Create Your Own Characters

[Ray_Krebbs]

If you had the opportunity to add your own characters, who would you have added? My idea is: A young woman (played by Laura Wright) appears at the Krebbs Ranch while Donna is out of town. She tells Ray she is Donna's younger cousin Emily McCullum and that her father passed. She came to find out if Donna had any vital records of him. When Donna learns of her appearance, she is mortified. At the end of her college career, Donna and Bobby had a brief fling that resulted in her getting pregnant. She felt a child would complicate her career goals, so she gave newborn Emily to her aunt and uncle to raise. She thought that part of her life was behind her, but the past was back to nip her in the butt. Emily's existence affects a lot of people and couplings.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

Gabrielle Southworth, a distant cousin of Miss Ellie, she would be the second cousin to the Ewing brothers, she arrives from Europe after the last of her immediate family dies, she's been surrounded by
Anglo-European aristocracy, so she has a culture shock when she meets her All American, All Texan oil rich family, she sort of looks down on the Ewings even though she herself is penniless, she just gets by on being a European heiress, and earns her living as a high class call girl whose regular client is Cliff Barnes, she would show up regularly from 1981 to 1984 then return for a lengthy run in the 1986-1987 season, setting her sights Jack Ewing, her cousin thru marriage, she would then recur for the remainder of the series run causing trouble with her Ewing relations.

 

[Angela Channing]

Two things I would have liked to have seen more in Dallas was more of the Barnes family and more black characters. I would have had Cousin Jimmy marry a strong powerful black woman who would be a Lady MacBeth type character who would push Jimmy into going to Dallas to take on Cliff and JR. She would always be manipulating people to do things to enable her and Jimmy to come out on top. It would have created a new dynamic for the Barnes family other than their feud with the Ewings.

 

[JRandSueEllenForever]

If you had the opportunity to add your own characters, who would you have added? My idea is: A young woman (played by Laura Wright) appears at the Krebbs Ranch while Donna is out of town. She tells Ray she is Donna's younger cousin Emily McCullum and that her father passed. She came to find out if Donna had any vital records of him. When Donna learns of her appearance, she is mortified. At the end of her college career, Donna and Bobby had a brief fling that resulted in her getting pregnant. She felt a child would complicate her career goals, so she gave newborn Emily to her aunt and uncle to raise. She thought that part of her life was behind her, but the past was back to nip her in the butt. Emily's existence affects a lot of people and couplings.

Would have been easy for them to do too because I always thought there was a little something between Donna and Bobby. There was an affection there. They were old college friends who adored each other. It is believable that they could’ve had a past fling.

 

[Justine]

more black characters.

I second this one. I seem to remember someone post on the OG SoapChat board that Sue Ellen should have had a black love interest in the oil business - and, as much as I like Don, I think the late 80's would have been the perfect time.

 

[southfork88]

@Snarky's Ghost in recent years has created hundreds of very interesting new characters for Dynasty, all with a remarkable background.

I hope he does the same for Dallas

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

@Snarky's Ghost in recent years has created hundreds of very interesting new characters for Dynasty, all with a remarkable background.

I hope he does the same for Dallas

Thank you -- maybe not hundreds, but a few.

But the DYNASTY characters I've created were either facetious (a la Dynastier or DyNotSee) or, if "real," were based on celebrity/superstar casting examples I'd wished they'd done. But DALLAS had a stronger narrative -- at least until its closing seasons, and therefore didn't really need such stunt casting (in fact, I think later-DALLAS could have used fewer characters than they had).

 

[B.J. Ewing]

Definitely some Southworths, children of Garrison and Cherie. We all know that Miss Ellie inherited Southfork because her Daddy thought her brother Garrison had died. I think Donna Reed would have been a great Cherie, who - in Miss Ellie's absence in 1985 - returned with her children Adam and Gaby to claim the ranch. Why she needed to have Miss Ellie out of the way would be a mystery at first, but later we would find out that Miss Ellie had something on her.

 

[B.J. Ewing]

Lucy Ewing-Cooper would have become a bitter woman, fighting constantly with her daughter Cody, with whom - unfortunately - she would have created a Hotter-than-my-daughter kind of relationship. Lucy had been the centre of attention for many years, but it seems that those days are over. She has problems with getting older and hates herself for being jealous at Cody, but she doesn't seem to be able to handle her feelings and be a good mother to her. Ex-husband Mitch is furious about her behaviour, because he sees how much Cody is hurting, but Lucy can't control herself and goes to places her daughter visits with friends, dressing too young for her age and flirting with some of Cody's male friends (maybe her boyfriend even?). It is her good friend (and uncle) Ray Krebbs who eventually talks some sense in to her. But can the relationship between Lucy, Mitch and Cody be saved?

 

[Jabari Lamar]

Two things I would have liked to have seen more in Dallas was more of the Barnes family and more black characters.

Agreed on both counts. For a show obstensibly built on a fueding families, the Barnes weren't really much of a "family", just initially Digger, Cliff, and Pam, as compared to the Ewings. So it always felt rather lopsided in favor of the Ewings. There should have been a few more Barnes', to give them more of a presence on Dallas.

And as a Black man who grew up watching Dallas, I definitely would have loved some recurring Black characters on the show (other than Dora Mae). After seeing Dallas: The Early Years, I thought they should have brought in the Foster family to the main show. They were the poor Black sharecroppers (with the father played by the wonderful Bill Duke) who worked the land that Jock, Jason, and Cliff first struck oil on back in the 30's. When the miniseries jumped forward to the 1950's and showed the Southfork BBQ where Digger tried to kill Jock, the Foster's young son Benjamin was there, and he was now well-dressed and they said he was in law school, thanks to the wealth his father made with Jock. I think they should have introduced that character on to the main series, now as an older man, he should have been in the Harv Smithfield role, now acting as the Ewing's main counsel for their business deals and any other legal problems. He could head of his own successful family-owned law firm, with his adult son and daughter (who grew up alongside J.R. and Bobby in the same elite schools) also working as attorneys.

So you'd have this wealthy Black family of lawyers (they view "the law" as a family profession the same way the Ewings view being in the oil business) who are loyal allies to the Ewings, since they trace the beginning of their fortunes back to Jock. From there there are many ways you work them into stories interacting with the Ewings.

 

[Jabari Lamar]

I second this one. I seem to remember someone post on the OG SoapChat board that Sue Ellen should have had a black love interest in the oil business - and, as much as I like Don, I think the late 80's would have been the perfect time.

I remember hearing that, but I honestly can't really see it. Thinking of them realistically, I don't imagine any of the main White characters would have gotten involved with a Black person back then. They were still products of their times, and while they would not have been out-right "racist" in terms of using racial slurs and burning crosses, I think when it came to things like interracial marriage that might be a little too far. I definitely can't see Sue Ellen doing that.

Now, by the time of the TNT revival, things may have changed. I recall David Jacobs saying that if he'd been in charge of the show he probably would have had Bobby be married to a Black woman who was from the East Coast, instead of another White woman from Texas like Ann. I think that could have been interesting.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

I wouldn't want any other characters in it because I liked Dallas the way it was. Adding more new characters would take away from the TV time they were able to give the actors I already liked.

I would have changed the actor who played James Beaumont though. A far more capable actor, Paul Johansson, should have played James so people would have been able to take him seriously and believe he could be JR's son. With Johansson they would have had an actor who would have been able to play a young man who wanted to follow in JR's footsteps and to whom JR would have taught the business. It would have been much more interesting seeing JR teach the business to a son who would have appreciated the opportunity and would have been capable and ambitious enough to have learned it extremely well instead of having the kid run away and become a motorcycle mechanic, like they did.

By the time TNT Dallas would come along, that son would have been very interesting to watch compete with John Ross as the successor to Ewing Oil, which I would never have had JR and Bobby lose, so they could have passed it on to their sons. That James I've described, played by Paul Johnasson, would have had the acting ability and physical presence onscreen to have been very believable as serious competition for John Ross or Christopher. Of course to allow time to show the competition between them and have had the onscreen time that James would have deserved, they would have had no time for the Ramos family storyline. I don't see any downside to that trade-off.

 

[Sarah]

I second this one. I seem to remember someone post on the OG SoapChat board that Sue Ellen should have had a black love interest in the oil business - and, as much as I like Don, I think the late 80's would have been the perfect time.

Yes that would have been me. It was published in the paper in the late 80's but never happened. JR was allegedly going to catch them in bed together.

And apparently her and Angelica were to have a lesbian love affair in the bath of all places.

As for my own character, that would be James' real father cos it sure as hell wasn't JR in my eyes.

 

[Willie Oleson]

My character would be Falconcristina De La Côte-Ouest. She's very, very beautiful and she's going to marry JR and sleep with Bobby too.

 

[Laurie Marr]

Jim Beam (Alan’s brother) is out for revenge and drowns JR in a whisky distillery vat after clubbing him over the head with a piece of Bobby and Anne’s love tree. How’s that for a bourbon and branch!

This bombshell unleashes a new plot trend that’s driven entirely by lame punning. That’s why in season 11 Lucy discovers her father is Jordan Lee after his death and inherits his fortune. She then uses the cash to launch a very successful denim line: Lucy Lee Coopers.

 

[stevew]

Venessa Beaumont - Diahann Carroll was available from Dynasty being over at that time. And I would not have had her the love of JR’s life but JR as the love of her life. The daughter and sole heir of Henry Rosemont (yes I’d have tied her to Falcon Crest too, always wanted to see the two shows in the same universe), billionaire Oklahoma oil man and shadow government figure. She was schooled in Switzerland and is very worldly and elegant. She appears in Dallas the recent widowed of NYC finance billionaire and congressman Richard Beaumont. A sort of scorned Alexis character who’s very good at business, overseeing a conglomerate of investments.

Jillian Beaumont - Halle Berry before she appears on Knots Landing. She turns out to be JR’s daughter and goes looking for her father. A Bobby like character (start of Dallas) who at first is a jet setter who would never do an honest days work (trust funds from her grandfather and father). But instead of completing with John Ross supports him. She despises Bobby and when Bobby says she’ll end up just like her father, tearing the family apart, she tells him there’s one big difference. “John Ross and I have each other’s backs.” She sleeps around like JR, using and controlling men like her daddy did with women. JR wants her to marry Punk and Mavis’s son and she’s more than agreeable. McKay is no competition for her, and neither would be a returning Jeremy Wendell or an often used Cliff Barnes. She will make sure her brother inherits Southfork and Ewing Oil, and strip the Barnes-Wentworths of everything - turning the family in-fighting on its head.

Austin Danridge - Austin Peck, Jillian’s on again, off again love interest and father of her hidden son, Henry Rosemont Ewing. Thus JR is a grandfather and transitions from the JR role to the Jock role.

 

[stevew]

With Abbey leaving Knots Landing and Richard Channing finishing up on Falcon Crest, I’d team the two up. Richard’s Channing Enterprises buys 45% of CalCo Oil. Abbey acquires 5%. Why? CalCo has managed to secure several difficult oil rights, including that of Lotus Point. But they start with leases in West Texas where they find their partners are Vanessa Beaumont (25%) and Carter McKay (25%). Richard knows Venessa from her father. Also competing for this giant discovery are the Ewing Brothers and the Cartel with Barnes and Lee.

Oh and turns out Abbey and Maggie Channing are cousins and I would have left Ricard single at the end of Falcon Crest and secure Abbey a pardon from a well connected friend.

Let’s see, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest and a Dynasty star all showing up in Dallas - would have shaken things up a bit just as they needed shaking up.

 

[stevew]

I know this one is for Dallas TNT but fits this thread:

Eleanor Barbara “Ellie” Ewing, played by Rose Byrne, raised by Rebecca Shepard, Sue Ellen’s cousin, Kristen’s supposedly miscarried daughter, raised as JR in secret - hence Christopher and John Ross’s sister together.

I’d expect a really strong woman. A woman who doesn’t need money, she’s got her own. A woman who’s friends and suitors would make you beg to be killed if you touched a hair on her head. A woman use to the finer things, jet setting and would never “work” a day in her life. A woman who says jump and you’d better say how high and get it right. A woman who isn’t controlled by anger or jealousy, but the sheer joy of watching you squirm. A woman who is fiercely loyal to her family - her brothers.

Bobby says to her “you’re just like your father.”

She replies, “No, actually I’m not,” staring him down.

Her uncle gives his shitty, superior grim and says, “And how are you different?”

“My brothers stand with me.” A satisfied smile crosses her face with John Ross on one side and Christopher on the other. Both boys looking at Bobby. Bobby knowing, right or wrong the three will stick together and there’s no way to make them fight. “If Grandpa had tried to make us fight for Ewing Oil we’d have laughed at him and shared it. If my brothers wanted to sleep with every woman in Texas, I’d line them up for STD testing. If Grandma left me Southfork and my brothers wanted the oil, they could have; I’d burn it to the ground if it made them smile. Get the difference, Uncle Bobby?”