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Dallas Critic
A Season by Season look at Dallas part 2
In Part One; we took a look at how the most popular show in the late 70's/early 80's was created, as well as the first five episodes which aired from April-May, 1978. The ratings were good on those episodes so CBS gave a go-ahead for a 22-episode season of shows in the fall.
When DALLAS returned, there were some nocticable changes from the previous five shows. For one, the theme song was slightly revamped. More changes had the inclusion of Linda Gray, Steve Kanaly, and Ken Kercheval, who were previously listed during the end credits, as main cast members.
The most noticable change, however, was the ficticious Southfork Ranch. For the first five shows, as previously mentioned, a ranch owned by John Box was used. However, Leonard Katzman, the show's producer for the first eight seasons, found a more suitable ranch, Duncan Acres located near Plano, Texas, a few miles outside of DALLAS owned by a real estate developer (Ironically named J.R. Duncan). This is the ranch most familiar to the show's fans. The ranch was used until 1988, when location filming in Texas ceased.
With the exception of the two-part story which saw the return of the middle Ewing son, Gary (first potrayed by David Aykroyd who briefly played a different role on KNOTS); the the first twelve or so shows, like the previous five, were self-contained "arc" shows with storylines begining and ending with each episode.
One plotline also saw the return of Julie Grey, who first had a brief fling with Jock, who came to his senses and went back to Miss Ellie; then J.R. before she was killed in another two-parter. It was during all this that the writers made Sue-Ellen pregnant, and since that couldn't be realistically resolved by the end of one show, they decided to serialize the show around mid-season; although the show's creator, David Jacobs, who by this time was working on the development of KNOTS LANDING (pulled from the vaults to capitalize on the rapidly growing success of DALLAS), had said that he had always hoped to serialize the show at some point.
The show's first season, once the serialization format was settled, centered mostly on J.R. still trying to destroy Bobby and Pam's marriage (all of the other Ewings finally accepted her); his extramarrital affairs; and other dirty dealings, as well as trying to keep Lucy and her parents (Gary and Valene) apart; and of course, trying to figure out how to deal with Sue-Ellen's love affair with the bottle while she was pregnant (the paternity of the boy's father wouldn't be resolved until the following season, however.).
The season ended on a cliffhanger (It's first), with both Sue-Ellen and her prematurely born son both fighting for their lives thanks to Sue-Ellen's unsuccessful escape attempt from a sanitarium where she was commited by her "lovin' husband' to cure her from her alcoholism. Viewers were stunned. No series had ever ended a season on such a suspenseful note. It was around this time in March, of 1979, when the show moved to a new Friday night time slot, that the show began became popular.
The main reason for the show's popularity centered around Larry Hagman's portrayal of J.R.; who became "the man viewers loved to hate." Viewers couldn't get enough of "mean ol' J.R." Needless to say, the producers made sure that he became the center of attention the following season when the paternity of John Ross III was in question. Was the father J.R. or Cliff Barnes, who had a brief fling with Sue-Ellen during the previous season. That was solved during the middle of the 1979-80 season with J.R. revealed as the daddy.
After that heart-warming episode which ended with J.R. finally holding his son for the first time; he went back to his evil ways, threatening to send Sue-Ellen back to the sanitarium; double-crossing his business pardners in the independent oil cartel (One of them, Seth Stone, commited suicide); his banker, Vaughn Leland (Dennis Patrick); his sister-in-law, Kristin (Mary Crosby); a protege, Alan Beame; Bobby, who left Southfork; and his parents, who wern't happy with J.R. for driving another son away from home.
Needless to say, all of these dastardly deeds resulted in someone wanting to get revenge on the older Ewing son; and on the season finale which aired on Friday, March 20, 1980, someone did. At the end of the episode, someone entered J.R.'s office at night...and shot him twice! It turned out to be the shot heard around the world.
Unfortunately because of an actor's strike which occured during the Summer of 1980, the mystery of "Who Shot J.R." wouldn't be revealed until the end of November. But, it was during the next eight-months that the show, and Larry Hagman, became pratically the number one topic of conversation worldwide. The character of J.R. was so popular in fact that he received 400 votes in the Oklahoma presiedential primary
There were worldwide contests, buttons and posters proclaiming "J.R. Ewing for President (this writer still have one of those buttons), "I shot J.R." T-shirts and other merchandise including a hit record. All this resulted in Hagman successfully renegotiating his contract which resulted in him becoming the highest paid actor in television at the time. And, while contract negotiations were pending, there was speculation that Hagman might not return to the show.
Rumors surfaced that either J.R. might not survive; or, in case he did, actor Robert Culp (I SPY) was set to replace Hagman, which would have been impossible since Culp was in the midst of shooting scenes for a mid-season replacement for ABC called THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO at the time. Neither rumor were true, however, and Hagman returned to the show.
The show returned in early November, with J.R. being discovered by a cleaning woman. It would be another three weeks before the identity of his assailant be known. To insure that even the cast and crew wouldn't know who did it; several scenes featuring some of the cast members were shot. Scenes were shot (pun intended) with Jock, Miss Ellie, Sue-Ellen, Cliff, Kristin, Alan Beame, Marilee Stone (Seth Stone's widow) and, as a joke, Larry Hagman himself, pulling the trigger.
The wait was finally over on Friday, November 21, 1980, in what turned out to be the most watched episode in television history (Beating the final episode of THE FUGITIVE in 1967, which had Richard Kimble finally catching up with the one-armed man who killed his wife.). It revealed that Kristin Shepard as the culprit. (The cast and crew found out just hours earlier when the producers held a special screening dinner party).
"Who Shot J.R." parties were held across the country while the show was being broadcast as well. The revelation was the opening story for many news programs; and in Great Britian, people reportedly stayed up until 3:00 am to find out from the BBC radio who did it. The following week's episode had Kristin, who played her trump card to avoid being prosecuted by telling J.R. that she's pregnant with his baby, being shipped off to California (and a guest appearance on KNOTS LANDING).
Other plotlines for the1980-81season included; Bobby resigning from Ewing Oil as acting president (He was asked to step in by Jock while J.R. was recuperating) thanks to some behind the scenes manipulations by you-know-who, and accepting a position as a Texas state senator, thanks to Donna Culver Krebbs (Susan Howard), who married Ray mid-season. Ray, wasn't the only one married that season. Lucy fell in love with a poor medical student, Mitch Cooper (Leigh McCloskey), and married at Southfork with her parents Gary and Valene (from KNOTS LANDING) in attendance. Also in attendance were Mitch's mother Arliss (Anne Francis) and his sister Afton (Audrey Landers who became a regular).
Meanwhile, Jock and Ellie's marriage was under some strain because of several factors. One of them had to do with the fact that Jock had discovered that Ray was his natural son, due to an affair he had in Europe with his mother in WWII. The other; Jock had gotten involved in a controversial real estate deal with a piece of land called Takapa, and Miss Ellie was on an opposing comittee. Although Bobby had reached a compromise with both groups, it did not solve the ever widening path between his parents. Newlyweds Ray and Donna solved the problem.
After Jock and Ellie left for a second honeymoon (which marked Jim Davis' last appearance), J.R. was feeling pressure from the chairman of a rival oil company Westar, Jeremy Wendell (William Smithers), who vowed to get even with him for reneging on a deal to sell Ewing Oil to Wendell.
Meanwhile, J.R. kicked Sue-Ellen off Southfork after he found out she was sleeping with an old lover, Dusty Farlow. Sue-Ellen had Pam bring baby John Ross, to Farlow's ranch, angering J.R. Kristin returned to extort more money from J.R., who refused. On the season finale which aired in May, 1981; Cliff, drove out to Southfork to meet Bobby, only to discover a female body floating face-down in the Southfork swimming pool with J.R. standing outside of the balcony. Cliff, upon seeing J.R., cries: She's dead! You killed her you bastard!...
Whose body was it Cliff found in the pool? What happens when J.R. finds out that Pam took John Ross to Sue-Ellen. What happened next? Stay tuned......
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