Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
Folks have a very odd sense about how people who've been horrifically burned from head-to-toe "wouldn't behave" (e.g., Jock, Pam, Vaughan Leland).
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
I think both Ben and Wes would've waited for the right moment to reveal who he was.
He was wary of telling his family because of Miss Ellie being married to Clayton now.
Jock Ewing Fan
Telly Talk Star
When did that happen to VL? I don't recall
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
It didn't happen to the character but sadly the actor Dennis Patrick died in a house fire.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
It didn't happen to the character but sadly the actor Dennis Patrick died in a house fire.
What's weird is that it also happened to Jack Cassidy -- who could have been his brother.
xab
Telly Talk Fan
Right. When he found out Ray was his son he gathered the family and told everyone. It was frontal. Except for Amanda, he didn't seem to be a secret man.
Jock's Ghost
Telly Talk Well-Known Member
Had Bobby not been a zombie and lost credibility for the show, Jocks return would have been great.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
Yeah there was so much potential for storylines with Jock's return but the Producers squandered the opportunity.
Steve Forrest was too good an actor to let go, he would've been awesome as a recast Jock Ewing.
Ollie james
Telly Talk Active Member
Did Peter Dunne ever indicate whether he wanted him to be jock or not ?But we don't know that that's what happened. Peter Dunne may have intended Ben to be Jock, while Katzman/Paulsen supposedly never intended Wes to be Jock.
Again, the ambivalence made the plot work. Although the idea of Stivers/Parmalee turning out to actually be Jock in a concretely verfiable way sounds intriguing, I think it remains intriguing specifically because they didn't do it.
Likewise, Jeanne O'Brian worked better as a story arc when we only thought she might be Pam.
Some mysteries are more effective when they remain unsolved. A certain degree of fanwanking is good for the spleen, as long as it's not too much... If you've ever read my posts on fixing DYNASTY, you'd know how damaging it can all get.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
I don't think we're sure. I haven't seen a quote for Dunne on the subject. Paulsen said Wes was "not" really Jock but the actors were apparently told different things, and the ambiguity was, as I've said numerous times before, probably intentional. But that's just my subjective guess.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
There wasn't enough ambiguity to show that Wes was not Jock.
If he really wasn't meant to be Jock then Wes's X rays should not have been virtually identical to Jock's.
The fact that the X rays weren't mentioned again when Wes went to see Miss Ellie and then vanishes indicates that something is amiss with the storyline. They concentrated on the polygraph results instead in order to write Steve Forrest off the show. Why? The X rays proved that Wes was Jock. Wyatt Haines couldn't have had identical X rays.
I believe he was really meant to be Jock but the storyline largely had a negative reaction from the viewer's which resulted in a fan backlash and they had to quickly bring the storyline to a close.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
The story was ended before the audience saw it or had time to react to it. And also because they knew Steve Forrest had to go do a TV movie reunion for GUNSMOKE which already scheduled.
I like to fantasize things, too, but that doesn't make them self-evident "fact". Does it?
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
But we don't know that for sure, do we now?
There was a fan backlash to the storyline. And whether or not Steve Forrest really had got the job of reprising Will Mannon on Gunsmoke if Lorimar had wanted him to stay on Dallas they would've more than likely extended his contract. It's weird the way Wes just vanishes so the Producers must've wanted that storyline closed asap and the only reason to do that which fits the facts is to quickly disprove either way is whether he is or isn't Jock Ewing.
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Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
But we don't know that for sure, do we now?
There was a fan backlash to the storyline. And whether or not Steve Forrest really had got the job of reprising Will Mannon on Gunsmoke if Lorimar had wanted him to stay on Dallas they would've more than likely extended his contract. It's weird the way Wes just vanishes so the Producers must've wanted that storyline closed asap and the only reason to do that which fits the facts is to quickly disprove either way is whether he is or isn't Jock Ewing.
Wishful thinking seems to be your posting style -- I do that sometimes, too, but I realize when I'm doing it.
The Parmalee storyline was finished before the audience saw it... And Steve Forrest was the only choice to play Mannon in the 1987 GUNSMOKE reunion movie because it was based on a 1968 episode of the series -- heavily flashed-back to == guest starring Steve Forrest. So they couldn't have gone with another actor.
That said, Forrest claims the DALLAS producers told him that Stivers/Parmalee was indeed Jock, but that may have only been so he would play it a certain way.
Speaking of GUNSMOKE, Katzman used the name "Parmalee" in an important episode in 1974 for a character played by Gene Evans (Miss Ellie's brother, Garrison) in "Thirty a Month and Found" --- Katzman really did a bang-up job with the first half of Season 20 of GUNSMOKE before leaving mid-season to produce PETROCELLI with Susan Howard -- and GUNSMOKE'S rating dropped quickly as Katzman was replaced with John G. Stephens who turned the western too ponderous for the remainder of the year.
A year earlier Punk Anderson was Abby Cunningham's father in "A Game of Death.. An Act of Love" two-parter on GUNSMOKE.
It's all so cozy! But I digress.
Seaviewer
Telly Talk Warrior
They were far from identical. Wes apparently had breaks in the same places - plus many others. After being banged up so much, the idea that some of his breaks might have matched Jock's doesn't strike me as being all that farfetched.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
The brilliance of the Stivers/Parmalee plotline was that there was enough herring tossed out there that the viewer could believe that Wes was or wasn't Jock, and also assume that that belief was self-evident.
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
Yes you could take it either way!
Even though as written Wes Parmalee was Jock Ewing, it wasn't actually confirmed or validated on the show. The viewers were fit to make their own minds up simply because of the fan backlash opposed to having Wes revealed as Jock, which was the original intention.
So Wes is Jock Ewing or isn't Jock Ewing simply because of the open ended resolution to the storyline.
However despite the open ended conclusion to the storyline the original intention of this storyline is quite clear, Wes Parmalee WAS Jock Ewing all along.
Snarky Oracle!
Telly Talk Supreme
Yes you could take it either way!
Even though as written Wes Parmalee was Jock Ewing, it wasn't actually confirmed or validated on the show. The viewers were fit to make their own minds up simply because of the fan backlash opposed to having Wes revealed as Jock, which was the original intention.
So Wes is Jock Ewing or isn't Jock Ewing simply because of the open ended resolution to the storyline.
However despite the open ended conclusion to the storyline the original intention of this storyline is quite clear, Wes Parmalee WAS Jock Ewing all along.
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And their approach obviously worked on you: you believe your opinion is self-evident. So good on them!
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing
Telly Talk Champion
I believe in the fact that the X rays matched. So if you want to take that as being self evident that's fine.