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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 236555" data-attributes="member: 22">Charlie (DALLAS, 30 Nov 84) v Check and Mate (DALLAS, 04 Nov 83)In Check and Mate, Pam admits to Cliff that she’s having second thoughts about coming to work with him at Barnes Wentworth. He reacts like her only alternative is to sit at home and watch Christopher grow. “You’re too dynamic for that!” he insists. “You need to keep busy, you need to stay involved!” “I did enjoy working at The Store,” she concedes. “I like working,” echoes Mandy Winger a year later in Charlie when, during their first ever conversation, JR expresses surprise that her boyfriend allows her to work as a model. Elsewhere in the same ep, Donna, Lucy and Jamie all talk about how they don’t want to sit around the house all day. For this reason, one of them has bought an oil well, another has become a secret waitress and the third is considering working as JR's receptionist at Ewing Oil even though he hates her.The overall impression one gets is that work is something a woman does either as a hobby or simply to get out of the house. Ambition, or even making money, doesn’t appear to be a consideration. Donna suggests to Miss Ellie in Charlie that if she and Ray were to start a family, she’d be content to stay at home. (In Pam’s Dream, that’ll turn out to be true; in Not Pam’s Dream, it won’t.)Donna is far more passionate in Check and Mate when Ray is arrested for Mickey’s murder and resigns himself to spending the rest of his life behind bars. “You’re what I wanted all my life,” she tells him fiercely. “We’ve been through a lot together. Don’t you dare sit there and tell me it was all in vain!” While Ewing men will stop at nothing to succeed in business, Ewing women will stop at nothing to keep their men. (Well, some of the time anyway.) The most feminist note in either episode is sounded by Holly Harwood after Bobby admits he could never feel desirous towards her now that’s she slept with JR. “Men have such fragile egos,” she observes.The final scene of Check and Mate, which is all about Ewing men succeeding at business, brings the year-long battle for control of Ewing Oil to a conclusion. It has a bit of everything one could hope for from such a scene. Jock’s latest letter from beyond the grave, in which he appeals to Bobby and JR to “put your arms around each other and work that company like brothers”, provides the sentimental have-your-cake-and-eat-it plot twist that enables the series to carry on pretty much the way it always has, with the Ewing boys continuing to work side by side; Bobby’s last-minute Canadian windfall that wins him the company allows Larry Hagman to reprise the “bad loser” comedy shtick that he does so brilliantly; and Patrick Duffy's grim-faced performance supplies the soap quotient, reminding the viewer of the emotional toll that this year-long storyline has taken.Charlie is a far less eventful episode. The biggest thing that happens is Charlie Wade running away from home because she’s confused about her back story, Jenna having admitted that the tale she originally told her about her father — that he walked out on them when Jenna was pregnant — was a lie. Not to worry, Jenna — that story will come true during your next pregnancy.And the winner is ... Check and MateBONUS BEATS:[MEDIA=youtube]BTT4AlhterY[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?