Dallas Aftershow: Why is the Character of Pam Important to the Series?!

[Jabari Lamar]

 

[DallasFanForever]

I think the importance of Pam returning at some point, whether it was TNT Dallas, any of the reunion movies or even the final episode of the original show would be to get some closure for her and Bobby. Their ending was quite sad and poorly written, and I don’t think the Bobby character was ever the same without Pam. I’ve always said divorcing them was a huge mistake in the first place. A huge part of their appeal as a couple was it was them against the world so their divorce never made any sense in my opinion. Their love should’ve been strong enough to overcome their issues, and obviously they were still very much in love after the divorce also, perhaps even more. So to me that would’ve been the biggest significance of a VP return, fixing Bobby and Pam somehow.

 

[Mustard]

At the start of Dallas, everything is obviously mysterious to the audience. Also, Pamela Barnes has just married a son from the rival family, and is about to go into the lion's den. Pam's experiences here are not too far removed from the audience's, i.e. an introduction into the Ewing world and how it works. Pam is now a Ewing, yet also a Barnes by upbringing, playing into all the different dynamics and feuds, having a link with nearly all of them in a big way.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Pam was a pivotal character that's why she was important.

She married Bobby Ewing. His Father was Jock Ewing who had once been her Father Digger Barnes friend and business colleague.

This meant that Pam and Bobby were stuck in the middle of the Barnes Ewing feud which made the show so compelling to watch.

 

[Mustard]

Pam was a pivotal character that's why she was important.

She married Bobby Ewing. His Father was Jock Ewing who had once been her Father Digger Barnes friend and business colleague.

This meant that Pam and Bobby were stuck in the middle of the Barnes Ewing feud which made the show so compelling to watch.

Bobby was different in the sense that he didn't have the same type of connections in the Barnes family that Pam was now having in the Ewing family. Bobby's loyalty was also absolutely with the Ewings. Pam was now a Ewing, but still somewhat torn. The one exception was just before J.R. was shot, when Bobby and Pam walked out of Southfork together and intended to visit Gary and Valene in Knots Landing.

 

[Barbara Fan]

JR was the most important character on the show, but Pam was the most important female character on the show and Ive said it before but she was the LINK

The link to all of Dallas - the daugher of his mothers ex boyfiend, her fathers arch enemy in Jock, her brothers arch enemy in JR
She was at the centre to all of this and when she left - there was a huge gap missing - and it was flatter as a result
The hatred between the 2 families
Past and present
Digger and Jock
Bobby V his family
Cliff V the Ewings

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

JR was the most important character on the show, but Pam was the most important female character on the show and Ive said it before but she was the LINK

The link to all of Dallas - the daugher of his mothers ex boyfiend, her fathers arch enemy in Jock, her brothers arch enemy in JR
She was at the centre to all of this and when she left - there was a huge gap missing - and it was flatter as a result
The hatred between the 2 families
Past and present
Digger and Jock
Bobby V his family
Cliff V the Ewings

Yes she was and she came to despise the methods JR did to bring the Barnes family down.

However she had no love for Cliff either when he tried to attack the Ewing family at ever opportunity he got.

Pam may have been in the middle of the Barnes Ewing feud but she soon got fed up with it.

To be honest I don't blame Victoria Principal leaving the show at the end of season ten.

She'd probably had had enough of the constantly rehashed storylines but of course Dallas just had to go on.

 

[Rove]

Pam IS central to the story of Dallas. It was a great way for us the viewer to be introduced to the Ewing family. She was the outsider and while Miss Ellie did offer a warm welcome to her newest daughter-in-law there was a coldness from her. Victoria has stated in interviews how she distanced herself from other cast members to offer herself some perception why the Ewing family would be hostile to outsiders. Possibly an acting trick but it worked.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

She was very good friends with the actor who played Jock Ewing.

Mainly because she resembled Jim Davis's dead daughter.

I like to think that Victoria & Jim enjoyed each others company together.

It was sad when we lost Jock so soon into the show's run.

May He Rest In Peace.

 

[KayLloyd]

JR was the most important character on the show, but Pam was the most important female character on the show and Ive said it before but she was the LINK

The link to all of Dallas - the daugher of his mothers ex boyfiend, her fathers arch enemy in Jock, her brothers arch enemy in JR
She was at the centre to all of this and when she left - there was a huge gap missing - and it was flatter as a result
The hatred between the 2 families
Past and present
Digger and Jock
Bobby V his family
Cliff V the Ewings

The main focus of the show was always designed to be Bobby and Pam's marriage and the ripple effects of it, J.R. was only supposed to a supporting side character. The focus eventually shifted to J.R., but the show lost it's way and never recovered from Victoria's departure and the loss of the Pam and Bobby marriage dynamic that had been the whole purpose of the show. I'd say that Pam was the most important character to the show, she was the main link to the core characters.

 

[Mustard]

Yes she was and she came to despise the methods JR did to bring the Barnes family down.

However she had no love for Cliff either when he tried to attack the Ewing family at ever opportunity he got.

Because Pam was a Ewing by his point.

Pam may have been in the middle of the Barnes Ewing feud but she soon got fed up with it.

The opposite to when they were kids by the sounds of it. Pam was worse than Cliff then when Cliff was working hard to become a lawyer. Cliff in the earlier episodes is very likeable, especially before the fallout of the "Election" episode.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Because Pam was a Ewing by his point.


The opposite to when they were kids by the sounds of it. Pam was worse than Cliff then when Cliff was working hard to become a lawyer. Cliff in the earlier episodes is very likeable, especially before the fallout of the "Election" episode.

Good observations.
I was not a Pam fan, but I thought the Bobby/Pam pairing was necessary to move the story lines forward.
They made Cliff too buffoonish over time. I thought it was a mistake for Digger and Rebecca to die, there could have been lots
of storylines to pursue. What if Digger smelled oil while in a drunken stupor, reunited with Rebecca,
and Re-ignited his feud with Jock on stronger ground?
I would have preferred it to bringing in Jason's children
In the minority, but I liked the Cliff/Dandy story. It gave Cliff a chance
to honor Digger by helping someone who had flaws similar to his father,
and to put himself in Jock's position when faced with a similar situation.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

The character of Pam is as important to Dallas as the Honey Monster is to Kellogg's!

 

[DallasFanForever]

I thought it was a mistake for Digger and Rebecca to die, there could have been lots
of storylines to pursue

I know their deaths were important to the show and advancing storylines. Digger’s death wins Jock the trial and kicks off Pam’s search for Rebecca, while Rebecca’s death was the catalyst for Pam leaving Bobby, but I agree that there was much more life in those characters. I wish Digger and Rebecca could’ve stayed around longer. They both brought great drama and conflict for the other characters.

 

[Grangehill1]

JR was important for the show but Pam WAS the show.

The golden years - seasons 5 - 7 highlight this when Pam left Bobby and built her own life.
When Bobby died it was Pam we wanted to see mourning, not JR.
Arguably Victoria was more important in the dream season than Larry’s character. and when Pam left (unlike when Bobby left) the show just couldn’t fix the problem she wasn’t there. Whereas it could with Patrick gone.
How did Knots manage to keep nearly all of their key players until the end and yet Dallas couldn’t do it?

 

[Mustard]

How did Knots manage to keep nearly all of their key players until the end and yet Dallas couldn’t do it?

I think a big part of the reason is that in Knots Landing, the actors had some say over their storylines. They were involved in the process. For example, when Donna Mills' character Abby was introduced at the start of Season 2, Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Ark quickly said that Gary would fall for Abby. Ted and Joan seemed to know it early and that such a storyline would "open up" the series. David Jacobs resisted their suggestion for a while, because Knots Landing was supposed to be Gary and Valene as the main couple of the series, yet Jacobs came to see that Ted and Joan were right, hence the affair in Season 3. And even when they were apart, Gary and Valene still seemed to drive things, the possibility that they could get back together was arguably even more compelling than them actually being together.

William Devane, who played Greg Sumner, was notorious for altering the bits of script involving his character. Devane played Sumner as a highly complex Richard Nixon type, where you never quite knew what he stood for. However, there was a period from Seasons 7-12 where some actors fell out with Bernard Lechowick and Lynn Marie Latham (the main script writers), with Joan Van Ark particularly annoyed with the "brain virus" storyline in Season 12, which she said turned Valene into a "village idiot". The Lechowicks divided opinion among the cast, as some of the actors loved them.

On Dallas, on the other hand, I doubt this was tolerated, unless it was Larry Hagman after the "Who Shot J.R.?" fallout was over. Victoria Principal talked of the quality of the writing falling after the first 5-6 years, and gave the impression that she had no say over possibly changing that. I can't imagine that with Michele Lee on Knots Landing, who was on top of making sure that her scripting parts were up to speed, and the chemistry with her on screen husbands correct. Even Joan Van Ark would protest when conflicting with the Lechowicks, but would do the storylines. Peter Dunne seemed to be the favourite writer with most of the Knots Landing cast, yet he was less favoured on Dallas, a tenure which covered the last few episodes before Bobby's death and then the dream season.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

The bridge character- the link to the hated Barnes. Over time, she wore Jock down to where he respected and loved her. Her exit was not only stupid, but it is the end of the show. The show proved they could weather Bobby's death and had the producers told Hagman to 'love it or leave it, he's not coming back,' maybe we would have gotten 5 more great years with a terrific finale instead of limping along, like that party guest who rips a nasty fart; loud, hot and smelly right in the middle of the crowd, choking and gagging all on the noxious fumes wishing he would get the F out of here!
Without Pam, Bobby had no purpose. I never understood why they didn't marry Pam and Bobby,Victoria leaves, and the next season- instead of the ridiculous car crash- while on their honeymoon- a new actress takes over... It would have worked far better in every way than the dumb ass, Mummy Mommy Pammy storyline and Katherine getting served a shit sandwich once again....... I would have taken Margret Michaels and her uncanny resemblance to THAT any day....Hell, for that matter they still could have done the car crash! Victoria goes out in flames, under the bandages is MM. Stretch this out for the rest of the season as she endures skin grafts, painful surgeries, all of this pushes her to the point where the next season finale she attempts suicide, but Bobby's undying love for her keeps her holding on.. .what is wrong with that????? take us three more seasons to the final episode, Pam gets pregnant with twins!
I never understood why Patrick had to come back knowing how he left. Have the guy direct some episodes, write a few of them. Why did he return to send the show straight down the television shitter. Why didn;t the network step in and say, "this is nuts- he's deader than dead, do not bring him back!"