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Miss Ellie at her most absurd.

K

kenneth

Telly Talk Fan
I would have to go with season 4. Throwing a giant sized temper tantrum simply because her grown son was going to establish a home in California. A 6 hour flight she could easily afford weekly if she felt like it (hint; she never went.) Taking all that anger out on poor Ray and nearly divorcing her husband over it.

Any contenders?
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
kenneth said:
I would have to go with season 4. Throwing a giant sized temper tantrum simply because her grown son was going to establish a home in California. A 6 hour flight she could easily afford weekly if she felt like it (hint; she never went.) Taking all that anger out on poor Ray and nearly divorcing her husband over it.

Any contenders?
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What was she expected to do with all that spare room?

BBG admitted she had a hard time tearing up at the concept that her 30-year-old son was moving out.

We have to assume that Ellie was so scarred by her favorite, Gary, being alienated from the family that the exit of any other child just destroyed her.

PTSD, dontchyaknow.
 
D

DallasFanForever

Telly Talk Supreme
Her worst I’d say was when she gave John Ross back to Sue Ellen instead of getting on that chopper. J.R. had gone through all that trouble to come up with the perfect plan and he was right when he said no one was going to shoot her.

Just go along with the kidnapping. What’s the big deal? Didn’t she remember how she ended up raising Lucy? Talk about ingrates!
 
S

Slugworth

Telly Talk Member
Miss Ellie and Clayton morphing into The Hardy Boys is Ellie at her most absurd. It could probably be categorized as a shark jump.



DallasFanForever said:
Her worst I’d say was when she gave John Ross back to Sue Ellen instead of getting on that chopper. J.R. had gone through all that trouble to come up with the perfect plan and he was right when he said no one was going to shoot her.
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Yeah this was bat poop crazy.
 
P

Pandora

Telly Talk Active Member
Snarky Oracle! said:
What was she expected to do with all that spare room?

BBG admitted she had a hard time tearing up at the concept that her 30-year-old son was moving out.

We have to assume that Ellie was so scarred by her favorite, Gary, being alienated from the family that the exit of any other child just destroyed her.

PTSD, dontchyaknow.
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BBG said they had to shoot over and over because she just couldn't come up with the right angst. When the director called for a break and asked her why she was having so much trouble she responded Because he's 30 flipping years old! I'd have been throwing his stuff out the windows onto the driveway!
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
Pandora said:
BBG said they had to shoot over and over because she just couldn't come up with the right angst. When the director called for a break and asked her why she was having so much trouble she responded Because he's 30 flipping years old! I'd have been throwing his stuff out the windows onto the driveway!
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Heh. I wonder if Barabara would be that way with her daughters!

Pandora said:
Does loyalty mean no one can criticize? Miss Ellie, like all humans, sometimes behaved badly.
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He's kidding. I think.
 
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Billy Wall

Billy Wall

Telly Talk Dream Maker
Pandora said:
BBG said they had to shoot over and over because she just couldn't come up with the right angst. When the director called for a break and asked her why she was having so much trouble she responded Because he's 30 flipping years old! I'd have been throwing his stuff out the windows onto the driveway!
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Did she really say that? Lol If so, nice to see that she thinks like most us.

My personal opinion, if your child still lives at home by 30, you've failed as a parent. And no, I'm not talking about kids that has to tend to ailing parents.
 
Mustard

Mustard

Telly Talk TV Fanatic
Billy Wall said:
Did she really say that? Lol If so, nice to see that she thinks like most us.

My personal opinion, if your child still lives at home by 30, you've failed as a parent. And no, I'm not talking about kids that has to tend to ailing parents.
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Barbara Bel Geddes used to "swear like a trooper" to quote Ted Shackelford.

In the last 20 years or so, I think it's very different in regards to people well into adulthood still living with their parents (a lot of them do now, thanks to so-called "unskilled" jobs being outsourced, and rents/mortgages being sky high and unaffordable in big cities) but it was very different in the 20th century for most people. Those people who did stay living with their parents in those days tended to be aristocratic and rural farming/ranching families.
 
Angela Channing

Angela Channing

Telly Talk Veteran
The scene when Bobby tells her he and Pam are leaving Southfork and Ellie bursts into tears and tells her husband "Oh Jock, please don't let them go". It shows how pathetic she could be on 2 levels, (1) she was crying because her adult son was leaving the family home with his wife and (2) rather than dealing with the situation herself, she presents herself as being subservient to Jock. A truly ridiculous display of weakness and pitifulness.
 
P

Pandora

Telly Talk Active Member
Billy Wall said:
Did she really say that? Lol If so, nice to see that she thinks like most us.

My personal opinion, if your child still lives at home by 30, you've failed as a parent. And no, I'm not talking about kids that has to tend to ailing parents.
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Oh, she said it and many people agreed with her. In fairness, times were a little different then. I guess one thing that could be said in her defense was how many of us would be sharing the home the Ewings did? I get the impression the bedrooms were more like a suite than an average home. It could be possible for someone to not see their brother for days.
 
Willie Oleson

Willie Oleson

Telly Talk Schemer
kenneth said:
Taking all that anger out on poor Ray and nearly divorcing her husband over it.
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That's why I love soap opera.
Pandora said:
I guess one thing that could be said in her defense was how many of us would be sharing the home the Ewings did?
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Exactly. It was a reaction to a situation that was already pretty absurd to begin with.
Lots of the emotional soap dramas is about exaggerated situations, just look how they value the family name Ewing. It's not just about being grateful to belong to a certain family, it's everything - and it also means everything to any Dallas character who isn't a Ewing.

Pam couldn't go to Paris because heaven forbid she wasn't available when the precious family needed her, even though some of them couldn't wait to see the back of her.
The viewer needs to believe how important the family home is and why mortgaging Southfork was such a disaster scenario.
These people literally cannot live somewhere else, it's the heart of SoapLand, it's living there or die.
And that's why Miss Ellie's plan to give it to Garrison should worry the viewer, not because the Ewings couldn't afford it but because she was about to give away the familiar setting that the viewers had been visiting week after week.
It would be like Batman selling the Batcave.
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
I didn't really like her signing over half of Southfork to Clayton, yet I recognize the dramatic potential in doing so. But they didn't really do much with it, and then -- boom! -- Miss Ellie's gone.

It's been pointed out that Miss Ellie married Jock to save the ranch. Some have even suggested that Jock loved Ellie more than she loved him... Is that true?? She certainly seemed besotted, and decimated, once Jock died -- and it's not like she was worried about money after he was gone.

And this could drag up the old issue: why do men and women fall "in love"? Is the man just after sex? Is the woman just after resources? And did Jock & Ellie get that balance right (whatever balance there is to have in that situation).

Where is the absurdity in all of that?

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Willie Oleson

Willie Oleson

Telly Talk Schemer
Snarky Oracle! said:
I didn't really like her signing over half of Southfork to Clayton
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I guess it was the Ewing equivalent of saying "I do".
And he would no longer feel like a guest on Southfork (but she probably actually worded it like that).

It only goes to show how many dramas can be derived from it.

Snarky Oracle! said:
Is the woman just after resources?
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Or is he after social standing that can't be bought with New Money?
 
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