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<blockquote data-quote="Kenny Coyote" data-source="post: 197284" data-attributes="member: 102">I agree that a death of a popular character is certainly a big game changer, and how it is handled makes a massive difference in whether it&#039;s a positive or a negative game changer. Jock&#039;s death was handled expertly. What a loss to lose the head of the family - the man whose sons idolized him. The man without whom there would be no Ewing Oil. They made the absolute best out of a terrible situation. Since Jim Davis died, they had no choice but to have Jock die, but it could have been handled poorly in the hands of less talented people. Instead they got some great drama out of it, the storyline of Miss Ellie&#039;s denial, and the legendary contest for Ewing Oil - my favorite Dallas storyline ever. &quot;Who Shot JR&quot; is the most famous one, but the contest for Ewing Oil is still a great one too.I guess we&#039;ll have to agree to disagree on if it&#039;s ever necessary to choose to kill off a popular character. I think there are always more great stories to tell with those characters. As you said, the new characters weren&#039;t always very interesting. So when you have finally succeeded in creating a character who has great value to the show, and built that character up over a period of years I don&#039;t know why it would ever be seen as a good idea to choose to lose that character. Sometimes there is no choice because an actor quits or an actor dies. When that happens, hopefully they put the kind of thought and care into the ramifications of that character&#039;s death as they did with Jock&#039;s death. I think they handled that remarkably well. As good as the ensuing storylines were, I think that if Jim Davis hadn&#039;t died, they&#039;d have kept him on the show for the value his character provided. Who knows what great stories might have been told if Jim Davis had lived longer?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Kenny Coyote, post: 197284, member: 102"] I agree that a death of a popular character is certainly a big game changer, and how it is handled makes a massive difference in whether it's a positive or a negative game changer. Jock's death was handled expertly. What a loss to lose the head of the family - the man whose sons idolized him. The man without whom there would be no Ewing Oil. They made the absolute best out of a terrible situation. Since Jim Davis died, they had no choice but to have Jock die, but it could have been handled poorly in the hands of less talented people. Instead they got some great drama out of it, the storyline of Miss Ellie's denial, and the legendary contest for Ewing Oil - my favorite Dallas storyline ever. "Who Shot JR" is the most famous one, but the contest for Ewing Oil is still a great one too. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on if it's ever necessary to choose to kill off a popular character. I think there are always more great stories to tell with those characters. As you said, the new characters weren't always very interesting. So when you have finally succeeded in creating a character who has great value to the show, and built that character up over a period of years I don't know why it would ever be seen as a good idea to choose to lose that character. Sometimes there is no choice because an actor quits or an actor dies. When that happens, hopefully they put the kind of thought and care into the ramifications of that character's death as they did with Jock's death. I think they handled that remarkably well. As good as the ensuing storylines were, I think that if Jim Davis hadn't died, they'd have kept him on the show for the value his character provided. Who knows what great stories might have been told if Jim Davis had lived longer? [/QUOTE]

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