What could have been done instead of the "Dream Season"?

[Seaviewer]

No, I don't think we're all in agreement that the dream scenario was the only way.

Judith Krantz got it right: Following the flatlining, what would happen in ANY movie/show is that nurses and doctors would have rushed in, the family would have been escorted out, and they would have attempted to revive him. Sometimes teams work on a person for several minutes before succeeding or giving up. Even ER featured 20 minute plus resuscitation attempts.

So the episode freezed right after he flatlined... so what? If we are expected to believe Pamela dreamed every single damn thing that happened in Season 9, then why can't we accept that, after the freezeframe, the team came in and tried to revive Bobby? That's all the family would need to know. Katherine or J.R. or whomever was involved in making Bobby look dead. It's a little far-fetched, and not DALLAS' style, but so was the dream, much more so! Even if they did end with the shower cliffhanger, they could spend the first episode of Season 10 having Pam and Bobby talk about how Bobby woke up in some clinic, he was Katherine's prisoner, a few flashbacks to show his escape and reunion with Pam, voila! It still would have hurt credibility a little bit but the audience would prefer having Bobby back.

There's only a couple reasons it happened as a dream: It was the quickest, easiest (and cheapest) way out, and I strongly suspect Katzman may have wanted to say a big "f**k you" to what had transpired on the show when he was no longer in power. Plain and simple. Not only is he back now, but he will literally wipe off every single thing that happened when he was gone.

Yes. This is what I've always said. There was plenty of time between the flatline cliffhanger and the family returning home at the beginning of the nest season. It would have been easy to say that he had been revived after they had been rushed out of the room

 

[ClassyCo]

Yes. This is what I've always said. There was plenty of time between the flatline cliffhanger and the family returning home at the beginning of the nest season. It would have been easy to say that he had been revived after they had been rushed out of the room

Yes, something as easy as that could have explained that Bobby didn't actually die, and there would have been no need for the dream.

 

[JROG]

Yes. This is what I've always said. There was plenty of time between the flatline cliffhanger and the family returning home at the beginning of the nest season. It would have been easy to say that he had been revived after they had been rushed out of the room

It would have taken just a little bit of planning and imagination to make the pieces fit. I think most of the audience would have been glad to suspend the disbelief, if Bobby's exit mattered so much. But they wanted to wipe it all off and start anew, and in the process destroyed the show's credibility.

 

[Mustard]

I still don't think you are getting what I am trying to say. Just because we saw Bobby "die" does not mean he was really dead. You mentioned Gary's "death" on Knots Landing. As I recall, he was actually given a funeral. I cannot remember if we actually saw Gary "die" on camera, but I do fondly remember the showing of his funeral.

We didn't see it, and it was noticeable that none of Gary's Texas relatives were there at that funeral. And the whole thing lasted 1 episode. That's easy to explain as being Mack's faking of Gary's death, with Gary's consent.

Bobby's death could have been as easily faked as Gary's had been, and in saying that, I don't think Knots Landing would have drifted away from the Dallas world. The Knots could have simply addressed that Bobby faked his death, and the revelation of that could have the necessary affects on Gary, Valene, Betsy and Bobby et cetera

Bobby was dead, which we not only saw on screen, but he was dead for 31 episodes afterwards. Very different. I think Knots Landing were correct to not address Bobby Ewing again and cut off any more storyline links with Dallas.

In the simplest terms: I think the writing off of Season 9 as a dream was lazy on the writers' part, and I do believe it undermined the audiences' involvement with the characters. You said that the audience also mourned Bobby's death with the other characters throughout Season 9. I'm sure they did, and I'm sure that's why they must have been ticked when Season 10 told that that it was all a dream, thus making the emotions they had felt false and unnecessary.

Exactly.

The thing I cannot seem to get over is the fact that a entire season of acting, writing, and of watching is just pointless to the entire show. I started watching the first three or four episodes of Season 9 just to see how different the show was, and, of course, it was. I was going to watch it to see if I would have preferred Bobby stayed dead or the fact he was brought back alive. Well, I'm not going to do that now. I see little point in spending my time watching 31 episodes that will have absolutely no ties to what comes after it. I will pick up where I left off with Season 8 at the start of Season 10. I my mind, I guess I'm not going to acknowledge that Season 9 even exists.

I'm different. I go through Seasons 9 and 10, and stop with Pam going into the oil tanker. Bobby's death and return from the dead are a big part of the Dallas legend now, and Season 10 does have some good storylines, and it's the last time with Hagman, Duffy, Principal, Bel Geddes and Gray all together. I've only watched Dallas all the way through 14 seasons and the J.R. Returns and War of the Ewings specials just the once. It was a bit like torture watching those late seasons all the way through.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

I think if they were going to go with the dream thing, they should have had it be Bobby's dream. Skip back to the night before he "died", he and Pam had just reunited, they went to bed, he dreamt the whole thing, he wakes up 31 episodes later. Same kind of thing, but for whatever reason, I think it would have worked better that way.

 

[Presea]

I think if they were going to go with the dream thing, they should have had it be Bobby's dream. Skip back to the night before he "died", he and Pam had just reunited, they went to bed, he dreamt the whole thing, he wakes up 31 episodes later. Same kind of thing, but for whatever reason, I think it would have worked better that way.

Of course, then it would be Bobby's nightmare! Seeing Pam spending all of that time with Mark and marrying him!

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

Of course, then it would be Bobby's nightmare! Seeing Pam spending all of that time with Mark and marrying him!

Creepy too with the JR and Mandy and then JR and Sue Ellen scenes.
Actually, no matter who was dreaming, some scenes come across as creepy when you think about it.
Why would Pam want to think about JR and Mandy in the bathtub?

 

[Presea]

Creepy too with the JR and Mandy and then JR and Sue Ellen scenes.
Actually, no matter who was dreaming, some scenes come across as creepy when you think about it.
Why would Pam want to think about JR and Mandy in the bathtub?

She was also dreaming about Jack in his underwear! And I'm guessing that her imagination created Angelica Nero based on the things that Katherine did! I'm surprised that she didn't immediately make sure that Marinos shipping did not exist as soon as she woke up!

 

[Karin Schill]

I think if they were going to go with the dream thing, they should have had it be Bobby's dream. Skip back to the night before he "died", he and Pam had just reunited, they went to bed, he dreamt the whole thing, he wakes up 31 episodes later. Same kind of thing, but for whatever reason, I think it would have worked better that way.

Interesting idea but what's off with it is that usually if you dream that you are dying you tend to wake up.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

Interesting idea but what's off with it is that usually if you dream that you are dying you tend to wake up.

Darn

 

[James from London]

An entire season of plot development just casually tossed out the window...

I just love the audacity of it. The episode where you find out it was all a dream remains one of my most exciting TV experiences ever.

I strongly suspect Katzman may have wanted to say a big "f**k you" to what had transpired on the show when he was no longer in power. Plain and simple. Not only is he back now, but he will literally wipe off every single thing that happened when he was gone.

Ever since I've been on the internet I've noticed a tendency for fans to paint show runners who have displeased them as megalomaniacal soap opera baddies. I'm not convinced. I suspect that, like the rest of us, they're both more complicated and more mundane than that.

The public was already miffed that Bobby was dead, right?

That's not how I remember it. I think people were not so much miffed that Bobby was dead, but at how the show turned out after he was dead. Certainly, that was my feeling.

The thing I cannot seem to get over is the fact that a entire season of acting, writing, and of watching is just pointless to the entire show.

Pointless on one level, but on another, it's an essential part of the DALLAS experience.

 

[Maryann]

I did not mind so much that it turned up as a dream because to me after the first six episodes everything sucked and Dallas just like the TNT Dallas didn't seem like the original anymore and also the ratings went downhill that is why the writers and producers had to come up with a way to change things around for the next season.
Yes the dream made the show lose credibility but the following Season was better and Dallas seem like Dallas again.

 

[JROG]

Ever since I've been on the internet I've noticed a tendency for fans to paint show runners who have displeased them as megalomaniacal soap opera baddies. I'm not convinced. I suspect that, like the rest of us, they're both more complicated and more mundane than that.

All that may be true, but it still doesn't change what I said. Katzman isn't a megalomaniacal soap opera baddie if he wanted to do what I mentioned, at least not to me, if that was your assumption. In fact, it proves just how complicated and, indeed, human he is.

We are talking about a Hollywood producer who was in control of one of the hugest shows that ever existed for a long time, before the show was given to someone else. On top of that, the show certainly took a very different direction post-Bobby than it would have if Katzman was still around.

Is it really that big of a stretch for him to come back and think, if this was a dream, we get Bobby back and can pick up where we left off and do things our way? Especially after you've already said people weren't happy with how the show turned out after Bobby's death? No. Not at all.

Or maybe it didn't occur to him that the non-Katzman material would be effectively wiped off!

 

[James from London]

it shattered Dallas' credibility in the eyes of the public, going from being seen as a serious drama to being the butt of jokes.

As I remember it, DALLAS was never regarded as a serious drama and was almost always spoken of as a joke -- albeit an incredibly popular joke. That might have just been a UK thing, but even when the actors themselves appeared on chat shows over here, they'd mock the show along with the presenters. It was only when I came on the internet that I realised other countries had a much more serious perception of the show.

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Who else has come back from the dead after being seen to die on screen? The on screen bit is what is vital with Bobby's death. There's been many characters who have died off screen and been brought back, as that can be explained away as a mistaken news report or a faked death. It happened with Dusty on Dallas. It also happened with Gary on Knots Landing when Mack was trying to nail the Wolfbridge group.

Even when multiple murderer (at least 4, including murdering his pregnant fiancee on their wedding day at Christmas) and occasional arsonist Warren Fox (Jamie Lomas) got trapped in a fire, broke his ankle, had a mirror fall on him and leave a bit of mirror in him, his body was positively identified by people who knew him and he had a funeral, the saving grace was that you didn't actually see his face when he was dead. So when it was proposed offering Jamie Lomas a storyline to bring him back to Hollyoaks, they did a flashback story to show you how Warren befriended a suicidal man (Dale Greer) who later rescued Warren out of the fire and decided that he instead wanted to live. At which point Warren stabbed him, swapped clothing and dumped Dale's body in the fire, the mirror falling on Dale and the fire burning Dale's body. It also helped that the characters who had seen Warren's dead body were no longer on the show, one having been mysteriously murdered in a flashforward episode six months before he actually died and the killer was revealed. So after nearly a year-and-a-half of being dead, Warren was alive and well! Until after another murder he got sent to prison in December 2011 on a murder charge. He recently returned in the shower (turning round at the end of the episode and saying "Did you miss me?) as a full-time regular as the differently-named fiance of the sister of the ex-girlfriend that he was trying to murder when he was caught in 2011. Now he is possibly the father of his ex-fiancee's unborn baby, although he is now in a relationship with her step-daughter (who is also her own child's aunt) and living with her multiple murderer daughter. Although Hollyoaks is nothing like Dallas and it has done some little dream sequences.

Recent Hollyoaks cast pic released yesterday:

 

[Seaviewer]

I just love the audacity of it. The episode where you find out it was all a dream remains one of my most exciting TV experiences ever.

I agree ... for that moment ... but it's not long before the ramifications begin sinking in and you get over it.

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Judith Krantz got it right: Following the flatlining, what would happen in ANY movie/show is that nurses and doctors would have rushed in, the family would have been escorted out, and they would have attempted to revive him. Sometimes teams work on a person for several minutes before succeeding or giving up. Even ER featured 20 minute plus resuscitation attempts.

The Bionic Woman (I met Lindsay Wagner in March) did that in The Six Million Dollar Man (I met Lee Majors in November), and she was brought back to life to star in her own series. The Six Million Dollar Man didn't find out for quite some that she was alive and he was there when she "died".

 

[Rove]

In my Dallas Universe Bobby would have remained dead. The scene was set for the following explosive seasons. J.R., is pent up with exacting revenge on the Barnes family for causing the death of his brother. The reading of Bobby's Will which leaves Pamela controlling Christopher's share in Ewing Oil - it's J.R.'s worst nightmare. Both Pamela and Jenna discover their pregnant with Bobby's child. We could have had scenes of Shakespearean proportions between J.R., and Pamela at Ewing Oil. Instead we're witness to Angelica Nero (her over-the-top wardrobe) and her cronies.
The producers panicked and desperately sought out Patrick to return. From the moment Bobby spun in the shower all was lost. They treated the fans with contempt and thus our love affair with Dallas began to wane.

 

[JROG]

How wonderful: Barbara Curran's DALLAS book provides the answer on why the dream season explanation:

For Katzman, however, pulling off Duffy's return was only the tip of the ice-berg. Katzman thought that, Duffy's absence aside, DALLAS suffered during Season 8 because of three main problems: too much international intrigue, weakened male characters, and a wimpy J.R. [...]
Writer Howard Lakin recalled that Katzman "couldn't deal with what they had done [in Season 8]. He didn't understand it. He just didn't get a grip on it. And that upset him because he was a very controlling kind of man. So, faced with this, he decided to make the year disappear."

 

[Kenny Coyote]

We'd already been through all that with J.R. and Bobby though, with the first 8 seasons (DVD). As brilliant as it was, that was the past.

That's right. The solution to avoiding the dream season is simple. Don't bring Patrick Duffy back. He made his choice to leave and he was adamant that he would not come back. That's why he demanded to "die on screen." So as a man, he should have kept to his word. It was a big ensemble and they could have utilized some characters more prominently than in the past to fill the void. The integrity of the show was more important than bringing Bobby back and the ratings proved it! They never made it back to #1 or even the top 5 again. In fact the season they brought Bobby back ended up at #11 in the ratings, as compared to the previous season without Bobby which did a much more respectable #6 in the ratings.

In my Dallas Universe Bobby would have remained dead. The scene was set for the following explosive seasons. J.R., is pent up with exacting revenge on the Barnes family for causing the death of his brother. The reading of Bobby's Will which leaves Pamela controlling Christopher's share in Ewing Oil - it's J.R.'s worst nightmare. Both Pamela and Jenna discover their pregnant with Bobby's child. We could have had scenes of Shakespearean proportions between J.R., and Pamela at Ewing Oil. Instead we're witness to Angelica Nero (her over-the-top wardrobe) and her cronies.
The producers panicked and desperately sought out Patrick to return. From the moment Bobby spun in the shower all was lost. They treated the fans with contempt and thus our love affair with Dallas began to wane.

I like a lot of the points you made such as nt bringing Bobby back and having JR seeking revenge on the Brnes family for the death of his brother. This could have brought the Barnes Ewing feud to never before seen proportions.

The only thing I disagree with is "scenes of Shakespearean proportions between JR and Pam at Ewing Oil." Pam was absolutely no match for JR. She didn't have the background, the experience, or the love of the business which drove JR to be so damn good at it and are the elements necessary to be great at the oil business. He would have made mincemeat out of Pam.