Jimmy Todd
Telly Talk Mega Star
Should Miss Ellie have been a tad(or more) meaner? I 'm not saying change her character, but have her put in a few more situations in which her ruthless, we're Ewings right or wrong comes out a bit?
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The Devil in Miss Ellie
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Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
I would've liked to have seen Miss Ellie more angrier in her performance when she went off on one with JR. I always wanted her to slap JR in the face when she got really angry. Of course she never did. I think she should've smacked him in the face on occasions when he overstepped the mark with her like the hostility he displayed at Garrison when he returned to Southfork to see his sister.
I don't think she needed to be meaner, I'd rather she was more assertive. She should've taken control of the situation more when JR went too far.
I don't think she needed to be meaner, I'd rather she was more assertive. She should've taken control of the situation more when JR went too far.
Billy Wall
Telly Talk Dream Maker
No, because you want the core family to be somewhat likable. Bobby was supposed to be the likable Ewing, I'm not saying he was JR, but over the years and a countless number of re-watches, he's not as likable as I once thought.
Billy Wall
Telly Talk Dream Maker
I would've liked to have seen Miss Ellie more angrier in her performance when she went off on one with JR. I always wanted her to slap JR in the face when she got really angry. Of course she never did. I think she should've smacked him in the face on occasions when he overstepped the mark with her like the hostility he displayed at Garrison when he returned to Southfork to see his sister.
I don't think she needed to be meaner, I'd rather she was more assertive. She should've taken control of the situation more when JR went too far.
The closed she came to slapping JR was right before Sue Ellen and Mickey's accident.
Lastkidpicked
Telly Talk Dream Maker
Good points from all three of you!
It would be important to balance this with the quiet strength of Miss Ellie. The example that comes to mind is when Miss Ellie signs over the rights to section 40.
She is seated across from Vaughn Leland. Vaughn goes to hand her a pen to sign the papers. Miss Ellie reaches right past Vaughn and takes a pen from the desk.
A quiet power move for sure.
It would be important to balance this with the quiet strength of Miss Ellie. The example that comes to mind is when Miss Ellie signs over the rights to section 40.
She is seated across from Vaughn Leland. Vaughn goes to hand her a pen to sign the papers. Miss Ellie reaches right past Vaughn and takes a pen from the desk.
A quiet power move for sure.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
Didn't she also say in a low voice before she left "I'll never forgive you for this JR?"
I can't remember if she did or not?
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
Miss Ellie should at least have been more something as the show went on....
Billy Wall
Telly Talk Dream Maker
Didn't she also say in a low voice before she left "I'll never forgive you for this JR?"
I can't remember if she did or not?
She did. I think it was a line just to add a little more drama.
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Taylor Bennett Jr.
Telly Talk Winner
she should have pulled out her horsewhip and started lashing Harv Smithfield viciously when he refused to break Jock’s will..
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
I think Jock burnt it years ago!
Of course it could've been in the hall closet along with her shot gun all along!
Jimmy Todd
Telly Talk Mega Star
Great observation, @Lastkidpicked ! I love details like this. That's good writing and knowing the importance of details
I would have liked a plot in which Miss Ellie feels compelled to stand up for JR because he's Ewing, her son, and to not do so would threaten all of them and their wealth. This would be the result of one of JR's schemes. Privately, she would tell JR how disgusted she is with him, but she would never turn her back on her family, Southfork or Jock's legacy, so she will actively fight those who are taking advantage of JR's scheme being revealed to destroy the Ewings. I know this doesn't necessarily make her meaner, but it would show how far she is willing to go to stand by her family and wealth.
This could also set up interesting exchanges between other family members. Clayton would object to JR's scheme and Miss Ellie standing by her son. He would remind her she is a Farlow now, not a Ewing. She would respond that her family members are Ewings, part of her will always be a Ewing, and he's either on the Ewing's side or he'll find himself on the outside.
Most importantly, as @Snarky's Oracle said, it make Miss Ellie something with something to do.
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Lastkidpicked
Telly Talk Dream Maker
Yes! If they used @Jimmy Todd 's idea, it would give both Barbara Bell Geddes and Howard Keel their own storylines.
DallasFanForever
Telly Talk Supreme
I don’t think I would’ve written Miss Ellie any meaner but I would’ve liked her to take the blinders off once in awhile when it came to J.R. To me it was her biggest flaw as a mother.
I much preferred the Miss Ellie that refused to take John Ross from Sue Ellen and stood up to J.R. by not getting on that helicopter at the Southern Cross.
I much preferred the Miss Ellie that refused to take John Ross from Sue Ellen and stood up to J.R. by not getting on that helicopter at the Southern Cross.
Jimmy Todd
Telly Talk Mega Star
That's a great scene. I loved her confrontation with JR.
Taylor Bennett Jr.
Telly Talk Winner
beats the hell out of seeing the Devlin in Miss Ellie, no pun intended!
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Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
long as we didn’t have to see the Devlin in Miss Ellie!
Otherwise Jock would've called her a gawd damned old c*nt!
I think this is who Miss Ellie was throughout the show, except the part about Clayton. There were a few moments when Clayton was really out of line. I wish Miss Ellie would have defended her children
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
The Miss "I-don't-care-if-it's-fair!" Ellie of the early days seems in keeping with David Jacobs' somewhat more honest presentation of the Ewing family (and maintained in the descriptions of Gary's Texas relatives on KNOTS LANDING) which was that of a privileged, entitled dynasty of oil-soaked predators, some worse than others.
Even Larry said as much, that even Mama was a villain "in her way" in the beginning.
Yet TV being what it was at the time, the Dallas Ewings quickly-morphed into a flawed-but-basically-decent working-class family who'd somehow wound up with a ton of money. Even wicked J.R. was only really guilty of being a rogue and a scamp who just couldn't keep it in his pants. And, sure, sometimes Sue Ellen drank a little too much. But nobody's perfect.
This is a ruthless (but "gracious parents" as the early ads asserted) petroleum family? Owners of the biggest independent oil company in the southwest??
As Larry also once said, if DALLAS showed what the oil companies actually did, "they'd blow up CBS!"
Should the series have portrayed the Ewings as the kind of bastardly business barons who laughed and broke out the caviar-and-champagne when JFK was assassinated just a couple of blocks from the Ewing Oil skyscraper on Elm Street -- as happened at the time among some of the Dallas elite?
Probably not in the '80s, although they might try it now (as long as nobody gets to specific). We would have had a far less-cuddly version of DALLAS than what we got during the first decade-or-so of its network run.
Everybody was quickly softened. And so was Miss Ellie. But I would have liked for her to have been a little "tougher" on occasion than the dithery diva of denial who rarely made eye-contact with anybody.
And I still want her to briefly take over Roy Ralston's local chat show during Season 13 (DVD, of course) quickly driving JR and the entire cartel up the wall with her pro-environmental opinions and un-Ewinglike left-wing viewpoints. I picture JR saying to Marilee Stone, "but, my god, she's my mama -- it's not like I can kill her!!" to which Marilee and Jordan Lee and all those Lees respond by telling Ellie's youngest son, "Well, you better do something, J.R., before we have to....!" J.R., genuinely taken aback, asks, "Well, what the hell does that mean..??" And then the cartel grumbles and storms out of the office/barbecue/Oil-Baron's-Club without clearly delineating their intentions.
But one wonders what it might have been like if DALLAS had more-realistically shown the family as a cold coven of thieves, murderers and necrophiliacs.
Even Larry said as much, that even Mama was a villain "in her way" in the beginning.
Yet TV being what it was at the time, the Dallas Ewings quickly-morphed into a flawed-but-basically-decent working-class family who'd somehow wound up with a ton of money. Even wicked J.R. was only really guilty of being a rogue and a scamp who just couldn't keep it in his pants. And, sure, sometimes Sue Ellen drank a little too much. But nobody's perfect.
This is a ruthless (but "gracious parents" as the early ads asserted) petroleum family? Owners of the biggest independent oil company in the southwest??
As Larry also once said, if DALLAS showed what the oil companies actually did, "they'd blow up CBS!"
Should the series have portrayed the Ewings as the kind of bastardly business barons who laughed and broke out the caviar-and-champagne when JFK was assassinated just a couple of blocks from the Ewing Oil skyscraper on Elm Street -- as happened at the time among some of the Dallas elite?
Probably not in the '80s, although they might try it now (as long as nobody gets to specific). We would have had a far less-cuddly version of DALLAS than what we got during the first decade-or-so of its network run.
Everybody was quickly softened. And so was Miss Ellie. But I would have liked for her to have been a little "tougher" on occasion than the dithery diva of denial who rarely made eye-contact with anybody.
And I still want her to briefly take over Roy Ralston's local chat show during Season 13 (DVD, of course) quickly driving JR and the entire cartel up the wall with her pro-environmental opinions and un-Ewinglike left-wing viewpoints. I picture JR saying to Marilee Stone, "but, my god, she's my mama -- it's not like I can kill her!!" to which Marilee and Jordan Lee and all those Lees respond by telling Ellie's youngest son, "Well, you better do something, J.R., before we have to....!" J.R., genuinely taken aback, asks, "Well, what the hell does that mean..??" And then the cartel grumbles and storms out of the office/barbecue/Oil-Baron's-Club without clearly delineating their intentions.
But one wonders what it might have been like if DALLAS had more-realistically shown the family as a cold coven of thieves, murderers and necrophiliacs.
I wish they had kept her the way she was in the early days, before she became all soft and the grandma everyone wanted. In the early episodes, she had soft moments but also had a temper and was definitely someone you didn’t want to mess with. She was also an enabler of Sue Ellen’s nastiness towards Pam (she never explicitly put a stop to it, which she should have). And when Valene showed up, Ellie wasn’t at all apologetic of her complicity in keeping her granddaughter away from her mother.
Oh well, I guess people do mellow with age.
Oh well, I guess people do mellow with age.