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<span style="font-size:19.5pt;"><font face="Verdana">The top ten Dallas moments</font></span>

<span style="font-size:10.5pt;"><b><font face="Verdana">Dallas, the queen of all soaps, was first shown on TV 30 years ago today. To celebrate the anniversary, Tim Teeman picks the long-running series' best, bitchiest, big-haired moments</font></b></span>

<span style="font-size:7.5pt;"><b><font face="Tahoma">Tim Teeman</font></b></span>

<span style="font-size:10.5pt;">10 The credits

What a ballsy, big, great tune. Every season to the end, the music got better, the titles longer. The song remains the ultimate theme tune, as does the whole sequence, especially in an age when opening credits are a dying art. The credits were only bettered by Knots Landing, the brilliant (and ultimately longer-lasting) Dallas spin-off.

9 JR getting shot (obviously)

The ultimate soap cliffhanger: a darkened room, a list of suspects as long as a Southfork fence and a gunshot. Dallas used the cliffhanger more than once (once Bobby took a bullet instead of JR) and other soaps followed. Remember the 'who shot Phil Mitchell' storyline on EastEnders?

8 Sue Ellen drinking

Pick a moment. Really, it doesn't matter which because each would start with a tremulous lip-chomping motion on the corner of the glass. A true Sue Ellen signature and fun to impersonate when inebriated yourself. Make yourself cross-eyed for the full effect.

7 Sue Ellen getting carted off to the sanatorium

The ultimate Sue Ellen as victim moment, before the mid-to-late Eighties sobriety/powersuit makeover that saw her leave town (with Lovejoy, surreally) having beaten JR once and for all. Her hair had become truly bizarre by this point.

6 The Oil Barons' Ball/Ewing barbecue

Each season of Dallas had to have one. Essentially it was an excuse for someone to get a drink chucked in their face (Oil Baron's Ball) or pushed into the pool (Ewing barbecue).

5 Pam slaps Katherine

Over an agonisingly long period, evil Katharine Wentworth had schemed and plotted to break up the golden couple of Pam (her sister) and Bobby Ewing. Pam found out and gave her a well-deserved wallop.

4 The different Miss Ellie

It was so very wrong. Donna Reed joined the show, replacing Barbara Bel Geddes. Everyone called her Miss Ellie but she really wasn't, and Bel Geddes soon rejoined the show. Remember when Miss Ellie was kidnapped?

3 Bobby is killed and rises again/The Dream

After Pam slapped Katherine, the latter's psychosis was fuelled and she drove over to Pam's to mow down her rival. But Bobby pushed Pam out of the way, was knocked over and died. Then, a season of Dallas later, Pam woke up, Bobby's in the shower - she dreamt the entire preceding season. Many fans gave up on the show at this point, the fools - its final years got way trashier.

2 Pam dies /comes back

This wasn't a dream. But she was reincarnated. Pam discovers, soap miracle of miracles, she can have children. She calls Bobby on the car phone. Car crashes into lorry. Pam is a goner: oh no, she isn't, but she does spend a lot of time in bandages (face not showing) in a hospital. It goes on FOREVER.

1 The end?

JR is shown what life would have been like without him by a creepoid called Adam, later revealed to be working for the devil. A shot rings out. Bobby walks in and says, "Oh my God". The question is left hanging, did JR kill himself? This is resolved in a Dallas reunion special, but who cares? Some things are better left a mystery (or Google it obviously).

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Edited October 13, 201015 yr by Sylph

Number 2 was the first soap opera moment I ever saw when I was two years old. I just remember my parents saying "Pam got into a car accident." What an amazing soap.

Number 2 was the first soap opera moment I ever saw when I was two years old. I just remember my parents saying "Pam got into a car accident." What an amazing soap.

Love Dallas.

Not sure I agree with *all* those moments. The new Ellie and the abysmal ending were two of the worst I think.

I'd have thrown in when Sue Ellen was forced to sing "people" at gunpoint (the episode which saw Sue Ellen develop into a real character)

I can't believe it has been 30 years Wow!! The Dream Season of Dallas will be released on July 15. This is Season 9. But if you dont count the mini-series as a season this is actually Season 8.

Here is the link to the art cover for Season 9. A very nice cover of the entire cast of that season.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Dallas-Se...-9-Box-Art/9343

question how did Precilla Presley join thhe show??? and how long did she play jenna before marrying Ray

Is this show any good? And how would you compare it to Dynasty? I've recently started watching Dynasty, but I'm very interested in Dallas as well (and I'm mostly wondering because I will quickly run out of Dynasty episodes since only the first three seasons are available, and Dallas has almost all released).

Dallas is a little harder to get into than Dynasty is, IMO. DAL really gets complex and intricate with the business/politics stuff, and those elements have a huge effect on the more personal relationship stuff.

The episodes are more self-contained in the beginning of DAL, too. There are serialized elements, but most episodes have a plot line that comes to a climax within the episode and is only alluded to afterwards (Bobby's kidnapping, the Val/Gary drama, the ridiculous and pointless episode with the country singer, the prospect of Jock having an affair with Tina Louise, etc).

One thing I've sadly realized through watching these early episodes is that the Ewings are a very unlikeable family. JR does all of this evil sh!t, Bobby calls him out on it but when push comes to shove he's all about "family honor." Jock believes in everything JR does, and even though Miss Ellie knows right from wrong, she's another one who wouldn't dare risk losing "family honor" in the name of common decency. I could slap all of them once or twice. Sue Ellen, Lucy, and Pam are really the only sane ones in the house, which is sad.

Is this show any good? And how would you compare it to Dynasty? I've recently started watching Dynasty, but I'm very interested in Dallas as well (and I'm mostly wondering because I will quickly run out of Dynasty episodes since only the first three seasons are available, and Dallas has almost all released).

You cannot go wrong with Dallas. Dynasty has some higher highs, but Dallas was just the better soap overall. The only thing with Dallas is it is not serialized at the start so you have to be willing to watch episodic for a year. I don't think it becomes truly serialized til the second full season.

Is this show any good? And how would you compare it to Dynasty? I've recently started watching Dynasty, but I'm very interested in Dallas as well (and I'm mostly wondering because I will quickly run out of Dynasty episodes since only the first three seasons are available, and Dallas has almost all released).

Dallas is a stronger show, overall. A stronger ensemble of actors. It's worth watching for sure.

That said, when Dynasty hit it's stride, nothing touches it. and JR v Alexis is not a fair fight, Alexis wins.

Dallas is a stronger show, overall. A stronger ensemble of actors. It's worth watching for sure.

That said, when Dynasty hit it's stride, nothing touches it. and JR v Alexis is not a fair fight, Alexis wins.

For me, this is easily true. I don't know why, but I find it much easier to like female characters than male characters.

I watched Dallas when I was growing up, but more the last seasons. I know the earlier stuff was better, but when I watch it, JR is just too omnipresent. I find JR to be an insufferable and not very entertaining character, he's no fun.

I watched Dallas when I was growing up, but more the last seasons. I know the earlier stuff was better, but when I watch it, JR is just too omnipresent. I find JR to be an insufferable and not very entertaining character, he's no fun.

I think that's a common thing with the lead men in prime time soaps for the most part. They aren't fun.

But then you have the Michael Naders and the Thomas Colabros who are such fun to make up for them. It helps that the Naders and Colabros are usually paired with the Collins and Locklears who are also beyond fun.

I think that's a common thing with the lead men in prime time soaps for the most part. They aren't fun.

But then you have the Michael Naders and the Thomas Colabros who are such fun to make up for them. It helps that the Naders and Colabros are usually paired with the Collins and Locklears who are also beyond fun.

That's true. I think that's another reason I don't enjoy Dallas as much as Dynasty or Knots. The men outside of JR, who is so cruel, are often very serious, and even the tragicomic Cliff Barnes is always such a loser that it can be tough to watch.

At least Dynasty had Adam, who could be very dryly funny, Falcon Crest had Richard, Knots had Richard, and Mac, and Greg.

Edited April 27, 201015 yr by CarlD2

Larry Hagman was SO GOOD as J.R., he did a wonderfully subtle, nuanced job at this larger than life character. I think he's underrated, and that time has forgotten just how good he was. Dallas (and Knots for that matter) was much more grounded in reality, it wasn't the fantasy that Dynasty was, so J.R. didn't have the added visual element of Alexis. But I appreciated that, that more subtle, "attainable" wealth on the David Jacobs shows. Maybe I couldn't have Alexis' Rolls but I could probably get J.R.'s Allante, things like Sue-Ellen driving a Mercedes Benz station wagon were the little details my family just gets off on.