An alternate exit for Pam...?

[Clubsoda]

The Producers clung to the hope that Victoria would slink back in a years time the way Duffy had done. She didn't.

That whole bandaged Pam storyline of season eleven whilst certainly being dramatic was a bit hard to swallow. It didn't do much for the character especially after she disappeared.

I would've had her kidnapped from the hospital rather than the explanation that she herself wanted to disappear. However if she really did go of her own accord she must've had a very good reason for doing so.

I would've kept the scene with Margaret Michaels at the start of season twelve but after Cliff leaves, the Doctor would've brought in Victoria Principal in a Guest Role.

"I think he bought it, he really thought I was you!" The fake Pam says.

The real Pam begins to cry. "If only I could go back but if I do I risk putting the entire family in danger from Katherine & those associates of hers."

Behind her Mark Graison arrives & put's his arm around her.

"Pam, you don't know that. I know I still love you but if you really want to go back to Dallas, to Bobby then do it!"

Pam says "I can't. The fed's have given me a new identity, I've been told to move on. I have to leave the Ewing's in the past."

Mark sighs. "We'll get out of the US then. The further away the better."

Pam sobs. "Where to!?!"

"Well I just have to get Jenna Wade's son Lucas out of the Meadowvale Sanitarium & we're all going to Northern Ireland, " Mark tells her.

There's movement again behind Mark & the Doctor appears with Wes Parmalee.

"So we're good to go then?" Wes asks.

Mark nods.

"As far as the Ewing's know, I'm dead. Wes here isn't Jock, despite the fact that he is & you've disappeared without trace."

Pam's sobs become louder. "I miss Christopher."

"Don't worry," Mark reassures her. "When the time is right he will come to us."

The fake Pam smiles at the real Pam Ewing who smiles back. The real Pam says, "I will wait to be with my son but I will never set foot in Dallas again."

Wow that would've been so amazing. If only.

 

[TJames03]

Goodness what a sweeping statement. I’m interested why you would think that. It sounds like more of a personal fan opinion than a fact.

I don’t agree. The Dallas cast was an ensemble and the show went on for quite a few years without her.

Plus it’s a shame she didn’t feel that Dallas was that important. She walked away without issue from the show that made her.

Just my thoughts.

Yeah, the show went on without VP for four years and it was all sh-t. VP was wholly the show’s most important female star and her version of Pam was wholly the show’s most important female character.

 

[Miss Ellie Fan]

Yeah, the show went on without VP for four years and it was all sh-t. VP was wholly the show’s most important female star and her version of Pam was wholly the show’s most important female character.

That’s just your opinion though and I don’t agree. Miss Ellie and Sue Ellen were hugely popular characters and in my opinion, more important. Dallas did deteriorate in quality but that wasnt just because Victoria wasnt around. To be honest if that was her attitude towards the show and her character I don’t know why you seem so annoyed by it all.

No point being bitter and angry just because she chose to leave.

Guess that’s the beauty of it though that we all have a different take on things. Not everyone is going to agree and not everything you (we) believe is a fact.

 

[Sarah]

Yes, it's important within a thread to respect everyone’s thoughts and opinions.

@TJames03 - your passion for Pam and Victoria is fab, I'm passionate about Sue Ellen but we're all different here and not everyone holds the same views about Victoria as you do.

 

[TJames03]

So.....you people think that the seasons that happened after VP left even compare to the one that aired before she left (barring the Dream season which was garbage, even with her in it).

 

[Ukdallasfan]

I think an exit involving a heartbroken Pam, unable to have a baby with Bobby might have been credible. The throw away line before she crashed into the truck about seeing the doctor could have been incorporated into the season a lot earlier, followed by her infertility struggle and then a sad exit as her marriage to Bobby crumbled under the strain. She would have taken Christopher with her but in a shared custody arrangement with Bobby

 

[Grangehill1]

The original Miss Ellie left the show twice and whilst missed
Sue Ellen left and again whilst missed
When Pam left there was a massive casin

 

[Grangehill1]

I think any edit needed an ounce of ambiguity. The Pam is upset over Calhoun and leaves idea is very final.

More drama could be created via misunderstanding or in my idea the blackmail of Pam which Bobby is unaware of. Only the viewer knows. She doesn’t want to leave. She is forced to

 

[TJames03]

The Calhoun idea seems the most plausible. VP always aliases to the fact that one of the reasons why she never returned even for a cameo was because of the unreal way they wrote Pam out and that there never would have been a believable way for her to return, if even for a short-term stint. Had she simply left Dallas with Christopher after the Calhoun fiasco, there would have been ample ways for VP/Pam to pop back and forth throughout the years.

 

[Laurie!]

That’s just your opinion though and I don’t agree. Miss Ellie and Sue Ellen were hugely popular characters and in my opinion, more important. Dallas did deteriorate in quality but that wasnt just because Victoria wasnt around.

Miss Ellie, albeit a loved character, really wasn't an important one after the 1st season. The story and all things central to DALLAS could go on just fine with only her legacy; just like Jock. Sue Ellen was entertaining to many but also wasn't vital to the foundation of the show like Pam was.

Without Pam, the show was left to create another feuding family (McKay's) and tried to put a new love interest of Bobby in the middle but it was a dud in comparison to the Barnes vs Ewing feud with Pam sandwiched between. It also left the brilliant character of Cliff floundering around in limbo. So it was a disjointed mess....especially when the Steven's sisters and the hillbilly Cally storyline came about. Suddenly it was just a daytime quality soap.

As for Pam's exit...she should have just died in a tragic Romeo and Juliet manner. Tragedy...end of story. There was no way, Victoria would have come back after the powers that were, dumped the dream scenario on her character instead of Patrick's, weakened Pam and the Lorimar people, being petty...taking away her parking space, etc.

I also hate the constant insinuations that Victoria turned her back on the show. She just retired from it and moved on...still speaks very fondly of her time on the show and her co-stars.

 

[TJames03]

Keeping the “Where is Pam?” storyline going is exactly what kept VP AWAY (ironically!!)!

VP was absolutely right - after the gas tanker accident, vanishing, then Pam is dying, there is absolutely no believable way that she could ever return to the show.

And as far as Miss Ellie is concerned, BBG was reduced to simply “holding a coffee cup.”

 

[TJames03]

Yes, it's important within a thread to respect everyone’s thoughts and opinions.

@TJames03 - your passion for Pam and Victoria is fab, I'm passionate about Sue Ellen but we're all different here and not everyone holds the same views about Victoria as you do.

But all Sue Ellen could do is look at JR and say “You bastard!” over and over again....

 

[Chris2]

Keeping the “Where is Pam?” storyline going is exactly what kept VP AWAY (ironically!!)!

Yep, and it’s exactly why I don’t like the burned-to-a-crisp/fatal-disease-syndrome/kidnapping/blackmail/Pam-leaves-against-her-will plots. Because they can never properly be resolved without VP, and having those plot threads lingering in the background is unsatisfying.

 

[TJames03]

Let’s be frank, killing off Pam at the end of VP’s final season is the only way to have kept Pam away forever.

However, barring that, I guess the Calhoun thing would have been second best.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

The best way for me would have been to have the accident. When shes unwrapped, shes Margret Michaels. She has body image issues, she fears Bobby is repulsed by her scarring, her hair loss... he reassures he is not.
I know many poop on the idea of recasting Pam but the character was bigger than Victoria and the show needed Pam. Especially after the odd consequences of Bobby's return.... I'd have preferred the show stick to what made sense then from a messy, cowardly story with no real resolution until 2013!!!!!
Most of all it would have given something for Bobby and Pam to do. Especially Bobby who had nothing to do in seasons 11-13. Since he didn't stay dead this was an acceptable story that would have kept both busy until the end of the series. None of the phony romances a Bobby had to endure when Munmy Pam ran off.... lots of good drama like in the early days with strong emotional stories of body imag, beauty in the eye of the beholder etc...
The final episode ends with the birth of their twins, a boy named Robert James II (nick named BJ Ewing) and a girl named, Eleanor Rebecca Barnes Ewing.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

The best way for me would have been to have the accident. When shes unwrapped, shes Margret Michaels. She has body image issues, she fears Bobby is repulsed by her scarring, her hair loss... he reassures he is not.
I know many poop on the idea of recasting Pam but the character was bigger than Victoria and the show needed Pam. Especially after the odd consequences of Bobby's return.... I'd have preferred the show stick to what made sense then from a messy, cowardly story with no real resolution until 2013!!!!!
Most of all it would have given something for Bobby and Pam to do. Especially Bobby who had nothing to do in seasons 11-13. Since he didn't stay dead this was an acceptable story that would have kept both busy until the end of the series. None of the phony romances a Bobby had to endure when Munmy Pam ran off.... lots of good drama like in the early days with strong emotional stories of body imag, beauty in the eye of the beholder etc...
The final episode ends with the birth of their twins, a boy named Robert James II (nick named BJ Ewing) and a girl named, Eleanor Rebecca Barnes Ewing.

 

[TJames03]

But because of the Donna Reed fiasco, that’s not an option...

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Keeping the “Where is Pam?” storyline going is exactly what kept VP AWAY (ironically!!)

Don't be silly. VP was never coming back.

However she left, she and Bobby were always going to die via a car accident. It was pre-ordained when, just after he brought home Christopher, Pam asked who the baby's parents were, and Bobby explained to her that they were both dead, having perished in a car accident, a couple from Louisiana (which is where Bobby and Pam were coming from in the 1978 pilot episode).

It had to be.

 

[TJames03]

Honestly, I truly believe that VP MAY have done a one-off episode here and there if her exit hadn’t been so botched. In that interview of her on the Dallas fan site she even asked the interviewer, “Can you think of a believable way that I could come back?” Naturally, he said no and that was that.

 

[Seaviewer]

VP was absolutely right - after the gas tanker accident, vanishing, then Pam is dying, there is absolutely no believable way that she could ever return to the show.

I don't think any of that is important - she said she was dying - not from her injuries, oddly enough - maybe she was lying, maybe she got better. It's the plastic surgery explanation for Michaels that would be difficult to explain away if Principal returned. (Although it didn't stop Al Corley returning for the Dynasty reunion.)