From Classic Dallas to TNT Dallas, The Ewing's Were A Bunch Of Self Righteous Hypocrites.

[Jock-O-Lantern]

And the worst offenders were Bobby and his smug son Christopher. The Ewing's would do virtually anything to justify a Ewing cause while others are virtually ruined in the process. TNT Dallas did a much better job at calling them out on their hypocrisy.

In the original series, JR would cause havoc that would destroy lives (exposing Cliff's illegal abortion) Bobby's response, "it's just politics." JR ruining cartel members over the Asian oil leases and causing Seth Stone to commit suicide. Good old Bob convinces Marilee to not sue, which was total BS. That's just two of many examples.

In TNT Dallas, the Ewing's frame Cliff for JR's murder and Bobby "don't ever lie to me" Ewing, who was the kingpin of the scheme, literally tore Ann's head off twice for keeping secrets. Then we find out that JR did to Elena's father what Jock did to Digger and the man he had admitted to a mental hospital. Elena goes all out for revenge and of course Christopher goes to her in an awfully patronizing manner by bringing up some BS about where her, him and John Ross were kids and telling her "this isn't you."

I can't speak for anybody else, but I kinda found myself rooting against the Ewing's and looking back on it, the justice department bringing the Ewing's to their knees was long overdue.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

You don't need an apostrophe in "Ewings" in the title.

And, at JR's funeral, the family proclaimed he "was right" all along with his avarice and graft.

So, yes, the Ewings were hypocrites to be sure, and they weren't good people, for the most part -- but did we need them to be??

 

[Piggyrella Sanderson]

I see it this way: the Ewings represent the past, the original series, and the only thing we fans love in the TNT shows. The Cider House represents herself and gives her opinions about that "demodée" show, so she turns Lucy and Ray as practically mute anonymous people, Val into someone who acts more like Abby, Bobby into a smug sanctimonious man with no common sense, Sue Ellen into what she took a life to overcome (a drunk), and Pam into a sick woman who was conned by her brother. So all in all, she was laughing at the original cast as saying, look at my dear pretty, "healthy", Mexican family who deserves all the attention of this show of mine...I wish I could listen to the secret talks between the producers or at the writers´ room...

"Juanito, you find something to justify the presence of the drunk lady.
Lupe, you see if the Michelle Stevens woman is still acting and looks well.
Manuela, you find out if you can find more plots for mi chica Elena..."​

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Bobby wasn't my favorite character, although Patrick Duffy was great in the role.
Sure JR was...JR, but one can empathize with him in as much as Bobby was the favored one,
while JR had to endure Jock's training, and JR was constantly trying to win Jock's approval.
In that sense, at least, JR was not a hypocrite.
He made no pretense about his priorities
I wouldn't call Bobby a hypocrite.
I think he tried to balance an impossible situation.
Defend Ewing Oil, and not destroy anything in its path,
although Bobby could be just as determined as JR when Ewing Oil was impacted.

The real hypocrite was Miss Ellie.
She ignored what Ewing Oil did, as long as her life
of wealth and privilege was not effected.
She lectured Jock and JR (even Bobby)
but took no responsibility for the way JR was raised and/or
the actions that Jock and JR had to take when it impacted Ewing Oil.
She ignored the fact that Jock saved SF
ie give it away to Garrison and gave half of it to Clayton.
Was willfully obtuse ie JR once told her something to the effect
that Jock would have done anything to save Ewing Oil and not let the Cliff Barnes of the world win

 

[CryptCreeper72]

The Ewings d the Barnes ALL shared one horrible trait - they were all extraordinarily selfish. Nothing mattered to them except what they wanted.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

The Ewings d the Barnes ALL shared one horrible trait - they were all extraordinarily selfish. Nothing mattered to them except what they wanted.

And what's amazing is that the TV Ewings were quite mild compared to reality. They started out to all be more compromised, in the way David Jacobs intended them to be (and the way KNOTS referred to them from 2000 miles away), than the characters wound up being.

But as Larry once said, if DALLAS showed what really went on in the oil business, they'd "blow up CBS." And the same applies to the characters themselves were they to exist in real life: the Ewings would have been much, much worse than they were on screen.

 

[Jock-O-Lantern]

Bobby wasn't my favorite character, although Patrick Duffy was great in the role.
Sure JR was...JR, but one can empathize with him in as much as Bobby was the favored one,
while JR had to endure Jock's training, and JR was constantly trying to win Jock's approval.
In that sense, at least, JR was not a hypocrite.
He made no pretense about his priorities
I wouldn't call Bobby a hypocrite.
I think he tried to balance an impossible situation.
Defend Ewing Oil, and not destroy anything in its path,
although Bobby could be just as determined as JR when Ewing Oil was impacted.

The real hypocrite was Miss Ellie.
She ignored what Ewing Oil did, as long as her life
of wealth and privilege was not effected.
She lectured Jock and JR (even Bobby)
but took no responsibility for the way JR was raised and/or
the actions that Jock and JR had to take when it impacted Ewing Oil.
She ignored the fact that Jock saved SF
ie give it away to Garrison and gave half of it to Clayton.
Was willfully obtuse ie JR once told her something to the effect
that Jock would have done anything to save Ewing Oil and not let the Cliff Barnes of the world win

Bobby was very hypocritical, particularly in TNT Dallas. He literally tore Ann's head off on two occasions over lying or keeping things from him, all the while he went along with "JR's masterpiece" to frame Cliff for JR's murder. And whenever Bobby's caught, or JR for that matter, it's always "I did it to protect the family or for Ewing Oil."

As for Miss Ellie, you have to realize that she was not "in the know" to the business side of Ewing Oil. Remember, she once told JR "your daddy would never do that" and JR responded "you don't know half of what daddy did." She really didn't. You see how Miss Ellie initially responded To Donna's book that exposed Jock and Sam Culver. She had Jock on a pedestal.

I don't think Miss Ellie was all that hypocritical, but she was totally naive.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

I don't think Miss Ellie was all that hypocritical, but she was totally naive.

Or, perhaps, selectively naive. It's true that she "didn't know" -- but she knew she didn't want to know.

 

[Jock-O-Lantern]

Or, perhaps, selectively naive. It's true that she "didn't know" -- but she knew she didn't want to know.

About what? She genuinely didn't know Jock was capable of having a man committed to steal his land. To her, Jock would never do something like that. And we all know Jock, "a woman's place is in the bedroom, it sure ain't the boardroom."

 

[Spooky Owl!]

About what? She genuinely didn't know Jock was capable of having a man committed to steal his land. To her, Jock would never do something like that. And we all know Jock, "a woman's place is in the bedroom, it sure ain't the boardroom."

"Denial" is the issue with Ellie.

 

[xab]

Was she naive when she chose Jock over Digger to save HER ranch and HER land ?

 

[Spooky Owl!]

Was she naive when she chose Jock over Digger to save HER ranch and HER land ?

Yes, while I do agree that Miss Ellie a hypocrite -- and married for resources (as so many do, if they can swing it) -- she chose well, on a personal level, because of there was a yin yang dynamic between she and Jock, which can kinda-sorta worked.

(In horoscopic circles, we call it the Scorpio Rising husband/Aries Rising wife Syndrome).

But labeling Miss Ellie as the "most hypocritical" is whack as crack. She closed her eyes to things (which she even admitted at one point). But some people also see Winston Churchill as worse than Hitler because, y'know, Hitler simply was what he was, and was (mostly) honest about his goals.


"Yer a whore!"
"You disgust me!"

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

yes, the Ewings were hypocrites to be sure, and they weren't good people, for the most part -- but did we need them to be??

In short, no. The Ewings were not nice and were never intended to be. That's what made the show so different when it first appeared. Bobby appeared saintly compared to JR but was never perfect despite later attempts to sanctify him - and Jock's memory ex post facto as well.

 

[CryptCreeper72]

The thing that bothered me about Ellie the most her her selective sanctimony. When Jock and Clayton were spending time with other women, she was OUTRAGED. But - she never seemed to care about adultery when it came to JR and even told Jenna to go back to Ray after he cheated.

 

[The Eyes of Laurie Marr]

Unlike the Carringtons, I don’t recall any Ewing crowing about their breeding, or being the patrician standard bearers of American values, or some of the other nonsense Blake would solemnly impart. Being a Ewing was important, but the standards were pretty basic: don’t lose, play tough, stick together. I don’t think they saw themselves as paragons of virtue.

 

[Soaplover]

Miss Ellie was a product of the times she was raised in where she would look the other way and put her head in the sand on anything she didn't agree with.. especially if it maintained the illusion of the Ewing Family. The only time she did take a stand was in regards to Sue Ellen/John Ross because of her guilt/regret over keeping Lucy away from Val instead of standing up to J.R.

Sue Ellen was also raised with that mentality, but as we saw.. she didn't really agree/like that deep down hence her going to the bottle all the time. The fact that she came out of her marriages to JR sober and thriving in her endeavors was nothing short of a miracle... but she still was a product of her upbringing hence why she would always go back to JR in some form or another.

Pam and Bobby's biggest obstacle was that Pam was an outsider that was raised on the more working class side (she was a Waco girl at one time).. and she couldn't/nor would she take on the looking the other way in terms of the Ewing's lack of morals... and she didn't let Cliff off the hook either. Her weak spot was the fact that she didn't understand that she wasn't perfect and sometimes acted just like her brother and the Ewings.

Donna was a perfect balance of loyalty to her husband, having her own identity/career, and knowing her own mind. She was one of the few people that I think JR was both afraid of, yet was amused by at the same time.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Unlike the Carringtons, I don’t recall any Ewing crowing about their breeding, or being the patrician standard bearers of American values, or some of the other nonsense Blake would solemnly impart. Being a Ewing was important, but the standards were pretty basic: don’t lose, play tough, stick together. I don’t think they saw themselves as paragons of virtue.

Good points. Interesting in that both families were Nouvea Riche in the Western USA, though the Carringtons were more stylish

 

[lbf522]

First of I see the Ewings and the Carringtons to be similar to the Rockefeller and the Vanderbilt families. The Vanderbilts needed to be the center of attention and the at same time squander that vast fortune that the Commodore created. Having castles built with marble floors and having homes with 800 rooms which is absurd unless you are going to build a hospital or a hotel. Now the Rockefellers were smart. So smart they still have their fortune today. They were not as interested in having attention on them but preferred doing things quietly and behind the scenes as well as investing and spreading their money around. Also their homes had 40 rooms.

Its like that old saying, "The first generation creates the fortune, the second generation sustains it, and the third generation squanders it.

 

[Guzzler’s Frightening Hair]

First of I see the Ewings and the Carringtons to be similar to the Rockefeller and the Vanderbilt families. The Vanderbilts needed to be the center of attention and the at same time squander that vast fortune that the Commodore created. Having castles built with marble floors and having homes with 800 rooms which is absurd unless you are going to build a hospital or a hotel. Now the Rockefellers were smart. So smart they still have their fortune today. They were not as interested in having attention on them but preferred doing things quietly and behind the scenes as well as investing and spreading their money around. Also their homes had 40 rooms.

Its like that old saying, "The first generation creates the fortune, the second generation sustains it, and the third generation squanders it.

meanwhile, Southfork from the outside appeared to have about 10 rooms, but especially as the years went on, seemed to have more like 20 or 30 when you count guest bedrooms, the gym, etc.