How Dallas dated through the 80s

[Grangehill1]

It’s very strange that you can watch episodes of Dallas from the early 80s and then compare them to the late 80s and the show looked so much more modern at the end of the decade. Early episodes have dated quite badly.
What’s really odd is the late 80s is over 30 years ago but does it appear like that on screen? Yes some of the fashions etc have dated but has the show really changed that much from the late 80s to now?

 

[LMLDallas78]

It’s very strange that you can watch episodes of Dallas from the early 80s and then compare them to the late 80s and the show looked so much more modern at the end of the decade. Early episodes have dated quite badly.
What’s really odd is the late 80s is over 30 years ago but does it appear like that on screen? Yes some of the fashions etc have dated but has the show really changed that much from the late 80s to now?

I actually don't find Dallas that old fashioned looking, but then I'm a sucker for nostalgia. The fashions come back (well except for shoulder pads thank goodness) Only lack of mobile phones and laptops are obvious along with some of the decor which is only cosmetic.
Mens attitude to women are somewhat behind the times, but that's how it was then.
On the whole I don't think it looks terribly out of date, I enjoy it now as I did back then. Dallas was always way ahead anyway with richness, style and luxury.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Anything prior to 1982 on DALLAS look dated visually, feels a bit coltish.

 

[Michelle Stevens]

I agree. The show covered three unique decades and it shows. I have a soft spot for 1970's Dallas because of the fashion but much of the later seasons looks similar to today's world.

 

[LMLDallas78]

Oh I agree about the late 70s episodes looking more outdated, but definitely from mid 80s not so much.

 

[Frank Underwood]

This is something I've been keenly aware of as well, but I have a soft spot for the dated look of the early seasons. The show was sort of a soap opera/western hybrid during the Jock era, and the late 70s aesthetic really lent itself to that vibe. That said, I thought the slight make over the show got around 1982 displayed the best of both worlds. There was an upgrade in wardrobe and sets, but not to extreme levels. IMO, the show got in trouble around the mid 80s when they started competing with Dynasty stylistically, as I don't think that level of glamour really fit Dallas. By the last three seasons, the look of the show had become quite yuppified. Yes, those seasons look the least dated visually today, but I'd also argue that they're the least compelling. They may have reflected the times, but I'll always have a fondness for the rustic brown, gold, and avocado 70s Dallas.

 

[captainarcher]

I don't like Dallas after 1986 ( the light, the clothes) the same with Dynasty .

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I don't like Dallas after 1986 ( the light, the clothes) the same with Dynasty .

1986 should have been the peak of these shows, but instead was the collapse...

In fact, we even have a strange, indulgent little thread about it here:

1986: primetime soaps, instinctive timelines, listening to nature, etc... | Forums for television shows past and present (tellytalk.net)

 

[Willie Oleson]

but I'll always have a fondness for the rustic brown, gold, and avocado 70s Dallas

Yes, what does "dated" even mean when it looks so beautiful and cinematic? It's like saying "Neuschwanstein looks dated because it's such an old building. Meh".
We need to live for beauty and protect it at all costs otherwise it's all meaningless.

 

[tommie]

It's funny because it's the opposite way around for me - those later seasons feel more dated to me, partly because technology that we take for granted today (computers, people talking on car phones), but also the fashun are things I sort of remember. I guess it's because I was born in the mid-80s, so that late 80s/early 90s era are the first things I have memory of while 70s Dallas feels more timeless to me. Funny how that works.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

Dallas although it began in 1978, I think started filming in late winter of 1977, ten years after the Summer of Love of 1967 and just a few short years after the optimism that the 60s had came crashing down.

So when I watch early Dallas I am acutely reminded that the show that would define 80s America, started in the 70s, a decade that is the complete opposite of what the 80s would become, and started filming during their Carter era and several years before Ronald Reagan would begin his two terms.

This is why I find Dallas most fascinating of all the 80s soaps, we are taken through a journey of a period in America’s history, between the Vietnam and Gulf wars.

The 80s on Dallas for me didn’t really feel like the 80s until about 1983 there was definitely a cultural shift at that point.

The 70s from a 2023 standpoint seems so far away yet the 80s still feels very recent. maybe it was because I was born in 1989, the 70s was still a recent decade yet at the same time a long ago distant era by that point seeing as how much society changed in the 80s.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Yes, what does "dated" even mean when it looks so beautiful and cinematic? It's like saying "Neuschwanstein looks dated because it's such an old building. Meh".
We need to live for beauty and protect it at all costs otherwise it's all meaningless.

Yes, the word is used all sorts of ways. Anything filmed last Wednesday could be called "dated" because, y'know, it's Saturday.

IMHO, I think "dated" means something that was once perceived to work given the pretenses of its time, but entirely doesn't hold up under the merciless gaze of contemporary scrutiny. (And, to be honest, some of early DALLAS is indeed dated by that definition in terms of its vibe and ambience, while some of the scripting of the later seasons doesn't avoid feeling dated either --- because it did at the time).

Seasons 6 and 7 (per DVD count), however, can never look "dated" no matter how the clothes and couture may obviously reflect another era, because they're just too good.

Dallas although it began in 1978, I think started filming in late winter of 1977

The script was completed in early December 1977, they started filming on the cusp of Jan/Feb 1978.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I was born in the mid-80s, so that late 80s/early 90s era are the first things I have memory of

And perhaps "dated" is partially defined by how we remember a certain era.

Seasons 6 and 7 (per DVD count), however, can never look "dated" no matter how the clothes and couture may obviously reflect another era, because they're just too good

...or a certain part of the soap.

IMHO, I think "dated" means something that was once perceived to work given the pretenses of its time, but entirely doesn't hold up under the merciless gaze of contemporary scrutiny

"Family at war" seems pretty timeless to me therefore I'm not sure if it really applies to DALLAS. The pilot series was a flawless portmanteau that gave us the basics of the Ewing universe, the first full season fleshed out the characters through various dramas and adventures and the second series was soap heaven with quintessential DALLAS characters like Kristin and Alan Beam - the needy and the hungry - while JR pulled off his first and epic oil scheme. The revelation of Jock's crazy first wife which has more than a touch of gothic, Seth Stone's suicide, Pam "losing" baby John Ross to his biological mother, Miss Ellie allowing herself to be courted as part of her mental healing process - it just keeps giving and giving.
Compared to all that it makes Katherine Wentworth's obsession look like run-of-the-mill soap no matter how entertaining she was. Bobby's death is still considered the biggest game changer for a soap series as a whole and yet the tragic death of Ted Dinard in DYNASTY looks much more soapier, more "Peyton Place".

Anyway, I think the horror and comedy genre (because they're so very similar) suffer the most from the aging process. Archie Bunker who is anti-this and anti-that looks very tired from a 21st century point of view. And while AYBS? Mr. Humpries is a very funny character, the double entendre hinting at homosexuality or Mrs. Slocombe's....cat has gone very stale, to say the least.