in Washington, D.C., Dallas, Austria and Russia
with episodes being filmed on location.
At the start of the 1989-90 season, a Weststar and a Ewing
tanker collided, resulting in a huge oil spill (Aww come on this
is just getting silly now!)
< Deep breath > . . . A government investigation took
place headed by none other than Cliff Barnes, who had launched a
political career as a new way to get back at J.R. Assisted by
public relations expert Stephanie, he won (and then lost) the
position of national energy Tsar.
Bobby, despondent over the death of his beloved Pam, became
obsessed with Pam look-alike Jeanne, but married April instead.
J.R. learned that he had a second son by former flame
Vanessa.
The now 20-year-old James proved to be a junior J.R., wheeling
and dealing, sleeping with many women and ganging up with the
disillusioned Cally against his dad.
By the end of the season, they had J.R. confined to a mental
institution which was part of a plot in which J.R. had entered the
facility to try to finagle Weststar stock out of Clayton's crazy
sister Jessica, who had earlier tried to kill half the population
of Dallas.
J.R. managed to escape the following season but what little
control he still had over Ewing Oil slipped away from his grasp.
Bobby, tired of the battles and grieving over the sudden death of
his new bride April (she was kidnapped by Hillary during their
Paris honeymoon!), sold his controlling interest to newcomer
LeeAnn, whom J.R. had jilted in college (oh for crying out loud,
who writes this stuff?!).
LeeAnn in turn sold it to Michelle (married to J.R.'s plotting
son James), who, after killing her sister April's murderer,
Hillary, turned half interest over to J.R.'s old rival - now
alcoholic Cliff. Cliff soon reaped the other half as well. McKay
had left town so J.R. made a play for Weststar Oil. But when that
failed, he was locked out of the oil business forever.
In the series' final episode, J.R.'s entire world came crashing
down around him.
His business was gone: Ewing Oil now belonged solely to Cliff.
His family was split up: Ellie and Clayton had moved to Europe;
son John Ross left him to live with Sue Ellen in London; his other
son James and his wife Debra Lynn left with grandson Jimmy and
ex-wife Cally now lived happily in Palm Beach, Florida with his
other child.
Even Southfork had been turned over to Bobby by Miss Ellie. J.R.
was left with a bank account and the promise of his forgiving
brother that he could stay in the big, now-empty house for as long
as he wanted to.
As J.R. drank and contemplated suicide, an apparition named
Adam appeared to show him what life would have been like if he had
never been born. It was like It's A Wonderful Life turned
downside up!.
Some of the characters were seen with much better lives, others
with even worse ones. Finally, Adam's eyes flashed red (was he the
devil in disguise? . . . for God's sake this is just ridiculous.
I'm going insane just typing the bloody stuff!!) and J.R. raised
the gun and a shot rang out and Bobby burst into the room and only
he, not the viewer, saw what had happened . . .
Bloody typical!
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