Miss Ellie After Jock

[stevew]

I replied because what she should do depends. I replied to get a clarification. Is it what she should do to make the try even better? Or is it:



BTW, which is it: Priorities you suppose she would have or should have?



How is this not brilliant: The purpose of the contest was to get JR and Bobby to respect each other’s abilities and realize they were far better off together than apart. They were too damn stubborn to take Jock's word for it while he was still alive. So, he created a situation in his will where their own actions would give them tangible proof of what he’d been saying to be true.

It was a storyline that got them an average of over 30 million viewers a week. That’s success! Sure, you’re entitled to your opinion, but it’s damn hard to argue with success.

I suppose you could put any priorities you think she should or did have to answer the question if you’re interested in such. I took her priority was to have her family, including Gary, together, happy and healthy. Regardless of her priorities I’m still able to comment on what I think she should have done. I’m a parent. I have an estate to consider. I have a spouse. I in fact can relate very much with her situation.

It was a brilliant story line, but again in terms of Miss Ellie’s response and reality, it was far from brilliant. It in fact is one of the pieces which would cause me to loose respect for Jocks business acumen. The fact that even in fiction Ewing oil was destroyed was not success. You’re confusing the show with the intention of the post.

 

[Billy Wall]

How is this not brilliant: The purpose of the contest was to get JR and Bobby to respect each other’s abilities and realize they were far better off together than apart. They were too damn stubborn to take Jock's word for it while he was still alive. So, he created a situation in his will where their own actions would give them tangible proof of what he’d been saying to be true.

And it still didn’t mean squat to JR because he was about to kick Bobby to the nearest curb.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

And if you know the difference between show business and real life, why would it matter to tell Miss Ellie what she should do, as you realize she’s not real?

From an entertainment perspective, it would matter because what you’d have her do makes a difference in terms of generating excitement. Is what you’d have her do something that you think would have made the show more successful?

It was a brilliant story line, but again in terms of Miss Ellie’s response and reality, it was far from brilliant. It in fact is one of the pieces which would cause me to loose respect for Jocks business acumen. The fact that even in fiction Ewing oil was destroyed was not success. You’re confusing the show with the intention of the post.

The objective of the show wasn’t realism; it was to generate enough excitement to get millions of people watch week after week.

“Even in fiction”? The company only existed in a fictional show. Jock’s business acumen didn’t result in the destruction of the company. The company was still growing at the end of the contest. Over a period of time it was destroyed because of a variety of bad decisions (mostly those of JR) and then Bobby’s ultimate inability to maintain his drive to continue even working in the oil business.

They’d lost a third of their assets roughly four years after the end of the contest because of JR’s terrible judgment in getting involved with BD Calhoun, to blow up Saudi oil fields. At that point you could say that possibly it would have turned out better if Jock had left full control of Ewing Oil to Bobby. It certainly didn’t make a case for the idea that it would have been better to leave JR full control of the company.

Then a few years later Bobby lost all of his drive to continue working in the oil business. So even if Jock had left it all to Bobby, that probably wouldn’t have worked out better. Bobby sold the company to Leann De La Vega - a decision that was the final nail in Ewing Oil’s coffin. That wouldn’t have happened if JR had been an equal partner with Bobby at the time, so that makes me think Jock’s desire for both sons to have an equal share in running it was the right idea. First Jock had to make each of them respect the abilities of the other. By the end of the contest, each son knew he’d been through one hell of a struggle. Each son had what it took to push the other to his maximal performance. Someone who can do that is someone you want working with you - not against you. Internal competition that drives each man to his best possible performance is the productive type of internal competition you want.

 

[stevew]

From an entertainment perspective, it would matter because what you’d have her do makes a difference in terms of generating excitement. Is what you’d have her do something that you think would have made the show more successful?



The objective of the show wasn’t realism; it was to generate enough excitement to get millions of people watch week after week.

“Even in fiction”? The company only existed in a fictional show. Jock’s business acumen didn’t result in the destruction of the company. The company was still growing at the end of the contest. Over a period of time it was destroyed because of a variety of bad decisions (mostly those of JR) and then Bobby’s ultimate inability to maintain his drive to continue even working in the oil business.

They’d lost a third of their assets roughly four years after the end of the contest because of JR’s terrible judgment in getting involved with BD Calhoun, to blow up Saudi oil fields. At that point you could say that possibly it would have turned out better if Jock had left full control of Ewing Oil to Bobby. It certainly didn’t make a case for the idea that it would have been better to leave JR full control of the company.

Then a few years later Bobby lost all of his drive to continue working in the oil business. So even if Jock had left it all to Bobby, that probably wouldn’t have worked out better. Bobby sold the company to Leann De La Vega - a decision that was the final nail in Ewing Oil’s coffin. That wouldn’t have happened if JR had been an equal partner with Bobby at the time, so that makes me think Jock’s desire for both sons to have an equal share in running it was the right idea. First Jock had to make each of them respect the abilities of the other. By the end of the contest, each son knew he’d been through one hell of a struggle. Each son had what it took to push the other to his maximal performance. Someone who can do that is someone you want working with you - not against you. Internal competition that drives each man to his best possible performance is the productive type of internal competition you want.

The company’s eventual death came straight from Jock as he taught JR and Bobby, teaching them to work against each other and to seek out shady deals when they could justify it. It’s actually common in business. It’s rare a second generation is any good at running a family business and often even an entrepreneur finds it difficult to manage the day to day running of a company. Internal competition is never productive. If Bobby and JR had been taught to appreciate each other’s strengths they may have had a better chance at passing the company to a third generation. Add that Bobby really never has a passion for the oil industry, he just had people pushing him into it.

The show early on was realism meets drama - both can be accomplished. As the show became less attached to reality it was taken less seriously and eventually it had less people watching. So certainly the goal for the producers was to create something millions of people would watch, but I personally found it better when I found it more believable. Which is why I asked the question what Miss Ellie should have done - reality can be very dramatic.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

The company’s eventual death came straight from Jock as he taught JR and Bobby, teaching them to work against each other and to seek out shady deals when they could justify it. It’s actually common in business. It’s rare a second generation is any good at running a family business and often even an entrepreneur finds it difficult to manage the day to day running of a company. Internal competition is never productive. If Bobby and JR had been taught to appreciate each other’s strengths they may have had a better chance at passing the company to a third generation. Add that Bobby really never has a passion for the oil industry, he just had people pushing him into it.

The show early on was realism meets drama - both can be accomplished. As the show became less attached to reality it was taken less seriously and eventually it had less people watching. So certainly the goal for the producers was to create something millions of people would watch, but I personally found it better when I found it more believable. Which is why I asked the question what Miss Ellie should have done - reality can be very dramatic.

Is there any member if the Ewing family you actually found to be competent?