Kenny Coyote
Telly Talk Star
The dream season and the following season were when I think Dallas started becoming predictable more often than before. Swan Song even has some of it such as the Ray and Donna situation.
In Swan Song Ray and Donna go to Southfork after the celebration party for the Ewings winning in court, retaining Ewing Oil after proving Cliff and Jamie's claim to it was invalid, and proving Jock did not steal Ewing Oil from Digger or Jason.
Ray is very happy because he helped Bobby and JR prove Jock was not a thief. Ray helped, they won and he has every reason to be very content. Then the following exchange taks place in the Southfork living room between Ray and Donna.
Ray: Quite a night, huh?
Donna: A rousing one for the good guys? Finally put old Cliff Barnes in his place once and for all?
It's just so typical of Donna. Ray helped do something good, he succeeded, and instead of congratulating him, or at least being happy for him, she's sarcastic and bitter. This couple is clearly doomed. Always has been.
Donna, who constantly enjoys success after success, cannot stand it when Ray finally has some success of his own. She had done her best to try to keep Ray from even attempting to help because she didn't think he was capable enough. Much to Donna's dismay, Ray stood up for what he wanted to do, did it successfully and Donna just could not stand being proved wrong. So instead of helping celebrate a triumph for her husband at the after party, Donna becomes the proverbial wet blanket on the party, the dampener on the festivities, the rain on Ray's parade. Anyone could have seen their inevitable divorce coming.
The Mandy Winger and JR storyline is one of the best examples of Dallas becoming predictable. In season 8 they had a romance that took a long time to get going because Mandy was so hesitant about breaking up JR's marriage and also hesitant about accepting gifts from him. JR offered her a condo and she turned it down, saying she couldn't be bought. Unlike Sue Ellen who didn't have a job in any of the first eight seasons, Mandy is a woman who feels the need to make her own money and not be dependent on anyone supporting her.
In Swan Song there a scene with Mandy and JR where it seems they're actually going to give JR a character arc:
JR: You know, all my life, the chase has been the most important thing to me. I'd be infatuated with someone for a while and when I achieved my goal, I couldn't wait to get away.
Mandy: (looks scared) JR...?
JR: Darling, what I'm saying to you is, it's different with you. I want you now more than ever. I cant't tell you what a wonderful feeling that is.
Mandy: I suppose that's a compliment. No matter how I try to rationalize it, you're still married.
JR: It won't be long until Sue Ellen is gone from Southfork for good.
Mandy: Are you sure that's the right thing to do? I feel really terrible about doing this to your marriage.
JR: But the die is cast now; there's no going back.
Except of course they did go back to what was familiar and safe, or they thought it was safe anyway.
This had the potential to be something new and exciting for the show. It was astounding. JR had actually found a woman he loved enough to treat her well, and to not feel the need for the chase - to have what he did not have. That could have been such an interesting character arc for us to witness but no, that would have been just too much change for Dallas at a time when they feared exactly what they desperately needed - any type of long term character arc illustrating personal growth in a character.
They'd done a good job of setting up this long range storyline only to sabotage it in season 9 by having Mandy act impulsively and in a way that was out of character to everything they had invested into building up her character. They had Mandy turn on JR and start spying in him for Cliff. JR finds out and says "You tried ruin me." It's the last thing Mandy of season 8 would have wanted to do, but they had to figure out some way to end their romance whether it was in character or even believable, just for the purpose of keeping each character firmly entrenched in the same circumstances, keeping self-improvement or personal growth an impossibility.
Doing something wildly out of character, creating drama just for the sake of it whether it made sense or not, was done for the purpose of keeping things the same. If there was ever a more brutally dysfunctional couple on TV than JR and Sue Ellen, I'm glad I never saw them. Despite all that, JR and Sue Ellen absolutely had to stay together, apparently whether either of them enjoyed it or not. Nothing could change. It led to predictability but somewhere along the line they got the notion that predictability equals success.
They were clearly afraid of having any type of character arc for the main stars. Everything had to remain the same. Bobby, who claims to hate lies and secrecy more than anything, starts seeing Pam behind Jenna's back after proposing to marry Jenna and her accepting! Why wouldn't he have some integrity and keep his word? Because Bobby marrying Jenna would have created a change!
Once again, they'd decided everything in Dallas must remain the same. That wasn't their M.O. when they were doing well, because they took chances then, such as when they had Ray turn out to be Jock's son. Somewhere along the line the writers and producers afraid of having any meaningful change take place. So sure, have Bobby who values honesty above all else do all of that to Jenna, just so long as it retains the status quo.
There had to have been some type of meaningful change to have kept being either the most watched or second most watched show on TV, but they chose to keep everything the same as much as they could and it became not just predictable, but monotonous. There has to be some type of meaningful change to keep things exciting!
By season nine, the only time they had any meaningful change is when they were literally forced into it when a star like Patrick Duffy or Victoria Principal quit the show. That's how reluctant they were to having any variation. Change had to literally be forced upon them.
In fact, they brought Bobby back from the dead because having Bobby die was just too much change for them, apparently. Everything had to remain the same, except of course for the size of their audience which diminished rapidly as they caught on to the fact that Dallas had become monotonous and predictable.
In Swan Song Ray and Donna go to Southfork after the celebration party for the Ewings winning in court, retaining Ewing Oil after proving Cliff and Jamie's claim to it was invalid, and proving Jock did not steal Ewing Oil from Digger or Jason.
Ray is very happy because he helped Bobby and JR prove Jock was not a thief. Ray helped, they won and he has every reason to be very content. Then the following exchange taks place in the Southfork living room between Ray and Donna.
Ray: Quite a night, huh?
Donna: A rousing one for the good guys? Finally put old Cliff Barnes in his place once and for all?
It's just so typical of Donna. Ray helped do something good, he succeeded, and instead of congratulating him, or at least being happy for him, she's sarcastic and bitter. This couple is clearly doomed. Always has been.
Donna, who constantly enjoys success after success, cannot stand it when Ray finally has some success of his own. She had done her best to try to keep Ray from even attempting to help because she didn't think he was capable enough. Much to Donna's dismay, Ray stood up for what he wanted to do, did it successfully and Donna just could not stand being proved wrong. So instead of helping celebrate a triumph for her husband at the after party, Donna becomes the proverbial wet blanket on the party, the dampener on the festivities, the rain on Ray's parade. Anyone could have seen their inevitable divorce coming.
The Mandy Winger and JR storyline is one of the best examples of Dallas becoming predictable. In season 8 they had a romance that took a long time to get going because Mandy was so hesitant about breaking up JR's marriage and also hesitant about accepting gifts from him. JR offered her a condo and she turned it down, saying she couldn't be bought. Unlike Sue Ellen who didn't have a job in any of the first eight seasons, Mandy is a woman who feels the need to make her own money and not be dependent on anyone supporting her.
In Swan Song there a scene with Mandy and JR where it seems they're actually going to give JR a character arc:
JR: You know, all my life, the chase has been the most important thing to me. I'd be infatuated with someone for a while and when I achieved my goal, I couldn't wait to get away.
Mandy: (looks scared) JR...?
JR: Darling, what I'm saying to you is, it's different with you. I want you now more than ever. I cant't tell you what a wonderful feeling that is.
Mandy: I suppose that's a compliment. No matter how I try to rationalize it, you're still married.
JR: It won't be long until Sue Ellen is gone from Southfork for good.
Mandy: Are you sure that's the right thing to do? I feel really terrible about doing this to your marriage.
JR: But the die is cast now; there's no going back.
Except of course they did go back to what was familiar and safe, or they thought it was safe anyway.
This had the potential to be something new and exciting for the show. It was astounding. JR had actually found a woman he loved enough to treat her well, and to not feel the need for the chase - to have what he did not have. That could have been such an interesting character arc for us to witness but no, that would have been just too much change for Dallas at a time when they feared exactly what they desperately needed - any type of long term character arc illustrating personal growth in a character.
They'd done a good job of setting up this long range storyline only to sabotage it in season 9 by having Mandy act impulsively and in a way that was out of character to everything they had invested into building up her character. They had Mandy turn on JR and start spying in him for Cliff. JR finds out and says "You tried ruin me." It's the last thing Mandy of season 8 would have wanted to do, but they had to figure out some way to end their romance whether it was in character or even believable, just for the purpose of keeping each character firmly entrenched in the same circumstances, keeping self-improvement or personal growth an impossibility.
Doing something wildly out of character, creating drama just for the sake of it whether it made sense or not, was done for the purpose of keeping things the same. If there was ever a more brutally dysfunctional couple on TV than JR and Sue Ellen, I'm glad I never saw them. Despite all that, JR and Sue Ellen absolutely had to stay together, apparently whether either of them enjoyed it or not. Nothing could change. It led to predictability but somewhere along the line they got the notion that predictability equals success.
They were clearly afraid of having any type of character arc for the main stars. Everything had to remain the same. Bobby, who claims to hate lies and secrecy more than anything, starts seeing Pam behind Jenna's back after proposing to marry Jenna and her accepting! Why wouldn't he have some integrity and keep his word? Because Bobby marrying Jenna would have created a change!
Once again, they'd decided everything in Dallas must remain the same. That wasn't their M.O. when they were doing well, because they took chances then, such as when they had Ray turn out to be Jock's son. Somewhere along the line the writers and producers afraid of having any meaningful change take place. So sure, have Bobby who values honesty above all else do all of that to Jenna, just so long as it retains the status quo.
There had to have been some type of meaningful change to have kept being either the most watched or second most watched show on TV, but they chose to keep everything the same as much as they could and it became not just predictable, but monotonous. There has to be some type of meaningful change to keep things exciting!
By season nine, the only time they had any meaningful change is when they were literally forced into it when a star like Patrick Duffy or Victoria Principal quit the show. That's how reluctant they were to having any variation. Change had to literally be forced upon them.
In fact, they brought Bobby back from the dead because having Bobby die was just too much change for them, apparently. Everything had to remain the same, except of course for the size of their audience which diminished rapidly as they caught on to the fact that Dallas had become monotonous and predictable.
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