Dallas: Discussion Thread

[GLATWT88]

Sorry to sidetrack a bit, although it was fascinating to read about this novelization and all the background and plots that didn't make it onto the series. Also, @Khan that was amazing...I legit gasped at the Bobby revelation. 

Can anyone help me understand the loose ends of season 9. We had the finale with Pam waking up and Bobby in the shower. Clearly, this meant a lot of what was building in season 9 was dropped. Were we supposed to have some sort of resolution with this Ben Stivers character? What was his connection to the Ewings going to be? Punk and Ellie thought he looked familiar and he had that scar on his throat. They brought the actor back in a different role the next season which was odd IMO.

Donna and Ray were in a good space and adopted a son. I actually enjoyed Sue Ellen and JR coming together. It would have been nice to see more of that in season 10 before of course another spat would inevitably arise. 

Was the intent to kill Jamie all along? Had season 9 not been a dream, would we have Jamie back for season 10 surviving the explosion? Or did they have to bring Jamie back because of the dream and thus needed to find a new way to off her. I'm going to assume they were done with the character and therefore opted to kill her again the next season and ultimately the character was always supposed to die season 9. I do feel there was so many things they could have done with Jamie.

Pretty sure Sue Ellen was always going to survive that explosion if storylines had continued onto season 10. It would have been fascinating to see the outcomes of Jamie and Sue Ellen instead of going back a year. 

Where would Jenna have gone from there? Maybe a love triangle with Jack and another woman. 

 

[te.]

It was by all accounts going to be a is-he-or-isn't-he-Jock story, so they basically rescued it from the dream season.

And yes, Jamie was always meant to be dead, Sue Ellen was going to end up in a wheelchair due to the explosion. There were claims that Mark was going to be found dead in the shower, but by all accounts by the actors no such scene was filmed and the scene where Victoria wakes up and finds Bobby there was of course just filmed with Victoria on the set (not knowing why she did it apparently as Patrick shot his scene separately).

 

But overall, I don't think they had done much plotting for the next season before Patrick agreed to come back. Going by interviews, these prime time soaps rarely had huge plans on how to resolve what happened in the cliffhangers since a lot would depend on contracts etc.

Edited May 21, 2023 by te.

[GLATWT88]

Fascinating. Do you know if a Patrick Duffy return was teased for the finale? Or was it a compete surprise to audiences? 

[Khan]

Really?  I had heard that she was supposed to have been blinded.  Of course, it doesn't matter; whether she'd been blinded by the explosion or paralyzed, she probably would've fallen off the wagon again, lol.

If Ben (or Wes) had turned out to be Jock, then there likely would have been an Ellie/Jock/Clayton triangle.  Unfortunately, I don't believe Steve Forrest had the same kind of chemistry with Barbara Bel Geddes that Jim Davis had had, so unless the plan was for Clayton to die or become too unlikeable....

[Soapsuds]

People knew already. It was all over the news near the end of the season. All fans knew is he was returning in the season finale. That's why the show got a huge jump in the ratings and their highest of the season.

The previous week Dallas had an 18.6 rating placing 15th for the week. The season finale jumped to a 24.9 rating and placed 3rd.

Btw did we ever find out who was behind Pam's wild goose chase of Mark? Was it Mark or JR? In the dream season Mark mentions being in that clinic Pam went to in Hong Kong.

Also in the dream season it's revealed that Katherine was responsible for Naldo death.

The season before there was no mention of Katherine being responsible.

As for Jamie she was killed three times on the show...lol

I am curious what would've happen to Sue Ellen after the explosion.

[GLATWT88]

Season 8,  JR calls in a favor and gets someone to convince Pam that Mark is in the Caribbean. He flies her out to some clinic where a doctor or fraud was paid off to lie to Pam that Mark was originally at the clinic, but the facility/doctors couldn't help him so he went elsewhere. She ends up going to another clinic in the Caribbean and speaks with another doctor. I believe the person hired by JR eventult tells Pam the truth when she returns to Dallas. Meanwhile, this second legit doctor she met in the Caribbean while in a conference with doctors in Texas shared Pam's story with a doctor who believes he knows someone fitting Mark's description checked into a clinic in Hong Kong. My understanding is that Mark caught wind that Pam was on his trail and he wasn't ready for her to find him so he paid off some guy to scam Pam into thinking he could sneak her into the hospital to see  Mark but it turns out to be someone else. My understanding was that this was meant to dissuade Pam from continuing her search.

Yeh, Naldo's death is interesting. I'm trying to recall what the motive would have been to kill Naldo and not Jenna. 

[GLATWT88]

I wonder if Duffy's return helped keep ratings from sliding in season 10 like the other soaps. While I believe season 9 finished 6th for the season and Season 10 finished 11th, overall ratings were pretty similar for both seasons. The slip from 6 to 11 had more to do with other shows gaining in popularity rather than Dallas having a significant dip.

I do wonder if the departures in season 10 caused the drop in season 11. 

I haven't watched the earlier seasons in some time, but after reading through the thread, I'm trying to recall if only the miniseries or if season 2 was self contained episodes. 

[Soapsuds]

I'm up to the episode where Pam runs out the clinic after seeing Mr Swanson. That scene was always so hilarious to me. 

It would make sense that Katherine would hire someone to kill Naldo and frame Jenna. That would remove her from Bobby life. I could also see Katherine as the person responsible for Pam's goose chase of Mark. Especially with the way the season ended.

Edited May 21, 2023 by Soapsuds

[GLATWT88]

I would love to see how these stories would be approached with a modern touch. I feel that a lot of great moments that should have appeared on camera happened off camera and im not sure if that was due to budget or as a means to push story along. There were several times I remember feeling that certain moments in season 7 and 8 should have happened on camera that were just told to us or fast forwarded. 

[Soapsuds]

I believe it was only a .2 slip in numbers from season 9.

The departures in season 10 really hurt Dallas in season 11. By season 11 the show seemed disjointed. The pairings were awful and the Ewing oil stuff got really dull.

[soapfan770]

Out of all the seasons of Dallas, I always disliked Season 11 the most. JR’s affair with  Kimberly Cryder is one of the worst written and worst acted stories I have ever seen on television, compounded by Bobby’s bizarre stories and whatever the heck that was Ray & Jenna.

[Soapsuds]

Yeah it was pretty bad. The only thing I liked was Sue Ellen taking JR down during his attempt to takeover WestStar. 

[GLATWT88]

I'm curious to get your opinions on season 10 - 14.

I started off really enjoying season 9, but struggled to finish it and that could have been due to many factors. I do have a lot going on now, but for some reason when I did have time, I just couldn't finish an episode or would watch bits and would finish later. 

So far I'm enjoying season 10. But I've just started and I don't know much about the later seasons. Am I in for a bit of disappointment. 

[Soapsuds]

 

[soapfan770]

I remember growing up watching Seasons 10-14 as they aired and later watching that era again reruns on the old TNN network. Before that I remember staying up to hear the theme song before bed lol. 

The show should have at least stuck with their Pam recast…I’m not sure what happened. By the time they did recast Pam she only appeared for one episode in Season 12 but then they brought the actress back in Season 13 for some silly Pam doppelgänger story. 

As I mentioned Season 11 was pretty bad. Season 12 was an improvement with the introduction of the McKay’s and finally taking down Jeremy Wendell but lost its way with a lot of silliness (I loved Cally and Tammy but their stories were ridiculous) and then letting Linda Gray walk away. 
 

Season 13 was a disaster although the Stephanie Rogers story was the single highlight. 

The final season, Season 14 was an improvement over Season 13 IMO but it was too late for the show, especially on letting Barbara Bel Geddes walk. The highlights were everything revolving around Michelle and Liz as both actresses really carried the show for that last season. Lowlight was April’s unnecessary violent murder although I understand Sheree Wilson personally asked for April to be killed off when she quit the show.
 

Hated the finale but TPTB apparently seriously thought they were coming back for the 1991-92 season lol.

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The movie JR Returns was ultimately IMO a satisfying conclusion to the series it’s actually pretty easy to accept that as the real end of Dallas and dismiss the 2012 series as non-canonical nonsense.

Now that was good fun for sure. I just hated though the season had started off with JR and Sue Ellen in a really good and united front there was no need for JR to mess it up.