How Would Drilling On Section 40 Have Affected Southfork?

Kenny Coyote

Telly Talk Star
Southfork was 100,000 acres. How would drilling for oil on Section 40 have affected the rest of the ranch? It's hard to imagine how drilling on one section would have ruined the whole 100,000 acres or even more than maybe 5,000 acres of it. That leaves 95,000 acres for ranching. Isn't that enough? Also that section was on the edge of the ranch because McKay bought Ray's house next to Southfork since it was adjacent to Section 40.
 

Angela Channing

Telly Talk Veteran
It wasn't a question of space for ranching but one of the environmental impact of drilling on Southfork and respecting the legacy of Daddy Southworth, who wouldn't have approved.

It's not like they didn't have enough money already and it's admirable that Ellie put principles above greed.
 

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
I'm assuming Jock dumped the Nazi treasure he and Margaret Hunter absconded with from Jacqueline Perrault and Tom Carrington into Section 40 and under the winery in Napa and that estate northwest of Denver.

We've got to keep it quiet, dammit!

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"Jock --- psssst! --- Jock.... I want one of those little trinkets you and Margaret brought back from France --- and I don't mean Ray Krebbs…!"
critique-dallas-episode-69-the-quest-2.jpg
 

stevew

Telly Talk Star
It wasn't a question of space for ranching but one of the environmental impact of drilling on Southfork and respecting the legacy of Daddy Southworth, who wouldn't have approved.

It's not like they didn't have enough money already and it's admirable that Ellie put principles above greed.

I disagree. The impact even by the 70’s would have been nile. Honoring your father’s wishes when those wishes no longer have valid reasons isn’t honorable either. We are also talking about billions in oil. If she wanted to come off as not being greedy she’d have given the mineral rights to a foundation and leased them to Ewing Oil to drill with extreme restrictions. These weren’t principals she put above greed but selfish ignorance. She sacrificed her son and what he wanted for her dead father and left the land one day to be destroyed. She could have never out right given it to Bobby without taxes forcing him to drill. The alternative thing, albeit no drama, would have been to give billions to worthwhile causes, while protecting the land and helping her son reach his dreams. Win, win, win. Opposed to win of a dead man. My opinion only.
 

stevew

Telly Talk Star
I think it was more about emotion and symbolism than practicality.

Agreed - she cared more about her dead father than her son, those desperately in need for whom the money could have helped and the nation who needed domestic oil that wasn’t in our mist inhospitable locations.

Seems to me Miss Ellie was to blame for a lot of the problems on Dallas in her attempt to be the good guy. Add to this that if she’d have been honest with digger, brutally honest, he might not have harbored such ill will for Jock.
 

stevew

Telly Talk Star
It was definitely more about symbolism; Miss Ellie was as loyal to her daddy as J.R. was to Jock.

I disagree - JR would disobeyed Jock when his wishes no longer made sense, especially for John Ross. I know TNT’s version put him at odds with John Ross and had JR work to get Chris his inheritance but the real JR would have sold his soul to Satan (literally) to benefit his son, not held back on drill which hadn’t made since since the 1940’s and the movie Giant.

I always pictured a scene where John Ross said, “You don’t get it. I’ll do anything to keep us on top. My father sold his soul to the devil for this to be mine. Don’t think I won’t do the same to keep it.”
 

stevew

Telly Talk Star
Bobby looses Southfork in court when John Ross sues for control. Reveal Miss Ellie set it up for the ranch (oil and all) to come to John Ross altogether as sole beneficiary after Bobby’s death, but because Bobby tried to sell it John Ross makes the case he’s a poor trustee (or course also reveal Miss Ellie left trusts of securities for all her grandchildren and the oil proceeds to a charitable foundation).

Bobby says in court house lobby, “You won the battle not the war.”

“No I won the war Uncle Bobby. I’m going to drain Southfork dry but I’m not selling it to Ewing Global. That belongs to you, Chis, my mother, my wife. I’m going out on my own. But don’t worry, I’ll take care of the land and benefit the entire state of Texas with the money grandma left.”

“Then I’ll drain the Barnes Wentworth assets dry to prop up Ewing Global.”

“You’d better. You and my mother have loan payments to make. But not to Carlos DelSol, to me. Carlos made the loans to the two of you with a trust fund grandpa Jock set up for me. So go ahead. Do what you’ve got to do. Just remember, my father sold his soul to the devil so that everything that belongs to me, would be mine. Don’t think I’ll let that sacrifice be in vain Uncle Bobby.”

“And Pamela?”

“Half her shares in Ewing Global are mine.”

“And your inheritance from both your grandparents. Half is her’s.”

“Not at all. Mine is protected in trust. Including what my father left me.”

“What did JR leave you, the oil? You just proved in court that’s part of my mother’s trust she left you.”

“No that’s not what I mean. A series of tasks he left to me, the conclusion of which is something he calls the red files.”

“Dear God.”
 

Kenny Coyote

Telly Talk Star
Bobby looses Southfork in court when John Ross sues for control. Reveal Miss Ellie set it up for the ranch (oil and all) to come to John Ross altogether as sole beneficiary after Bobby’s death, but because Bobby tried to sell it John Ross makes the case he’s a poor trustee (or course also reveal Miss Ellie left trusts of securities for all her grandchildren and the oil proceeds to a charitable foundation).

Bobby says in court house lobby, “You won the battle not the war.”

“No I won the war Uncle Bobby. I’m going to drain Southfork dry but I’m not selling it to Ewing Global. That belongs to you, Chis, my mother, my wife. I’m going out on my own. But don’t worry, I’ll take care of the land and benefit the entire state of Texas with the money grandma left.”

“Then I’ll drain the Barnes Wentworth assets dry to prop up Ewing Global.”

“You’d better. You and my mother have loan payments to make. But not to Carlos DelSol, to me. Carlos made the loans to the two of you with a trust fund grandpa Jock set up for me. So go ahead. Do what you’ve got to do. Just remember, my father sold his soul to the devil so that everything that belongs to me, would be mine. Don’t think I’ll let that sacrifice be in vain Uncle Bobby.”

“And Pamela?”

“Half her shares in Ewing Global are mine.”

“And your inheritance from both your grandparents. Half is her’s.”

“Not at all. Mine is protected in trust. Including what my father left me.”

“What did JR leave you, the oil? You just proved in court that’s part of my mother’s trust she left you.”

“No that’s not what I mean. A series of tasks he left to me, the conclusion of which is something he calls the red files.”

“Dear God.”

That's very good. It's much more interesting when John Ross is every bit as capable and competent as his father.
 

stevew

Telly Talk Star
That's very good. It's much more interesting when John Ross is every bit as capable and competent as his father.

I like it better and it fills in the missing pieces that explains what happened. It also wraps right bank around to early Dallas and the red files. That’s how you do a continuation. Make it fun.
 

stevew

Telly Talk Star
I like it better and it fills in the missing pieces that explains what happened. It also wraps right bank around to early Dallas and the red files. That’s how you do a continuation. Make it fun.

John Ross’s JRE Ewing Industries with Southfork’s oil soon is one of the state’s biggest players. It’s revealed that JRE owned many of the pieces of the dissembled West Star, including the name Ewing Oil and West Star’s down steam operations. John Ross helps Judith with a Senate appointment and she sells JRE control of Ryland - shipping that’s used to squeeze Ewing Global. Emma gives him Ryland’s black box to add to the red files and Ryland becomes John Ross’s hires hand. He uses the CIA contact to form a paramilitary subsidiary of JRE, Branchwater. The Ewing Family Foundation is flooded with cash from the land and oil leases. John Ross black mails the Arab Emir over his son being gay to either sign with JRE or face a revolution. JRE includes Cyberbyte. John Ross calls in his loans and takes Ewing Global. Like his father everyone has a reason to hate him.

Trying to save Ewing Global bankrupts Bobby and Sue Ellen.

John Ross owns Chris’s life work (skip the explosion nonsense).

Pamela wants a divorce only to find out she gets nothing, it’s all in trust and her shares in Ewing Global are worthless.

John Ross takes Elena’s baby in a court custody fight - she named him Andres Ramos after her brother but when she’s implicated in his murder and dealing with drug lords, John Ross gets his son and names him John Ross Ewing, IV.

Harris doesn’t like being John Ross’s leashed dog.

Anne’s furious he talked Emma into going to D.C. with her grandmother.

Just like the biggest mystery in television history - they all hate him. But he’s got to win to get there. So now, who shot John Ross is again a mystery as everyone had motive, means and opportunity. That’s how it’s done.
 
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