We have Lorimar-Telepictures Chuck Silvers to thank for the drastic decline in the Dallas picture quality. He was the main advocate of the electronic post production of Lorimar's TV output in 1986, and from 1986-89 Dallas was edited on the Ediflex system. Silvers once said that viewers in the future would only want to see film shot sitcoms in high quality and everything else was inconsequential. He was clearly mad, but his electronic post production process did lead the way to a higher quality digital editing process in the 90's and HD.
Joseph Dervin Jr., vice president of Aaron Spelling Productions, creator of ''Dynasty'' - avoided the electronic post editing system because they couldn't take advantage of the saving involved in putting finishing touches on broadcast tape. They finished their work on film to satisfy European buyers who demanded film copies. Eventually they succomed to editing on the higher quality laser disc.
Leonard Katzman was never happy with the poorer Dallas picture quality and by the final season the show was once again being edited on the old style 35mm process. A physical film print exists of that season.
Warner's still retain all 35mm elements for the 14 Dallas seasons. However the condition of the print elements from 1986-89 are unknown.