The Screaming Cleaner

[Angela Channing]

It's used in many TV series to show that a body has been discovered in an office and Dallas 4 season was no different. After JR was shot at Ewing Oil, the new season opened with a cleaner nonchalantly flicking her feather duster around when she spots JR's body lying on the office floor. Her reaction isn't to help JR but to stay rooted to where is was and scream. Why? She was in no obvious danger and from the cartoonish way in which she did it, holding her hands up to the side of her face like The Scream in Edvard Munch's famous painting, it was clear the actress didn't train at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.



For all she knew JR could have been taking a nap because from the camera angle we were show there was no blood visible. I would have thought a more realistic response would have been to gasp and then check to see if JR was alive or needed help.



Would there have been a better way to indicate to the viewers that JR's shooting had been discovered? I much preferred with how they did it after Bobby had been shot at Ewing Oil and Afton found his body. Her first reaction was to go over to check on him.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

You saw that kind of scream in a lot of '50s and '60s movies, especially horror films. It's ridiculous, yes, but I'm all for it --- it's almost pure, it gets the point across that, "Yes, someone's been shot and now I'm frightened," and it's exactly how I scream when I find a dead body on the floor.

Always.

 

[Billy Wall]

You’d be surprised how someone can act when getting startled. She does this job alone every night and just like that, a man is laying on the floor. I’m a night time custodial worker and many years ago a co-worker stumbled across someone sleeping under a bench out front. She screamed.

And who would think he’s taking a nap on a hard floor?

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

I feel the producers missed a tantalizing opportunity in not fleshing out the screaming cleaner’s backstory. Did she have a family? How about a love life? What were her innermost desires and fears?

Instead they give us Leslie Stewart!?!

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

Indeed, a spinoff of her with at least 7 seasons would have been the least they could do. What a wasted opportunity!

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I'm not sure why she held her arms out like that!

Maybe she's just highly strung!

 

[DallasFanForever]

Perhaps she had had a few conversations with J.R. over the years when she was cleaning the offices. It would make sense considering the fact that they both seemed to put in late hours at times. So seeing someone she knew laying on the floor really frightened the poor woman. There was no visible blood from the shooting so maybe she thought he had a heart attack or something and panicked. I agree that her reaction was certainly over the top and Afton’s reaction when she found Bobby a few years later was definitely more realistic. I would check on the person first before I started screaming. That’s just me but we’re all different.

 

[Toni]

Perhaps she had had a few conversations with J.R. over the years when she was cleaning the offices. It would make sense considering the fact that they both seemed to put in late hours at times. So seeing someone she knew laying on the floor really frightened the poor woman. There was no visible blood from the shooting so maybe she thought he had a heart attack or something and panicked. I agree that her reaction was certainly over the top and Afton’s reaction when she found Bobby a few years later was definitely more realistic. I would check on the person first before I started screaming. That’s just me but we’re all different.

Knowing that she was the most valuable medium in all Texas, I´m sure that she already knew that it was Bobby who had been shot. But she played her part in front of the security cameras... One minute!!!!

...So at the time there was no security cameras in big offices to know who might have shot the boss? I had never thought about that...

 

[Chris2]

They should have used that lady when Bobby got shot too. Honestly, they could have just kept that clip as stock footage and used it for every cliffhanger. Body in the pool, cut to the screaming lady. Sue Ellen shoots JR, cut to the screaming lady. Pam gets BBQed…you get the idea.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

They should have used that lady when Bobby got shot too. Honestly, they could have just kept that clip as stock footage and used it for every cliffhanger. Body in the pool, cut to the screaming lady. Sue Ellen shoots JR, cut to the screaming lady. Pam gets BBQed…you get the idea.

When Bobby got shot they reused the police car rolling down the street and, amazingly, the footage in front of the Ewing Building with the gurney and all the extras… and didn’t reuse the best part, which was of course the maid. Unconscionable!!

 

[DallasFanForever]

When Bobby got shot they reused the police car rolling down the street and, amazingly, the footage in front of the Ewing Building with the gurney and all the extras… and didn’t reuse the best part, which was of course the maid. Unconscionable!!

The extras all sitting on those bleachers is really the best part of the whole thing! Where in your entire life did you ever see bleachers on a busy street sitting outside an office building?

Unless of course the Texas Rangers were playing a home game in downtown Dallas that evening.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

The extras all sitting on those bleachers is really the best part of the whole thing! Where in your entire life did you ever see bleachers on a busy street sitting outside an office building?

Unless of course the Texas Rangers were playing a home game in downtown Dallas that evening.

the screaming maid must have called KGIM News first, then the cops/ambulance. As would happen whenever anything somewhat serious happened to a Ewing or someone involved in a Ewing plotline, all local TV and radio stations would have broken away into a special emergency news bulletin, prompting the ever-excitable viewers and listeners of Dallas County to frantically scramble to the scene of the crime by the dozen, hoping to catch a glimpse of the action, in this case JR’s toupee (or Bobby’s puffy helmetlike mane) as he was wheeled by.

The bleachers had been placed there by the city years before in preparation for this eventuality.

 

[Billy Wall]

The extras all sitting on those bleachers is really the best part of the whole thing! Where in your entire life did you ever see bleachers on a busy street sitting outside an office building?

Unless of course the Texas Rangers were playing a home game in downtown Dallas that evening.

I was going to bring that up and then I thought, “Were they actually standing on bleachers or is it just me?” Lol

 

[Angela Channing]

They should have used that lady when Bobby got shot too. Honestly, they could have just kept that clip as stock footage and used it for every cliffhanger. Body in the pool, cut to the screaming lady. Sue Ellen shoots JR, cut to the screaming lady. Pam gets BBQed…you get the idea.

Or maybe instead of using the same clip, they could have her doing increasingly ludicrous things to display her shock like slapping the back of her hand against her forehead before falling into a faint.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

They should have used that lady when Bobby got shot too. Honestly, they could have just kept that clip as stock footage and used it for every cliffhanger. Body in the pool, cut to the screaming lady. Sue Ellen shoots JR, cut to the screaming lady. Pam gets BBQed…you get the idea.

Yes, and at the end of Conondrum as well her, instead of Bobby storming in.

 

[Laurie Marr]

Nerdy query coming up. I thought Larry was still in another country as part of the pay ‘negotiation’ when the first couple of episodes were being filmed. So - was that opening scene of him lying on the floor filmed before the hiatus? If not, that’s probably the reason for the flamboyant scream - the actor was told that Larry would not be on set before the cameras rolled…..