How insulting was the Matt Cantrell character fiasco?

[Snarky Oracle!]

I guess the point of it, aside from explaining Digger's motive to kill Roger Grimes --- oops!, I mean Hutch McKinney --- was to inspire Pam to go in search of her mama.

But did we ever have any evidence other than Rebecca's word that Hutch was the daddy?? I mean, there are so many reasons that could so easily be undone.

 

[tommie]

I have no problem with previously unmentioned family or friends being introduced, as long as it doesn't contradict something already established. If Jock had been mentioned to be an only child, then suddenly talking about Jason would be irksome. Likewise, it's not odd to me that Bobby would have a friend we hadn't yet seen or heard about. We only spent, what, 30 hours per year with these characters and only knew snippets of their backstories.

I agree, but I think the problem is that they were trying too hard to force the connection - ie Matt couldn't just have been an old college friend of Bobby's, but absolutely great and best of mates (yet apparently not since we never heard of him). Same thing with Vanessa Beaumont - she couldn't just be an old fling that had a bastard son with JR; she was absolutely someone who he was deeply in love with and the one that got away etc.

Agreed that Hutch being Pam's father was just a waste of time. There are several reasons why Pam would go off and search for her mother (well, the death of her father for one). They could've tied Hutch's death into it in another way. There just wasn't any real drama to it ultimately.

 

[Chris2]

If they had to bring someone in from “V”, then it should have been Jane Badler. She would have made a kickass Angelica.

”You need an attitude adjustment, Pamela. And it will be my pleasure to give it to you.”

 

[Crimson]

Digger is as much Pam's father as Bobby is Christopher's father. Biology isn't everything.

My assessment may have been a bit harsh, but perhaps not. Bobby was a devoted and involved father. Digger was an absent drunk. So Pam not only (allegedly) lost her biological connection to Digger, he wasn't even a good dad. I'm not even sure if Pam would legally be considered a Barnes, if Digger never adopted her. And all of that disruptive ambiguity for absolutely no payoff.

there just wasn't any real drama to it ultimately.

And that's my main complaint. It was practically a dramatic non-sequitur.

 

[Mustard]

My assessment may have been a bit harsh, but perhaps not. Bobby was a devoted and involved father. Digger was an absent drunk. So Pam not only (allegedly) lost her biological connection to Digger, he wasn't even a good dad. I'm not even sure if Pam would legally be considered a Barnes, if Digger never adopted her. And all of that disruptive ambiguity for absolutely no payoff.



And that's my main complaint. It was practically a dramatic non-sequitur.

Digger had periods of sobriety though, usually when he needed more money to pay for more boozing. And when Digger was sober, he was a nice guy unless you mentioned Jock Ewing. And as kids, Pam was worse than Cliff for the anti-Ewing stuff, as Cliff detailed in the first episode "Digger's Daughter". Pam is legally a Barnes. Digger had her birth certificate with his name on it as the father, shown in the episode "Double Wedding". Legally, Digger is Pam's father.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Rebecca lied before -- why not about this?? Pam died of adult-onset neurofibromatosis!!

Maybe on his death bed, Bobby could tell her, "Pam, Digger was your biological father -- Rebecca told me before she died, and made me swear never to tell you... Digger loved you like his very own -- because you were...!" And then Bobby expires. For a while.

Then, a few years later, on her deathbed, Miss Ellie confesses to Pam: "Paaaaaaaaaaam, you were always Digger's daughter -- except that I was your biological mother. Which is why we kept having to cause your miscarriages to prevent any inbred babies from showing up at Southfork ... I'm sorry, Pam --- you've just suffered so much!" And then Ellie flatlines. Presumably permanently, but we're never really sure.

If they had to bring someone in from “V”, then it should have been Jane Badler.

Jane Badler should have been Frankie Colby, Sable's slutty, equally feral sister!!

 

[CeeCee72]

I didn't have any problem with him showing up as an old family friend...

BUT

I just felt like they were trying too hard to replace Bobby with a "hunk" so we got three paper thin characters, (Mark, Matt, and Jack) who all seemed to be there for no other reason than to be a beefcake.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I didn't have any problem with him showing up as an old family friend...

BUT

I just felt like they were trying too hard to replace Bobby with a "hunk" so we got three paper thin characters, (Mark, Matt, and Jack) who all seemed to be there for no other reason than to be a beefcake.

Well, I like beefcake.

Dallas needed a few beefcakes in it.

 

[CherCee]

ah, another great aspect of "Cantrell as Pam's dream" - the original Guzzler was the established star "big man on campus" who coaxed a less-confident Bobby into gridiron success.

Awful what happened to Richard Kelton, who played Guzzler. Universal basically got away with killing him.

==Death and legacy-- Richard Kelton died of accidental carbon monoxide asphyxiation due to a faulty heater in his trailer while filming the NBC-TV miniseries Centennial, in which he was to have co-starred]. Universal Studios, which produced the TV miniseries, was fined $720 for the failure to provide a proper ventilation system for the trailer which Kelton had retreated to to rehearse his lines.[1]

His alma mater, UK, established the Richard Kelton Memorial Fund was established in December 1978 to aid student actors in their professional acting aspirations. [1] The fund still exists today in the form of the Richard Kelton Memorial Scholarship, that provides scholarships for undergraduate students majoring in theatre with an emphasis in acting [2] He was survived by his wife, the former Eileen Jacobsen, and son Zachary (born in 1974), and his parents.

 

[CherCee]

Very possibly my least favorite thing DALLAS did in its first half, mostly because it felt so pointless. Was anything ever really done with that revelation?

I have no problem with previously unmentioned family or friends being introduced, as long as it doesn't contradict something already established. If Jock had been mentioned to be an only child, then suddenly talking about Jason would be irksome. Likewise, it's not odd to me that Bobby would have a friend we hadn't yet seen or heard about. We only spent, what, 30 hours per year with these characters and only knew snippets of their backstories.

(Those new characters being handled well is a whole different topic ...)

But when Matt came back to Dallas, he was supposed to have been Bobby's best friend since childhood, yet he had not met Pam in the years she was married to Bobby? She most likely would have least answered the phone some time when he called for Bobby, or said to Bobby to say hi for her when Bobby called him (I would have done so if my husband had a friend of long-standing, even if I hadn't met him).

 

[Seaviewer]

I didn't mind Matt or even the esmeraldas but I do wish Pam had stayed home and battled JR instead.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

I feel strongly that Matt and Jenna’s argument over whether Bobbly loved emeralds or diamonds more should have turned physical and ended up in the Southfork pool..

 

[Jimmy Todd]

The plot was insulting to Pam's intelligence. I would have liked it better if Pam smelled a rat because Bobby never mentioned any emerald mine. She played along with to suckered JR into a false sense of security, then pulled the rig out from both of them. Matt would have ended up in jail for fraud and JR be humiliated when Matt turned on him. This would have been only one of the bouts Pam and JR had over the season as it focused on them working together in Ewing Oil.