Thirty years- 3 May 1991

[Michelle Stevens]

Our beloved Dallas ended it's original CBS run on this date thirty years ago today.

I know this has been raised earlier but do you remember watching the final episode? I certainly remember, despite the show aging and losing views in the final years, the finale was still an event. Granted many may have not like Conundrum but at the time many of us never knew if we'd ever see the cast return.

I feel old remembering this finale as if it were yesterday but grateful to have lived and enjoyed this great series.

 

[Billy Wall]

I remember it as if it was yesterday. Time is really flying.

 

[the-lost-son]

Time is flying indeed. I did not watch it during its original run. After the aired "JR returns" in the mid-90s they aired the last 4-5 seasons of Dallas, this was the one and only time I watched Cononundrum.

Everything is said about it - horrible writing, no closure. The writers clearly lost their mojo at this point. They had plenty characters for a final ewing b-b-q/rodeo (leaving the door open for another season). Somehow it was a fitting closure for the last 4 seasons only.

VP's exit remains my personal series finale.

 

[Angela Channing]

It was sad that Dallas came to and end but even sadder that it went out on such a poor episode. For me, Conundrum was the worst Dallas episode ever.

 

[Barbara Fan]

For me, Conundrum was the worst Dallas episode ever.

Oh you arent wrong there, also hated Three hundred, whats a snooze fest that was .......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The whole of the final season was awful - by then watching out of loyalty and a love of what it used to be like - and Hagman and Duffy were phoning in their lines

Proof that Dallas was an ensemble show and the Core cast made it a huge sucess not Duffy and Hagman, and a bunch of nobodies I remember nothing about (Thankfully)

It was relegated to a sunday afternoon slot on the BBC - Dallas was once its jewel in the crown and ratings winner and now it got beaten in the ratings by Snooker on BBc2 or a John Wayne film

No Bel Geddes, Keel, Principal, Howard, Kanaly, Gray or Tilton aint Dallas in my book and it bore no resemblance to a show i was addicted to from S1 - 12

Have never watched the final season again, the DVD is still in the wrapper - But thank goodness for VHS in those days and DVD in the 2000s to watch the great and the glory years of Dallas and its cast. I thought Conundrum was a very sad end to a once great show .

 

[bmasters9]

Our beloved Dallas ended it's original CBS run on this date thirty years ago today.

I know this has been raised earlier but do you remember watching the final episode? I certainly remember, despite the show aging and losing views in the final years, the finale was still an event. Granted many may have not like Conundrum but at the time many of us never knew if we'd ever see the cast return.

I feel old remembering this finale as if it were yesterday but grateful to have lived and enjoyed this great series.

You beat me to it-- today is indeed a red-letter day in the annals of television. It's not the same exact day of course (5/3 this year is a Monday, in 1991 it was a Friday), but still, 30 years since O-R CBS Lorimar Dallas ended its run is quite a while.

 

[GillesDenver]

The promo is actually much better than the actual episode !

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Amazing, isn't it? And I believe it was #2 in the ratings that week; a far higher number than it had gotten in years.

And the perversity of satirizing IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, a movie which starred Donna Reed.....? Well, it's almost evil!!

 

[Grant Jennings]

I'd given up on Dallas when Bobby stepped out of the shower. I tuned in to watch Barbara Eden but wondered "what the hell am I watching? Who are all of these people?" I watched Conundrum, yikes! What a horrible way to end the show.

"Judgement Day"?! The commonly accepted spelling in the U.S. is "judgment".

 

[the-lost-son]

Amazing, isn't it? And I believe it was #2 in the ratings that week; a far higher number than it had gotten in years.

And the perversity of satirizing IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, a movie which starred Donna Reed.....? Well, it's almost evil!!

Exactly. I've never noticed it that.

It'd actually quite bizarre that a series and its actors who once put so much effort in "keeping the Dallas formula" went along with sth. like that.

They resurrected Bobby who died in front of our very eyes, the erased a full year, they replaced the directors... there was plenty of politics and they all went along with sth, like that.

I once read an article about the best/worst series finale of all time.

I remember Roseanne, Alf, Frasier, the series where this guy traveled in time, were in the top 10. But I don't think any of them did something which did not resemble the previous episodes like Dallas

 

[Michelle Stevens]

You beat me to it-- today is indeed a red-letter day in the annals of television. It's not the same exact day of course (5/3 this year is a Monday, in 1991 it was a Friday), but still, 30 years since O-R CBS Lorimar Dallas ended its run is quite a while.

It's right up there with 2 April 1978 and 21 November 1980.

 

[stevew]

I was once sitting with some friends talking about it and no one liked it, but some felt it was fitting, a fitting end to JR's life. But I disagreed. I said that I would have started with Ten years later . . . . . . Bobby would have hugged JR, turning South Fork over to him, as he leaves with Christopher and Lucas for California to live with Pam (assuming Victoria Principal would not show up for the finale), Gary, Val and Lucy (some scenes showing them and fixing the divide between the two show, some mention of Bobby surviving a car accident, and Lucy married to Mitch). JR would have West Star as part of Ewing Oil. Jock's picture along with his and Bobby's would hang in the board room, JR announcing his retirement, shaking hands with Donna, former Secretary of Energy, former U.S. Senator, widowed, and now CEO of Ewing Oil, telling her she's a place holder for his son. Ray would have returned, buying McKay's property (to JR's anger), widowed, to reunite with Donna and Margret in Dallas - they are married and take the name Ewing, all three of them. Sue Ellen returns as Lady Maitland, Don's father dying making him an earl, him dying, making her a window, with John Ross to visit Miss Ellie and an ill Clayton. JR and Sue Ellen wouldn't be together again but you'd get the feeling they could end up that way one day as he confesses his love for her. JR turns over a trust fund to John Ross of everything he ever promised him, the ranch, the company. JR tells Sue Ellen how sorry he is, how she's the only woman he ever loved, how he just wished he could have trusted that she loved him, but that was his own insecurities. JR flies into the sun set on a private jet, who knows where. Anyway, it's just the things I would have liked to have seen. Loose ends tied up, relationships put back together (even if unrealistic), and JR's voice remembering the years since his father's death as a final soliloquy.

 

[bmasters9]

"Judgement Day"?! The commonly accepted spelling in the U.S. is "judgment".

And there was a fourth-season episode of The Streets of San Francisco w/the title of "Judgment Day" (OAD Thurs. Feb. 19, 1976 on ABC [screencaps of episode title in menu and in the episode captured from CBS Home Entertainment all-in-one DVD]):

 

[Clubsoda]

VP's exit remains my personal series finale.

Mine aswell. Watched the last 4 seasons once.

Once was enough. I always rewatch Mini series until Season 9 once a year. Timeless drama and fantastic characters.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Although despite the abysmal "I just had a terrible 31 episode dream, Bobby!" opening scene (and Lorimar's dreadful new video editing process), Season 10 (per DVD count) really is endlessly entertaining, containing all the requisite elements that DALLAS had to offer and was all about. It has one of the best re-watch values of any year of the show. I sort of love it. So, for me, Pam's exit was the end of the series for me (I'll watch the later seasons, but I try not to very often).

 

[DallasFanForever]

It pains me to say this, but Conundrum may have been the worst final episode to a show ever. Dallas deserved so much better and so did we.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

Pams car wreck is the series end. So much tedium and mediocrity is packed in S11 onward. To be honest, Bobbys death shoukd be the end as its flawless all the way up to it. The dreams aftermath just caused so much unnecessary crap and its astonishing that Hagman put up with it. Contributed to it.

 

[Monzo]

Dallas finale was second most watched show of the week: 22.0 rating behind Switched At Birth (23.1), a two-part-tv-movie about the accidental switching of two babies at birth which is discovered ten years later followed by a legal battle as one couple tries to retrieve their biological child. It starred Bonnie Bedelia, Brian Kerwin, John M. Jackson and Edward Asner. Behind Dallas Cheers had 20.8 rating. Knots Landing had 13.1 a day earlier. By the way, second to last Dallas episode only had a 11.6 rating. Finale was most watched Dallas episode since Night Visitor's 22.3 rating in 1987 when B.D. Calhoun came to Southfork.

I think Dallas finale was in sync with what the show had become, because after the dream you couldn't take it seriously anymore. I got a feeling producers wanted the finale to be rememebered. Knots Landing proved two years later how a nice finale is done, but I'm glad Dallas didn't do something like that. If all guest stars (whose characters were still alive) would just show up for a celebration or whatever it could have been lame, so I got no bad feelings about the finale.

 

[KayLloyd]

The concept of Conundrum was interesting, but the execution of it was very poorly done and ridiculous. None of what would have happened if J.R. hadn't been born came even close. Gary would have likely been content to run the ranch with Ray and raise Lucy with Val, he would never have gone to law school. Bobby would have still met and married Pam through Ray bringing her to the barbecues at the ranch, J.R. had nothing to do with that. They would have happily raised their kids together at Southfork. And as Jock's favorite, he would taken over for him as president of Ewing Oil, he wouldn't have become a Vegas gambling loser. And Sue Ellen would have married Clint Ogden and become a stay at home mom, not a soap star. Cliff and Ray's stories were the only ones that had elements of what really might have happened. Cliff would likely have become governor, but not VP. And Ray probably would have raised a family with a nice woman. Kristin as a. cop, I don't think so. She would have been a gold digging trophy wife.

 

[Barbara Fan]

its astonishing that Hagman put up with it. Contributed to it.

Larry loved $$$$$$ = he talked about it in every interview and so long as they were paying big bucks he would have read the phone book on Dallas for the right price
Quality of script and actors doesnt come into it!