What ultimately killed Dallas?

What ultimately killed Dallas?

  • The writing

    Votes: 13 50.0%

  • The producers

    Votes: 5 19.2%

  • The original cast leaving

    Votes: 13 50.0%

  • Lack of vision

    Votes: 3 11.5%

  • Stunt plots (Dream season, Ellie's facelift, Bobby returning)

    Votes: 6 23.1%

  • Added cast members as originals were replaced

    Votes: 3 11.5%

  • Lack of investment in the show as a whole

    Votes: 3 11.5%

  • It simply outgrew it's popularity.

    Votes: 5 19.2%
  • Total voters
    26
  • Poll closed .
Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

Telly Talk Champion
Snowcat said:
The dream season hurt things but didn’t kill it. The loss of Ewing Oil & Pam running away was what started the shows death. I think the only thing that could have helped revive it was Wes Parmalee turning out to be Jock. i have so many different scenarios how this could have happened. Clayton died. Wes returns. It turns out his last conversation with miss Ellie, he said he was Jock. Only she realized it & he couldn’t continue to see his family hurt. Then when he comes back he has a huge argument with the boys. He begins telling them things from their childhood. Things only he would know- like where their birthmark was. Super personal things. He says damn it boys look in my eyes and tell me how I am not your daddy. Then they realize it’s true.
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I honestly believe that Wes actually being Jock could've saved Dallas at this point.

Unfortunately the Producers didn't have the gumption to go through with it. :(
 
Mustard

Mustard

Telly Talk TV Fanatic
Victoria Principal said part of the reason that she left Dallas was because the writing had been declining since 1984 or so, and I think Pam is portrayed worse in her last season (1986-87) apart from a few moments like dressing down J.R. during the B.D. Calhoun controversy and telling Cliff that she was resigning as his personal banker. The cast and crew would have been better off in the long run, in terms of Dallas' future credibility, had they followed suit. In terms of pay cheques for every episode of Dallas that they made, perhaps a very different story.

Friends could have gone on and on for many years more, making themselves loads more money for every episode they made, but the show would have lost credibility at some point inevitably. Most Friends fans tend to see the last season or two as less good than previous seasons.
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
Mustard said:
Friends could have gone on and on for many years more, making themselves loads more money for every episode they made, but the show would have lost credibility at some point inevitably. Most Friends fans tend to see the last season or two as less good than previous seasons.
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Joey should have dated Pheobe -- never Rachel who physically abused him throughout their brief wrong-headed romance.
 
Snarky Oracle!

Snarky Oracle!

Telly Talk Supreme
These shows -- especially the wealth-based, family-centered nighttime soaps from the '80s -- seem to work best when the writers derive contemporary scandal from past scandal.

It's an art. Paulsen could do it. Bob McCullough on FALCON CREST could do it. But not everybody can.

As DALLAS aged (and Paulsen was gone) the show no longer really did that. Oh, sure, Vanessa and LeeAnn dela Vega were supposed to have emerged from JR's checkered past, but they felt forced and were just silly in their execution and never carried much weight.

And it can't just be old romances that are rolled forward to upset the modern apple cart. Ther has to be some business/political/familial aspect to it, building on layers as the years wear on.

People love that crap -- if you do it well.

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