DALLAS PRESS ARCHIVE Dallas press related items.

CREW INTERVIEWS Interviews with the people who made Dallas.

MAKING OF DALLAS The production process making Dallas

CAST BIOGRAHPHIES The life and times of the Dallas cast.

CAST DEATHS Dallas cast and crew members who have passed away.

CAST AND CREW Detailed list of Dallas cast and crew

DALLAS DATABASE How many lovers did JR have? Find out in the database

THE SCRIPTWRITERS Recognizing the people who wrote Dallas.

DALLAS MEMORBILIA A look at memorbilia from the show

THE EWING KIDS What happened to the Ewing kids?. NEWSLETTER Be the first get all the latest news from Dallas

FADE IN: Last time: We took a look at the first three seasons of the show describing the first three cliffhangers including J.R.'s shooting and it's aftermath; culminating in the 1981 cliffhanger in which Cliff Barnes discovers a female body floating in the Southfork pool while J.R. stares at him from the balcony directly above......
MAIN CAST CREDITS AND AND THEME MUSIC......DALLAS: A Lorimar Production. Starring (In alphabetical order): Barbara Bel Geddes. Patrick Duffy. Linda Gray. Larry Hagman. Susan Howard. Steve Kanaly. Ken Kercheval. Charlene Tilton. and Victoria Principal.....Producer: Leonard Katzman. Created by David Jacobs.........

When DALLAS returned for it's fourth full season in the fall of 1981, a noticable change had taken place. One of it's actor's, Jim Davis, who played the family patriarch Jock Ewing, had died in May of cancer. Ironically; this writer remembers his death being announced on the local news immediately after the airing of the season finale on May 2. The producers, after a lot of soul searching, decided not to recast the part in honor of Davis.

To prepare the show's cast, crew and fans for the writing out of "Jock," the producers decided to wait a few shows before killing him off. To explain his absense in the meantime, "Jock," upon returning from an European vacation with Miss Ellie; was sent by the government to do some work for them in South America. He was subsequently killed when the helecopter he was traveling in crashed somewhere in a swampy area. The Ewing brothers, including Gary (making another guest appearance from KNOTS LANDING), all went searching for him; and this being a tribute episode, several flashbacks featuring Davis were shown. The episode ended with Davis' picture flashing on screen with the word's "Jim Davis: 1908-1981."

In the meantime; Susan Howard, who played Donna McCullum Culver Krebs, was added to the show's main cast after making several appearances during the show's previous three seasons. The cliffhanger from the previous season was resolved with the identity of the drowned woman found floating in the Southfork pool being none other than Kristin Sheppard (Surprise! Surprise!).

Meanwhile J.R. was questioned, but was exonerated when it was discovered during an autopsy that his sister-in-law had drugs in her system (A habit she picked up on an episode of KNOTS LANDING the previous season.). With that minor inconvenience out of the way; J.R. went about the business of trying to get his son away from his estranged wife Sue-Ellen who was shacking up with her cowboy lover Dusty Farlow (Jared Martin) and his father Clayton (Howard Keel, who was introduced the previous season.) at their ranch in San Angelo called The Southern Cross.

After several unsuccessful attempts, including trying to snatch the boy at the Dallas Airport where Sue-Ellen had just arrived to bury her late sister, J.R. tried talking the crippled Dusty into giving up Sue-Ellen ("There's only one man in Texas who can satisfy that woman, and it sure hell ain't you!" J.R. taunts.). When that failed also, he tried using his recently returned mother to try to snatch the kid; but Miss Ellie refused to go along with it. Sue-Ellen eventually left Dusty and divorced J.R. while also gaining custody of John Ross III.

Pamela, in the meantime was having problems of her own. Due to her inability to have children (She had two previous miscarrages), she became seriously depressed and ended up in a mental hospital which also caused her husband Bobby to resign from the Texas state senate so that he could be close by. Cliff, their mother Rebecca Wentworth (Played by actress Priscilla Pointer, the real-life mother of actress Amy Irving, Steven Speilberg's first wife) and their half-sister Katherine (former child-actress Morgan Brittany, who originally acted under the name Suzanne Cupito) all tried to lift her spirits; it was Bobby who came to the rescue by adopting Kristin's son, Christopher.

Lucy, in the meantime, was having marital troubles. Her husband Mitch was still having a hard time dealing with his wife becoming the bread-winner of the family thanks to her popularity as "Miss Young Dallas." He sought solcace in the arms of an older female med-student Needless to say, Lucy couldn't deal with that relationship especially when she caught them red-handed (Or, red-faced in this case) and went back to Southfork. She divorced Mitch shortly thereafter.

Shortly after their divorce, J.R. tried getting Sue-Ellen to marry him again, reasoning that it would bring her and John Ross back to Southfork. He became insenced however, when he learned that she resumed seeing Cliff again. J.R. then set out to take care of his rival....

J.R.: "I'm going to destroy you!"

CLIFF: "You tried that. It didn't work."

J.R.: "You don't understand. I don't want to wipe you out. Not any more. When I'm finished with you, there will be no more Cliff Barnes in Dallas, in Texas, or in any place. You will cease to exist-and that's a promise."

And sure enough, J.R. kept his promise by creating a phony business deal and forcing Cliff to bankrupt the company his mother let him run causing him to beg Sue-Ellen for money. A horrified Sue-Ellen called off the relationship. Cliff's mother, having found out that Cliff had embezzled money from the company to finance the bogus deal, promptly fires him. Cliff, finally broken, tries to comit suicide. The season ended with his life in hanging by a thread with both Rebecca and Sue-Ellen blaming themselves. Sue-Ellen tells J.R. that "If Cliff dies, I don't think I'll ever be able to marry you...." End of episode, end of season, and then there was a beer commercial.

NEXT TIME: Cliff makes it; J.R. is removed from Ewing Oil. Jock's will is finally read with terrible reprocussions for all...Stay tuned!

FADE OUT

                          
Contact Us | Press | Fan's Forum | Podcasts | DVD | Warner Bros. Studios

The Official Site For The Hit Television Series Dallas

Designed by Goldlion © Ultimate Dallas All rights reserved.