Time jump in Dallas

[the-lost-son]

There is a great article about a 5 year time jump which Desperate Houdewives did.

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

Here some extracts:
- Marc Cherry revealed the reason for the five-year time jump was a result of his desire to reset the drama before it escalated beyond his creative control. "I wanted to go back to what the pilot was which was smaller problems" . A major issue with serialized dramas is that the plot may become overcomplicated as each conflict starts to build off of one another. Cherry further cited that the most difficult part of filming Desperate Housewives was, "I don't like it when, kind of, the soap takes over." He wanted to reinstitute an element of relatability to these characters by distancing them greatly from the (previous) seasons.

- Marc Cherry cleverly kept the series from becoming a confusing soap opera with a convoluted plot by resetting the narrative back to the standards of season 1.

- By the time jump most of the children became unruly teenagers. Thus, Desperate Housewives was able to rejuvenate the dwindling engagement of its audience.

A time jump would have been great for Dallas imo. Especially the children were uninteresting mostly to say the least. Making them older could have attracted younger viewers which they tried anyway with Sasha Mitchell, Kimberly Foster etc.
When Larry was close to his 60s it would have been a wise move to reposition him as a Jock character instead of pairing him with women half his age.

Would you have liked a time jump for Dallas?
If yes, when should it have happened?
After Pam's crash would have been a good moment for example.

 

[Chris2]

Yep, Pam’s crash would have been a perfect time to do it. Reset the show and then you get to figure out what happened during the skipped time period. That’s how they could have dealt with Pam leaving the show - and we could have slowly found out why she’s no longer on the scene.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

Except DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is awful...

 

[Knots4ever]

Except DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is awful...

Except it is one of the best shows ever made!

 

[GillesDenver]

After Sue Ellen's departure, it woud have been the perfect time to reset "Dallas" and a time jump would have helped. Instead of James we could have had a young adult John Ross.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I don’t know. I guess I’m not really a fan of time jumps. They always make me feel like I’ve missed out on something. I find them a little confusing to be honest.

 

[Crimson]

I don't think a time jump would have gone over well. 80s TV was pretty stodgy and predictable; audiences weren't accustomed to non-standard narrative formats. DALLAS did the most audacious (albeit executed atrociously) twist of the decade with the Dream, and audiences heads exploded.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

... or sometimes we got:

THREE WEEKS LATER

for no discernable reason.

 

[Seaviewer]

Time jumps are okay for period pieces or futuristic sci-fi but for dramas that are supposedly taking place in the present they make no sense. Making season 9 a dream is effectively a time jump of a year.

 

[tommie]

I don't think a time jump would have gone over well. 80s TV was pretty stodgy and predictable; audiences weren't accustomed to non-standard narrative formats. DALLAS did the most audacious (albeit executed atrociously) twist of the decade with the Dream, and audiences heads exploded.

To be fair though, it's not a great twist no matter how you put it because it essentially erased an entire season of stories, rendering it rather pointless and one of the most easily skipped seasons on Dallas. But you're right that audiences at the time would likely reject it.

With that said, considering they talked about rebooting the show into a "story-of-the-week" format in the later seasons, I think making a time jump wouldn't have been a bad idea if they had tried to reboot the show. It would've allowed them to start fresh at the very least.

 

[Rove]

Would you have liked a time jump for Dallas?
If yes, when should it have happened?
After Pam's crash would have been a good moment for example.

Hypothetically speaking the return season after Pam crashes into the tanker would have been the perfect time for a time jump. Can you imagine the reaction from viewers? The shock, the awe, the bewilderment of it all. Viewers would be sitting comfortably on the lounge about to witness if our beloved Pam survived the crash or not. Instead this happens...

Southfork. Miss Ellie, Clayton, JR (reading the morning paper),Sue Ellen & Bobby are sitting outside beside the swimming pool enjoying breakfast. The conversation is cordial amongst them all. Then Ray & Donna arrive. We the viewer sense something is amiss as the Ewing family are enjoying each others company and wondering at what point are we getting to the juicy bit. What the hell happened to Pam?

In the background we see two boys exit the house and approach the adults. One is aged 13, the other 11. As the elder of the two approaches JR he asks, "Dad, do you have to go into work today?" Which JR responds, "Today I have to John Ross as Clayton, Bobby and I have an important meeting which we cannot miss but we'll be done by lunch." With that JR folds the newspaper and hands it over to Bobby. He looks down at the article and reads the screaming headline...

KATHERINE WENTWORTH RELEASED!

FORMER SISTER-IN-LAW OF BOBBY EWING AND HALF SISTER TO CLIFF BARNES AND THE DECEASED PAMELA BARNES EWING HAS BEEN RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER RECEIVING A PARDON FROM THE GOVERNOR AFTER SERVING ONLY 5 YEARS.
​

I say bring it on.​

 

[Monzo]

When it comes to Desperate Housewives and Ghost Whisperer I think the main reason for the time jump was to sorasing the children. But did it work? Viewers hated Aiden on Ghost Whisperer and there wasn't much love for the new teens on DH. And what about One Tree Hill's time jump?

Would it have been different with John Ross and Christopher?

I think the best time jumps have happened on sci-fi (related) shows.

TV's Best And Worst Time Jumps - TVLine

Many TV shows have attempted a time jump, but not all have succeeded — scroll through our ranking of television's best and worst time jumps.

tvline.com

 

[pete lashmar]

I agree that a slight time jump would have been perfect after Pam's crash, but as they were still trying to get VP back for 2 years after it would never have happened or changed anything.

Ideally the season would have started with a 1 month time jump and started with her funeral - and then continue on.

Anyone else find it odd that Dallas - the daddy of soaps never gave us big funeral scenes....seems very odd in retrospect because of the drama they evoke.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

Like a few people on here I agree that a time jump after Pam’s crash would have been the perfect time for such a thing to take place.

The crash occurred in 1987 so we could have a seven year jump that would take the characters to 1994, enough time for the family (sans JR) to mourn for Pam, John Ross would be 15 at this point with Christopher being around 12/13 years of age.

 

[tommie]

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think it would've been a good alternative in the later seasons. They were one year behind because of the dream season anyway and like Marc Cherry pointed out, soaps can sometimes get too complex and need a bit of a reboot/refresh. Pam leaving the show would've been an opportunity to shake up the chess pieces instead of just trying to keep everything in status quo - of course, they likely would've botched it and just introduced another wife in the place of Pam, but still...

 

[Chris2]

Rove, what you wrote is much more compelling than what we actually got! I might have aged the kids a bit more and not have explicitly mentioned Pam’s death. But I’m totally intrigued.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

though I vigorously disagree with the casting decision in the case of young Christopher, I must ask, "if child characters in Dallas can undergo time shifts on their own, why not the whole show along with them?"

(seen above, young Eric Farlow commands the screen in his little 'onesie' while the more glamorous but less emotive Joshua Harris appears later with his happy parents then in a fashionable stonewashed jean jacket)

 

[Seaviewer]

I say bring it on.

The old forum had a "creative" button. I'd like to give you that but I've settled for

They were one year behind because of the dream season anyway

Mm, good point. But do two wrongs make a right?

 

[Jock's Ghost]

I don't think a time jump would have gone over well. 80s TV was pretty stodgy and predictable; audiences weren't accustomed to non-standard narrative formats. DALLAS did the most audacious (albeit executed atrociously) twist of the decade with the Dream, and audiences heads exploded.

It was terrible is why heads exploded. Just weak and insulting.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

though I vigorously disagree with the casting decision in the case of young Christopher, I must ask, "if child characters in Dallas can undergo time shifts on their own, why not the whole show along with them?"

(seen above, young Eric Farlow commands the screen in his little 'onesie' while the more glamorous but less emotive Joshua Harris appears later with his happy parents then in a fashionable stonewashed jean jacket)

Infants and toddlers waste time on television. A show cant write for a baby for 5 years and have the same results.