Dallas Spinoff

[stevew]

Dallas:

Linda Gray - Sue Ellen (Shepard) Ewing, family matriarch, Dallas socialite, only family member in the board of the Ewing Farlow Family Foundation, President of the DOA, founder of SE Investments

Larry Hagman - (John Ross) J.R. Ewing, II, family patriarch, President, CEO and 30% owner of Ewing Oil (Miss Ellie turns over her 10% to a trust for John Ross controlled by JR), owner of Southfork (house, land: Ewing Farlow Family Foundation, mineral rights: Miss Ellie, cattle business: Miss Ellie and Clayton)

Susan Howard - Donna (McCullum Culver) Krebbs, trustee of the Robert James Ewing Trust, which owns 30% of Ewing Oil (which Donna eventually buys), she buys out Gary’s 10% (Ray has 10%) and is Treasurer and CFO of the company, keeping an eye on JR, on the board of Cattleman’s Bank and buys the Dallas Times newspaper

C. Thomas Howell - Aaron Ewing, JR’s son from before he married Sue Ellen, raised in secret by his mother, he comes to Dallas to find his father exposing a hidden family JR had kept for 18 years (Charlie Wade ends up his love interest, Jenna dies in child birth and Ray and Donna adopt her and her baby brother Lucas), a very nice boy more like Bobby than his father

Steve Kanally - (Raymond John) Ray Krebs, General Forman of the Southfork Cattle Company, the Ray Krebs Ranch and the Wade Ranch, owning the later two and their land

Dack Rambo - (John Jason) Jack Ewing, owner of 10% of Ewing Oil, given the title of Vice President, he’s JR’s go-to man

Elizabeth Shue - (Eleanor) Ellie Ewing, Aaron’s sister and JR’s daughter, recently graduated college, much like her father, though not interested in working for the company, she wants to control it, very protective of her brothers

William Smithers - Jeremy (Paul) Wendell, II, chairman and CEO of West Star, Ewing Oil’s biggest rival

Janie Turner - (Cassandra Pauline) Casey Wendell, Jeremy’s daughter, large shareholder in West Star from her grandfather, just graduated from college and Jack’s new, much younger, love interest

 

[Kenny Coyote]

New series: Huntington

Huntington - the name of the Hyatt family’s horse farm and the “salon” were politics really happens in D.C.

Starting

Roscoe Lee Brown - (Andrew) Rosemont, oilman from Oklahoma, introduced here before Falcon Crest, an old acquaintance of Charlotte’s, Amanda’s godfather, a man in D.C. buying power

Patrick Duffy - Senator (Robert James) Bobby Ewing from Texas, based on John Kennedy’s (as a Senator)

Melissa Gilbert - Jessica Winston, cousin of Paige from Knots Landing, one of Ned’s oldest friends, intern in a lobbyist firm working with the Ewing Farlow Foundation on land preservation and Rosemont on legislation to promote oil exploration in Africa

Ken Kerchival - (Clifford) Cliff Barnes, Bobby’s chief of staff, based on Robert Kennedy (with Jamie as his wife)

Rob Lowe - (Edward) Ned Bennett, Charlotte’s son, protege and primary heir, twenty-one, a playboy at recent Georgetown University grad

Victoria Principal - (Pamela Jean) Pam (Barnes) Ewing, President of the nascent Ewing Farlow Family Foundation, creates by Miss Ellie and Clayton, based on Jackie Kennedy

Jacklyn Smith - Charlotte (Hyatt) Bennett, mid 40’s, President of the Washington Free Press Co, founded by her father, a widowed, single mother from an prominent family, based on Katherine Graham

James Spader - Erick Conner, one of Ned’s oldest friends, intern in Bobby’s office, son of a NYC self made millionaire (construction), closeted gay

Venessa Williams - Amanda Burke, daughter of Republican Senator William “Billy” Burke III from Massachusetts, the older woman in Edward’s life, Washington socialite, model, singer

Yes the cast is young, but so is D.C. Bobby just might find himself over his head trying to be the good guy in a town where doing the right thing is debatable.

I like the casting. You've got some good actors there. What year would this have debuted?

Without knowing, I'm guessing this takes place in the early 90s after Dallas ended, since Dallas wouldn't have had enough of its cast left to continue successfully.

What made you decide to base so much on the Kennedy family?

Now, just looking as a critic:

Why would anyone vote for Bobby if he'd make a man who hates him and his family his chief of staff? Making Pam happy by handing Cliff a job is one thing, but sabotaging his own career is another.

Would Bobby or Cliff shift to the other's political party, since Cliff was a liberal politician and Bobby a conservative in Dallas?

 

[Toni]

"Better Call Muriel":

A 30-minute sitcom with Muriel becoming a "Dear Abby"-like radio host who answers the calls of women asking for love advice. In every call she comes up with a Lucy-related story that is presented as a flashback, and the radio program is called "Better Call Muriel", starring Karlene Crockett and Charlene Tilton. The music tune would remind of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ("you are gonna make it on your own...") and the opening would end with her throwing away her glasses after buying some contact lenses.

"Better Call Muriel"​

 

[stevew]

I like the casting. You've got some good actors there. What year would this have debuted?

Without knowing, I'm guessing this takes place in the early 90s after Dallas ended, since Dallas wouldn't have had enough of its cast left to continue successfully.

What made you decide to base so much on the Kennedy family?

Now, just looking as a critic:

Why would anyone vote for Bobby if he'd make a man who hates him and his family his chief of staff? Making Pam happy by handing Cliff a job is one thing, but sabotaging his own career is another.

Would Bobby or Cliff shift to the other's political party, since Cliff was a liberal politician and Bobby a conservative in Dallas?

Actually 1985 - Bobby would survive Katherine nearly killing him and in September they’d open 6 months later with Bobby leaving the hospital already married to Pam (hence on KL they’d deal with Bobby’s near death).

At the time the real governor was a Democrat, so I’d have it JR black mailing a Democratic Governor into giving Bobby the job and thus Bobby would agree to switch parties. He was already more a moderate type, probably make more a conservative Democrat but doable. And money doesn’t care about parties - they want to influence both.

I went with the Kennedy idea because it seemed they were already going with such, with Cliff at least. Plus the Kennedy’s have a good guy reputation, come off as a romance (the public only saw Camelot) and young children.

In the 6 months Cliff and Pam would have sold everything to a NYC investment firm, buried Kathryn and made some major life changes. Cliff would have been right by Pam and Bobby’s side as he puts his life back together. Cliff would make sense as he knows the law and politics - which Bobby doesn’t. The senate at the time is Republican controlled so Bobby could easily vote with them on some issues. This would make a great way to really dive into political questions.

JR would also be behind things pushing for Cliff to leave, the governor insisting on Bobby asking Cliff. He’d be behind the NYC firm that buys Cliff and Pam out of everything and uses it to set up Ewing Industries - an investment company he owns 100% which he plans on tying Ewing Oil to so he can also take over it.

Why anyone would vote for him at all would be part of the drama as by the end of the year he’d be up for election. Cliff would help him get the support of the Texas Democratic Party behind him. Also note the black senator from Massachusetts is a Republican, which was the case a decade earlier. The idea would be to shake things up a bit to make them interesting.

Yes Dallas would be gutted but they’d have key players on which to build (JR, Sue Ellen, Ray, Donna, and Wendell), so I don’t think the show would be over, but actually have started a second life - see the next post with JR and the cast of Dallas in 1985.

 

[Chris2]

I love the idea of “Better Call Muriel”, but is she really the person to give romantic advice?

 

[Toni]

I love the idea of “Better Call Muriel”, but is she really the person to give romantic advice?

That would be EXACTLY the point... (think of Anne Matheson on "Knots"...) :danc:

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

I live the idea of the Muriel spinoff, but what about exploring darker territory:

Nerdy, awkward SMU coed by day, young Muriel Gillis is the Dallas area’s most sought-after dominatrix by night, with clients reaching the highest levels of the business world, up to and including the mighty JR Ewing.

Join us Thursday nights at 10 for network tv’s newest, naughtiest hit show: Mistress M!

 

[tommie]

I live the idea of the Muriel spinoff, but what about exploring darker territory:

Nerdy, awkward SMU coed by day, young Muriel Gillis is the Dallas area’s most sought-after dominatrix by night, with clients reaching the highest levels of the business world, up to and including the mighty JR Ewing.

Join us Thursday nights at 10 for network tv’s newest, naughtiest hit show: Mistress M!

It reminds me of this masterpiece:

 

[Kenny Coyote]

I live the idea of the Muriel spinoff, but what about exploring darker territory:

Nerdy, awkward SMU coed by day, young Muriel Gillis is the Dallas area’s most sought-after dominatrix by night, with clients reaching the highest levels of the business world, up to and including the mighty JR Ewing.

Is dominatrix actually a thing? People pay people money to be allowed to dominate them? In what way?

 

[Toni]

I live the idea of the Muriel spinoff, but what about exploring darker territory:

Nerdy, awkward SMU coed by day, young Muriel Gillis is the Dallas area’s most sought-after dominatrix by night, with clients reaching the highest levels of the business world, up to and including the mighty JR Ewing.

Join us Thursday nights at 10 for network tv’s newest, naughtiest hit show: Mistress M!

Believe it or not, there was a fanfic out there long ago that went that route and even further: Muriel had become a hooker and gave Clayton a STD (I´m not making this up, I promise...).

 

[tommie]

Is dominatrix actually a thing? People pay people money to be allowed to dominate them? In what way?

Yes. Some even get off on paying the dominatrix as it's a part of the whole humilation fetish.

 

[Toni]

Is dominatrix actually a thing? People pay people money to be allowed to dominate them? In what way?

You can watch Paul Giamatti on "Billions" and Elektra on "Pose" for further information...

 

[Kenny Coyote]

You can watch Paul Giamatti on "Billions" and Elektra on "Pose" for further information...

Watching a show where a man pays a woman so she'll allow him to beat her up, or the other way around, does not appeal to me. I don't get what the attraction would be and I don't want to get it.. Just like Satanism...I don't want to "get it."

 

[Toni]

Watching a show where a man pays a woman so she'll allow him to beat her up, or the other way around, does not appeal to me. I don't get what the attraction would be and I don't want to get it.. Just like Satanism...I don't want to "get it."

Believe me, Kenny: It´s not what it seems...

Both shows just refer to the matter, in the first case, as the dark part of a very straight attorney, and in the second, as the extra job a transsexual needs to pay the bills. There is a very black, funny development in the latter which even Hitchcock would have loved (echoes from "Rope"...). If you really don´t want to watch a show about power plays in N.Y. ("Billions") or the drag-queen "Balls" in the 80s is respectable, but anyway there is a lot of creativity and heart in both of them...

 

[Willie Oleson]

SM & bondage is not an uncommon sexual activity, afaik.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

It reminds me of this masterpiece:

I'm not sure I've ever seen her in anything other than maybe a few seconds of 90210, but I feel strongly that Tori Spelling is one of the most underrated actresses of our time.

 

[Jon Ewing Jr.]

For the life of me I never understood why Ray would ever agree to move to Europe? WTH!

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

And we won't mention the most famous Dallas spin off of them all, known to millions of fans on this very forum. Well ahem, the original forum before it crashed unfortunately. A pity the thread couldn't be saved. RIP Phallus.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

For the life of me I never understood why Ray would ever agree to move to Europe? WTH!

That doesn't make any sense does it. I understand they wanted to write Ray out of the show, but why not do it in a more realistic way? Why not have him at least move to a place where people speak English? Geez, Dallas just stopped trying to be a good show. They stopped taking themselves seriously. Well then, why would they expect the audience to give a damn about their show if the people running it have stopped caring about maintaining a certain level of quality?

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

That doesn't make any sense does it. I understand they wanted to write Ray out of the show, but why not do it in a more realistic way? Why not have him at least move to a place where people speak English? Geez, Dallas just stopped trying to be a good show. They stopped taking themselves seriously. Well then, why would they expect the audience to give a damn about their show if the people running it have stopped caring about maintaining a certain level of quality?

seriously, Ray could always be counted on to angrily command a doctor who'd used a common medical term of over one syllable to "speak English", and now he's going to be traipsing around Europe? As someone mentioned above, it would have been a hilarious spinoff!