Features – Dallas Decoder

TNT’s Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘I Love You, Bobby’

August 9, 2012 by Chris Baker 6 Comments

Dallas, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman, Revelations, TNT

Brotherly love

In “Revelations,” “Dallas’s” first-season finale, J.R. (Larry Hagman) enters Bobby’s hospital room, where a nurse (Gail Washington) stands nearby as Bobby (Patrick Duffy) lies in a coma-like state.

NURSE: Sir, you can’t be in here yet.

J.R.: Well, you can call security if you have to darlin’. But until they throw me out, I’m going to be talking to my brother. [The nurse leaves and J.R. approaches Bobby’s bed and takes his hand.] Come on. Wake up, you hear me? Wake up and you get better. You keep fighting. You keep fighting me. [Pauses] Now I’m going to tell you something you never heard me say before. I love you, Bobby, and I don’t know who I’d be without you.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (TNT), Features Tagged With: Gail Washington, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Revelations, TNT

Dallas Drinks: Cynthia Cider

August 7, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

To conclude the “Dallas Drinks” series, the “Dallas” fans at Dallas Decoder and Cook In/Dine Out honor Cynthia Cidre, the creative force behind TNT’s new series, with a cider-inspired cocktail.

Filed Under: Dallas Drinks, Features Tagged With: Cynthia Cidre, TNT

Things Ewings Say

August 7, 2012 by Chris Baker 15 Comments

Don’t darlin’ her either

J.R. isn’t the only sharp-tongued Ewing on TNT’s “Dallas.” To help you prepare for tomorrow’s telecast of “Revelations,” the first-season finale, we offer this review of memorable lines from other characters.

• “Count your blessings, Christopher. Those two old geezers would still find a reason to fight.”

Lucy (Charlene Tilton), after her cousin announces J.R. and Cliff won’t be able to attend his wedding in “Changing of the Guard”

• “We ain’t family, bro.”

John Ross (Josh Henderson) to Christopher in “Hedging Your Bets”

• “OK, can we just go bake something?”

Rebecca (Julie Gonzalo), after failing to hit the target during shooting practice with Ann in “The Price You Pay”

• “Hair loss isn’t one of them, right?”

Bobby (Patrick Duffy), upon hearing his new medication has side effects in “The Price You Pay”

• “You got your daddy’s charm. Let’s hope you didn’t get his morals.”

Miss Henderson (Margaret Bowman), responding to John Ross’s sweet talk in “The Last Hurrah”

• “He was dyslexic, not stupid.”

Elena (Jordana Brewster), responding to J.R.’s quip about John Ross’s childhood aversion to reading, in “The Last Hurrah”

• “I know all the things Daddy used to say.”

Bobby, after J.R. quotes Jock for the umpteenth time, in “Truth and Consequences”

• “I like your husband. And I always thought his brother was a prick.”

Harris (Mitch Pileggi), agreeing to Ann’s request to help Bobby by cancelling his contract with J.R. in “Truth and Consequences”

• “The people in Texas are way too friendly. It tries my nerves.”

Tommy (Callard Harris) in “The Enemy of My Enemy”

• “What now?”

John Ross, after Bobby and Christopher enter his room in “The Enemy of My Enemy”

• “I’m sorry I threw up in your bathroom.”

Rebecca to Elena in “Collateral Damage”

• “The first thing I thought was, ‘Yep, he’s his mama’s son.’”

Lucy, recalling the time she found John Ross drunk after he broke into the Southfork liquor cabinet as a child, in “Collateral Damage”

• “You’ve been writing more prescriptions than Michael Jackson’s doctor – which is odd, since all of your patients are dead.”

Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), blackmailing a medical examiner in “No Good Deed”

• “If I catch you anywhere near Bobby’s room, I’ll shoot you. And since you have no heart, it’ll be somewhere more vital.”

Ann (Brenda Strong), chasing J.R. away from her ill husband in “Family Business”

What’s your favorite quote from “Dallas’s” first season? Share your choices below and read more features from Dallas Decoder.

Filed Under: Features, Features Tagged With: Brenda Strong, Callard Harris, Changing of the Guard (2012), Charlene Tilton, Collateral Damage, Enemy of My Enemy, Family Business, Hedging Your Bets, Jordana Brewster, Julie Gonzalo, Last Hurrah, Linda Gray, Margaret Bowman, Mitch Pileggi, No Good Deed, Patrick Duffy, Price You Pay, Revelations, TNT, Truth and Consequences

Things Ewings Say (J.R. Edition)

August 6, 2012 by Chris Baker 25 Comments

Bullet-proof

If the first season of TNT’s “Dallas” taught us anything, it’s this: J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) still has a way with words. With “Revelations,” the eagerly awaited season finale two days away, here’s a look back at some of his best lines.

• “Son, the courts are for amateurs and the faint of heart.”

Responding to John Ross’s suggestion that he could win a legal fight with Bobby in “Changing of the Guard”

• “Son, never pass up a good chance to shut up.”

Imparting more wisdom to John Ross in “Hedging Your Bets”

• “I hate to hit a man below the belt, but you know I will.”

Threatening Mitch Lobell in “Hedging Your Bets”

• “Time has not been kind to that face.”

Upon seeing Cliff Barnes for the first time in many years in “The Price You Pay”

• “Bullets don’t seem to have much an effect on me, darlin’.”

Greeting a shotgun-wielding Ann in “The Price You Pay”

• “I’m going to tell you the truest thing my daddy ever told me: Nobody gives you power. Real power is something you take.”

Quoting Jock to John Ross in “The Price You Pay”

• “Those people are not passing away because of old age. They’re trying to get away from the food.”

Describing the culinary options at his nursing home in “The Price You Pay”

• “That Mexican girl?”

Describing Elena in “The Last Hurrah”

• “Our girl is crazier than an outhouse rat.”

Describing Marta in “The Last Hurrah”

• “Are you really going to break bread with this lowlife?”

Upon learning Sue Ellen plans to have lunch with Cliff in “The Last Hurrah”

• “Well what fun would I get out of telling you that?”

His response when John Ross asks where he’s going in “Truth and Consequences”

• “For a chance to make money from me, Cliff Barnes would push his mama in a puddle of piranhas.”

Assessing his chances of joining Cliff’s high-stakes poker game in “The Enemy of My Enemy”

• “A cheated man is a dangerous man. Just ask my son.”

Describing Frank Ashkani in “Collateral Damage”

• “OK, I admit, I have lapses where I do wrong now and then.”

Offering Bobby the understatement of a lifetime in “Family Business”

What’s your favorite J.R. quote from “Dallas’s” first season? Share your choices below and read more features from Dallas Decoder.

Filed Under: Features, Features Tagged With: Changing of the Guard (2012), Collateral Damage, Enemy of My Enemy, Family Business, Hedging Your Bets, Larry Hagman, Last Hurrah, Price You Pay, Revelations, TNT, Truth and Consequences

TNT’s Dallas Styles: Bobby’s Pajamas

August 2, 2012 by Chris Baker 2 Comments

Dead men don’t wear plaid. Right?

In “Family Business,” TNT continues an old “Dallas” tradition: using the Ewings’ sleepwear to telegraph their vulnerabilities.

The practice can be traced to “Spy in the House,” the original show’s third episode, when a sexually neglected Sue Ellen buys a negligee, hoping to arouse J.R.’s interest. Her plan doesn’t work: J.R. calls the nightie “cheap” and storms out of the room, leaving his wife in tears.

In the second-season episode “Survival,” a bathrobe-clad Jock weeps when he learns a plane carrying J.R. and Bobby has crashed. Later, in the third-season episode “Ellie Saves the Day,” Jock and Miss Ellie are both wearing robes when they learn J.R.’s latest oil deal has brought the Ewing empire to the brink of collapse.

And when we encounter a deeply depressed J.R. at the beginning of “Changing of the Guard,” TNT’s first “Dallas” episode, what’s he wearing? You guessed it: a robe and pajamas.

In “Family Business,” Patrick Duffy sports plaid pajamas and what appears to be a dark green robe after Bobby is diagnosed with a life-threatening cerebral aneurysm. The PJs, like the reading glasses perched on Bobby’s nose, remind us our silver-haired hero is entering the twilight of his life – a point Bobby himself makes when he poignantly reminds J.R., “Nobody lives forever.”

But the sleepwear lets us know something else too: Even in pajamas, Patrick Duffy is still dashing.

Filed Under: Dallas Styles, Dallas Styles (TNT), Features Tagged With: Black Market Baby, Changing of the Guard (2012), Ellie Saves the Day, Family Business, Patrick Duffy, Spy in the House, TNT

The Art of TNT’s Dallas: ‘Family Business’

August 2, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe) is seen in this publicity shot from “Family Business,” the ninth episode of TNT’s “Dallas.” Photo credit: Zade Rosenthal/TNT.

Filed Under: Art of Dallas, Art of Dallas (TNT), Features Tagged With: Family Business, Jesse Metcalfe, TNT

TNT’s Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘J.R., I Love You’

August 2, 2012 by Chris Baker 6 Comments

Dallas, Family Business, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman, TNT

Stung

In “Family Business,” a first-season “Dallas” episode, J.R. (Larry Hagman) visits Bobby (Patrick Duffy), who sits in his bed.

J.R.: You could have told me about the cancer.

BOBBY: Slipped my mind. I guess I was too busy trying to undo all the damage you caused.

J.R.: OK, I admit, I have lapses where I do wrong now and then.

BOBBY: No, J.R., your lapses aren’t when you do wrong. Your lapses are when you do right. Like the scorpion who said to the frog, “It’s just in my nature.”

J.R.: Well, you happy with your doctor? Because I’ve given a truckload of money to the UT medical school.

BOBBY: J.R., I love you. No matter what. You remember that.

J.R.: Well, my memory’s not what it used to be, either. You’re just going to have to keep telling me.

BOBBY: Nobody lives forever.

J.R.: Well, I’m not going to stand here and listen to you write your obituary. If you have something to say to me, you say it when they get that thing fixed in your head.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (TNT), Features Tagged With: Family Business, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, TNT

Dallas Styles: Lucy’s Wedding

August 1, 2012 by Chris Baker 6 Comments

Sue Ellen’s dress, part 1

Lucy’s wedding in the fourth-season episode “End of the Road, Part 2,” gives the “Dallas” cast a chance to dress up and show off like never before. No one rises to the occasion quite like Linda Gray, who gets to wear two outfits.

When the ceremony begins, Sue Ellen wears a brownish-gray satin dress with shoulders so wide, it makes Gray look like she’s been wrapped in a king-sized bedspread.

… And part 2

This might be intentional. During the reception, a waiter spills a drink on Sue Ellen, and when she retreats to her bedroom to change, she discovers J.R. has been sleeping with Afton – in the same bed he shares with Sue Ellen.

Old-fashioned girl

Until this point, Sue Ellen has been resisting the charms of her old college boyfriend Clint Ogden, a guest at the wedding who has been shamelessly flirting with her. Once she knows J.R. is cheating on her again – and with her “bedspread dress” stained – Sue Ellen apparently decides she has nothing to lose.

She changes into a much different outfit: a form-fitting pinkish-orange garment with three big white flowers printed on the front.

The u-shaped neckline swoops down across Gray’s chest and leaves her shoulders exposed, making this dress much sleeker and sexier than the bedspread. Sue Ellen seems to be letting the world know she’s available again.

Lucy’s wedding gown is also revealing – figuratively, that is. She gets fitted for the dress in “End of the Road, Part 1,” when we learn Miss Ellie wore the gown during her wedding to Jock a half-century earlier.

This seems appropriate. Lucy is a modern girl in almost every sense of the word, but she harbors some pretty outdated ideas about marriage.

In “Start the Revolution with Me,” a later fourth-season episode, Lucy suggests she’d like to drop out of school so she can become a full-time wife to Mitch. At that point, it becomes clear: Lucy didn’t just inherit a wedding dress from the 1930s; she got a Depression era mentality to go along with it.

Filed Under: Dallas Styles, Dallas Styles (Classic), Features Tagged With: End of the Road Part 1, End of the Road Part 2, Linda Gray, Start the Revolution With Me

The Art of Dallas: ‘End of the Road, Part 2’

August 1, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Lucy (Charlene Tilton) is seen wearing her bridal gown in this 1981 photograph from “End of the Road, Part 2,” a fourth-season “Dallas” episode.

Filed Under: Art of Dallas, Art of Dallas (Classic), Features Tagged With: Charlene Tilton, End of the Road Part 2

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘He’s a Hell of a Son’

August 1, 2012 by Chris Baker 3 Comments

Family business

In “Dallas’s” fourth-season episode “End of the Road, Part 2,” Bobby (Patrick Duffy) summons Jock and J.R. (Jim Davis, Larry Hagman) to the Southfork living room.

BOBBY: Daddy, I want out of Ewing Oil. It’s all yours, J.R.

JOCK: Just what are you talking about?

BOBBY: I want out. I almost did something today that I never would’ve been able to forgive myself for.

J.R.: Almost? [Walks toward the bar] Does that mean you didn’t sign with Westar Oil? [Pours himself a drink]

BOBBY: So you know about Westar, do you? Well, I can’t say I’m too surprised.

J.R.: [Pouring himself a drink] Well, Bobby, I built Ewing Oil into a power because I knew everything that was happening in Dallas. I still do. That’s how you run a successful business. [Turns to face Bobby and Jock]

BOBBY: Well, maybe you’re right. And maybe you can’t care for the people. [Turns to Jock] But I wanted to run this company on the up-and-up, Daddy. Only after awhile, the deals became more important than the people. I was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, all the time pretending it was for the right reasons. And then I realized, after awhile, that you can only lie to yourself just so long, that I could pretend that whatever was good for Ewing Oil was alright, but it’s not. It’s not all right for me.

J.R.: Well, if you didn’t sign with Westar, that means you blew the deal with Jordan Lee and the cartel. And on top of that, we still owe them $12 million – money we don’t have.

JOCK: Is that true, Bobby? Did you go back on your word at the cartel?

BOBBY: [Sighs] I hate to disappoint you, J.R., but we’re just fine with the cartel. [To Jock] I phoned Jordan Lee and told him why I couldn’t go in on the deal with him. Then I put him together with Nick Hammond. Hammond Oil? Nick agreed to take over our part of the investment – completely – with the blessing of the cartel. We’re in real solid with them, Daddy. Till they find out J.R.’s back.

J.R.: You’re crazy, Bobby. You lost us millions of dollars.

BOBBY: I’m sure you’ll find a way to get it back. You’re very good at that sort of thing – a lot better than I wanna be. [Turns and leaves]

J.R.: [Turns to the bar] Well, if that don’t tear the rag off the bush. [Pours himself another drink] He almost bankrupts us. He leaves, and I gotta cover his tail. [Chuckles] I tell you. [Drinks]

JOCK: Just what are you talking about, J.R.? Nothing wrong with the company. We got a refinery we didn’t have before. Plenty of product. We’re even back in with the cartel. I’m proud of the way Bobby acted. He showed people the Ewing name stands for something. He’s a hell of a son – and a hell of a man. [Turns and leaves]

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: End of the Road Part 2, Jim Davis, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy