Dallas 2.0: Discussion Thread

Since when do men slap each other? That was akward, but I can't wait to see my JR and Company!!!!!!!!!!

A great article came out this week

J.R. Ewing Takes Another Shot

As Dallas returns to TV, a look at how the iconic character came to define our city and the way people think of us the world over.

It’s time for Dallas to make its peace with Dallas.

Cities don’t choose their legends. Wandering troubadours and blind prophets and kilted bards show up at the gates of the city and, by their lamentations and chansons, assign the myth, then flee. It’s yours forever, whether you like it or not.

J.R. will always be with us.

I realized this only recently. It hit me about 11 minutes into the first episode of the Dallas series premiering this month on TNT. Or should I say the series continuing this month? Because it’s not a remake, and it’s not a Hollywood-style “reimagining.” It’s the same TV series, as first created in 1978, as though it has simply been on hiatus for the past 20 years. It’s not only the same characters; it’s the same actors playing the same characters. It’s as though the series is Holy Writ. You couldn’t reimagine it any more than you could reimagine the Battle of Fort McHenry and leave out the part about the flag.

http://www.dmagazine...other_Shot.aspx

So was it Barbara Carrera the actress that Larry Hagman said sucked....lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q83kvVYs87U&feature=related

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...its almost here....cant wait!

I saw this, and it seems a shame Ted S said no

"It was great to be with Larry and celebrate this man who is a force of nature," says Tilton, who, with Kanaly, will pop up in a few episodes as Lucy Ewing and Ray Krebbs. Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Ark, who played Lucy's parents, Gary and Valene Ewing, and were spun-off onto the prime-time soap Knots Landing, were approached about returning for an episode, but Shackelford passed on what he viewed as a minimal cameo.

But we will get the occasional glimpse of crotchety Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), the current owner of Ewing Oil, who'll be making a play for both Southfork and Sue Ellen. "He's like a sackful of rattlesnakes," Hagman says of his character's longtime nemesis.

"Larry, Kenny and I had a scene the other day, and talk about nostalgia," marvels Gray. "It was like I'd just worked with them six months ago."

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/tv/tvguide/article/On-the-Set-The-Ewings-Return-to-Dallas-3608754.php#ixzz1wuOhAWCe

And, oh dear, a less than enthusiastic review

In the 1980s, there were two competing visions of wealth on TV: “Dallas” and “Dynasty.” People tend to lump the two nighttime soaps together, but aside from the characters’ habit of resolving major conflicts in the swimming pool, the two shows couldn’t be more different. “Dynasty” constructed a fantasy of domestic royalty and jet-setting escapism, offering a portrait of the rich as diamond-strewn, evening-gown-clad ghosts drifting from their private jets to their enormous mansions as servants rushed about carrying silver platters. “Dallas,” by contrast, stayed firmly rooted in middle-class American values, presenting a picture that was more Big Boy breakfast buffet than “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” With its cowboy hats and flocked wallpaper and Hatfields-versus-McCoys-style feuds, “Dallas” was as provincial and preglobal-economy as it gets. Even Southfork’s décor, with its dark paneling, garish paintings and low ceilings, mirrored the claustrophobia of the country club: cramped, wall-to-wall carpeted spaces packed with small-minded people lugging their gigantic egos around behind them like overstuffed golf bags...

...From the first moments of TNT’s “Dallas” remake (or “continuation,” because the show picks up 20-odd years after the original story left off), something is askew. It isn’t just the sudden, verdant lushness of Southfork, which in the old days always had the flat, yellowing look of a place you would never want to get stuck. It isn’t the bland, Abercrombie & Fitch-model prettiness of the show’s young stars — Jesse Metcalfe, Jordana Brewster and Josh Henderson — that has nothing in common with the regular-folks charms of Patrick Duffy, the creepy-uncle appeal of Larry Hagman or the homecoming-court runner-up magnetism of Charlene Tilton. Where the big fish of Southfork once circled their small pond with the clumsy resignation of trapped creatures, this new generation of Ewings talks and moves with the slick efficiency of characters in a swashbuckling high-capitalist adventure directed by Michael Bay.

In fact, this extreme-makeover version of “Dallas” could take place anywhere on the globe; call the show “London” or “Mumbai” or “Beijing,” and you’ve got the same fit humans tapping away at their laptops and pumping their fists over the latest business deal. Aside from John Ross’s cowboy hat and the occasional outdoor barbecue, this is just another gaggle of energetic, beautiful people with international ambitions and very little body hair, bedding and double-crossing one another to a generic twangy-guitar soundtrack

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/magazine/when-dallas-was-the-capital-of-america.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Edited June 5, 201213 yr by quartermainefan

I'm not sure that's overly fair, to ding the show for being generic and not true to the Texas setting, as, aside from the first 4-5 years or so, I'm not sure if the original was either.

I have always felt the casting on this is off and I think that is what may drag the show down.

So they didn't bring Joan Van Ark back because Ted Shackleford wouldn't return? Can't she come back on her own? Just how minimal was this cameo if he is fine with doing [!@#$%^&*] all on Y&R and not having a quick blip on Dallas?

I'm not sure that's overly fair, to ding the show for being generic and not true to the Texas setting, as, aside from the first 4-5 years or so, I'm not sure if the original was either. I have always felt the casting on this is off and I think that is what may drag the show down. So they didn't bring Joan Van Ark back because Ted Shackleford wouldn't return? Can't she come back on her own? Just how minimal was this cameo if he is fine with doing [!@#$%^&*] all on Y&R and not having a quick blip on Dallas?

Agreed its not like Shakelford has much to do. He looks sometimes just as old or older than Larry Hagman. At least he was asked back.....

Watched the first episode today and really enjoyed it. True to the original. Will watch more in the next couple of days.

Watched the first episode today and really enjoyed it. True to the original. Will watch more in the next couple of days.

Where did you see it at Roger?

Cameron Mathison will host a 15 minute post-show everyweek on the TNT website.

Cameron Mathison will host a 15 minute post-show everyweek on the TNT website.

Ugh Cameron Mathison needs to go away

Edited June 7, 201213 yr by Soapsuds

Yall complain too much! Be thankful he isn't ACTING on either show lol. Now THAT would be a true crime against humanity. I'll find a way to cope with him hosting as long as those casting directors don't get any ideas.

Cameron Mathison will host a 15 minute post-show everyweek on the TNT website.

This is so fucked up! I will just make sure NONE of CM hits the DVR!

It is on the website so hopefully we will be safe. It isn't as if he has a natural connection to Dallas.