- Awards
- 8
Alexis Smith was the best actor/actress that season.
Would liked for her to have stayed as a recurring character
Would liked for her to have stayed as a recurring character
Dallas Season 7
- Thread starter Jock's Ghost
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- Awards
- 21
Pam knows Mark Graison's gonna die
Pam knows Mark's gonna die...
The '83/'84 year for the nighttime soaps seemed to be their peak; they were at their most stately and secure somehow.
I've been having DALLAS Season 7 episodes popping up on my FB feed all day. It's interesting how well it all holds together: by 1983, the show had marinated (??) into a level of maturity -- it's so calm, so quietly confident (even the silences resonate), the narrative so well-structured, and then there's May's camerawork work... it all so Biblical in its feel. And still Number One even four years after 'Who Shot J.R.?'.
Who could have imagined what was right around the corner?
At the very least, Jessica's homicidal return five years later should have been played absolutely straight instead of for laughs -- but when DALLAS could no longer take even a murder spree seriously, how were we supposed to care about the oil deals and the requisite jealousy triangles?
Pam knows Mark's gonna die...
The '83/'84 year for the nighttime soaps seemed to be their peak; they were at their most stately and secure somehow.
I've been having DALLAS Season 7 episodes popping up on my FB feed all day. It's interesting how well it all holds together: by 1983, the show had marinated (??) into a level of maturity -- it's so calm, so quietly confident (even the silences resonate), the narrative so well-structured, and then there's May's camerawork work... it all so Biblical in its feel. And still Number One even four years after 'Who Shot J.R.?'.
Who could have imagined what was right around the corner?
At the very least, Jessica's homicidal return five years later should have been played absolutely straight instead of for laughs -- but when DALLAS could no longer take even a murder spree seriously, how were we supposed to care about the oil deals and the requisite jealousy triangles?
- Awards
- 10
And in that screenshot there’s ample evidence of the wonders wrought by Bradford May. There are shadows. They fall naturally as geometry and light source would suggest. Even here the SF lounge looks like a real house rather than a stage set.
Season 7 is my favourite season. It’s well nigh perfect.
Season 7 is my favourite season. It’s well nigh perfect.
- Awards
- 21
And Katzman hated it. Preferring the usual flatlighting.
- Awards
- 10
H
Even a cursory glance at May’s episodes reveals a world that looked like one the viewer could step straight into. In some of those scenes in the Oil Baron’s Club , for example, the lighting is almost penumbral. This befits a location where so many shady plotting took place. There were other set pieces put together by May that made the Ewing clan look like they had wandered into the nefarious atmospheres of a grand master’s painting.
Alas, by season’s end it’s back to the garish oversaturated look that robs the locations of so much drama even before a line of dialogue has been uttered. JR’s confrontation with Sue Ellen and Peter at the erstwhile moody Oil Baron’s now leaves the viewer with nothing very much to see apart from floodlit blocking.
Katzman was a philistine. He wilfully deprived Dallas of the distinction of being a genuinely stylish visual popular drama rather than a succession of pancaked talking heads.
He did and he fired May a few episodes before the end of the Season.
Even a cursory glance at May’s episodes reveals a world that looked like one the viewer could step straight into. In some of those scenes in the Oil Baron’s Club , for example, the lighting is almost penumbral. This befits a location where so many shady plotting took place. There were other set pieces put together by May that made the Ewing clan look like they had wandered into the nefarious atmospheres of a grand master’s painting.
Alas, by season’s end it’s back to the garish oversaturated look that robs the locations of so much drama even before a line of dialogue has been uttered. JR’s confrontation with Sue Ellen and Peter at the erstwhile moody Oil Baron’s now leaves the viewer with nothing very much to see apart from floodlit blocking.
Katzman was a philistine. He wilfully deprived Dallas of the distinction of being a genuinely stylish visual popular drama rather than a succession of pancaked talking heads.
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- Awards
- 21
Well said. Katzman didn't like the cinematic look May brought the show (although the audience did) because Uncle Lenny saw DALLAS as "a cartoon." Even the viewer who understood the show was essentially a satire, really didn't want it to be a cartoon. So the maturing the series had attained by Season 7 was quickly undone -- followed by the Mis-Ellie debacle and The Dream scenario.
Ugh. I guess DALLAS becoming too good made some people nervous.