Revisiting The Original Dallas: The First 90 Episodes

Earlier this year, I participated on a press trip to the Dallas, Texas sets of the TNT revival of Dallas, which returns tonight with new episodes at 9PM. The trip included a visit to the legendary Southfork Ranch, home of the Ewing family, which now serves as a museum and tourist attraction. It is said that the Ranch is the most visited white house this side of the Mississippi.

This visit to Dallas inspired me to finally sit down and watch the original series in order. Of the original 357 episodes, I’d probably only seen about a tenth of the entire run, including the infamous “dream season” that was wiped away later on. This time, though, I would start at the very beginning…. and I’d see how TV 35 years ago was significantly different from how a series is put together today. I also saw marked differences between classic Dallas and this new one, as well as some similarities. Fortunately, all 14 seasons (or 13, depending on if you count the original mini-series as a “season”) are available on DVD from Warner Home Video, which made the rewatch easy. The only thing that would’ve made it better would have been Netflix streaming.

I’ve figured that I would share my rewatch experiences with readers at KSiteTV, since I know quite a few are fans of the original Dallas; splitting this into four parts, with Episode 90 as a jump-off point for Part 1, was also a choice, as in many ways, it was the end of the first real “era” of Dallas. So what did I think? Some 35-year-old spoilers will be discussed below…

First off, when Dallas began, it had a few minor continuing storylines, but it really was about how Pamela Barnes, daughter of downtrodden “Digger” Barnes, married into the family of his rivals, the Ewings, led by patriarch “Jock” as played by Jim Davis. Victoria Principal’s Pam was at the center of a lot of it, as she navigated what it was like to enter the home and the family of people who she was raised to hate. Although some characters like Linda Gray’s Sue Ellen don’t get a lot to do at first, Dallas sets out to create characters around these people, and I’d like to think, at least in the early years, the behaviors of these characters would start to write themselves. The show takes time for you to get to know these people – their wants, their needs, and their desires – basically, what makes them tic – and only rarely treats the characters as “chess pieces,” at least in the early episodes.

Southfork Ranch was different in Season 1, with a house probably more fitting of a rich family, as many of them lived in their own guest houses. Gary Ewing, Lucy’s father, was still a legend; talked about but not seen. Ewing Oil was in a different building, and downtown Dallas was having some major construction and it would look much different, even by the next TV season – the show’s first full one.

Gradually, the show gets soapier as time goes on. We meet Valene, the mother of Lucy who J.R. ran out of town. At this point, J.R.’s dastardly nature came into play, and Larry Hagman’s s***-eating grin could sell the most nasty things that a man could say. We also met Gary, though he was at first played by a different actor. Unlike other actor changes, I actually can’t pick a favorite between David Aykroyd and Ted Shackelford; the latter was more well known, but Aykroyd looked like he could be Jock Ewing’s son. The first full season is also when we saw Sue Ellen having an affair with Cliff Barnes, and when she got pregnant, it was possible that the child could be Cliff’s.

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