Mid-season finales

Mel O'Drama

Mel O'Drama

Admin
Mid-season finales are a trend that became popular in the Noughties - well after Dallas had ended its original run. But it could be argued that the concept wasn't totally absent from Dallas and its peers.

In early 1985, during a bidding war between two rival UK channels, Dallas was pulled off the air without notice by the BBC mid-season (the plan was that if they lost the rights to the next season, the new network would have trouble enticing viewers to watch the resolution to a cliffhanger which hadn't aired. What's more, they planned to resume airing the pulled episodes in EXACTLY the same time slot the rival network chose to air their new episodes).

And so, the smoking gun ending to Odd Man Out became the de facto mid-season finale to Dallas's Seventh Season. A voiceover at the end told viewers that Dallas would return "later in the year", which is the same kind of announcement that would announce the actual end of a season.

What's more, it worked. With space for the ending to breathe and resonate, it felt more important and significant than it otherwise may have. As with other cliffhangers, it increased my thirst for Dallas and was in my thoughts regularly until the season resumed (seven weeks later, as it turned out). Even in rewatches, the memory of those weeks of anticipation makes that episode still feel important and fun.

With that in mind, are there any episodes you consider mid-season finales? Or any that you'd like to see tweaked to create one.

With Dallas being known for its cliffhangers and having some very long seasons, would a mid-season finale have helped or hindered?
 
James from London

James from London

International Treasure
The barbecue episode is usually a turning point, bringing the storylines from the first dozen episodes of a season to some kind of quasi-conclusion before dropping a dramatic bombshell/mini-cliffhanger that'll dominate the next several episodes. The most obvious example is Barbecue Two in 1981: Sue Ellen moves back to Dallas after divorcing JR, Dusty has been written out, Pam's mental breakdown story has been replaced by the arrival of Christopher, Lucy's just met Roger Larsen and the cracks are beginning to show in Ray and Donna's marriage ... then comes the phone call to say that Jock's helicopter has crashed.

It's not quite as definitive the following year, but Miss Ellie declaring that she's going to court to break Jock's will so she can sell Ewing Oil certainly ratchets things up, likewise her and Clayton announcing their engagement at the end of Barbecue 4 and Jamie producing the document dividing Ewing Oil into thirds at the end of Barbecue 5. It's usually the point in the season when location filming in Texas and at Southfork stops in favour of the cardboard patio so there's a slightly different atmosphere in the next block of episodes. And as there's no longer any nice Dallas scenery to stop and admire, the pace of the action tends to pick up as well.
 
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Chris2

Telly Talk Dream Maker
There was always some kind of drama when the show switched from being filmed partly on location to being filmed entirely in California. It was often the barbecue episode but not always. These episodes generally were the mid-season finales in my eyes.
 
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Chris2

Telly Talk Dream Maker
There was always some kind of drama when the show switched from being filmed partly on location to being filmed entirely in California. It was often the barbecue episode but not always. These episodes generally were the mid-season finales in my eyes.
 
Taylor Bennett Jr.

Taylor Bennett Jr.

Telly Talk Winner
Chris2 said:
There was always some kind of drama when the show switched from being filmed partly on location to being filmed entirely in California. It was often the barbecue episode but not always. These episodes generally were the mid-season finales in my eyes.
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One thing I’ve never quite known is the extent to which some of the interior scenes in the early ‘Real Southfork’ part of the season were actually filmed in California. Did they do more of that as the series went on, before abandoning Texas altogether in the last season?
 
James from London

James from London

International Treasure
Taylor Bennett Jr. said:
One thing I’ve never quite known is the extent to which some of the interior scenes in the early ‘Real Southfork’ part of the season were actually filmed in California. Did they do more of that as the series went on, before abandoning Texas altogether in the last season?
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As far as I'm aware, once the show stopped filming in Texas exclusively, around the Election/Survival period of the 78/79 season, all the Southfork interiors from then on were filmed on a set in LA, regardless of where the exteriors were filmed.
 
Franko

Franko

Telly Talk Member
Season 11 is a bit tricky, since here in the states, there was a writer's strike, so the 1988-89 season started late. Also, no more barbecues. We could place the midseason finale point anywhere between "The Two Mrs. Ewings" (the last Oil Baron's Ball), "Here's Papa!" (which wraps up the Nicholas story) and even "Wedding Bell Blues."

Season 12 feels much cleaner to me -- "Judgement Day." In the next episode, "Unchain My Heart," we've got the introduction of Leslie-Ann Down, the return of Margaret Michaels and the seeds of the new direction for the Cally/J.R./Michelle/James story.

Season 13 also has a pretty logical midseason point -- once Michelle takes ownership of Ewing Oil.
 
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Chris2

Telly Talk Dream Maker
James from London said:
As far as I'm aware, once the show stopped filming in Texas exclusively, around the Election/Survival period of the 78/79 season, all the Southfork interiors from then on were filmed on a set in LA, regardless of where the exteriors were filmed.
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Yep, that’s why we only see the old Southfork kitchen and upstairs hallway in the first half of 78-79. They didn’t bother to build them on the studio Southfork set at first. And when they finally did a few seasons later, they were very different looking.
 
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Toni

Toni

Maximum Member
I always took for granted they planned mid-season finales since they were quite obvious to me, just like mentioned above. The first full season cliffhanger would have been great if the "Survival" scenario had started in the previous episode "Election" and the plane accident had been its ending. Ellie saving Southfork from JR´s greeding claws was quite a bookend to the first half season, though it might have been occurred a few episodes earlier or later.

However, after the Who shot JR? phenomenon happened, the divisions of every season in 2 (especially in the years with David Paulsen) were strategically done. You just had to look at the ladies´ hairdos, which changed dramatically. From then on, the second half of seasons started after Lucy´s wedding, the BBQ call about Jock, Miss Ellie threatening with selling Ewing Oil, the announcement of her and Clayton´s wedding, and Jamie´s revelation of her document.

I also agree about "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" as the clear marker for the end of first half of the Dream, BD´s death for next season, Lisa Alden´s BBQ threat (and Ray & Jenna´s wedding) for season 11, and less clearly, JR & Cally´s second wedding, Bobby finding "Pam" and LeeAnn leaving Ewing Oil in Michelle´s gold-digging sweet hands...

So I think this was partly the success of the series narratively, which was also shared by the other Lorimar supersoaps, and not so much by the Spelling duo.

Edit to add that, in Spain, the public TV only stopped the airing three times: the first, with "Jenna´s Return" and Bobby getting an ultimatum by Jenna, for the weeks of the Football World Series (or something like that), and then, and final nationwide, after JR´s shooting. A couple of years later it was resumed locally, and it only stopped once, after Bobby´s shooting (!!). Allegedly they had run out of episodes, which as usual was not true.
 
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Toni

Toni

Maximum Member
I´ve been doing my usual research on the Emmy Legends archive of interviews mentioning "Dallas", and found a few you can check out below. Producer Lee Rich talks about the 13-week cycle they used for "Dallas" and its storylines. His memories are a bit mixed-up but in general he gives amazing info on the Lorimar shows.

https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/dallas?clip=41938#who-talked

Also, don´t miss the "shade" from writer Rita Lakin on turning down "Dallas"!! :fp:
 
Toni

Toni

Maximum Member
Surprise about David Jacobs (Lee Rich dixit):

"He´s crazy but very talented." :yikey: "He gets angry too fast, he made too much money too quickly..." :eck::cool1
 
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