Carter Mc...Kinney?

[Ray_Krebbs]

This is something I remembered from an old post I had contributed to. A poster mentioned Hutch McKinney resembled McKay in the flashbacks, and it gave me ideas. Perhaps Carter could have been introduced earlier. He is brought on as Carter McKinney, and he is revealed to be the brother of Richard "Hutch" McKinney. Victoria Principal and George Kennedy co-starred together in an early 70s film called Earthquake, and it'd be interesting if they had scenes on Dallas also. It'd give Pam more to do outside the Barnes/Ewing dynamic to have bonded with her bio father's kin and see her interactions with Mac, Tommy and Tracy before leaving the show. Perhaps that new direction for the character may have convinced her to stay around. Thoughts?

 

[the-lost-son]

Yes, the resemblance is there for sure.
Any kind of writing probably wouldn't have changed VP's decision to leave the show. According to her, she just was done with the show and ready to move on. According to David Paulsen it was a financial decision not to meet her terms. That's a debate which pops up every now and then without any definitive ending.

The Hutch McKinney storyline was interesting for two episodes including Jock's arrest. With the two additional episodes after Digger's death (Who shot JR) it was quite meaningless to give Pam another father. I didn't like it, it felt like a cheap stunt. The pilot got it's name for a reason.
I can see that the producers wanted to get Pam looking for her mother, but that would have been possible with Digger's death only. I assume the producers realized that they weakened the Barnes family and ignored it for the rest of the show. Neurofibromatosis and Pam's inability to gave children was convoluted somehow.

I agree with your aporoach to strengthen the Barnes family somehow. I don't have a really better idea. In the end it was just Cliff and Pam and latter only Cliff. That's very little to base a feud on.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I think Pam finding out Digger wasn’t her biological father was a very bold move for the show. Considering the entire premise of the show was the warring families and was built around Pam being Digger’s daughter, it could’ve easily backfired. But somehow they made it work. Looking back on it now it added to the drama, not taking away from it like it could’ve, and gave Pam a whole new direction to grow as a character.

I don’t think introducing McKay as a McKinney and Pam realizing she has other siblings would’ve made VP stay however. A great idea in my opinion but she was done at that point and ready to move on.