Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘I Intend To Keep It’

Finders keepers

In “Julie’s Return,” a second-season “Dallas” episode, Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) and Julie (Tina Louise) chat in the Southfork living room.

ELLIE: [Pours coffee, then sits] I’m glad you could come, Julie. Everybody’s out. We can talk.

JULIE: Well, you knew I would. There aren’t many people in this world that intimidate me – but you’re one of them.

ELLIE: Because I’m Mrs. Jock Ewing?

JULIE: No, because you’re Ellie Ewing. You don’t need a man’s name to give you power.

ELLIE: But I’ve got that man’s name – and I intend to keep it.

JULIE: Ewing men don’t give up their wives that easily, Miss Ellie. You should know you’ve got nothing to worry about.

ELLIE: Your relationship with Jock has gone far enough.

JULIE: Your husband and I are just friends. [Rises, walks around the living room] We keep each other company while the people that we love are too busy to see that we’re in pain, that we’re lonely. We make each other feel needed, respected. We shop, we lunch, we talk about the people we love. That’s all.

ELLIE: [Rises] I want you to stop seeing him.

JULIE: [Walks closer to Ellie] Why? What harm are we doing? For you, he’s a man who’s got to be told not to smoke, not to eat salt, not to get excited, not to overdo. For me, he’s Jock Ewing. And for that man to need my friendship, to want my company, you don’t know what that means to me – and to him. Can you deny that he seems younger, more full of energy, happier than you’ve seen him in a long time? Our relationship is not what you thought it was.

ELLIE: No, Julie, it isn’t. It’s far more serious.