THE COURSE OF "DALLAS":
Dates and Numbers
APRIL 2, 1978
The Network CBS airs Episode # 1 of DALLAS: DIGGER´S DAUGHTER. Born with no high ambitions, it replaced another declining show (Carol Burnett´s) halfway the season. First 5 episodes enjoy such an acceptation that they complete the number of 29, in the next TV season, changing the time slot several times: the Pilot-Season (or mini-series) was scheduled on Sundays at 10 p.m. Already as a continuing series, went from Saturday back to Sunday nights again, until getting to Fridays, the ultimate DALLAS´s night in USA.
MARCH 21, 1980
A HOUSE DIVIDED closes Season 2 with the infamous attempted murder against J.R., witnessed by 46 million people. One minute of publicity costs half a million, Time and Newsweek feature LARRY HAGMAN on their front pages and Presidente Carter publicly states before the election: “If I knew who shot J.R. and could say it to my voters, I´d have my re-election assured.” Bids about the shooter´s identity are organized, but it is not revealed until November, due to the actors´ strike that paralysed Hollywood.
SEPTEMBER 19, 1980
DALLAS starts its Season 3 with a two-parter that does NOT reveal the mysteries set out on A House Divided. SUE ELLEN looks like the prime suspect as J.R. fights for his life. During the summer hiatus, HAGMAN traveled to the European countries airing the show successfully and gifted more than 1.000 one-dollar notes with his face overimpressed on Washington´s. You could read in them “J. R. must not die” and the producing company´s address was on it too, for those interested in writing for saving J. R.´s life. Thus the actor got over 100.000 $ per episode and stayed on DALLAS all the way.
NOVEMBER 21, 1980
Thru the episode WHO DONE IT?, 160 million people find out that the character who almost killed the most hated villain on TV is...his sister-in-law KRISTIN who, on the last scene, confesses to be carrying his son. The show is aired on Fridays, at 22 p.m., a time schedule considered as adult restrictive.
APRIL 24, 1981
JIM DAVIS dies, though his character will remain alive until next mid-season. Davis´s absence is explained through a trip JOCK and MISS ELLIE made to Europe, 3 episodes prior to the last one. When Season 4 begins, producers re-new old-timer HOWARD KEEL´s contract, seen on 2 episodes as CLAYTON FARLOW. The new character subtly became Jock´s successor, though they would not marry until Season 6.
MARCH 19, 1982
Episode # 100 is aired in USA: VENGEANCE. LUCY happens to be kidnapped by photographer ROGER. This kidnap is set out by writers in order to make CHARLENE TILTON shoot only in-doors. The reason, her advanced pregnancy in real life, that prevented Lucy from getting pregnant at the same time. Therefore, next season Lucy decided to have an abortion, stating she had been raped by Roger. However Charlene´s condition is more than obvious on the premiere episode, obliging the Director to use only close-ups or place her strategically, behind an armchair or leaning on a couch.
MAY 9, 1982
Season 4 ends with the episode GOOD-BYE, CLIFF BARNES. Despite of being awarded as the best Drama Series by the US audience, mediocrity was all around. This happens as 3 shows debut following the same pattern of DALLAS: Flamingo Road, Falcon Crest and Dynasty. The producers have to face a new conflict: LINDA GRAY and VICTORIA PRINCIPAL threaten with leaving the show, after they realized the writers had such a little imagination about her characters. The matter is solved out with a salary increase that made both stars happy and different plot twists for them, minimum in Sue Ellen´s case. To promote this Season´s 26 episodes, Leonard Katzman organizes a trip to several countries, among them Israel, along with Steve Kanaly, Susan Howard, Audrey Landers and others.
APRIL 29, 1983
EWING INFERNO closes DALLAS´s Season 5 with the Southfork fire, in which the lives of several major characters are endangered, including J.R. Just by chance, Dynasty, its biggest rival for the public´s preferences, also ends with its main stars surrounded by flames. The scripts for the 28 aired episodes achieve to enliven the interest about the Ewing family, after the female cast is enhanced by Lois Chiles and Morgan Brittany, and the male cast by T.P. Murphy and John Beck.
That same year it is announced the shooting of a big-budget (10.000.000 $) movie based on the show´s characters. The story would follow the TV adventures, though its theatre showing would allow to handle the content of action and sex scenes more graphicly. Its world premiere is scheduled for Christmas ´83, but, for good or bad, the project never got released to date. A new act of God causes trouble to Lorimar when BEL GEDDES has a heart attack just before to wrap up the season. Due to her delicate post-op condition, the actress only appears in one scene of the last episode. In it, Clayton convinces Miss Ellie to go on a holiday trip far away from the Ranch, thus justifying their absence on the next 11 episodes (and keeping her out of the fire cliffhanger, too).
SEPTEMBER 10, 1983
In USA the main novelty is the arrival of 2 actors who will increase the show´s fame: Christopher Atkins, as Sue Ellen´s new fan, and Priscilla Presley playing a part previously performed by 2 other actresses: Jenna Wade. Year 6 became one of the best ever on every level, with outstanding writing, music scores and stars´ costumes.
The Cliffhanger scene will remind the end of A House Divided: another invisible assaultant shoots 3 bullets to somebody sitting in J. R.´s chair. This time, the shock relies on who the victim is: Bobby, shot in the left side of his face, by his eyes. On November 1984, DALLAS regains the top place at the US Ratings, with a 25,6 % audience, beating Dynasty and the other Super Soaps.
The show resumes its airing on its Year 7. All through 30 weeks, the life of the Ewings and the Barneses will take a 180-degrees turn with a unique end of season in its history. BBG´s health obliges her to quit her character Miss Ellie, who will be played by Donna Reed. There are new faces among the supporting cast too, entering Deborah Shelton and Jenilee Harrison replacing Audrey Landers and Morgan Brittany.
SEPTEMBER 28, 1984
MAY 17, 1985
On the last episode of the Season, Bobby is hit-and-run killed: so Miss Ellie loses his younger son in the last scene ever played by Donna Reed. The star is fired by the producers due to the audiences´ rejection. However she suits Lorimar for breach of contract, asking for her continuity on the show or else, a 7.000.000 $ indemnity. Through a clause the producers kept the right to do without her whenever she still gets paid her salary, so CBS has to maintain her contract during 2 more years, paying her 17.500 $ a week...though her character is personified again by a recovered BBG.
Unfortunately Reed was deceased on January 1986, after a number of arguments that even causes a rift between her and her great fan Larry Hagman. Bobby´s death gets the US audiences shocked and resilient to accept the disappearance of Duffy´s noble, good-hearted character. Another question calling the press attention is the conflict between the English Public TV (BBC), which had been airing DALLAS since September 5, 1978 on Tuesdays, and the Private TV (ITC). The latter gets the rights for airing the Season 8 so BBC intends to interrupt the showing of the previous season, making the viewers confused when ITC airs its episodes. Finally BBC makes sense in order to not harm audiences but, in the meantime, Columbia takes profit of the situation and puts the Season 7 episodes on the videomarket.
On the last episode 2 characters say goodbye: in Bobby´s case, because his performer was tired of playing him; about Lucy, the writers did not find a way out to keep Charlene Tilton´s character. In any case, the Ratings placed Dynasty at the top in 1985, with 0.3 rating points over DALLAS. Still, both shows get a 38% audience, those points serving as an incentive for Lorimar (DALLAS achieved one Emmy for best Costume Design and another nomination, furthermore).
NOVEMBER 18, 1985
DALLAS airs its 200th episode. The cast lacks obvious missing figures such as Lucy and, especially, Bobby. Miss Ellie is portrayed by BBG again, as the Special Guest Star of the Season is another Barbara, Nicaragua-born Barbara Carrera. At the same time, there are new characters like the sophisticated tycoon played by George Chakiris, and the most recent member of the Ewing family, Jock´s nephew, personified by Dack Rambo.
SPRING 1986
In order to go back to the top ratings, the Production Crew features a number of sensational coups climaxing on the episode Masquerade: not to be set as a precedent, J. R. plays hero to save his cousin Jack´s life. However, neither Hagman nor the audiences accept such a sudden change of attitude and the show goes down to the 16th place.
MAY 16, 1986
The actor´s reaction was not too long waited: on the next months, rumors are spread about a possible return of Bobby and, eventually, on the Season´s Cliffhanger scene, Pamela, just married to Mark, finds her late ex-husband Bobby in her shower. This way DALLAS beats its strongest rival, in a desperate attempt to regain the supremacy at the audience ratings.
SEPTEMBER 26, 1986
Bobby´s return creates an expectation similar to the old times´. The arguable license used by the writers to “resurrect” the character turns the previous 31 episodes into a dream of PAMELA´s, which would also include other scenes like the hit-and-run accident and Bobby´s ulterior death. The public´s pressures made Larry Hagman take a stand in the matter, causing the dismissal of Executive Producer Philip Capice, after offering him 2.000.000 $ from his own pocket. Hagman himself persuades his cast-mate Duffy to return to the show, through a high salary rise: 1.600.000 $ a year, plus one more million only for returning. During the summer hiatus the tabloids reported about the different versions of Bobby´s comeback: in the first one, the car accident does NOT causes him death and he keeps himself hidden to avoid suffering to his mother, in case he loses faculties.
In the second version, a twin brother of Bobby´s comes up at Southfork and wins everybody´s affection as he uses the most wicked tricks to get Ewing Oil and destroys Pam and Jenna´s life. The last version was chosen, thus bringing the action back to the episode Swan Song, before the accident. This way, “counting on the viewers´ sense of humor”, Bobby´s return becomes a fact and sets a dangerous precedent: the show re-writes a page of its history, completely ignoring what had happened on its Production Year 8. Therefore, several supporting characters such as those played by B. Carrera and G. Chakiris, only appear on PAMELA´s DREAM, while the relationships of the 5 couples go back to the point they were at the Season 7 cliffhanger.
MAY 10, 1991
After 355 episodes, DALLAS says its final goodbye with the two-hour episode Conundrum, which adapts the plot of the F. Capra classic It´s A Wonderful Life! Old and tired J. R. reviews his life with a presumed Angel called Adam, performed by Hagman´s friend Joel Grey, and learns what would have happened to all of them if he were not born. Many former DALLAS´s stars return for this last episode: Linda Gray, Mary Crosby, Steve Kanaly, Cathy Podewell, Jack Scalia and the couple from Knots Landing, Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Ark. But not Victoria Principal.
The show, that used to be at the top of the ratings, had dropped to 56th place (of 89 shows) lately, enough to survive but not profitable enough since only L. Hagman earned 250.000 $ per episode by then. DALLAS was the longest-running one-hour TV Series in History, right after GUNSMOKE...
NOVEMBER 15, 1996
The Ewings re-open Southfork again, for J.R. Returns, co-starring old friends like P. Duffy, L. Gray, K. Kercheval, A. Landers, O. Katz and G. Kennedy, which rates second place at that week´s most watched shows...
APRIL 24, 1998
CBS airs the second and last (to date) Reunion movie, entitled WAR OF THE EWINGS, co-produced by L. Hagman and P. Duffy. The cast also included Gray and S. Kanaly as Ray. The weak acceptance achieved by this new 90-minutes special movie led to the final closing of the Southfork Ranch...But, as J. R. used to say, “never say never”.
TONI DÍAZ
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