Chris 2

I knew from the minute I saw that Jock’s body wasn’t recovered from the helicopter crash that he’d eventually be back. The Parmalee story was good, except for the weird, abrupt ending. Every single thing was pointing to him being Jock, and then they did a 180. David Paulsen said they did not intend for him to be Jock, but I suspect they were borrowing heavily from a story plotted out in the previous dream season, when Ben Stivers was going to be Jock. I also didn’t buy Steve Forrest as a potential Jock. Physically he was wrong for the role and didn’t have the same presence. I could never have accepted him as the character.

By comparison, the Cheers finale a few years later got a 45.5 rating. Even Frasier and Family Ties, which were not the blockbuster hits that Dallas was, had higher rated finales. Shows how much they had alienated the show’s once-huge audience.

Some of the recasts I understood. Peter Mark Richman was always playing these kind of sour business associates on various nighttime shows, and he was never going to be the right person to play a charismatic character like CC. Paul Burke was a primetime actor, so I suppose that was his appeal, but he was limited in range. Casting dull Charles Bateman was a head scratcher. The first Joe, while a good looking man, was a pretty green actor (I still remember after all these years the weird way he said “Kelly”). And they worked him hard. The second Joe was played by a more experienced actor, but it was jarring because he wasn’t pretty like the first Joe. The whole Joe and Kelly undying-love story seemed a little forced to me. The actress who originally played Laken was awful. She mumbled her lines and had no pep - just kind of low energy for someone who was one half of a couple that you were supposed to root for. Maybe they were going for someone to balance out eager-beaver Ted, but I think they could have gotten someone who seemed grounded without being a total dud. I recall that Sophia was quickly recast, as was Pamela. Ava Lazar was fine as Santana, and very striking to boot. Her successors paled in comparison.

Sure it was - it was a two-hour fantasy about JR seeing what life would be like if he had never been born. Dream or fantasy - same thing to me. I agree with you that bringing back Mark was a mistake. It seemed like a big step back for Pam. But the the producers seemingly couldn’t stand having any woman on the show single for more than a few episodes. Pam could have been single for a while, and then used a new romance as an opportunity to bring in a new character.

Yep - and that’s when the ratings really started falling off. The episodes during the latter half of the dream season were frequently no longer even in the top 15. Ratings had even started to decline a bit at the end of the previous season (1984-85). How many more times could you break up/reunite the couples, or have the Ewings fighting for Ewing Oil? Bobby’s death was a chance to reinvent the show. But the new writers/producers blew it. And Lorimar and the network were more than happy to go back to the tried and true for the 1986-87 season. But the gas in that tank was almost gone. After one decent season following Bobby’s return, the quality of the show plummeted. The finale was another missed opportunity - in this case, to wrap things up nicely and go out strongly. CBS still hadn’t officially cancelled it when production started on the final episode. Hagman was still hoping for another season. So they designed an episode which would bring back old characters, but not force the writers to explain where the returnees disappeared to in case of another season. So we got another dream. Ugh. Victoria Principal said at the time she was willing to return to put a “coda” on her stint as Pam, but she didn’t want to be part of another cliffhanger. We could have had a great reunion for Bobby and Pam had the production company been willing to make the call on the series ending.

I remember hearing about the “it was all a dream” scenario about a month before the season premiere of “Dallas” in 1986. Then the promos started listing it as a resolution. The speculation was that CBS didn’t want to spring it on people because they knew it was a cop out. So they put it out there. That premiere was highly rated, but the episode the following week dropped to #14. Ratings gradually recovered/stabilized for the season and it ranked #11 for the season. The bottom really fell out when Victoria Principal left the following year.

I wonder if there was any attempt to get Meg Bennett back when Sherry Mathis left. Or had that ship sailed (maybe Meg was west coast-based by then).

IIRC, they switched Lizas in the middle of a Search “day”. So it wasn’t like Liza one day woke up with a different face. Instead, Louan Gideon showed up wearing Sherry Mathis’ wardrobe from the previous episode, because both episodes took place on the same day.

Taylor Miller is a really distinctive performer with those patrician features of hers and her all-around screen presence. The second Nina was physically right for the role, but they saddled her with some pretty horrible material. The third, dark-haired Nina might as well have landed from Mars, she seemed so alien.

I remember watching the Texas finale on our local affiliate which carried it “in pattern” at 11:00 ET. It was an hour long.

How about a huge flood hits Henderson?

That one promo - with the exploding boat - is weird. You have this explosion and Liza and Travis’ silhouettes behind the flames, while the lighthearted Search sax theme plays in the background.

1984 also introduced Cousin Lorena and her boring-ass spa.

Tbh, I was not a fan of either. Rae was OK in small doses, but I found the actress one-note, and the character completely overbearing. The Kimberly character was so annoying, unattractive, and unappealing it was hard to believe that she lasted on the show as long as she did.

LOL. That spa thing was really boring. To paraphrase Edward Q at the time: I’m not interested in watching women run, beaten, and tortured into shape. GH had a penchant for introducing dull, uncharismatic characters at the time: Tony, Ginny, Tanya, Lorena, etc. Tony eventually worked out, at least. I hated Mike. He made Anne Logan’s son Jeremy seem like one of the best child characters in comparison. “Doc Rick” and “Mom Lesley.” Ugh. I really didn’t like any of the Webbers at that time, with Rick doing his best Gary Cooper imitation, and Lesley always bordering on hysteria. Too bad all three of them weren’t in Lesley’s car. Or at least have them selected for some secret WSB mission and sent out of town along with Ginny Blake and the spa crowd. I have to admit that I thought it was really clever how they introduced the evil Grant just as the faux Grant’s previous story was wrapping up. And they had planted the seeds for it very early on. That’s how you hook people. The execution was kinda meh, though.

I remember all of GH’s action adventure plots at the same time lasted six months each. The Prometheus Disc, the Treasure of Malkuth, the Oil Scam. And get me started on the Aztec Treasure, which dragged on for nearly a year. I don’t even think they planned that one out in advance - it just went on and on and morphed strangely.

LOL - I hope he broke up with her for suggesting that ridiculous name. Reminds me of when Cliff on Cheers made up a fake girlfriend named “Tanya Cocoabutter”. Little Eric Farlow on Dallas was cute, btw.

Some of this stuff is pretty catty. Why would Alec Baldwin care about acting abilities when choosing a romantic partner?

Ellie inherited Jock’s Ewing 1 license plate at some point. I remember her driving her little Cabriolet with the Jock’s old tag on it and thinking how funny it was (Jock drove a big Lincoln IIRC).

I wonder if she’s forgetting some details. It has been over 30 years after all. Santa Barbara premiered in the summer of 1984. The Princess Bride was filmed for four months in late 1986 and released in 1987. So if she originally had a two year contract, it would have been up before filming for the movie started. My guess is that she had a three year contract (more standard for a newbie anyway), and they agreed to let her out to film the movie in exchange for a one-year contract extension. That takes you to June 1988, when she left. And she was off for four months filming the movie, so they really got another eight months from her, as opposed to 12. A theory, anyway.

I had never seen her before, but after seeing just a few scenes of her, I understand why she was so highly regarded. She has a commanding presence, and there is something just sinister about her Dorian. She’s kind of scary, and that’s a compliment.

Yep. Because whatever they offered her didn’t give her salary parity with Patrick Duffy (which she deserved) and the producers wanted her to sign a two-year deal, and she only wanted to sign for one. Since then, Victoria has “massaged reality” and said that she always told the producers she would leave in two years after she signed a new two year deal in 1985 (she left in 1987). But she was willing to stay for the right deal.

Kimberly returning from the dead, staring at Michael and Sydney from outside the beach house, is such an iconic moment. It was kind of shocking, because until then, we didn’t realize that MP was that kind of show. And after that, it was no holds barred.

Amen to this. I think his return and blowing up the building were the first signs that the show was going off the rails. I always found Peter arrogant and unlikeable.

If I had been writing Melrose 2.0, I would have brought Alison back for a short arc where she tangles with Amanda - again - professionally. With no mention of her personal life. And at the end of the arc, I would have had a final scene of Alison arriving home with Billy waiting for her, and it’s clear they’ve been married for a while.