Linda Gray was fired? Almost every article/interview I've seen said she chose not to renew her contract. Its been a few years since I read her book, but I think even there she never wrote anything about being fired.
I think the most accurate public statement was when Linda publicly complained during nuDALLAS about not getting enough screen time or whatever (again Duffy didn't have her back cause he was too busy sucking up to Cidre and getting rewarded by getting more screen time than the new generation...what the show was about originally).
Yeah. classic case of you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone
What more was left to do with Sue Ellen by that point? Linda Gray's departure at the end of Season 12 DVD seems to be an acknowledgment of that, combined with the budget situation.
The screen time spent on the original Dallas characters kept the show from tanking sooner than it did. That's who Dallas fans were tuning in too see. Bobby was the patriarch of the family and running Southfork. When they focused the ridiculous storylines on the characters that Dallas fans didn't care about, like Ann and Elena and their families, they tuned out. It's really a shame because NuDallas had great potential, but Cidre blew it by disregarding what Dallas fans wanted and serving up her threesome, crazy ex-mother-in-law, and drug cartel crap.
I can partially agree but it was supposed to be the next generation so it would make absolutely no sense to kill Christopher for example so Bobby could mourn him while also replacing him with Lucas....again, just for Bobby's reaction.
I don’t know if she was asked back. During an interview she was very clear that she was not going to do the new Dallas. She thought the mummy story was ridiculous and said there is no way Pam could have lived. She was pleased with her exit scene from Dallas because she felt it was clear to fans that Pam was never coming backnuDALLAS just didn't get the balance right -- and seemed clueless about what that might be. Obviously, for a continuation to work, you need the established characters fleshed out by the now-grown kids.
But they kept bringing in new characters who had little to do with the Ewings, the Ewings themselves taking a backseat to the maid's daughter's ex-inlaws' cocaine connection (at least, that's how I remembered it) and there were minimal family scenes at hollow Southfork. The few good things nuDALLAS did seemed to be accidental.
The new show kept steering away from what it (organically, I believe) wanted to be.
It was painfully predictable: an apathetic network executive hands the assignment to an unfamiliar producer to revive the most successful drama series of all time, and no one feels the need to do their homework.
How could it have worked?
Was Victoria asked back? Was she black-balled? It wouldn't have mattered... If they've brought Pam back, her female gym teacher's daughter's anxiety disorder would have been the plotline, and JR might occasionally taunt her about her not renewing her prescriptions. If they thought about it.
JR's masterpiece and oldPam's death explanation were the best things otherwise tone-deaf nuDALLAS ever did. John Ross' casting was good. Some of the scenes at Ewing Global had promise. Valene calling Sue Ellen a "bitch" was nice. The autumn-winter vibe was effectively different from most of the original series.
What a wasted opportunity.
"If love is for pussies -- then I'm your pussy! Kiss me, you goddamned bastard!!"
