Dallas

Dallas, the first of a genre to be named "prime-time soap" by television critics, established the features of serial plots involving feuding families and moral excess that would characterize all other programs of the type. Created by David Jacobs, Dallas's first five-episode pilot season, aired in April 1978 on CBS, met with poor reviews, but earned ratings that put it in the top ten by the end of its limited run. The central premise was a Romeo and Juliet conflict, set in contemporary Texas. Pamela Barnes and Bobby Ewing were the young lovers; their two families perpetuated the feud of their elders, Jock Ewing and Digger Barnes, over the rightful ownership of oil fields claimed by the Ewings.

In the pilot episodes and the twelve full seasons that would follow, the Ewing family remained the focus of Dallas. Indeed, the Ewing brothers, their wives, their offspring and all assorted relatives passing through would continue to live under one roof on Southfork, the family ranch. Bobby's older brother J.R., played with sly wit by Larry Hagman, would become a new kind of villain for television because of his centrality to the program and the depth both actor and writers gave to the character. Abusive to his alcoholic wife Sue Ellen, ruthless and underhanded with his nemesis Cliff Barnes and any other challenger to Ewing Oil, J.R. was nevertheless a loyal son to Miss Ellie and Jock, a devoted father to his son and heir, John Ross. Hagman's J.R. soon became the man viewers loved to hate.

For prime time in the late seventies, Dallas was sensational, featuring numerous acts of adultery by both J.R. and Sue Ellen, the revelation of Jock's illegitimate son, Ray Krebs, who worked as a hired hand on Southfork, and the raunchy exploits of young Lucy, daughter of Gary, the third, largely absent, Ewing brother. It was the complicated stuff of daytime melodrama, done with big-budget glamour--high-fashion wardrobes, richly furnished home and office interiors, exteriors shot on location in the Dallas area.

During the 1978-79 season, writer-producer Leonard Katzman turned the prime-time drama into the first prime-time serial since Peyton Place when Sue Ellen Ewing found she was pregnant, her child's paternity uncertain. The generic formula was complete when that same season concluded with a cliffhanger: Sue Ellen was critically injured in a car accident and both her fate and the fate of her baby remained unresolved until September. Cliffhanger episodes became highly promoted Friday night rituals after the following season, which ended with a freeze-frame of villain-protagonist J.R. lying shot on the floor of his office, his prognosis and his assailant unknown. "Who Shot J.R.?" reverberated throughout popular culture that summer, culminating in an episode the following season which broke ratings records--76% of all American televisions in use tuned to Dallas. Even after 1985, when the program's ratings sagged, cliffhanger episodes in the spring and their resolutions in the fall would boost the aging serial back into the top ten.

In the midst of an ever-expanding cast of Ewings and Barnes, scheming mistresses, high-rolling oil men and white collar henchmen, the primary characters and relationships changed and evolved over the course of the serial. Bobby and Pam's marriage succumbed to J.R.'s plots to pull them apart, and both pursued other romances. After J.R. and Sue Ellen's marriage produced an heir, Sue Ellen stopped drinking and went on the offensive against J.R. Both Pam and Sue Ellen acquired careers. Ray Krebs rose from hired hand to independent rancher, always apart from the Ewing clan, but indispensable to it.

Like its daytime counterparts, Dallas adapted to the comings and goings of several of its star actors. When Jim Davis, who played Jock Ewing, died in 1981, his character was written out of the show, with Jock's plane disappearing somewhere over South America. The character was never recast, though several plotlines alluded to his possible reappearance, and his portrait continued to preside over key scenes in the offices of Ewing Oil. Barbara Bel Geddes, the beloved Miss Ellie, asked to be relieved from her contract for health reasons in 1984, and Donna Reed stepped into the role for one season, only to be removed when Bel Geddes was persuaded to return. During the 1985-86 season, Bobby Ewing was dead, at the request of actor Patrick Duffy, but the character returned when Duffy wanted back on the show. Bobby was resurrected when his death and all the rest of the previous season were redefined as Pam's dream. Linda Gray left the show in 1989, and her character, Sue Ellen, exited as an independent movie mogul whose final act of vengeance was to produce a painfully accurate film about J.R.

In the early 1980s, other serials joined the internationally successful Dallas on the prime-time schedule, each in some way defining itself in relation to the original. Among them, Knots Landing began as a spin-off of Dallas, featuring Gary Ewing and his wife Valene transplanted to a California suburb. ABC's Dynasty both copied the Dallas formula and stretched it to outrageous proportions. On the other hand, hour-long dramas, most notably Hill Street Blues, began grafting Dallas's successful serial strategy onto other genres. Among the eighties generation of prime time soaps, only Knots Landing outlasted Dallas, which concluded in May 1991. In the 1990s, the genre has been revamped in several serials on the Fox network. Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Models, Inc.--the last featuring Dallas's Linda Gray--have pitched the genre to a younger generation of viewers.

-Sue Brower

CAST

John Ross (J.R.) Ewing, Jr..................... Larry Hagman  

Eleanor Southworth (Miss Ellie) Ewing (1978-1984, 1985-1990)... Barbara Bel Geddes  

Eleanor Southworth (Miss Ellie) Ewing (1984-1985) .. Donna Reed

John Ross (Jock) Ewing (1978-1981)............. Jim Davis  

Bobby Ewing (1978-1985, 1986-1991)....... Patrick Duffy  

Pamela Barnes Ewing (1978-1987)..... Victoria Principal  

Lucy Ewing Cooper (1978-1985, 1988-1990)......... Charlene Tilton  

Sue Ellen Ewing (1978-1989)...................... Linda Gray  

Ray Krebbs (1978-1988)......................... Steve Kanaly

Cliff Barnes ..........................................Ken Kercheval  

Julie Grey (April 1978)............................... Tina Louise  

Willard "Digger" Barnes (1978)................. David Wayne  

Willard "Digger" Barnes (1979-1980)....... Keenan Wynn  

Gary Ewing (1978-1979)......................... David Ackroyd

Gary Ewing (1979-1981)...................... Ted Shackelford  

Valene Ewing (1978-1981)....................... Joan Van Ark

Liz Craig (1978-1982)........................ Barbara Babcock  

Willie Joe Garr (1978-1979)...................... John Ashton  

Jeb Amos (1978-1979)............................. Sandy Ward

Kristin Shepard (1979-1981)..................... Mary Crosby

Mrs. Patricia Shepard (1979, 1985)........... Martha Scott  

Dusty Farlow (1979-1982, 1985)................ Jared Martin

Alan Beam (1979-1980)...................... Randolph Powell  

Dr. Ellby (1979-1981)................................. Jeff Cooper  

Donna Culver Krebbs (1979-1987).......... Susan Howard  

Dave Culver (1979-1982, 1986-1987)........ Tom Fuccello  

Harve Smithfield............................... George O. Petrie  

Vaughn Leland (1979-1984)................... Dennis Patrick  

Connie (1979-1981)........................... Jeanna Michaels

Louella (1979-1981)........................... Megan Gallagher

Jordan Lee (1979-1990)................................ Don Starr

Mitch Cooper (1979-1982).................. Leigh McCloskey

John Ross Ewing III (1980-1983)............... Tyler Banks

John Ross Ewing III (1983-1991).................. Omri Katz

Punk Anderson (1980-1987)............ Morgan Woodward

Mavis Anderson (1982-1988)..................... Alice Hirson

Brady York (1980-1981)............................ Ted Gehring

Alex Ward (1980-1981)............................. Joel Fabiani

Les Crowley (1980-1981)........................... Michael Bell

Marilee Stone (1980-1987).................... Fern Fitzgerald

Afton Cooper (1981-1984, 1989)........... Audrey Landers

Arliss Cooper (1981)............................... Anne Francis

Clint Ogden (1981)............................. Monte Markham

Leslie Stewart (1981)........................... Susan Flannery

Rebecca Wentworth (1981-1983).......... Priscilla Pointer

Craig Stewart (l981)............................... Craig Stevens

Jeremy Wendell (l981, 1984-1988)...... William Smithers

Clayton Farlow (1981-1991)...................... Howard Keel

Jeff Farraday (1981-1982)............................ Art Hindle

Katherine Wentworth (1981-1984)......... Morgan Brittany

Charles Eccles (1982).............................. Ron Tomme

Bonnie Robertson (1982)...................... Lindsay Bloom

Blair Sullivan (1982)..................................... Ray Wise

Holly Harwood (1982-1984)......................... Lois Chiles

Mickey Trotter (1982-1983)...... Timothy Patrick Murphy

Walt Driscoll (l982-1983)........................... Ben Piazza

Jarrett McLeish (1982-1983)......... J. Patrick McNamara

Thornton McLeish (1982-1983).......... Kenneth Kimmins

Eugene Bullock (1982-1983)....................... E.J. Andre

Mark Graison (1983-1984, 1985-1986).......... John Beck

Aunt Lil Trotter (1983-1984).......................... Kate Reid

Roy Ralston (1983).................................... John Reilly

Serena Wald (1983-1985, 1990)... Stephanie Blackmore

Peter Richards (1983-1984)............. Christopher Atkins

Paul Morgan (1983-1984, 1988)............... Glenn Corbett

Jenna Wade (l983-1988)..................... Priscilla Presley

Charlie Wade (1983-1988)................... Shalane McCall

Edgar Randolph (1983-1984).............. Martin E. Brooks

Armando Sidoni (1983-1984)................... Alberto Morin

Sly Lovegren (1983-1991).................. Deborah Rennard

Betty (1984-1985).................................. Kathleen York

Eddie Cronin (1984-1985)....................... Fredric Lehne

Pete Adams (1984-1985)........................ Burke Byrnes

Dave Stratton (1984)........................ Christopher Stone

Jessica Montfort (1984, 1990).................. Alexis Smith

Mandy Winger (1984-1987)................. Deborah Shelton

Jamie Ewing Barnes (1984-1986)......... Jenilee Harrison

Christopher Ewing (1984-1991)................ Joshua Harris

Scotty Demarest (1985-1986)................ Stephen Elliott

Jack Ewing (1985-1987).......................... Dack Rambo

Angelico Nero (1985-1986)................... Barbara Carrera

Dr. Jerry Kenderson (1985-1986)............... Barry Jenner

Nicholas (1985-1986).......................... George Chakiris

Grace (1985-1986)........................... Marete Van Kamp

Matt Cantrell (1986).................................. Marc Singer

PRODUCERS

David Jacobs, Philip Capice, Leonard Katzman

PROGRAMMING HISTORY

330 Episodes

CBS

April 1978   Sunday 10:00-11:00

September 1978-October 1978   Saturday 10:00-11:00

October 1978-January 1979   Sunday 10:00-11:00

January 1979-November 1981   Friday 10:00-11:00

December 1981-May 1985   Friday 9:00-10:00

September 1985-May 1986   Friday 9:00-10:00

September 1986-May 1988   Friday 9:00-10:00

October 1988-March 1990   Friday 9:00 -10:00

March 1990-May 1990   Friday 10:00-11:00

November 1990-December 1990   Friday 10:00-11:00

January 1991-May 1991   Friday 9:00-10:00