Ending the series there would have left us with all kind of emotions. Some may have felt sympathy for JR., maybe justification for all the dirty schemes and heartbreak he wrecked on others.
Interesting you brought that up, Rove.
This happened in real life here in Texas. A few years ago, there were many comparisons between J.R. Ewing and the real life Ken Lay of Enron.
**Grabs markers and white board**
Ken Lay became head of Enron, a big oil company in Texas.
(Note here already-- Enron, Ewing. Even the names are halfway similar)
Enron becomes huge, wanting to use their oil profits to move into even bigger and better things.
Enron buys properties in Las Vegas, secretly buying up fiber optic lines in back room, secret deals, hoping to purchase enough lines to own the entire internet.
Y
es, you read that correctly. They wanted to own the entire internet. This is real life we are talking about and they almost did it. J.R. would have been proud.
Now we start to see "The fall of the house of Enron". All of these deals look great on paper, but the company is losing billions.
Ken Lay, in the image of J.R Ewing, makes all kinds of shady deals RIGHT UNDER THE NOSES OF THE REGULATORS who don't catch on. Here's an example: Ewing Oil, (Sorry, I mean Enron) buys an oil well for 5 million dollars. That well is expected to produce 30 million dollars of oil in the next ten years. So they claim the $ 30 million in future oil THAT DAY. They spend $ 5 million but show a profit of $25 million. Then they hand that $25 million dollars to themselves as bonuses, even though the well hasn't pumped a single drop of oil yet.
The government and auditors finally catch on to the magnificant bastard. The 20,000 Ewing (I mean Enron) employees try to sell their stock in the company, as that is their retirement.
Ken Lay, in a very J.R-like fashion, locks the employees out of being able to sell their Enron stock while it still has value.
He then sells his own stock for $ 300,000,000. Yes, you read that correctly. Three hundred million dollars. To one man. In one day.
The entire empire then collapses, and the employees are left bankrupt.
The United States Government goes after Ken Lay, trying to put him in prison for his fraud and get the $ 300,000,000 back and give it to the bankrupt employees.
Just before the trial, Ken Lay dies of a heart attack, and the whole thing just fizzles out, much like the show DALLAS.
And as ROVE stated above, some people start to feel sorry for Ken Lay, just as some felt sorry for J.R. in Conundrum. Ken's lawyers explain that since his wealth is tied up in selling his Enron stock, if the government takes that back then Ken's estate is worthless.
But here is where it gets interesting:
From beyond the grave, Ken Lay is able to manipulate the $ 300,000,000 (much like Jock is able, from beyond the grave, to set up the competition for Ewing Oil between J.R. and Bobby). Ken's lawyer goes to court and lays out his plan. "Since Ken is dead now anyway, let's just vacate his prison sentence and declare him not guilty. "
The courts go along with this! And that means the $ 300,000,000 is off limits to the government and to the Enron employees who are now bankrupt. The Magnificant Bastard himself is the only other one who could have pulled that off.
Now, here is where it gets really crazy. And remember that this really happend in real life:
There is a theory floating around that Ken Lay faked his own death so that his lawyer could go to court and end the entire trial. And now Pam (I mean Ken Lay) is alive and well and spending his time in vacation spots around the world.
Living here in the middle of all of it, we had a lot of fun comparing Enron to Ewing oil. It was almost as big of a deal around here as the "Who Shot J.R." events.