"Dallas"

One of my television "guilty pleasures" over the decades was watching the prime-time soap Dallas on Friday nights on CBS-TV. I am speaking of the original series that aired from 1978 to 1991. I haven't seen the revival series on TNT. The original series was my favorite television show for most of its run.

About a month or so ago, I picked up the first two seasons of Dallas on DVD at the CD Trader near my house. The first season was actually a 5-part mini-series. Things didn't really kick into high gear until CBS made it a regular series, starting with Season Two.

While I was familiar with the characters and general plot(s) of the show, I hadn't watched it since the episodes aired 38 years ago. So, in essence, it almost seems like watching them for the first time.

Back then, the original characters were Ellie Southworth Ewing (Barbara Bel Geddes), Jock Ewing (Jim Davis), Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), Pam Ewing (Victoria Principal), Sue Ellen Ewing (Linda Gray), Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly) and Lucy Ewing (Charlene Tilton).

The plots centered around the wealthy and feuding Ewing Family, and oil and ranching family based in Dallas, Texas, especially with the dastardly schemes of J. R. Ewing. Larry Hagman made the character "the villain you loved to watch".

I finished watching seasons one and two. I picked up Season Three (1979-80) a week ago at CD Trader and currently watching the season's 25 episodes, which will have the season end with the famous shooting of J. R. Ewing. For the summer hiatus, people wondered, "Who shot J.R.?" That season-ending cliffhanger was so popular that there were buttons sold at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit that read, "A Democrat Shot J.R." Four years later, the GOP held their next convention in Dallas, Texas. One of the activities offered to delegates and their families were tours of Southfork Ranch, that was used in the show.

It looks like I'll have to buy Season Four once I finish with Season Three. It has been fun watching it again after all these years.