Worst Dallas storyline in the show's run

[DallasFanForever]

The Dream Season could have worked if the writers were bold enough to stick with the premise of JR and Pam clashing at Ewing Oil. The argument over the years is Pam didn't have the business or scheming nuance that JR had...of course she didn't...but what Pam did have was support both inside and outside the family whereas JR had burnt his bridges long ago with his many failed schemes.

Their storyline should’ve been front and center the entire season, not Marinos Shipping or an emerald mine. It should’ve been Pam and J.R. fighting over Ewing Oil and all the drama it would’ve caused both families, with Pam having to do all the scheming and conniving things she hated to have to compete with him. Ironically those exact same things that Bobby had to do to compete with J.R. a few years earlier but she feels justified because she knows she’s doing it for Christopher.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

The Dream Season could have worked if the writers were bold enough to stick with the premise of JR and Pam clashing at Ewing Oil. The argument over the years is Pam didn't have the business or scheming nuance that JR had...of course she didn't...but what Pam did have was support both inside and outside the family whereas JR had burnt his bridges long ago with his many failed schemes.

So much conflict could have come from Pam controlling Christopher's stake in Ewing Oil. It was high time for JR and Pam to clash on an epic scale...drawing in those characters we had come to know. We didn't need Angelica Nero and her silly charades. What was needed was a brave writer and executive producer bold enough to bring the Ewing family to their knees and close out the series for another time.

The JR/Pam co-ownership was dropped fast, I never understood why. It would have been better than the terrible dream season material,
but I don't think the show ever really recovered from the Dream season, although season 10 was still quite good, for the most part.
I had no problem with PD returning as Bobby, only the ridiculous explanation of Pam's dream

 

[DallasFanForever]

I don't think the show ever really recovered from the Dream season

It didn’t. It certainly wasn’t the death of Dallas for me at the time but things never quite felt the same after that.

season 10 was still quite good, for the most part.

I’m not the biggest fan of it but at least it was an attempt to get Dallas back to feeling like Dallas again, even if it didn’t last much longer.

 

[CryptCreeper72]

I’m not the biggest fan of it but at least it was an attempt to get Dallas back to feeling like Dallas again, even if it didn’t last much longer.

The only real problem I had with season ten is that it rehashed so much of what we saw in season 9. Between Ben/Wes, SE' sobriety (which one done much better in the dream season), the the rehashed JR/SE reconciliation (also done better in the dream season) it felt at times like I was watching reruns.

 

[DallasFanForever]

The only real problem I had with season ten is that it rehashed so much of what we saw in season 9. Between Ben/Wes, SE' sobriety (which one done much better in the dream season), the the rehashed JR/SE reconciliation (also done better in the dream season) it felt at times like I was watching reruns.

It does have a repetitive feel to it at times. Quite often I’m left asking myself “weren’t we just here” with specific scenes and storylines. I do enjoy the Wes storyline despite that though, and even despite the ambiguity of the ending.

 

[CryptCreeper72]

It does have a repetitive feel to it at times. Quite often I’m left asking myself “weren’t we just here” with specific scenes and storylines. I do enjoy the Wes storyline despite that though, and even despite the ambiguity of the ending.

I felt cheated as a fan. I had watched SE hit rock bottom and work so hard to get sobber and change her life in a positive way. I had watched JR develop a real appreciation and respect for his wife as a mother. I had watched JR and SE do REAL work on themselves and their marriage.

Them, that all got wiped away and SE got sober overnight and just shrugged her shoulders and let JR back into her bed.

Bah humbug.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I had watched SE hit rock bottom and work so hard to get sobber and change her life in a positive way. I had watched JR develop a real appreciation and respect for his wife as a mother. I had watched JR and SE do REAL work on themselves and their marriage.

Perhaps our first clues that someone was dreaming

 

[Rove]

I felt cheated as a fan. I had watched SE hit rock bottom and work so hard to get sobber and change her life in a positive way. I had watched JR develop a real appreciation and respect for his wife as a mother. I had watched JR and SE do REAL work on themselves and their marriage.

Linda's work was brilliant and I also appreciate the change in JR on a personal front. Looking back The Dream Season could have offered so much after the death of Bobby. It could have worked 2 ways; either JR seeks revenge on everything and everyone or he finally comes to the realization he was partly to blame for Bobby's death which results in him becoming a changed man.

JR needed a reset and so did the Ewing family. After Bobby's death the family should have done some serious self-reflection. I'm not suggesting they become goody two shoes but they become strongly dependant on each other especially so when Jeremy Wendell is circling Pam...trying to win her over to grab Christopher's shares in Ewing Oil.

Dallas was strongest when the Ewing family often had their backs to the wall.

 

[DallasFanForever]

he finally comes to the realization he was partly to blame for Bobby's death

Katherine’s diary never should’ve been so easily discarded by Pam and Cliff. With some of the things that had to be in there, if anything it was leverage for them to use against J.R. at some point. I know Pam was trying to heal the families now that Bobby was gone and at the same time keep the diary from getting in J.R.’s hands for the same reasons but I think she made a hasty decision to get rid of it in hindsight. That diary coming back to haunt them at a later time could’ve been an interesting storyline.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

Exactly!

 

[Rove]

That diary coming back to haunt them at a later time could’ve been an interesting storyline.

Especially if that diary revealed Katherine had a secret child to JR. It has been suggested over the years there was wriggle-room for this story to be true and I wonder if TNT Dallas was going to use Katherine - since the mother was long dead as reported by that creative genius - to bring JR's daughter to Southfork.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Especially if that diary revealed Katherine had a secret child to JR. It has been suggested over the years there was wriggle-room for this story to be true and I wonder if TNT Dallas was going to use Katherine - since the mother was long dead as reported by that creative genius - to bring JR's daughter to Southfork.

I would’ve liked it to have been Katherine’s daughter because that certainly would’ve established a nice history for her for the writers to draw from. It also means that if she was anything like her mother then we, at the very least, would not be bored with her.

Of course I wouldn’t have been surprised at this point if the mother turned out to be Lucy, Pam, Theresa, Charlie, Jenna, Mrs. Scottfield or a made up woman altogether that we had never even heard of.

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

Especially if that diary revealed Katherine had a secret child to JR. It has been suggested over the years there was wriggle-room for this story to be true and I wonder if TNT Dallas was going to use Katherine - since the mother was long dead as reported by that creative genius - to bring JR's daughter to Southfork.

a made up woman altogether that we had never even heard of.

Sadly, Cidre has stated that it would indeed have been someone we'd never heard of. Someone should ask her why she thought that that was a good starting point.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

I always thought Katherine should have been the baddie on Dallas TNT. Even screwing with Cliff to get her revenge.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

I always thought Katherine should have been the baddie on Dallas TNT. Even screwing with Cliff to get her revenge.

Agree. Katherine was a good character, who was treaty unfairly in some ways.
Rebecca gives 2/3 of Katherine's father's company to two half-siblings?
I don't blame Katherine for thinking it was unfair.
Motives aside, at least she recognized that Bobby was not responsible for Rebecca's fate.
If anyone was, it was Cliff

 

[Jock's Ghost]

Agree. Katherine was a good character, who was treaty unfairly in some ways.
Rebecca gives 2/3 of Katherine's father's company to two half-siblings?
I don't blame Katherine for thinking it was unfair.
Motives aside, at least she recognized that Bobby was not responsible for Rebecca's fate.
If anyone was, it was Cliff

I dont think it was explored correctly how pissed off Katherine deserved to be. The half siblings get 2/3 and Katherine gets 1/3... She should have become a corporate shark- the female JR. Sure, she took it too far with her Bobby obsession, but since the dream season revived her and she returned to the Mummy storyline, a fix of that should have been on the sequel series. She returns, Morgan Brittany of course in a big hat, to accentuate those beautiful eyes!

 

[DallasFanForever]

she returned to the Mummy storyline,

I still don’t understand what the point in bringing her back was. She gives such a terrific Katherine-esque speech to Pam at her bedside saying how she’s now finally going to have everything she wants, making us think for a second this storyline might actually be going somewhere, only for her to completely vanish and for us to find out she had absolutely nothing to do with Pam’s disappearance. The whole thing was a little strange.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

Me thinks maybe negations broke down with Brittany and her salary was not good enough or she changed her mind or something.... it felt altered and then dropped.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

Watching season 11, it's tedious. JR in cahoots with Faraday's sister- Bull and shit. JR would not do that to Bobby. I know he mortaged his parents home, but that's different. THIS is Bobby' son, he wouldn't interfere with that and definitely would not be turning the knife.
It took JR from a shady scoundrel into a psychotic sociopath.

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

Watching season 11, it's tedious. JR in cahoots with Faraday's sister- Bull and shit. JR would not do that to Bobby. I know he mortaged his parents home, but that's different. THIS is Bobby' son, he wouldn't interfere with that and definitely would not be turning the knife.
It took JR from a shady scoundrel into a psychotic sociopath.

It also seems rather hamfisted - and unnecessary. There's a good chance that if he'd approached Bobby honestly for help in regaining Ewing Oil, Bobby would have agreed.