I have to kind of agree with Patrick Duffy's wife(I think it was) that said the only way it could work was to make it a dream. I wish there was another way, but all of the other alternatives just seem too far-fetched, and probably would have been just as damaging as the dream resolution. I know most here seem to prefer keeping the dream season as reality, and not having Duffy back, and maybe had the dream season been executed differently, I could feel that way, but honestly, I missed the Bobby character during that season; didn't anyone else?? Yes, I hate the damage the dream scenario did to the show, but I didn't like the direction the show was going without him. Had Pam not gotten involved with Mark so fast, maybe it could have worked a little better for me, but it was literally after, what seemed like only a few episodes, she was hot and heavy with Mark again.
Yes, Patrick made his bed, and perhaps he should have had to lie in it, and I didn't agree with a lot of things that happened after he returned to the series-the JR and Bobby show, but as season 9 was executed, I think the show did need him back. Whoever it was, and please forgive me for not taking the time to search for the thread where this forum member originally came up with the idea, but whoever originally suggested it should be Bobby's dream, and not Pam's. Yes! This. To me, while still being a dream, this would have been the least damaging way to go. The family visited him, and talked to him about things that were going on. Maybe Pam found Mark, but it was only in Bobby's dream(or nightmare, rather)that they got romantic. Angelica could have been part of his dream only as well, but Sue Ellen's realistic recovery from alcohol, Ray and Donna and the adoption could have been kept, along with Wes Parmalee, or whatever his name was in season 9(Ben Stivers?). This way, the entire season wouldn't have been lost. It's too bad Patrick decided to leave in the first place, or as others have said, that they didn't leave an escape route, in the event that he decided to return, but when all is said and done, I think whoever came up with the idea of having it be his dream instead was right on the money.