Would You Take Back The Later Years?

[Jock's Ghost]

I'm on my 5th re-watch and I will stop when Pam leaves simply because my favorite show died with her....

Dusty stays dead and SE marries Clayton. He dies of a heart attack, she inherits his fortune and her many suitors swindle her out of her dough and in comes JR to save the day...

If I was in charge and could do reassessment and fix and tweak the bad things, I start with Jaime Ewing . She was sorely miscast. I don't mind the character now, but her reactions to JR bug me. She looks like she's attempting to imitate the great Joan Van Ark, but doesn't cut it. Jack Ewing was lame too, his character I did not get. What is he after besides his cousins money? BUT I still don't mind them as they are.

I would have made Jaime slightly older, becomes a worshiper of JR and his ways. She has been dirty poor her whole life and took all the money she had to finally seek out the Texas Ewings, the brother her father has nothing good to say about. Her and JR strike up a friendship and later alliance.

Jack is a boozer, gambler. The smell of money brings him to Texas with a scheme. Jaime hates his guts. JR hates him as he reminds him of Gary. She hates her father more for being a wimp, drunk and a loser- just like Digger Barnes.

Jason is not dead, but very much alive as he arrives during the Ewing BBQ. Miss Ellie remembers him slightly, but says he and Jock split their ways a long time ago. Jason said he tried many times to reconnect, but his letters to Jock went unanswered.
Miss Ellie and Jason hit it off of course and take that stroll down memory lane; they become close and marry.

Season 8- Bobby dies not from a hit by a car, but from a murder orchestrated by Jeremy Windell for not selling Ewing Oil to him back in the day and for getting his ultimate revenge on JR.
It's a mystery at first, but we learn the details over the next season. Bobby stays dead.

Pam and JR in spite of everything, team up, temporarily to bring down Windell. Even Cliff Barnes steps in to help.

Victoria leaves at the end of season 10, but is RECAST as Margret Michaels. There could still be a car accident, but less contrived and more natural. Have her have the body issues with the scarring and the hair loss and her attempts to stay sane in spite of it all. MM was a very close double for VP and a solid actor. Its better than losing the character to a wishy washy, dumb ass, sorta ending. She could remarry, but Mark was not much interesting either... A new suitor for Pam... a guy she meets in the hospital recovering. She meets him, and sails off into the sunset with Christopher- happy ending. Leaving the door open for a return.

Bring Patrick back as a different character. A bad guy, maybe? Friend of Cliffs. Hangs around knowing he looks like Bobby to cause the Ewings grief.

 

[Laurie Marr]

Wendell was an underutilized character. Whenever they did use him, he was great.

Indeed he was. Word is that Larry wasn’t too fond of how adept Smithers was becoming at playing such a convincing villain.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

Indeed he was. Word is that Larry wasn’t too fond of how adept Smithers was becoming at playing such a convincing villain.

I hadn't heard that. I would hope he didn't think that. It would be kind of disappointing to find out he just didn't get the psychology behind it all Larry should have been glad they had found such a great adversary for him. Maybe as an actor, he didn't understand why that was a good thing, but if it was an issue, someone should have explained it to Larry. In an adversarial situation, you can only be as great as your opponent makes it possible for you to be.

 

[Laurie Marr]

I hadn't heard that. I would hope he didn't think that. It would be kind of disappointing to find out he just didn't get the psychology behind it all Larry should have been glad they had found such a great adversary for him. Maybe as an actor, he didn't understand why that was a good thing, but if it was an issue, someone should have explained it to Larry. In an adversarial situation, you can only be as great as your opponent makes it possible for you to be.

I just loved Bill Smithers on Dallas. He had such a fantastically unpredictable way of delivering lines too. Always a joy to watch and JR’s most effective adversary by some way. I think Snarky was the first on the boards to highlight the Hagman issue.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

I just loved Bill Smithers on Dallas. He had such a fantastically unpredictable way of delivering lines too. Always a joy to watch and JR’s most effective adversary by some way. I think Snarky was the first on the boards to highlight the Hagman issue.

Was that on the site that crashed or is it on this site? If it's here I'd love to read it.

If Hagman was unhappy that Smithers was becoming a star, that's a sad commentary on Hagman. It would show he just didn't get it
You should want to work with the best people possible. They make you better by demanding the best of you. If you end up making another star in the process, that’s a good thing. To not want to have the best cast possible shows insecurity.

If that’s really how Larry thought, if he was behind letting Smithers go, then he got what he deserved. He got be a big fish in a small pond in the last few years of the show until they’d finally lost enough viewers it warranted cancelling the show. It’s not good to try to build a show around one star. You want to give people as many reasons to watch your show as you can. More stars = more reasons to watch!

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

It was interesting to me that Wes told Miss Ellie he would see her again one day.... why? If he wasn't Jock, what did that mean? I don't think he was Jock for all the reasons I've purposed, but what dd that anticipate?

Because the intention by the Producers was for him to be Jock.

When the fan backlash happened & they decided to write the character out they had to come up with an explanation for him not to be Jock. However they left it deliberately ambiguous as to whether he was Jock or not. The fact Miss Ellie says that he told her he wasn't Jock doesn't really hold water when she tries desperately to stop Clayton going after him. If he really wasn't Jock, why was Miss Ellie trying to protect him?

 

[DallasFanForever]

I wouldn’t take back the later years but I sure wish I can somehow change them and make them better. There were still some great moments here and there but it was nothing like the glory years. I think my biggest complaints would be the loss of some of the main characters, the downturn in the quality of the writing, and the lack of development in the new characters after they appeared. If I was going to end the show somewhere before the decline I’d pick Swan Song. If not there then definitely when Pam ran into that tanker. But there is this thing called money and a hit tv show back then was going to get milked until the very end and for every penny. My chief complaint about many of the shows I grew up watching was that they had stayed on a few seasons too long, not just Dallas. But that’s how television was back then.

 

[Ukdallasfan]

It’s a shame that the series declined so rapidly towards the end. Completely agree with Dallasfanforever about the quality of the scripts and the loss of main characters. I’ve found over the years that many great tv series begin strong but end up weak. It’s a phenomenon that I can’t quite figure out. Writers- you should be aware of this

 

[DallasFanForever]

I attribute it to the things that may go on behind the scenes that were not privy to most of the time. Writers, producers, directors, they all come and go. And so do actors and actresses. You get different people running things than what you may have had only a couple of seasons earlier and with new people behind the scenes you often get a lot of changes and it carries over to what we may see on the screen. Sad but true!

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

It’s a shame that the series declined so rapidly towards the end. Completely agree with Dallasfanforever about the quality of the scripts and the loss of main characters. I’ve found over the years that many great tv series begin strong but end up weak. It’s a phenomenon that I can’t quite figure out. Writers- you should be aware of this

The answer is simple really, complacency. They think because it's a hit show they can get away with serving up inane & underwhelming storylines.

The problem usually comes from a production team & writing staff which have been there too long. To put it simply Leonard Katzman had been in charge of the show for too long, Dallas really needed some new blood to give it a new lease of life.

 

[pete lashmar]

I would also add that whoever was in charge of casting in the later years should have been fired - the acting ability of most of the new cast members was truly dreadful.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

It was interesting to me that Wes told Miss Ellie he would see her again one day.... why? If he wasn't Jock, what did that mean? I don't think he was Jock for all the reasons I've purposed, but what did that anticipate?

The fact that he WAS Jock Ewing all along.

The virtually identical X rays proved beyond belief who Wes Parmalee was.

Yes, I know he's not played by Jim Davis, Steve Forrest portrayed him but what a great dramatic storyline this was.

You make a good point but I still think you're reading too much into the differences between the actors.

It always intrigued me that both Ben Stivers and - when the scene was remade- Wes Parmalee, once they got into the house, made a beeline for Gary's picture.

It's because of how Jock treated Gary.

Clearly Wes/Ben remembered that this particular son had an estranged relationship with him.

 

[Sarah]

It's because of how Jock treated Gary.

Clearly Wes/Ben remembered that this particular son had an estranged relationship with him.

That was all explained though when Bobby came back from S America. Ok not the stuff about Gary specifically but how Jock was ‘ranting and raving, talking about his life, family, the early years…’

And Parmalee - or Wyatt Haynes - heard it all…

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

That was all explained though when Bobby came back from S America. Ok not the stuff about Gary specifically but how Jock was ‘ranting and raving, talking about his life, family, the early years…’

And Parmalee - or Wyatt Haynes - heard it all…

Possibly, but Wes recognised everyone at the Oil Baron's Ball.

He couldn't have been a fraud, he took off directly after Jeremy Wendell said he was gonna use him to stick it to the Ewing's.

Wes had to have been Jock all along.

 

[Billy Wall]

Oh, yes, Afton. She should have been brought back permanently and bounced back-and-forth between Cliff and Bobby.

No way. That wouldn’t have been Bobby’s character.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

No way. That wouldn’t have been Bobby’s character.

How so?

 

[Billy Wall]

Afton was not a clairvoyant, she was a nasty-minded hillbilly... She wasn´t right about Clayton, he saw Sue Ellen as "the daughter she never had". Then came Afton and got him all confused... Then about Katherine, well, you had to be blind, deaf, stupid and naive to not see her wicked ways... (Pam was one of these things, by the way...). Afton slept with his brother´s wife´s uncle the day they married in his bed, can you go any lower...? Then she sold himself to J.R. so he could control Cliff, and turned to slimeball Vaughn to take a revenge on J.R. when she was dumped! And, after Cliff´s attempted suicide, she said to Sue Ellen "I want him and his MONEY". And who knows what kind of mind tricks she used to get into Rebecca´s testament... (just kidding...). I call that a golddigger (when I want to be classy!)... She could have joined Mandy Winger and started their own call-girl business...

"Call us: 500 696969..."​

She was 100% right about Clayton and Sue Ellen. Clayton himself said he had feelings for Sue Ellen.

 

[Billy Wall]

How so?

One of the reasons that stopped any chance of Katherine getting Bobby was the fact she slept with JR. I can see the same thing with Cliff and Aston.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

One of the reasons that stopped any chance of Katherine getting Bobby was the fact she slept with JR. I can see the same thing with Cliff and Aston.

But Bobby married April, saying he's grown up and tossed away his bias against women who'd slept with JR.

 

[Sarah]

Still don’t believe he was Jock lol