Season 13 - Jeanne O'Brien

[Pammy P]

Oh so I started painfully to watch DVD of Season 13, Bobby with April (yuk) then comes along Jeanne O'Brien!
WOW ... loved rewatching the scenes where Bobby was taken back to his early life with Pam, see he never forgot her and wanted Jeanne to be her! I gotta say Pat D and the actress who played Jeanne surely had chemistry she so much looked like Pam (Victoria) wish they had recast her for the final two seasons. The writers wrote Bobby as a love struck young man when he saw Jeanne and took him back with life with Pam, and Pat D was amazing in those scenes it took me back to those days with Pam .. his thinking of her, sending her those flowers which Phyllis remembered etc.

The 2.0 Dallas, the producers wrote Bobby all wrong as he forgot about Pam, but we all know that he would not have done that albeit he said 'goodbye Pam'.

Did not like the pairing of April and Bobby or JR and Cally!

Pam should have been recast as Margaret Michaels as she and PD sure did have the chemistry but not as much he did with VP. Shame!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I liked, more or less, the Jeanne O'Brien story arc -- although I think the reason it almost worked was because she turned out to not be Pam in the end... And while I'm against re-casting core characters in primetime shows, at least Pam's surgery would have made it more acceptable (just as Steven's re-casting on DYNASTY made more since because of his surgery -- if he hadn't been re-cast with such a frozen actor).

I also never liked April and Bobby together, mostly because it seemed forced (Katzman "liked" Sheree Wilson, and that's why it happened) and they had to change April too much to shoe-horn her into a Southfork wife.... People always think I'm off-base on this, but I always want too see Bobby and Afton together in a serious way -- I can just taste it... I didn't mind JR and Cally together short-term, because their mismatch status was intentional.

Season 13 could have been one of the great seasons of DALLAS and might indeed have been had Katzman pulled Paulsen back in after DYNASTY ended (it sounds like Katzman might have tried, but Paulsen was exhausted and had contracted pneumonia -- but it's a pity that didn't happen, as the last two years of DALLAS would have been far more memorable). Lady Jessica's murder spree would have been done much more like a gothic horror movie (instead of the campy disposable stuff they threw us) as she had been blackmailing the Dallas cartel for decades over Dusty's parentage (she'd been sleeping with them all in her youth)... David Jacobs' idea that Miss Ellie have her own TV chat show seems ideal for Season 13 --- to counter Cliff's exploitation of the oil tanker disaster, JR takes his mama on The Roy Ralston Show and Miss Ellie is such a hit that the station offers her her own show when Ralston's program finally goes national -- JR thinks it's a great idea at first while Clayton is instinctively wary; but once Ellie starts imbuing her show with liberal politics and pro-environmental rhetoric, the cartel (whom Jessie's yet to slaughter) goes crazy and JR is pressured to put a stop to his mother's reign as the new queen of Texas talk television. (Larry said he wanted Miss Ellie to get hooked on cocaine during an affair with her young chauffeur -- but I'd be satisfied with her chauffeur spiking her make-up with coke so Ellie has an on-air seizure and almost dies --- end of talk show, but she reveals to Clayton in the hospital that Digger Barnes might have been JR's biological father, which a drunken Clayton then spews at JR in the living room near the end of the season, leaving everyone predictably shocked).

Later on, after Jeanne is out of the picture, we can learn she was hired by Wendell (who never actually went to prison), and not JR, to distract Bobby for some reason. And as Bobby and Cliff come to suspect Pam might possibly be dead, they learn she may indeed have become symptomatic for adult-onset neurofibromatosis (so Hutch McKinney may not have been her daddy after all -- and Rebecca may have been mistaken or lied!)

And JR, now convinced that he is brother to both Pam and Cliff, has himself committed to the mental hospital not just to access Lady Montford's signature but also as a depressed self-destructive gesture to rid himself of his dreaded Barnesishness.

 

[Monzo]

I think that Jeanne O'Brien (as well as the Lisa Alden two seasons earlier) was a nice filler story for Bobby that had the right length and didn't need to be expanded into more episodes.

 

[Chris2]

I never thought Bobby had much chemistry with any of his post-Pam love interests.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I never thought Bobby had much chemistry with any of his post-Pam love interests.

I thought Tracey Lawton was at least an interesting pairing for Bobby, or at least the one which had the most potential for a time -- otherwise, her Daddy McKay had no purpose to even be on DALLAS except to regrettably usurp Jeremy Wendell's role.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Pam should have been recast as Margaret Michaels

Oh please NO :eck:, recasts on Dallas dont work and you cant recast the hottest female actress on TV and Dallas with a 2nd rater

By then though Dallas wasnt Dallas anymore and it showed,
Bobby went out with anything that had a pulse and zero chemistry - April, Tracey, Tammy with Sindy doll straw hair, Kay Lloyd

zzzzz Never had the same chemistry he had with pam or Jenna x

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Margaret Michaels was fine for that one scene but as a long term recast for Pam I don't think it would've worked.

Like Jim Davis before her recasting of core essential characters just doesn't work even if it is a good explanation for it.

Victoria Principal will always & forever be Pamela Barnes Ewing.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Once we find out that Pam might be dead of neurofibromatosis, I'd even like the idea of Cliff and Bobby debating whether Cliff's first meeting of Margaret Michaels in "Carousel" could have been imposter Jeanne O'Brien trying to draw them in and never Pam at all.

Who knows...?

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Once we find out that Pam might be dead of neurofibromatosis, I'd even like the idea of Cliff and Bobby debating whether Cliff's first meeting of Margaret Michaels in "Carousel" could have been imposter Jeanne O'Brien trying to draw them in and never Pam at all.

Who knows...?

You're completely right about that. She isn't the real Pam but a look alike hired by her to throw Cliff off. Well actually it was Mark Graison who hired her on Pam's behalf.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Well actually it was Mark Graison who hired her on Pam's behalf.

Except Mark wouldn't do that, would he?

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

Once we find out that Pam might be dead of neurofibromatosis, I'd even like the idea of Cliff and Bobby debating whether Cliff's first meeting of Margaret Michaels in "Carousel" could have been imposter Jeanne O'Brien trying to draw them in and never Pam at all.

Who knows...?

it could have been part of a years-long con Jeanne was running, culminating in the sale of a moderately-priced suburban house to a lovelorn and haunted Bobby in order to bolster her sales figures as a struggling real estate agent. Jeremy Wendell could have been inexplicably involved as well.

 

[Toni]

Maybe Michaels should have been cast as "the permanent re-cast", so everything could stay normal despite the actresses leaving. First she plays Pam, then Donna (with a blonde wig), and then Sue Ellen (with a brunette wig). Meryl Streep would have killed to do that... or even Kenny Everett!!

 

[Chris2]

As much as I missed Pam, I don’t think a recast would have worked. Duffy and Principal had amazing chemistry that I don’t think could have been replicated by sliding in another actress.

The big mistake Dallas made, post-Pam, was trying to do the same show, just with Pam missing. With Pam’s departure, the show’s original premise (what if Romeo and Juliet had lived) was gone. It needed a soft reboot and some new central conceit. It could have been about the redemption of JR Ewing as suggested on these boards before. I could have been about a new Mrs. Ewing coming to Southfork and trying to figure out what happened to Pam and why no one talks about her. But there had to be something. Doing the same show with replacement characters (the McKays are the new Barneses!) didn’t work.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

As much as I missed Pam, I don’t think a recast would have worked. Duffy and Principal had amazing chemistry that I don’t think could have been replicated by sliding in another actress.

The big mistake Dallas made, post-Pam, was trying to do the same show, just with Pam missing. With Pam’s departure, the show’s original premise (what if Romeo and Juliet had lived) was gone. It needed a soft reboot and some new central conceit. It could have been about the redemption of JR Ewing as suggested on these boards before. I could have been about a new Mrs. Ewing coming to Southfork and trying to figure out what happened to Pam and why no one talks about her. But there had to be something. Doing the same show with replacement characters (the McKays are the new Barneses!) didn’t work.

You're right it didn't.

First they introduce the McKay's, with Tracy McKay supposed to be a blond version of Pam.

With all due respect to Beth Toussant she was no Victoria Principal.

Of course the audience were going to miss Pam. The show had to be taken in another direction.

So what did they do? Well, they abandoned the Tracy character but kept her Father as the new head of Weststar now that Jeremy Wendell was gone.

They altered the personality of April Stevens to be the new love interest, even though Bobby had a few affairs with both Tammy & Kay Lloyd.

But the biggest mistake & what did the most damage to the show was diluting down the character of JR. He became a buffoon who constantly lost. His villainy although still present just wasn't as watchable any more.

But what could've saved the show post Pam? Well for a start, JR's character should never have been diluted. He should've became more hard & no good.

Let's not forget that Susan Howard was dropped at the same time Victoria left. Pairing Ray off with Jenna Wade was also a big mistake. Their relationship was a joke, they were both bland with absolutely no chemistry. Priscilla Presley should've been dropped at this point. Ray with Jenna was painful viewing.

Dallas really needed a big shake up after losing both Susan Howard & Victoria Principal. The Producers had the opportunity to alter the show's dynamic by keeping Steve Forrest as a recast Jock Ewing but did they have the guts & the vision to do this? Of course not! They squandered the opportunity of bringing back the Ewing patriarch with another actor. I can understand why they felt they had to renege on the original outcome of making either Ben Stivers or Wes Parmalee Jock but bringing back Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing only really worked in the short term. Bobby's resurrection from the dead ultimately is what ruined Dallas. The show then stumbled in the ratings once Victoria & Susan were gone. When Linda Gray was let go a couple of seasons later that was truly the end of the show.

It was sad to see such a brilliant show conceptually become a shadow of it's former self. With many of it's iconic stars gone, new younger characters brought in & a shift of making it the JR & Bobby show the series was on it's last legs. The problem was Leonard Katzman. He was burnt out creatively. Larry Hagman did the show no favours by bringing both Patrick Duffy & Leonard Katzman back for the tenth season. Katzman became complacent, thinking he could do anything & the show would be just fine! That was certainly not the case. Dallas became painful viewing from season eleven onwards.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Kay Lloyd was an okay diversion. I think they abandoned Tracey too quickly -- and for that ghastly reconfigured chameleon April who wasn't engagement material at all. (April should have turned into one of Bobby's sniffling serial stalkers who follows him to Paris where both she and Tracey die in a haze of gunfire).

The memory of Pam was the only thing that could get between Bobby and Afton Ewing...

 

[Toni]

As much as I missed Pam, I don’t think a recast would have worked. Duffy and Principal had amazing chemistry that I don’t think could have been replicated by sliding in another actress.

The big mistake Dallas made, post-Pam, was trying to do the same show, just with Pam missing. With Pam’s departure, the show’s original premise (what if Romeo and Juliet had lived) was gone. It needed a soft reboot and some new central conceit. It could have been about the redemption of JR Ewing as suggested on these boards before. I could have been about a new Mrs. Ewing coming to Southfork and trying to figure out what happened to Pam and why no one talks about her. But there had to be something. Doing the same show with replacement characters (the McKays are the new Barneses!) didn’t work.

A "Rebecca" twist on "Dallas"! I love it!

"You see little girl? You don´t have what it takes to be a Pam!
Look at that face, those arms, those...****...!"​

 

[Seaviewer]

you cant recast the hottest female actress on TV and Dallas with a 2nd rater

I think that's a bit harsh. We'll never know what she could have done with the role if given a real chance.