If Dallas was remade, would it be more diverse?

[CeeCee72]

Last night, I was reading through an old thread about whether or not Dallas should get a remake. It got me thinking....

If Dallas does get a remake, would the characters and cast be more diverse? And would that have made the show even more interesting?

What if the Barnes family was black?

What if the reason Jock saw Gary as "soft" was because he was gay and that's why he left Val and Lucy?

What if Teresa and Raul were more fleshed out with bigger roles?

What if Jenna and Charlie were humans?

 

[Billy Wall]

If Dallas was remade today, it would most certainly be more diverse. Actually, the original Dallas got a lot more diverse as it went on. Where as the early seasons, you didn't see many black people, but later you started seeing black people in the role of judges, court bailiffs, FBI agents and oil barons club hostesses.

With that being said, I'm not a fan of being diverse just for the sake of diversity. No need to change the Barnes to a different nationality or to make Gary gay.

 

[CeeCee72]

I agree it wouldn't be good to be diverse just for diversity's sake, but I think having to deal with personal prejudices within the family (can you imagine Jock) would provide some really intense drama

 

[Rove]

It would get cancelled within its first season. I'd still have the Ewing/Barnes family played as they were. There is no shock value anymore if suddenly the Barnes family were black, Hispanic or Asian. I would however employ diverse actors to fulfil the roles of the Cartel as an example. I can easily see an African American play the role of Mickey. But would a Jock Ewing today be horrified his grand-daughter is dating an African American? I'd imagine Miss Ellie would tell Jock, "Pull your head in."

I see the role of Donna being played by an English or Australian actress. Preferably an English actress with pedigree but this is my take on it. Making drama out of someone's ethnicity would lose my interest quick smart. I want the drama to stem from personal issues, like drug use as an example, but of course to shock the audience scenes would have to be dialled-up, so to speak. Conflict has to stem from the fight or survival of Ewing Oil and Southfork.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

"BITCHES BE IN STETSONS"

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

I agree it wouldn't be good to be diverse just for diversity's sake,

That's exactly what kills almost every new content for me nowadays. Just for the sake of it, nothing to do with anything else.
Gets on my nerves more and more each day.

And i say this as a gay man. This is all way too much, too in your face and has nothing to do with reality. Radicalism will never lead to any good, doesn't matter the direction it comes from. Worst thing is.. it backfires terribly already and all this among other stupid things lead directly to ... Trump again. Thanks, "community"! Pfff...

Instead of concentrating on what we have in common and build from that ... it's only about the stupid differences anymore.
"Look at me ... see me ... hear me!! I'm so diverse, i'm such a special snowflake in the universe!"
No you're NOT! You are just the same idiot as everyone else!!

Sad to say, but I felt much more free as a gay a decade ago.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Larry did an interview, a few years before he died, in which he said that CBS was talking about reviving DALLAS in the late-'90s -- after the relative success of the reunion movies -- but, the network increasingly feministicized, they wanted JR's philandering, misogynistic ways eliminated, despite the fact that JR objectified everyone except JR.

Obviously, you can't do DALLAS that way. So that attempt at a series revival fell to the wayside.

Can you imagine the tonal demands today??

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

I'd rather won't...
Thank god i grew up in the best possible time, the 80s and 90s, having the blast of my life! Wouldn't want it any other way.

 

[pete lashmar]

Dallas is Dallas, if you want to remake it, woke it up and turn characters gay or change their ethnic background then IT'S NOT DALLAS.

Create a new show if you want to do that.

Box ticking is killing just about everything nowadays - I'm all for representation, but not just for the sake of it. Nowadays JR would be the eldest daughter and Sue Ellen would be the lesbian affair, that's how TV execs see things.

Show's life Sex Education, Big Boys & Heartstopper are incredible shows that show diversity and shake things up - and we need shows like that because they are funny, warm, inclusive and embracing - but box ticking in other shows just isn't needed.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

That said, I've long-wanted Pam to be at least one-quarter Mexican -- which used to be an issue in Texas. That way, JR would have just one more reason to not want that Barnes girl on Southfork.

 

[Angela Channing]

It absolutely should be more diverse, in fact the question should be why the original series was so white.

In Texas about 40% of the population is Hispanic/Latino and about 40% non-Hispanic white but you wouldn't know that from watching the series which was almost exclusively white with the exception of a few minor characters who appeared on screen rarely.

Having more diversity wouldn't be about doing it just for the sake of it, it would be doing it for the sake of reality. If they insisted on remaking the series with an entirely white cast again, they should set it in a predominantly white state such as Vermont.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Cidre Dallas was more diverse with Hispanics and Mexicans.
It made narrative sense, due to the history of Texas and Mexico.
TNT Dallas failed for a number of reasons, but that was not one of them

As far as a reboot - too many shows are being remade/recast/rebooted with diversity for diversity sake,
and the results are poor, because the scripts, directing and acting have become secondary.

Just look at the pathetic track record.
Star Wars has underperformed, to say the least, due to Kathleen Kennedy's emphasis on
identity politics. Indiana Jones 5 suffered the same fate. If she was a white male, she would have been replaced years ago.
Disney Star Wars had a movie that was in the Red (the Hans Solo one) and Hasbro had to lay off workers
because Star Wars merchandise sold so poorly.
Disney Marvel MCU and Other Disney has had flop after flop, due to checking the boxes, instead of good solid scripts.
It is not superhero fatigue, it is a lack of quality.
Marvels was a complete and utter disaster, for example.
The little Mermaid, Strange World, Quantomania, Haunted Mansion, Elemental, Mula - the list goes on
Black Panther is the exception because there was a good cast, director and script
Sony Spiderverse - read the reviews on Madam Web. It is probably the worst superhero genre movie made in decades, maybe ever
Doctor Who cast a female in the lead (one who didn't even bother to research past episodes), hired female directors and writers with no sci-fi experience,
and the result was a total disaster with record low to near record low ratings and
virtually no merchandise on the shelves.
It is rebounding now because of the return of RTD, and a good actor (who happens to be black)
in the lead.
The Honeymooners movie had a minority cast at the lead. A total flop.

To summarize, good scripts, good directors and actors should be the priority,
not checking the boxes, with the result being an inferior product.
Dallas can certainly include Mexican and Hispanic characters because it would make narrative sense,
but it should not be the priority over good production values

 

[LMLDallas78]

What if Jenna and Charlie were humans?

They could still identify as screaming cats.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Dallas was a late 70/80s show and thats where it belongs

Dallas was Dallas because of the scripts, casting and dynamics of the actors who breathed life and soul into their character and it belonged in that decade

TNT proved you can call a show Dallas - but it can suck as CC did - its the original actors who made Dallas a world wide sucess and gave us characters we loved, loved to hate and cared about
TNT Dallas isnt Dallas in my book, its a bad memory and was dire .

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Dallas was a late 70/80s show and thats where it belongs

Dallas was Dallas because of the scripts, casting and dynamics of the actors who breathed life and soul into their character and it belonged in that decade

TNT proved you can call a show Dallas - but it can suck as CC did - its the original actors who made Dallas a world wide sucess and gave us characters we loved, loved to hate and cared about
TNT Dallas isnt Dallas in my book, its a bad memory and was dire .

I had such hopes for nuDALLAS, but it was, more or less and quite predictably, what most failed reboots are: a hodgepodge of potential soured by showrunners who don't understand the original series. They tried, and we can see what it could have been, but to no avail.

It's not the era, it's the producers and their choices. Obviously, that was the case with the last three years of oldDALLAS, too.

 

[Seaviewer]

If Dallas does get a remake, would the characters and cast be more diverse?

Undoubtedly.

And would that have made the show even more interesting?

No.

 

[Rove]

You are just the same idiot as everyone else!!

This should be on a T-Shirt.

after the relative success of the reunion movies

What were they watching because I wasn't a fan of the movies at all. They still had that tongue-in-cheek sense of humour carried over from the dying years of Dallas the series. If a continuation was heading down that same path it would have failed. Dallas always worked best when it was played straight and JR was seriously bad-ass.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

This should be on a T-Shirt.

On EVERY T-Shirt!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

What were they watching because I wasn't a fan of the movies at all. They still had that tongue-in-cheek sense of humour carried over from the dying years of Dallas the series. If a continuation was heading down that same path it would have failed. Dallas always worked best when it was played straight and JR was seriously bad-ass.

Oh, sure. But the ratings -- particularly for JR RETURNS -- were pretty good. So CBS tossed around the idea of reviving the series, and it's probably for the best that it never happened.

Apparently, Katzman made the conscious decision to "go silly" in the closing years of DALLAS (when they should have done the reverse) and it sounds like that decision may have been what drove David Paulsen to leave in 1988 (Hagman sniped in the press at the time that it was "probably a good thing" that Paulsen was leaving because he "doesn't have a sense of humor.") And that was what really killed DALLAS.

Nobody on either DALLAS or Season 9 of DYNASTY seems to appreciate, or even have any understanding of, what Paulsen brought to those shows -- he, the most brilliant constructionist they ever had.

Katzman unapologetically refused to learn his lesson, the cratering of the ratings in the final seasons and the reasons for it. So the '90s reunion movies were just as tongue-in-cheek. (Katzman died before THE WAR OF THE EWINGS was made, which Patrick concedes was the nadir of the franchise). The viewer hates it when a show starts to wink at the camera and make armpit farts with a smirk -- if they don't take it seriously, then why should we??

David Jacobs has said before that although these shows have humor and satire underneath the surface, they have to be played "absolutely straight" on the face of it, or it just doesn't work.

That's one thing I actually loved about nuDALLAS -- the overcast, autumn/wintery tone. They took it seriously -- even if we couldn't, because of the other problems on the show.

 

[southfork88]

Larry did an interview, a few years before he died, in which he said that CBS was talking about reviving DALLAS in the late-'90s -- after the relative success of the reunion movies -- but, the network increasingly feministicized, they wanted JR's philandering, misogynistic ways eliminated, despite the fact that JR objectified everyone except JR.

Obviously, you can't do DALLAS that way. So that attempt at a series revival fell to the wayside.

Can you imagine the tonal demands today??

Someone had talked about a revival starring John Travolta and Larry seemed to agree to this choice.

I would prefer that someone could reprise Josh Henderson's John Ross character for a sequel only tangentially related to Dallas.

The classic saga is now just a pleasant memory.