2020 March – Dallas Decoder

Join Us for a ‘Who Shot J.R.?’ #DallasChat on March 23

Heard the news? #DallasChat is back!

You know what the world could use right now? Some old-fashioned “Dallas” fun.

In that spirit, I’m going to host a #DallasChat Twitter discussion on Monday, March 23, from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern time.

Since we just marked the 40th anniversary of the “Who Shot J.R.?” cliffhanger, our discussion will be centered around that theme.

Here’s how #DallasChat works: Throughout the hour, I’ll tweet 10 questions from my Twitter handle, @DallasDecoder. Participants respond to the questions and comment on each other’s answers, making it a big, freewheeling conversation.

Here are three tips:

•Each #DallasChat question is numbered (Q1, Q2, etc.), so your responses should include the corresponding number (A1, A2, etc.).

• Include the hashtag #DallasChat in all of your tweets.

• During the discussion, enter #DallasChat in Twitter’s search field. This will help you watch the search results so you can follow the conversation. Click “Latest” to see all the related tweets.

I look forward to chatting with you. See you then!

Got suggestions for #DallasChat questions? Leave them in the comments below.

Play It Again, Darlin’: A Lego Salute to ‘Who Shot J.R.?’

Big bang

Today marks the 40th anniversary of “Dallas’s” famous “Who Shot J.R.?” cliffhanger, and Dallas Decoder is honoring the occasion with an all-new Lego tribute.

My husband, Andrew, has created a playset that shows everyone’s favorite dastardly oil baron, J.R. Ewing, getting what’s coming to him.

The set combines the final moments of “A House Divided,” the episode that kicked off the “Who Shot J.R.?” mystery on March 21, 1980, with the opening of “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” the following season’s opener, and the flashback that reveals J.R.’s assailant at the end of “Who Done It?”, one of the most-watched broadcasts in TV history.

The scene, set in J.R.’s office, features three minifigs: the stunned J.R.; the gal about to pull the trigger, Kristin, his jilted mistress; and Ewing Oil’s rattled cleaning lady, who discovered our hero after Kristin’s dirty deed was done.

Andrew took great care to find minifigs that resembled the actors and their costumes: Larry Hagman’s J.R., complete with his vest; Mary Crosby’s devil-in-the-blue-dress Kristin; and even Virginia Peters, who played the bandana-wearing, duster-wielding cleaning lady whose scream upon discovering J.R. has been a source of amusement in our house for years.

Andrew designed the office with many of the props depicted in the room during the original “Dallas’s” 14-season run, including the oversized Texas wall map, the oil rig model and the bar. He also included a picture of Southfork (itself rendered in Lego) and a desk portrait of J.R.’s long-suffering wife, Sue Ellen — which you might recognize as a miniature version of his Lego tribute to Linda Gray from 2018.

I hope you enjoy Andrew’s creation, and in true “Dallas” style, I’m ending this post with a cliffhanger of my own: a promise to show you his Lego Southfork someday soon.

Stay tuned.