Dallas: Discussion Thread

[Soapsuds]

Dallas first appearance in the top 20 was during the first week of January of 1979.  The episode title "Home Again". It's the episode where Miss Ellie's brother(Garrison) returns and she wants to give Southfork to him. The episode is so well written.

 

 

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[Franko]

The last self-contained episode was "Trouble at Ewing 23," where a man threatened to blow up one of the wells. It aired during the 1980-81 season.

I'm liking the discussion on the Southworths. I feel like we can infer that Miss Ellie resisting oil drilling on Southfork as long as she could, as well as fighting to protect Takapa (and ultimately fighting Jock because of it), was her attempt to atone for the sin of not doing what Aaron Southworth wanted/metaphorically losing her soul to an oilman.

Dallas always did seem to be the soap built on daddy issues, no?

[kalbir]

Dallas had three seasons finishing at #1 (1980/81, 1981/82, 1983/84), two seasons finishing at #2 (1982/83, 1984/85), two seasons finishing in the Top 10 (1979/80, 1985/86), one season finishing in the Top 15 (1986/87), two seasons finishing in the Top 30 (1987/88, 1988/89), and four seasons finishing below the Top 30 (1977/78, 1978/79, 1989/90, 1990/91).

[Soapsuds]

Does anyone remember if the season opener of the dream season was a 2 hour special or was it back to back episodes? IMDb has them listed as individual episodes.

[Chris 2]

Bobby’s funeral was a two hour episode with just one set of credits, though I’m sure it was produced as two separate hours. I remember it aired during Hurricane Gloria when there were a lot of power outages in our area. Our CBS affiliate got permission to rerun the episode in a late night slot the following week when power had been restored to most of us.

[Soapsuds]

Then the versions on the DVD and IMDb are the syndicated cuts. It's a shame.

[Chris 2]

I know they did the same the to the following season premiere, Return to Camelot, which aired as a two-hour episode originally but is on the DVD set as two separate episodes.

[Soapsuds]

Yeah I remembered it but not the previous season. Dallas sure got a lot of 2 hour specials from CBS

Edited March 1, 2022 by Soapsuds

[Paul Raven]

Well there were a few season premieres. How many exactly?

Were the 2 hr finales?

The only other 2 hr episode I recall was the Mastectomy episode which got Dallas it's highest ratings to that point

[te.]

The majority of two hour specials are actually intentionally produced as two episodes for syndication purposes. I think very few of them are actually written as a proper full two hours (or rather 90-100 minutes). Back in the day you also didn't have the act before the opening credits, so you'd basically just have to cut off the end and opening credits and stick them together...

[Paul Raven]

Dallas hit #1 for the first time in the week ending Feb 10 1980 31.1/49

Lead in Dukes of Hazzard was #2

[Broderick]

You know, the original setup was a complete knock-off of Tennessee Williams's play from the 1950s, "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof".  Jock & Miss Ellie were mirror images of Big Daddy and Big Mama; JR and Sue Ellen were Gooper & Mae; Bobby and Pam represented Brick & Maggie of course; and Lucy was the no-neck monster.

I remember seeing the first episode of "Dallas" when I was a little kid, and thinking that Tennessee Williams should have litigated.  But I reckon he was just glad to see someone so anxious to copy him. 

There's a novel by Lee Raintree that was published in conjunction with the airing of the 5-episode miniseries that gives a long, detailed history of the Jock, Digger, and Miss Ellie triangle, as well as the boyhoods of JR, Gary, and Bobby.   The novel was based off the original script outlines for the miniseries, not necessarily what aired on television.  It's really a pretty decent read, if you're interested in Southworth and Ewing history.  The novel captures what David Jacobs originally conceived for the series, some of which was subsequently altered for television.    

Edited March 2, 2022 by Broderick

[Paul Raven]

The Season finale for 79-80 -  JR is shot - was #1 for the week ending March 23

1 .Dallas 32.7/52

2. Dukes of Hazzard 28.6/45

[Soapsuds]

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[allmc2008]

I thought it was in reverse?