Welcome to 'Star Chat' where you put forward questions to this months very special guest 'David Jacobs'.

 

 

 

Milly from NYC asks "Won't it be difficult casting JR as Larry Hagman made the role his own?"

David - They redid the Fugitive and that role belonged to David Janson and they redid Mission Impossible with a new actor. If I were an actor I would think it would be a lot of fun, I would definitely want to do it but differently , I wouldn't try to be the same guy.

Jola from Japan asks "How do you see JR of the 21st Century? What kind of guy will he be?"

David - Not so obvious in his bigness, he would try to appear more a egalitarian, a little bit more cosmopolitan.

Jude from Texas asks "Do you think the movie will reflect different cultures as Dallas was very white".

David - Yes I hope so

Interviewer - One name that comes up to play Pam is Halle Berry.

David - Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez. What I like about it is that you can cast color blind. If you cast Pam as say with a Mexican background then so does Cliff have to have a Mexican background but to me that's great.

Pauline from: Glasgow, Scotland asks "Did you prefer Dallas or Knots Landing?

David - I didn't run Dallas, I ran Knots Landing. It was my full time job for 14 years, I was more like daddy. Where as Dallas, it was my first and I was actually working as a story editor on another show called 'Family' when Dallas started and so I was a little removed from it. Today I would say my affection for them both is equal but different but my connection with Knots Landing is much tighter.

Rotem from Israel asks I heard once that Dallas was based on a true family that live in Texas did you take one of their stories and turn it into a show?

David - No it wasn't based on a true family, my first idea was Knots Landing and when I took it to CBS there were no shows of that kind on television and the response from CBS was that they wanted to get into a continuing drama and they said they wanted to start out with something a little richer, more of a saga. The first thing I thought of was Romeo and Juliet and the word saga suggested Texas.

Rotem also asks In 1985 when Bobby "Died" he also died in Knots Landing , we find out it was just a dream I did not see any changes in Knots Landing . Why?

David -We never mentioned that again, once he came back we never mentioned it again. I thought that was a terrible decision, I always hated it. I always thought that was unfortunate, I have killed off characters before and brought them back, I did that with Lisa Hartman, but I didn't like how it was done on Dallas because people were very emotional when Bobby died and in a way when you say 'never mind it was all a dream' you are playing with their emotions in a negative way, I think they get angry.

Lukas from Canada asks "Hi David, first of all your writing of some of the early DALLAS scripts was amazing. My question is, was it hard to see some of the characters, themes, original idea's ect of the DALLAS you created get changed and sometimes ruined as the series run went on. It seems at some point in the show, the producers lost your original idea's and drifted off to the Bobby and JR's men's show, leaving strong women like Ellie, Sue Ellen, Pam and Lucy to drift. This did not happen on Knots Landing, just wondering your thoughts."

David - I absolutely agree with the comment. One of the things I am determined to achieve on this movie is that the women characters should take stronger , more aggressive roles. The character I want to see updated the most is Miss Ellie. I think she should be a very strong figure in Texas, a person of political power and maybe has some popularity from a TV show but to get her to be very powerful so whatever the story is that threatens the family she is the one who is the strongest in resolving it.

Toni Díaz from Barcelona, Spain asks "I´m a great fan of yours for your work as a writer, and I´d like to know if you have any favorite character of your own. Mine are Pamela Ewing and Karen Fairgate"

David - My favorite character in Dallas when I was writing it was Pam but the way it evolved it had to be JR. On Knots Landing the character of Karen is the person who expressed my personal feelings on issues, she was the one most like me, Sid was also in some ways but through the years I think Karen was the one I most identified with. However we had some guest roles such as Chip and Ciji, I loved those characters because they really stirred the pot.

Sarah B from Belfast, Northern Ireland asks "Hi David - First of all I'd like to say a big thank you for creating the most wonderful show on the planet. I've been a fan for 24 years, and I'm only 26 now! My favorite character is Sue Ellen, I just wanted to know, where did you get the idea of Sue Ellen from, and what are your personal feelings towards her? Many thanks"

David - Remember the story started with Bobby bringing home Pamela who he married which was a threat to JR, a threat in business because he had run the company the way he wanted and a threat to him personally because he and his wife had no child, so there was the possibility Bobby and Pam would have a child first which would become an heir, so I wanted to create the character that would become most affected by that and I liked the idea of JR having a 'trophy' wife, a former Miss Texas, someone who played the role all the time. I thought there's a great character who can fall apart before your eyes.

Ray2002 from New Jersey asks "Why were you not involved in Dallas following the mini series? I read you planned to kill off Bobby? How would he die? What did you plan to happen?"

David - When the mini series was filmed I was still working for another show, I had also written another pilot called 'Married' and I went on to produce that and then Knots Landing. I have seen the thing about killing Bobby off, it was never a suggestion, never a possibility, the difference was that Bobby, as I originally conceived him was much more a kid, much more a playboy, not a serious young man and part of Pamela's effort was to get him to get his act together. But CBS and the actor really wanted Bobby to be heroic right from the start.

Interviewer - Out of interest where did the Ewing name come from?

David - You know I don't know, I absolutely don't remember, I don't know why it just struck me as a Texas name. I found out there is automobile dealer in Texas and maybe I had seen that at some time passing through called 'Ewing Buicks' and maybe it just stuck with me.

Christine from Germany asks "I've been a member of Ultimate Dallas for 2 years and during these years I've been spending 95% of my online time on the Knots Landing forum discussing my favorite show. And I am knot the only one! Does it surprise you that Knots Landing still has such a huge following?"

David - It doesn't surprise me because the Knots Landing fans were very devoted but there was never as many of them as there were Dallas fans but they were always very passionate about it. Knots Landing left more of a subtle impact on television than Dallas did, here in the States I really do feel the Knots Landing fan base slipping away.

Interviewer - Its being rerun on SoapNet, it seems to have regained a following

David - Oh really, I love it then when I receive the checks (laughs)

Christine also asked "Is there any chance that Valene and Gary Ewing will be in the Dallas movie?"

David - I doubt it because in a two hour movie there is only so much service you can do to each of the characters. So I don't know

Page 1|2|3