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Remember, this all happened after he lost Ewing Oil. The Ewing Oil that him and Jock ran was a memory at this point.
Jeremy Wendell > Carter McKay/Season 12
- Thread starter Chase Gioberti
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Remember, this all happened after he lost Ewing Oil. The Ewing Oil that him and Jock ran was a memory at this point.
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I couldn’t bear her. Hated her acting and hated the character. I know JR used her to get Ewing Oil back but I just didn’t buy it. Especially after he dumped Mandy and reconciled with Sue Ellen. Awful characterI actually liked Leigh Taylor Young she was a lovely actor and far better than John Calvin who played Wilson Cryder.
Wilson Cryder was okay but absolutely no threat to JR. Kimberly Cryder was a different story, I actually think she did help the show especially when it was revealed her Father owned a sizeable chunk of WestStar stock.
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I don't so much agree about not caring about WestStar. I think in later seasons, the Barnes/Ewing Feud was kinda fizzled out, and maybe needed to be. For instance, Cliff showing some character growth and insight during season 11 was one of the best things about the later seasons. That said, the show needed a new nemesis . William Smithers was a great actor, but I think someone like Gregory Harrison or Mitch Pillegi would have made more sense for the evolution of the show into the '90s. Just imagine, in that season premier episode in the fall of 1988, Gregory or Mitch showing up to buy Ray's ranch, and it goes from there.. IMHO, the show still was salvageable at that point. Haileyville still could have happened, but been played straight. If just Cally's brother's wouldn't have been such cartoon chracters. Seeing JR receiving kind of a comeuppance for his past actions and his current one(Cally) still could have been interesting, but let it go at that. JR comes back from Haileyville mortified, but doesn't become the somewhat of a loser he originally became. I've seen so many mention that he should have run roughshod over Haileyville, but I say, maybe him being so traumatized over what happened to him in that town, it would make sense that he just wants to pretend it never happened. Feeling powerless really had an effect on him. However, as far as being back home in Dallas, it's business as usual. He's home, and there's a new force in town. As I've also said before, George Kennedy was a good actor, but he just was the wrong fit, or the wrong time for the show. Carter McKay being played by a darker, more threatening actor would have been gold. Cliff and the Ewings unite forces. If Pam wasn't recast, then at least have Bobby finally show some much needed concern over her, only to find she still(supposedly) doesn't want to come home, but we know the truth as to why. Bobby begins dating Carter's sister, only, I'm sorry, they needed someone other than the actress that played Tracey to fill the role, no disrespect intended to Beth Toussaint.
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I say with some of these tweaks, the show could have lasted until at least '93-'94.
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The main reason Dallas failed in its later years was that producers and Hagman and Duffy believed all of the other actors and characters were expendable. Wendell was a menace - and the only nemesis JR ever had that felt like a REAL threat to him. Dropping his character in such a ridiculous fashion and then trying to shove McKay into his place was a huge mistake. But then again, by that time, Dallas had already sacrificed so many beloved characters, replacing them with one dimensional, cheap imitations, it wasn't much of a surprise to see them do it again with Wendell.
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Is it known if George Kennedy was first hired and then Carter McKay was created or was there initially the idea of a new enemy of the Ewings and George Kennedy were chosen during the casting process?
I think the Weststar storyline was better thought out in season 11 than in season 12. Since Leigh Taylor-Young was credited as Also Starring and John Calvin only appeared in the closing credits, II'm assuming the writers didn't have anything big planned for Wilson anyway.
It seemed at first that the McKays would become the new Barnes to oppose the Ewings, but oddly Tommy soon died and Tracey left. I never understood this development. What was the point of introducing a new family when after a season only the father was left?
I think the Weststar storyline was better thought out in season 11 than in season 12. Since Leigh Taylor-Young was credited as Also Starring and John Calvin only appeared in the closing credits, II'm assuming the writers didn't have anything big planned for Wilson anyway.
It seemed at first that the McKays would become the new Barnes to oppose the Ewings, but oddly Tommy soon died and Tracey left. I never understood this development. What was the point of introducing a new family when after a season only the father was left?
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Gregory Harrison would have fit in much better in Dallas than Falcon Crest.
Right. I thought JR‘s interest in Weststar was so he could revive Ewing Oil
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That's personal rather than acting professional but Larry's influence - good or bad - was a detriment to Dallas in the long term, especially so when the stories and ratings began to slip. I'll admit it would be difficult to keep Dallas number 1 but I'd guess viewers were prepared to stick with Dallas if only they kept it humming along like they had pre Bobby being shot. Inflated egos behind the scenes was killing Dallas.
Jeremy Wendell was a character who intrigued me and so perfectly played by William Smithers, now 96. With the character of Pam about to exit and the story of the Barnes/Ewing feud exhausted, it would have been best to retire Cliff and ramp up the character of Jeremy Wendell.
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Dallas worked better when the series was spun around this closely knit family named the Ewing's, Southfork Ranch and Ewing Oil, an independent company. Westar and Jeremy Wendell was a nice touch and watching a company attempting to swallow up an independent had merit but it should have been the Ewing family fighting against that bigger machine...not JR jumping ship at the earliest opportunity. Jock would have been mad as hell and sent JR to his room with no supper.
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At that point, even JR admitted that the Ewing Oil that was, doesn't exist anymore.
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William Smithers was great as Jeremy Wendell. He was probably the Ewings' most formidable adversary.
George Kennedy is a terrific actor. Not his fault that the writing wasn't quite as good.
He was a good choice for Carter McKay. Again, the writing wasn't good.
Some may disagree but I thought the Range War story was quite good.
It was a good story that saw the Ewings united (a rare occurrence) against common adversaries
It was far better than almost anything else in seasons 12-13-14
George Kennedy is a terrific actor. Not his fault that the writing wasn't quite as good.
He was a good choice for Carter McKay. Again, the writing wasn't good.
Some may disagree but I thought the Range War story was quite good.
It was a good story that saw the Ewings united (a rare occurrence) against common adversaries
It was far better than almost anything else in seasons 12-13-14
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Jeremy was definitely underutilized over the years. It was a character that we could’ve heard so much more from but maybe in a way the fact that he was given a break at times didn’t allow him to become stale. He was as ruthless as ruthless could be, to the point that he could even make J.R. seem sympathetic at times. That’s a great villain. He was so desperately needed in those later years.
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Smithers hinted that Larry may have tricked him into asking for a raise, when that raise was never going to happen. So Larry may have felt some pointless sense of competition between JR's prominence and Jeremy's presence, the latter character being even "more evil" than the other.
Whatever the impetus for Wendell being written out and replaced, it was just one more knuckleheaded decision that permanently hurt DALLAS.
The writers just never knew what they wanted to do with Carter McKay.
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I never could figure out where he was coming from. Was he a villain? Was he an ally to the Ewings? He always seemed to be switching sides all the time. The character seemed to be written all over the place, and what he wanted or was after always seemed to be changing also.
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As was the case with most of the show around him by this point: stuff just happens and people just do stuff -- always the hallmark of a "bad soap" when the writers have no idea what they want to do.
And when you fire your main villain's main counter-villain, and allow his position to be usurped by an unfocused, blustering blowhard who's 45 minutes away from a thrombotic coronary occlusion, this is what happens to your show.
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"OIL IS LEAKING ALL OVER THE GULF AND YOU'RE SITTING HERE HAVING DINNER?!?!"
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"Eggs and toast!"
Seriously though what annoys me more than anything is we later found out that culpability didn't belong with the Ewing Oil tanker! It was the WestStar Super Tanker operated by a reduced crew with no one monitoring the radar traffic.
The way George Kennedy gets angry and his face going red I almost expect his head to explode with him foaming at the mouth. Although he was a great actor, I don't think he really fitted in on Dallas. He will always be a poor replacement for William Smithers as the great Jeremy Wendell.
I've often wondered how this storyline would've looked with Wendell calling the shots at Weststar. He was always menacing because of the way William Smithers underplayed the role. George Kennedy was the complete opposite because he was so OTT as Carter McKay, he was so cartoonish and nowhere near as threatening a villain as Wendell.
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The more I see McKay in season 12 the more I hate him. Just a fat slob. Wendell was a much more worthy rival. McKay can barely button his shirt.