I've always advocated the idea that Lucy should have joined Knots Landing instead of returning to Dallas, but an older Lucy with a newfound desire to learn the family business, could have been a real thorn in JR's side, and an opportunity for a real story for her for a change.
I always got the impression that Lucy didn't like the oil business.
Had she come back with a desire to learn the oil business, it would have taken her a very long time to acquire the education and experience necessary to become a "thorn in JR's side." You can't start at the top. Unless the owners of the business would like to see their company driven into the ground.
JR started learning the business from Jock as a young boy and worked in the fields or wherever else Jock needed him so he'd learn the business the right way. JR also graduated from The University of Texas with a business degree. All of which is exactly why I'm so glad they never had Pam try to fight JR for control of the company, which many have stated they felt "cheated out of seeing."
In what world does a woman with only a high school education and with her only work experience being in department stores, pose any threat to one of the shrewdest, smartest, and most experienced oilmen in the business? It insults the intelligence of the audience because it's not at all believable. When Dallas was great there was always, by TV standards, a good amount of realism and believability in it. It would have made a mockery of the whole thing to present Pam as even remotely capable of fighting JR in business.
from the moment Dallas began (except Sue Ellen) I thought the women were on an equal footing with the men. Miss Ellie was never one to shy away from a heated argument with Jock or her boys. Remember the shellacking Jock and JR received from Miss Ellie when she caught Jock stating the woman's place is in the bedroom? Or her requesting demanding Ray to get the shotgun when a reporter managed to make it to the front door.
Pam stood her ground until her desire to become a mother became an obsession. Donna was one character I greatly admired for her intellect. And JR's constant physical and mental abuse of Sue Ellen eventually gave her the strength to leave the bastard.
I wholeheartedly agree. I have to wonder how someone doesn't see Pam as strong. She loved her bother very much. Yet, she married Bobby Ewing despite knowing that Cliff and Digger despised the Ewings. For all she knew, they would disown her or disassociate from her. She risked losing what few relatives she had by marrying Bobby. What a gutsy move!
Pam went through tremendous personal growth in Dallas as well. Most people aren't into personal growth because it's a painful process! Most people often don't want to have to make the mistakes that personal growth requires, so they don't grow.
Look at Pam from the time she desperately wanted a baby and had a breakdown because of it. Then look at how much she'd grown by season 8. It's tremendous! Also keep in mind she grew up without a mother because her mother abandoned her. Her father was an alcoholic. Think of what it takes to come from that kind of a childhood, and for her to become the woman she'd become by season 7 or 8. How can someone know all of this and say Pam wasn't strong??? Were they watching the same show we were watching?
As for an Alexis type on Dallas? There one and only attempt at this failed miserably with the introduction Angelica Nero.
I haven't seen Alexis except in pictures, but I'm getting the impression that she was a cross between Anjelica Nero and Katherine Wentworth. And yes, Anjelica failed miserable. Maybe characters like her were what Dynasty fans wanted, and now I'm finding out that that's what Dynasty was known for. It was a huge mistake to try to copy what Dynasty specialized in doing. By the same token, Dynasty never could have created a character in the style of JR who was as successful as the character of JR, a character which became iconic. In business if you're the innovator in the field, and Dallas, was, trying to be more like your competitors is likely to end badly, and as you stated, the experiment they did with presenting Anelica Nero did go horribly wrong.
If you become more like your competitors, you risk alienating your own audience. Dynasty was much more aimed at women than Dallas and so they had their particular audience. That it's aimed at women is why I can't get interested in it. Had Dallas gone that route, I think Dynasty would have remained the best in the field at appealing to a female audience and lots of the men in the Dallas audience would have quit watching Dallas.
However if there was a real need for a smart, devious, conniving uber-bitch the character was already in their lap...Katherine Wentworth. It was the writers/producers fault to take this character down the wrong driveway...pun intended.
If there was a need for a character who was an "uber-bitch" to become part of the main cast, Katherine would have been the one to put in that position.
I think Katherine Wentworth was the closest Dallas ever came to an Alexis type of character.
Again, I haven't watched anything with Alexis but from reading earlier posts, I had the impression that the posters who agree with the OP wanted Alexis because they thought that the show needed a strong woman, as if Dallas didn't have them already.
Well, if Alexis is like Katherine, she's anything but a strong woman. Katherine was incredibly needy, which we found out when she went after Bobby and continually threw herself at him. A strong woman would find that degrading. She'd find it beneath her to repeatedly throw herself at any man.
Katherine was also an attempted murderess. She was crazy. She was anything but stable. Mental stability is a pre-requisite for being a strong person. Without the ability to act rationally, being a strong person is impossible. So, the idea that Dallas should add a "strong woman" to its main characters and that she should have been like Alexis, who apparently was like a mix of Anjelica and Katherine, indicates that what the posters who complained that Dallas lacked strong women really meant that what Dallas lacked a crazy bitch who was part of the main cast.
