When did Dallas end for you?

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

to me, you could see Dallas die along with Bobby's glorious helmetlike mane of youthful virility, which was in full force through the glory years of the series.

At the close of Season 10 DVD (using the DVD numbering here), you can see that while a notch below its peak, it's still pretty respectable.

At the end of Season 11, which a sage poster here has called the last season that truly feels like Dallas, he's still keeping it alive:

As Season 12 comes upon us, there's still some volume and flair on top, but on the sides... I'm pretty sure we've never seen over half of Bobby's ears before:

By the time Season 12 is in full swing, we see a tragically neatly-shorn Bobby (you might as well call him Robert at this point) with feisty young pool hustler Tracey Lawton:

The series is officially over.

 

[Snowcat]

The last 2 seasons that she was there in particular (post-Ranch war, and post-meeting Cally), they barely used Miss Ellie and Clayton. I believe Barbara wanted to complain more, but Howard Keel thought it unwise. Keel eventually accepted the 4 episode contract in the last season, while Bel Geddes didn't. Isn't it just staggering that Miss Ellie and James never got a scene together?!


A lot of British viewers who were still there in 1990 didn't even bother with Season 14 in 1991, or might not have even known that it was on during Sunday afternoons. Season 14 got very poor ratings. Previous seasons had always aired in the evenings, even Seasons 11-13 DVD episodes. I can remember the original broadcast of Season 14, and my mother still watching and lamenting that nobody else was interested in it anymore and saying how great a show it once was. And I remember her saying some time after that the next episode would be the last one and that it wasn't coming back.

You‘re right James & Miss Ellie never did get a scene. It would have been interesting to see her react. If Miss Ellie was more present I think James & JR would have gotten along better. She would have really softened James. I could see him love heari stories about Jock

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Isn't it just staggering that Miss Ellie and James never got a scene together?!

Yes, and a symptom of how disconnected the brass had become from their own show.



"Who is that out on the horizon, boys -- is it another grandson or is it that damnable Donna Reed?? Either way, I'm outta here!"

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I have to be honest here. Dallas has never ended for me. The show itself may have ended in 1991 but I take Dallas everywhere with me in my hearts. It will always be with me until the day I regenerate.

 

[Rove]

'When did Dallas end for you?'
​

Well it hasn't. All these years later - the good and the bad - I still live and breathe my favourite series. The latter seasons of Lorimar Dallas were sub par but I continued to watch until the very end. The reunion movies were ordinary and then the announcement of a continuation had this Aussie very excited. It was another miss but I still watched every episode.

And when Warner Bros decides to release Dallas on Blu-Ray guess who will be standing in line trembling with excitement...yep, me. So for me Dallas - warts and all - will never end until I've expired.

 

[Seaviewer]

I have to be honest here. Dallas has never ended for me.

Well it hasn't.

It's that way for me, too. But I will say that watching those last two original series seasons was heavy going.

 

[KillerBob]

Dallas ended for me as well with Fall of the House of Ewing, but I think the last great season was season 7 (dvd count).

 

[Julia's Gun]

Lots of people say the series stops being great after Season 10, with Pam's exit.
But i've just been re-watching from the beginning and I am now early in Season 10, and i'm really struggling.
For me the dream season was an enjoyable and interesting re-watch for the most part. The first half was well written, well acted, and wonderful to have Barbara back as Miss Ellie. OKay it goes very wrong with the Marinos shipping/Angelico Nero stuff and Matt Cantrell (awful), but I would much rather they had continue as planned: with Ben Stivers becoming Jock and Bobby staying dead.

Season 10 is pretty awful during this re-watch. I really hadn't missed Bobby during the dream season. His good guy macho counter to JR persona had run its course for me, and now he has come back I think i'd forgotten just how boring Bobby's character was. Is it sacrilege to say this? Pam was freed up after his demise and there was all the wasted potential of her feuding with JR at Ewing oil. I grew to like Mark, and their relationship had lots of potential twists and turns to go through.
I liked the reconciliation of Sue Ellen and JR and Donna and Ray by the end of S9. Susan Howard was wonderful the whole year, and clearly put her all into that adoption storyline, writing one of the episodes near the end of the season.

The re-set just doesn't work for me and I am thinking of giving up here with my re-watch and I'm only 7 episodes in. BD Calhoun is another awful addition, is it Katzman or Paulsen that insisted on all the macho male crap, or both of them? Susan Howard has been given a new glam hairdo, but she looks lost and bored after having her previous storylines dropped. Her and Ray belonged together, they had worked through all the problems, why separate them again and push Ray onto Jenna? Really dull stuff.

So for me it ended with Bobby in the shower. Unecessary. Partrick made his choice, he should have stayed dead, and his career probably would have been as well.

 

[Rove]

But I will say that watching those last two original series seasons was heavy going.

It's interesting how we all view Dallas. If I was to introduce Dallas to a new viewer I'd tell them the first couple of seasons (Lorimar) are a struggle. To this day I'm still no fan of the self-contained episodes and I find Dallas hits its stride when Sue Ellen becomes pregnant. Now with regard to those last seasons if and when Warner Bros release Dallas on Blu-Ray I'm looking forward to watching anything post 'Swan Song' because it will be like watching it for the first time as my current DVD collection finishes with the death of Bobby.

Should Miss Ellie fetch her shot gun and put me out of my misery now because I'm more than a little excited about the imminent release of Dallas on Blu-Ray and watching those latter seasons...no matter how bad they are?

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

It's interesting how we all view Dallas. If I was to introduce Dallas to a new viewer I'd tell them the first couple of seasons (Lorimar) are a struggle. To this day I'm still no fan of the self-contained episodes and I find Dallas hits its stride when Sue Ellen becomes pregnant. Now with regard to those last seasons if and when Warner Bros release Dallas on Blu-Ray I'm looking forward to watching anything post 'Swan Song' because it will be like watching it for the first time as my current DVD collection finishes with the death of Bobby.

Should Miss Ellie fetch her shot gun and put me out of my misery now because I'm more than a little excited about the imminent release of Dallas on Blu-Ray and watching those latter seasons...no matter how bad they are?

They're not all bad. Season ten is probably the last great season of the show. That Wes Parmalee Jock Ewing storyline is a highlight of that season. Steve Forrest's performance is sublime.

Seasons eleven to fourteen are nothing to write home about in my opinion but I'm still excited to see them on Blu-ray too. My favourite out of those four seasons is thirteen. I enjoyed the tanker collision storyline and Miss Ellie pretending to be Jessica Fletcher!

When I get the Blu-ray collection I'll probably be diving straight into season ten first or I may just start at Digger's Daughter and give it a whole complete rewatch.

Hurry up and release it Warner Bros.

 

[Grangehill1]

Lots of people say the series stops being great after Season 10, with Pam's exit.
But i've just been re-watching from the beginning and I am now early in Season 10, and i'm really struggling.
For me the dream season was an enjoyable and interesting re-watch for the most part. The first half was well written, well acted, and wonderful to have Barbara back as Miss Ellie. OKay it goes very wrong with the Marinos shipping/Angelico Nero stuff and Matt Cantrell (awful), but I would much rather they had continue as planned: with Ben Stivers becoming Jock and Bobby staying dead.

Season 10 is pretty awful during this re-watch. I really hadn't missed Bobby during the dream season. His good guy macho counter to JR persona had run its course for me, and now he has come back I think i'd forgotten just how boring Bobby's character was. Is it sacrilege to say this? Pam was freed up after his demise and there was all the wasted potential of her feuding with JR at Ewing oil. I grew to like Mark, and their relationship had lots of potential twists and turns to go through.
I liked the reconciliation of Sue Ellen and JR and Donna and Ray by the end of S9. Susan Howard was wonderful the whole year, and clearly put her all into that adoption storyline, writing one of the episodes near the end of the season.

The re-set just doesn't work for me and I am thinking of giving up here with my re-watch and I'm only 7 episodes in. BD Calhoun is another awful addition, is it Katzman or Paulsen that insisted on all the macho male crap, or both of them? Susan Howard has been given a new glam hairdo, but she looks lost and bored after having her previous storylines dropped. Her and Ray belonged together, they had worked through all the problems, why separate them again and push Ray onto Jenna? Really dull stuff.

So for me it ended with Bobby in the shower. Unecessary. Partrick made his choice, he should have stayed dead, and his career probably would have been as well.

Completely agree. Season ten is SO overrated - it’s truly awful and also quite campy.

The fashions and styles are awful, music terrible. Susan Howard is like a different character. What’s happened to her?!

for me the show ended when Bobby returned in the shower

 

[Jock Og]

Although I watched DALLAS through mummified Pam; Ray and Jenna linking up, Kimberly Cryder, Lisa Alden, the Mafia storyline, Brad Pitt starring, the McKays, the Range War, the tanker crisis to the cringey pitiful conclusion, the best of the oil and cattle focused show c/w back stabbing and bed hopping was over after the 1986 - '87 season (DVD-10).

DALLAS main cast; 1986 - '87, DVD-10


J R. goes to a rodeo that Jock’s impersonator Wes Parmalee is watching, (a scene from season 9, DVD-10, 1986-'87):

J.R. walks past Wes.

Wes: “Hello J.R.!”

J.R.: “Well. Hello daddy! I’m glad to see you got your memory back long enough to recognise me.”

Wes: “You’ve lost some weight since I saw ya. You’re looking good.”

J.R.: “Well I’d like to say the same about you but since I never laid eyes on you, in my life before that would be a little difficult.”

Wes: “How did you find me?”

J.R.: “They told me at your motel you hung out around here. Not something the real Jock Ewing would do!”

Wes: “I’ve changed.”

J.R.: "Yeah, more than a little.”

Wes: “Now you’re going to tell me you don’t believe I’m your daddy either.”

J.R.: “Well it would be a waste of time. I came down here to ask you a question.”

Wes: “Ask ahead, I’ve got nothing to hide.”

J.R.: "What do you want to drop this act and get the hell out of Dallas?”

Wes laughs: “I gotta say you boys are acting true to form. Bobby came by to beat the tar outta me and you want to buy me out.”

J.R.: “Now I didn’t come here to discuss my family. You’re obviously a fraud, you have no fingerprints. I wouldn’t it past ya to have burnt them off yourself. There’s no way we can check your dental records and your memory comes and goes.”

Wes: “Don’t forget the voice boy.”

J.R.: "Yeah that’s the biggest croc of all right there. You know if you’re smart you’d take some money and get outta here.”

Wes: “Could be I’m not after money.”

J.R.: "Sure ya are. I can smell it. Now Bobby might be too nice to do ya any real harm but I wouldn’t find it any trouble at all to get a couple of good ole’ boys and have them run you out of town one night.”

Wes: “You know I’ve been gone so long both of you boys have forgot something about me.”

J.R.: “Oh!”

Wes: “Jock Ewing can’t be scared off and he can’t be bought off. Now like it or not J.R. your daddy’s back to stay.”

Wes looks sternly at J.R. and then walks off to his truck.

 

[the-lost-son]

I edited my lengthy post about the shortcomings of season 9 (DVD10)
Simply because I've just seen the remastered images of it in the other thread. So forget my complaining and bring it on.

Oh my god, I can't wait to watch it.

 

[the-lost-son]

Double posting. Thanks in advance for deleting it.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The last three or four years were pretty rough going. And still are.

It was like a valuable relationship where your partner doesn't just make a mistake or you have a fight -- instead, they turn on you out of perversity, contemptuous of your fondness for them.

At least, over on DYNASTY when the show stumbled (from S3 thru S8) you knew they were just a bunch of knuckleheads behind the camera who had no rudder.

 

[colbyco]

The heartattack of the show came when Pam crashed her car.
The death came when Mandy, SE and Donna left.

I didn´t like all the stuff about Carter McKay and his trampy looking girlfriend ... (have seen it back than ... the last dvd I bought ended with SE´s movie about JR). I remember I liked the tanker storyline and James was so cute ... the pr pictures of April, Cathy and Michelle looked great and gave the show a new, fresh feeling (like the explosion opening credits ...) - but too many old characters were gone/fired. And when Ellie and Clayton left SF feeled very empty .. . killing April was the last dumb thing happened (even I liked this action packed scene) ...

Maybe because I´m not a die hard fan and more into Dynasty I really enjoyed TNT´s version ... I would sell my first born child, my grapes and my body to get a Dynasty version like this and not this aswful reboot that makes Dallas´ TNT look like Shakespear.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The heartattack of the show came when Pam crashed her car.
The death came when Mandy, SE and Donna left.

I didn´t like all the stuff about Carter McKay and his trampy looking girlfriend ... (have seen it back than ... the last dvd I bought ended with SE´s movie about JR). I remember I liked the tanker storyline and James was so cute ... the pr pictures of April, Cathy and Michelle looked great and gave the show a new, fresh feeling (like the explosion opening credits ...) - but too many old characters were gone/fired. And when Ellie and Clayton left SF feeled very empty .. . killing April was the last dumb thing happened (even I liked this action packed scene) ...

Maybe because I´m not a die hard fan and more into Dynasty I really enjoyed TNT´s version ... I would sell my first born child, my grapes and my body to get a Dynasty version like this and not this aswful reboot that makes Dallas´ TNT look like Shakespear.

At least nuDALLAS tried to take its predecessor seriously. Clearly, nuDYNASTY did not at all.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

DALLAS could have ended at numerous points: Southfork burning, Bobby's shooting, Bobby's death, Bobby's appearance in the shower, Pam's crash, Sue Ellen shooting JR, Sue Ellen leaving Dallas, JR getting dragged off screaming into the psych ward, JR's guardian devil goading him into suicide, etc...

In order to avoid Donna Reed and the dream resolution, DALLAS would have to end on Bobby getting shot -- which seems a bit early (perhaps he had a two year dream!). Bobby dying seems like a natural stopping place, but I don't want to miss the haunted riches of Season 10 (despite the 45 second dream scene which opened that year --- I'd take a full episode to explain Bobby's revival and ditch the dream explanation).

Pam crashing may be the most logical point of no return, but the show kept going.

Sue Ellen leaving proved you couldn't really have DALLAS without her, and now you had DALLAS without Sue Ellen or Pam. And yet the show kept going.

But even if you end the show with Bobby's death, that doesn't help us avoid Mis-Ellie Donna Reed -- a huge karmic blow to the program from which it never really recovered.

But as I've said before, DALLAS was one big spectacular mess. And I guess it has to be taken on that level. And those who wanted to take it at least even a little seriously haven't been permitted that luxury -- what with all the annual gaffes which began in the fall of 1984.

I still argue that a vengeful Jeremy Wendell started poisoning the Southfork aquifer in 1984, setting the Ewings on a path of endless hallucinative delusions (explaining all the weird stuff that followed) -- a scheme which could be revealed in the finale episode of nuDALLAS in 2014... Jeremy's Masterpiece.



"Yes, that's right --- thirteen hundred more gallons... right under the kitchen...."

 

[rayanddonnafan]

Lots of people say the series stops being great after Season 10, with Pam's exit.
But i've just been re-watching from the beginning and I am now early in Season 10, and i'm really struggling.
For me the dream season was an enjoyable and interesting re-watch for the most part. The first half was well written, well acted, and wonderful to have Barbara back as Miss Ellie. OKay it goes very wrong with the Marinos shipping/Angelico Nero stuff and Matt Cantrell (awful), but I would much rather they had continue as planned: with Ben Stivers becoming Jock and Bobby staying dead.

Season 10 is pretty awful during this re-watch. I really hadn't missed Bobby during the dream season. His good guy macho counter to JR persona had run its course for me, and now he has come back I think i'd forgotten just how boring Bobby's character was. Is it sacrilege to say this? Pam was freed up after his demise and there was all the wasted potential of her feuding with JR at Ewing oil. I grew to like Mark, and their relationship had lots of potential twists and turns to go through.
I liked the reconciliation of Sue Ellen and JR and Donna and Ray by the end of S9. Susan Howard was wonderful the whole year, and clearly put her all into that adoption storyline, writing one of the episodes near the end of the season.

The re-set just doesn't work for me and I am thinking of giving up here with my re-watch and I'm only 7 episodes in. BD Calhoun is another awful addition, is it Katzman or Paulsen that insisted on all the macho male crap, or both of them? Susan Howard has been given a new glam hairdo, but she looks lost and bored after having her previous storylines dropped. Her and Ray belonged together, they had worked through all the problems, why separate them again and push Ray onto Jenna? Really dull stuff.

So for me it ended with Bobby in the shower. Unecessary. Partrick made his choice, he should have stayed dead, and his career probably would have been as well.

I agree with everything here, Julia. Well said. The end of the Ray and Donna storyline — and their relationship with it — was so hard to watch! The dream season wasn’t perfect, but it’s just so weird and fun to watch! From the wonderful macabre beginning of Bobby’s Death to the crazy bender of all time that is Sue Ellen wandering the streets of Dallas to Pam’s iconic line to J.R. — “From now, on, it’s going to be you and me. I’ll see you at the office, Partner!,” season 9 stuns and dazzles with the mind-bending dream. The beginning of Season 10 felt so wrong to me — everything got worse instead of better. Ray and Donna’s new life was erased, and they were back to divorce. J.R. and Sue Ellen hated each other again. Pam’s strength against J.R. was gone. And I could have done without the B.D. Calhoun and Wes Parmalee storylines, which I found boring and trite.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

Dallas to me ended when there was such big trouble with them high rises down in Venezuela that The Guzzler had to drop out of the Section 40 Galleria project, widely known among developers as the biggest thing since the hot dog.

The show soldiered on and there were many fantabulous moments over the next 8 years or so, but the magic was gone forever, and not even a swashbuckling shirtless emerald-seeker could bring it back.