DALLAS: what made it stand out above the other soaps?

[Karin]

Nice! I only watched Little House On the Prairie a few times but it was iconic - that I do remember. I'm not familiar with Candy Candy though. From what era is that series?

I watched "Candy, Candy" as a child. I think it's from the 1980s...
Just checked it up. It's from 1981 and it's a Japanese show. I watched it almost 10 years later than that though.

I wanted to add to it and I can't, or at least I can't right now, not for TV shows. I can think of one of the most iconic homes in American more history though and like the Ewings' home, it had a name! Tara. The main theme of the movie is named "Tara's Theme." Who knows which movie I'm referring to? It's my favorite movie ever. Does anyone else here love the movie I'm talking about?

Of course. "Gone With The Wind" (1939) is my favorite movie too.
I was so happy when I was able to watch it at the cinema 3 years ago.

Something about the style, the overall look of Ma Ingalls reminds me a just a little bit of Ray's family in Kansas. Lily Trotter looked like she could have been a next door neighbor of Ma Ingalls. Do you know if Little House On The Prairie was set in Kansas by any chance?

Nope, Walnut Grove is located in Minnesota and you know what's really amazing. It's an actual town and so is Springfield and Sleepy Eye that are also mentioned on the show.

 

[southfork88]

Candy Candy from Chicago (Illinois) vs. Lucy Ewing from Dallas (Texas).

 

[Kenny Coyote]

Of course. "Gone With The Wind" (1939) is my favorite movie too.
I was so happy when I was able to watch it at the cinema 3 years ago.

That's great! We both have the same favorite movie

 

[Lastkidpicked]

Something about the style, the overall look of Ma Ingalls reminds me a just a little bit of Ray's family in Kansas. Lily Trotter looked like she could have been a next door neighbor of Ma Ingalls.

Let's look at the Ingalls family (Minnesota), the Trotter family (Kansas) and the Krebbs family (Texas).

On Little House on the Prairie, they showed the Ingalls family enjoying and appreciating what little they had. They believed the secret to happiness was hard work and a loving family. And this is very much a Minnesota perspective, along with much of the American Midwest, including the Trotter home of Kansas.

Now, compare this to Texas where Ray wanted to bring Mickey. In Texas there is this feeling that good things, along with money, are out there and all you need to do is go out and get it. Look at Ray. Even before we knew he was Jock's son, you could sense that things would only get better for Ray. Southfork would continue to prosper, Ray would continue as ranch foreman, and things would only get better. A kid like Mickey could start out on Southfork and work his way up to doing whatever he wanted to do.

To the title of this thread, what made Dallas stand apart from other shows (from the point of view from somebody who lives here) is that they captured the "feel" of the area where the series was set. They captured the "feel" of Dallas and the state of Texas.

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

Dallas was not a soap opera at all. It was a western that was set in modern day.

The term "soap opera" has come to synonymous with "serial", meaning that it has continuous storylines, but, in a broader sense, the same plots could be set in almost any genre. Put them in space suits and it's suddenly science fiction.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

Yes, every show of every genre is soap now.

 

[Michael Torrance]

I feel there has been alot of negativity aimed at our favourite Texan serial lately, I know we need constructive criticism, but lets spread the love and take a break from, what shoulda, woulda and coulda happened had, there been no dream, of had Pam stayed etc

What made DALLAS so special, that nearly forty years later, we still love it and has millions of fans around the world?

DALLAS revived prime-time soap opera for the 1970s (after it had been invented by PEYTON PLACE).
Per our good friends at OED, a soap opera is, "a radio or television serial dealing esp. with domestic situations and frequently characterized by melodrama and sentimentality; this type of serial considered as a genre."
There were not that many conflicts over the cattle and what not, and even the business deals and betrayals mattered most for their family consequences: J.R. wanted his daddy's praise much more than million-earning deals.
Of course anyone can call it whatever they want, but we are at soapchat

But DALLAS added some elements that made it (re)define the genre, such as the cliffhanger, and especially made its villain the star of the show and kept him winning rather than get his comeuppance. I think this fueled the show's plot dynamo more than anything: people who hated J.R. kept waiting to see when he would get what was his. People who found the moralistic simplicity of ALL other TV offensive to their intelligence loved that there was a reality principle never seen before: the bad guy does NOT always get punished and does often get away with it.

Of course a lot of good casting and good writing did not hurt, but I think the above are what made DALLAS become the world-wide frenzy which no other show had done until then.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

What made Dallas stand out above the other soaps? It wasn't a soap. Certainly not when it started. It wasn't even in serial form then. That opened it up to a huge audience that wouldn't have been inclined to watch a soap opera. It was a modern day western family saga and what better style and look for it to have than western? They chose to make the name and location of the show a Texan city. Americans were bred on westerns and westerns dominated early primetime TV with shows like Gunsmoke. They knew there is always an audience for a good western and they updated it to a modern day setting. They lived on a ranch. They rode horses and wore cowboy hats and cowboy boots. The fights took place on the boardrooms more often than saloons although they did have some bar brawls too. They had a multi-generational feud between two families. They had all the necessary elements.

Then they added one more element that nobody was using in a primetime series and that was to make the most central character be the cool bad guy. That was a bold move and it worked because Larry Hagman was the right guy for the role and 1978 was the right time for a JR Ewing to appear on the television landscape. It offered people something distinctly different than the typical good guy protagonist and the world was ready for it. Five years earlier would have been too early and five years later, other people would be already doing it. It was one of those perfect moment in time scenarios with just the right actor for the role.

 

[Alexis Colby Carrington]

They had JR - I believe he was a trailblazer for Abby, Alexis and Angela.
Falcon Crest and Dynasty also copied the - everything centres around one family - I can't comment on others at the time as I only watched Dallas, Dynasty, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest..

 

[James from London]

while I do like KNOTS I often found it pretentious

In what way?

 

[Barbara On A Broomstick]

USA may have been different but here In UK Dallas was a soap opera and was never considered as a western drama, that was the likes of the Virginian, Bonanza, High Chapparal, quite different from Dallas.

Also from S1 original Ep 15 Act of love Dallas became a continuation soap opera as that was the epiosde where Sue Ellen discovered she was pregnant, at that time Dallas was not the huge world wide success that it became, that happened during S2 original and culminated in the shooting of JR in 1980

 

[Jabari Lamar]

From my point of view, what makes it endure is also what makes it iconic. I mean, despite its oversized Texas storytelling, anti-heroic bluster and Dickensian cast of characters, there is still so much to care about on a human level and a whole lot of universality in how it deals with complex family love, family business and family conflict. That’s my take on it anyway."

That part of the quote nails it for me. At it's core, Dallas was about family. And all the various conflicts that can arise in a family. Specifically with the maing conflict of J.R. and Bobby. Sibling rivalry, two brothers fighting, a story that goes all the way back to Cain and Abel, or Moses and Ramses. Almost anyone who has siblings, male or female, can relate in some way to this basic conflict. My brother and I were two young Black boys raised by our single mother in South Los Angeles, an environment as far as you can get from the rich Ewings on a Texas ranch, yet we both were hooked on the show back then.

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

In UK Dallas was a soap opera and was never considered as a western drama,

We didn't call it a western in Australia either. I don't think we called it a soap opera at first, that term was reserved for the daytime shows, but then the term "prime time soap" came in. More recently, though, the term "soapie" has been applied more broadly.

 

[Sarah]

Yeah Dallas is not a Western, other than the main family living on a Ranch, and a few men who could fall under the heading of cowboy, it doesn’t fall into the Western genre.

Dallas is a soap - or as Larry once called it ‘a nighttime drama serial’.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

In what way?

In its later seasons, I had a feeling that it saw itself above being a soap opera, the early seasons never gave off this vibe, but that’s just me I may have to rewatch it again

 

[James from London]

In its later seasons, I had a feeling that it saw itself above being a soap opera, the early seasons never gave off this vibe, but that’s just me I may have to rewatch it again

Interesting!

 

[A Nightmare on Jimmy Todd Street]

Interesting!

I wonder if that was a reaction to being lumped into the same category that Dynasty at its worst was. All the nightime serials were dismissed as "soaps," the term becoming a pejorative as a result, I believe, of the over the top, ridiculous, but popular Dynasty.
When I would try to extol the virtues of KL, I felt I always had to say, "I know, it's a " soap," but it's so well written and acted."
Those poor people who didn't listen to me don't know what they missed

 

[James from London]

In its later seasons, I had a feeling that it saw itself above being a soap opera

It's funny, I'm currently watching the 21st-century soaps and I feel like, while New DALLAS is the perfect soap, EMPIRE is something more than a soap and New DYNASTY is something less than a soap.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

while New DALLAS is the perfect soap

In what way?

 

[Kenny Coyote]

In what way?

Good question. I didn't see TNT Dallas as a "perfect" anything.