Hyatt In The Openings

[Bobby Southworth]

Just a quick, random, pointless question, but in seasons 8-12 of the intros, when the starring in alphabetical order shot is shown, which side of the Hyatt is being shown? The side with Reunion Tower, or the other side of the building? Common sense is telling me we are seeing a shot of the building on the opposite side of Reunion Tower, but then I could have sworn we saw an early episode of Pam having lunch on the side with the tower, and that's the same perspective we get in the later "starring in alphabetical order" shot. I was in Dallas 23 years ago, but can no longer recall. I figured someone who has been there recently, or a local might be willing to shed some light. Thanks in advance from an obvious die hard fan of the show, and one with obviously too much time on their hands.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Isn't the 8-12 shot essentially the same as the 1-7 shot, just refreashed?

 

[Bobby Southworth]

Isn't the 8-12 shot essentially the same as the 1-7 shot, just refreashed?

Snarky, if you are referring to the initial shot of the Hyatt and Reunion tower in the credits, you are correct. What I'm asking about is roughly 32 seconds into the intro when it says "starring in alphabetical order". It's that shot of the Hyatt I'm curious to know which perspective of the building we are getting it from.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Snarky, if you are referring to the initial shot of the Hyatt and Reunion tower in the credits, you are correct. What I'm asking about is roughly 32 seconds into the intro when it says "starring in alphabetical order". It's that shot of the Hyatt I'm curious to know which perspective of the building we are getting it from.

Oh, I see. But we're so close it in that shot, that it's hard to tell.

What's funny is that in the aptly-titled 1978 episode "Reunion, Part 1" in which Bobby & Pam go to Las Vegas, they film the inside of the "Vegas" hotel inside the Dallas Hyatt. Well, that's fine, no one except locals (or Hyatt employees or tourist who'd stayed in the Hyatt) would have known the difference. Except for the fact that after using a scratchy establishing shot of the Vegas strip, they then go to a shot of Reunion Tower outside the window in an incredibly lazy attempt to pass it off as a Vegas landmark -- despite the fact that the Reunion Tower appears every week in the opening credits!

In the DVD commentary, David Jacobs and Larry Hagman chortle over the unnecessary gaffe, calling it "just faking" on the part of whoever did it. (Director Irving Moore, perhaps? At least Hagman didn't snort "good!" that he'd died, as he did over Larry Elikann).

I mean, I'm mostly against "sweetening" for old classic shows, but any kid with a computer today could digitally replace that shot of the tower out that window. And somebody should.


The tower from another angle:

 

[Bobby Southworth]

Yes. When I visited Dallas in 2000, we went to the top of the tower, and also inside the Hyatt(you'd think I'd be able to answer my own question, LOL). I believe I had already figured out this was shot in Dallas because of the obvious shot of the tower outside the windows, but before visiting Dallas, I didn't know that it was a Hyatt. The crew did a mostly great job of location shooting, but obviously there were times that they took shortcuts, and assumed the general public would be clueless. One example that comes to mind, I believe the later establishing shots of what was supposed to be WestStar oil, and J.R. Ewing Enterprises was one in the same, just a different angle.

 

[Bobby Southworth]

On another note, I always wondered why during the seasons 2-7 intros, they never featured what was supposed to be the actual Ewing building. I guess the later Ewing Oil building(Bobby's PGD building) was never prominently featured in the credits either, but we always got that final establishing shot of Soutfork.

 

[Bobby Southworth]

Oh, I see. But we're so close it in that shot, that it's hard to tell.

What's funny is that in the aptly-titled 1978 episode "Reunion, Part 1" in which Bobby & Pam go to Las Vegas, they film the inside of the "Vegas" hotel inside the Dallas Hyatt. Well, that's fine, no one except locals (or Hyatt employees or tourist who'd stayed in the Hyatt) would have known the difference. Except for the fact that after using a scratchy establishing shot of the Vegas strip, they then go to a shot of Reunion Tower outside the window in an incredibly lazy attempt to pass it off as a Vegas landmark -- despite the fact that the Reunion Tower appears every week in the opening credits!

In the DVD commentary, David Jacobs and Larry Hagman chortle over the unnecessary gaffe, calling it "just faking" on the part of whoever did it. (Director Irving Moore, perhaps? At least Hagman didn't snort "good!" that he'd died, as he did over Larry Elikann).

I mean, I'm mostly against "sweetening" for old classic shows, but any kid with a computer today could digitally replace that shot of the tower out that window. And somebody should.


The tower from another angle (ignore the fool in the foreground looking at the camera -- he looks like he's up to no good)

If you watch that 32 second mark in season 12, it offers a much wider view of that shot of the Hyatt.

View attachment 44176

 

[Bobby Southworth]

I think I have answered my own question. From Google Earth and the 2nd season episode "Bypass", the scene where Pam is having lunch with Liz at or near the Hyatt, it does appear that the shot I was curious about was indeed on the side with Reunion tower. Now everyone will be able to sleep at night. laugh.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I think I have answered my own question. From Google Earth and the 2nd season episode "Bypass", the scene where Pam is having lunch with Liz at or near the Hyatt, it does appear that the shot I was curious about was indeed on the side with Reunion tower. Now everyone will be able to sleep at night. laugh.

Oh No! I need a valium.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Sorry to ask a dumb question (there's an excuse for me, my Mom is Jenna Wade!) but which of the buildings in the Dallas opening sequence is the Hyatt?

 

[Bobby Southworth]

Sorry to ask a dumb question (there's an excuse for me, my Mom is Jenna Wade!) but which of the buildings in the Dallas opening sequence is the Hyatt?

From the season 8-12 openings, it's there from the beginning on the left hand side, next to Reunion tower in the wide shot of the city. It's featured prominently about 8 seconds into the credits; then about 32 seconds in, when the "starring in alphabetical order" appears it's featured again(season 8-12). Never knew it was a Hyatt until visiting Dallas in 2000. As Snarky pointed out, the interior is also used in the episode "Reunion" from season 2, when Bobby and Pam are supposed to be in Vegas. As Snarky also pointed out, you can also clearly see Reunion tower outside the windows. This all takes place during the sequence when they are supposedly in Vegas, and they play a portion of the Dallas theme song in the background.

 

[Grangehill1]

Sorry to ask a dumb question (there's an excuse for me, my Mom is Jenna Wade!) but which of the buildings in the Dallas opening sequence is the Hyatt?

It’s the mirrored glass building near the beginning of the credits and you can see reflection of a helicopter in it

 

[Grangehill1]

Back to the original question. I went to Dallas in 2009 and I couldn’t work out where the ‘credits’ shot was from. Completely puzzled

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

It’s the mirrored glass building near the beginning of the credits and you can see reflection of a helicopter in it

The big slab sided building which fades into the sliding columned sequence of Dallas locations? The first being the oil wells.

It must be a massive building inside.

 

[Bobby Southworth]

The big slab sided building which fades into the sliding columned sequence of Dallas locations? The first being the oil wells.

It must be a massive building inside.

Yes, but then such a big portion of it is open space as seen in the "Reunion" episode. One might almost wonder how there's actually room for very many hotel suites/rooms, laugh.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Interesting discussion! I have to say that I never paid any attention to these kinds of things back then.

 

[Bobby Southworth]

Interesting discussion! I have to say that I never paid any attention to these kinds of things back then.

Well, clearly, with the original show being off the air for 32 years, and whatever the heck TNT Dallas was being over for 9, the well is starting to run a little dry...(pun intended). Seriously, though, it really shows the impact this series had that such well thought out discussions(save for this one) are still continuing to be created on this forum.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Well, clearly, with the original show being off the air for 32 years, and whatever the heck TNT Dallas was being over for 9, the well is starting to run a little dry...(pun intended). Seriously, though, it really shows the impact this series had that such well thought out discussions(save for this one) are still continuing to be created on this forum.

If you told me 32 years ago we’d be having these kinds of discussions about the opening credits now I would’ve said you were nuts. That alone makes me grateful for these kinds of threads.

 

[Grangehill1]

So when I went in 2009 reunion tower was shut. I think there was renovation work happening so i couldn’t get to the angle of the reflection of it in the Hyatt as per the opening titles ‘starring in alphabetical order’ shot.

I have a question. In the earlier seasons there’s a shot of a striped building for the ‘starring…’ shot. Does anybody know the building?

 

[Bobby Southworth]

No, but I always wondered why this particular building was showcased for so long, rather than the actual Ewing building/Renaissance tower. I believe, if memory serves correctly, it is featured in the episode "Spy In The House" during a little montage of downtown Dallas, just like the actual opening shot of the opening titles between seasons 1-7 of downtown Dallas were of Bobby and Pam, or just Pam?? driving into the city.