What ultimately killed Dallas?

[tommie]

Yes Larry was without a doubt the highest paid actor on Dallas. He made a lot of money and yet a couple of years later "the kids from Friends" made 1 million dollars/episode. Yet I don't think they were better actors than he was. But of course the cast of Friends negotiated as a team, had equal pay and as a result had all their cast until the end, knew when to pull the plug on the show and went out on top after 10 successful seasons.

The difference is that Friends stayed on top until the end and it was the actors who ended it, not the network. Dallas of course plummeted, making it hard to justify doling out $350 000 per episode to Larry Hagman. Had Dallas actually continued to be in the top ten, then I'm sure Larry would've made even more plus there probably wouldn't have been so many cuts into the cast.

Add that comedies on top of that have better syndication prospects than continuing dramas (Friends make about one billion per years for Warners).

 

[AndyB2008]

CBS was a mess in 1989/1990. Their only show in the Top 10 was 60 Minutes (7th), and their highest rated scripted shows were Murder She Wrote (13th), Designing Women (22nd), Murphy Brown (27th). The three primetime soaps were below the Top 30, and as we know it was the last season of Falcon Crest and the second-to-last season of Dallas.

MSW had been a Top 10 show up to this point.

The 1989-1990 season of MSW is where Angela Lansbury reduced her appearances in favour of Keith Michell etc or even Angela not appearing at all.

The fans though wanted Jessica Fletcher, not other characters (as much as Michell tried his best) and so they switched off.

 

[TheDeadBobby]

I don't remember much about the last two seasons other than they seemed to be running out of ideas. The last season in particular seemed kind of ridiculous especially the way they ended it??? Why not go out on the top instead of tarnish the whole series by the lead guy killing himself. What a dumb idea that was.
That was enough to kill it for me.

JR could have gone out on the top as in buying up a bunch of sports teams, buying up the entire middle east oil fields, sending teams to the moon to look for oil or if not, turning the moon into a toxic waste dump by removing all the toxic waste from Earth so that the earth is squeaky clean again. He could have been everyone's hero! They could have milked out a few more seasons with some better plot lines.

 

[WarriorsFan]

MSW had been a Top 10 show up to this point.

The 1989-1990 season of MSW is where Angela Lansbury reduced her appearances in favour of Keith Michell etc or even Angela not appearing at all.

The fans though wanted Jessica Fletcher, not other characters (as much as Michell tried his best) and so they switched off.

Murder She Wrote was probably the biggest surprise hit of the 1980s. It spent 8 out of 12 seasons (1984/1985 to 1988/1989, 1991/1992, 1992/1993, 1994/1995) in the Top 10, and 3 out of 12 seasons (1989/1990, 1990/1991, 1993/1994) in the Top 15. Imagine what a shock it must have been to the CBS executives in the spring of 1986 when Angela Lansbury became the face of CBS's primetime scripted lineup and no longer Larry Hagman (1985/1986 season ended with Murder She Wrote finished 3rd, it's highest ever, while Dallas finished 6th, it's final season in the Top 10).

Also from 1985/1986 onward, Dallas had some really weak lead-ins: The Twilight Zone (1985/1986), Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1986/1987), Beauty and the Beast (1987/1988, 1988/1989), Snoops (1989), Max Monroe (1990), The Bradys (1990), Bagdad Cafe (1990), Sugar and Spice (1990), Over My Dead Body (1990), Guns of Paradise (1991). CBS just could not find anything that worked as a Dallas lead-in. Even though The Dukes of Hazzard drew an entirely different audience and it wasn't a Top 10 show in its final three seasons 1982/1983 to 1984/1985, somehow that show worked as a Dallas lead-in.

 

[DaveyL]

After 13 years...a show just runs out of gas (no pun intended). I don't think Dallas was "killed"..it was simply time to end. Mary Martin's death I know was also heavily on Larry's mind in the last season.

 

[Seaviewer]

the dream season was marred by the overwhelming sense that these plotlines weren't going anywhere -- which the audience can feel.

I didn't feel that. I was involved all the way through. I just wish they'd been allowed to continue into the following season.

 

[Rove]

knew when to pull the plug on the show and went out on top after 10 successful seasons.

I think that's why Friends is still as popular today as when it first screened. The cast knew when to pull the plug and that was a ballsy move which is now paying dividends to them still. None of them have to work another day in their life due to the continued residuals the cast is receiving.

I wish the cast of the Dallas understood this back in their heyday. The series was strong as long as that core cast remained. But then I think comparing a serial drama to a half hour comedy series is difficult. Friends I can come and go. Dallas is an investment.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Our Holy Lord and Master, Saint Paulsen just had to be there.

 

[tommie]

I wish the cast of the Dallas understood this back in their heyday. The series was strong as long as that core cast remained. But then I think comparing a serial drama to a half hour comedy series is difficult. Friends I can come and go. Dallas is an investment.

I think it's worth remembering that comedies/procedurals do better in general in syndication because you can jump in and out of them. I think the Dallas cast (or rather Larry and Patrick's) strategy was to take the money and run.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Yup, she essentially asked for a lighter work load and they supposedly felt they needed to have Ellie on the show in a full time capacity, hence recasting. Of course, they barely used Donna Reed ultimately so it makes no sense,

But sometimes the executives' ability to say "no" outstrips their interest in logic or even money.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Of course Sue Ellen could have become the mistress .

Oh, that's a really good idea. Have JR cheat on one of his later wives with Sue Ellen, placing her in the same position as his earlier mistresses -- and JR and Sue Ellen, naturally, eventually get caught, with Sue Ellen having to face a confrontation with accusations of "cheater" -- only this time from the mistresses' perspective.


"Oh, Sue Elllllen -- don'tchyou know you'll always be my favorite ho...."

 

[Rove]

Imagine what a shock it must have been to the CBS executives in the spring of 1986 when Angela Lansbury became the face of CBS's primetime scripted lineup and no longer Larry Hagman

Perhaps the producers of Dallas missed a golden opportunity and should have hired Angela Lansbury to replace Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie.

Did I just put that on the internet The combination of Larry and Angela would have been ratings gold. Alexis Carrington & Co. wouldn't have stood a chance.​

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I’m still baffled as to why the country’s major publishing houses refuse to offer a premium for the rights to my 3-volume magnum opus “The Tragic Underutilization of the Dynamic Andy Bradley”

Well Andy moved to Houstan and opened up a Gay Bar.

That says it all in my opinion!!

 

[Toni]

Left, the façade of Bradley´s Pub. Right, the inside at a meh night!​

 

[Mustard]

Pam left and it was over. The end. Bye. Nobody cared anymore, least of all Bobby.

I think the dream revelation caused most people not to take Dallas seriously anymore, but Pam's departure and the whole mummy business finished off most of those who had gotten past the dream revelation. Even those who kept watching took Dallas less and less seriously, as did the cast and crew it seemed.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I think the dream revelation caused most people not to take Dallas seriously anymore, but Pam's departure and the whole mummy business finished off most of those who had gotten past the dream revelation. Even those who kept watching took Dallas less and less seriously, as did the cast and crew it seemed.

If only they'd been brave enough to actually reveal Steve Forrest's Wes Parmalee as really being Jock after all the dynamic of the show could've changed for the better.

A shame. Dallas needed a lift and a new direction after both Susan Howard and Victoria Principal left. Having Jock back would've fulfilled that but the Producers just weren't brave enough to do it.

 

[Snowcat]

Yes true, I'm wondering now if the increase in viewers at the start of season 12 were because Pam was back rather than to watch the outcome of JR being shot again.

For sure. My family & I were at the edge of our seats to see Pam return

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

For sure. My family & I were at the edge of our seats to see Pam return

I would've loved to see her come back.

However, I respect Victoria's decision to move on.

She certainly left her mark on the series though.

 

[Snowcat]

I would've loved to see her come back.

However, I respect Victoria's decision to move on.

She certainly left her mark on the series though.

I think We knew it was going to be someone else. But we were excited to see Pam

 

[Snowcat]

The dream season hurt things but didn’t kill it. The loss of Ewing Oil & Pam running away was what started the shows death. I think the only thing that could have helped revive it was Wes Parmalee turning out to be Jock. i have so many different scenarios how this could have happened. Clayton died. Wes returns. It turns out his last conversation with miss Ellie, he said he was Jock. Only she realized it & he couldn’t continue to see his family hurt. Then when he comes back he has a huge argument with the boys. He begins telling them things from their childhood. Things only he would know- like where their birthmark was. Super personal things. He says damn it boys look in my eyes and tell me how I am not your daddy. Then they realize it’s true.