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Did Donna Reed's Miss Ellie have any redeeming features?

LMLDallas78

LMLDallas78

Telly Talk Enthusiast
I think I recall Dack Rambo accused Larry of being homaphobic and Dack was gay. Larry refers to it in his book, obviously denying those claims.
I may have that wrong but I think it was a story along those lines.
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
I don't think too many posters here are cruel to Donna Reed -- she's largely viewed as a victim in an impossible situation which couldn't have worked.

I doubt Larry cared which actors were gay off-camera -- as several were, and Hollywood has always been full of them -- but Rambo with his "sprayed on jeans" was being groomed as Bobby's de facto replacement, JR's new partner at Ewing Oil. And Larry was likely uncomfortable with Rambo's being semi-out-of-the-closet. So it was probably the blend of circumstances that Larry didn't like.

And even Larry himself admitted there was a bit of JR Ewing in Larry.
 
LMLDallas78

LMLDallas78

Telly Talk Enthusiast
We are all entitled to our own opinions of course and I'll admit I didn't like Donna's Miss Ellie. Yes I absolutely adored Barbara's Miss Ellie and Donna was just too far removed from the Miss Ellie I loved.

But it's not because of Donna herself that I didn't like her portrayal, it's because she was allowed to portray Miss Ellie so far removed and was critisised so cruelly for it then treated so disrespectfully by some of her own cast members, producers and media.
How she was informed of her non-return at a French Airport simply beggers belief.

Donna's son said she had never been treated that way before during all her years in Hollywood. Speaks volumes really.
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
LMLDallas78 said:
We are all entitled to our own opinions of course and I'll admit I didn't like Donna's Miss Ellie. Yes I absolutely adored Barbara's Miss Ellie and Donna was just too far removed from the Miss Ellie I loved.

But it's not because of Donna herself that I didn't like her portrayal, it's because she was allowed to portray Miss Ellie so far removed and was critisised so cruelly for it then treated so disrespectfully by some of her own cast members, producers and media.
How she was informed of her non-return at a French Airport simply beggers belief.

Donna's son said she had never been treated that way before during all her years in Hollywood. Speaks volumes really.
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Apparently, even BBG grumbled, "You'd think they could have told her," about how Donna was informed of her firing.

Her TV son, Paul Peterson, asserted that "that mess with DALLAS" contributed to her early passing.
 
LMLDallas78

LMLDallas78

Telly Talk Enthusiast
Dack Rambo reportedly admitted he nor Larry Hagman particularly liked each other and that he felt left out by Larry, Patrick and Steve. It's also reported he thought Larry turned out not a particularly nice person and ostracised him.

There's some reports that Dack claims he was secretive about his sexuality and the cast must have found out about it and others claim it was common knowledge.

It does make you wonder how Dack was treated and if there's any truth to his claims.

Dack's real name was Norman Jay Rambo. I'd have gone with calling him Jay rather than his nick name Dack. His twin brother Dirk's real name was Orman.
 
Seaviewer

Seaviewer

Telly Talk Warrior
Snarky Oracle! said:
Reed said that "she wasn't privy to" the idea that she'd been brought in as a temporary replacement for Miss Ellie, and I'm sure she wasn't, and that wasn't the original plan.
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Jock Ewing Fan said:
They did say that she was leaving for health reasons, didn't they?
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Which is why she couldn't have been cast as any other character. Recasting Miss Ellie was really the best option. Donna just shouldn't have been allowed to reinterpret the role so markedly.
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
Seaviewer said:
Which is why she couldn't have been cast as any other character. Recasting Miss Ellie was really the best option. Donna just shouldn't have been allowed to reinterpret the role so markedly.
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I doubt Donna Reed could have played any role any differently, which is why such recasting of major characters almost never works.

Hitchcock said that "casting is character." All actors have a demeanor, an inflection which is natural to them, and the character emerges through that sieve, the writers' words changing somehow from mouth-to-mouth, even when the dialogue is the same.
 
Lastkidpicked

Lastkidpicked

Telly Talk Dream Maker
Part of the problem is an overall feeling watching these episodes:

"Things just aren't the same anymore."

That's nobody's fault. The writers had to move forward regarding some storylines.

1) Jock's death had triggered many events, and those events moved pretty quickly. Now is when we see for the first time a day to day routine at Southfork without Jock. It's the first time of everybody wondering, "What now?"

2) Clayton moves to Southfork. As a Howard Keel fan, I'm glad to see him. But this changes the whole dynamic at Southfork.

3) Many new characters are now part of the main plot. Jaimie, Jenna, Charlie, Naldo. Dallas is totally different.

It's easy to watch this season with a bit of disappointment, thinking that things just aren't the same on our favorite Friday nights. Donna Reed is just the most obvious example of that, which is not her fault.
 
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D

DallasFanForever

Telly Talk Supreme
Lastkidpicked said:
It's easy to watch this season with a bit of disappointment, thinking that things just aren't the same on our favorite Friday nights.
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Upon rewatches now, this is when things are starting to feel differently for me. Quite honestly it even started towards the end of the previous season in my opinion. The show appears to be losing some of its magic and Dallas is beginning to feel like a much different place all of a sudden. There are still some great moments and episodes to come but I feel now looking back that the show had already peaked.
 
Seaviewer

Seaviewer

Telly Talk Warrior
Snarky Oracle! said:
I doubt Donna Reed could have played any role any differently, which is why such recasting of major characters almost never works.

Hitchcock said that "casting is character." All actors have a demeanor, an inflection which is natural to them, and the character emerges through that sieve, the writers' words changing somehow from mouth-to-mouth, even when the dialogue is the same.
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That's true, but I think we're talking here about something which was avoidable. It comes back to the propensity for stunt casting rather than finding someone who at least has shot of continuing the same sort of demeanour.
 
Mustard

Mustard

Telly Talk TV Fanatic
Jock Ewing Fan said:
What happened with Dack Rambo? Not familiar with that story
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Dack Rambo was bisexual, and promiscuous, and he was only semi-closeted at the time that he was on Dallas. In other words, he hadn't "come out" (and didn't publicly until 1991), but he didn't exactly hide it either. This was at a time (1985-1987) when the AIDS scare was at its height regarding men who had sex with men (MSM), and with intravenous drug users. I'm convinced that this is why we never saw Jack Ewing in Dallas kiss a woman passionately on the lips, not even Grace, and earlier it was odd when Jenna suddenly went cold on Jack out of nowhere. The Rock Hudson and Linda Evans kiss on Season 5 of Dynasty (1984-1985), soon after which Hudson died of AIDS, would have also increased paranoia in the media and in the TV/film industry about MSM in real life kissing women on screen at that time. At the time, there were fears that AIDS could be caught from saliva, which gives added weight as to why Jack Ewing never had an on screen passionate kiss.

Dack Rambo claimed that himself and Larry Hagman didn't particularly get on, and that their relationship worsened considerably once Patrick Duffy was back. I do think that Jack in Season 9 DVD should have been much more involved at Ewing Oil, as a much more ambigious type of character in terms of morality compared to Bobby, and not just involved in the Dimitri Marinos situation with J.R. and Angelica Nero. Whether Larry was involved in preventing Dack being further involved in the Ewing Oil storylines, who can say?
 
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