Conflicted
In “Dallas’s” fourth-season episode “The Mark of Cain,” Bobby (Patrick Duffy) is participating in a senate committee meeting on the Takapa Lake legislation – along with Chairman Harbin (David Healy) and fellow senators Dickson (Joseph Warren), Carson (John Hart) and Varela (John Arvilla) – when Dickson asks to speak.
HARBIN: The chair recognizes Senator Dickson.
DICKSON: May we speak informally for a few minutes, please?
HARBIN: If you’d like to, senator. [Toward stenographer] Please don’t record this.
DICKSON: I’d like to address what I have to say to our new senator, Mr. Bobby Ewing. [Smiling] Senator, do you think you can address this problem in a disinterested fashion?
BOBBY: [Puzzled] Senator?
DICKSON: I think there’s a conflict of interest here.
BOBBY: I wish to address this committee on the record.
VARELA: [Leaning forward] There is certainly a conflict of interest, senator. That great organization, the Daughters of the Alamo, they are behind the present injunction of the court and Mrs. Ellie Ewing is chairing the Save Takapa Committee.
HARBIN: Gentleman –
DICKSON: On the other hand, one of the directors of Unified Development is Mr. Jock Ewing.
BOBBY: That has nothing to do with me.
CARSON: Mr. Ewing, with all due respect, this is the way I see it. Your daddy’s people have the perfect right to try and build a resort at Takapa, if that’s their choosing. But how’s it gonna look if there’s a Ewing on this panel?
BOBBY: Mr. Chairman, I have no interest in Unified.
DICKSON: [Smiling] But you have an interest in Ewing Oil.
CARSON: Now, don’t get us wrong, Mr. Ewing. We’re not concerned that the newly elected senator’s in the oil business. After all, there’s a whole lot of people in Texas in the oil business, including some of our most distinguished members. [Harbin and Carson smile.]
DICKSON: The problem, senator, is that the Ewing family has a present financial interest in Takapa.
VARELA: The way I see it, senator, it would be best for everyone, and for this senate body in particular, if you were to ask the lieutenant governor to remove you from this panel.
Bobby looks surprised.
Dallas Decoder 
[…] he bears a similar – albeit metaphorical – stain when his new colleagues in the state senate wonder if his Ewing family ties will compromise his […]