THE MAKING OF
DALLAS
PLANNING
The Planning for every new DALLAS´s season was elaborated through 3 sessions, the first of them on April, immediately after the Cliffhanger episode. It was then when the stars enjoyed their well-deserved but short holidays, starting on April 1st and ending exactly 2 months afterwards. Producers and writers put into work and, in every session, joined forces to make the next season better than the previous one, or at least to keep up interest. On them depended the increase or decrease of audience reflected on ratings. With that objective, new plots were made created and guest stars were incorporated, who did not sign their contracts before their characters were already made up. Session 2 was held on July, once the shooting itself had begun.
THE SHOOTING
The show´s shooting started on early summer: in-doors work for 6 first episodes was scheduled during first half of June. On-location shooting for 12 episodes was done through July and August.
Every scene to be located at the SOUTHFORK Ranch, at DALLAS town or elsewhere in USA (and occasionally, in other countries like HONG KONG, AUSTRIA, and even RUSSIA), were shot all in a row, following a frantic pace 7 days a week, since the stars and crew were driven from the Ranch to the EWING Building (belonging to a bank entity), and from AUSTIN or HOUSTON to the Red Square in MOSCOW or LARRY HAGMAN´s home in MALIBU.
Therefore, the work of the DALLAS´s cast became considerably complicated since they had to play unrelated scenes due to the in-doors shooting being mostly done months later in LOS ANGELES. The STORY EDITOR´s work was major previously to the filming, to order scenes up to the location and, once the shooting was finished, edit them consistently with no plot holes. After summer, the work of crew and stars continued, at MGM Studios, now owned by WARNER, as well as on location in L.A., including the JMJ Ranch, placed at the Californian HIDDEN HILLS, where they often shot exteriors posing as the EWING lands, such as prairies and pastures.
For the Pilot-Season (or mini-series), it was used the BOX RANCH (with 6 front-pillars instead of 4), located at FRISCO, and for the in-doors scenes, the SWISS HOUSE, a DALLAS house. When they decided to make it a series, they chose the famous DUNCAN farm, which would be named SOUTHFORK later on. Currently it belongs to a real estate manager who organizes all kind of social acts there. About the interiors, a house in TURTLE CREEK, a suburban area in DALLAS (where SUE ELLEN would stay with her mother on Season 8), replaced the SWISS HOUSE, and later on, all its rooms were re-built at the Studio Set, to the very last detail, a shock to their owners, the CALDER family.
The SOUTHERN CROSS Ranch, the FARLOWS´ estate, was actually located near the EWING Ranch, at FORNEY. The BRADDOCK County, where the SOUTHFORK Ranch was placed, was an invention of the writers, and no oil drop could be drilled out of the DALLAS ground (or its nearby area), which happened to be quite IRONIC. Ubiquitous EWING OIL Building corresponded to PARK LANE´s, the RENAISSANCE TOWER, right at the downtown (1201 Elm Street). However, they had also used the NationsBank Building and, from Season 9 on, the NationsBank Plaza. Otherwise, the office sequences, as well as other interiors, were shot at the new area of the MGM STUDIOS, in CULVER CITY, L.A.
The SOUTHFORK rooms there reconstructed increased their number as time passed by, with the guest rooms and the EWINGS´ gym (all of them at 18th Set). Besides, every year new changes in the Ranch decoration were made, for one or other reason: for instance, SUE ELLEN re-decorated her bed-room when found out that J.R. had been unfaithful to her with AFTON right there. From the Season 5 fire on, the EWING home became a mansion very subtly, responding to the audience demands, preferring the luxury places. Even so, that did not stop SOUTHFORK from keeping its personality and mid-western look: the first seasons´ poor, stagy sets made room for a rich-detailed art direction. Incidentally, most of the furniture really came from a Spanish firm.
TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS
As the show followed its course, new advances contributed to improve the technical quality. Places like CLIFF´s office (at the CAMPBELL CENTER Twin Towers, owned by an oil company), the OIL BARONS´ CLUB (at San Jacinto Center, between Ross and Pearl) or the WENTWORTH Manor (whose façade suddenly changed on Season 7) usually were not part of the LORIMAR backlot, but real restaurants, offices and mansions. On the other side, Photography and Lighting advances increased the level of belief about the sets, serving as an example the wide, fancy room where they shot the Annual Oil Barons´ Ball, placed at Set 5.
Once in awhile the shooting took place in exotic countries, as happened on Seasons 7, 11 and 13. In the first case producer KATZMAN and the performers of PAM and SUE ELLEN flew to HONG KONG in order to shoot scenes on location. 4 years after, KATZMAN set up a similar operation, but more promotionable: the stars playing J.R., BOBBY, APRIL and CALLY, along with LINDA GRAY, one of the directors then, traveled to AUSBURG, VIENNA, SALZBURG, MUNICH and MOSCOW, thus becoming the first American show to be shot there after the “perestroika”. Eventually PATRICK DUFFY, SHEREE J. WILSON and SUSAN LUCCI filmed 5 more episodes at the French capital.
LOOK
Also the stars´ costume ostensibly improved all through the years, and designer BILL TRAVILLA even achieved an EMMY Award for best costume design (in the classic SWAN SONG):
“I was brought to DALLAS because it didn´t have the right look. I took home 6 episodes of the show to give a look and though all the women went to the same dressmaker, the same hairdresser and the same boutiques. No identity or class. I rejected everything I saw. I had dressed the real Dallas women and knew they wore silk, the best of everything. I just wanted to have more time for it...but every week, a new episode was shot and I did my best. I’d hardly read the script when I had to begin working for the episode.
“I only had 2 warnings for surpassing the budget during my 2 seasons in the show. I bought and spent as much as I wanted on every actress. Every time a character was onscreen, was wearing 1.500 $ average in clothes. I never had to ask for more...If there was a scene at a table with cameras shooting close-ups, I didn´t waste my budget on buying 200 shoes. They could wear tennis shoes so I could spend the money on a 300 $ hat. On the other side the most expensive gown I had was one worth 5.000 $ for VICTORIA.”
However this did not happen with BARBARA BEL GEDDES, as LINDA GRAY explains: "MISS ELLIE always designed her own dresses with her seamstress (JEAN-LOUIS) and we couldn´t get her out of those damn pearls. She´s from the East Coast and she is theatre trained, and I think her clothing represented a Barbara Bush kind of thing, where they dress differently than we do here. Their focus isn´t on fashion but on sensible shoes and clothes. Looking back, I think it was perfect the way she dressed." (UD Interview)
See the New TRAVILLA GALLERY, clicking HERE
HAIRSTYLES
Hairstyles for LINDA GRAY and VICTORIA PRINCIPAL really influenced on female viewers: both women usually appeared in the best-hair dressed stars´ lists, setting fashions followed by plenty of viewers. Maybe especially trendy were VICTORIA´s hairdo on Season 2 and LINDA´s stylish and radical haircut on S. 5. Later on all the main stars re-newed their look several times, with great results particularly in VICTORIA´s case, whose beauty fits all fashions and styles.
SOUNDTRACK
At the Soundtrack Department, DALLAS evolved in a surprising, necessary way. The music score for the first hundred episodes was, on one side, a number of themes half jazzy half disco music, composed by JOHN PARKER, and, on the other, a lot of file recordings, repeated ad nauseam, even in other LORIMAR super soaps, like FLAMINGO ROAD.
BOBBY and PAM´s love theme has a deep meaning for JOHN PARKER: "I realized the necessity to create a love theme for BOBBY and PAM. I turned to my own inner experience and created a trombone melody directly ditilled from my love for the lady in my life, Julie. The music worked very well for them and equally well for us..." (DALLAS: The Music Story)
Later on, they requested the services of professionals of the medium such to compose the soundtrack alternatively. The most outstanding names were LANCE RUBIN (his scoring for BOBBY´s “death” made it still more moving), RICHARD LEWIS WARREN (ideal for the thrilling plotlines), JERROLD IMMEL (author of the popular DALLAS theme and most seasons´ premieres) and BRUCE BROUGHTON and ANGELA MORLEY, both OSCAR-nominated for other works. Broughton stated about his first time on DALLAS: "There were people on CBS like JERROLD IMMEL, to whom we all followed to work on single episodes of HOW THE WEST WAS WON and DALLAS. All of us knew each other there."
See the New BRUCE BROUGHTON Page, clicking HERE
BRUCE BROUGHTON, 2-time EMMY-winner for DALLAS
Very Texan-like, different from its imitators´, the show´s music score reunited several tunes belonging to the characters or certain situations. Therefore, on Season 7, PAM, SUE ELLEN, JENNA or DONNA counted on their own melodic themes, while an effective soundtrack improved other plot twists, as were the cases of JOCK´s death, morally ambivalent characters as KATHERINE and JESSICA, or the episodes following BOBBY´s deadly accident.
In 1985, LORIMAR produced an LP inspired by the characters and storylines of DALLAS, entitled DALLAS: THE MUSIC STORY, featuring show´s stars like HOWARD KEEL, STEVE KANALY and JENILEE HARRISON, and country-and-western stars like CRYSTAL GAYLE, GARY MORRIS, KAREN BROOKS and CHARLENE TILTON´s ex-husband JOHNNY LEE.
CLIFFHANGER
The very last meeting of the producer-writer team was held once the first episodes of the season had been aired, about November. Only then it was determined, with the polls´ help, what the season-ending scene would be, what is called Cliffhanger in USA, supposedly to have audiences on the edge during the summer hiatus until September. The most famous in its history was, undoubtedly, the well-known attempted murder against J.R. An active promotion campaign made the next episodes, especially WHO DONE IT?, top the ratings.
DALLAS´s third Cliffhanger was also shot with
LINDA GRAY and VICTORIA PRINCIPAL
5 years later they plotted another strategy like that, trying to beat its own record: a few pages in the last script were left in blank for the stars not to know the plot and prevent them from revealing it. The event they were so carefully trying to hide was BOBBY´s death and this scene was shot one week before its airing. That evening, half America cried for the loss of the EWINGS´ youngest son. Thousands of fans called CBS, unable to believe that he was dead. From the next day on, a real avalanche of protest letters fell over the offices of both CBS and LORIMAR. “Whatever it takes, if you don´t get PATRICK DUFFY back as BOBBY, the show will die”, a Buffalo Fan Club assured. They got him back. Though from that year on, the cliffhangers lost strength, maybe due to the audiences´ saturation with accidents, massacres and bombs. The following DALLAS´s cliffhangers were created around the concept: How to kill off the character played by the actor we´re going to fire?
PATRICK DUFFY in a fake report about BOBBY´s return
VICTORIA PRINCIPAL´s spectacular exit led to a whole season of rumors about her possible comeback, solved out with a brief appearance of actress MARGARET MICHAELS, who slightly looked like PAM, whose last scene presented her as terminally ill. As for LINDA GRAY, things even seemed more ambivalent. Sick of her character, she insisted on her leaving as a winner, no diseases, “no showers”. At the end of next 2 seasons, SUE ELLEN looked as if going out of scene too, the first one, after confessing J.R.´s alleged murder, she might have gone to jail; the second time, getting her long-awaited revenge on J.R. filming his biopic...
After a suspense-less cliffhanger on that 11th Season, the next year was announced as DALLAS´s last: J.R. would end up in a mental sanitarium (poetic justice and real moral victory for SUE ELLEN, if that would have been the end of the show). But it was re-newed for one more year in the last minute, being LARRY its executive producer. The few remaining original cast members were sent away from SOUTHFORK to cut the budget and the new stars, like APRIL, just married to BOBBY, and CALLY, separated from and impregnated by J.R., were written out in a few episodes.
Of the original cast, there only were J.R., BOBBY and CLIFF left. Not even sensational plotlines like APRIL´s kidnapping or the EWING OIL´s sell-out to one of J.R.´s ex- lovers, succeeded to save the show, which said goodbye to the audiences through an atypical end for its genre, leaving most fans frustrated. To worsen things, the last scene, J.R.´s apparent suicide, would get annulled once again by the sequel shot 5 years later, a lame telemovie.
RIVALRY
On its 8th production year, the content of the new episodes was kept secret through a clause in the main stars´ contracts, upon which they should pay a 50.000 $ fine if they made revelations about their characters´ future. At the same time, one of the new guest stars, DACK RAMBO, stated his disagreement before the fact of not being featured in the credits along with the other stars. But a spokesman from LORIMAR reported: “When the show was created, it was established that the MAIN TITLES would only feature the closest members of the EWING family.” (DACK RAMBO was included in the SEASON 9 credits anyway but his contract was rescinded not long after that...
All through the shooting of those 31 episodes of the DREAM SEASON, the rivalry between DALLAS and DYNASTY reached its peak. They even printed posters placed all around the set, imitating the GHOSTBUSTERS´ logo (the red and white sign of No Trespassing) with a picture of the 3 main stars of the feuding show. The crew and stars perfectly caught the message and joined forces to get the right pace. However, some cast members did not understand the show´s true value, as was later stated by LARRY HAGMAN, since they only used it to re-launch their careers and get back to the magazines´ headlines. Before the end of the Season the producers assured that the attempts to bring PATRICK DUFFY back were unsuccessful and added: “We could have written a storyline bringing BOBBY or his dead ringer back, as they do on DYNASTY, but that isn´t what our fans expect from us.” But the Cliffhanger´s surprise was precisely the unexpected return of PAMELA´s husband...
The most important episodes were the ones being aired on January and February, period in which local stations elaborate the ratings, in order to get the nation-based ratings. Therefore the DALLAS´s marketing team was especially active in those days, searching for slogans to increase the number of viewers. Thus, on Season 5, these critical weeks were devoted to J.R. and SUE ELLEN´s second wedding, and the court battle for EWING OIL. 2 years later, the dramatic climax was reached by JENNA´s trial and her imprisonment and, on Season 8, by the episode MASQUERADE, in which J.R. became a hero. The next year, DYNASTY announced the romance between amnesic BLAKE and ALEXIS with the slogan: “It´s not a dream”.
Index
BRUCE BROUGHTON, 2-time EMMY-winner for DALLAS
PATRICK DUFFY in a fake report about BOBBY´s return
