Pam and Pamela share more than a name on “Dallas.” Both characters also experienced awkward introductions to the family Ewing, both had tense first encounters with J.R. and both suffered setbacks on the road to motherhood. Do the similarities end there?
Your #DallasChat Daily questions: How are Pam and Pamela alike, and how are they different?
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Dallas Decoder 
I think the main difference between the two is that Bobby’s Pam was too goody-goody a lot of the time and Pamela Rebecca could be both a baddie and a goodie which is definitely more fun for me to watch! Pam bitched and whined too much but Pamela Rebecca did not!
They’re both very sexual. And have u noticed Miss Jenny & C.B. & Andy that while Pam had the beauty mark, this Pamela has the mark on the bridge of her nose from the smackdown Tommy gave her when she killed him in self defense. Its imperfect beauty, but these marks establish that both Pamelas are true beauty’s!
Alike: 1) They’re both beautiful women. 2) Both were raised in broken homes. 3) To spite the differences in their fathers, both women loved and did all they could to get their fathers’ approval.
Differences: 1) Pamela’s childhood was influenced by a controlling mother and a tycoon father while Pam wasn’t as fortunate; no mother to speak of and a drunkard for a father. 2) Pam entered the Ewing family as herself, while Pamela lied her way in. 3) Pam had no one to help her when she was in need, while Pamela just called “daddy”. 4) Pam had to fight for her standing in the Ewing family, even earning Jock’s respect, while Pamela could simply ask for 1/3 of her daddy’s company, then get it in the time frame of one episode…oh, that’s bad writing and probably doesn’t count. 5) Pam never conspired to put her father behind bars but Pamela did…okay, okay…Pam’s father never killed her unborn children either, so maybe Pamela had an excuse. 6) The Romeo and Juliet theme of the original Dallas was never better than when Pam and Bobby were married, happily or otherwise. That theme is missing entirely from TNT Dallas.
Maybe it’s my age but there was simply no other woman on TV ( or possibly the planet ) as sublimely beautiful and sexy as Victoria Principal in 1978/79. The only problem is that the character of Pam became a bit dull and too goody-goody from the early 80s ( becoming briefly more interesting after she divorced Bobby and in the first half of the “Dream” season ).
It wasn’t long before Linda Gray/Sue Ellen became the main woman on Dallas. No praise for LG is too high – she should be up for an Emmy!
Both Pamela R and Pam reacted to pregnancy loss by becoming suicidal. Both had to deal with finding out their fathers were not who they thought they were. In Pamela’s case she found out her father did not love her in Pam’s case she had a different father. Pamela R had been a much stronger more interesting character who the writers decided to make weak and emotionally unstable. Both are alike in that respect too. Pamela R is smarter more wily than pam so I prefer her.