Alternative way to resurrect Bobby

[Chris2]

Dallas was doing fine without Bobby Ewing, at #6 in the 1985-86 ratings, down from #2 in 1984-85. Dynasty went from #1 in 1984-85 to #7 in 1985-86. In hindsight, all the big US soaps declined in the ratings after 1985, some more than others. Knots Landing did the best in slowing their decline down, and by 1988 Knots Landing was the most popular US soap, with Dynasty having had a big decline out of the top 40, and Dallas going into a big decline of their own out of the top 20 and would soon crash much further. Bobby's return did not stop an accelerated ratings decline for Dallas after 1986.

There was a 10% drop in the overall US ratings for the season after Patrick Duffy left. But worse, there was a marked decline in the ratings during the second half of the dream season, when the show dropped out of the top 10. That’s what alarmed CBS. The overall rating for the season was boosted by strong numbers in the earlier part of the season, plus a strong season finale. But the ratings were dropping significantly during that latter part of the season. If the show had been doing fine, then Lorimar and CBS wouldn’t have spent all that money getting Duffy and Lenny Katzman back on board.

The ratings drop between 85-86 (the dream season) and 86-87 (Bobby’s return) was the smallest drop between seasons the show had seen since the ratings started declining after the show’s peak in 1981. The overall rating between 85-86 and 86-87 was virtually identical (a little less than a 3% decline). You can attribute Duffy’s return or better storytelling to this. Then, after Victoria Principal left, the show’s ratings drop resumed - it lost almost 20% of its audience in the season immediately following her departure.

 

[Snowcat]

If there was just a little more time to re-shoot some scenes from the season finale, I would have blamed Angelica Nero.

Instead of planting bombs, Angelica should have forced JR at gunpoint to a hidden location where JR sees the very much alive Bobby. It turns out that at the time of the car crash, Angelica was already lurking around the Ewings. Knowing the best doctors in the world, she figured Bobby could be a big bargaining chip in case JR didn't support her master plan, so she saved him. Now that she was on the run, she could actually use Bobby. If JR wants him back, he'll have to pay a $50 million ransom.. So the actual cliffhanger wouldn't be that Bobby is alive, but whether JR is willing to pay that amount of money to get his brother back.

The season opener could easily solve the dilemma: the police could have followed JR and freed Bobby and shot Angelica within the first five minutes - or the writers could stretch the story out by having JR sell parts of Ewing Oil to Cliff or Weststar for the ransom to get Bobby back.

I like your alternative plot the best. Now that is creative!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

If there was just a little more time to re-shoot some scenes from the season finale, I would have blamed Angelica Nero.

Instead of planting bombs, Angelica should have forced JR at gunpoint to a hidden location where JR sees the very much alive Bobby. It turns out that at the time of the car crash, Angelica was already lurking around the Ewings. Knowing the best doctors in the world, she figured Bobby could be a big bargaining chip in case JR didn't support her master plan, so she saved him. Now that she was on the run, she could actually use Bobby. If JR wants him back, he'll have to pay a $50 million ransom.. So the actual cliffhanger wouldn't be that Bobby is alive, but whether JR is willing to pay that amount of money to get his brother back.

The season opener could easily solve the dilemma: the police could have followed JR and freed Bobby and shot Angelica within the first five minutes - or the writers could stretch the story out by having JR sell parts of Ewing Oil to Cliff or Weststar for the ransom to get Bobby back.

In my Witness Protection Program scenario with which to revive Bobby, it would be explained in the first episode of Season 10 that Angelica's entire business plot was an elaborate ruse to rein in the Ewings and lure them out of the country to do them in. And that she had been hired as an assassin, using a shadowy web of assassin infrastructure in Europe and the Orient, to kill Bobby and JR and other members of the family for various reasons --- and their client was none other than Katherine Wentworth, who'd hired them anonymously, so their plans went underway with no knowledge that the person who'd solicited their homicidal services, Katherine, was already dead.

But Interpol and the FBI and CIA discovered the plan, and then worked with Miss Ellie -- not JR nor Pam -- to hide Bobby, who been revived after he'd flat-lined, in a clandestine coma and then convalescent rehab once he'd regained consciousness. Until Angelica and her band of butchers could be corralled and brought to justice.

All the details could be worked out in a single episode.

 

[WarriorsFan]

Dallas was in a long slow decline from the moment they switched Miss Ellie's head and started repeating the same storylines over and over.

I say the decline began April 19, 1985, episode The Ewing Connection. Why I picked that episode? It was the first time Dallas was beaten in the weekly ratings by Murder She Wrote. It's one thing for Larry Hagman to be beaten in the weekly ratings by Joan Collins or Bill Cosby (February 1, 1985, episode Legacy of Hate, was the first time Dallas was beaten in the weekly ratings by The Cosby Show) as their shows were on different networks, but another thing to be beaten in the weekly ratings by Angela Lansbury who's show was on the same network and in its first season in 1984/1985. I would have loved to have seen the reactions at CBS and Lorimar when they saw the ratings for the week that Angela first beat Larry.

 

[lbf522]

But the show wasn’t doing perfectly fine without him. The ratings for the latter half of the dream season really tumbled - the show was barely in the top 15 some weeks. And it had been #2 the previous season.

I felt the same way. I liked JR and Jack's relationship and that they did not make Jack a carbon copy of Bobby, that is a mindless hot head. I could have done without Bobby coming back.

Also, if a character is killed on screen, that makes it hard to bring them back.

 

[WarriorsFan]

But the show wasn’t doing perfectly fine without him. The ratings for the latter half of the dream season really tumbled - the show was barely in the top 15 some weeks. And it had been #2 the previous season.

There was a 10% drop in the overall US ratings for the season after Patrick Duffy left. But worse, there was a marked decline in the ratings during the second half of the dream season, when the show dropped out of the top 10. That’s what alarmed CBS. The overall rating for the season was boosted by strong numbers in the earlier part of the season, plus a strong season finale. But the ratings were dropping significantly during that latter part of the season. If the show had been doing fine, then Lorimar and CBS wouldn’t have spent all that money getting Duffy and Lenny Katzman back on board.

Also when the 1985/1986 ratings were compiled for the full season, Dallas was no longer CBS's highest rated scripted show, that honor went to Murder She Wrote. Imagine what a shock it must have been for CBS to see that Angela Lansbury had taken over from Larry Hagman as the face of the network's primetime scripted lineup.

The second time Dallas was beaten in the weekly ratings by Murder She Wrote was September 27, 1985, the two hour season premiere. I don't think anyone had any idea at the time it was a sign of things to come.