"'Dallas', the ultimate American nighttime soap that single-handedly revived the television serial. Will today’s (2012) audiences return to Southfork Ranch to watch the new 'Dallas' (on TNT) — which follows the next generation of Ewings?" Karen Valby of 'Entertainment Weekly' asked in 2012. In 1979, Jason Bonderoff, the editor of 'Daylight TV' told 'The Washington Post', "'Dallas' is a hit because this is the first generation that's grown up on soap operas."
"Watching soaps is no longer a lower-class thing for bored housewives to do. It's not a negative thing. This generation is much more open-minded. It's just another influence of daytime soaps. This has been coming a little bit at a time. There have been nighttime soaps for longer than people realize. We call them situation comedies, but it's just a difference in words. On shows like 'M*A*S*H' (1972-1983) and 'The Waltons' (1972-1981) and 'Mary Tyler Moore,' character development was more important than plot."
As noted, "The key is that each night's programs will have decreasingly defined beginnings, middles and ends. Despite its awesome success, 'Dallas' - like so many events in the broadcast industry - happened virtually by accident." David Jacobs described the 'Dallas' phenomenon, "… I came up with this Romeo and Juliet in the oil industry in Texas. I started with the character of Pamela, and she comes into this family and disrupts it. She marries Bobby Ewing, their fathers hate each other, her brother hates the Ewings, and his brother runs the Ewing empire. Everybody was everybody’s enemy. I sent the pages over to Mike (Filerman)…"
Patrick Duffy added, "Originally Bobby was supposed to die at the end of the first five episodes. The new series was going to take off with Pamela living at Southfork. In a meeting with CBS, Leonard (Katzman) said, 'She now has 200 million dollars. Why does she live in a bedroom at Southfork?' And somebody at CBS said, 'Maybe Bobby doesn’t die?'"
John Bloom of 'D' magazine reported in 2012, "There may be an example somewhere in thespian history of a better fit between actor and part. Perhaps Joseph Jefferson, who played Rip Van Winkle for 40 years in the 19th century, or Yul Brynner, who did 'The King and I' 4,526 times, or James Arness, who did 20 seasons as Marshal Matt Dillon. But in all those other cases, the actor was working from a script or a tradition that had already been established.
"Larry Hagman came into 'Dallas' with fifth billing and an underwritten part. Hagman wasn’t even the actor they wanted ... In early 'TV Guide' listings, Hagman’s name wasn’t even mentioned. The stars of the show were Victoria Principal (initially Linda Evans) and Patrick Duffy (‘The Man From Atlantis’). The story was Romeo and Juliet, the Montagues and the Capulets ... As originally envisioned, all the dramatic action would revolve around the tragic love match.
"In the original script, David Jacobs modeled Bobby Ewing after Brick in 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof'. (Eventually) Bobby Ewing became the 'good' brother … Instead of being a thorn in the side of Miss Ellie and Jock, he became the man who marries for true love and tries to carry on the legacy of the family. He was a do-gooder. Suddenly J.R. became the engine of all action. Within a few episodes, Romeo and Juliet had become Cain and Abel, and Larry Hagman moved up into the starring credits. A lot of that had to do with how he played the role."
On an average night in the first half of the 1979-1980 season, some 33 million viewers watched then television's only prime-time soap opera, 'Dallas'. Joel Swerdlow of 'The Washington Post' explained, "It has a powerful grasp on the American psyche. 'Dallas' ranked an impressive 10th for the first 16 weeks of the 1979 season, and it's the only top-rated program on what is often the lowest-rated viewing night of the week. A Nielsen spokesman calls its time slot - 10pm Friday - 'the pits'. But it works."
Leonard Katzman believed, "Its appeal is voyeurism. We have an audience that likes to sit back and fantasize about what they'd do if they were wealthy, beautiful and greedy." 'The Washington Post' continued, "As a result, on an average Friday evening, 23.4% of the television homes in America - and 40% of the sets actually turned on at that time - are tuned to 'Dallas'. By comparison, the figures for No. 1-rated '60 Minutes' (on Sunday evening at 7pm) are 27.9% and 45%."
Leonard Katzman noted at the time, the actors "take great enjoyment out of playing the roles as written. Nobody wants to fool with success." 'The Washington Post' continued, "Another measure of success is the speed with which the show's spin-off is appearing. The ever-powerful 'All In The Family' (1971-79) and 'Mary Tyler Moore Show' (1970-77) took years to produce progeny, but 'Dallas' required less than two full seasons. However, there is little connection between 'Dallas' and 'Knots Landing'." Bud Grant pointed out, 'The important thing is to do a spin-off when it's hot. It's very difficult now for brand-new shows to succeed. Familiarity gives us a leg up."
At the end of the 1980-81 TV season, 'Dallas' ended with the episode 'Ewing-Gate'. 'United Press International' reported in April 1981, "At the moment, Lee Rich, president of Lorimar, and producer Leonard Katzman, who wrote the script and is directing the episode, are the only ones who know what the new cliffhanger is all about. The actors, line producers, directors, staff and crew are pretty much all in the dark about this year's cliffhanger. Members of the cast found the last few pages of their script blank except for the legend: 'Note: Balance of script to be seen only on a need-to-know basis.'"
Jared Martin played Dusty Farlow, "Dusty's an interesting guy. At the beginning of the series he was an itinerant rodeo cowboy and now he's evolved as a multimillionaire. Things like that can happen in a soap opera and nobody ever questions how or why." Of the season-finale episode, "I'm not in on the need-to-know part of the story. I haven't seen the final pages, which means I won't be the one holding the smoking gun or being found dead. But you never know.
"There are about 29 other characters to deal with in our huge cast and there's no telling what any of them will do. Most of us in the cast are curious about the latest cliffhanger. It would be interesting to see Dusty in a head-to-head confrontation with J.R. But I doubt if that will be the situation. I don't think it will be an unexpected pregnancy. Sue Ellen has already gone through one of those, plus alcoholism and God know what else. Maybe there will be a surprising death involved.
"There's a soap opera formula that decrees the more popular the character, the more the viewer response when he or she is killed off. For a good solid cliffhanger, the situation ideally should involve one of the seven major characters in the show. I think it will center around Sue Ellen and that Dusty will play some part in it. Supposing I did know what the cliffhanger is? I wouldn't say a word. I've been told Lorimar has taken out a bond on the actors' salaries so if anyone reveals the new cliffhanger, they can be dropped from the series."
"Watching soaps is no longer a lower-class thing for bored housewives to do. It's not a negative thing. This generation is much more open-minded. It's just another influence of daytime soaps. This has been coming a little bit at a time. There have been nighttime soaps for longer than people realize. We call them situation comedies, but it's just a difference in words. On shows like 'M*A*S*H' (1972-1983) and 'The Waltons' (1972-1981) and 'Mary Tyler Moore,' character development was more important than plot."
As noted, "The key is that each night's programs will have decreasingly defined beginnings, middles and ends. Despite its awesome success, 'Dallas' - like so many events in the broadcast industry - happened virtually by accident." David Jacobs described the 'Dallas' phenomenon, "… I came up with this Romeo and Juliet in the oil industry in Texas. I started with the character of Pamela, and she comes into this family and disrupts it. She marries Bobby Ewing, their fathers hate each other, her brother hates the Ewings, and his brother runs the Ewing empire. Everybody was everybody’s enemy. I sent the pages over to Mike (Filerman)…"
Patrick Duffy added, "Originally Bobby was supposed to die at the end of the first five episodes. The new series was going to take off with Pamela living at Southfork. In a meeting with CBS, Leonard (Katzman) said, 'She now has 200 million dollars. Why does she live in a bedroom at Southfork?' And somebody at CBS said, 'Maybe Bobby doesn’t die?'"
John Bloom of 'D' magazine reported in 2012, "There may be an example somewhere in thespian history of a better fit between actor and part. Perhaps Joseph Jefferson, who played Rip Van Winkle for 40 years in the 19th century, or Yul Brynner, who did 'The King and I' 4,526 times, or James Arness, who did 20 seasons as Marshal Matt Dillon. But in all those other cases, the actor was working from a script or a tradition that had already been established.
"Larry Hagman came into 'Dallas' with fifth billing and an underwritten part. Hagman wasn’t even the actor they wanted ... In early 'TV Guide' listings, Hagman’s name wasn’t even mentioned. The stars of the show were Victoria Principal (initially Linda Evans) and Patrick Duffy (‘The Man From Atlantis’). The story was Romeo and Juliet, the Montagues and the Capulets ... As originally envisioned, all the dramatic action would revolve around the tragic love match.
"In the original script, David Jacobs modeled Bobby Ewing after Brick in 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof'. (Eventually) Bobby Ewing became the 'good' brother … Instead of being a thorn in the side of Miss Ellie and Jock, he became the man who marries for true love and tries to carry on the legacy of the family. He was a do-gooder. Suddenly J.R. became the engine of all action. Within a few episodes, Romeo and Juliet had become Cain and Abel, and Larry Hagman moved up into the starring credits. A lot of that had to do with how he played the role."
On an average night in the first half of the 1979-1980 season, some 33 million viewers watched then television's only prime-time soap opera, 'Dallas'. Joel Swerdlow of 'The Washington Post' explained, "It has a powerful grasp on the American psyche. 'Dallas' ranked an impressive 10th for the first 16 weeks of the 1979 season, and it's the only top-rated program on what is often the lowest-rated viewing night of the week. A Nielsen spokesman calls its time slot - 10pm Friday - 'the pits'. But it works."
Leonard Katzman believed, "Its appeal is voyeurism. We have an audience that likes to sit back and fantasize about what they'd do if they were wealthy, beautiful and greedy." 'The Washington Post' continued, "As a result, on an average Friday evening, 23.4% of the television homes in America - and 40% of the sets actually turned on at that time - are tuned to 'Dallas'. By comparison, the figures for No. 1-rated '60 Minutes' (on Sunday evening at 7pm) are 27.9% and 45%."
Leonard Katzman noted at the time, the actors "take great enjoyment out of playing the roles as written. Nobody wants to fool with success." 'The Washington Post' continued, "Another measure of success is the speed with which the show's spin-off is appearing. The ever-powerful 'All In The Family' (1971-79) and 'Mary Tyler Moore Show' (1970-77) took years to produce progeny, but 'Dallas' required less than two full seasons. However, there is little connection between 'Dallas' and 'Knots Landing'." Bud Grant pointed out, 'The important thing is to do a spin-off when it's hot. It's very difficult now for brand-new shows to succeed. Familiarity gives us a leg up."
At the end of the 1980-81 TV season, 'Dallas' ended with the episode 'Ewing-Gate'. 'United Press International' reported in April 1981, "At the moment, Lee Rich, president of Lorimar, and producer Leonard Katzman, who wrote the script and is directing the episode, are the only ones who know what the new cliffhanger is all about. The actors, line producers, directors, staff and crew are pretty much all in the dark about this year's cliffhanger. Members of the cast found the last few pages of their script blank except for the legend: 'Note: Balance of script to be seen only on a need-to-know basis.'"
Jared Martin played Dusty Farlow, "Dusty's an interesting guy. At the beginning of the series he was an itinerant rodeo cowboy and now he's evolved as a multimillionaire. Things like that can happen in a soap opera and nobody ever questions how or why." Of the season-finale episode, "I'm not in on the need-to-know part of the story. I haven't seen the final pages, which means I won't be the one holding the smoking gun or being found dead. But you never know.
"There are about 29 other characters to deal with in our huge cast and there's no telling what any of them will do. Most of us in the cast are curious about the latest cliffhanger. It would be interesting to see Dusty in a head-to-head confrontation with J.R. But I doubt if that will be the situation. I don't think it will be an unexpected pregnancy. Sue Ellen has already gone through one of those, plus alcoholism and God know what else. Maybe there will be a surprising death involved.
"There's a soap opera formula that decrees the more popular the character, the more the viewer response when he or she is killed off. For a good solid cliffhanger, the situation ideally should involve one of the seven major characters in the show. I think it will center around Sue Ellen and that Dusty will play some part in it. Supposing I did know what the cliffhanger is? I wouldn't say a word. I've been told Lorimar has taken out a bond on the actors' salaries so if anyone reveals the new cliffhanger, they can be dropped from the series."
In 1991, the weekly series of 'Dallas' wrapped. 'Entertainment Weekly' paid tribute, "'Happy families are all alike,' wrote Tolstoy. 'Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Too bad Leo never met the Ewing clan; they could have given him story material that would have curled Anna Karenina's hair. When 'Dallas' first flickered across TV screens on Sunday, April 2, 1978, nobody could have imagined it would become the signpost of an era — a long, lewd, delectably lurid family feud, megadosed with sex, money, and cattle, that both foretold and outlasted the Age of Greed and provided the most abidingly awesome villain in TV history.
"You could tell that 'Dallas' had conquered the world when the world’s leaders began to denounce it. Danish Center Democrat Erhard Jakobsen warned darkly in 1982, 'I would not be surprised if 'Dallas' was planned by a circle of leftist intellectuals in Hollywood as a socialist slander campaign. This series reinforces the idea that capitalists behave as dirty dogs.'
"At an arts conference in Paris, the French Socialist cultural minister, addressing, among others, Graham Greene and John Kenneth Galbraith, indicted the show as a sinister example of 'American cultural imperialism'. Perhaps the united political front against the Ewings and their ilk arose because they were much more popular than the politicians.
"More than half of all Danes watched every early episode. When J.R. was shot in 1980, an estimated 25 million Brits tuned in. By 1982, 'Dallas' was No. 1 in Israel; it became a hit practically everywhere from there to Indonesia. 'Dallas' has been seen in more than 100 countries, according to its syndicator, Worldvision Enterprises. Japan alone proved immune.
"'Dallas crashed and burned here,' says James Bailey of Tokyo's 'Mainichi Daily News'. 'Some say it's because the Japanese have tightly knit families and didn't like the Ewings’ internecine warfare, but I doubt such cultural theories. It was just programmed against an invincible show, 'The Best Ten', starring the two most popular TV personalities in the country.' Everywhere else, 'Dallas' beat everyone and everything.
"'When J.R. got shot, it was what we call 'a streetsweeper' in Germany,' says Karen Martin of Germany’s Burda Publications. 'Everyone was home watching 'Dallas'. Germans do like the idea of the strong man. They're law-obedient and they like the fact that (J.R.) treats his mother well. And he does not take any s— from anybody. That part of his appeal was global.' The Ewings may even have affected the course of history. George Steiner, writing in London's 'Observer' in 1990, said, 'With 'Dallas' being viewed east of the Wall, the dismemberment of the regime may have become inevitable.'"
Mary Crosby told the Associated Press in 2018, "I was there during the show's rise, which was very exciting. None of us imagined what the show would become." Jared Martin acknowledged at the time, "I see a career as a river that flows along and sometimes stops for a while. This stop in 'Dallas' seems a good place for me." Speaking to 'Star-Telegram' in 2018, Victoria Principal voiced, "What a gift to have been part of it. And it's a gift that keeps on giving. The show became part of the tapestry of their (the fans') lives. They remember 'Dallas,' they cherish 'Dallas' and they still want to celebrate 'Dallas.' It’s so extraordinary."
Mary Crosby told the Associated Press in 2018, "I was there during the show's rise, which was very exciting. None of us imagined what the show would become." Jared Martin acknowledged at the time, "I see a career as a river that flows along and sometimes stops for a while. This stop in 'Dallas' seems a good place for me." Speaking to 'Star-Telegram' in 2018, Victoria Principal voiced, "What a gift to have been part of it. And it's a gift that keeps on giving. The show became part of the tapestry of their (the fans') lives. They remember 'Dallas,' they cherish 'Dallas' and they still want to celebrate 'Dallas.' It’s so extraordinary."
