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Dallas the TV series
Dallas - The Original Series
Did Donna Reed's Miss Ellie have any redeeming features?
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<blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 389058" data-attributes="member: 57984"><p>Well, the Number 1 Show in all of television wasn't about to see its ratings spontaneously crash into the toilet the moment the matriarch was re-cast. The negative impact was karmic, and the bad-faith damage it caused long-term and, as it turned out, the damage was permanent.</p><p></p><p>And <strong><em>we knew it at the time</em></strong>, from the very point that we first read that a new actress would be replacing BBG.</p><p></p><p>A comparable but lower profile scenario was the re-casting of Steven (and later Fallon) on DYNASTY after Al Corley and Pamela Sue Martin left the show. It was less-shocking, the decision to recast, but it was done with haste and arrogance and a cavalier disregard for their product as well as for the audience. (Aaron Spelling was caught on audiotape once sneering that the viewers "don't give a damn" if secondary characters are re-cast as long as the principals are still present...... Which isn't true <strong>at all</strong>)<strong>.</strong> But as long as the ratings didn't collapse the instant Jack Coleman appeared on screen, then Spelling just cynically assumed no damage was accrued. So he just kept doing it.</p><p></p><p>I still say primetime TV can rarely tolerate re-casting core characters. It just rarely works (unlike daytime soaps). All the efforts to create an alternative universe in which the characters (and the audience) inhabit are undermined or even sabotaged by playing musical faces with the actors. The contrivance of a scripted drama feels <em>even more contrived</em> with this kind of unnecessary switcharoo.</p><p></p><p>Among other things, it feels desperate. And that never helps.</p><p></p><p>The releasing of Barbara Bel Geddes and hiring of Donna Reed was the bell tolling in the distance for DALLAS.</p><p></p><p>As I said, we understood that right away. As soon as the decision was made and hit the presses in June 1984. </p><p></p><p>What I <strong>didn't </strong>anticipate was that we'd be sitting here typing about it 40 years later.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]51158[/ATTACH]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Snarky Oracle!, post: 389058, member: 57984"] Well, the Number 1 Show in all of television wasn't about to see its ratings spontaneously crash into the toilet the moment the matriarch was re-cast. The negative impact was karmic, and the bad-faith damage it caused long-term and, as it turned out, the damage was permanent. And [B][I]we knew it at the time[/I][/B], from the very point that we first read that a new actress would be replacing BBG. A comparable but lower profile scenario was the re-casting of Steven (and later Fallon) on DYNASTY after Al Corley and Pamela Sue Martin left the show. It was less-shocking, the decision to recast, but it was done with haste and arrogance and a cavalier disregard for their product as well as for the audience. (Aaron Spelling was caught on audiotape once sneering that the viewers "don't give a damn" if secondary characters are re-cast as long as the principals are still present...... Which isn't true [B]at all[/B])[B].[/B] But as long as the ratings didn't collapse the instant Jack Coleman appeared on screen, then Spelling just cynically assumed no damage was accrued. So he just kept doing it. I still say primetime TV can rarely tolerate re-casting core characters. It just rarely works (unlike daytime soaps). All the efforts to create an alternative universe in which the characters (and the audience) inhabit are undermined or even sabotaged by playing musical faces with the actors. The contrivance of a scripted drama feels [I]even more contrived[/I] with this kind of unnecessary switcharoo. Among other things, it feels desperate. And that never helps. The releasing of Barbara Bel Geddes and hiring of Donna Reed was the bell tolling in the distance for DALLAS. As I said, we understood that right away. As soon as the decision was made and hit the presses in June 1984. What I [B]didn't [/B]anticipate was that we'd be sitting here typing about it 40 years later. [ATTACH type="full" width="789px" alt="elliepamlivingroom.jpg"]51158[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]
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Dallas the TV series
Dallas - The Original Series
Did Donna Reed's Miss Ellie have any redeeming features?
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