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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kenny Coyote" data-source="post: 95454" data-attributes="member: 102">This is a little hard for me to answer because I'm a professional musician and when Dallas aired I was a teenager practicing to become a professional musician. This meant I needed to be very sparing with the amount of time I allowed myself to watch TV. So, Dallas was the only soap - if you want to call it that, although I think the production values, the pacing (once a week vs. 5 episodes a week), the sets, and the quality of the acting made "episodic television" a better name for it as far as I'm concerned. By episodic television I mean shows that tell a story that continues each week where the previous episode left off. Since that style, as opposed to a show where each episode is a self contained story that beings and ends all in one night, requires a commitment of watching every week, at least to receive the maximum enjoyment out of it as well as to help the storylines make sense, I decided early on I only had time for committing to one soap or "episodic TV show" in my life. I chose Dallas because that's the show the rest of my family watched and I loved it too. We all loved it!What made it stand above other soaps? I'll have to speculate on this since I didn't watch many other shows on TV and no shows along he lines of Falcon Crest or Dynasty. I think the easiest way for me to do this, is in a list.1. Larry Hagman's portrayal of J.R. Ewing was phenomenal! He played the part so well  and it was an extremely well written tole as well. J,R, Ewing was the most iconic TV character of the 1980s and maybe the most iconic Tv character of all time. I doubt the other soaps all and a character who even rivaled J.R. Ewing for entertainment value or for iconic status.2. Along with J.R., the restive the ensemble was incredible too. The casting was really amazing in Dallas, especially with the original ensemble of course. Barbara Bel Geddes and Jim Davis as the matriarch and patriarch of The Ewing family was an incredibly strong combination. Both of them had such a strong presence on the screen! Of course the rest of the ensemble was great too.  I bet a lot of people don't realize how much Ken Kercheval contributed to the show's quality and entertainment value.. He really was an excellent actor. I can't imagine any other actor playing Cliff. Although Cliff was no match for JR, Cliff thought he was, and that led to all sorts of highly entertaining storylines.3.  The writing was wonderful. Especially in its prime years, Dallas just had great storyline after great storyline. The Barnes - Ewing feud was an integral part of the story. A well done feud can last for years and years and thins did with so many twists and turns along the way that it was just fascinating. An especially interesting twist was having the daughter (Pamela Barnes) of the originator (Digger Barnes) of the Barnes - Ewing feud marry Bobby Ewing  which put Pam in a very awkward position, torn between her allegiance to her brother and her husband. It also put Bobby in a very awkward position as he was torn between his loyalty to his beloved father and his loyalty to his wife Pamela.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?