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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bystander" data-source="post: 369635" data-attributes="member: 57206">I signed up on this forum because I am intriguied by these observations.  It's interesting; though I understand the point of "political correctness", how can anything be accurately portrayed in drama or comedy if there is some sort of utopian ideal that must be presented that eliminates all of one's evil or less-than-ideal personality traits?  We're human!  If something is truly offensive and a socially unacceptable, such characters are usually disliked anyways.  And if viewers are celebrating bad behaviors, its an issue with the viewer and not the production itself.  I can't stand most modern television, and I simply never watch as it is not aimed at me.The best thing about Dallas' earliest seasons was the level of shockingly unethical and devious behavior.  For some reason I am thinking of when Ray and JR had a fun time at a motel in Waco, and then their boyfriends (one of whom was Brian Denehy) take revenge by holding the family hostage during the "hurricane" (we won't get into that impossibility).  Just as Larry Hagman said about accepting the role at a point he was desperate for work, he was reading one and his wife Maj was reading the "Dallas" script.  She said something along the lines of, "You gotta read this!  There are no redeeming characters in here at all!"  HAHA!!  And that's the point.  These are all characters.  They have strengths and faults like all of us (well, most of us as some would have you believe).  If the show was getting sexist after the dream season and departure of Phil Capice (its been a while, I can't recall that season's plotlines), it probably was returning to a closer reality.  It wasn't celebrating treating women like that, but more of a cinema verite where this is how people in this situation behave, warts and all.  Furthermore, the show would lack the power dynamic it had going.  I am more intertested in the individual characters than supporting the men's or women's team.  There were times when the women would turn the tables on JR, and that often kept things interesting.  Although at the tail end as many people have commented here, JR lost his touch and although I watched it in first run, it wouldn't be water cooler talk on Monday  like those early seasons must have been.And yes, how the apparent dysfunction (which is in any group to varying degrees) involving Capice, Leonard Katzman, and Hagman was able to remain on simmer for six years is amazing.  But then, money can assuage the pain of wounds.As an aside, everyone on here must know that David Jacobs died a few days ago (August 20, 2023).  Offhand I cannot remember his level of involvement with the show after the first couple of seasons, but we certainly must pay homage to a family named after a local Dallas Buick dealership at the time.....funny thing is that the dealership at some point owned a Mercedes franchise as well called, "Ewing Mercedes-Benz", now called "Mercedes-Benz Plano".</blockquote>

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