October 6, 1991....30 years ago today

[DallasFanForever]

For me the end was May 3 here in the US. I remember not having high expectations for the final episode considering how bad the show had become at that point. But still I was hoping for something better than what we got. I don’t think it really sunk in that Dallas was over though until that fall when I was looking at the CBS schedule and realized something was noticeably missing. I don’t remember what we watched in my house instead that fall but whatever it was we knew it would never be the same.

 

[Jock Og]

The last episode in no way did justice to the unforgettable series I started watching in 1984 and then watched in repeats; when I discovered the Jim Davis era, was able to view season 4 (DVD-5) and season 5 (DVD-6). J.R. had been a caricature in the twilight years, almost a joke and the final episode started with him, very much in an abyss, feeling sorry for himself. 'Conundrum' worked okay in theory but in practice the episode could imho be best described as silly and far fetched. Of course at it's pith DALLAS was OTT escapism.

While season 8 (DVD-9) 'The Dream Season' tarnished the brand i.e. wiping out an entire season as canon, it was good in terms of plot / storytelling, the last ever series episode was so much in space and not in a respectable way (in any shape or form). We got a few familiar faces back but come hell or high water TPTB should have had Victoria Principal, Barbara Bel Geddes, Howard Keel and Susan Howard in the finale, presented in an offering which was true to the glory years.

J.R. is back in the land of the living, after the series ended in 1991. It looked as if he had committed suicide. However he had just blown a hole in a mirror; when taunted by a fantasy angel turned devil, who told him he should pull the trigger on his daddy's revolver. In the closure of the T.V. movie 'J.R. Returns' the infamous oil baron and his son John Ross are talking outside Southfork, (a scene from 'J.R. Returns' 1996 / 'The Movie Collection' DVD 2011):

Bobby and Sue Ellen have bought Ewing Oil, from Cliff Barnes. It would appear J.R. has a scheme in mind down the road, as he speaks to John Ross.

John Ross: "Dad, I don't understand, why are smiling? You just lost Ewing Oil?"

J.R.: "Son, you don't understand! Ewing Oil is back in Ewing hands. Your uncle Bobby is no longer going to sell Southfork and is back in the oil business. I am the Chairman of the Board of Weststar. Your mother is back at Southfork and you are going to remain in Dallas, to learn the oil business under the best damn oil man there ever was."

John Ross: "Dad, when you say it that way, it appears you'd planned everything to work out this way from the start."

J.R. chuckles: "See son, you are learning already."

 

[Barbara Fan]

I remember the Radio Times cover with the headstone (1978-1991)

Larry made lots of mags covers with the headstone photo but not Radio Times - the week that Dallas ended Judy Dench was on the cover

if my memory is correct Larry only made the cover of Radio Times once in 1980 - at the time of shooting of JR reval and Royal Command performance when Mary Martin bounced on stage to cover his blushes for forgetting his lines

What season was Dallas moved to the afternoon? Did the BBC generally say goodbye to US shows from its prime time schedule at that time or was it just Dallas? Sports are often broadcast on Sunday afternoons, so was Dallas on air every Sunday?

Just the final season, by then it was a tired old show, and was Dallas in name only, I watched it out of loyalty and love for the great show it used to be - but this wasnt Dallas, hardly any original cast left, Larry and Patrick phoning in their lines and proof that Dallas was a success as an ensemble show and it needed the cast of Barbara, Howard, Victoria, Linda, Charlene, Steve, Susan et al

It was regularly beaten in the ratings by snooker or repeats of old Westerns on BBC2, the ratings were poor and I harly had any friends who still watched it, - it seemed it was my mum and I!!

 

[Barbara Fan]

It was a sad end to one of the greatest TV shows ever. Relegated to Sunday afternoon in the schedules and ending with one of the worse (if not the worst) episodes ever, it didn't feel like great loss to me when it ended. It was like having a terminally ill friend having his life support machine switched off: although you're sad he's gone, deep down you know it's better than him barely surviving in the state he was in.

Absolutely, I used to wonder why it sunk so low , and I was actually slightly relieved when it ended as it ws Dallas in name only, I have never watched any of final season again, the DVD is still in the wrapper. This season bore no resemblance to the Dallas and cast I loved

No heart, no soul, hardly any original cast isnt Dallas for me - sums up TNT too, you can call it Dallas - but its what and who that makes it special

 

[Monzo]

It was regularly beaten in the ratings by snooker or repeats of old Westerns on BBC2, the ratings were poor and I harly had any friends who still watched it, - it seemed it was my mum and I!!

Brits were obviously done with Dallas. In Germany ratings weren't too bad to change the timeslot. In its heyday, Dallas was sometimes the most watched show of the week, when it ended most episodes of final season still reached weekly top 10 of broadcaster ARD. Sheree J. Wilson, Cathy Podewell and Kimberly Foster were on the front pages of German TV magazines like other female Dallas stars before. Did UK magazines also put Dallas actors on their covers in seasons 13 and 14?

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FUNK UHR 30 - 1991 TV: 27.7-2.8. DALLAS-Star Sheree J.Wilson Mini Playback-Show | eBay

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36 Auf einen Blick 1990 Nr. 39 Cathy Podewell | eBay

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FUNK UHR 38 - 1991 * TV: 21.-27.9. DALLAS-Star Cathy Podewell • EUR 10,90

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FUNK UHR 34 - 1991 * TV: 24.-30.8. DALLAS-Star Kimberly Foster Julio Iglesias | eBay

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Kimberly Foster's haircut was a big issue. Magazines claimed Princess Diana "stole" Kimberly Foster's haircut. Back then in pre-internet days anything seemed possible, but now that I know that Dallas wasn't talk of the town in the UK anymore why should anyone copy Kimberly Foster's haircut?

 

[Barbara Fan]

We had a shop in town that sold foreign magazines and ever since I was still at school, all my pocket money and then wages went on foreign mags from Germany, Italy and Spain, the odd Dutch one too

I loved German magazines even with their photo shopped covers and bought so many Das Neue Blatt, Post, Frau Aktuel, Freizeit Revue, Frau Im Spiegl, Bunte, Echo der frau and Das Neue Schnell und aktuel

Hope Ive spelt them properly, I always had a flick theough them and if Dallas and cast were in them, I bought them. German ones also had pics and stories of BBG which UK didnt always have so I loved that.

In later years Dallas cast didnt make the front pages so often, but Victoria was the most frequent cast member on the cover all thro the 80s and agree that Kim Foster made many a hairdressing mag cover. Audrey Landers and Deborah Shelton seemed to be huge in Germany and ? Thomas Gottschalk always seemed to have them on his show or someone called ?? Heino
I remember Lesley Anne Down made the cover of Radio Times due to Dallas and I was horrified as Victoria, Linda, Patrick, Barbara et al never had that honor!! :eck:

 

[Rove]

I used to wonder why it sunk so low

I've wondered about that myself. I then think was I as harsh on Dallas then as I am now. Dallas finished when I was 26 so I might have been invested still in the lives of the Ewing family. Now that I'm much older I look back at those final seasons and think...well insert a few expletives here. How did all go so wrong? It still breaks my heart that Dallas died such an undignified death from poor ratings, bad scripts and terrible casting. I had high hopes the reunion movies might have brought back the magic. Nope.

And when it was announced Dallas was to be resurrected well I couldn't hold my excitement. I just had to find ways of watching my favourite television family. It turned out it wasn't my cup of tea. Oh well...c'est la vie.

 

[Mustard]

What season was Dallas moved to the afternoon? Did the BBC generally say goodbye to US shows from its prime time schedule at that time or was it just Dallas? Sports are often broadcast on Sunday afternoons, so was Dallas on air every Sunday?

It was just the last season, in 1991, that Dallas was aired during Sunday afternoons.

The UK broadcasts of the first 2 seasons of Knots Landing were about as far behind the US as the Dallas seasons typically were, i.e. a few months. However, the last time that Knots Landing was prime time in the UK was in late 1983, when the BBC stopped broadcasting Season 3 after 13 of its 22 episodes, and even those first 13 episodes of Season 3 came two years after Season 2 had finished airing in 1981. Knots Landing wasn't brought back in the UK after that until three years later in 1986, picking up from where they left off (i.e. Episode 14 of Season 3) in an afternoon slot, and 5 years behind the US by that time, as the US were on Season 8 of Knots Landing by then. Knots Landing carried on in the UK in an afternoon slot until 1996, being 3 years behind the US at the end.

 

[Sarah]

I maintain that Dallas couldn’t cope without the loss of the main players from the original cast, and for me the biggest blow was Linda leaving. JR lost it without Sue Ellen, and with JR losing it, Dallas lost it too.

 

[Mustard]

It was regularly beaten in the ratings by snooker or repeats of old Westerns on BBC2, the ratings were poor and I harly had any friends who still watched it, - it seemed it was my mum and I!!

Snooker was big then, though, in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

['V']

I still remember the lead up and the trails in the days before the actual episode aired, to the tune of 'Fool If You Think It's Over..'. I thought, 'Are they trying to trick me? Is it not really over??'

I managed to capture one of those trailers on tape, just missed the first couple of seconds, on that last Sunday morning. I was away at college at the time. I don't think anyone else in the place knew, or even cared, that it was finishing. So there I was, watching it on my own, until two of my fellow students came round about half an hour from the end and just ripped the piss out of it, while I was busy being sad that it was ending. I thought, you insensitive bastards!

 

[retrosonic]

I have to agree , that last episode of Dallas was a clinker. My concept would have been a total 180. First of all, it would have been a two hour show.
I would have brought the entire main cast still living into the yard, sitting on chairs, with Southfork in the background. Then, for the entire show, I would have had each actor/actress talk about their fondest moment on the show, complete with video clips. In the last 15 minutes, I would have brought in the 10 biggest known Dallas fans, and have each sit next to one of the stars, say their name and where they were from, and what the show meant to THEM. I think it would have been a nice tribute to the actors and the fans that made the show the incredible thing that it was.

 

[cws]

I maintain that Dallas couldn’t cope without the loss of the main players from the original cast, and for me the biggest blow was Linda leaving. JR lost it without Sue Ellen, and with JR losing it, Dallas lost it too.

Agreed, it's not worth watching.

 

[cws]

We had a shop in town that sold foreign magazines and ever since I was still at school, all my pocket money and then wages went on foreign mags from Germany, Italy and Spain, the odd Dutch one too

I loved German magazines even with their photo shopped covers and bought so many Das Neue Blatt, Post, Frau Aktuel, Freizeit Revue, Frau Im Spiegl, Bunte, Echo der frau and Das Neue Schnell und aktuel

Hope Ive spelt them properly, I always had a flick theough them and if Dallas and cast were in them, I bought them. German ones also had pics and stories of BBG which UK didnt always have so I loved that.

In later years Dallas cast didnt make the front pages so often, but Victoria was the most frequent cast member on the cover all thro the 80s and agree that Kim Foster made many a hairdressing mag cover. Audrey Landers and Deborah Shelton seemed to be huge in Germany and ? Thomas Gottschalk always seemed to have them on his show or someone called ?? Heino
I remember Lesley Anne Down made the cover of Radio Times due to Dallas and I was horrified as Victoria, Linda, Patrick, Barbara et al never had that honor!! :eck:

It's nice to read how Dallas was perceived over seas. This was all before the internet, so my perspective was from America.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Larry made lots of mags covers with the headstone photo but not Radio Times - the week that Dallas ended Judy Dench was on the cover

Oh wow. My memory must be playing funny tricks on me. It must have been one of the other TV magazines.

 

[Sarah]

I have it - I will look it out once I get beyond the endless boxes comprising my house move and the ‘precious things’ of the Dallas collection.

 

[Crimson]

I've never seen the final season of DALLAS in its entirety. I think I missed the first episode of the season and when I watched the next, I didn't know what was going on (specifically the Susan Lucci storyline perplexed me). More importantly, I no longer cared. I tuned back in for a couple episodes in the middle of the season for the novelty of Barbara Eden. I watched the final two episodes and found it to be a depressingly bad ending to a once great show.

JR RETURNS wasn't great, but I considered it a moderately satisfactory ending to the series after the nonsense of the finale. (I had no idea a second TV movie existed until years later; the first few time I saw references to it on the old Soapchat, I thought it was fanfic.)