the loss of EwingOil

the-lost-son

the-lost-son

Telly Talk Well-Known Member
I have a very hard time sitting through the storyline of BD Calhoun/ feds taking down EwingOil. Does anyone feel the same? Season 9 (DVD10) got many things right; like Wes Parmalee, but I need the ffw-button for this storyline a lot.

The storyline started strongly when JR addressed the cheap oil of South America. It was a well-executed start when the oil men of Texas had their meeting and Donna (despite Cliff) was appointed to represent them in Washington. When JR met BD Calhoun longtime fans new what to expect (Southeast Asia, Venezuela etc.).

After Calhoun's operation failed, that's when the whole storyline went wrong for me. Calhoun vows for revenge and we get the weekly cliche one-man army running wild. He single-handedly drugs SueEllen, kidnaps JohnRoss, drags bodies into EwingOil and puts fake bombs in Southfork's bedrooms.
I didn't mind the idea per se, Dallas had its share of loonatics, but it was dragging on forever. This evil mastermind could only be stopped by...of course it had to be Bobby and Ray. And finally in episode 20 (!) Calhoun is dead in for my taste a very cheesy shootout and one might hope we won't have to spend more screen time on JR's shot practice.

The next 9 episodes of the season consist of information leaking through step by step (in true daytime soap style) till the FBI is shutting down Ewing Oil.
Mrs. Scottfield and the tacky set where they filmed her few scenes were just plain boring. (The old JR would have known how to deal with her after he found out about her involvement.) Miss Ellie's and Clayton's reactions were too exaggerated for my taste, it was over the top.

During the dream season every shareholder of EwingOil sold out to JR. I never understood the writers' intention for that. The family owning the company together was a good, natural way to keep them together and interacting. So I never understood the idea to sell to repeat that in this season again only to dissolve EwingOil shortly after.

Granted, it was an iconic moment when JR took down Jock's portait with JohnRoss next to him. But the aftermath in the following season made it pretty stale for me. It's very comparable to the Moldavian Massacre on Dynasty for me - a great scene closing the season followed by a very lackluster aftermath.
JR is fighting back his way in the oil business in the next episode and manages that successfully after 2-3 more episodes. Bobby will follow.

It would have been interesting and a fresh breath of air if the FBI made the stipulation that JR had to stay away from the oil business for some time. JR could have interfered in Southfork's business for example.

The whole storyline of losing EwingOil was just too long, predictable and in the end it was pointless to take away the iconic structure of EwingOil.

Does anybody feel the same?
 
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Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
I see your points, but I had no problems with this season at all except for the opening scene where Pam tells Bobby she'd been dreaming for 31 episodes -- and, yes, the conclusion of the B D Calhoun story at Travel Train Town was typically ridiculous, one of those unconvincing "the Ewing men are strong!" scenarios from Katzman which are slightly giggle-inducing.

Otherwise, I liked the BD Cslhoun plotline.
 
Ewing4

Ewing4

Telly Talk Member
I always felt if they were going to destroy Ewing Oil it should have been a series finale. Ewing Oil, like Southfork, was like a main character. I also never enjoyed watching JR chasing after Ewing Oil for the rest of the series, it just took away from his power and dominance over his enemies.
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
Ewing4 said:
I always felt if they were going to destroy Ewing Oil it should have been a series finale. Ewing Oil, like Southfork, was like a main character. I also never enjoyed watching JR chasing after Ewing Oil for the rest of the series, it just took away from his power and dominance over his enemies.
Click to expand...

Not everybody watched just to see JR's power and dominance over his enemies. Even Larry Hagman liked the idea of JR losing everything and having to work his way back -- if only because it meant a fluctuation in storylines.

The problem DALLAS got into in its last 4 years wasn't that JR was no longer invulnerable, but that it was all just poorly done.
 
D

DallasFanForever

Telly Talk Supreme
I wasn’t a big fan of the B.D. Calhoun storyline. It seemed so over the top and at times it felt like a sequel to a Rambo movie. To me this season was when the cracks started to show. That being said, the payoff of the Calhoun storyline was pretty brilliant I gotta say. The boys lose Ewing Oil to the Justice Department. Sadly what no one realized was Ewing Oil was just as much a character on the show as anyone else, and without it to fight over the show just couldn’t be the same. Perhaps, in retrospect, this was the place to end it? Ewing Oil is gone, Pam’s “death,” Wes perhaps wrongly rejected by his real family and still out there somewhere, everything had pretty much come full circle.
 
Monzo

Monzo

Telly Talk Star
To me Ewing Oil is the best but also the most ruined company of the major companies of the big soaps.

When Jamie arrived it became clear that there always needs to be a story involving Ewing Oil and maybe that was the first big mistake. Ewing Oil should simply have been Ewing Oil for one season competing against other companies, then the next season there could have been quarrels within the family again.

If I had just read a season 10 synopsis about Ewing Oil I would think that sounds good, but I didn't like the way it was told, maybe the focus was actually too much on the action movies of the 1980's.

"Killing" Ewing Oil was the last logicial step to top all previous fights within the family, but the aftermath when Ewing Oil just came back from the dead felt flat.

I think one of the reasons for Jock's return (as Ben) in season 9 was to give Pam a different storyline in season 10, so she was free of Ewing Oil. Bobby's return made this plan obsolete, but Jock (now Wes) was still there. Would Ewing Oil have been killed at the end of season 10 if Wes was really Jock who regained control of the company, or would this particular storyline have been saved for season 11 because there would have been enough action with Jock in season 10?
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
Part of the problem is probably that DALLAS played to its bourgeois audience, pretending that the Ewings would be frightened of the CIA and, later, mafia dons.

If the company was as powerful as we were often told -- the largest independent oil company in the southwest, as the writers once boasted -- Ewing Oil would have been giving marching orders to the Intelligence community and the mob.

It's like the Navy Seals being terrified that Deputy Barney Fife was coming after them. (Questionable analogy, and I'm sorry).

During the '70s, several subpoenaed mafia leaders were knocked-off before they could testify before the Church and House Select Committees in Congress about what they knew about the Kennedy assassination. But they weren't killed on orders of other mafia kingpins but on the orders of the CIA -- who were in turn doing the bidding of the oil companies and their hardware manufacturers.

One just assumes Jock and Sam Culver were involved in all that. And Jeremy Wendell, of course, before his falling out with the family. Probably over the Kennedy assassination, but I'm not sure.

R.09d301baf0ac61fff2faa17ec25536a4
 
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Lastkidpicked

Lastkidpicked

Telly Talk Dream Maker
the-lost-son said:
After Calhoun's operation failed, that's when the whole storyline went wrong for me. Calhoun vows for revenge and we get the weekly cliche one-man army running wild. He single-handedly drugs SueEllen, kidnaps JohnRoss, drags bodies into EwingOil and puts fake bombs in Southfork's bedrooms.
Click to expand...

DallasFanForever said:
I wasn’t a big fan of the B.D. Calhoun storyline. It seemed so over the top and at times it felt like a sequel to a Rambo movie.
Click to expand...

Monzo said:
If I had just read a season 10 synopsis about Ewing Oil I would think that sounds good, but I didn't like the way it was told, maybe the focus was actually too much on the action movies of the 1980's.
Click to expand...

You know how much I enjoy taking Dallas and setting against the backdrop of what was happening in real life back then. It's interesting to compare the television landscape of 1979 when Dallas made it's debut and compare it to 1987 when the BD Calhoun episodes appeared.

As we approached the late 1970's, American television was moving away from silly and fun shows such as The Andy Griffith Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, and HeeHaw . The "rural purge" was replacing these shows with television that reflected the (not fun) times we were facing. Eight is Enough, Family, and Thirtysomething were the shows that reflected "real life" at the time.
Even comedies had become serious. One Day at a Time, Mash, and others created a new category of "dramedies"-- Comedies that showed the serious side of daily living.
We needed a break, and we needed it bad.

Along comes Dallas, with the fabulously wealthy Ewings. Where the people are beautiful, there is plenty of money, and the biggest problem is who will get the coveted table ant the Cattleman's Club. It was awesome! Dallas stayed at the top of the ratings because we enjoyed watching people with the fabulous lifestyle that we could only dream about.

Then things change and tastes change. People looking towards the television for some escape were now looking towards action shows. And even action shows that had some silliness to them, such as The A-Team and Knight Rider were becoming popular. The business exploits of J.R. Ewing seemed tame compared to the action shows of the day.

I remember during the original run when the BD Calhoun character came along we all said, "Yup. Dallas is going after the fans of those action shows."

I don't blame them for trying. Those action shows were becoming popular entertainment and they tried to tap into that. It didn't really work, but it was a good try.
 
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Lastkidpicked

Lastkidpicked

Telly Talk Dream Maker
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing said:
I really like the loss of Ewing Oil when Mrs. Scotfield gets involved with Jeremy Wendell and WestStar.

The whole sub plot of her getting her brother to pinch the materials for her is great drama. :)
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The whole storyline about the Scotfields brings up an interesting idea. With all the enemies that the Ewings created, it's a wonder this didn't happen more often.

Nowadays, we have security cameras everywhere, but back then it was wide open. There were so many sets of keys floating around that most of the time we never bothered locking anything up. Anybody who was mad at the company could just go in and wreak havoc, but fortunately nobody ever did.

The closest thing was that we had was people feeling like the oil companies owed them something and they'd go into the condensate tanks. These are tanks where the fuel vapors are collected and become liquified.


1677797087759.png


Somebody found out that you could run a pickup truck on this condensate so-- free gasoline! (Or Petrol if you were working for BP or Schlume). Once word got out, everybody who had a beef with the oil companies "settled the score" by helping themselves to this free "fuel".

The funny part? The condensate was so flammable that when you turned your pickup off, the thing would keep running for several minutes until the fuel in the lines was used up. I remember going to the store and while walking through the parking lot, all these pickups were unattended but still running. I could point to every one and say,

"That guy stole from the vapor recovery. And THAT guy stole from the vapor recovery." It was so obvious that it was really pretty funny.

I started putting locks on the condensate tanks and that was the end of that.

Good times . . .
 
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Billy Wall

Billy Wall

Telly Talk Dream Maker
I liked the BD Calhoun storyline. Yes, there was a lot of cheese and cliches. Like, he has no problem killing one of JR’s men, but plays games with the Ewings. Lol

I don’t think Miss Ellie’s and Clayton’s reactions were exaggerated at all. You hear that the FBI is coming for your family, that’s about as bad as it gets. And Clayton has to stand there and watch his wife go to pieces because of JR.

I also liked the storyline of the powerful Ewing’s being brought down by the little man. Let’s face it, the Ewing’s had run roughshod over a lot of people over the years. It was long overdue where their money couldn’t get them out of a jam. Even Miss Ellie had to tear herself away from JR and even Bobby after they brought disgrace to the Ewing name.
 
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

Telly Talk Champion
Billy Wall said:
I liked the BD Calhoun storyline. Yes, there was a lot of cheese and cliches. Like, he has no problem killing one of JR’s men, but plays games with the Ewings. Lol

I don’t think Miss Ellie’s and Clayton’s reactions were exaggerated at all. You hear that the FBI is coming for your family, that’s about as bad as it gets. And Clayton has to stand there and watch his wife go to pieces because of JR.

I also liked the storyline of the powerful Ewing’s being brought down by the little man. Let’s face it, the Ewing’s had run roughshod over a lot of people over the years. It was long overdue where their money couldn’t get them out of a jam. Even Miss Ellie had to tear herself away from JR and even Bobby after they brought disgrace to the Ewing name.
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Clayton couldn't just stand there & watch Miss Ellie get upset, his first gut reaction was to punch JR out and I don't blame him one bit.

Howard Keel really made the part his own and this short scene shows just how good he was when Clayton got really angry. :)

 
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