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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 204352" data-attributes="member: 22">Barbecue Four (DALLAS, 07 Dec 84) v Barbecue Three (DALLAS, 16 Dec 83)Arranging the Ewing barbecue is definitely women’s work. For BBQ3, Miss Ellie, Lucy, Sue Ellen and Pam are shown writing out the invitations by hand while for BBQ4, Sue Ellen takes over the arrangements from Miss Ellie, who is overseas with Clayton. This Sue Ellen is far warmer and more relaxed than the brittle, neurotic one who scolded Pam for blocking in the florist’s truck during the preparations for the original barbecue back in ’78. However, her bid for Miss Ellie’s “serene matriarch” crown is somewhat undermined by her snogging Peter Richards behind the barn.Alas, Tilly and Sam have lost their barbecue catering contract by this point and are replaced by the amiable Larry Deltham. The same bit-part actor appears three years in a row as Larry, which is a nice touch.While Lucy treats Mickey so coolly in BBQ3 that he describes her as “a small block of ice”, she is much more full-on when it comes to Peter in BBQ4, asking him to the movies and insisting that he attend the barbecue — oblivious that he only does so to be near Sue Ellen.“This is gonna be the biggest barbecue we’ve ever had!” predicts Sue Ellen in ’82. “I have never been to a barbecue this big!” marvels Edgar Randolph in ’83.Edgar makes his first appearance in Barbecue Four and immediately arouses JR’s interest. A self-described “happily married man” and devoted public servant with the key to information JR wants, he’s already a Walt Driscoll-in-waiting. You can practically see the target painted on his back. JR plies him with food and drink at the barbecue as if fattening him up for the inevitable sacrifice. At the same time, JR has Sly make sure Cliff sees him and Edgar together while filling his head with notions of offshore drilling — what is JR up to? That’s also the question everyone’s asking a year earlier when JR gets an oil variance to pump to capacity in a soft market — what is he up to?Initially, the cartel and Rebecca elect to boycott BBQ3 in protest at this variance — but after JR unveils his string of cut-price gas stations, they decide it’s a prime opportunity to talk to him face to face.In the very first barbecue episode, Bobby and Pam were the naively optimistic newlyweds, confident all their families’ problems could be easily overcome. In Barbecue Three, Sue Ellen, fresh back from her honeymoon with JR, has inherited that newlywed optimism, certain that JR has changed for the better and that his fight against Bobby for control of Ewing Oil won’t interfere with her and Pam’s friendship.That fight and its aftermath loom large over both episodes. “Bobby, you know I’m behind you no matter what, but I’m starting to be frightened of what this is going to turn into,” Pam tells her husband in ’82. “The same thing that affected your health destroyed our marriage,” she tells Miss Ellie a year later.By BBQ4, the gathering has become a regular fixture of the series. Sue Ellen describes it as “a family tradition” and Mark Graison as “the famous Ewing barbecue.”In Barbecue Four, JR surprises Pam and Cliff by showing up at a Barnes/Graison/Afton brunch with invitations for all. As with the original barbecue, there is talk of mending fences between the Barnes and the Ewings. “Nothing would make Mama happy than to see this feud laid to rest once and for all,” says JR - but by this point, no-one really views this as a credible possibility. That said, there is a nice exchange between Mark and Bobby where they agree to call a truce over Pam.As in Barbecue Five, the barbecues themselves each only take up about a dozen minutes of screen time.Both eps end with a shock announcement that points the way forward for the rest of the season. In Season 5, Miss Ellie plans to “go to court to break Jock’s will — and then I intend to sell Ewing Oil!” In Season 6, she has “graciously accepted” Clayton’s proposal of marriage. Interestingly, the latter announcement is greeted by the family with almost as much alarm as the former, with Donna and Lucy the only ones who can muster a smile.And the winner is ... Barbecue ThreeBONUS BEATS:[MEDIA=youtube]_bvLphVWHpo[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?