Vee

All I'll say is that looking back on my own revival idea now from awhile back, I think instead of John Ross as the villain like the last attempt at a return (something David Jacobs objected to on the TNT show, finding John Ross vs. Christopher in the same moral roles as their parents a retread of J.R. and Bobby) you could do something different. Gary and Val's son Bobby and John Ross would be the central poles of the story, but the main antagonist would instead be J.R.’s younger son by his hick wife (Cally). That son (call him Joshua, or whatever) would be the heavy, raised outside the Ewings and married to a Chinese national wife who is a brilliant international businesswoman and the brains of the outfit. They would have global empire aspirations. So Joshua the younger heir and his wife would still be trying to drill baby drill, while Bobby II is into other energies and concepts and trying to save the earth, married to the female lead, a supposedly reformed environmental radical/activist, possibly one with a past with John Ross. A reformed John Ross would be caught in the middle between the two dueling men in more the kind of role Jacobs suggested for him, a heroic but morally conflicted protagonist torn between his father's way and a better way. I figure that's how you square the circle with the TNT show's continuity (where John Ross was the heavy) while largely ignoring or avoiding referencing any of it much.* Maybe you could even toss in Meg MacKenzie as a side player, a political operator working with/romancing one of the men while utilizing her Sumner connections. The frame of reference for my idea was always the socially conscious political drama/soap opera of the last recent season of Borgen on Netflix, where climate change and oil (in Greenland) and fighting over those dwindling resources in a hazardous time were the central issues. Here, a vicious heat crisis would scour Texas a la the UK's horrible heatwave this past year, with people dying in the streets; call it divine retribution for the Ewings. The key veterans would appear in supporting roles or cameo (I did like the idea of Sue Ellen having run for office from the revival show). And maybe you can excavate ol' Pam from the dead after all near the end as the emotional climax to the thing if you somehow got Victoria Principal to agree, which would probably never happen. Anyway, do it all in 8-15 episodes and call it a day. It would be a dark story, with elements of soap but it would not be meant to continue on. *(Of course, if it ignored the TNT show entirely then you could make up whatever, like the antagonist being John Ross' own adult technocrat son, or Christopher or whoever else, so I dunno.)

Was the original idea that they might go there romantically? That could've been wild.

A reboot is probably very viable using some of those old concepts, but I worry in practice (or on network vs. streaming) it would go the way of the Dynasty revival which was sheer camp for camp's sake vs. camp by natural evolution. I feel like Yellowstone is kind of the natural descendant of Dallas, for better or worse quality-wise. My only real interest is in a brief revival, tying something off with the original characters and the new generation for a closed run, but I won't ramble on about that idea again unless someone asks. Vee's Fanfic Corner has been too active on this forum lately.

Do we know when Gavin Houston is back as Portia's brother Zeke? Or what Zeke's occupation is?

She's mostly RT'ed other people's remarks, but there's this: This wonderful picture I'd never seen cropped up: I do think she should be at least mentioned, it would be a nice touch. It's surprising to me those characters Bobbie had deeply involved in her life back then in that era have almost never come up. I did see a brief allusion (I think) to her losing custody of those foster kids in a '93 ep when Bobbie gains custody of Lucas and tells Tiffany she's been there.

A legend. I will be watching some of his Visconti work again.

I will say not all Dallas stories bore me; I do think the Southern gothic Farlow clan psychodrama with Lady Jessica pretty compelling late in Season 7 so far. Alexis Smith is just eating this up, pure camp but also very good.

On this we will agree, but I won't repeat myself more than usual as I've gone over most of my thoughts on it in the last few pages. But yes, I think the Joshua story is excellent through Season 6 at least.

I already outlined my very unmarketable idea for a brief Dallas revival somewhere in here. I don't think you can honestly do anything like that show today without being honest about where oil and fossil fuels have taken us. So it would be a short and fairly bleak miniseries, lol.

I think we can handle two things in our minds at once. My being disgusted by HP's reckless and dangerous actions that could very nearly have killed that man and a lot of other people doesn't mean I'm by definition gonna relish in the Daily Mail, of all publications, stalking this sick and struggling woman to rehab. It's just exploitation of an all-around sad story.

I'm not gonna shame the addict for picking up food on the way to rehab.

I'm not getting involved in this lol. NLG's comments here perhaps went a little further over the line in a very generalized defense than they should've over a girl she watched grow up, but they were very tame compared to the night she drunk-tweeted through the Emmys and whined about Viola Davis. Nancy has been a lot better behaved, in my experience at least, since then. Yes, she feels some type of way about Pullos; yes, she could've been a bit less deflecting about criticism. But she wasn't out there saying 'how dare any of you attack my sweet summer child.' It's not that serious.

I've talked at length about this in my various long-winded posts throughout this thread, but it is frustrating how often the air gets let out of any new story balloon that could take the plot somewhere new. The most this show has had me consistently engaged on Amazon is in the period surrounding Jock's death when J.R. begins to collapse psychologically, and then during the key events in the battle between the brothers for Ewing Oil as per Jock's will. I think the second story arc is when he gets in deep with some gas stations, some oil he can't offload and a variety of other things. In both separate instances, J.R. is set up to be uniquely brought low and taken to a place he hasn't been before. And in both instances he bounces back very quickly. I'm not sure more than an episode or two passes between J.R. losing the long war with Bobby and J.R. immediately getting back to his old tricks. It is just an endless Mobius loop. I'm not going to say Larry Hagman was not excellent in the role because he was, consistently, and is immensely entertaining in scene after scene even when the overall plot is not. He obviously shouldn't have gone anywhere. And Patrick Duffy also always seems committed thus far at least. We know how well-loved they were BTS, how Hagman allegedly saved Linda Gray and Bel Geddes' jobs at least (or so he claimed; I think Gray has quietly suggested this may not have happened the way he thought despite her enduring love for him). But you couldn't run a show today the way the various men in power did back then, and the show is often very boring and formulaic to me because of a lot of the choices made. (As I've said before, I even think the sets generally look cheap and chintzy compared to the absolutely stunning production value and location work on KL.)

I don't take pleasure in posting this (or swear by the work of Annie Karni), but here it is anyway: Meanwhile:

My understanding is that Dallas was always to Jacobs what OLTL was to Agnes Nixon: A gateway to getting their pet projects (Knots Landing/AMC) onscreen. From what I've inferred from his interviews, Dallas' success enabled him to make Knots, which he'd had in a drawer for some time, happen. KL was his first love. Part of the reason I will be watching the Dream Season intently along with KL Season 7 is to see how two very different teams work on two very different shows. I can't believe they so squandered not just Principal but Susan Howard, who was really the only credible strong female lead on the show IMO after the miniseries, at least in the material I've seen. (Barbara Bel Geddes is great, but Miss Ellie too often retreats to shaking her head and sighing 'oh, J.R.' - their feuds do not last.) Priscilla Pointer was formidable but dies almost immediately after being the latest in an endless line of characters to decide to Get J.R.

Yeah, I'm familiar with the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof roots. And yes, if Williams ever pulled rank most of the modern pop culture canon would be gone lol.

I am very tempted to hunt this book down.

I hope you'll give the anniversary and Christmas episode a chance.

I don't think that's hijacking, it's great lore. Feel free to share what you like. Was Vanessa Beaumont Gayle Hunnicut's character? I have a soft spot for her from a lot of classic British horror films like The Legend of Hell House, I didn't know her storyline was any good.

Yeow!

Fascinating. I seem to recall something I heard about one of the books indicating one of the Ewing children was not Jock's. Or am I way off? I find the source material in Dallas, and the early sketches, much richer than the show it became. Knots did not have this problem for me.

Wasn't there a prequel book to go with the prequel TV movie or miniseries that got pretty wild?

It's too bad, because I actually think the ADA role was inspired as an evolution for the character and I think if there was ever a chance to invest in Molly as an adult that new position was it. I suppose you still could with the recast but I just don't feel the same impetus with both longtime Davis actresses gone (though I'm perfectly willing to give Kate Mansi a chance). I think they've both languished far too long onscreen, been too present doing nothing, and the only way to make them work now is with a break and a massive reset or with a much emptier canvas. We'll see what happens with Mansi and the new girl, I guess. I don't see any future in being forever coupled to T.J. (though the latest actor is good) or having yet another baby on canvas, though. I think that's all so tired.

I think HP could've done more with better material but yeah, she has absolutely never been the new Kimberly McCullough (or Robyn Richards, who didn't last and also would not qualify). She is a lifer but that is the only comparison. She has been a C-player for almost a decade.