I just watched the reunion episodes from Season 1, when Gary comes back to Southfork. Honestly, I blame Gary more for his issues than JR. He didn’t have to run away. Jock wasn’t pressuring him. JR never said stay up all night and read about this business. Gary could have been honest with his family. He could have said this isn’t for me & I don’t want to stay Here. He could have been honest with Lucy and told her this isn’t a healthy environment for him rather than abandon her. Gary also made the choice to abandon his wife when Lucy was a baby. JR said he ran from responsibility. He was right. Gary doesn’t have very much of my sympathy. Thoughts?
James from London
International Treasure
Gary’s the most interesting, complicated Ewing brother, at least pre-New DALLAS. Was he weak not to try to compete with his brothers, was he strong not to try to compete with his brothers? Both probably.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
I think Gary felt that he didn't fit in with his own family especially his Father and JR who were both cut from the same cloth.
Whilst he certainly got along with his Mother & Bobby that clearly wasn't enough to keep him at Southfork.
I wouldn't say he was a weak man just that his ideals & opinions weren't compatible with members of his own family. I think he did the right thing by leaving Southfork and making a life for himself elsewhere.
Whilst he certainly got along with his Mother & Bobby that clearly wasn't enough to keep him at Southfork.
I wouldn't say he was a weak man just that his ideals & opinions weren't compatible with members of his own family. I think he did the right thing by leaving Southfork and making a life for himself elsewhere.
Last edited:
Jimmy Todd
Telly Talk Mega Star
Instead of a weak man, I see him as a man who struggled with his weakness, if that makes any sense.
I believe he ran away from situations because he didn't know how else to deal with them, and he was too insecure to believe he had something to offer. Miss Ellie and Jock divided their children and reinforced certain qualities as opposed to raising their children together and developing a variety of qualities in them. Hence, JR identified completely with being a ruthless businessman and Gary with being only the sensitive outsider.
Gary was a great character, and I loved his evolution on seasons 4-6 of KL.
I believe he ran away from situations because he didn't know how else to deal with them, and he was too insecure to believe he had something to offer. Miss Ellie and Jock divided their children and reinforced certain qualities as opposed to raising their children together and developing a variety of qualities in them. Hence, JR identified completely with being a ruthless businessman and Gary with being only the sensitive outsider.
Gary was a great character, and I loved his evolution on seasons 4-6 of KL.
Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
It was different in the past, though. Jock was pressuring a teenage Gary back in the early 1960s when he was living at Southfork with a teenage Valene and baby Lucy. "You have a wife and daughter now, Gary. You have responsibilities, now bloody well face them, or you'll have me to answer to".
Gary at that point doesn't like responsibility. It scares him, and his instinct is to run away. It can't have done his male ego any good in his youth that an (on the surface) vulnerable Valene seemed to get stronger with every setback and become a bit of a rock to him, while he just seemed to get more scared. This theme is shown to some extent in the first 3 Knots Landing seasons too.
If Gary was set on achieving something, he was pretty formidable. That's why J.R. is always weary of Gary. J.R. knows a full potential Gary is a possible threat to him. A bit different with Bobby, because Bobby plays the Ewing game, does what's expected of him, whereas Gary is unpredictable and thinks way outside the box.
Last edited:
Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
And probably ended up stronger than all of them. A late 1980s and early 1990s Gary Ewing seems stronger than the equivalent Bobby and J.R., even though he still has some of his weaknesses. Being with Abby helped him grow as a person in a big way, even though in the long run that marriage wasn't meant to be. He learned how to face responsibilities when left with no choice, how to deal with business deceit when it involved his interests, how to do the day-to-day aspects of being a father (stepfather to Olivia and Brian). It also helped that he inherited money from his father, even though he eventually blew that money on a failed tidal energy scheme in 1992 and he and Val (now with their twins, Bobby and Betsy) had to go back to how they had been a decade earlier on the Cul-de-sac.
Last edited:
Billy Wall
Telly Talk Dream Maker
I never understood, why does someone always have to “compete” for Jock’s approval? They only thing that makes Gary weak is him running out on his daughter. But for some reason, nobody considers Bobby weak for giving up his son. And yes, you can blame JR to a certain extent. He knew that Gary couldn’t handle that workload but he gave it to him anyway. Maybe Gary went overboard by trying to prove he could do it, but JR got the ball rolling.
James from London
International Treasure
Cos that's the show. If they were all secure and well-adjusted in their relationships with their father, nothing much would happen.
Billy Wall
Telly Talk Dream Maker
Yes, but JR’s and Bobby’s need for Jock’s approval was borderline fanatical. I respect Gary for not buying into that.
Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
Ah, but that was after Dallas' writing went largely to rubbish.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
That was the interesting thing about Jock and the family's perception/memory of him. We only saw the final version of Jock when he was sweet grandpa, but even Jock admitted he was a ruthless so-and-so in his youth who ran roughshod over other people. And then Donna discovered Jock had helped place Jonas Culver in a mental asylum to get Jonas' land where he then committed suicide -- which wasn't the plan, but it was lucrative just the same.
The battle within the family that Jock created over his will speaks to the control he had over them, even post-mortem. The battle was obviously going to ruin any number of lives, and yet Jock did it anyway to assure "the toughest" son would win -- and all the Ewings can do is worship him for it.
And for added passive-aggressive perversity, Jock writes that final letter asking his two sons to share the company, which means either JR gets Ewing Oil alone (if he wins, because he won't share it) or JR becomes co-owner if Bobby wins (who will share it).
As Ellie might say, "Oh, Jock .... noooooooooo."
Last edited by a moderator:
Hahaha! Good point. I guess we wouldn’t have a show otherwise
I don’t approve of him abandoning his family the first time but I get it. He was a teenager. But now he’s a 30 something man. No one was holding a gun to his head and telling him to stay at Southfork. The part that he couldn’t stand up for himself and had to run. Not Abandoning his daughter wasn’t enough of a motivation for some courage. This is what I have an issue with. At that point his problem was him, not his family. He could have said no to JR. I blame JR for what he did to Val but not what he did to Gary.
Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
There's a Season 2 Knots Landing episode where Val has colon cancer, needs an operation and there's a chance that she'll have a colostomy bag afterwards. Bobby visited Knots in this episode, and was furious with Gary for wanting to run for the hills. Val, the love of his life had a health emergency, and Gary was so scared of what could happen that he wanted to run away. Once he was with Abby, this started to change.
Ha - exactly. If people acted normally on “Dallas” - refusing to live with clinging, overbearing relatives and not going into business with sociopathic brothers - then there wouldn’t be any show. Bobby and Pam seemed reasonably normal, so in real life they would have moved far away from their dysfunctional families.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
Exactly and let's not forget that Ellie was preparing herself for her eventual regeneration into Donna Reed. And we all know how that worked out!
DallasFanForever
Telly Talk Supreme
I thought Gary was a very complex character. At times I felt sorry for him and other times I felt he was his own worst enemy. I guess I don’t really view him as being weak. I view him more as someone who had their demons and couldn’t always meet them head on because he needed help dealing with them. And that wasn’t exactly the family to be around for someone struggling with demons. It’s better he stayed away.
ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
Gary Ewing was interesting, in his early years during KNOTS he was weak but ironically his affair and subsequent marriage with Abby made him a stronger person in his own right.
I do wonder how his life would have panned out had he stayed in DALLAS, but Still got involved with Abby, would he still become the strong and dependable person we saw in the last half of KNOTS only living near JR? I think he would have been, Val has Abby to thank for Gary becoming a better person.
I do wonder how his life would have panned out had he stayed in DALLAS, but Still got involved with Abby, would he still become the strong and dependable person we saw in the last half of KNOTS only living near JR? I think he would have been, Val has Abby to thank for Gary becoming a better person.
the-lost-son
Telly Talk Well-Known Member
Great thread. I started a similar one last year:
I haven't watched Knots landing (except a few episodes) due to lack of DVDs and no streaming available. I often ponder what Dallas would have been like with Gary on board on a fulltime basis.
If Dallas hadn't been that successful, a spin-off named KL wouldn't have materialised. In my opinion it's a given that Gary (and Val) would have returned then. It would have been great to explore the relationships between Gary and his parents or Lucy. Only after they launched KL Ray became the 4th son. I wonder where they intended to go with the Ray/Lucy love affair in the 1st place. As Gary was described as an alcoholic from the start it's a given that soaps pick that up again. I wonder if SueEllen had remained the brunette on the couch.
By the way I somehow liked the scenario of the miniseries where each Ewing couple had a "tiny home".
"Unfortunately" Knots landing was so successful that it outlasted its mother series. Gary&Val would have always been a great addition to Dallas, especially after Bobby died or Pam left. It feels like a relaunch which could have worked. Another brother butting heads with JR who hates his sister-in-law. Especially in the later years, there could have been some great storylines for Lucy and Miss Ellie who were in desperate need for it.
Gary Ewing in Dallas
I always liked Gary back in Dallas. It was realistic that some offspring of the Ewing family lived further away and when he arrived it was always for a major reason (reading of Jock's will, Lucy's wedding, Bobby's funeral) I have watched only a few episodes of Knots Landing, but I really liked...
tellytalk.net
I haven't watched Knots landing (except a few episodes) due to lack of DVDs and no streaming available. I often ponder what Dallas would have been like with Gary on board on a fulltime basis.
If Dallas hadn't been that successful, a spin-off named KL wouldn't have materialised. In my opinion it's a given that Gary (and Val) would have returned then. It would have been great to explore the relationships between Gary and his parents or Lucy. Only after they launched KL Ray became the 4th son. I wonder where they intended to go with the Ray/Lucy love affair in the 1st place. As Gary was described as an alcoholic from the start it's a given that soaps pick that up again. I wonder if SueEllen had remained the brunette on the couch.
By the way I somehow liked the scenario of the miniseries where each Ewing couple had a "tiny home".
"Unfortunately" Knots landing was so successful that it outlasted its mother series. Gary&Val would have always been a great addition to Dallas, especially after Bobby died or Pam left. It feels like a relaunch which could have worked. Another brother butting heads with JR who hates his sister-in-law. Especially in the later years, there could have been some great storylines for Lucy and Miss Ellie who were in desperate need for it.
Last edited:
ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
I do love Knots, but it did deprive us of Val and Gary.
Could we have seen a team of two Ewing brothers against the other two? JR/Bobby vs Ray/Gary or JR/Ray vs Bobby/Gary might’ve been more likely, since JR and Ray were best of mates in the beginning, I do wonder if Ray taking Gary’s spot on Dallas meant he was given Gary’s role as the brother JR most despised?
In this scenario I’d still included Abby to be the secondary villainess, and a thorn in Gary/Val’s relationship and to also face off with Lucy, another thing we missed was how Lucy would have been with Abby.
So many possibilities.