Dallas: Discussion Thread

[Chris 2]

I’m rewatching the season where Bel Geddes comes back (the dream season). She’s pretty much the only redeeming thing about that season. Almost everything else falls flat, but she lends the proceedings that air of authenticity that you mention.

Barbara Curran’s book says she wanted an increase in salary and more time off, IIRC. The studio should have found a way to compromise because having Donna Reed in there damaged the show. Could you imagine her being married to Jim Davis’ Jock?

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[kalbir]

I remember you once said you liked the modern-day western era more than the corporate and glamorous era.

Even though Dallas was a family/business conflict-based show, it had the heart and roots of a western.

[Khan]

I agree.

From the start, David Jacobs envisioned DALLAS as a modern-day "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," with Bobby as Brick, J.R. as Gooper, Pam as Maggie, Sue Ellen as Mae, and Jock and Miss Ellie as Big Daddy and Big Mama.  You also saw a little bit of George Stevens' "Giant" in the Jock/Digger/Miss Ellie triangle, and especially in how Jock and Digger's falling out over business AND Miss Ellie turned Digger into a bitter drunk; and even some of "Romeo & Juliet," too, with Bobby and Pam becoming husband and wife, despite the decades of bad blood between their families.

[te.]

I'd assume it might be a bit of both - Linda might not per se have been pushed out, but been asked to do less episode / take less pay and she just decided that it was time to walk away and do other things.

[Soapsuds]

In his recent interview Steve Kanaly said Linda was fired/let go. He was also fired along with Priscilla in 1988 and felt betrayed by the show. He was offered the following seasons the four episode appearance Barbara and Howard was offered the final season of the show.

He said they were hiring much younger and cheaper actors because the show was costing too much to produce.

[Chris 2]

The reality was that Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy (upon his return) sucked up a lot of the budget for actors in the later years as the ratings were on the downswing. Duffy’s salary was doubled when he returned (plus a 1 million dollar signing bonus). During that season, almost all of the recurring (“Also Starring”) cast was released from the show by midseason. By the latter half of that season, the show seemed strangely depopulated. Victoria Principal was willing to stick around for another season after that in exchange for salary parity with Duffy (which she deserve) but Lorimar chose not to meet her demands and she walked.

[SoapDope]

Speaking of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.....in episode 5 " Bar-B-Que" Pam is wearing a dress similar to the one Elizabeth Taylor did in the film. 

[Khan]

I think that was intentional.  Pam was pregnant in that episode, just as Maggie claimed she was pregnant.  ("I've got life in me, Big Daddy!")

It's funny how David Jacobs is clearly playing homage to Tennessee Williams' play, and look who they have essentially playing Big Mama?  The original "Maggie the Cat," lol.

Edited May 29, 2024 by Khan

[I Am A Swede]

^^

After seeing Elizabeth Taylor play Maggie in the movie version it's hard to picture Barbara Bel Geddes playing the same role. They are just so different as types.

[Broderick]

Technically, it's really not the same role. 

The role Elizabeth Taylor played in the film was sort of a soft, seductive, benign version of Maggie Pollitt, who would appease the motion picture censors of the 1950s.

In the real play, starring Barbara Bel Geddes, Maggie Pollitt is a scrappy, shrill, relentless fighter (like Pamela Barnes often comes across in the early episodes of "Dallas") who's given the thankless and insurmountable task of dealing with a mean brother-in-law, a jealous and self-righteous sister-in-law, and an alcoholic young husband who'd rather pine away for his lost love (Skipper) than lay a hand on his wife.   (It appears Brick and Skipper had a sexual relationship, Maggie suspected it, she attempted to seduce Skipper to be sure, and when Skipper couldn't perform he killed himself.)  But in the end, Maggie triumphs -- or at least, she seems POISED to triumph -- when she hides her husband's liquor and lets him know he won't be getting another drop of booze until he's fertilized her egg so she can produce an heir for Big Daddy.

And that's definitely not the role Elizabeth Taylor played in the movie, lol.  (Barbara Bel Geddes and Ben Gazzara got very good reviews for the roles of Maggie & Brick on Broadway.)    

[Vee]

So I'm about 3 episodes into Knots maestro Peter Dunne's infamous dream season and I have a lot of thoughts - most of them positive to Dallas for a change. I know it will go off the rails, but I've been pleasantly surprised. Watch this space, I guess?

[Liberty City]

I, too, like the "dream" season.

[j swift]

If they got rid of the stunt casting and focused on the Pam vs. JR dynamic after the loss of Bobby, that could've been great.  One hopes that they didn't pin the drop in ratings on Victoria Principal and instead put the blame on Barbara Carrera and all the surrounding silliness. 

JR trying to exert control over Pam, interfering with Christopher, and trying to get rid of Mark was fun.  And as, explained in this thread, that dynamic was part of the source material.  But, even better in season 9, because by then Pam had experience and her own base of power, so she was an equal rival.  Yet, once they felt the need to expand beyond Dallas into international intrigue, it became a flop. 

[kalbir]

Dallas got more corporate and glamorous and tried to be cosmopolitan, all to beat Dynasty, but it didn't work.

Edited June 16, 2024 by kalbir

[Vee]

I'll talk about this more when I go into the episodes in detail, but I was surprised to see Leonard Katzman's name on the writing credits of the (excellent) season premiere and to learn he apparently stayed involved in some creative capacity during the dream season. There's a claim he came up with the notorious Angelica Nero, but I don't know how that's true.