Pamela Jean Barnes Ewing Ewing died 25 years ago today, according to the death certificate shown on TNT’s “Dallas” last season. The character, last played by Margaret Michaels, succumbed to cancer not long after recovering from her horrifying car accident. Of course, this is “Dallas,” so many fans can’t help but wonder: Is Pam gone for good?
Your #DallasChat Daily questions: Should Pam stay dead? If not, how should she return and who should play her?
Share your comments below (remember the “Miss Ellie Rule” and keep it civil) and join other #DallasChat Daily discussions.
Dallas Decoder 
Pam is not dead! Ms. Cidre’s feeble attempt to put the thought of the character returning to the show just didn’t do it for me. No one contested the fact Christopher got his mother’s shares in Cliff’s company. Regardless whether she was dead or not, this sort of transaction would have been tied up in the court system for years! Christopher mourned for, what…two days??? Bobby, as much as he loved Pam years ago, didn’t have much to say. If Bobby and Pam had a true “Romeo and Juliet” relationship, learning of her death would have affected him a good deal more than was shown on screen. It seemed everyone on TNT Dallas was overly anxious to put the issue to bed without giving it much thought!
And what’s with the hand-written death certificate? She “reportedly” died in 1989 in an oil-rich country. Surely they had typewriters if not computers by then!
Weather Ms. Principal or Ms. Michaels fills the role, Pam should reappear. Considering the “holes” in the scripts of the old and new Dallas, there is plenty means and opportunity to bring her back.
My opinion, Pam’ first scene would be facing Cliff through the bars in the Mexican Prison. Cliff isn’t surprised to see her because he knew all along she wasn’t dead. You see, Cliff may have lost a good portion of his company to the Ewings, but he still has staff loyal to him and him alone. His staff knew he was secretly supporting Pam. As a matter of fact, one of Cliff’s “right hand men” once had an affair with Pam when he was ordered by Cliff to establish hidden accounts for her support. When Cliff found out about the affair, he killed the guy and began dealing with her financial wellbeing himself. Worst of all, he became the ruthless monster he is today. Pam is there to confront him about the murder of her lover and to gloat that he is sitting in prison for JR’s murder. But as always, in the “good old days of Dallas”, Cliff persuades Pam to believe he is innocent of not only her lover’s murder, but also JR’s murder. Learning how the Ewings framed Cliff to get controlling shares of his company, she aligns with Cliff to fight the Ewings. On and on and …….
TNT Dallas needs a shot in the arm and a character like Pam would deliver it, in my opinion!
Well said my friend. MM should return and Michael Wright, Cynthia Cidre’s boss at TNT should make it happen. THe email is turner@tnt.com.
If not that email try tnt@turner.com.
I’ve been on record (on Twitter and elsewhere) as saying I don’t think Pam should stay dead. I think also that there is no other actress who could play Pam than Victoria Principal. Maybe they would explain that she had had a few body doubles over the years and she’s the “Pam” that Bobby married. Who knows what they’d do but I don’t think she should stay dead (and that was a large part of why I really didn’t like how they concluded the season 2 storylines, including the really anticlimactic conclusion to the “b” story wherein Christopher tries to find her mother and picks up where J.R. left off).
As much as I loved Victoria Prinicipal as Pam, and Margaret Michaels as Pam in the one episode, I am not in favor of the character returning to Dallas! I love Ann with Bobby now and everybody knows that VP has said in a statement she has NO desire to return to Dallas! I don’t want to see another actress play Pam.
Oh your very good Miss Jenny. Very good. Did you see my comparison of that 15 year Texan girl who was shot & survived & stood strong, even though her whole family had been wiped out? I compared her to Miss Texas, Sue Ellen Ewing 4 being strong & empowered & used u as source material for all of your previous superb Sue Ellen comments? http://www.rjkoopmans.blogspot.ca oh & Pame needs to stay dead, Ms. Principal says so & with the billions she has amassed, I think the lady knows the business of both acting & how to make money!
Margaret Michaels would be excellent as Pam. I would not want VP to return because she is a pain in the ass and none of the people that worked with her before want her back.
YES
If Revenge’s David Clark can return from the dead, so can Pam Barnes Ewing #1. My only concern is how would “Dallas” get around the confusion of having two characters with the same name?
Something I don’t understand about CC’s resolution of the Pam storyline: if Dr. David Gordon’s wife (whatever her name was) – Pam’s nurse – used to take the money from Pam’s bank account in Zurich under the name “Patricia Barrett” (s. screenshot http://picpaste.com/TNT-Q15LmHz3.jpg) – why did the signature resemble Pam’s? Either you pretend to be someone else (hence act under a different name) or you try to prove that you really ARE the other person hence have the same signature – but a different name? This would be a good angle to bring Pam back!
Or am I misinterpreting something here?
Oh hell yes.
And to the PamDeniers™ who say she’s not dead. Give me a break. What will satisfy you? For Victoria Principal to come back, have her murdered on screen, and for you to see her bloody body on camera? Will that be enough? Seriously, what will be enough for PamDeniers™ to actually believe that she’s dead?
Besides, when last seen on screen in the old days (forget Cidre’s work), we were told months to live. Now that alone doesn’t guarantee she would have died by now, but the table was set for that event to happen way back when.
Besides, VP herself said she doesn’t want to do it, and even if (shudder) they contemplated bringing her back, even I (as a known Pam hater) wouldn’t want someone else to play her at that point.
Given the realities of what happened with VP left the show, I have no problems with Margaret Michaels back then. But now? As much as I don’t want her back, I’d want her back if they decided to step on my throat and bring DeadPam™ back.
But having said all that. No, she needs to stay dead. As she is.
You summed up the argument I make whenever this topic comes up.
The only thing I usually add is that Bobby and Pam just weren’t that good a match. Whenever trouble arose for them their first impulses were to be tough, get space and stubbornly try to work it out separately instead of together. What kind of marriage is that?
NO, SHE SHOULD BE BRAUGHT BACK AS HER TWIN SISTER WHICH ALL THE EWINGS NEVER OR EVER KNEW ABOUT, INCLUDING JR WHEN HE WAS ALIVE. THAT IS MY ANSWER