Dallas Couples JR & Sue Ellen - Swoonalicious Appreciation Thread

[DallasFanForever]

Happy Easter @Mrs Bobby James Ewing and ur 100% right that this thread dedicated to J.R. and Sue Ellen rocks and so does original Dallas!!

 

[The Lovely Sue Ellen]

I can’t believe this was no longer on the front page!
let’s get swooning!
here is one of the videos I made many moons ago

 

[Karin Schill]

Great music video @The Lovely Sue Ellen
Thank you for reposting it. I hadn't seen it in a long time and it's cute. I can tell you made it a long time ago though as all the seasons weren't even out on DVD back then and some of the clips even had the Swedish subtitles.

Here's one of my more recent ones. It's dedicated to Tommie since he challenged me to make a JR/SE video to this song:

I am so glad that I did that video and didn't put it off for later like I do with some of the challenges I get.

 

[DallasFanForever]

These videos never get old for me!! Thank you for posting them @Karin Schill and @The Lovely Sue Ellen!!

 

[Karin Schill]

Okay let's try to get some new conversations going in here. So I am wondering which season do you think JR/SE had the best storyline and which is your favorite?

 

[DallasFanForever]

The first season I think of when I think of J.R. and Sue Ellen is the Dream Season. It’s a shame it didn’t actually happen but I think it’s their best storyline nonetheless. Considering her fight to finally overcome her alcoholism, the custody battle, her leaving John Ross to live at Southfork with his father, then their reunion at the end of the season, I think that season was their best story.

 

[Mrs Bobby James Ewing]

My favorite J.R. and Sue Ellen storyline is the one where they are divorced and Sue Ellen is trying to live on her own with John Ross at the condo while JR is trying his best to get her to come back to him. But I have to agree with @DallasFanForever that their best storyline takes place during the infamous dream. Which is also one my favorite JR and Sue Ellen storylines as well.

 

[DallasFanForever]

My favorite J.R. and Sue Ellen storyline is the one where they are divorced and Sue Ellen is trying to live on her own with John Ross at the condo while JR is trying his best to get her to come back to him. But I have to agree with @DallasFanForever that their best storyline takes place during the infamous dream. Which is also one my favorite JR and Sue Ellen storylines as well.

I also loved the storyline of Sue Ellen living on her own with John Ross at the condo. I actually wish the writers would’ve continued that story a little longer as I liked the idea of Sue Ellen being on her own and finding her own identity away from the rest of the Ewings for a change. It was nice to see her and J.R. interact away from Southfork and the family for once.

 

[Karin Schill]

I think JR/SE's best storyline was definitely in the dream season as I love how much they both developed that season. Sue Ellen finally dealing with her alcoholism once and for all and getting well. JR realizing that he did love Sue Ellen more than Mandy and that he had always loved her. I like their road to reconcilation.

I think my favorite season for JR/SE though is season five when they get divorced and reconcile since this is the first time we see JR actually courting Sue Ellen. He showers her with affection. He sends her yellow roses, he stops by her house, he gives her gifts. He spends time with John Ross. I think a part of the way he tries to win her back gives a glimpse of what their relationship must have been like in the very beginning. It's intersting since when the show picked up their marriage was already miserable. But this proves that it hasn't always been that way. There was a time when JR loved Sue Ellen and wanted her as much as she wanted him.

I think the fact that JR loses Jock also makes it more plausible that he has changed and realized what is important in life. That he wants his family back. It is not just Sue Ellen who believes that he has changed. It is the viewers too. We believe he has changes too.

 

[Billy Wall]

I remember being kid when I watched that and thinking "What an ugly car! Why didn't he buy her a cool car like the one Bobby bought Pam?"

Because Bobby and Pam represented a more youthful, fast couple. Where as JR and Sue Ellen was the older, more luxury type couple.

Certainly better than that old station wagon she used to drive. I always wondered, “they have all that money, why is Mrs JR Ewing driving an old station wagon?”

 

[CeeCee72]

The dream season was of course my favorite. I also like the season ten reconciliation after BD Calhoun.

I was never a fan of the way they reconciled after their divorce. It seemed too fast, too easy. They never dealt with thier problems so it was hard to believe those same problems wouldn't derail them again.

 

[Karin Schill]

If you were to chose only five favorite JR/SE scenes, which ones would you choose?

 

[CeeCee72]

If you were to chose only five favorite JR/SE scenes, which ones would you choose?

1. The scene in season 8 where they are sitting out on the patio and JR confesses all his problems to her and thanks her for listening.

2. The scene in season 10 when he is going to rescue John Ross from BD Calhoun. He says "I have loved you." She responds "I know that."

3. The scene in season 7 after Sue Ellen comes to his bedroom for sex and JR gets uppity and pouty about being used as a "stud service."

4. The scene in the kitchen during the dream season when he tells her he took her for granted before but will never do it again.

5. The scene is season 7 after her accident when she asks him why he chased her if he wanted to be with other women. He starts to try to explain and comfort her, but she turns away from him and tells him to leave her alone.

 

[DallasFanForever]

1. The scene where she shows him the tape proving that she was behind getting rid of Mandy
2. The scene out on the patio in season 8 DVD where he confides in her
3. The “Stud Service” scene
4. The “I’m gonna drink myself into oblivion” scene
5. When he drops her off at the sanitarium. Sad scene but great nonetheless. Extremely well acted!

An honorable mention for me is the scene after the fight at the oil barons ball when he tells her Cliff bit him and she asks “How did he bite you?” And he answers “With his teeth Sue Ellen.” Definitely one of their funniest scenes of the entire series.

 

[CeeCee72]

5. When he drops her off at the sanitarium. Sad scene but great nonetheless. Extremely well acted!

Strangely enough, it was THAT scene that convinced me he actually loved her.

Yeah, he was putting her away, but that look on his face... heartbreaking.

 

[Justine]

If you were to chose only five favorite JR/SE scenes, which ones would you choose?

1. The scenes at the hospital after baby John Ross is kidnapped; it almost didn't fit with the rest of the storyline (because they hated each other). J.R. was so protective of her when the detective questioned her about his disappearance and why she blamed herself.

2. When J.R. showed up drunk at Sue Ellen's condo after Jock's death; the role reversal was brilliant, especially because it became obvious that J.R. needed her more than she needed him for once. You could see how scared she was of him but also for him.

3. When Sue Ellen confronts J.R. about another affair after Jamie leaves her in the Oil Baron's club alone; this may be my mistake but I feel like this is the first time in the series that Sue Ellen learns about an affair and doesn't relapse or have an affair of her own?

4. When Sue Ellen worries that Calhoun sexually assaulted her, J.R. reassures her; such a sweet scene and another time that, even though their relationship was in a bad place, they always cared for one another.

5. The scenes in the nursery and their bedroom where they talk about their before Kristin calls with news of Christopher's birth; they came so close to getting back together again in that moment!

 

[Justine]

So, I recently watched Black Market Baby and I'm curious about what you all think in terms of J.R. and his reluctance about children. He and Sue Ellen had been married for quite a few years by the time the show started and obviously no children had arrived. Given how hopeful Jock was for another generation of Ewing's, why do you think J.R. let so many years pass without producing an heir?

At one point, Sue Ellen says she's had herself tested and she's asked J.R. to see the doctor but he's pretty firm in his decision not to. Obviously, it's because he was insecure about being the reason that he and Sue Ellen can't have children but how do you think he justified that? Would he have been content to not have children? Would he have eventually warmed to the idea of adoption? I just think it doesn't really fit with his character to not have a game-plan, especially about something so important.

 

[DallasFanForever]

@Justine I think you bring up a lot of valid points. Considering what it meant to J.R. to have the next Ewing heir, it really doesn’t make sense that he and Sue Ellen were married all those years and hadn’t had a child yet. I guess maybe it wasn’t as important to him at that point because Bobby was showing no signs of settling down and Gary couldn’t get his life in order enough to have another child and heir. It seems like once Bobby got married to Pam that J.R. started to panic and the competition was on. Ironically, J.R. already had his heir running around if we count James but he obviously wasn’t aware of that yet.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

So, I recently watched Black Market Baby and I'm curious about what you all think in terms of J.R. and his reluctance about children. He and Sue Ellen had been married for quite a few years by the time the show started and obviously no children had arrived. Given how hopeful Jock was for another generation of Ewing's, why do you think J.R. let so many years pass without producing an heir?

At one point, Sue Ellen says she's had herself tested and she's asked J.R. to see the doctor but he's pretty firm in his decision not to. Obviously, it's because he was insecure about being the reason that he and Sue Ellen can't have children but how do you think he justified that? Would he have been content to not have children? Would he have eventually warmed to the idea of adoption? I just think it doesn't really fit with his character to not have a game-plan, especially about something so important.

I think he believed it would happen at first, then he likely attributed their lack of success to their lack of interaction, and then wouldn't hear of anything to make it happen beyond that. I also believe that just as Jock wanted an heir, JR wanted Ewing Oil, which he basically had at the start of the show without an heir of his own. He was the president and until Pam pushed Bobby into moving back into the office and off the road JR expected that Ewing Oil was always to be his. John Ross Ewing III could always be put off to another day, especially since Sue Ellen was 8 years younger than him.
I don't think he ever considered adoption nor seriously trying to make it happen because he just wasn't overly interested in having kids and the pressure had long waned. Until John Ross arrived his experience was likely with Lucy as an infant who he probably didn't have much to do with and before that Gary and Bobby who he'd never been that fond of as a kid himself. Sue Ellen wanting a baby was something he wouldn't have said no to but wasn't trying too hard himself to make happen.

 

[CeeCee72]

I think having an heir was important to Jock, but not to JR. And as others have stated, he wasn't too concerned about making it happen because Gary had only managed to produce a girl and Bobby didn't have kids.

Also, there was a very weird dynamic between JR and SE then. I think he didn't want to have a child with her because that would give her a bigger hold on HIM. JR seemed to want to keep her at arms length in those days. Having a kid with her would have made that harder.