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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 252253" data-attributes="member: 22">Digger Redux (DALLAS, 25 Sep 87) v Digger’s Daughter (DALLAS, 02 Apr 78)While re-watching Digger’s Daughter, it’s fun to spot the seemingly insignificant details that the series will return to repeatedly over the years: Jock’s three B’s, Lucy’s drunken daddy, oil under Southfork, Miss Ellie’s rule against “business talk with supper on the table”, the Red Files  ... One could even draw a direct line between JR’s failure to heed Jock’s warning about the importance of subtlety (“A lack of it turns competitors into enemies and enemies into fanatics”) and the "Who shot JR?" mystery in two years time.While Digger’s Daughter is all about building the world of DALLAS, Digger Redux asks whether that world can carry on in the face of what’s been lost. Can JR survive without Ewing Oil? Can Valentine Lingerie survive without Mandy Winger? Can Bobby and Cliff survive without Pam? Can Pam survive without Victoria Principal’s face? For JR, the solution is a simple one, “We keep moving forward and we don’t look back.” And there are a few indications that Life After Pam is a possibility: Bobby and April's first-ever conversation; the screen debuts of Nicholas Pearce and Dandy Dandridge. Cliff is in a bar when he overhears Dandy telling a remarkably a similar story to the one he and Pam find Digger telling nine years earlier, just before they break the news to him about Pam marrying a Ewing. Digger and Dandy each claim to have sniffed out the oil that somebody else — Jock in Digger’s case, a bunch of “geological ninnies” in Dandy’s — then got rich on. One of the barflies listening to their stories is the same in both scenes. He’s disappointed when Cliff and Pam interrupt Digger, but tells Dandy he’s talking a lot of crap.The impression one gets when we first meet JR — the way he absently caresses Julie’s thigh in the office; his reminder to Jock that “you put me in your chair, Daddy” — is of a smugly complacent man who assumes his position within his family and business is unassailable. Bobby is pretty satisfied with his lot too (“I like my job — it’s people, it’s a good time”), even more so now he's just married the girl of his dreams. Sue Ellen may not be exactly satisfied, but she at least understands what her role is (“We got sort of a routine here, you know?”). This all changes with Pam’s arrival, of course, but these roles are the default positions that the characters will return to at the start of each episode until the show becomes fully serialised. It’s the opposite of New DALLAS where, far from feeling secure about their place in the scheme of things, both John Ross and Christopher are outsiders from the very beginning.“Look at us — outside the gates, looking in. You and I are black sheep, Elena,” says John Ross in Changing of the Guard, New DALLAS's opening episode. “I always felt like I needed to earn my way into this family,” says Christopher in the same ep. One can see Christopher's sense of inferiority taking root in Digger Redux when he is told he isn't allowed to see his mother in the hospital, but can’t understand why. As Pam’s doctor says to Bobby, the stress “in a situation like this … can cause almost as much damage to the family as the injuries can to the patient.”JR appears concerned about Pam’s condition in Digger Redux, but he's really more interested sneaking a peek at her will. The welcome he gives her when they first meet in Digger’s Daughter is just as phoney. “Who lives there?” she asks as he shows her around the ranch. “No-one now,” he replies. “That’s my middle brother Gary’s house. He used to live there with his little bride, briefly.” The mini-compound of houses they're looking at resembles a smaller version of Seaview Circle, with Gary’s empty house standing in for the one that Abby would move into in KNOTS Season 2.In Digger Redux, Sly refers to “all the fighting” JR and Pam have done over the years — fighting which begins in Digger’s Daughter when he lets his Mr Nice Guy mask slip long enough to ask, “Did your brother put you up to this, Miss Barnes?” This question allows both Pam and the viewer to get our very first look at who we’re really dealing with here.My favourite scene in Digger’s Daughter is where JR sticks his head around the newlyweds’ bedroom door and casually informs Bobby that his presence is required in Austin the following day. Bobby objects but then gives in, much to Pam’s quiet resentment. Little do they realise that this is part of JR’s plot to bust them up. Nine years later, after learning that Bobby will acquire control of Pam’s share of Wentworth Industries if she dies, JR once again uses business as a pretext to manipulate his brother. He shows up at the hospital where Bobby is keeping vigil over Pam and persuades him to leave her side long enough to inspect the new offices he’s bought for him. Again, this is part of a larger scheme, this time to get Bobby (and his Wentworth shares) onside for reasons that will become apparent later in the season. Of course, JR’s scheming here pales into insignificance compared to what we’ll eventually learn Cliff is prepared to do to gain control of his sister’s shares in <s>Wentworth Industries</s> Barnes Global. Meanwhile, one can only imagine what Katherine has in mind when she appears at Pam's bedside and says that she plans to take away everything that belongs to her.While the prospect of Pam and Bobby having a child becomes a source of concern for JR in ’78 (“You best go see your wife, Junior,” Jock advises him, “If they get too much of a head start, my first grandson’s gonna be theirs!”), the reality is a source of lingering resentment for Katherine in ’87. “You’ve had everything you ever wanted, everything that should have been mine. You’ve had a home and a husband and child,” she says while rocking a very 2021-looking mask.And the winner is ... Digger's DaughterBONUS BEATS:[MEDIA=youtube]SUONcW7rKM4[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?