Absolutely! Like Lucy for instance who does not have a job but feels she had an opinion on anything JR did in Ewing Oil. He made made Ewing Oil much larger and wealthier than Jock done.
Cheering for JR
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Billy Wall
Telly Talk Dream Maker
Even I recently said that JR made Ewing Oil bigger than even Jock did, but let’s not overlook all the bad he’s done. The big three that comes to mind.
1. Mortgaging Southfork
2. The BD Calhoun affair (He put the entire family at risk that could have gotten his son killed.)
3. JR was the reason the Justice Department took Ewing Oil away.
Honorable mention: “The Red File”
1. Mortgaging Southfork
2. The BD Calhoun affair (He put the entire family at risk that could have gotten his son killed.)
3. JR was the reason the Justice Department took Ewing Oil away.
Honorable mention: “The Red File”
Yep. JR was an easy scapegoat for them all
Jock Ewing Fan
Telly Talk Star
Good points. JR's ambition made Ewing Oil grow, but that same ambition made him take some unwise risks.
For some reason (not business related) I didn't care for him manipulating Lisa Aldon (was that her name?) about Christopher.
I thought that was too mean.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
Mortgaging Southfork came off brilliantly in the end. It made the Ewing family billionaires, an absolutely huge achievement for an independent oil company. J.R. should have been thanked more for that, in my opinion. Regarding the B.D. Calhoun mess, J.R. made an even bigger mistake there by not keeping his nerve rather than him doing a deal with B.D. in the first place.
If it had been up to J.R., the Red File would have never left the Ewing Oil offices.
southfork88
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
From what can be seen from the first few seasons, Ewing Oil owned several oil fields resulting from Jock's management.
It doesn't seem to me that JR has particularly increased the existing properties ... on the contrary his financial decisions, always controversial from an ethical point of view, have practically destroyed that heritage.
The fact that JR was a character we loved to hate, however, doesn't absolve him of ruining the Ewing family.
It doesn't seem to me that JR has particularly increased the existing properties ... on the contrary his financial decisions, always controversial from an ethical point of view, have practically destroyed that heritage.
The fact that JR was a character we loved to hate, however, doesn't absolve him of ruining the Ewing family.
Lastkidpicked
Telly Talk Dream Maker
Wasn't it Larry Hagman himself who said that if you look at the numbers, J.R. wasn't really that good of a businessman?
It would be an interesting experiment for somebody doing a rewatch. Add up the money the J.R. made against the money J.R. lost and see what his net profits really were.
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Billy Wall
Telly Talk Dream Maker
I heard that too. Come to think of it, JR was only good at business when he had something to blackmail someone with. And often, when he took on somebody his own size (Windell, Bobby, Clayton and even Cliff when he got money and became smarter), JR loss many times.
Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
J.R. made the Ewings billionaires with the Southeast Asian fields. When the fields were nationalized, Ewing Oil only owned 25% of the fields, with J.R. having sold the rest for a healthy profit by dumping them on the Cartel (which Vaughn Leland decided to join in on). It was actually Bobby's time as president after J.R. was shot that saw Ewing Oil become cash poor, although Bobby did get a refinery (which J.R. never had) and some new business. J.R. increased his power again by financing a counter-revolution to get his old Southeast Asian fields back, and getting back in the good books with the Cartel as a result, since they got their part of the Southeast Asian fields too.
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Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
Like most of the big business class, then. If anyone remotely threatens big power in the real world, the powers that be are looking for dirt on that person, and if they can't find any dirt on that person then they put it there with outright lies and smears. The only way to avoid scandal in that scenario is to become so scandalous that you become almost immune to scandal, e.g. Donald Trump.
Jeremy Wendell is more powerful, at West Star, one of the top 8 oil corporations in the world. Bobby won the Battle for Ewing Oil because the big, lucrative Canadian field came in just on time.
Billy Wall
Telly Talk Dream Maker
Heck, even Sue Ellen got the better of JR in the later seasons when he thought he was going to get Control of Westar. Lol
And Bobby defeated JR despite JR flat out breaking the law, getting a variance and opening cut rate gas stations. Lol
Mustard
Telly Talk TV Fanatic
The writing was a bit ridiculous by then. LOL.
Bobby broke the law by blackmailing George Hicks of the Texas Energy Commission and ending the massive profits J.R. was getting on the cut price gas stations. Bobby won because of the Canadian fields with Thornton McLeish, which were massive. I can't remember the exact figures now, but it was something like J.R. being about $16 million ahead before that, and then being about $10 million behind after the Canadian fields came in.
Billy Wall
Telly Talk Dream Maker
Bobby definitely got down in the mud, but dealing with an embargoed country trumps blackmailing someone who already had their hands dirty.
The worst thing Bobby did and it’s not even close, was when he planted those guns in Walt Driscoll’s suitcase. He and JR deserved to go to jail during the battle for Ewing Oil.
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Jock Ewing Fan
Telly Talk Star
I don't know how that would be quantified.
Lastkidpicked
Telly Talk Dream Maker
You just summed up the problem. How do you measure success?
Is it how much J.R. can increase the size of the company? We often hear the phrase, "I'm going to make Ewing Oil the largest independent in Texas" which he did, if Westar is not independent and instead is one of the Seven Sisters.
Is success measured by the overall health of the company? Mac (working for Westar at the time) did say, "Ewing Oil is a good company. They have undeveloped fields and we have the money to develop them."
Is it increasing the quarterly profits of the company? This was exactly the measurement Jock used to set up the contest for Ewing Oil.
Interesting questions. . .
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
Best not to even try.
Bobby did say he was one of the best Oilmen in Dallas.
Mind you with the way JR was written post Pam's departure, he tended to lose more than win.
Katzman should really have made JR more conniving than ever, not made him into a whipping boy who constantly lost!
They spent a ridiculous amount of time on JR & Halleyville. Nothing even came from it. JR literally was a whipping boyBest not to even try.
Bobby did say he was one of the best Oilmen in Dallas.
Mind you with the way JR was written post Pam's departure, he tended to lose more than win.
Katzman should really have made JR more conniving than ever, not made him into a whipping boy who constantly lost!
Jock Ewing Fan
Telly Talk Star
Agreed. the JR I know would, at the very least, returned with a recruited squad, levelled the town beyond recognition,
and punished a number of those folks.