How was it determined Digger, Gary, and Sue Ellen were the alcoholics?

[Piggyrella Sanderson]

Holly was far from being noble. She went after a married man and what she did to Sue Ellen was nasty. Absolutely Bobby AND Ray were as responsible for Micky’s death as JR was and they all should have went to jail.

@Sarah, are you back...?

 

[Chase Gioberti]

JR wasn’t affected by any of that until he was totally defeated in the end. You actually think JR cared about Micky and Nicholas Pierce. He and Sue Ellen acted as if they could have cared less that their BS led to Mickey’s death. Sue Ellen even acted like she was totally exonerated after she found out that Driscoll was trying to kill JR.

JR wasn’t affected by his son leaving Southfork? By Southfork burning? By Sue Ellen getting knocked up by Peter as a result of his cheating? By Sue Ellen shooting him as a result of Nicholas Pierce’s death? By Cally leaving him in a sanitarium for a time and taking off with his baby?

Holly was far from being noble. She went after a married man and what she did to Sue Ellen was nasty. Absolutely Bobby AND Ray were as responsible for Micky’s death as JR was and they all should have went to jail.

What Holly did she did to JR and Sue Ellen was collateral damage.

 

[Richard Channing]

Sue Ellen's non-reaction to Mickey's death is a stain on her character. Lucy should have slapped her across the face and Miss Ellie and Clayton should have really chewed her out for it instead of treating her as the ultimate victim.
Her casual dismissal of it was her lowest point in the series and showed she could be as bad as JR. Her reaction was much worse than what Holly did to her, and at least Holly showed remorse.

 

[Snowcat]

Yup, pretty good summary of it - I had an uncle who was in Digger's category; he'd get work and work very hard for a few months at a time, then he'd f*** off for a few months and live like a fish in a bottle for maybe three months and wash, rinse, repeat. I'd guess you could make an argument for JR being an example of a functional alcoholic since he'd so often have a drink in hand and would probably be slightly buzzed in real life (maybe even fueling his own sociopathy?). But mostly I just assume it was down to ignorance at the time about the harm alcohol did - I mean, no one really reacted over the fact that Swellin' was drinking like a fish when she was pregnant with John Ross; it became an issue when she started embarrassing the family with her antics.

JR is a perfect example of a functioning alcoholic. It sounds like Larry Hagman was as well until his liver was in trouble. The alcohol he drank on set was actual alcohol.

I would argue it destroyed JRs life. Cost him his marriage the first time. His wife left with his child. Led directly to the death of Mickey in the second marriage. Cost him Weststar and led directly to the death of Nicholas Pierce. Cost him his marriage with Cally. At the end he is all alone and pointing a gun to his head. Sure he is rich throughout but his life is in shambles.

Losing Ewing Oil & losing to Weststar is what really hurt JR. He didn’t care so much about the other things

 

[Mustard]

JR is a perfect example of a functioning alcoholic. It sounds like Larry Hagman was as well until his liver was in trouble. The alcohol he drank on set was actual alcohol.

And for many years, even many decades, a functioning alcoholic can stop alcohol ruining their working lives. And then eventually, their drinking starts affecting their working lives negatively. In the meantime, functioning alcoholics can ignore their problem and go under the illusion that they'll always get away with it because they always have before. Gary's kind of alcoholism, i.e. non-functioning, shows almost straight away how ugly it gets if he's drinking alcohol, so he is forced to sober up and stay on the wagon, or go under fast.

 

[Chase Gioberti]

Losing Ewing Oil & losing to Weststar is what really hurt JR. He didn’t care so much about the other things

I think losing his child hurt.

 

[Snowcat]

I think losing his child hurt.

You’re right. Losing John Ross definitely hurt

 

[Spooky Owl!]

Sue Ellen's non-reaction to Mickey's death is a stain on her character. Lucy should have slapped her across the face and Miss Ellie and Clayton should have really chewed her out for it instead of treating her as the ultimate victim.
Her casual dismissal of it was her lowest point in the series and showed she could be as bad as JR. Her reaction was much worse than what Holly did to her, and at least Holly showed remorse.

Yes, at the time, I envisioned Lucy going crazy after Mickey's death and plotting to kill Sue Ellen (that's probably going a bit too far, but I plotted it out in my head). I imagined Lucy huddled at one end of the kitchen with a butcher knife, wanting to stab Sue Ellen whose back is turned at the other end of the room.

Of course, that never happened and shouldn't have. But wasn't I surprised when, just months later, Lady Jessica was doing the same thing with Miss Ellie....?


Sliced or quartered...?

 

[A Nightmare on Jimmy Todd Street]

I really wish the show had delvwd much more into not only Lucy's anger at Sue Ellen, but also her grief possible guilt over telling Mickey to stop Sue Ellen when she was getting into the car drunk. There was a lot of potential there and Charlene Tilton definitely could have done a good job with it. Instead of her chasing after Peter the bext season she should have still been in mourning over Mickey. She should also have moved out of SF because she couldn't stand the sight of SE and JR. Her moving out would lead to coflicts between JR/SE and Miss Ellie.
Lucy would visit SF and cause trouble. She notices what's goimg on with SE and Peter amd manipulates the situation so that eventually JR finds out and all kinds of end he season drama ensues.
Ideally, I would have liked Lucy to stay on the series, but if she had to go several episodes into season 6 would be the time. She leaves because she annotate live with JR and SE, and her departure is another result of the Battle for Ewing Oil.