Dynasty was getting a lot of hype -Joan Collins, over the top stories, name guest stars, glamorous sets and costumes and Dallas felt like they had to compete with that to keep on top.

But Dallas had never been that type of show and didn't wear those aspects well.

Re Lucy. As I posted before Charlene had good snarky chemistry with Larry. She should have married a businessman. Either he was ambitious and using Lucy to further his own agenda or an innocent who got caught up in JR's web. It would have kept her connected to the goings on at Ewing Oil rather than being islanded in stories that had little to do with the rest of the show.

1 hour ago, Paul Raven said:

Re Lucy. As I posted before Charlene had good snarky chemistry with Larry. She should have married a businessman. Either he was ambitious and using Lucy to further his own agenda or an innocent who got caught up in JR's web. It would have kept her connected to the goings on at Ewing Oil rather than being islanded in stories that had little to do with the rest of the show.

I always wanted Lucy paired with someone you'd never expect her to be paired with: someone who was nerdy-looking, for lack of a better word. That's why, when we were talking about what to do for CT/Lucy if she had joined KL full-time, I suggested her going to work at the Sumner Group as Paige's new assistant (as a favor to Gary and Val) and being the object of both Mort and Bob's affections, with Zane Lasky's schlubby Bob winning out in the end.

Dallas wasn't the only one trying to copy Dynasty. Y&R was writing and dressing Jill Abbott to be a daytime Alexis clone.

Dallas made the mistake early on by writing out Alan Beam. That character had long term potential. If he and Lucy had been married, they would have been in the thick of things for years scheming to get their piece of the Ewing pie. Lucy would have given Alan her proxy to control her shares of Ewing oil.

But the writer's thought "Mitch" was more interesting.🙄

Dallas really started to fall apart early on, especially after the Who Shot J.R. hoopla. The also foolishly killed Kristen off.

Nov 21 1980

CBS Dallas (Kristen revealed as JR's shooter) 53.3/76 #1

ABC Movie Convoy 11.9/18 #59

NBC Magazine 4.6/7 #60

...

Between the DALLAS/"Dukes of Hazzard" one-two punch on Fridays and the classic "Alice"/"The Jeffersons"/"One Day at a Time"/"Archie Bunker's Place" lineup on Sundays - not to mention, "60 Minutes" on Sundays - CBS was killing it. Only four non-CBS shows made the Top 10; and of those four, three were sitcoms (although, you could argue that "The Love Boat" was a sitcom/drama hybrid) and all were on ABC. In fact, only one NBC series made the Top 20, and that was (gulp) "Little House on the Prairie."

...

@Soapsuds That ad is for the episodes of February 1, 1980.

27 minutes ago, kalbir said:

@Soapsuds That ad is for the episodes of February 1, 1980.

Thanks! Wasn't sure what date it was from. Ratings for that week!

Fridays got even stronger for CBS once Dukes and Dallas moved up an hour and Falcon Crest was added. Incredible Hulk never got the numbers of Dukes/Dallas.

But the latter lineup was kept too long till ratings softened.

h

I just love Dallas in HD!

The woman at the start looks familiar too.

On 2/15/2026 at 11:20 PM, DRW50 said:

The woman at the start looks familiar too.

She does look familiar. Did she do a soap? P.J. Soles at the end as the graduate. I wonder how many phone books Charlene had to sit on to see over the steering wheel?

9 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

She does look familiar. Did she do a soap? P.J. Soles at the end as the graduate. I wonder how many phone books Charlene had to sit on to see over the steering wheel?

Yes, it keeps gnawing at me.