Who Sired J.R.?

[Snarky Oracle!]

Should JR have learned, during roughly the last season of DALLAS, that Digger Barnes might have been his biological father?

It doesn't have to be concretely true, and it could be undone and disproven by the end of the year if we choose. But would it make a powerful story arc for the final season to see the impact on the JR and the family the possibility that JR might really have been a Barnes?


"Dammit, Ellie, he looks just like Cliff..!"

 

[tommie]

Will he get amnesia and accuse someone of rape as he's subconsciously wanted to screw his sister all those years?

 

[Monzo]

Anything that changes a show's roots in later seasons is always risky. Had JR actually turned out to be Cliff's brother in seasons 13 or 14, we might now call that Dallas' biggest mistake.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Anything that changes a show's roots in later seasons is always risky. Had JR actually turned out to be Cliff's brother in seasons 13 or 14, we might now call that Dallas' biggest mistake.

Yeah.

I'm afraid I don't like the idea of altering JR's parentage.

I'm certainly glad nothing like that was attempted on the show.

The only character who did have a parentage problem was Pam when Digger confessed on his deathbed that Hutch McKinney was her real Father.

 

[Billy Wall]

Digger being JR’s dad would have been a horrible idea. You’d change the entire dynamic of the show. Miss Ellie was seen as the respected moral compass of the show. That would be totally out the window.

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

Anything that changes a show's roots in later seasons is always risky. Had JR actually turned out to be Cliff's brother in seasons 13 or 14, we might now call that Dallas' biggest mistake.

I'm a huge 'non-fan' of the Jason Ewing retcon for this reason... why needlessly complicate the perfectly simple Jock-Digger backstory just to shoehorn the replacement 'hot chick' from Three's Company and the Taj Mahal of Compulsively Chuckling Bobby Replacements into the cast, along with a half-season "who will own Ewing Oil?" semi-rehash? How was there absolutely zero mention of ol' Tumbleweed in the first 6 or 7 years of the show?

Digger as JR's father is far more intriguing than that, though, although I don't think I'd have done it!

 

[Mustard]

Jock Ewing. To be honest, I've never been a fan of changing fathers storylines. It was bad with Pam.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Final scene of original Dallas

I always wanted miss Ellie on her death bed to reveal that Digger Barnes was his father and that Cliff was his half brother! Cue last shot of Dallas

A JR Freeze frame, looking shocked, ill and aghast at the news

 

[Laurie Marr]

I always thought that was the case anyway. It explains so much about JR’s psychology, his daddy issues and his rivalry with Cliff. JR’s obsession with the legitimacy of the Ewing name, the Ewing blood and the Ewing breed was perhaps compensatory for deeper anxieties. If memory serves, I think Raintree’s book hinted at it too.

I could also imagine an alternative plot where an ailing JR discovered his mystery illness to be Neurofibromatosis.

 

[Jimmy Todd]

Imho, it would have been intriguing if an enemy of JR's faked this to mess with JR's mind. The mystery would be who was behind the ruse? Wendell? Cliff? Sue Ellen? Katherine? Peter? Someone else? When it is revealed not to be true after all, it takes JR out of his easily beaten, clown phase and brings him back to his old self. He goes on a rampage to find out who was behind the scam. The old JR is back and people are nervous!

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

And, as I said, it could be undone (DNA testing) by season's end. But the potential that Digger might have been JR's daddy would throw JR and the family for a loop and create all sorts of story possibilities for several months.

Like Wes Stivers Parmalee.

But then, I also want to find out that Wendell had something to do with Pam's disappearance (we may not ever find out why!) and, by series' end, that Pam might have died from adult-onset neurofibromatosis -- because Rebecca had been wrong (or lied) about Hutch McKinney being the father. And thus re-establishing the series' original dynamic of Pam being a dreaded Barnes after all.

Also: adding to the backstory, like the Tumbleweed/Jason scenario, is not the same thing as re-writing/contradicting the backstory. It all depends on how it's done. The Jason Ewing thing just sounded like something feasible from half-a-century earlier that we didn't know about, not a betrayal of things we did know.

 

[Billy Wall]

All that storyline would have accomplished is getting a cheap laugh at JR’s expense and made Miss Ellie look bad.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

All that storyline would have accomplished is getting a cheap laugh at JR’s expense and made Miss Ellie look bad.

Really? That's all?

I'd argue the Wes Parmalee plotline, despite its seemingly truncated conclusion, accomplished a lot of stuff -- rather than getting a cheap laugh or making the characters look bad.

I mean, do you really prefer the muddled and campy storylines the show actually did in the final seasons??

Miss Ellie was seen as the respected moral compass of the show. That would be totally out the window.

Having slept with Digger compromises her being the moral compass (if she indeed even was)? Even Jock admitted that he was worried about losing Miss Ellie to Digger (which is one of the reasons he kept the Amanda thing a secret).

That doesn't make unmarried Ellie a ho. Just a person.

 

[Billy Wall]

Really? That's all?

I'd argue the Wes Parmalee plotline, despite its seemingly truncated conclusion, accomplished a lot of stuff -- rather than getting a cheap laugh or making the characters look bad.

I mean, do you really prefer the muddled and campy storylines the show actually did in the final seasons??



Having slept with Digger compromises her being the moral compass (if she indeed even was)? Even Jock admitted that he was worried about losing Miss Ellie to Digger (which is one of the reasons he kept the Amanda thing a secret).

That doesn't make unmarried Ellie a ho. Just a person.

If Digger turned out to be JR’s dad, even Bobby would have trouble forgiving Miss Ellie, considering the way the felt about Jock. Miss Ellie herself had to lay into Bobby about Digger. And I quote “Digger would have turned out the same even if there was no Jock Ewing.” This is the man she had a kid with?

Like someone already said, it was dumb to change up Pam’s biological father, it would have been even worse if they made JR a Barnes if we’re being honest, JR would probably kill himself.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

If Digger turned out to be JR’s dad, even Bobby would have trouble forgiving Miss Ellie, considering the way the felt about Jock. Miss Ellie herself had to lay into Bobby about Digger. And I quote “Digger would have turned out the same even if there was no Jock Ewing.” This is the man she had a kid with?

But that doesn't negate the fact that she had the relationship with Digger when she was a kid.

Like someone already said, it was dumb to change up Pam’s biological father, it would have been even worse if they made JR a Barnes if we’re being honest, JR would probably kill himself.

But that's where the drama comes in -- can you imagine JR's turmoil over this?? And, as I said, it could all be undone at the end of the season, but paternity issues are a classic soap trope, and this would be one of the classickiest!

And, by the way, we were supposed to think for four years that he had killed himself!

 

[southfork88]

I like the dynamic of the triangle Digger/ Ellie/ Jock as presented by David Jacobs in the movie Dallas: The Early Years. So no possible sexual relationship between Ellie and Digger.

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

And, as I said, it could be undone (DNA testing) by season's end. But the potential that Digger might have been JR's daddy would throw JR and the family for a loop and create all sorts of story possibilities for several months.

Like Wes Stivers Parmalee.

But then, I also want to find out that Wendell had something to do with Pam's disappearance (we may not ever find out why!) and, by series' end, that Pam might have died from adult-onset neurofibromatosis -- because Rebecca had been wrong (or lied) about Hutch McKinney being the father. And thus re-establishing the series' original dynamic of Pam being a dreaded Barnes after all.

Also: adding to the backstory, like the Tumbleweed/Jason scenario, is not the same thing as re-writing/contradicting the backstory. It all depends on how it's done. The Jason Ewing thing just sounded like something feasible from half-a-century earlier that we didn't know about, not a betrayal of things we did know.

Who was Tumbleweed?

 

[pete lashmar]

Who was Tumbleweed?

Jason Ewing - Jamie's father.

 

[pete lashmar]

I think the idea that digger "may" have been JR's father would only have worked in the earlier years, but after the "Who's John Ross's daddy" storyline it wouldn't have made any sense repeating it. To do it towards the end would have been a big mistake IMO.

That said, I do like @Barbara Fan's suggestion to end the series on - that would have been so much better than what we got with that dreadful Conundrum.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Who was Tumbleweed?

I think he also goes by @L.B. Jefferies .