Living in Los Angeles, I did notice when the show would film in L.A. for parts of seasons. The Century City mall was obvious, and they wouldn’t even change the signage, assuming audiences wouldn’t notice. You can spot an L.A. episode, also, by noticing that Southfork only goes as far as the end of the garage, and the painted background of the “pasture” is also very obviously bad. Maybe that was okay on low-definition televisions of 1980; on crisp DVD, we notice.
Some storylines are awkward in hindsight. Ray and Lucy have an affair early on, which is awkward since Ray is later revealed as Lucy’s uncle. Lucy managed to fall madly in love and get engaged three times in two or three seasons, with each suitor blander than the one before him. Victoria Principal’s Pam gets pretty self important and on the border of crazy a couple of times, especially when she just assumes that a baby brought home for her is for her. Both Pam and Sue Ellen get courted by men who are way too old and creepy for them. Sue Ellen (played amazingly, as always, by Linda Gray) goes through so much as the beleagured wife of J.R.; sure, she’s a “tramp, and a drunk, and an unfit mother,” but she sure is fun to watch. It’s also awkward to see the storyline where Pam feels abandoned by her mother, considering the character basically did the same thing to Christopher years later. In fact, Christopher’s search for his mother in the new Dallas was very similar to how the original show did it when Pam learned Rebecca was alive.
Watching 90 episodes in a period of a few months also meant that certain things like recastings stung harder, because you’d get in a groove of watching one actor, and then… they’re not there. In the case of Kristin, Sue Ellen’s sister, Mary Crosby was a step up from Colleen Camp, with no offense meant to the original actress. The recast Digger Barnes, however, made no sense to me, as David Wayne was *perfect.* If anything, Keenan Wynn’s Digger was too nice and bumbling to be taken seriously.
It’s fun seeing characters making their first appearances, whether it’s Kristin, J.R.’s secretary Sly, or Donna Culver, who’d eventually be Donna Krebbs. Already in 90 episodes I’ve seen two Jenna Wades and neither has been the one that is most famous (Priscilla Presley, although if Morgan Fairchild ever wanted to reprise the role for the new series, I wouldn’t hate it). It’s weird seeing some characters disappear, never to be mentioned again, though. Don’t think we forgot Pam’s cousin Jimmy, or Bobby’s secretary Connie who was out sick one day that became something indefinite.
The best part of the original 90 episodes is that it’s about generations, and it’s about family. Jock and Miss Ellie were the rocks that kept the family together, just as Digger and Aunt Maggie and later Rebecca were for the Barnes side. Couples would fight, break up, and get back together, but that history always loomed over strong. Episode 90 – spoiler warning! – is when the Ewings find out that the patriarch, Jock, had died. 
Jim Davis, the actor playing Jock, had died almost a year earlier in real life, and most of that season was spent making phone calls to Jock off camera. The show already felt a bit of transition without Jock roaming the halls of Southfork and that family aspect is already starting to crumble. I know it’ll only get worse as the show goes on. Either way, Jock’s death feels like a good spot to jump off and recap my experience so far.
There are certain spoilery sign posts I knew going in – I knew Kristin shot J.R.; I knew Jock would die, making Jim Davis’ final appearances on the show even sadder. But there was so much that was a surprise to even me. Senator Bobby, really? Cliff and Sue Ellen were THAT close? Dusty Farlow couldn’t get WHAT up? It’s a fun experiment to revisit an old series like this one, even if spoilers and discussion of what happened are all over the place. And all of these great episodes are wrapped in a bow of the best opening sequence in TV history, complete with changing instruments in the theme song from year to year.
One misconception about Dallas is that it was Larry Hagman’s J.R. and only J.R. that made people watch. Really, that’s not the case at all. Hagman is terrific, don’t get me wrong, but the contributions of others – Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy, Ken Kercheval, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis, Steve Kanaly, Susan Howard, Victoria Principal, and even Charlene Tilton, even though most Lucy episodes grated on my nerves – made Dallas the show that it was. (The cartel, led by Don Starr’s Jordan Lee and Fern Fitzgerald’s Marilee Stone, was also always fun, and scarier threat-wise to the Ewing family than anything the new Dallas has brought us so far. Also scary: Afton Cooper’s singing. Please tell me it gets better. Love Audrey Landers though.)
I’m glad the legacy of Dallas continues with the new show on TNT. There are aspects of the original show that I would have loved for them to pick up — particularly, the importance of character rather than treating them like chess pieces, but I’m glad to live in a world where Bobby and Sue Ellen, at least, still live on. Whether the new show lasts for 5 more episodes or 5 more years, I’m happy, though, that I still have about 270 episodes left to see. See you all in a few months!
