1984-85: A season of decline

[Snarky Oracle!]

She did a couple of times actually and it was said without being sarcastic or threatening

Oh, that's interesting. Can you cite the scenes where BBG said "dear" -- it's hard to picture. It must have sounded so different that it never stuck with me.

 

[Mustard]

To his credit, Larry conceded that the audience cares about the entire ensemble.

Fortunately for Larry, the executives didn't know that come time for his salary renegotiations.

Larry even questioned in 1988 why he was being made an executive producer on Dallas, questioning his abilities for such a role. I think more money was mentioned in response. There was clearly corruption going on, up the chain. They took their eyes off the things that should matter, i.e. the quality of the show and the means to make that better. If the show is declining in creative quality, yet you're making more money than ever, things are likely to go from bad to worse in terms of the show's creativity.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Larry even questioned in 1988 why he was being made an executive producer on Dallas, questioning his abilities for such a role. I think more money was mentioned in response. There was clearly corruption going on, up the chain. They took their eyes off the things that should matter, i.e. the quality of the show and the means to make that better. If the show is declining in creative quality, yet you're making more money than ever, things are likely to go from bad to worse in terms of the show's creativity.

Oh, yeah. In an interview in '88, when asked what new EP title meant, he said "absolutely nothin'!" and that it was just a way to pay him more.

 

[tommie]

Larry getting to be a producer was essentially a way to round any clauses the other cast members had in their contract to match his pay in some way.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Larry getting to be a producer was essentially a way to round any clauses the other cast members had in their contract to match his pay in some way.

I don't think that was the case with DALLAS, but it certainly was why Heather Locklear was billed as "special guest star" on MELROSE PLACE for seven years!

 

[LMLDallas78]

Oh, that's interesting. Can you cite the scenes where BBG said "dear" -- it's hard to picture. It must have sounded so different that it never stuck with me.

When Miss Ellie visited Sue Ellen in the Sanitarium and wanted her to open up about her life with JR, she said tenderly
"Dear, I do know a little of your life with JR".
As Miss Ellie left she kissed Sue Ellen on the lips and said, "Bye bye dear".

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

When Miss Ellie visited Sue Ellen in the Sanitarium and wanted her to open up about her life with JR, she said tenderly
"Dear, I do know a little of your life with JR".
As Miss Ellie left she kissed Sue Ellen on the lips and said, "Bye bye dear".

Ah ha! different writers -- the dream season writers. They must've thought she was still Donna Reed.

 

[Toni]

One of the most atrocious, out-of-character scenes Ellie Dread did was, during the Jenna trial, leaving the courtroom to cry for "that poor girl", followed by Clayton, of course, who tried to make her come to her senses. That happened a few episodes before "Swan Song", when Ms. Reed probably had been unofficially let go... Another scene is, in "SS", when Miss Ellie goes to Ewing Oil (dressed as a CEO) to gossip about Sue Ellen´s drunken stupors... The nerve!!

"Oh Jock, you are handsome! I´m glad you´ll
be my husband in this delicious show!"​

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Reed's hiring appeared in the press in June 1984. We were stunned, knowing it couldn't and wouldn't work. So we went around for five months making "damnable Donna Reed!" jokes -- in Barbara Bel Geddes' indignant voice -- long before Reed's episodes even started airing! (I've even got myself on video someplace, circa September '84, doing just that).

"There she is on the horizon -- that damnable Donna Reed!"