How insulting was the Matt Cantrell character fiasco?

[Snarky Oracle!]

ah, another great aspect of "Cantrell as Pam's dream" - the original Guzzler was the established star "big man on campus" who coaxed a less-confident Bobby into gridiron success.

It's funny about Guzzler's speech at the end of that episode -- it sailed right over my head when I was younger, but found it much more affecting in recent years (and, no, not that I relate to it, but you just notice certain things you once didn't as much). Others have made the same observation.

Of course, I've long decided that Pam died of adult-onset neurofibromatosis (off camera, naturally). So Digger's her daddy after all! Spread the word!

 

[James from London]

the original Guzzler was the established star "big man on campus" who coaxed a less-confident Bobby into gridiron success.

So Bobby was to Matt what Guzzler was to Bobby.

 

[Julia's Gun]

The emerald mine scenario was something thrown together to explain Pam's one-episode absence (and her oddly-swollen mug upon returning) after Voctoria experienced a real-life medical emergency, ostensibly a back injury.

Well we all know what that was about. Victoria obviously shagged Marc Singer in the tent and it put her back out for an episode.

I think it's his deep baritone voice that is really annoying me in this re-watch. I'm longing for a lost Colombian tribe to come along, abduct and castrate him, just to raise it up an octave or two...

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Well we all know what that was about. Victoria obviously shagged Marc Singer in the tent and it put her back out for an episode.

I think it's his deep baritone voice that is really annoying me in this re-watch. I'm longing for a lost Colombian tribe to come along, abduct and castrate him, just to raise it up an octave or two...

But surely the real Pam would've woken up by then if she was dreaming she was having it off with Matt Cantrell.

I believe this is known as a matt finish.

 

[Julia's Gun]

Well the sex was obviously so good she went back to sleep afterwards and carried on dreaming for a few more episodes.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Well the sex was obviously so good she went back to sleep afterwards and carried on dreaming for a few more episodes.

Yeah you're probably right. Marc Singer was really cute back then. So I'm not surprised she gave into her carnage desires. In the real reality it was probably Bobby giving her one before he gets up to go have that shower.

 

[the-lost-son]

Matt Cantrell is a prime example that they tried to copy the things Dynasty did constantly at that time. I don't like these characters appearing when the show is long in the tooth, everyone knows but we never heard of them. Like Frank Agretti on Falcon Crest.

I hate how he was "re-introduced" by having practically every member of the main cast drooling over him as some long lost great friend of Bobby that we've never heard of.
Even poor Miss Ellie had to say "Matt, great to see you again" as if they've been freinds for years.

If they wanted two shove him down our throats then let him appear at the funeral not 15 episodes later. Sue Ellen falling in his arms makes me giggle everytime. I doubt that the SueEllen 10 years ago would have cared about Bobby's school friends.

This whole emerald storyline is so silly, I grew to laugh about it by time.
1. Pam, a single mother who runs Ewing Oil and Barnes Wentworth in partnership goes to Colombia...to do what exactly? To sleep in a tent?
But they needed the weak woman who can't help being kidnapped
2. the cheesy corrupt police/government
3. The set us beautiful though.

Matt Cantrell was bad because he made the other characters look bad.
Pam who didn't see through him right from the start. As mentioned the whole family drooling over him, but foremost JR.
First he starts the whole story, then gets second thoughts and flies to Colombia as well to do what? and worst of all, he got punched by Matt Cantrell.
It's this scene I have in mind when I remember the remark "if you diminish JR, you diminish the whole series"
And it was so pointless - Matt Cantrell leaves with his head held high and we are left with JR who once drove others to commit suicide but now can't deal with a fraud anymore.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

Yeah you're probably right. Marc Singer was really cute back then. So I'm not surprised she gave into her carnage desires. In the real reality it was probably Bobby giving her one before he gets up to go have that shower.

indeed, some have speculated that Bobby and Pam were so charged with energy on the evening of the reunion that the frenzy of carnal desire and transcendently frantic consummation launched Pam into a dreamlike, hallucinatory state not unlike the result of ingesting the most powerful of psychedelics. No wonder all the ladies came after Bobby so hard!

-an aspiring Lee Raintree Jr.

 

[Crimson]

I didn't like the Hutch as Pam's biological father bit

Very possibly my least favorite thing DALLAS did in its first half, mostly because it felt so pointless. Was anything ever really done with that revelation?

I have no problem with previously unmentioned family or friends being introduced, as long as it doesn't contradict something already established. If Jock had been mentioned to be an only child, then suddenly talking about Jason would be irksome. Likewise, it's not odd to me that Bobby would have a friend we hadn't yet seen or heard about. We only spent, what, 30 hours per year with these characters and only knew snippets of their backstories.

(Those new characters being handled well is a whole different topic ...)

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Very possibly my least favorite thing DALLAS did in its first half, mostly because it felt so pointless. Was anything ever really done with that revelation?

I have no problem with previously unmentioned family or friends being introduced, as long as it doesn't contradict something already established. If Jock had been mentioned to be an only child, then suddenly talking about Jason would be irksome. Likewise, it's not odd to me that Bobby would have a friend we hadn't yet seen or heard about. We only spent, what, 30 hours per year with these characters and only knew snippets of their backstories.

(Those new characters being handled well is a whole different topic ...)

See, that's it precisely. New characters (sometimes poorly drawn) is a different issue from retconning a show's historical narrative.

 

[Crimson]

Right. There's a big difference between a revelation (something we didn't previously know) and a retcon (changing something already established).

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

It's funny about Guzzler's speech at the end of that episode -- it sailed right over my head when I was younger, but found it much more affecting in recent years (and, no, not that I relate to it, but you just notice certain things you once didn't as much). Others have made the same observation.

Of course, I've long decided that Pam died of adult-onset neurofibromatosis (off camera, naturally). So Digger's her daddy after all! Spread the word!

Digger was not her Daddy!

Her Father was Hutch McKinney.

What on earth are you talking about here!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Digger was not her Daddy!

Her Father was Hutch McKinney.

What on earth are you talking about here!

I'm going to have to kill you. I hope you understand.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

I don't care what any of the luminaries of Tellytalk say, I'm team "There Was No Jason" to the core, even if it's a team of one!

"watch out Mr. Tripper, there's a bulging new Jack in town!"

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I'm going to have to kill you. I hope you understand.

Yeah I understand perfectly.

I'll be waiting for you.

McSween has orders that if you come anywhere near me you won't get away alive.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Matt Cantrell is a prime example that they tried to copy the things Dynasty did constantly at that time.

Yes, despite its dynastic title, DYNASTY had no sense of its own dynastic history at all -- new characters we'd never seen before would drop in, and that was perfectly acceptable, but there was no lineage that made any sense or was adhered to. or one which was credibly expanded. And there needed to be.

Just because we'd never heard of Jason or Jack or Jamie, doesn't mean it's a contradiction or an anachronism once we do.

Ray calling Mickey "my nephew," however, is an actual error.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Yes, despite its dynastic title, DYNASTY had no sense of its own dynastic history at all -- new characters we'd never seen before would drop in, and that was perfectly acceptable, but there was no lineage that made any sense or was adhered to. And there needed to be.

Just because we'd never heard of Jason or Jack or Jamie, doesn't mean it's a contradiction or an anachronism once we do.

Ray calling Mickey "my nephew," however, is an actual error.

Ray was Mickey's cousin wasn't he?

I can't quite remember.

 

[Mustard]

Ray calling Mickey "my nephew," however, is an actual error.

Unless it's some sort of Texas or Kansas cultural thing that I don't know about, i.e. calling cousins "nephews".

Ray was Mickey's cousin wasn't he?

I can't quite remember.

Yes, cousins. Ray's mother Margaret and Mickey's mother Lilian were sisters.

 

[Crimson]

I've long decided that Pam died of adult-onset neurofibromatosis (off camera, naturally). So Digger's her daddy after all!

I think it's the worst creative decision of the first half of the series, but also remarkably easy to simply ignore; the writers pretty much did anyway.

Parental revelations is generally a solid dramatic plot point, but not here. Making Pam not-a-Barnes undermines one of the central concepts of the entire darm series. Imagine Shakespeare tossing in "and she wasn't really a Capulet, after all"!

 

[Mustard]

I think it's the worst creative decision of the first half of the series, but also remarkably easy to simply ignore; the writers pretty much did anyway.

Parental revelations is generally a solid dramatic plot point, but not here. Making Pam not-a-Barnes undermines one of the central concepts of the entire darm series. Imagine Shakespeare tossing in "and she wasn't really a Capulet, after all"!

Digger is as much Pam's father as Bobby is Christopher's father. Biology isn't everything.