Week of June 15: How "Dallas" Became An International Sensation

By Sylvia Gurinsky
The saga of the Ewing family resumed this week on cable's TNT.

But no one knew what to expect when "Dallas" made its debut on CBS on April 2, 1978. (History has it as a miniseries, though this writer remembers it as a mid-season replacement. Of course, I was only 9. :)

Ratings for the story that started with Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) marrying Pamela Barnes (Victoria Principal) were nothing to dance about - the first episodes finished in 44th place. But CBS was satisfied enough to allow the show to continue as a weekly series during the 1978-79 season.

Head writer David Jacobs and executive producer Leonard Katzman kept it as mostly a family drama, with stand-alone episodes, until about a third of the way through that season, when he turned the show into a soap opera, with the storylines that would send its ratings on a steady climb. It did well enough to be renewed for a third season.

The third season would turn "Dallas" into a hit, with the central focus shifting to J.R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman. Hagman, the son of Broadway legend Mary Martin, became famous playing astronaut Anthony Nelson during the long-running NBC comedy "I Dream of Jeannie."

Prime-time television had never seen a character like J.R. - lying, scheming, cheating, manipulative. And he was the star. Larry Hagman obviously has had a ball playing the character.

Then came the end of the March 21, 1980 episode "A House Divided":

Cliffhanger

There was a presidential campaign that year, but the most asked question became, "Who Shot J.R.?"

The actors' strike of 1980 put off the answer to that question until the Nov. 7 Season 4 premiere, when Kristin Shepard, Sue Ellen's (Linda Gray) sister (played by Mary Crosby, Bing's daughter) was revealed as the shooter. Kristin herself would die in the cliffhanger at the end of Season 4, in the Southfork Ranch pool.

Incidentally, the Nov. 7, 1980 episode became the most watched television program in history until the last episode of "M*A*S*H" passed it in February, 1983. To date, it is still the second most-watched episode of a scripted (non-sports) television program.

Season 3 kicked off the golden era of "Dallas." It would dominate ratings during the first half of the 1980s and provide reliable programming for CBS on Friday nights.

"Dallas" also had an ongoing intramural competition with ABC's "Dynasty," which went on the air in 1981 with a look at various types of lying, scheming and backstabbing among a Denver oil family.

"Dallas" would also become among the most successful American television series sold overseas - and symbolic of both U.S. abundance and greed. It showed up in references in series such as Britain's "Are You Being Served?"

Another cliffhanger would bring the golden era of "Dallas" to an end - the finale of Season 8 and the start of Season 9, which revealed that Pam had dreamed about Bobby's death, her marriage to Mark Grayson (John Beck) and other plot points. The reason for the twists was that Patrick Duffy had left the show for a year and come back. But fans were so angry at the twists that many stopped watching. The twist would be spoofed - splendidly so by the finale of the same network's "Newhart," which had that series as a dream by Dr. Bob Hartley of "The Bob Newhart Show."

After the Bobby-in-the-shower twist, "Dallas" would go through a slow decline in ratings, coupled with the success of a new Friday rival - the NBC hit "Miami Vice." But "Dallas" would actually outlast "Miami Vice," as well as "Dynasty," going off the air after 14 seasons with the May 3, 1991 finale.

Arguably, "Dallas" revolutionized prime-time drama - right down to the now very-annoying habit of practically every show, be it comedy, drama or procedural, ending its season with a cliffhanger. (The CBS police show "Blue Bloods," starring Tom Selleck, is a refreshing exception.)

Barbara Bel Geddes, who played family matriarch Miss Ellie, won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama in 1979, and Hagman was nominated twice.

Alas, Jacobs isn't part of the TNT continuation. But it's still good to see Hagman, Duffy and Gray back in these roles.

The entire series is available on DVD.

Here's a little more classic J.R.:

J.R.


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See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!