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But leaving it up in the air was more effective.
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Dallas Character Wes Parmalee story with hindsight
- Thread starter pete lashmar
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But leaving it up in the air was more effective.
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I love the season too for very different reasons but I still can't buy him being Jock. His looks etc may have changed but Jock still had a very hard gruff personality which I feel wouldn't have mellowed to that extent. He did have some angry moments but I still never saw Jock as we knew him.I absolutely adore season ten and it's my most watched season of Dallas because of the Wes Parmalee JockEwing storyline.
Don't get me wrong though, I do adore Jim Davis as Jock and it was so sad to lose him to cancer in season four.
I never thought it was an insult to Jim to bring Jock back with another actor. I thought of it as a tribute to him.
Steve Forrest had the gravitas to carry the role off, as I've said umpteen times before. Steve would've been great as Jock, such a shame it wasn't to be.
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I completely disagree.
Dallas needed a big lift in season eleven as a result of the departures of both Susan Howard and more significantly Victoria Principal.
If Steve Forrest had stayed on as Jock this would've helped compensate for the imminent departures of both Donna & Pam.
That the Producers listened to it's fans and decided to backtrack on making Wes the real Jock, they effectively shot the series in the foot whereupon it staggered about for a further four years with rather repetitive storylines before being cancelled.
What you're failing to take into account Sarah is that following the chopper crash & the months of recuperation and endless sessions of plastic surgery Jock was never going to be the same as he was before the accident. You need to understand that. His personality would've changed as a result of the trauma.
Let's not forget the chopper exploded on impact with the lake. Somehow he managed to get out & held up on the water surface by his duffel bag. He was severely burnt & injured as a result of the collision with the small plane. He was barely alive.
He also had total amnesia, he didn't even know who he was until a few years later whilst still undergoing treatment for his injuries.
Okay he wasn't played by Jim Davis as sadly we lost Jim in 1981 to cancer. Steve Forrest played the character of Wes. Whilst plastic surgery is an old soap trope for the recasting of actors it was the only believable option for Lorimar in order to get Steve Forrest on board as a Jock recast. Jock's body was never found in 1981, only his medallion.
He was a lovely actor and sadly no longer with us.
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I completely disagree.
Dallas needed a big lift in season eleven as a result of the departures of both Susan Howard and more significantly Victoria Principal.
If Steve Forrest had stayed on as Jock this would've helped compensate for the imminent departures of both Donna & Pam.
That the Producers listened to it's fans and decided to backtrack on making Wes the real Jock, they effectively shot the series in the foot whereupon it staggered about for a further four years with rather repetitive storylines before being cancelled.
I, for one, like the idea, the mystery, the possibility that he was Jock. I'm not sure I wanted it confirmed concretely.
And you can't seriously say the show's spiral over the next few years and its cancellation was because Forrest was gone. (Perhaps Paulsen being gone was the problem, as Howard Lakin was no replacement). And Parmalee wasn't written out due to fan reaction, as that hadn't even happened yet.
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Who know's how the show would've been written if Forrest had stayed as Jock. Possibly a darn sight better than what we actually got!
What I do know is that the last four years of the show were indeed repetitive.
Sue Ellen divorced JR, again! She even caught him in bed with Kimberly Cryder which was a blatant riff on Holly Harwood years earlier.
The show tried bringing in new younger cast members to keep the show going. Andrew Stevens, Kimberly Foster & Cathy Podewell immediately spring to mind.
The focus of the show was taken off the Barnes Ewing feud mostly, only re-surfacing briefly with the Tanker collision in season thirteen and Cliff finally acquiring Ewing oil in the final season. It just wasn't Dallas any more. If Jock had been around in the shape of Steve Forrest I'm willing to bet the storyline's would've been far better than what we actually got post Principal's departure.
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Funny. Ray said Jock would have up and disappeared before he tore his family apart. But Miss Ellie displayed unusual candor when she asserted that Jock would do exactly what Wes was doing: "... he would hurt those who had hurt him --- he would sell Ewing Oil!"
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I've been a Dallas fan for over 40 years - I'm not failing to take anything into account? My belief is that he was not Jock. That's my opinion.What you're failing to take into account Sarah is that following the chopper crash & the months of recuperation and endless sessions of plastic surgery Jock was never going to be the same as he was before the accident. You need to understand that. His personality would've changed as a result of the trauma.
Let's not forget the chopper exploded on impact with the lake. Somehow he managed to get out & held up on the water surface by his duffel bag. He was severely burnt & injured as a result of the collision with the small plane. He was barely alive.
He also had total amnesia, he didn't even know who he was until a few years later whilst still undergoing treatment for his injuries.
Okay he wasn't played by Jim Davis as sadly we lost Jim in 1981 to cancer. Steve Forrest played the character of Wes. Whilst plastic surgery is an old soap trope for the recasting of actors it was the only believable option for Lorimar in order to get Steve Forrest on board as a Jock recast. Jock's body was never found in 1981, only his medallion.
He was a lovely actor and sadly no longer with us.
View attachment 29346
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Only for that he, or anybody else, could not be Jock at all. The man was in his 70s and had a heart condition. How could he survive to such an accident? Had she become the "bionic man"?
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Well the glass would've blown out on the chopper.
He remembers bobbing on the water with the duffel holding him up. So it's possible the duffel floated to the surface taking Jock with it.
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This is the show where Pam supposedly survived a collision with an oil truck with the fiery explosion that followed. I'm sure what happened to Jock is a walk in the park compared to that.
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Perhaps. But in that case they should have left it with his departure instead of having Clayton angry enough to go after him and then . . . doesn't.
Funny how many people are identified only by a piece of jewelry - Fallon Carrington and Valene Ewing come to mind immediately.
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Whatever your viewpoint on whether Wes Parmalee was Jock Ewing or not I think we all can agree on one thing. This storyline had the viewers on the edge of their seats. It's possibly one of the most compelling storylines of the entire series and that's mainly down to the acting of the entire cast. Steve Forrest was an excellent choice as a recast Jock Ewing but well, we know the Producers got cold feet and didn't follow through. Still, what a great storyline. It put the character of Jock Ewing front & centre again and we appreciated not just how good Jim Davis was as Jock but how good Steve Forrest could've been if circumstances were different.
Both terrific actors, I want to pay tribute to both Jim Davis & Steve Forrest. Jim for originating the role and Steve for giving us such a great iconic storyline which definitely made the viewers sit up and which also paid tribute to the character of the Ewing patriarch.
Both terrific actors, I want to pay tribute to both Jim Davis & Steve Forrest. Jim for originating the role and Steve for giving us such a great iconic storyline which definitely made the viewers sit up and which also paid tribute to the character of the Ewing patriarch.
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But we don't know that.
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Snarky, if you know what's good for you don't come out with a statement like that unless you've got proof to back it up!
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Unless I have proof that we don't know something...?Snarky, if you know what's good for you don't come out with a statement like that unless you've got proof to back it up!
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On paper the plot sounds silly. A silliness that should have been compounded by the all too recent head transplants of Miss Ellie and the reanimation of Bobby.
Despite all that, for me, on screen it was one of the most intriguing, suspenseful and well crafted narrative arcs of the show’s entire run.
Despite all that, for me, on screen it was one of the most intriguing, suspenseful and well crafted narrative arcs of the show’s entire run.
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Agree. I was only 12 at the time and this storyline had me glued to the TV. It was a great plot but the ending came way too abruptly. It just felt very anticlimactic to me at the time.
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Lets say things went better than what we got.
Forrest should have been Jason Ewing. He brings in his kids, Jack and Jamie, slightly older in line with JR and Gary's ages. He could have romanced Miss Ellie and married her! More drama and distrust from the boys.
Forrest should have been Jason Ewing. He brings in his kids, Jack and Jamie, slightly older in line with JR and Gary's ages. He could have romanced Miss Ellie and married her! More drama and distrust from the boys.
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Maybe not married but he could have come in and shacked up a couple of times with Ms. Ellie and created some real tense scenes among everyone.
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The storyline was fantastic, but the ending was just awful.
Parmelee left and poof, everyone just forgot about the whole thing. Ellie and Clayton acted like there was no damage to their marriage, JR didn't seek revenge...
There was a LOT of lost opportunities with the character and the plot.
Parmelee left and poof, everyone just forgot about the whole thing. Ellie and Clayton acted like there was no damage to their marriage, JR didn't seek revenge...
There was a LOT of lost opportunities with the character and the plot.
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