So how would YOU have saved Dallas?

[pete lashmar]

I've seen many comments on the forum from people who feel the show should ended here, there or wherever - but given that the show was earning so much money in overseas sales, it continued to it's 14th year.

There are also many comments about too many original cast members going and too many new and unpopular characters coming in.

So, taking all that information into account - and the fact that Victoria could not be persuaded to stay after Season 10 (DVD), how would you have saved the show from going into such a decline?

For me I would have done a few things:

Season 11

1. I would have confirmed Pam's death immediately in episode 1, bringing with it Pam's will giving everything to Christopher.

2. Bobby would have given up on everything and, in a moment of weakness, unbeknown to him signed a power of attorney over to J.R, giving J.R Christopher's power in Wentworth.

3. J.R would then go to battle with Cliff, all the while selling off Wentworth investments to dummy accounts - giving Ewing Oil a huge boost.

The biggest fault of the writers in later years was always letting J.R get beaten, so I would bring him up to the highest he ever got.

4. I would have ended Season 11 with J.R having a successful takeover of Weststar, with the mob finding Nicholas and in a shootout Sue Ellen getting shot and a few other mini cliff hangers.

SEASON 12

Bobby and Cliff would join forces to tackle J.R head on, Sue Ellen would recover, but would would have been diagnosed with an ongoing severe problem with her liver, leading to never again being allowed to touch alcohol...it would kill her!

And so on....

How would you have saved Dallas, given everything that had happened and who had left the show by the end of Season 10?

 

[Tullamore]

Oooohhh you did this for me didn't you? Lol

 

[pete lashmar]

I would never have introduced Michelle, Cally or Vanessa to the show - instead I would have had J.R look after Sue Ellen, bringing them back together and then joining forces against Bobby & Cliff.

April would have stayed and the Austrian visit would have gone ahead, but with J.R/Sue Ellen trying to get the deal over Bobby/Cliff...ending with Cliff signing the deal and then facing the damnation of the Texas oil companies.

To end the Season 12 I would have thrown every penny possible at Linda to stay and ended with a cliffhanger of a tornado or another natural disaster.

For Season 13 I would have advertised it as the final season....TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[pete lashmar]

Season 13...unlucky for some & the final season of Dallas.

Cliff would end up exceptionally rich, but would leave Dallas and put his battles with J.R behind him - he'd find Afton and they'd leave together.

Bobby would find Pam (because I would have got VP back)/

J.R and Sue Ellen would have been a very powerful couple - Ewing Oil would have taken over Wentworth & Weststar.

Season finale - Ellie's funeral, Bobby brings Pam back, Ray & Donna return & the season ends with snowfall...it's going to be a very bitter winter!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Don't re-cast Miss Ellie.

And no dream resolution to explain Bobby's revival.

Even if they didn't provide an immediate explanation for Pam's death, turn her absence into a character in itself (as they did with Jock and Bobby). Maybe even turn her disappearance into an ongoing mystery playing out in the background for the remainder of the series -- but don't permanently ignore it like they did.

I also want to find out the tanker truck Pam's smashed into was owned by JR doing secret oil business in the badlands in violation of the fed's rules after the BD Calhoun scandal went down. So JR not only has to run around all season trying to keep this info from Bobby, once Bobby finds out and dunks JR in the pool as per usual, he finds himself in the awkward and ironic situation of trying to keep the lid on JR's clandestine dealings to prevent the family business from suffering any more punishment.

I found the range war plot acceptable, but made too little sense. I want Miss Ellie's reluctance to call in the authorities connected to her fears that something buried on that part of Southfork being unearthed (perhaps something Jock had buried and Wes Parmalee mentioned to her as a kind of "threat" before he'd taken off). We don't have to find out why and what it is until later.

Silly as Sue Ellen's movie was, if they'd done it more seriously, and let it have consequences (like, her eventually releasing it??), I'd be okay with it.

Jeremy Wendell's arrest and removal was totally unbelievable. The very idea that the Ewing brothers, weakened as their company now was, could so easily bring down one of the most powerful and machievellian men in the country was ridiculous (and the result of a salary issue between the actor and Lorimar). I'd have JR and Bobby a few months later mutually acknowledge the improbability of the incident, and we can learn Wendell's fooled them for some nefarious reason. (And then pay William Smithers more money to do so).

The tanker oil spill was fine, and placing Cliff in Ewing Oil just long enough to cause a problem was also good. But Lady Jessica's murder spree, and Miss Ellie's turn as detective, were flawed mostly in their execution -- they could have, and should have, worked!

And that's my issue with the closing seasons: it's the execution and the details which created the problems, not necessarily the general plot concepts. A lot of people complain that JR "turned into a wimp" in the final seasons, but that never really bothers me -- I was okay with JR becoming tired and a wee bit philosophical about his life in retrospect; to me, the problem was the show around him becoming too wimpy, too silly, too campy in tone.

Also, increasing Miss Ellie's role (instead of minimizing it, then ousting her entirely) seems a no-brainer since there were so few original cast members left on DALLAS, especially since she's the one who represented "home" the most. (David Jacobs said several years ago when they were talking about doing a DALLAS motion picture that Miss Ellie could have her own talk show -- or something like that... I might have liked to have seen that in the same year of the oil spill and Jessica's murder spree: Miss Ellie does so well in her appearances on Roy Ralston's local chat show that he and the station offer the show to her as he goes national with his own Coast-to-Coast program... JR and the oil cartel initially thinks this is a great idea, as Ellie could then "spin" things in their favor, but they change their minds pretty fast when Miss Ellie starts waxing too liberal, making pro-environmental comments, etc... And JR responds by trying to sabotage his own mother on the air... Just imagine the possibilities).

And James from London once suggested that Miss Ellie on her deathbed (or at least in the hospital seriously ill) confess, perhaps to Clayton?, that JR is in fact Digger Barnes' son -- a revelation a drunken Clayton later shares with JR and the family, creating an obvious furor and making JR as mean as ever. (It could be undone via DNA testing a year later, if we prefer). The irony being that once they learn Pam has died, ideally by neurofibromatosis, JR realizes he's not only not a Ewing but he's half-brother to Pam! (One assumes Rebecca lied, or wasn't sure, about Hutch McKinney being Pam's biological father).

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera... So many other things.

Also, if Miss Ellie indeed dies before the show ends, a few weeks later have Ray or somebody observe that someone passed on the information that Wes Parmalee had been located and had recently died up in Alaska or Canada someplace, with no one acknowledging the eerie timing.

Also, just as Ewing Oil is about to go under once and for all, Sue Ellen shows up from Europe, flushed with cash from her new career as independent film producer, and saves the Ewings' much-weakened company for the family -- but places Cliff Barnes in the role of CEO. At this point, everyone is impressed and amused ... except of course for JR who is enraged by the move.

I envision, following one final Ewing barbecue, Sue Ellen sitting out front at night at a lone, cup of coffee in front of her. JR wanders up in his post-BBQ robe, uncomfortably tries to make affectionate small talk, asks her if she's coming in, and she looks up at him dismissively, and says, "Maybe". JR turns to walk back to the house, the camera pulls away from the table, freeze frame and fade to black -- a direct replay of their exchange at the end of the first "Barbecue" episode back in 1978, even the same John Parker melody, but with the roles now reversed.

 

[Tullamore]

Season 11
First thing I would have had the whole family at Pam's bedside. Keep the comradeship with the family.
It's been mentioned by quite a few of us that Pam could suddenly disappear and Bobby believes that Katherine played a part.

However 2 revelations crop up in the season: Cliff helped Pam 'disappear' and JR (another popular theory) was behind the illegal tanker truck run,forcing Bobby to leave Southfork.

Bobby looks for Pam
Clayton gets infatuated with Laurel who after the murder of Dave it is revealed (after JR slept with her) the reason for Clayton's obsession is that she is his daughter and is at the Ewing dinner table when JR comes in. He is so scared of Clayton he pleads Laurel not to say anything

Ray and Jenna send Charlie to school in Switzerland. Donna and Andrew marry.

Sue Ellen and Nicholas is good. Like the idea that the mafia catch up but kidnap Sue Ellen. Nicholas gives himself up in an attempt to save her. April is in on it and is caught up in the shootout leaving April and Sue Ellen wounded. Eventually April dies.

Keep the Lisa Alden storyline
Bobby feels he is being followed as does Ray and Ellie

Ray adopts a dog called Tyson after rescuing it from an abusive owner

JR and Sue Ellen reunite after her close call and he threatens Nicholas to get out of town

Lucy returns with a Lord Anthony Woodthorpe-they are married. It transpires he is swindling her to pay for his other wife and children in England and is not a lord. He disappears....

Sue Ellen and JR renew their vows

Jenna is pregnant

Ellie convicts Ray and Clayton to help out at Ewing Oil
The season cliffhanger:
Lucy discovers Anthony in a Swiss clinic dying- she stays with him as he dies

Cliff meets the person following the family....
And says he will help anyway to get Ewing oil for him

Nicholas is lying on a beach in the Carribean when the shadow of a silencer shows on his chest....
Bobby storms in and offers to sell his share to JR thanks to the tanker/Pam crash- telling him Ewing oil is all his. He can buy it for a dollar.

JR sits back smiling on his own,raises a drink at Jock's painting and says he's done it daddy,he's done it....


Until season 12

 

[Tullamore]

Snarky's Ghost
You are more creative now you are in the afterlife lol

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Snarky's Ghost
You are more creative now you are in the afterlife lol

Yes, you just learn so much up here!

 

[Lastkidpicked]

This one is WAY out there, but follow along and see what you think:

Bobby and J.R. lose Ewing Oil to West Star. They basically give up and retire, but soon they get restless and decide to follow in Jock's footsteps to build an oil company from the ground up. "It's now or never, Bob. Ten years from now, we'll be too old to try anything this crazy."

We see them working the bars in small Texas towns, making deals with the wildcatters. Stealing work crews from West Star and the other majors.

We see Bobby once again as the company pimp, finding out who the landowners are, and which ones are most likely to defect to the new company.

We see J.R. and Bobby running crews of roughnecks out in the oil fields. Bribing local officials, getting in fights (Bobby, anyway) with workers they catch stealing from them.

We watch Sue Ellen and Pam working side by side with J.R. and Bobby, blackmailing equipment owners to send oilfield pipe to Ewing Bros instead of West Star fields.

We watch as the Ewing brothers are the underdogs, and we root for them and we're even happy that J.R. knows pleny of dirty tricks, because he'll need them all in the fight against giant West Star. We even see Pam going to J.R. "West Star is trying to force us out by tying up every drilling rig in Texas. J.R., I need you to teach me how to fight dirty, because we NEED a drilling rig by Friday or we are out of business."

We watch J.R, Bobby, Sue Ellen, and Pam covered in oil as they hit their first strike. That night, it's exciting and electric, even better than when they first met.

We laugh with them in their victories, and cry with them in their failures. We tune in every week to see what happens next, just like we did in the old days.

 

[Tullamore]

Almost a reboot Lastkidpicked?

 

[Clubsoda]

I'd have ended it with the end of the 1986 -87 Season as 250 episodes was more than enough.

I'd of course had Pam tell Bobby she was pregnant and Donna and Ray reconcile.

 

[Presea]

I've seen many comments on the forum from people who feel the show should ended here, there or wherever - but given that the show was earning so much money in overseas sales, it continued to it's 14th year.

There are also many comments about too many original cast members going and too many new and unpopular characters coming in.

So, taking all that information into account - and the fact that Victoria could not be persuaded to stay after Season 10 (DVD), how would you have saved the show from going into such a decline?

For me I would have done a few things:

Season 11

1. I would have confirmed Pam's death immediately in episode 1, bringing with it Pam's will giving everything to Christopher.

2. Bobby would have given up on everything and, in a moment of weakness, unbeknown to him signed a power of attorney over to J.R, giving J.R Christopher's power in Wentworth.

3. J.R would then go to battle with Cliff, all the while selling off Wentworth investments to dummy accounts - giving Ewing Oil a huge boost.

The biggest fault of the writers in later years was always letting J.R get beaten, so I would bring him up to the highest he ever got.

4. I would have ended Season 11 with J.R having a successful takeover of Weststar, with the mob finding Nicholas and in a shootout Sue Ellen getting shot and a few other mini cliff hangers.

SEASON 12

Bobby and Cliff would join forces to tackle J.R head on, Sue Ellen would recover, but would would have been diagnosed with an ongoing severe problem with her liver, leading to never again being allowed to touch alcohol...it would kill her!

And so on....

How would you have saved Dallas, given everything that had happened and who had left the show by the end of Season 10?

As nice as all of this sounds, JR should not get anything Wentworth. He pretty much raped Katherine, so that is just wrong, in my opinion. Heck, NONE of them besides her should have anything from it in the first place.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

I have several ideas on how I'd save Dallas in the last five years.

Bobby wouldn't have come back at all, I'd either make JR even worse than what he was and have Pam stand up to him as they battle it out, or I would make them allies, toward the end of season 9 we could see that Pam and JR were beginning to have some respect for one another, JR would finally realise that Pam really isn't the big bad and the fact that she isn't really a Barnes and only Barnes raised would help him finally accept her for Bobby's sake,
The 1985-87 era would see them become frenemies, they still banter but there's a person who is out to get the Ewing's and he has lower scruples than JR does and this could cause them to become allies, I would then end the show in 1987, with Pam pregnant and deciding to leave Dallas as she and JR have done what they needed to do to preserve Ewing oil, JR now runs Ewing oil but only until
John Ross and Christopher are old enough to takeover.

I'm one of the few on here that believed Dallas could go on after Bobby died, and that Dallas was entering a new era, Bobby's return only served to set the show back by at least two seasons in terms of development, and it ruined the credibility of the once great super soap, it was as if bringing Bobby back in the most ludicrous way possible gave way to the gradual stupidity of the last five, but mainly three years of the show.

 

[Presea]

Season 13...unlucky for some & the final season of Dallas.

Cliff would end up exceptionally rich, but would leave Dallas and put his battles with J.R behind him - he'd find Afton and they'd leave together.

Bobby would find Pam (because I would have got VP back)/

J.R and Sue Ellen would have been a very powerful couple - Ewing Oil would have taken over Wentworth & Weststar.

Season finale - Ellie's funeral, Bobby brings Pam back, Ray & Donna return & the season ends with snowfall...it's going to be a very bitter winter!

Ewing Oil cannot actually take everything that is Wentworth. They may be able to get their hands on shares from the smaller companies that are under Wentworth Industries, but Wentworth Industries itself was put under control of it's board of directors by Herbert Wentworth. Probably to insure that stuff like this doesn't happen. JR should not have anything Wentworth after he pretty much raped Katherine. And Ewing Oil should want to purchase oil companies, not a tool and dye business. I doubt that JR even knew anything about the tool and dye business, and the idea of Sue Ellen (who also has no right to own anything with Wentworth) being able to work in either the oil OR tool and dye business is laughable, since she was only running a lingerie business (unrealistically, I might add) for god's sake.

 

[Presea]

Here's how I would have saved it: Pam finds out that there was some mix-up at the hospital that switched her records with another patient's. This would mean that she does NOT have a fatal disease. She then comes back to Dallas and marries Bobby again. Katherine also returns to Dallas. She walks right into Ewing Oil, and when JR and Bobby see her, she says: "Surprise, bitches! Bet you never thought you'd see me again, huh!?" (Ok, maybe that is a bit OOC, but still!) When they try to call the cops on her, Katherine reveals her plan. She has a child from JR from back when he blackmailed her for sex. She then pulls the same thing Kristin did. Threatens to expose her and JR's affair and child to everyone if they put her in jail. JR folds, but Katherine takes advantage of the situation even more. She gets JR and Bobby to drop the charges against her and sell her shares of Wenthworth Tool and Dye back to her. (Bobby still had Pam's, and JR had bought Cliff's from Jeremy Wendell earlier in this story.) Katherine, as the owner of Wentworth Tool and Dye, then becomes the b**** that makes JR and Bobby miserable, by using her connections in Wenthworth to make sure that no tool and dye company will make parts for drilling oil at any reasonable prices for the brothers for a long time. Katherine only agrees to a truce after it becomes clear that JR is actually a good father to their daughter. Eventually Ewing Oil has a partnership with Wentworth, allowing the company to be more powerful than all of the other oil companies. Due to the workload becoming even more demanding with Ewing Oil's new success, Bobby steps down and gives JR full control of the company so that he can spend more time with Pam and Christopher. JR remains a bachelor after Sue Ellen divorces him, because he is way too happy with Ewing Oil, the true love of his life, and because people in a marriage with domestic violence usually get divorced because they want to STAY that way. Cliff gives up on the oil business and manages a chain of very successful Chinese restaurants. He meets Afton again, and they are finally able to make things work due to Cliff letting go of the Barnes-Ewing feud. Ray becomes too homesick for Dallas and divorces Jenna. When he returns, he finds Donna, who is now single because Senator Dowling was murdered by a political opponent's hitman. They then get back together again. Miss Ellie and Clayton stay at Southfork, but still enjoy vacations, too. Lucy does...whatever she does. And that is the end!

 

[Lastkidpicked]

Almost a reboot Lastkidpicked?

Didn't think of it that way until you mentioned it, Tullamore.
And yes, that would be a good way of thinking of it.

I think it would have been very interesting to watch Bobby and J.R. building an oil company from the ground up. This would allow the show to explore lots of new filming locations as well. Maybe breathe a little life back into the last few seasons.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I would have had Steve Forrest return as Jock Ewing to save the show & to bring the show to a close.

We would see him staring at the picture of Jim Davis with tears in his face, a flashback to the helicopter crash & the realisation that he walked away from his family because they wouldn't believe who he really was...

 

[Mustard]

I'd have ended it with the end of the 1986 -87 Season as 250 episodes was more than enough.

I'd of course had Pam tell Bobby she was pregnant and Donna and Ray reconcile.

Agreed.

Alternatively, in the second half of Season 9 DVD, they could have escalated the J.R. vs. Pam feud in Ewing Oil, but mixed it in with their continued grief over Bobby's death that has changed their personalities slightly. Both would be more vulnerable and more ruthless. Season 10 would then be the last, without Bobby coming back. J.R.'s dirty deeds resulting in getting Ewing Oil shut down by the Justice Department could be an ending.

Dallas could have ended with a bang and on a certain high with either of these two scenarios. But in reality, what happened after Pam drove into the oil tanker took Dallas down a creative cul-de-sac. What Dallas became after Victoria Principal left would never have been a successful show at all, let alone a worldwide phenomenon.

 

[Mustard]

I have several ideas on how I'd save Dallas in the last five years.

Bobby wouldn't have come back at all, I'd either make JR even worse than what he was and have Pam stand up to him as they battle it out, or I would make them allies, toward the end of season 9 we could see that Pam and JR were beginning to have some respect for one another, JR would finally realise that Pam really isn't the big bad and the fact that she isn't really a Barnes and only Barnes raised would help him finally accept her for Bobby's sake

Of course Pam is a Barnes. Blood isn't everything. Look at Christopher.

 

[Rove]

Alternatively, in the second half of Season 9 DVD, they could have escalated the J.R. vs. Pam feud in Ewing Oil

I've always believed this was the natural path Dallas was taking. From the moment "that Barnes woman" arrived at Southfork all hell kicked off. As we progressed from one season to the next we witnessed Pam go from a young spirited woman, dealing with her demons of not having a baby to fending off JR's dirty schemes, to acting as peacemaker between the Ewing and Barnes family. She then began her Oil business career with Cliff. Pam and Bobby divorce with assistance from her demented half-sister Katherine. But after all the wheeling and dealing Pam and Bobby re-discover each other and all looked to be heading to blissful until that woman in a blonde wig ran down our Romeo with a scrambling Juliet crawling towards her lover. We all felt that pain when Pam let rip with that scream that echoed around the world.

I've said it many times. Bobby should have remained dead. If Victoria was already hinting that she was going to leave then the writers should have thrown everything at the wall. Give Dallas 2 more seasons. Ramp up the high drama between Pam protecting Christopher's interest in Ewing Oil and JR scheming to get her out - at any cost. All our beloved characters would still be there. Miss Ellie, desperately trying to keep the piece with support from Clayton. Sue Ellen (in her attempts to protect John Ross' interests), has a heated argument with Pam, then stands side-by-side with her womanizing husband. Ray and Donna (especially Donna) side with Pam. Poor Jenna, caught in the cross-hairs and discovering she is pregnant flees Dallas once again.

When it's revealed Bobby leaves Pam in charge of controlling Christopher's share in Ewing Oil the scene was set. To me everything about Dallas had been leading to this point. J.R. Ewing v's Pam. However you wish to create the drama I wanted fireworks. If the fight for Ewing Oil between JR and Bobby was intense then nothing was going to prepare us for the fights between JR and Pam. It was going to be THE story which would ultimately fracture the Ewing family. From the opening episode we watch Pam and Bobby arriving in Dallas in his red Mercedes convertible. How fitting then would it have been to watch Pam and Christopher leave Dallas in that same car. And end the series....until another day.