Just finished re-watching Dallas TNT

[stevew]

Only if you assume that it was expected that the actors would return; it was not. In my opinion, replacing BBG was the right call, although perhaps the choice of Donna Reed and the subsequent changes to the character were not.

The "death" of Bobby was also supposed to be permanent. However, your solution is a good one and could have been used as an ex post facto explanation.

Ironically as it turned out, VP was the only one of the three whose exit was permanent but after being burned by Duffy, they were reluctant to rule out the possibility of her returning thus leaving the character in limbo.

I would say only give up the idea of them returning if they really die and never replace an important actor. What’s the benefit? Lots of ways to get rid of Bobby, why make it permanent in the first place? But agreed, I think my idea works better after the fact then wiping out a season. I also can’t think of a time when a show benefited from replacing an actor like they did BBG. Maybe their is an exception. Just seems to me better ways of handling things.

 

[Lastkidpicked]

When an actor decides to leave a successful show why is it necessary for the writers to kill off that character? In the case of Bobby we all witnessed the flatline. Why not create another scenario where he was visiting an offshore platform and there was an explosion and he was reported as missing. In effect this creates the drama - much like Jock's - and a resolution when Patrick decided to return.

Very good point, Rove!
As a writer, why paint yourself into a corner the way they did?

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I would say only give up the idea of them returning if they really die and never replace an important actor. What’s the benefit? Lots of ways to get rid of Bobby, why make it permanent in the first place? But agreed, I think my idea works better after the fact then wiping out a season. I also can’t think of a time when a show benefited from replacing an actor like they did BBG. Maybe their is an exception. Just seems to me better ways of handling things.

In the case of Patrick Duffy's exit, he's actually partly to blame because the writers just wanted to have him riding off into the sunset. He wanted an exit where there was no room for the character to return, as he felt it was time for him to become a movie star!

He never made the transition to movie star, & when Hagman started to miss Duffy on the show that's what instigated his return to Dallas.

 

[Rove]

& when Hagman started to miss Duffy on the show that's what instigated his return to Dallas.

...and ultimately the demise and integrity of Dallas.

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

In the case of Bobby we all witnessed the flatline. Why not create another scenario where he was visiting an offshore platform and there was an explosion and he was reported as missing. In effect this creates the drama - much like Jock's - and a resolution when Patrick decided to return.

Isn't that pretty much what happened with Steven on Dynasty?

 

[Rove]

Isn't that pretty much what happened with Steven on Dynasty?

Forgot about this plot on Dynasty but wasn't that just an excuse to recast the character? Bobby returning from the dead would still be played by Patrick but more so as a jekyll and hide type character, leaving the audience guessing whether this was Bobby, an imposter or suffering from mood swings due to a brain injury. Any scenario would have been better then spinning in the shower.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

And now you'll never ever see another Dallas again. Never.

Who knows what the future holds. The premise of the original Dallas is still a strong one & that Dallas TNT series at least showed that there was still life & interest in the show.

Never say never, I honestly don't think that we have seen the last of Dallas as a television series. It isn't a question of if the show will return but when?

All we can do is wait & see.

 

[bspooky9]

In the case of Patrick Duffy's exit, he's actually partly to blame because the writers just wanted to have him riding off into the sunset. He wanted an exit where there was no room for the character to return, as he felt it was time for him to become a movie star!

He never made the transition to movie star, & when Hagman started to miss Duffy on the show that's what instigated his return to Dallas.

Why could Patrick Duffy never transition to film stardom, unlike Michael Douglas departing from The Streets of San Francisco in 1976?

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Why could Patrick Duffy never transition to film stardom, unlike Michael Douglas departing from The Streets of San Francisco in 1976?

Who knows, it was probably just the luck of the draw.

A film career never happened for him, unfortunately. Michael Douglas was more successful at a movie career.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

I've just rewatched season 1 and was surprised with my reaction to it. Firstly, in comparison to the reboot of Dynasty I enjoyed this first season a whole lot more (a comparison that wasn't possible in 2012, so irrelevant but yeah), but it still fell short for me in certain parts because of the lack of detailed care and attention paid to the original history and legacy. Secondly, my opinion on some of the characters changed a little, though I may change my mind again when I move on to rewatching seasons 2 and 3 soon.

I still think Elena was completely unnecessary, or at the very least her shoehorned history. Just say they met in high school, it's just as easy and creates none of the issues that arise from the made up history. I liked Rebecca a lot more this time around than I did in the past and I think that had to do with knowing where she was coming from to begin with, seeing her go back and forth on what she was doing was more interesting knowing her background. I really loved Ann this time around, prior to this I just hadn't warmed to her, but this time I did. I wish we got more JR scenes, but knowing the reality when the cameras were off it's not hard to understand why JR wasn't always around. Sue Ellen was completely underused and I think it's unfair how much they used Linda to market the show yet the payoff wasn't there, for Linda herself or for the audience who wanted to see Sue Ellen. I wish we'd found out more about her life other than the brief snippets we got. Bobby was the same but different, I think he was a little too quick to go from 0 to 100, but I suppose that's who he always was, shout first, think later. John Ross (or really Josh Henderson) was fantastic, I didn't always think he was in character considering how the original character was treated (JR and Sue Ellen had flaws but they loved their son, that was their purest quality), but Josh did a great job at creating a character with a complex personality, who both wanted to be his father and wanted to be nothing like him. I think they missed an opportunity with having Steve and Charlene back, they had them there and gave them such hollow dialogue, they also completely missed any follow through in the pilot when Lucy and Ray find out from Bobby he's selling Southfork, they look surprised and then there's nothing. As for Cliff, he wasn't around that much in this first season, but when he was it was sort of confusing, what was he about? Who knows. Revenge, sure, but the gambling stuff and the Frank stuff (ugh made up history, tell me again anyone writing this watched the original show), I feel they could have done a better job establishing what Cliff's background was in business and outside of wanting to get the Ewings. I'm probably forgetting some characters, but that's who come to mind for now.

As for the DVD, the special features could have been better. There was opportunity to do a real deep dive into the behind the scenes stuff, they clearly had the interview footage but they cut the special really short. The other little things (wardrobe, love oak etc.) were short and almost pointless because they were so brief. I would have liked if they'd used more footage from the 80s when talking about the time period, I guess maybe they didn't have the rights to it though. In one or a couple of the special features the word "delicious" is used twice, so I'm thinking Linda Gray latched onto a word that was thrown about on set a lot lol. As for the pilot commentary itself, it wasn't terrible, but there was misinformation from the first scene. CC seems to have forgotten (or doesn't know) that JR had a crew out doing tests on the oil under Southfork in the original show, it wasn't some big locked up secret since the days of Aaron Southworth. What really bothered me was the conversation about the big family meal scene. It was too much work to ever think about doing something like that again, never mind the original show was built on family drinks and meal scenes and was better for it, this was a new show and the family we all knew and loved is no more, sorry. Not a fan of the fact they basically said the original show wasn't shot in Dallas outside of Southfork either, like yeah sure, they did a lot of filming in California, but it wasn't completely inauthentic, just look at the locations thread on the original series board.

 

[Rove]

just rewatched season 1 and was surprised with my reaction to it.

I'm thinking of re-watching TNT Dallas myself and like you, I also might be surprised at my reaction to it this time. Though as you pointed out those little re-writing history plots could be enough to ruffle my feathers and likely result in me throwing insults at the television again...as though someone is going to listen

 

[Karin]

I haven't rewatched the whole thing since the show went off the air. But I have watched a couple of episodes that in general was better than I remembered. Maybe it's because I've warmed to some of the new characters that I originally didn't care about when I first watched the show.

 

[stevew]

I haven't rewatched the whole thing since the show went off the air. But I have watched a couple of episodes that in general was better than I remembered. Maybe it's because I've warmed to some of the new characters that I originally didn't care about when I first watched the show.

Good point.

 

[Rove]

I haven't rewatched the whole thing since the show went off the air. But I have watched a couple of episodes that in general was better than I remembered. Maybe it's because I've warmed to some of the new characters that I originally didn't care about when I first watched the show.

It explains why so many switched off. I'll argue until the cows come home fans wished to see JR, Sue Ellen, Bobby, John Ross, Christopher, Cliff and possibly catch up with Ray, Jenna, Lucas, Donna, Margaret, Lucy and potentially discover what happened to Cally, her child and James.

Sure Dallas would have moved on and the Ewing family would have made new friends or enemies but don't let those newbies hog screen time from my favourite messed up family. Maybe, just maybe we would have warmed to those other characters with time rather than leaving with the thought CC's creations were being forced down our throat.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

It explains why so many switched off. I'll argue until the cows come home fans wished to see JR, Sue Ellen, Bobby, John Ross, Christopher, Cliff and possibly catch up with Ray, Jenna, Lucas, Donna, Margaret, Lucy and potentially discover what happened to Cally, her child and James.

Sure Dallas would have moved on and the Ewing family would have made new friends or enemies but don't let those newbies hog screen time from my favourite messed up family. Maybe, just maybe we would have warmed to those other characters with time rather than leaving with the thought CC's creations were being forced down our throat.

It was so unnatural too how they started off. The Ramos family did not need to be shoehorned into the history of the Ewings like they were. They messed up from the very beginning with Elena and kept going with Drew, Carmen and the Papa Ramos/JR land thing.

They had enough original characters to pick and choose where they focused but instead of picking and choosing from them anytime they wanted to "reveal" another part of history they instead invented something else. It might be acceptable if there was no original show to cast your eyes back on, but there is and it was continuously silly and frustrating.

How did they bring Cally back who actually has a child with JR yet when it came time to reveal JR's other child besides John Ross (and James) they decided to go the new character route. Why bring Ray back without mentioning what's going on with him? Were he and Jenna still married and therefore he still Lucas' father figure? Or Margaret? Or what about Lucy?

No, we got the Ramos family, the Rylands (I can sort of accept they were there because of Ann, but having their own plot was ehh for me) and the group of randoms that came with Nicholas.

They did try sometimes to bring back older characters, but the Hunter McKay's of the world were of less interest to the original audience than someone we actually remembered and had been wondering about.

I really think "Dallas" was secondary to "the CC show", what was written was written and the Ewing stuff was added in to pad out the existing plots rather than the other way around.

 

[Rove]

They messed up from the very beginning

....and Dallas fans are not to be trifled with. Far too many of us feel an emotional attachment to characters spanning 40 years of our lives. Half the viewing audience not returning for the second weeks installment should have raised alarms bells.

 

[stevew]

....and Dallas fans are not to be trifled with. Far too many of us feel an emotional attachment to characters spanning 40 years of our lives. Half the viewing audience not returning for the second weeks installment should have raised alarms bells.

I wonder why it didn’t?

 

[Rove]

I wonder why it didn’t?

I'm baffled how paid professionals fail to understand why their creation is not warmly embraced by the general public....then continue to dish up more of the same.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

I'm baffled how paid professionals fail to understand why their creation is not warmly embraced by the general public....then continue to dish up more of the same.

If you're any kind of artist you believe in what you do. I'm sure CC believed in what she had created and believed that it was good. If you believe that what you're creating is the best you can do, what choice is there. To change it into something you don't believe in? I think the real mystery is why she was ever hired for TNT Dallas in the first place.

 

[Rove]

I'm sure CC believed in what she had created and believed that it was good.

But the quick slide in ratings should have raised the alarm bells. Show-runners/producers might like to think their offering their best but vested (or lack thereof) eyeballs don't lie. In the end CC begs for mercy (money) and promises "a Ewing will die" cliffhanger in the vain hope her creation would be spared the chop. The sports department at TNT had other ideas.