The WORST casting choice in Dallas history

[CeeCee72]

Not the worst character, but the worst CASTING of a character.

My nominations would be:

Vanessa - nothing against the actress herself, but she had ZERO chemistry with Larry Hangman. After years of watching JR and Sue Ellen light up the screen, it wasn't believable that Vanessa could hold JR's attention. Watching JR with long lost love (and mother of his child) could have been very interesting and could have possibly saved the show, but not when JR didn't seem to have any attraction to the woman in question at all.

James - I mean did anyone do a screen test? That boy couldn't act his way out of a paper back with a hole cut in the bottom. Awful. A long lost son could have really shaken up the series, but the actor was so bad I couldn't take him seriously.

Peter - a Sue Ellen affair with a young hunk would have been delicious. Instead we got Sue Ellen supposedly in lust with a boy who looked and sounded like a fourteen year old girl.

Those were all awful decisions. But wondering if there are others you guys hated worse.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Dennis Patrick and Randy Powell because they should have had much bigger roles.

 

[Monzo]

I was glad they didn't continue with Margaret Michaels as Pam. There probably wouldn't have been any actress who could have convinced me anyway, similar to James. I couldn't think of any actor who would have made me love an adult son of JR's.

I was amazed they couldn't find anyone better for the roles of Cally, Tracey or Casey, but maybe Dallas wasn't the show that great new actors wanted to join at the time and the choices the producers made were the best from the casting pool.

Lesley-Anne Down was odd as Stephanie Rogers, as was Ian McShane as Don Lockwood, but maybe they were just meeting the producers' specifications.

Thinking it all through, I would rank Priscilla Presley as the worst casting choice because for me as Jenna she was the first role that dragged the entire show down. The other characters mentioned joined later when Dallas was weaker, but Priscilla's Jenna got in the way at a time when Dallas was great.

 

[CeeCee72]

I was glad they didn't continue with Margaret Michaels as Pam. There probably wouldn't have been any actress who could have convinced me anyway, similar to James. I couldn't think of any actor who would have made me love an adult son of JR's.

I was amazed they couldn't find anyone better for the roles of Cally, Tracey or Casey, but maybe Dallas wasn't the show that great new actors wanted to join at the time and the choices the producers made were the best from the casting pool.

Lesley-Anne Down was odd as Stephanie Rogers, as was Ian McShane as Don Lockwood, but maybe they were just meeting the producers' specifications.

Thinking it all through, I would rank Priscilla Presley as the worst casting choice because for me as Jenna she was the first role that dragged the entire show down. The other characters mentioned joined later when Dallas was weaker, but Priscilla's Jenna got in the way at a time when Dallas was great.

I agree with you about Priscilla. I think that gets a pass because they show WAS so good while she was on there. But imagine how much better it could have been with a better actress playing Jenna!

 

[the-lost-son]

It mostly depends on how the character is written. I liked Christopher Atkins as Peter Richards. He was written as a vulnerable teenager who through circumstances had an affair with an older woman. Imo it needed to be such a boyish person and no early twenty muscle guy (Sue Ellen witnessed at some point). Otherwise JR would have smelled the affair far in advance. I liked that casting decision therefor.

I didn't mind PP initially, later it got worse. I didn't like Vanessa and James, but the writing was horrible at that time. But they are nonetheless obvious choices as most of later years characters by the way.

Out of Dallas primetime my favorite would be Leslie Stewart. I didn't know what to think of her. This creative mastermind with her flipchart who every man just adores. I never understood the appeal Leslie was supposed to portray. For me nearly all of the female cast at that time was more attractive. So I couldn't get into her character who (for me) should have been played by a more attractive person.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Priscilla Presley as Jenna Wade.

Her acting was on a par with the Smurf's only they're much more entertaining.

She can do comedy acting better than serious drama as witnessed in The Naked Gun movies.

 

[CeeCee72]

Out of Dallas primetime my favorite would be Leslie Stewart. I didn't know what to think of her. This creative mastermind with her flipchart who every man just adores. I never understood the appeal Leslie was supposed to portray. For me nearly all of the female cast at that time was more attractive. So I couldn't get into her character who (for me) should have been played by a more attractive person.

I honestly think the only reason Leslie Stewart existed was so we could hear Jock bellow at JR about how women belong in the bedroom and not the he boardroom.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I always want to see Rita Moreno in the role of Vanessa, for some reason, bringing an aspect of Latina Texas into the show other than the staff.

James seemed like casting you might expect on FC or KNOTS.

I'm okay with Priscilla. And Chris Atkins' molestation status seemed deliberate -- neither Sue Ellen nor Peter were competent people.

I didn't like Shalane McCall until they admitted that Charlie was a bitch, and then I was fine with it.

Lesley-Anne Down seemed shoe-horned in, but DALLAS was losing its identity by this point.

I was fine with Cally and her casting. I liked Tracey and thought they should have done more with her and her relationship to Bobby. Casey was smarmy but fit in well enough.

Margaret Michaels was also acceptable as the lure as long as we knew she probably wasn't really Pam (her one scene as Pam I've rationalized is Jeanne in a set-up).

I always want a sexy black guy, perhaps a British one, as Don Lockwood, but Katzman would never have permitted it. I recall Ray Parker, Jr. saying he wanted to go on DALLAS and "be kissin' on Sue Ellen" but it wasn't going to happen.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Donna Reed was completely miscast as Miss Ellie but then whoever they got in to take over the role from Barbara Bel Geddes was never going to work.

Barbara was too well loved in the role.

I do think that poor Donna was stuck in the middle between the shows fans and Lorimar top brass. So sad she died shortly after suing Lorimar for breach of contract. May she Rest In Peace.

 

[CeeCee72]

Ian McShane is a fine actor, but yes, it was a serous miscast. He and Linda Gray had no chemistry (like JR and Vanessa) and every scene they were in together was a snooze fest.

 

[tommie]

Has to be James.

First of all - it's JRs son. Even if he's meant to be "good" to JR's bad you'd want someone who was hugely charismatic, right? But then they cast... eyecandy. Literally, that's all he was good for - he was pretty to look at. Did they just pick up a catalog from Abercrombie and blindly picked out a model? What were they thinking...

 

[Emelee]

It mostly depends on how the character is written. I liked Christopher Atkins as Peter Richards. He was written as a vulnerable teenager who through circumstances had an affair with an older woman. Imo it needed to be such a boyish person and no early twenty muscle guy (Sue Ellen witnessed at some point). Otherwise JR would have smelled the affair far in advance. I liked that casting decision therefor.

I didn't mind PP initially, later it got worse. I didn't like Vanessa and James, but the writing was horrible at that time. But they are nonetheless obvious choices as most of later years characters by the way.

Out of Dallas primetime my favorite would be Leslie Stewart. I didn't know what to think of her. This creative mastermind with her flipchart who every man just adores. I never understood the appeal Leslie was supposed to portray. For me nearly all of the female cast at that time was more attractive. So I couldn't get into her character who (for me) should have been played by a more attractive person.

Not attractive? Are you serious? Susan Flannery was stunning!

For me, I thought it was weird that Sue Ellen won a beauty contect. Hot body, but an everyday mediocre face. Had it been Pam winning for beauty, it would have made much more sense.

 

[the-lost-son]

Not attractive? Are you serious? Susan Flannery was stunning!

For me, I thought it was weird that Sue Ellen won a beauty contect. Hot body, but an everyday mediocre face. Had it been Pam winning for beauty, it would have made much more sense.

In that picture yes. But especially her wardrobe was nothing which xaught my attention to say the least.
The series was full of beautiful women (including SE, Pam etc.)
Why JR should have been suddenly so attracted to her is beyond me.
When they landed in bed, he summed it up quite well...it wasn't worth the wait.
For him...and me as a viewer.

 

[CeeCee72]

Not attractive? Are you serious? Susan Flannery was stunning!

For me, I thought it was weird that Sue Ellen won a beauty contect. Hot body, but an everyday mediocre face. Had it been Pam winning for beauty, it would have made much more sense.

Disagree about Sue Ellen. Sue Ellen had the most beautiful and expressive eyes I have ever seen.

 

[Emelee]

In that picture yes. But especially her wardrobe was nothing which xaught my attention to say the least.
The series was full of beautiful women (including SE, Pam etc.)
Why JR should have been suddenly so attracted to her is beyond me.
When they landed in bed, he summed it up quite well...it wasn't worth the wait.
For him...and me as a viewer.

It wasn't worth it to her either. They were probably too similar. Like having sex with yourself.

I think the style department didn't do Susan Flannery justice. They dressed her like a conservative politician. Maybe because she was a woman in the male business world who hadn't inherited her career but worked hard for it herself? Lord knows Hillary Clinton took a lot of sh*t for daring to have opinions and wanting to work with politics.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

She was a challenge to him.

Leslie was predatory, she with her cigarillos, but I wouldn't change her. I want Leslie and Lady Jessica and Jeremy Wendell to team up as a reptilian. villainous trio a la BATMAN to take out the Ewings in the final season -- perhaps taking their orders from dead-yet-maybe-not-dead Katherine Wentworth in Hell on a swing, donned in a cat suit, via crystal ball.

I'm not sure if I'm kidding or not. I think I'm not.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

It wasn't worth it to her either. They were probably too similar. Like having sex with yourself.

I think the style department didn't do Susan Flannery justice. They dressed her like a conservative politician. Maybe because she was a woman in the male business world who hadn't inherited her career but worked hard for it herself? Lord knows Hillary Clinton took a lot of sh*t for daring to have opinions and wanting to work with politics.

I agree about her stodgy styling on the show. Beyond that, the thing that baffled me was that she was seemingly sabotaging JR and Ewing Oil at every turn for no particular reason, endangering his relationship with his business associates and his precious daddy, and even trying to get him busted with the Texas Senate and probably the feds, which would have meant the end of Ewing Oil and probably prison time. After all that he didn't seem to mind much as long as he was still able to get her in bed.

Was he supposed to be just so preposterously attracted to her, the woman who dared to say no a couple of times, that he'd put up with all of that? And what exactly was she trying to accomplish other than get a reputation as a hired gun who'd be wildly insubordinate?

 

[Barbara Fan]

Worst casting

1st and formost and above all else - Dreary Reed, awful from Day 1 and so glad she got fired - £1 million for being awful is a good pay deal Id say. More wooden than Lady penelope from Thunderbirds and hair to match. She could have made me switch off and i always FWD any scene she was in when rewatching VHS video tape or DVD

Sheree J Wilson - insipid actress and acting and went from Sinner to Mother Teresa in 2 seasons ugh and no chmistry with Beloved Bob

Cathy Podewell, Kim Foster, Merete Van Kamp, Annabel Schofield as woodentop Bonsai woman Laurel, Sasha Mitchell - and anyone new in final 2 seasons and most definitely the final year. Add Barbara Carrera to that list too

Always thought Susan Flannery looked a bit mannish and way older than her so called 42 years or whatever she was on the show. I choked on my cereal when i read that one in the UK press :eck: (and thought and the rest!!)

 

[Toni]

Not the worst character, but the worst CASTING of a character.

My nominations would be:

Vanessa - nothing against the actress herself, but she had ZERO chemistry with Larry Hangman. After years of watching JR and Sue Ellen light up the screen, it wasn't believable that Vanessa could hold JR's attention. Watching JR with long lost love (and mother of his child) could have been very interesting and could have possibly saved the show, but not when JR didn't seem to have any attraction to the woman in question at all.

James - I mean did anyone do a screen test? That boy couldn't act his way out of a paper back with a hole cut in the bottom. Awful. A long lost son could have really shaken up the series, but the actor was so bad I couldn't take him seriously.

Peter - a Sue Ellen affair with a young hunk would have been delicious. Instead we got Sue Ellen supposedly in lust with a boy who looked and sounded like a fourteen year old girl.

Those were all awful decisions. But wondering if there are others you guys hated worse.

- P. Presley, her non-acting daughter in fiction, and Darius the horse.
- The Wilson woman. She and Katzman must have had a really good (working) relationship.

About all the others you mention, probably Vanessa, and Lesley-Anne Down was wrong for her part. But James, Peter...? Have you ever watched a daytime soap? People want to see beautiful people, not Shakespearean actors. Ian McShane was awful on "Dallas", and the lady who played Mrs. Scottfield.

 

[Chris2]

Susan Flannery was indeed a beautiful and charismatic performer. I didn’t think she looked great on Dallas with her hairstyle and outfits. It’s a shame they couldn’t find something better for her to do - maybe she belonged on one of the other soaps.

Priscilla was probably the worst miscasting because her role was so big, so the poor casting had so much impact.

James was terrible.

Jamie was a missed opportunity; I wish they had gotten someone better than Chrissy’s cousin from Three’s Company.

Chris Atkins was pretty bad because he looked like he was 16 years old and had no romantic chemistry with Linda Gray.