Dallas Character Lucy Ewing

[stevew]

I was asked recently if I’d ever heard the plot that JR raped Val and Lucy was his. It seems to me I’d heard that here somewhere but that they didn’t go with it. Can any one confirm this?

So that lead to a discussion of Lucy and I says after Jock died I would have ratcheted up Lucy’s character to take on JR’s role and JR to fill in for Jock, obviously not exactly. I said for me Jock’s will would have left Evetything but Ewing Oil to Miss Ellie - she would have probably given Gary money. And maybe some money to Ray, or land of his own. And split Ewing Oil between JR, Bobby and Lucy (instead of Gary). Instead of the 2 boys fighting it would have been teaching Lucy the business torn between her two uncles. Anyway, it was an idea. Wondering what people think, sort of a Barbara Hutton meets Katherine Graham.

 

[Clubsoda]

That would've been a real plot twist and soooo interesting however I'm glad they didn't make JR a rapist on top of everything else. He needed some likability.

 

[James from London]

In the great Dallas prequel novel by Lee Raintree, JR is Lucy's daddy, but it wasn't rape.

I'm glad they didn't make JR a rapist

Well, he did rape Holly Harwood and Laurel Ellis.

 

[Karin]

I never liked the Lee Raintree novel. I much prefer the Soap & Serials books.

Yeah sadly JR did rape those women.

Then as for Lucy I don't think she needed to be JR's daughter to play a bigger part on the show. I do think more could have been done with the character and you have some real interesting ideas for her @stevew

 

[Clubsoda]

In the great Dallas prequel novel by Lee Raintree, JR is Lucy's daddy, but it wasn't rape.

Well, he did rape Holly Harwood and Laurel Ellis.

I don't remember anything about the awful Laurel.

Holly was very sly and used sex to her advantage.

 

[James from London]

I don't remember anything about the awful Laurel.

JR coerced her into having sex with him against her will.

Holly was very sly and used sex to her advantage so I'd hardly call her a proper rape victim.

JR trapped her in a locked room and coerced her into having sex with him.

 

[Clubsoda]

JR coerced her into having sex with him against her will.



JR trapped her in a locked room and coerced her into having sex with him.

Not watched that ep in a while was that the time she tricked Sue Ellen into seeing them together?

 

[James from London]

was that the time she tricked Sue Ellen into seeing them together?

No, it was a while before that.

 

[Clubsoda]

No, it was a while before that.

Just remember the scene I mentioned and that scene cemented my dislike for Holly for hurting Sue Ellen.

I dont recall the rape scene or maybe I mistook it for rough sex? Must rewatch.

 

[James from London]

 

[Clubsoda]

Interesting those scenes totally flew out of my mind.

I guess I found Holly so unlikable in general (what she did to Sue Ellen later and actively pursuing a married Bobby) that I found it hard to sympathize with her for anything she was so ruthless and conniving.

 

[James from London]

Well, I suppose unlikable people can be raped too.

 

[Chris2]

You couldn’t do too much with Lucy because the actress was so limited. Can you imagine Charlene Tilton trying to pull off a story where she is more J.R.-like? Her acting was bad enough during the miniseries, when Lucy was more of a bad girl.

 

[Rove]

Over the years I've convinced myself there was a story to be told between JR and Valene. She was terrified of him. I have this image of a youthful JR being a little uncomfortable around women. It's not until we're introduced to him in 1978 we discover the lothario. Perhaps JR had a secret crush on Valene while she was seeing Garry and in one turbulent drunken night JR had his wicked way with her. Valene discovers she is pregnant and bolts Dallas and Texas without Garry or JR knowing the truth. Somehow JR and his men catch up with her and discover Valene with a baby.

Whether Lucy was the daughter of Garry or JR I think a great story could have evolved around the four of them. Missed opportunity.

 

[stevew]

That would've been a real plot twist and soooo interesting however I'm glad they didn't make JR a rapist on top of everything else. He needed some likability.

Agreed. I had heard that but wasn’t sure it was true. Could have done it with Val being seduced by him. That could have been interesting.

 

[Willie Oleson]

What was the logic behind taking the baby from Valene? JR wanted her and Gary out of town and yet he takes the person that bonds these people to Southfork.
If there was ever a reason to go back to Southfork - which happened, eventually.
Why would JR want to keep something that reminded them (especially his parents) of his brother? Or did he anticipate that Gary's child would be a good (and safe) substitute for Gary himself? Sort of a consolation prize?

 

[stevew]

You couldn’t do too much with Lucy because the actress was so limited. Can you imagine Charlene Tilton trying to pull off a story where she is more J.R.-like? Her acting was bad enough during the miniseries, when Lucy was more of a bad girl.

I don’t know if I’d agree with that. If they (including Larry Hagman) worked with her, they’d have got there. On the heals of Alexis Carrington as a powerful woman, Lucy Ewing could have been twice as bad ass.

Lucy hires a Mossad agent as her go to man (totally in love with her, but never acceptable to his Jewish parents), a young computer programing nerd (too scared to say he’s in love with her), and a gorgeous but very poor Yale legal summa cum laude (for whom Lucy is the one girl the otherwise gay man would have fallen for) - all of whom she meets in NYC during the time she spent there while her uncle’s fought to control Ewing Oil.

The boys agree to split control of Ewing Oil but Lucy says it’s a moot point because as of her next birthday the trust is dissolved, to be split among the three of them and she throughly plans a role within the company. Bobby then plays the good guy and cozies up to Lucy. Behind Bobby’s back Lucy goes to JR and says she’ll make a deal to back his gas station play, if he’ll back her shady play for a petrochemical company, a deal her 3 advisors put together. With JR’s surprised, she says life taughter her a very valuable lesson she should have learned long ago if she had only listened to her Grandfather - be a user or get used.

The finally ends as Lucy sets up a scam to cheat Bobby out of his 1/3 of Ewing Oil and telling JR as she owns 2/3’s she’s taking control. Along with a mortgage on Southfork giving her the ranch, she kicks him out of her house and her company, the master having surpassed the teacher.

Only to find in the season opener JR paid off the Southfork mortgage and is so proud of her she can stay in his house. JR also reveals Ewing Industries with various oil related investments, including a controlling share of West Star, and is happy to watch what Lucy does to his company, Ewing Oil. She goes after the Wentworth money and Cliff Barnes.

 

[Willie Oleson]

On the heals of Alexis Carrington as a powerful woman, Lucy Ewing could have been twice as bad ass.

Ha-ha.
Even Emma Channing was more convincing as a company girl.

I think Lucy was very good at annoying Sue Ellen, maybe she should have brought a bad ass guy to Southfork e.g. a famous singer with a career on decline.
"I asked grandpa to build a studio, maybe next to yours and JR's suite. How about that, huh?"

 

[stevew]

Ha-ha.
Even Emma Channing was more convincing as a company girl.

I think Lucy was very good at annoying Sue Ellen, maybe she should have brought a bad ass guy to Southfork e.g. a famous singer with a career on decline.
"I asked grandpa to build a studio, maybe next to yours and JR's suite. How about that, huh?"

I still think if they’d have worked with her it could have worked.

 

[stevew]

Ha-ha.
Even Emma Channing was more convincing as a company girl.

I think Lucy was very good at annoying Sue Ellen, maybe she should have brought a bad ass guy to Southfork e.g. a famous singer with a career on decline.
"I asked grandpa to build a studio, maybe next to yours and JR's suite. How about that, huh?"

I don’t mean she’d be a company girl at all. Unlike JR and Bobby with desks in an office, she’d be more like Jock, meeting with people outside an office, people running the company for her, able to arrange deals through networks. Maybe instead of a rancher she takes up painting in a studio at Southfork and people visit her at her there.

I could see her bringing men JR and Bobby approve of and those they doesn’t, a series of marriages and of using men to he own end. A girl who becomes a woman every bit as ruthless and self centered as JR, a character who develops, instead of stays still, who, tired of being hurt, becomes a person to strike first. Come to think of it, a young, driven Angela Channing.

It should also find JR mellowing into Jock’s role as head of the family.