Dallas News August 17, 1982: 40 Years since J.R. was shot... in Spain

[Toni]

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Exactly 40 years ago, Spanish public TV TVE1 aired the final episode of Seaosn 2 of "Dallas", "A House Divided". It was translated as "A Family Divided", and we didn´t watch any more "Dallas" until almost 3 years later, through regional networks. The show was first shown in the minority network TV2 (first 13 episodes) and then, all the way until AHD, with a brief interruption after "Jenna´s Return" (yes, when Bobby seemed to cheat on Pam with the Wade skank). It seems like yesterday but it´s even another century.

I will be publishing a mini-documentary about the history of "Dallas" in Spain next month, which might be interesting for some of you, though I know that there are only 3 or 4 other Spanish fans here. I will keep you updated. And no, we didn´t have a "big" ad like that one below in our Spanish TV Guide...

Instead, we simply had this:



"Finally, next tuesday, J.R. gets two bullets"





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[Toni]

I´m working on some updates for my site and also a documentary for YouTube about "Dallas" in Spain, and I wanted to share part of it with you (not online yet, this is a "sneak preview").

The quotes come from a story published in 1982 on a Spanish newspaper, with two psychotherapists being interviewed about the "Dallas" phenomenon. Any comment will be appreciated! (I don´t necessarily agree with their opinions...). Sorry in advanced if there is something "lost in translation"...

“If we analyze the show´s protagonists, we can see that all of them have pathological traits. J.R. might be the usual decompensated who balances himself out with ladies and money, which he uses to flaunt around his manly power. On the contrary, Bobby might become impotent very likely given his frustrated status in business and family conflicts. Then we have Sue Ellen, who acts hysterically and turns to alcohol for her situation of whore-wife who stays with her husband only for his money and social status.​

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Pamela represents the pseudo-liberated wife who works despite being rich, but is capable to give up on a Paris fashion trip for attending a business party important for her husband. She won´t go to the shrink as soon as she assumes this role of "reasonably liberated wife", whenever she keeps that delicate balance between her personal realization and her position as an "obedient" wife.

DALLAS is based on the patriarchal family, completely reactionary, set in an environment of wealth and power where there is sex too. There are 2 great brothers who are Cain and Abel reincarnated: we enjoy when Cain´s plans backfire, and get moved when the same thing happens to the good brother. J.R. is a fine target to discharge on him our agressivity, just as in Japanese factories, workers have the busts of the directors to beat them when they need to.
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But J.R. turns out to be a man desirable and appealing for his power, money, girlfriends... It´s not strange at all that he became the show´s main protagonist despite his "evilness". J.R. owns all that people want. We are sure that our yuppie execs prefer J.R. over any other character.

Another meaningful detail is the setting of the story, that rich house environment where there are no servants at sight nor an excessive ostentation of wealth, which is a smart ploy to get the maximum number of people identified with it: from the high-class lady who thinks there is an army of servants behind everything who do the laundry, cooking and ironing, to the humble housewife firmly convinced that Sue Ellen or Pam themselves have just laid the table.
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It´s something quite significative that the Ewing house doesn´t look too big or lush, and you can "see" it your own way. On the contrary, the show often features an image of power: the high building in Dallas where the Ewings own their offices, a symbol of J.R.´s financial power.

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Sex is measure very adequately: there is a lot but everybody can watch it. It is suggested but nothing is ever truly seen. The show lets yourself imagine and build upon our own imagination through every character. The plots are varied and open for you to choose what you want. The series is very simple: white and dark, good and bad, no layers. Despite the adulteries and conflicts, "Dallas" is the tangible proof that family is safe and will stay.
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The show´s massive success is the logic consequence of being a well-built product targeted to a majority audience, with enough ingredients for everybody to feel represented, and also because it promises a number of intimate benefits and paybacks, because the public doesn´t want to change anything, only be in the characters´ places and enjoy their privileges."​

 

[bmasters9]

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Exactly 40 years ago, Spanish public TV TVE1 aired the final episode of Seaosn 2 of "Dallas", "A House Divided". It was translated as "A Family Divided", and we didn´t watch any more "Dallas" until almost 3 years later, through regional networks. The show was first shown in the minority network TV2 (first 13 episodes) and then, all the way until AHD, with a brief interruption after "Jenna´s Return" (yes, when Bobby seemed to cheat on Pam with the Wade skank). It seems like yesterday but it´s even another century.

I will be publishing a mini-documentary about the history of "Dallas" in Spain next month, which might be interesting for some of you, though I know that there are only 3 or 4 other Spanish fans here. I will keep you updated. And no, we didn´t have a "big" ad like that one below in our Spanish TV Guide...

View attachment 40023

Instead, we simply had this:

View attachment 40020

"Finally, next tuesday, J.R. gets two bullets"





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Why was J.R.'s shooting in "A House Divided" treated differently in Spain than in North America?

 

[Mustard]

In the UK, J.R. was shot on Monday 26 May 1980. The BBC actually held back broadcasting the episode for many weeks. Episodes of Season 3 DVD in the UK aired weekly on Saturday evenings, and did so from 17 November 1979 up to 12 April 1980. Then they waited 44 days after the penultimate episode before showing the episode where J.R. was shot, even doing news stories about the episode "arriving in the UK".

 

[Toni]

Why was J.R.'s shooting in "A House Divided" treated differently in Spain than in North America?

That´s a very interesting question that has a very complex answer. Keep in mind that Spain had been under a dictatorship for 40 years up to 1975, when Franco died. The first government in this new democracy was elected in 1977 and was center-right, ruling until 1982. The only TV networks we had in Spain until 1985 were public only, so its contents were controlled by the government. "Dallas" was bought and aired initially in 1979-80 (first 13 episodes), so successfully that it soon returned, this time on the main network (the first one couldn´t be seen by everybody). It was scheduled on primetime and its repercussions were huge. Everybody talked about "Dallas" on Wednesdays, since it was aired on Tuesday nights.

But things changed when socialists won the election in 1982. Instead of buying the continuation of the show, they decided against it (because it was symbol of capitalism, reportedly). Then they began airing cheaper shows from European countries. Of course, "Dallas" spoilers came in an avalanche through the tabloids. But the government didn´t take into account that the regional sub-governments (so to say) didn´t agree with them. In my home place Catalonia, the government ruling was conservative, and the first thing they programmed in their own TV network was... "Dallas" and a football game of the Barça team.

So "Dallas" continued only in three of the Spanish "regions" (actually called "autonomies"), but it was treated as the stellar show it was. Aside from Catalonia, it was dubbed into their language and shown in Galicia and Basque Country. Meanwhile, the rest of Spain had to wait until 1989 to watch the post-Who Shot JR seasons. The new regional networks were mega-successful partly thanks to the very popular Ewings and its very perfect regional dubbings. Socialists were surprised to see this, because it proved how wrong they were. The Vice said that "Dallas" "had nothing to do with the normalization of the regional languages" (that had been forbidden by Franco), and clearly saw it as opportunistic. Of course, I didn´t.

Anyway, the Spanish public networks did change their minds, because not only bought other supersoaps (like "Falcon Crest" or "Dynasty"), but also their lame wanna-be´s, like "Flamingo Road", "The Colbys", "Return to Eden", "Paper Dolls", and even some shameless subproducts from South Africa (go figure!). The biggest victim of all this was "Knots Landing", which wasn´t released until 1989, also by the regional networks. Only Catalonia did air it until the end, but, for unknown (and odd) reasons, they omitted their golden years: seasons 4, 5 and 6. So yes, we went from the Season 4 opener (Val leaving Gary) to Val finding her babies (Season 7 opener). They paused the show between one and the other, to disguise the big mistake they were making... IMHO, I think it seemed to them that "Knots" looked outdated in late 80s.

I hope you can understand something of this mess, if not feel free to ask. In short, for a lot of people "Dallas" ended with JR´s shooting, because in 1989 the show was aired on a daily basis, and probably fewer people could watch it for being at work or school. The very last season of "Dallas" was never aired or dubbed into Spanish. There are copies "out there" but only in Latin Spanish. Only the first 3 seasons are available on dvd in Spain. And, at the end of the day, Angela Channing became the most famous of all villains in my country.

I will explain all this better in my planned documentary "The History of Dallas in Spain". Keep tuned in.

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PS: The history of TNT´s "Dallas" is even sadder...

 

[Mustard]

Didn't Romania show Dallas in the 1980s, with the Communist Party bureaucrats thinking it would show people how bad capitalism was, yet instead people saw the lifestyles of the Ewings, and thought "we want some of that". Of course, the Ewing lifestyle is not what people had under capitalism except the very rich.