Dallas Character Mandy Winger - the appreciation thread

tommie

Telly Talk Hero
Deborah-Shelton-Mandy-Winger.jpg


Best character in Dallas history? And of course, the one and only true love of JRs sad life.

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Alexia

Telly Talk Fan
I know I'm a HUGE JR & Sue Ellen fan, and consequently hated JR together with Mandy, but I believe I can be objective when I say that no, Mandy was NOT the best character in Dallas history!:crazy: She wasn't even in the top 5 best supporting characters in my opinion.

As for being the love of JR's life, I'm sorry but no, Sue Ellen was. Even Dallas TNT got that right for god's sake!:hat:
 

pete lashmar

Telly Talk Addict
The best thing about Mandy Winger was when she left. :clap::dance::clap:

One of the top 5 characters of all time on the show? :confuse:No, not for me, maybe if they'd sent her to acting school she may have made maybe 400th or maybe lower:byee:
 

ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989

Telly Talk TV Fanatic
While I would say that Mandy wasn't the top 5 characters in Dallas, she was certainly in the top 10, Debra Shelton was an excellent addition to the series and really should've gotten her own opening credit.

Mandy was sexy yet classy, strong yet vulnerable and determined yet not at all bitchy, she was 3 dimensional as a character, she interacted with the characters well, I loved her scene with Pam in season 8 where she advises her about her relationship with Bobby and fully supports her decision try and get back him back, there seemed to be a much more believable friendship between them than between Pam and Sue Ellen ironically.

Mandy Winger was clearly the best mistress JR had, she was definitely a worthy 3rd Mrs Ewing, yet sadly we got Cally the 17 year old who had the personality and acting skills of a stationary tea spoon in Luke warm milky tea.

I was glad Mandy returned in TNT Dallas for JR's funeral, just about the only good thing that TNT Dallas did.
 
I put Deborah Shelton in the top 2 most beautiful women on Dallas after Victoria P

She was such a pretty girl, and i think out of all of JRs MANY mistresses she was the one he loved the most asides from Sue Ellen

I also have to say deborah Shelton was great in real life; i would write letters to ALL the cast on a yearly basis asking for an autograph or signed photo and she always replied with a personal hand written or typed letter to you and a signed photo in the 1980s (Patrick, Larry and Barbara take note!!)

I think she was always a fav of Hagman and Katzman lol

I think she looks a bit botoxed and enhanced now but back in the day she was very pretty and was Miss USA in the miss World competition
She wasnt the best actress on Dallas - but she had a great relationship and rapport with larry (i bet he enjoyed the bubble bath scenes) and Ken
 
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Alexia

Telly Talk Fan
I agree she was the mistress JR cared about the most & she would have made a much better 'Mrs JR Ewing' than Cally, I just can't stand Deborah Shelton's acting...:hide:
 
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Presea

Telly Talk Addict
While I do believe that Deborah Shelton played her role well, I was just never able to like the Mandy character. (And I am not a JR/Sue Ellen shipper, either). Mandy did not have much of a personality, and I felt like she had no real background, either. Basically, all we ever found out about her was that she was from Ohio (or was it Oklahoma?), and that she likes to work. How is that for vague? We never even saw her family. Basically, Mandy just seemed like a boring people-pleaser who was designed to almost always act polite and to be a sex toy for JR. They had absolutely nothing in common beyond the fact that they liked to have sex, and that does not make a relationship. JR needed someone like him. I believe that a big part of why his serious relationships (Sue Ellen, Mandy, Cally) all failed was because of a lack of similarity between them and and JR. The idea of the innocent, poor, ultra-polite good girl who becomes enchanted with Southfork and is basically a polar opposite to JR in most ways just wasn't working. Katherine had more in common with JR than all of the other women on Dallas put together, and he was a fool for not immediately trying to woo her after his first divorce back in season 5 (dvd).
 

Angela Channing

Telly Talk Veteran
I really like Deborah Shelton and Mandy Winger. A great Dallas character and it would have been so much more interesting, and realistic, if JR and married her.
I put Deborah Shelton in the top 2 most beautiful women on Dallas after Victoria P
I completely agree, she was stunning. There were other Dallas characters who had stronger and more interesting personalities but based on pure physical beauty, Mandy and Pamela were the most beautiful.
 
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Toni

Maximum Member
I honestly (should I use this word to talk about Mandy?) think that the Mandy who dated Cliff and befriended Pam was more interesting that the Mandy "love goddess" that JR went after. In a way, Katzman ruined his own storyline by depraving Mandy of all trace of personality and self-respect, especially in the Dream Season. That last attempt to make her a "lib woman" in her last season sort of blasted in Katzman´s face (poor Deborah appeared in many more scenes in lingerie than in casual clothes) and turned the show into a sexist parade of scenes in the very lame Valentine storyline. She didn´t obviously had the same clause in her contract than Victoria´s...

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Debbie never was more (and worse) dressed than here!!​

Was the character redeemable? I think so, as a vengeful ex-mistress (what soap doesn´t feature that?). She might have secretly married Jeremy Wendell or Wilson Cryder, and pull off the whole Sue Ellen revenge plot and try to ruin her too as well. Or even try to seduce Nicholas Pearce to steal him away (Afton´s echoes here...) from Sue Ellen. With Mandy as a nemesis for Sue Ellen, we might have been spared of the likes of the Stevens sisters, Stephanie Rogers, et al. "Dallas" was about family, and also about familiar faces. That is what people expected from the show in the 80´s, and didn´t get in the latter seasons.
 

Karin

Moderator
Staff Member
I liked Mandy when she first showed up on the show and when she was Cliff Barnes' girlfriend.

I didn't like what Mandy turned into when she kept telling JR to get a divorce so he could marry her. She seemed rather dumb then. I mean it seems to me like most mistresses (Camilla Parker Bowles being the exception!) doesn't end up with the married man and if they do they are probably replaced by another younger mistress once they get a bit older!

Anyway in appreciation of Mandy here's my Dallas fan music videos that centers around her:

With Cliff

With JR


Love triangle with JR & Sue Ellen
 
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