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<blockquote data-quote="Grant Jennings" data-source="post: 286636" data-attributes="member: 746">When David Jacobs first presented his concept for Knots Landing (or whatever the working title was at the time) Lorimar told him they wanted something &quot;epic&quot; instead. I find this ironic as Knots Landing&nbsp; went on to inhabit a large universe while Dallas always felt very insular to me. With its focus on a handful of characters and two primary settings, one residential (Southfork) and the other a workplace (the Ewing Oil offices), Dallas&#039;s structure was very similar to most sitcoms.On a daytime soap secondary characters have scenes opposite tertiary and other secondary characters but on Dallas the secondary characters are rarely outside the orbit of one of the leads; I can&#039;t recall any scenes of Katherine that didn&#039;t also include Pam, Bobby, J.R. or Cliff. Branching the supporting characters out would have given the show more plot possibilities.For all of the talk about the Barnes/Ewing feud there were very few members of the Barnes family. Maggie and Jimmy were quickly dispatched followed by Digger. We then learned that Pam wasn&#039;t really a Barnes. Rebecca had potential but she was treated more like a plot device than a fully rounded character (kudos to Priscilla Pointer for fleshing out the role); she quickly became an ATM for Cliff just as Dominique was for Blake on Dynasty.I blame the writers and show-runners for limiting Dallas&#039;s potential. While Knots Landing was adding cast members to its opening titles and Dynasty was clearly eager to add to its opening - even if someone appeared in only a few episodes - the titles for Dallas (except for the last few seasons, when the show was already in decline) was limited to only the core cast. Didn&#039;t Morgan Brittany and John Beck deserve their own title cards?By focusing on a few core characters to the exclusion of others, the writers and producers tied their own hands; they had no choice but to recast Miss Ellie and resurrect Bobby. Other series have survived and even thrived after the departure of main cast members but the powers that be at Dallas painted themselves into a corner from which they never escaped.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Grant Jennings, post: 286636, member: 746"] When David Jacobs first presented his concept for [I]Knots Landing [/I](or whatever the working title was at the time) Lorimar told him they wanted something "epic" instead. I find this ironic as [I]Knots Landing [/I]went on to inhabit a large universe while [I]Dallas [/I]always felt very insular to me. With its focus on a handful of characters and two primary settings, one residential (Southfork) and the other a workplace (the Ewing Oil offices), [I]Dallas's [/I]structure was very similar to most sitcoms. On a daytime soap secondary characters have scenes opposite tertiary and other secondary characters but on [I]Dallas [/I]the secondary characters are rarely outside the orbit of one of the leads; I can't recall any scenes of Katherine that didn't also include Pam, Bobby, J.R. or Cliff. Branching the supporting characters out would have given the show more plot possibilities. For all of the talk about the Barnes/Ewing feud there were very few members of the Barnes family. Maggie and Jimmy were quickly dispatched followed by Digger. We then learned that Pam wasn't really a Barnes. Rebecca had potential but she was treated more like a plot device than a fully rounded character (kudos to Priscilla Pointer for fleshing out the role); she quickly became an ATM for Cliff just as Dominique was for Blake on [I]Dynasty.[/I] I blame the writers and show-runners for limiting [I]Dallas's [/I]potential. While [I]Knots Landing [/I] was adding cast members to its opening titles and [I]Dynasty [/I]was clearly eager to add to its opening - even if someone appeared in only a few episodes - the titles for [I]Dallas [/I](except for the last few seasons, when the show was already in decline) was limited to only the core cast. Didn't Morgan Brittany and John Beck deserve their own title cards? By focusing on a few core characters to the exclusion of others, the writers and producers tied their own hands; they had no choice but to recast Miss Ellie and resurrect Bobby. Other series have survived and even thrived after the departure of main cast members but the powers that be at [I]Dallas [/I]painted themselves into a corner from which they never escaped. [/QUOTE]

Verification

Who played JR Ewing?