Dallas

Dallas garners its own chapter in the history of television for several reasons. In its heyday this show was very popular! (The Who Shot JR episode remains one of the most watched programs of all time.) Dallas defined the 80's as the 'ME' generation, big hair and Republican values! JR Ewing takes his place as one of fictions most notorious villains. And the show itself conquered new territory. It was trashy television ... with bite!

The story centers around the Ewing family. Their lives center around oil and power (two things that mixed well in the 1980's). Their nemisis is the family Barnes, bitter rivals continuously looking for their fair share of an empire that they claim they helped to build.

The series opens up as Bobby Ewing brings home his new wife Pamela, first daughter to the Barnes family. The soap opera takes off and the sparks fly.

Over a 13 year run the show deals with all sorts of issues. Alcoholism (Sue Ellen is fabulous when she is sloppy!), infidelity, (JR sleeps with just about anyone with a skirt), drugs, impotence, politics, down syndrome, sibling rivalry, neurofibromatosis, breast cancer, divorce, child custody, homosexuality and physical abuse. And what's so great is that it deals with none of these topics well.

Dallas is not a show to be taken seriously, at least not on a cerebral level. If you want serious drama, watch Hill Street Blues. If you want something preachy, watch Facts of Life. Dallas is best watched with brain waves turned down to their lowest level, with a grain of salt and with an ear for catty drama!

Best storyline: Sue Ellen's drinking causes her to have the baby prematurely. No one knows for sure who the baby's real father is (Cliff or JR) - but Pam had better find out soon as she has just learned that she and Cliff are carrying a gene that could kill any children they intend to have. Complicated? Yes. But you gotta love it!

This show literally changed prime-time television for the better. The show centers around the lives, loves and scandals of the Ewings, a family of oil-rich barons who reside in-where else?-Dallas. When the

show started on CBS in the spring of 1978, the show centered around the "Romeo & Juliet" love story of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) and Pamela Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal), the daughter of the Ewings' arch enemy Digger Barnes. Story lines, and ratings. changed for the better when DALLAS refocused on the devilish dealings of Bobby's oldest brother John Ross "JR" Ewing, Jr. (Larry Hagman. DALLAS reached the peak of its' popularity when JR was shot in the spring of 1980. For years, the show would remain at the top of the ratings until it started getting competition first from ABC's "Dynasty" and then NBC's "The Cosby Show". DALLAS' ratings was never the same after 1986 when Pam dreamed the entire 1985-1986 season. The show ran until 1991, when low ratings virtually killed it. It also spun off the longest-running prime-time soap ever, KNOTS LANDING.

"Dallas" is without question one of the most compulsively enjoyable television programs of all time. I watched it when it was first telecast and still watch the reruns.

Along with "Dynasty", "Dallas" defined '80s excess, Republican values, big hair and everything else. But "Dallas" was also a smartly written program, unlike "Dynasty", which was basically a cartoon (albeit a fun one). The miracle of "Dallas" was how it managed to retain it's major characters for nearly a decade, keep strong storyline pumping for them, unlike most soap operas, which drop characters left and right. But "Dallas" had some of the strongest-written characters in television history: ambitious J.R., dependant Sue Ellen, good-guy Bobby, prim-and-proper Pam, envious Cliff, unassuming Ray, and so many others, whose memory I cherish--Miss Ellie, Donna, Katherine, Mickey Trotter, etc....

Additionally, with the "Who Shot J.R.?" cliffhanger in 1980, "Dallas" created a new marketing tool the television continues to use to this day to retain audiences. Not just soap operas use the season ending cliffhanger; it's been effectively used by such shows as "Friends" and "Will & Grace" recently.

"Dallas" was for many years the most watched program on TV, and continues to be watched by devoted fans, many of them discovering its greatness thru reruns. One episode, and you'll be hooked, too.

Dallas was and still is a TV phenomenon. It took the model of the tired old American soap and turned it into something fresh, fascinating and compelling watched by millions of people around the world. It used for the first time the device of the cliffhanger at the end of the season to keep people coming back for more. Personally I believe the 1981-1984 central seasons were its high point with the titanic struggle between JR and Bobby for control of Ewing Oil plus other strong story lines.

What was the secret of its success and longevity? I believe this is down to 3 factors.

1. The story lines cleverly combined subjects that would appeal to a mass audience - love and sex, glamour, money and power, family problems, and controversial subjects for the time e.g. Sue Ellen's alcoholism that attracted interest and raised awareness.

2. Excellent writing with top notch scripts.

3. Superb acting from the key cast team. I have to single out Larry Hagman's performance as JR, I have never seen any performance to match it in any TV drama. He completely got under JR's skin and while he showed us what a monster the man was, he also made us aware of his redeeming features (particularly his strong sense of family) so that we never quite lost empathy for him. Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray and Ken Kercheval also gave remarkable performances as Bobby the 'good' brother who was never boring, Sue Ellen the wronged wife who eventually found a life of her own and Cliff, JR's neurotic, bungling rival who rarely managed to best him.

Well, I just want to publish my very own personal review about this global smash hit. And keep it that way.

Liked it A lot when it was on screen here in Sweden during the years about 1981-1993(?). (Some 2-3 year delay from U.S prime time.) That was a usual standard for American TV shows for European watchers by then.... (National television was Russian style in Sweden too, you know.) Got curious when my mother got hooked on the Ewing/Barnes feud, myself being just seven years old at the time. (I naturally didn't get so much out of it then.)

What was meant by the creators of "DALLAS" to be a five act drama TV show with the troublesome marriage between Bobby Ewing and Pamela Barnes in center, grows to be the major series of the 80's. (The response from the viewers after some episodes were so good that the producers called for an extension.)

We were allowed to get into the flesh of a family, with sons and daughters always fought each other for power and wellness. Office suits mixed with rancher blue jeans. Oil business and kettle care in the same sweet melody.

When the DALLAS show was released over here on DVD in a "two season per year-plan" in the early 00's, It was time to take the trip all over again. During a six year period, I consistently dug deeply into it season by season during free time, and enjoyed it to the fullest.

The Southfork Ranch almost became my own living room.

Not A member of A fan base, I want to share my own profit of taking the trip from start to finish:

"The Jock Ewing Years" are/were DALLAS at it's best. Jim Davis was the Brando of the Ewings, without doubt. The plot of the whole show was more centered and interesting while he was present. The screen writers re-grouped the three sons of an oil-mafia matriarch, surly in a "godfather" style. Late Larry Hagman (R.I.P) was the senior son J.R, the natural heir of the throne. Always thinking business, besides the hunger for women as a pleasure. Stone cold and calculating, he smashed every fly that came around him trying to steal his limelight.

2nd son Gary was placed beside in script, for several reasons. (Fans aware of "Knots Landing", uh?)

Baby brother Bobby eventually took the fight with his older brother for the captain's seat; after having his "easy living"-years he rapidly learn the business, but a little too late to ever compete with his way too superior brother, who were always one step ahead.

(Actor Patrick Duffy once said that an early take with Larry Hagman, which included some physical acting, ending up with Hagman laughing at his opponent's bad acting, was a real boost to shape up, and never feel minor in acting skills to Larry in a scene ever again.)

Cowboy Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly), the janitor of SF ranch, grows highly during this long history of the Ewings. Starting as kind of a youth manservant to them, he turns out to be more family than anybody of the Ewings ever dreamed of. (My personal favorite down to earth personality figure during the whole saga.) Forced into a world he never wanted to be part of.

On the opposite side, One Cliff Barnes always moaning of his father's stolen piece in the Ewings wealth, him being a partner to Jock Ewing in their oil "teen-years". (But drank it away.) Cliff B builds his own castle, but keeps up having hard time to compete with old J.R Ewing as Texas Oil Baron no. 1. Some good strikes on the way for Clifford, from time to time, always gave the series some fresh air and a forward push.

The family drama went on for years and years. People comes and goes. Weddings, barbecue parties, and some good fist fights at the annual Oil Baron's Ball. Liquor for breakfast, coffee for lunch. Heavy fuel for hard people.

Halfway the series gets a little stalled, but the writers kept on finding new and sometimes cheer ways to keep the story going on.

Yes, there's alcoholic intoxicated wives on the way.

It's getting kind of silly around the "dream-season" alright. (A solution created because of the actors big egos $....)

But I kept on watching it after that anyway, didn't I?

And did I love the ride?

YES. To the final "shot".