How should it have ended?

[CryptCreeper72]

Sorry to disagree, but that would have been anti-Dallas and corny. Just watch the Dream Season to see it. The show was always about dysfunctionality, not about happy endings and we´re-all-friends-now, see Dynasty for that kind of ending. Only Knots did it right, and somehow it sounded fake, as in a sitcom kind of way. But it´s only my opinion...

I think as much as we all WANTED a happy ending for our beloved Ewings, it just was realistic based on what the show was truly about.

Unfortunately, the Ewings only get this live happily ever after in fanfiction.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

I think as much as we all WANTED a happy ending for our beloved Ewings, it just was realistic based on what the show was truly about.

Unfortunately, the Ewings only get this live happily ever after in fanfiction.

Oh, many of us didn't want a happy ending for DALLAS -- as you suggest: it just wouldn't ring true.

 

[Guzzler’s Frightening Hair]

I dunno, as an early-season devotee I would have found a “haha, Digger took a nap in JR’s office while Bobby smoothed things over with the persnickety church people” style ending amusing. Well, better than It’s A Wonderful Life With Joel Grey But No Donna Reed, maybe

 

[Rove]

The show was always about dysfunctionality

That really was the basis of the series. The Ewing family would squabble amongst themselves but would circle the wagons if outsiders made any threat against them. This concept really is highlighted in those early years. Perhaps the perfect ending might have been the conversation between Miss Ellie and Cliff at the park.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

I think Dallas should have ended with a great family diner and peace over the family. After all that battles and war and hate, a great reconciliation, like in Falcon Crest, with a reminded of all the missing characters...

Isn't that how the Dynasty reunion/miniseries ended?

 

[CryptCreeper72]

The more I think about it (and there really are some brilliant ideas in this thread) I think the real answer to the question of how Dallas should have ended is three seasons earlier then it did.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

The more I think about it (and there really are some brilliant ideas in this thread) I think the real answer to the question of how Dallas should have ended is three seasons earlier then it did.

With Paulsen's exit in 1988, not wanting to do DALLAS as an unfunny comedy, DALLAS was gone.

Not that I've ever said it before. Because that would be obnoxious.

 

[CryptCreeper72]

With Paulsen's exit in 1988, not wanting to do DALLAS as an unfunny comedy, DALLAS was gone.

Not that I've ever said it before. Because that would be obnoxious.

Yes. Season 11 wasn't a good year, but to me it's the last year that Dallas seemed even remotely the Dallas we all loved. After Paulsen left, things started declining even more rapidly.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

Isn't that how the Dynasty reunion/miniseries ended?

It was. And an obvious mistake.

Executives -- and fans -- almost always claim a happy ending is "what everybody wants." But when they get it, people say, "Awwwwwwwwwww--- that's so sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!" And then never think about the show or movie again.

All the classic old Hollywood films that people still remember and talk about had ambivalent endings at best!

(If Krystle & Blake had to have their romantic dance in the ballroom on which to end that series, I'd also have a victorious Alexis flying back to London with her glowing crystal skull in tow, while Caress' body lies dead upstairs and undiscovered -- having been executed by Eva Braun only minutes before... But then, that's the other show).

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

Executives -- and fans -- almost always claim a happy ending is "what everybody wants." But when they get it, people say, "Awwwwwwwwwww--- that's so sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!" And then never think about the show or movie again.

I don't think that's true; we're still talking about it now.
When a show comes to an end, and there's no intention to continue, I don't see why the ending shouldn't be definitive - and happy.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

I don't think that's true; we're still talking about it now.

We're still talking about it now, and it ended unhappily. Unfortunately, it ended also it ended badly -- unhappily badly.

When a show comes to an end, and there's no intention to continue, I don't see why the ending shouldn't be definitive - and happy.

But it almost never rings true.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I would’ve ended it at Swan Song. The story is basically told and everything has come full circle. Bobby’s final words are the last thing we ever hear. Everything he says as he flatlines is true, and they all finally realize it’s time to be a family moving forward.

 

[RachelBixby]

A lot sooner than it did.