Opinions changing on rewatches

[Grangehill1]

I was born in the mid 70s so was only a child when I first watched Dallas in its initial airing. Having rewatched it again over the years it’s interesting to see if I’ve changed my opinion from what I thought as a 10 year old child to an adult

The best years - it’s well thought that seasons 6 and 7 (dvd) are the best years. I loved them then and still love them now. They are the best

The dream resolution - Was 12 when I first saw it in October 86. Hated it then and still hate it.

Season 11 - on first watch I liked season 11 but watching again as an adult, absolutely hate it. None of the Ewings interact with each other. A horrible year.

The Dream Season - Adored it when I was a child. As an adult I love the first half but am not as enthusiastic as I was about the second half. It goes on FOREVER

Season 10 - Hated it when it first aired. Probably because of the picture quality, the terrible fashions. Hated Pam’s wedding dress (and still do). But actually watching it again it’s not bad

Season 14 - Hated it on first viewing. Watching it again and at speed, its’s exceptionally dark and I appreciate it more. Still hate Conundrum though.

The Ewing Offices - Adored the old Ewing offices and hated all of the replacements. Still do.

Season 12 and 13 - Enjoyed them then and still do.

Ray and Jenna - HATED them together as a child and still do.

what’s interesting is that my thoughts as a whole are still pretty much the same as when I was a child. So how on earth can a 10 year old appreciate how amazing seasons 6 and 7 were and then realise very quickly the drop in quality? And a 12 year old realise the dream resolution sucked yet Leonard Katzman didn’t?

 

[Monzo]

The first seven seasons remained the same for me when I rewatched them. When I saw season 8 for the first time, I didn't really have a problem with anything except maybe Jenna's trial, but when I rewatched it, I saw more weaknesses in the storytelling. The next seasons were exactly as I remembered them, but I watched the last three seasons in a more relaxed way rather than being horrified by it like I was the first time around.

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

I watched the last three seasons in a more relaxed way rather than being horrified by it like I was the first time around.

That's often the way. Once you get past the initial disappointment with something that wasn't how you thought it should have been, you can let go and try to appreciate it for what it is.

 

[CryptCreeper72]

My additude towards the characters changed a lot when I first rewatched it as an adult.

I found JR to be a lot less scary - and even bumbling at times.

Pam - who I adored as a child - came across much more selfish and self righteous. Same for Bobby.

I was less sympathetic to Sue Ellen as well. She kept causing her own misery and making the same mistakes.

Mostly, my feelings towards Jock and Ellie changed. As an adult who had my own children, I couldn't believe what awful parents they were.

But - my enjoyment of the show as a whole (the first ten seasons anyway) was much greater. As a kid, these characters were all magical. As an adult, I saw them as deeply flawed, nuanced people. That made the drama between them more real for me.

 

[Jock-O-Lantern]

Pam - who I adored as a child - came across much more selfish and self righteous. Same for Bobby.

my feelings towards Jock and Ellie changed. As an adult who had my own children, I couldn't believe what awful parents they were.

These are my biggest takeaways from re-watches. Pam in particular was unbearable at times.

These are my biggest takeaways from re-watches. Pam in particular was unbearable at times.

 

[Chris2]

I just did a rewatch and was loving it up until the moment Bobby died. The dream season was even worse than I remembered; it plodded along and put too much focus on characters who just weren’t compelling (the deadly three Js - Jack, Jamie, and Jenna). The season after the dream is much improved, but I just don’t feel as compelled to watch it. Something has been lost. Everyone seems older and the show just seems less fresh, even though the stories are good. It’s depressing somehow. Bobby and Pam are back together but they are foolish enough to live at Southfork (it’s also depressing knowing what’s coming for them). Ray and Donna have a contrived divorce that should never have happened. And Jenna just…won‘t go away. I drifted away after the first 7 or 8 episodes and haven’t picked up since then.

 

[Werewillie Oleson]

The season after the dream is much improved, but I just don’t feel as compelled to watch it. Something has been lost. Everyone seems older and the show just seems less fresh, even though the stories are good

Is it possible that the psychological effect of the dream explanation is actually more significant than the loss of DALLAS' "reputation"?

 

[DallasFanForever]

One of the things I notice when I rewatch now is how often J.R. was actually right with a lot of his opinions and gripes. He may have more often than not gone about things the wrong way but I find myself feeling he’s justified in his actions a lot more now than I did then.

 

[Chris2]

Is it possible that the psychological effect of the dream explanation is actually more significant than the loss of DALLAS' "reputation"?

For me it’s about how you can’t go backward/you can’t go home again.

 

[Werewillie Oleson]

For me it’s about how you can’t go backward/you can’t go home again.

Yes, I think I know what you mean. It's not that they wiped out a whole season of soap, the real problem is that they didn't - because they couldn't.
The dream discussions always focus on the story and the (lack of) plausibility but now I'm beginning to see that it could be much more than that.

Going backwards and pretending that nothing has happened is actually very common in soap, it allows the characters to stay in the same(-ish) position and experience a lot of misery all over again.
But something as drastic as the death of Bobby Ewing gave the viewers a taste of "alternative" soap, even if most of it was crap.
The crap actually makes it easier to ignore the storylines and uncharacteristic behaviour, but what you can't forget is that they showed a different way of "doing Dallas".
It's in our nature to explore the "new", not because we want to but because we can. Our free will is not as free as we like to think it is.

DALLAS was destroyed by the Human Condition. That's powerful stuff.

 

[Laurie!]

My opinions of Bobby changed upon a rewatch of the series as an adult. No man worthy of adulation (fictional or real) would divorce a woman who suffered 3rd degree burns all over her body, just because of a letter written because she feels less worthy of him as a result of looking heinous.

 

[Karin]

I just finished rewatching the show earlier this year and if it's one thing I noticed when watching it was how much it is a product of it's time.

Another thing that I noticed was how I no longer shipped some of the couples I used to ship such as JR/SE and Bobby/Pam. I could see how JR/SE were not good for each other. They had a very dysfunctional relationship that was more passionate than it was loving. It was actually abusive. Not so much physically but definitely mentally. JR can be very cruel to Sue Ellen and treats her in a degrading way. All she wanted was for him to love her and to be faithful to her. But he can't do that as he is too ruthless and ambitious. He always puts his work before her and acts in a childish way. It is because JR always felt his parents loved his brothers more than him. So he has to try harder to earn their respect and love. He wants his father's love and approval more than his wife's. He takes Sue Ellen for granted and thinks she is too needy. Sue Ellen was also raised by a woman who taught her that all she should want from life was a rich husband and a child. She has no identity or value outside of being Mrs. JR Ewing. So when her life and marriage turns into a disaster she seeks comfort in the bottle as she tries to escape the reality of how bad things are rather than face her problems. JR can't handle a drunk wife. So he turns even nastier since she is no longer the woman he married. Eventually Sue Ellen shapes up and takes repsonsibilty for her own life and the mistakes she made. She grows a lot in the dream season when she gets sober. I actually liked the way Patricia and Sue Ellen reconciled in the dream season and Patricia could see she hadn't been a good mother. Too bad that was just a dream.

Then as for Bobby and Pam, when they divorced I actually thought Bobby was happier with Jenna than he was with Pam. Their relationship seemed more fun and carefree than what he had with Pam. They also came from similar backgrounds and understood each other better, which made them more suited. Bobby and Pam always had communication problems and were not very well suited. They had this whole star-crossed lover thing that could never really work since it wasn't supposed to. Their fundamental problems was always making themselves reminded. Pam was also a very broken person who had lots of baggage from her childhood. Bobby, who was more spoilt but secure in the knowledge that his parents loved him, constantly had to reassure her that he loved her. Yet Pam never felt like it was enough since she had a void inside of her that could never be fulfilled. I think that void came from being abandoned by her mother as a baby and raised by her aunt and a drunk father. Who wasn't even her father, which caused an identity crisis for Pam when she found out. Pam wanted to create a better life for her child and yet in the end she did to him what her mother did to her. It seemed like Pam was always running away from the people who loved her.

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

Is it possible that the psychological effect of the dream explanation is actually more significant than the loss of DALLAS' "reputation"?

Can you really separate the two?
The psychological effect is in large measure the reason for the loss if reputation.

 

[Grangehill1]

What’s amazing on 2nd watch is Pam waltzing off to the south of France with Mark Graison and thinking it was the right thing to do!

 

[Werewillie Oleson]

Can you really separate the two?

Yes. The main problem is always about how they handled it, and there's group A who wish that the dream wasn't a dream and there's group B who wants a better explanation for the dream.
The loss of reputation comes from the idea (call if fact, if you like) that the writers had treated their own series and also the prime time soap genre disrespectfully, especially the super-drama of Bobby's death.

The psychological effect (the way Chris2 described it) is simply that it happened regardless of the consequences.
You could say that the dream season (which wasn't even meant to be a dream) was the first New Dallas, and they changed it back to Old Dallas.
It's like how Peyton Place was really awesome in black & white and then it became colour (also very awesome) and then you don't want it to go back to black & white.

 

[Piggyrella Sanderson]

I must confess that the Dream Solution wasn´t my biggest problem back then. I was so naïve that I thought that everything that happened in the Dream Season was canon, and had to happen AGAIN the next year. Of course, part of it did happen again, like Wes Parmalee, Jamie´s death and Mandy leaving, but later I found atrocious that there was no mention of Dusty, or Tony, or Mark. Now to me it´s like the end of the real "Dallas", period, including the shower scene. Or not.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

One of the things I notice when I rewatch now is how often J.R. was actually right with a lot of his opinions and gripes. He may have more often than not gone about things the wrong way but I find myself feeling he’s justified in his actions a lot more now than I did then.

JR was right quite often
IE he was right to object when Miss Ellie gave half of SF to Clayton.
If Miss Ellie predeceased Clayton, the Ewings would have no claim to the property.
JR was right to object when Miss Ellie wanted to give SF to Garrison.
JR was right about Clayton being an outside, interloper ewtc.
Cliff was determined to bring down the Ewings, and he had an affair with Sue Ellen.
Naturally, JR would be an adversary
JR once told Miss Ellie that Jock never would have let people like Cliff Barnes ruin him,
when Miss Ellie wanted him removed form the presidency of Ewing Oil,
something that Miss Ellie always ignored when it was convenient for her.
In general, JR was raised to be President of Ewing Oil,
and he shouldn't have been relegated to a participant in a contest.
There are other instances to be sure

 

[Barbara Fan]

Im with @Laurie!
As a school girl and 20 something I worshipped at the feet of Bobby Ewing and thought he was man of my dreams - Mr Wonderful and thought he was an angel and perfect - the man i wanted to marry

Oh to be young, daft and naive

then along came TNT and I thought he was insufferable with dodgy acting and all those teens age dreams went out the window

On a rewatch of original Dallas following TNT, i thought he was a hot head, would fight with his own shadow and have fisticuffs with anyone and his realtionship with Pam wasnt as perfect as I thought. I also thought she was better off with Mark who treated her better, took her on exotic holidays (or wanted too and put her first)before Business and getting one up on big brother JR as Bobby would do.

With hindsight I also realised the final 3 seasons left a lot to be desired and were not really MY Dallas - mini and 1-6 original reign supreme

However the characters i thought were rubbish 1st time round starting with woodentop fake momma, Jamie, the McKays, Angelica and co, Rose, Cally, Apriil, Michelle and co were still rubbish on 2nd and 3rd viewing and you could see how the show was losing popularity becasue of it all - second rate actors and acting

 

[Chris2]

What’s amazing on 2nd watch is Pam waltzing off to the south of France with Mark Graison and thinking it was the right thing to do!

One of my favorite scenes of the series is JR calling Pam out on this. “You started this, my sanctimonious little sister-in-law. Where the hell were you when your husband needed you the most, huh? Now, you couldn't take the battle for Ewing Oil, could you? No, you didn't approve. So you left him high and dry, and ran off to the South of France with your favorite stud for a long, luxurious roll in the hay... to calm your little hurts.”

 

[DallasFanForever]

I also thought she was better off with Mark who treated her better, took her on exotic holidays (or wanted too and put her first)before Business and getting one up on big brother JR as Bobby would do.

Every time I do a rewatch now I end up liking Mark more. I think I still prefer Pam with Bobby of course but Mark came along at a time when Bobby wasn’t paying any attention to Pam and was acting like a real jerk. Mark may have had his flaws too but he was also very likable in a lot of ways.