Alternative way to resurrect Bobby

[Snowcat]

I just finished watching the dream season for the first time it aired. I don’t think the lame excuse of a dream to resurrect Bobby was what exactly killed DaLlas. It was the elimination of all the awesome storylines from the season That we lost. Ray and Donna adoption. Sue Ellen recovering & conqueroring her alcoholism. Even Cliff and Jamie’s reconciliation was nice. I didn’t even mind Mark & Pam together. For the first time I was happy with all of the main characters story lines. I think the Wes Parmalee/Ben Stivers coMing back as Jock could have worked. so how else coúld Bobby have been brought back?
i was thinking he could have been in a coma with a living will that said to pull the plug after a year. Pam accepts Bobby is gone. The day before she marries Mark, Bobby wakes up & she can’t go through with it.
i know that’s lame too. But how else do you bring someone back. One of the biggest losses of the dream season was Sue Elle’s recovery and reconciliation with JR. She was successful and working. This is such a better fit than a vindictive movie she made about JR. John Ross adored his dad. SE also told JR that he was always a winner. I wished the series could have ended that way. But THE biggest loss for Dallas was Ray and Donna. I can’t believe they split them up. Ray was acting ridiculous about Donna having a career. Did it really take Bobby dying to ma him see something so obvious?
i was a kid when Dallas was on. I loved Patrick Duffy. But the show went on and was doing perfectly fine without him

 

[Chris2]

But the show wasn’t doing perfectly fine without him. The ratings for the latter half of the dream season really tumbled - the show was barely in the top 15 some weeks. And it had been #2 the previous season.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

There was a new production team there the year Bobby was dead, writers from KNOTS, and they came in with the idea that they needed to "reform" DALLAS. The first half of the season was acceptable, but by midway through, the soapy. maudlin plots just began circling and circling, going nowhere.

This is a controversial concept, but the Witness Protection Program is the only explanation that the show could have gotten away with. It's imperfect, yes, and no more far-fetched than the other proposed explanation. Plus, it could all be done in a single episode (as opposed to a single) -- I've got it all worked out.

 

[Julia's Gun]

I loved Patrick Duffy. . But the show went on and was doing perfectly fine without him.

Well the dream season went wrong with the Marinos shipping and Matt Cantrell stories, but I agree it's a lot better when rewatched now and feels like the show could have kept going without Bobby coming back. I totally agree about JR and Sue-Ellen and Ray and Donna. Their relationships really grew during this season and it really messed things up when they re-set the following yearjust to accomodate Bobby returning.

Also agree that the coma storyline could have worked more effectively, keeping him alive but in some remote clinic and then he suddenly wakes up when its time to return and Pam about to remarry.

But the ratings of Dallas were starting to suffer well before the dream season - I don't think they fell drastically until later on, but the decline is often wrongly attributed to the writers/producers of the dream year, largely because Larry wasn't happy and wanted Bobby back. David Jacobs, the show creator made this point in an interview. Dallas was in a long slow decline from the moment they switched Miss Ellie's head and started repeating the same storylines over and over. The dream season actually opened the rest of the cast up to explore new directions for the show - and Jock returning instead of Bobby would have potentially livened things up again. We could have had the Jock siding with JR dilemma again, made worse by Miss Ellie now being married to Clayton. Would she have gone back to Jock, or would she have rejected him after all that had happened or resented him for not returnign sooner? Lots of story potential to explore there.

So despite the problems mentioned above, I preferred it during my recent re-watch to the following season and Katzman's return. This I found a real endurance test - matcho storylines like the awful Calhoun stuff that went on and on and Bobby back in Ewing oil was kind of dull to me, like he had run his course. Susan Howard I felt most sorry for, and then they wrote her out without even a proper farewell.

I blame Katzman for Dallas' decline, not Philip Capice and the Knots writers, who were writing to save the show by evolving it.

 

[pete lashmar]

Bobby himself having the dream (in a coma) makes so much more sense and the effects of that could have been added to his return season, so it is, but isn't, the same Bobby we loved and knew.

If they had gone down this route they could have introduced some changes in post production leading up to his return, make tiny small changes to characters, their names, the personalities - even how they look - which would then have made perfect sense when the coma dream was revealed.

But the scars of that coma and the dream could have really created a different Bobby for that return season.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Yes, if they were going to use the dream scenario, making it Bobby's dream was the only thing that made sense.

 

[Snowcat]

Well the dream season went wrong with the Marinos shipping and Matt Cantrell stories, but I agree it's a lot better when rewatched now and feels like the show could have kept going without Bobby coming back. I totally agree about JR and Sue-Ellen and Ray and Donna. Their relationships really grew during this season and it really messed things up when they re-set the following yearjust to accomodate Bobby returning.

Also agree that the coma storyline could have worked more effectively, keeping him alive but in some remote clinic and then he suddenly wakes up when its time to return and Pam about to remarry.

But the ratings of Dallas were starting to suffer well before the dream season - I don't think they fell drastically until later on, but the decline is often wrongly attributed to the writers/producers of the dream year, largely because Larry wasn't happy and wanted Bobby back. David Jacobs, the show creator made this point in an interview. Dallas was in a long slow decline from the moment they switched Miss Ellie's head and started repeating the same storylines over and over. The dream season actually opened the rest of the cast up to explore new directions for the show - and Jock returning instead of Bobby would have potentially livened things up again. We could have had the Jock siding with JR dilemma again, made worse by Miss Ellie now being married to Clayton. Would she have gone back to Jock, or would she have rejected him after all that had happened or resented him for not returnign sooner? Lots of story potential to explore there.

So despite the problems mentioned above, I preferred it during my recent re-watch to the following season and Katzman's return. This I found a real endurance test - matcho storylines like the awful Calhoun stuff that went on and on and Bobby back in Ewing oil was kind of dull to me, like he had run his course. Susan Howard I felt most sorry for, and then they wrote her out without even a proper farewell.

I blame Katzman for Dallas' decline, not Philip Capice and the Knots writers, who were writing to save the show by evolving it.

Yes, all these thoughts are in retrospect. Now that I know how bad the show was going to become this season doesn’t seem that bad. I can also see why they chose not to go forward with Wes Parmalee as Jock. That would be really asking a lot of the fans, especially since Bobby & JR were so resistant. I don’t see how they would have come around. Plus he would have never had the same authority as the Jock of old. It’s better to leave the memory where it was.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

I would have had Matt Cantrell run into Bobby underneath a South American mountain, where they were both mining for emeralds. It turns out Bobby couldn’t take the pressure of being a Ewing anymore so he faked his death and grew a moustache and went to South America to anonymously pursue his lifelong dream and search for the precious stones he loved the most. By pure coincidence the ex-teammates and great friends happened to be mining the exact same vein in the same mountain at the same time.

After Matt convinced Bobby to return home to his family, the duo, shirtless, arrived back at Southfork to smiles, laughter, and tears.

Alternatively, to keep all Dream Season storylines intact, they could have brought Patrick Duffy back to inexplicably take over the role of Tony Krebbs.

 

[Lastkidpicked]

It was the elimination of all the awesome storylines from the season That we lost. Ray and Donna adoption. Sue Ellen recovering & conqueroring her alcoholism. Even Cliff and Jamie’s reconciliation was nice. I didn’t even mind Mark & Pam together. For the first time I was happy with all of the main characters story lines. I think the Wes Parmalee/Ben Stivers coming back as Jock could have worked. so how else coúld Bobby have been brought back?

I agree that the real downside of the dream scenario is it erased really good and thought provoking storylines. During the original run, Dallas received a lot of praise for the Ray and Donna special needs challenges. I was very proud of Dallas for that.

 

[Seaviewer]

I've just finished rewatching the season myself and I agree that it's sad knowing that those situations won't be continued after Angelica's bomb disrupts the space-time continuum.
Any explanation involving a coma would have been preferable to just wiping all that out.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I agree that the real downside of the dream scenario is it erased really good and thought provoking storylines. During the original run, Dallas received a lot of praise for the Ray and Donna special needs challenges. I was very proud of Dallas for that.

Yeah. I also felt we were robbed of having Steve Forrest as a recast Jock Ewing.

Steve could've reinvigorated the show if they'd actually gone through with the storyline and made him Jock. We might've been spared some of the awful storylines from the shows final seasons.

 

[Mustard]

The biggest losers from the dream revelation were Ray and Donna, Cliff and Jamie, and Jack. When all the stories were redone and took different directions in Season 10 DVD, were any of the Season 10 versions better than the Season 9 versions? I don't think so. Even Ben Stivers from the dream got to keep his mysteriousness.

I still wonder why it was even done. Bobby's death was a huge part of Dallas. The only serious feelgood factor from Bobby's return, and even those didn't last long, was Bobby being back from the dead along with Bobby and Pam being together again at Southfork, remarrying etc. But as Victoria Principal was soon leaving, what was the point? It might have made more sense (just a bit) if Victoria Principal had just signed on for several more years on Dallas, but 1986-87 was the peak of machismo behind the scenes and on screen on Dallas.

 

[Mustard]

But the show wasn’t doing perfectly fine without him. The ratings for the latter half of the dream season really tumbled - the show was barely in the top 15 some weeks. And it had been #2 the previous season.

Dallas was doing fine without Bobby Ewing, at #6 in the 1985-86 ratings, down from #2 in 1984-85. Dynasty went from #1 in 1984-85 to #7 in 1985-86. In hindsight, all the big US soaps declined in the ratings after 1985, some more than others. Knots Landing did the best in slowing their decline down, and by 1988 Knots Landing was the most popular US soap, with Dynasty having had a big decline out of the top 40, and Dallas going into a big decline of their own out of the top 20 and would soon crash much further. Bobby's return did not stop an accelerated ratings decline for Dallas after 1986.

Dallas was #6 in 1979-80, the season that ended with Who Shot J.R.? Nobody was calling that a ratings failure.

Well the dream season went wrong with the Marinos shipping and Matt Cantrell stories, but I agree it's a lot better when rewatched now and feels like the show could have kept going without Bobby coming back. I totally agree about JR and Sue-Ellen and Ray and Donna. Their relationships really grew during this season and it really messed things up when they re-set the following yearjust to accomodate Bobby returning.

Also agree that the coma storyline could have worked more effectively, keeping him alive but in some remote clinic and then he suddenly wakes up when its time to return and Pam about to remarry.

But the ratings of Dallas were starting to suffer well before the dream season - I don't think they fell drastically until later on, but the decline is often wrongly attributed to the writers/producers of the dream year, largely because Larry wasn't happy and wanted Bobby back. David Jacobs, the show creator made this point in an interview. Dallas was in a long slow decline from the moment they switched Miss Ellie's head and started repeating the same storylines over and over. The dream season actually opened the rest of the cast up to explore new directions for the show - and Jock returning instead of Bobby would have potentially livened things up again. We could have had the Jock siding with JR dilemma again, made worse by Miss Ellie now being married to Clayton. Would she have gone back to Jock, or would she have rejected him after all that had happened or resented him for not returnign sooner? Lots of story potential to explore there.

So despite the problems mentioned above, I preferred it during my recent re-watch to the following season and Katzman's return. This I found a real endurance test - matcho storylines like the awful Calhoun stuff that went on and on and Bobby back in Ewing oil was kind of dull to me, like he had run his course. Susan Howard I felt most sorry for, and then they wrote her out without even a proper farewell.

I blame Katzman for Dallas' decline, not Philip Capice and the Knots writers, who were writing to save the show by evolving it.

Dallas lost their #1 spot to Dynasty in the season long ratings by a small fraction in 1984-85, and Dallas still won on the cliffhanger episodes, as Bobby's death did better in the ratings than the Moldavian Massacre. The latter was Dynasty's biggest season ending cliffhanger.

I don't agree with the opinions of others in this thread that the Angelica Nero and Matt Cantrell storylines were bad. They were perfectly fine, but could have been done even better still.

I agree 100% with your last sentence.

 

[Mustard]

I agree that the real downside of the dream scenario is it erased really good and thought provoking storylines. During the original run, Dallas received a lot of praise for the Ray and Donna special needs challenges. I was very proud of Dallas for that.

And what they did with Ray and Donna post-dream was just so inferior compared to their excellent storylines in the dream. Post-dream saw Ray and Donna never patch up their late Season 8 DVD differences, Donna giving birth to a healthy baby daughter instead of the down's syndrome, miscarriage and adoption storylines (Donna's miscarried baby was a son in the dream, also), and she divorced Ray and married Andrew Dowling. Meanwhile, Ray ends up with Jenna, and Jenna by this point is a pale shadow of her Seasons 7-8 DVD self.

 

[southfork88]

We all know that the choice of Pamela's dream was a escamotage by Katzman, Larry and Patrick to easily cancel the excellent work of Capice and the writers of the 1985-1986 season. A sort of disfigurement, humiliation of that season that would become non-existent, as they did later with the character of Victoria who became a mummy.

 

[Monzo]

If there was just a little more time to re-shoot some scenes from the season finale, I would have blamed Angelica Nero.

Instead of planting bombs, Angelica should have forced JR at gunpoint to a hidden location where JR sees the very much alive Bobby. It turns out that at the time of the car crash, Angelica was already lurking around the Ewings. Knowing the best doctors in the world, she figured Bobby could be a big bargaining chip in case JR didn't support her master plan, so she saved him. Now that she was on the run, she could actually use Bobby. If JR wants him back, he'll have to pay a $50 million ransom.. So the actual cliffhanger wouldn't be that Bobby is alive, but whether JR is willing to pay that amount of money to get his brother back.

The season opener could easily solve the dilemma: the police could have followed JR and freed Bobby and shot Angelica within the first five minutes - or the writers could stretch the story out by having JR sell parts of Ewing Oil to Cliff or Weststar for the ransom to get Bobby back.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

We all know that the choice of Pamela's dream was a escamotage by Katzman, Larry and Patrick to easily cancel the excellent work of Capice and the writers of the 1985-1986 season. A sort of disfigurement, humiliation of that season that would become non-existent, as they did later with the character of Victoria who became a mummy.

Escamotage! Great word! Thank you for broadening my vocabulary. I love learning new words

 

[GillesDenver]

The biggest losers from the dream revelation were Ray and Donna, Cliff and Jamie, and Jack.

Not Jamie, she was dead by the end of the dream season. On the contrary the dream revelation allowed her to be back for a few episodes.

 

[Mustard]

Not Jamie, she was dead by the end of the dream season. On the contrary the dream revelation allowed her to be back for a few episodes.

But her marriage with Cliff outside the dream was basically about politics. Jamie died in both the dream and post-dream, and again I think the dream version was better.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

inspired by the thread title, I now believe they should have done an Easter-style thing with Bobby and perhaps even formed a crossover real-world "Dallas religion". With their newfound tax-exempt status they surely could have afforded to keep Victoria and Susan and Steve, et. al., on salary.

*falls through trap door into the hellfire of eternal damnation*