Bobby’s return announcement

Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

Telly Talk Champion
I wish I could've experienced watching Dallas as it originally aired, I was born in 82 so never got to properly watch Dallas until UK Gold aired it in the late 90s.

Must've been so exciting.

It was.

As someone who grew up with Dallas as a teen it was one of the best experiences of my life. :)
 

Karin

Moderator
Staff Member
My diaries from a schoolgirl onwards have Dallas in them, anything that happened that was BIG news re cast - and i also wrote up a synopsis of each episode from S2 original onwards! I didnt do it re final series as it was too painful!!
I have kept a diary since I was about 10. Dallas is mentioned in my diaries too from time to time. Sometimes it's just a mentioning that "Dallas was great" or something along those lines. Sometimes I am more upset. When I was 11 and first started watching the show I had written that I thought Pam had sent Lisa Alden to keep an eye on Christopher. I didn't understand how a mother could just abandon her child. So I thought Pam and Lisa were connected at first.
 

Karin

Moderator
Staff Member
Yeah I also thought that Pam would return sooner or later. I was so excited when I watched the episode where Bobby saw "Pam" at the end.
Then the next episode I was so disappointed when it was just a look alike. That plot was so stupid and such a let down.
 

CeeCee72

Telly Talk Star
Yeah I also thought that Pam would return sooner or later. I was so excited when I watched the episode where Bobby saw "Pam" at the end.
Then the next episode I was so disappointed when it was just a look alike. That plot was so stupid and such a let down.
That whole thing felt like nothing more than filler. It didn't add anything at all to the show other than to frustrate fans who were hoping for Pam's return.
 

Karin

Moderator
Staff Member
I guess they threw the plot in there since they had gotten complaints that Bobby had moved on too quickly after Pam disappeared. So they wanted him to say goodbye to Pam properly before he got married to April so he could spend a whole season mourning that April had died when he didn't even want to talk about Pam after she had left him. Yeah I can see why this plot wasn't too popular with fans.
 

DallasFanForever

Telly Talk Supreme
I guess they threw the plot in there since they had gotten complaints that Bobby had moved on too quickly after Pam disappeared. So they wanted him to say goodbye to Pam properly before he got married to April
That makes sense to me. I actually didn’t mind the “Pam” lookalike storyline but at this point I was rooting for Phyllis and Bobby to get together. I always felt that post Pam and Jenna she was the next logical choice.
 

Toni

Maximum Member
I´m never tired of a Vertigo ripoff, so I kind of liked the Jeannie O´Brien plot. Besides, Bobby was away from April for some episodes which was great for me. And the actress really looked like Pam in that last scene!

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Did she or didn´t she...?​
 

Karin

Moderator
Staff Member
I never realized that plot was inspired by Vertigo!o_O
Also the most annoying part for me was how they used the same actress to play Pam in that one scene where Cliff found her. So since I started watching the show when Pam crashed into the tanker I thought for sure that it was really Pam that Bobby saw and I spent a whole week being all excited about the confrontation that would follow and how she would explain where she's been, how Christopher would react to having his mommy back etc.
So the next episode didn't live up to my expectations at all. It fell way short.
 

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
April never worked for me as a marital partner for Bobby -- they had to change her character too much, so it all felt so contrived. But Katzman "liked" Sheree, so that was that,

Frankly, April seems to me like one of those DALLAS female stalkers who dies in the end. And she did indeed die in Paris, but she should have been shot by the gendarme while chasing Bobby down with a butcher knife, enraged over his French wedding to Tracey Lawton (Tracey was an odd one. but I believed her more as a potential Ewing spouse -- although, naturally, she wouldn't last long herself).

Dallas612BethTousaint-Tracy.jpg


Everybody always thinks I'm crazy for this, but I still say everyone should have cleared the path for Afton to become final "Mrs Bobby James Ewing" at the end, even though the two characters had few scenes together during the entire series and no relationship.

But I just smell it. And I would much prefer Afton living at Southfork -- the inevitable tensions with Sue Ellen, the jealousy from Cliff -- for TNT's nuDALLAS as opposed to that smug and truly desperate housewife, Ann Ryland.

9f_Dallas__Season_12_12_22.jpg
 

Sarah

Moderator Emerita
April never worked for me as a marital partner for Bobby -- they had to change her character too much, so it all felt so contrived. But Katzman "liked" Sheree, so that was that,

Frankly, April seems to me like one of those DALLAS female stalkers who dies in the end. And she did indeed die in Paris, but she should have been shot by the gendarme while chasing Bobby down with a butcher knife, enraged over his French wedding to Tracey Lawton (Tracey was an odd one. but I believed her more as a potential Ewing spouse -- although, naturally, she wouldn't last long herself).

Dallas612BethTousaint-Tracy.jpg


Everybody always thinks I'm crazy for this, but I still say everyone should have cleared the path for Afton to become final "Mrs Bobby James Ewing" at the end, even though the two characters had few scenes together during the entire series and no relationship.

But I just smell it. And I would much prefer Afton living at Southfork -- the inevitable tensions with Sue Ellen, the jealousy from Cliff -- for TNT's nuDALLAS as opposed to that smug and truly desperate housewife, Ann Ryland.

9f_Dallas__Season_12_12_22.jpg
I was with you almost right up until….well… you know.
 

Jimmy Todd

Telly Talk Mega Star
Sue Ellen was a fascinating character because she was so flawed. Lovely shades of grey with her.
I never thought of Afton with Bobby. I wonder how Bobby would have reached to her sleeping with JR vis-a-vis his "rule" about not dating JR's girlfriends. He broke that rule for April, but that never felt organic. Still, Afton slept with JR in his and Sue Ellen’s bed. That amps up the tawdry factor.
Still, I liked Afton, and I'm not 100% sure why. I would preferred her as Bobby's wife than Ann on nuDallas.
 

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
I´m never tired of a Vertigo ripoff, so I kind of liked the Jeannie O´Brien plot. Besides, Bobby was away from April for some episodes which was great for me. And the actress really looked like Pam in that last scene!

View attachment 33987 View attachment 33988

Did she or didn´t she...?​

I would also like the question brought up between Bobby and Cliff whether the "Pam" cliff met in "Carousel" in 1988 might or might not be an imposter, trying to lure in Bobby. (We never have to get the answer). But their suspicions can come after learning that Jeremy Wendell, not actually out of power, had some role in Pam's disappearance after her accident. So he (and not JR) may have hired Jeanne O'Brien to distract Bobby for some reason.

But I always want Bobby and Cliff to discover, before the original series ended, that Pam might be dead and neurofibromatosis might be the culprit (for those who can't do the math: Rebecca may have lied, or even been mistaken about who the biological father was).

Therefore, she's Cliff's blood sister after all... And she may be JR's sister, too, if Miss Ellie's confession to Clayton that JR may be Digger's offspring comes out when Clayton is drunk and angry at Ellie's eldest son.

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I never thought of Afton with Bobby. I wonder how Bobby would have reached to her sleeping with JR vis-a-vis his "rule" about not dating JR's girlfriends. He broke that rule for April, but that never felt organic. Still, Afton slept with JR in his and Sue Ellen’s bed. That amps up the tawdry factor.
Still, I liked Afton, and I'm not 100% sure why. I would preferred her as Bobby's wife than Ann on nuDallas.

I can just taste it, the Bobby-Afton connubials... It's about listening to nature --- as I was able to predict the major plots from Season 9 of DYNASTY two years before Paulsen did them.

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Karin

Moderator
Staff Member
I would also like the question brought up between Bobby and Cliff whether the "Pam" cliff met in "Carousel" in 1988 might or might not be an imposter, trying to lure in Bobby. (We never have to get the answer). But their suspicions can come after learning that Jeremy Wendell, not actually out of power, had some role in Pam's disappearance after her accident. So he (and not JR) may have hired Jeanne O'Brien to distract Bobby for some reason.

I agree with you about this part. Because it was the same actress who was Jean and Pam it would be a good thing if Cliff got suspicious if they were dealing with an imposter. I think the closest we got to it was Cliff telling Bobby "that she looked like a post-surgery Pam."

I love Afton. But I can't see her together with Bobby. I did want her and Pamela Rebecca to stick around after Cliff found them again. I think it would have evolved Cliff's character nicely to have him be a father. I mean in a way we saw how much he cared when he thought John Ross was his. So he must have had some longing for a child of his own even though it was never properly addressed.
 
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