Dallas Styles: Sue Ellen’s Jeans

May 22, 2012 by 6 Comments

Forever in blue jeans

Sue Ellen is “Dallas’s” classiest dresser, so when she wears jeans in “Rodeo,” it’s worth noting. Yes, there are practical reasons for this particular wardrobe choice – what else would one wear to a rodeo? – but the denim carries symbolic value, too.

Jeans have signified defiance since James Dean popularized them in “Rebel Without a Cause,” and rebellion is what Sue Ellen seems to have on her mind at the Ewing Rodeo. She spends the afternoon flirting with dashing cowboy Dusty Farlow, which drives J.R. nuts.

But Sue Ellen isn’t just trying to annoy her husband. She’s finally recovering from her disastrous affair with Cliff and considering letting down her guard with Dusty – which is the message the rest of her “Rodeo” outfit sends.

Sue Ellen’s tan vest and knee-high boots match her complexion, making them an extension of the character’s flesh. Metaphorically, Sue Ellen is baring herself.

The whole look is timeless, and Linda Gray has never looked better. If she wore this same outfit on TNT’s new “Dallas,” she’d be just as fashionable as she was when “Rodeo” aired in 1979.

If only her relationship with Dusty proved as durable.

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Dallas Styles: Lucy’s Pigtails

May 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Cute!

Pigtails were a fashion trend on television in the 1970s. Melissa Gilbert famously wore them on “Little House on the Prairie,” but the style wasn’t just for kids. Louise Lasser was almost always seen in tight braids on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” while Suzanne Somers sometimes sported double ponytails on “Three’s Company.”

Lucy hops on the pigtails bandwagon during “Dallas’s” third season. The look makes her trendy, but there are probably practical reasons for this, too. Charlene Tilton mostly wears the style during outdoor scenes at Southfork, where the tight braids undoubtedly protected her hair from the Texas wind during location shoots.

Lucy’s pigtails also reflect the show’s inability to decide if the character is a girl or a woman. In “Secrets,” Lucy is wearing pigtails when her mother Valene tries to comfort her, only to have Lucy smack away Val’s hand. This is a childish act, yet Lucy is no child. After all, the scene takes place on the college campus where she is a student.

The pigtails hold other symbolic value. In the “Secrets” scene, Joan Van Ark wears her hair in two loose ponytails, so having Lucy mimic Val’s style offers a subtle reminder of the characters’ connection.

Whatever the reason for Lucy’s pigtails, one thing is certain: Tilton looks darn cute in them. Still, I wish “Dallas” would have treated her character more like a grownup – hairstyle and all.

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Dallas Styles: Digger’s Hat

May 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

He’s back, and he’s brought a hat

In “The Silent Killer,” Digger Barnes makes his first appearance on “Dallas” since “Double Wedding,” which debuted almost a year earlier. “The Silent Killer” also marks the debut of Digger’s hat, one of the character’s signatures.

The hat looks like a cheap fedora. Notably, it isn’t a Stetson, the chapeau style favored by most of the men on “Dallas.” This makes sense. After all, Digger has spent his life kicking around oil fields, not cow pastures.

“Dallas” completes Digger’s blue-collar look by dressing him in work shirts – either blue or white – along with white socks and dark pants and shoes. This is the look he sports most often during “Dallas’s” third season.

My favorite detail, though, is the eyeglass case he keeps in his front shirt pocket. When I was growing up, my dad carried his glasses in the front pocket of his work shirts, too, so this detail rings true to me. (Dad also favored white socks with dark pants, which I found horrifying when I was a teenager. Now I think it’s endearing.)

Interestingly, Digger’s glasses always remain in his pocket; we never see him wear them. This is too bad. If any “Dallas” character needs help seeing things more clearly, it’s poor old Digger Barnes.

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Dallas Styles: Cliff’s ‘Winner Look’

April 27, 2012 by 2 Comments

Dashing!

“Dallas’s” second-season episode “For Love or Money” establishes an interesting facet of Cliff’s character: He may be the show’s biggest cheapskate, but he’s willing to splurge on nice clothes.

The first time we see Cliff in this episode, he’s being fitted for a new suit at The Store while his sister Pam, a Store employee, watches and teases him.

Special delivery

“I am impressed,” she says. “Did you get tired of your underdog look?”

“Underdog?” Cliff responds. “That’s out. Now it’s the winner look that’s in.”

The conversation alludes to the events of an earlier second-season episode, “Election,” when Cliff loses a race for state senate because he isn’t willing to play dirty like the Ewings, who backed his opponent.

After the loss, Cliff resolves to do whatever it takes to beat the Ewings. He begins an affair with J.R.’s wife Sue Ellen, then becomes the state’s land-use chief, a position he uses as a platform for revenge.

In “For Love or Money,” Cliff’s new suit – a three-piece, pinstriped number – symbolizes his attempt to emulate his wealthier enemies.

Cliff is wearing the vest and pants at the end of the episode, when his secretary buzzes him in his office to announce J.R. wants to see him. Cliff quickly and somewhat nervously dons the jacket and adjusts his shirt cuffs before opening the door to his archrival. The implication: He wants J.R. to see him as an equal.

This dynamic continues during “Dallas’s” later years. Cliff remains a tightwad – he lives in modest homes and never loses his affinity for Chinese takeout – but his sense of style never suffers.

The result: Ken Kercheval becomes “Dallas’s” sharpest-dressed actor. Flamboyant pocket squares becomes one of Cliff’s signatures, and in the next-to-last episode, “The Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire,” the character achieves his longtime ambition of taking Ewing Oil away from J.R.

Finally, Cliff isn’t just dressing like a winner. He is one.

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Dallas Styles: Ray’s Plaid Suit

April 23, 2012 by 2 Comments

Good men wear plaid

When “Dallas” begins, J.R. isn’t the only shady character at Southfork – so is his buddy Ray. The two men try to break up Bobby and Pam and go carousing in Waco, all while Ray is secretly having trysts in the hayloft with Lucy.

Perhaps realizing two cads are two too many, “Dallas” turns Ray into a hero during the second season. The evolution doesn’t happen overnight – on his way to redemption, Ray has a one-night stand with Sue Ellen – but it’s soon clear Ray is becoming a new man.

The character grows more honest and reliable, and much more honorable. In other words, Ray becomes a lot like the cowboys who preceded him in prime time. Think Marshal Matt Dillon, but without the badge.

To underscore this change, “Dallas” tweaks Steve Kanaly’s wardrobe. The orange hunting vest and heavy jacket he wears during the first season are replaced by a more traditional cowboy uniform of plaid shirts and blue jeans.

The transformation continues in “Triangle,” when Ray falls for Garnet McGee, an ambitious country-western singer who cheats on him with J.R. It’s the first time we really root for Ray, which is pretty remarkable given all the smarmy stuff he’s done in the past.

In one of “Triangle’s” pivotal moments, Ray brings Garnet to a nighttime party at Southfork. The scene is a plot device to introduce Garnet to J.R., who is instantly smitten with her, but the show also uses the sequence as another opportunity to remind us of Ray’s cowboy bona fides.

The character comes to the party dressed in a gray plaid suit with a blue string tie, not unlike the ones Colonel Sanders used to wear in those Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials. Ray’s outfit is thoroughly western, letting us know he’s a cowboy even when’s off the clock.

It’s a little surprising Kanaly is given a gray hat to wear in this scene instead of a white one, which is the color of choice for most western heroes.

Then again, no “Dallas” character is all good or all bad – and even though Ray is becoming a better man, he’s far from perfect – so maybe a gray hat is the best choice after all.

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Dallas Styles: Miss Ellie’s Pearls

April 19, 2012 by 2 Comments

Don’t mess with Mama

The second-season episode “Survival” features one of my all-time favorite “Dallas” moments: the scene where Miss Ellie points a shotgun at a snoopy newspaper reporter and orders him off Southfork.

The confrontation demonstrates how the Ewings, a thoroughly modern family, cling to old values like defending their land. The shotgun, a symbol of the American frontier, is a crucial prop in the scene – but so are the pearls around Ellie’s neck.

Until characters like Peg Bundy and Roseanne Connor smashed the stereotype in the 1980s, pearls were one of television’s most enduring symbols of motherhood. Donna Reed and Barbara Billingsley wore them while doing housework and mediating domestic disputes in 1950s sitcoms, and Barbara Bel Geddes continued the tradition when “Dallas” began in 1978.

Miss Ellie wears pearls a lot during the show’s second season, when “Dallas” is establishing her character as the show’s wise matriarch. The white beads help reinforce the pearls of wisdom Ellie is forever dispensing to her family.

But the necklace is never more important than it is in “Survival,” when Ellie answers the front door at Southfork to find a reporter seeking comment about the crash of the Ewings’ plane with J.R. and Bobby aboard. Ellie doesn’t take kindly to this intrusion, ordering Ray to fetch the shotgun from the hall closet.

Without the necklace, Ellie is just a little woman holding a gun. Add the pearls and she becomes wife, mother and fierce protector of her family.

Ellie doesn’t wear her pearls as often in “Dallas’s” later years (although Reed sports them when she plays Ellie during the show’s eighth season) and we never see the character wield a shotgun after this episode.

That’s OK, because at that point, we know not to mess with Miss Ellie.

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Dallas Styles: Sue Ellen’s Pins

April 18, 2012 by 4 Comments

‘Black Market Baby’

Sue Ellen sports some interesting accessories during “Dallas’s” second season, particularly during her scenes with Cliff.

She meets him in “Black Market Baby,” when she has a big fabric rose pinned to the lapel of her burgundy jacket. The fake flower is an ideal symbol for the beginning of Sue Ellen and Cliff’s relationship, when they pretend to like each other. In fact, their mutual disdain for J.R. is really the only thing they have in common.

‘Election’

In “Election,”Sue Ellen runs into Cliff again when the Daughters of the Alamo sponsors a debate between him and Martin Cole, his opponent in the state senate race. This time, she wears a pin that resembles a bird’s wing – several feathers, fastened together at what appears to be an amethyst base.

It might seem like Sue Ellen is telegraphing her eagerness to spread her wings, leave J.R. and find happiness with someone else. But remember: she’s wearing only one wing – and that’s not going to get her very far.

Neither is her relationship with Cliff.

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Dallas Styles: Pam’s ‘Pants Dress’

April 13, 2012 by 3 Comments

Up close …

Pam Ewing becomes one of television’s most stylish women during “Dallas’s” second season, but she misses the mark with the wacky “pants dress” she sports in “Black Market Baby.”

… And not-far-enough away!

Victoria Principal is first seen wearing the outfit during the episode’s third act, when Pam walks into The Store. She then wears it in the next two scenes, when Pam sits in her friend Liz Craig’s office and when she runs into Sue Ellen in the maternity department.

The just-past-the-knees dress appears to be a purple floral print worn over solid mauve pants, which match the vest Principal wears. The style is reminiscent of something Bea Arthur might have sported on “The Golden Girls” in the 1980s, so you have to wonder what “Dallas’s” wardrobe designers had in mind when they chose it for someone as young and sexy as Principal.

In “Black Market Baby,” Pam takes a job at The Store over the objections of Bobby, who clings to the old-fashioned idea that married women shouldn’t work.

Maybe the outfit is supposed to represent the balance Pam is trying to strike? Perhaps the pants symbolize how she wants to be on more of an equal footing with her husband, while the dress shows how she is holding onto her femininity?

Whatever the reason, let’s be thankful Pam reclaims her good fashion sense later in this episode, when she pairs jeans with a tie-front blouse. It’s a much more chic look for a character whose sense of style is  one of “Dallas’s” hallmarks.

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Dallas Styles: J.R.’s Safari Shirts

April 9, 2012 by 2 Comments

The shark wore epaulettes

When “Dallas’s” wardrobe designers were figuring out how to dress the Ewings, I suspect J.R. presented the toughest challenge.

I’m not referring to his office outfits. Those were easy. Put Larry Hagman in a conservative business suit and send him off to do his scenes. Done.

But J.R. wasn’t all business, all the time. How would he dress when he wasn’t at work?

“Dallas” answers this question during the second season, when J.R. begins wearing what becomes one of his signatures: the safari shirt.

The look was popularized more than a century ago by western hunters, who wore multi-pocketed jackets and vests during expeditions to Africa. The clothing was usually made of cotton or poplin and often came in muted colors – beige, brown, khaki – that allowed the adventurers to blend in with their surroundings.

This made safari shirts ideal for J.R., a character who was always on the hunt – for deals, for money, for women. The shirt’s military-style epaulettes also remind us J.R. is always at war with his enemies, while all those pockets are perfect for a man who has lots to hide.

J.R. is first seen in a safari shirt in “Reunion, Part 1,” the second-season opener, when he begins secretly plotting against his brother Gary. In later seasons, J.R. wears the shirts when he and his brothers venture into the South American jungle to search for the missing Jock and when he breaks out of an Arkansas jail. (Don’t ask.)

We also see J.R. wearing the shirts during lighter moments. In the eighth-season episode “Shadow of a Doubt,” the Ewings spend an afternoon at a waterpark, where Sue Ellen catches a safari-shirted J.R. checking out two shapely women in revealing bathing suits.

It’s one more reminder that no matter where J.R. goes, the game is on.

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Dallas Styles: Bobby’s Leather Jacket

April 2, 2012 by 8 Comments
Bobby Ewing, Dallas, Digger's Daughter, Patrick Duffy

‘Digger’s Daughter’

Bobby Ewing’s leather motorcross jacket isn’t as well known as J.R.’s Stetsons or Miss Ellie’s sack dresses, but it’s every bit as durable.

Patrick Duffy is sporting the snap-collared jacket when we meet Bobby in Act I, Scene I of “Dallas’s” Episode 1, “Digger’s Daughter.” The jacket, like the red convertible Bobby is driving, lets the audience know this is a cool young dude.

Bobby Ewing, Dallas, Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire, Patrick Duffy

‘The Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire’

The jacket is metaphorical in other ways, too. We hear Pam’s famous line in this scene (“Your folks are gonna throw me right off that ranch”) and we wonder: Are the Ewings going to tan Bobby’s actual hide when they discover he has married a Barnes?

The jacket pops up periodically after “Digger’s Daughter,” including during the sixth-season episode “Caribbean Connection,” when Bobby sneaks into a motel room to gather dirt on one of J.R.’s cronies. This is a very un-Bobby thing to do, so the leather jacket becomes the perfect prop to telegraph his rebellious streak.

Interestingly, even after Duffy leaves “Dallas,” the jacket doesn’t.

Dack Rambo seems to sport the same brown leather during the Duffy-less dream season, a subtle hint to the audience that Rambo’s character, cousin Jack Ewing, was supposed to fill Bobby’s role as “Dallas’s” resident hero.

Duffy wears a leather motorcross in “Dallas’s” final two episodes, “The Decline and Fall of the Ewing Empire” and “Conundrum,” including in the latter’s last freeze frame. The color of this jacket isn’t warm, so I’m not sure it’s the same one Duffy wore during the previous seasons.

The color change is fitting: By the time “Dallas” ends, the show has faded considerably. Why shouldn’t Bobby’s jacket do the same?

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