Amos (William Windom), Ray’s long-lost daddy, turns up on the doorstep of his son (Steve Kanaly) in this 1980 publicity shot from “The Fourth Son,” a fourth-season “Dallas” episode.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘He’s Not Your Daddy. I Am.’
July 17, 2012 by 7 Comments
Facing the truth
In “The Fourth Son,” a fourth-season “Dallas” episode, Jock (Jim Davis) visits Ray (Steve Kanaly), who asks him to sit at the patio table outside his newly built home.
JOCK: Your father came to see me today.
RAY: My father?
JOCK: Yeah. Afraid he put the squeeze on me.
RAY: Jock, I’m sorry. I’m real sorry. I tried to get rid of him.
JOCK: Ray, I don’t know whether you know it or not, but your mother and I were real close friends.
RAY: Yes, sir, I know.
JOCK: I met her in England during World War II. I was in the Army Air Corps, and she was a nurse.
RAY: She used to talk about those nursing days a lot. Seems like the only time in her life she ever felt useful.
JOCK: The fact is, Ray, your mother and I had an affair. But it was, it was special. Oh, she knew all about Ellie. I knew about her fiancé, Amos Krebs. But it was wartime, and our feelings were…. Well, let’s just say that we were two lonely people.
RAY: Jock, you don’t have to explain a thing to me.
JOCK: Afraid I do. I was sent to France and she was shipped back home. We said goodbye. We knew it was over. We thought that was the best thing to do. We never kept in touch after that until –
RAY: Till I showed up on your doorstep. [Smiles]
JOCK: [Smiles] I was glad to have you. Still am.
RAY: Jock, let me handle my father. He’s not your problem. He’s mine.
JOCK: Ray, I don’t know how to put this, so I’ll just spit it out. He’s not your daddy. I am.
RAY: [Looks away, then at Jock; clenches his jaw] Did Krebbs tell you that?
JOCK: He provided proof. Don’t suppose he needed to. I know it’s the truth. I just, I just feel it. I don’t know why in the world I never realized it before.
RAY: You tell Miss Ellie yet?
JOCK: Not yet, but….
RAY: Then what are you going to do about it?
JOCK: What do you want me to do?
RAY: No disrespect to you, Jock, I’d just as soon you leave things the way they are.
JOCK: You understand, Ray, that you’ve got a lot at stake here.
RAY: Jock, I’d be proud to be recognized as your son. But you know what kind of problems that could cause for you and your family. And the pressure it might put between you and Miss Ellie. If it’s all right with you, I’m just happy to leave things just the way they are.
JOCK: You’re saying it’s my decision?
RAY: I want to do what’s best for you. It’s all I care about.
Dallas Drinks: The Christopher
July 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
This summer, the “Dallas” fans at Dallas Decoder and Cook In/Dine Out are offering “Dallas Drinks,” a series of cocktails inspired by the characters from TNT’s new series. This week: The Christopher, a drink that’s spicier than you might expect – just like Jesse Metcalfe’s character.
Dallas Styles: Jock’s Medallion
July 16, 2012 by 13 Comments
Lion king
In the famous painting of Jock that hangs at Southfork (and later, Ewing Oil) after the character’s death, he wears his signature gold medallion. The lion’s head, which dangles on a chain around Jock’s neck, reminds the world of his role as father of the Ewing pride.
When Jock was alive, sometimes his own family needed the reminder.
Jim Davis is first shown wearing the lion’s head in the fourth-season episode “The Venezuelan Connection,” when an enraged Jock chases down Bobby in the Southfork driveway after discovering his youngest son has bought a refinery.
“Why in the hell didn’t you check with me first?” Jock demands.
“There wasn’t time, Daddy. I had to move fast,” Bobby responds.
“Move fast? So fast you didn’t have time to talk to me?”
Similar scenes unfold in other fourth-season episodes. In “The Prodigal Mother,” Jock is wearing the medallion when he makes a dismissive remark about Mitch and Lucy stands up to him, and in “Executive Wife,” the lion’s head is hanging around Jock’s neck when Ray suggests he should check with Bobby before taking millions of dollars out of the company to invest in a land deal.
In that instance, Jock lets Ray know he’s still top dog (er, cat) at Ewing Oil.
“Let me tell you something, Ray,” he says. “Ewing Oil is mine. I started it. I worked it. I made it what it is today. And if Bobby or anybody else don’t like the way I do things, they know what they can do.”
As Jock speaks, the medallion around his neck catches the Texas sunlight, drawing the viewer’s attention and helping to illuminate the Ewing patriarch’s message. There’s no doubt: Jock may be a lion in winter, but he’s still a lion.
The Art of Dallas: ‘The Venezuelan Connection’
July 16, 2012 by 2 Comments
Jock and Ray (Jim Davis, Steve Kanaly) attend a Fort Worth cattle auction in this 1980 publicity shot from “The Venezuelan Connection,” a fourth-season “Dallas” episode.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘You’re the One Who’s the Snob’
July 16, 2012 by 1 Comment
Telling it like it is
In “The Venezuelan Connection,” a fourth-season “Dallas” episode, Lucy (Charlene Tilton) talks to Mitch (Leigh McCloskey) while he puts away dishes in his kitchen.
MITCH: Lucy, look, it was nice of you to come here, but you’ve gotta understand one thing: being rich is a way of life for you. I’ll never have that kind of money.
LUCY: Well, I don’t care about that.
MITCH: Well, I do!
LUCY: Well, why should you?
MITCH: I can’t compete with your fancy friends with their automobiles and their trips off to Acapulco.
LUCY: Well, why do you have to compete with them? They live like that. So what? Can’t you just accept it? They accepted you.
MITCH: Because I was with you!
LUCY: Well, so wouldn’t it be the same way with your friends? They’d accept me only because I was with you. Look, things will change. It’ll be different when they get to know you better. They’ll accept you.
MITCH: Look, I don’t give a damn about their acceptance! [Slams his fist on the table]
LUCY: You know what? You’re the one who’s the snob. With all that medical stuff you study in school, you sure don’t know much about people. [Walks toward the door, turns back to face Mitch] You know, it’s funny. I came here to apologize because I thought we had a good thing going on. But now I wonder if we do. Because if you can’t like me the way I like you, without caring about anything or anyone else, then I don’t even want to know you. Maybe you’re not the man I thought you were.
She leaves, slamming the door behind her.
TNT’s Dallas Styles: Tommy’s Hat
July 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The outsider
In “The Enemy of My Enemy,” Tommy comes charging into Rebecca’s apartment, grumbling about the crowd at the coffee shop he’s just returned from. “People in Texas are way too friendly. It tries my nerves,” he says.
The line reminds us that Tommy is an outsider in Dallas – and so does the hat Callard Harris wears in this scene. The headgear appears to be a straw fedora, trimmed with a plaid ribbon. Notably, it isn’t a Stetson, the style favored by the Ewing men.
In addition to offering another demonstration of Tommy’s distinctive fashion sense – he memorably wore flip-flops to Christopher and Rebecca’s wedding in “Changing of the Guard,” the first episode of TNT’s “Dallas” – the hat recalls the fedora Digger Barnes wore on the original “Dallas.”
This might be another sly homage to the old show. Like Tommy, Digger was also an outsider who coveted the Ewings’ wealth. Of course, the source of Digger’s envy was always apparent: He believed Jock “stole” Miss Ellie and cheated him out of his rightful share of Ewing Oil.
Tommy’s motivation remains a mystery – along with any other connections he and Rebecca may share with classic characters like Digger.
The Art of TNT’s Dallas: ‘The Enemy of My Enemy’
July 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
J.R. (Larry Hagman) does a little business via smartphone in this publicity shot from “The Enemy of My Enemy,” the sixth episode of TNT’s “Dallas.” Photo credit: Zade Rosenthal/TNT.
TNT’s Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Some Things Never Change’
July 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Necessity is a mother
In “The Enemy of My Enemy,” a first-season “Dallas” episode, John Ross (Josh Henderson) visits Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) at her office.
SUE ELLEN: Hello, darling. What a nice surprise. [Kisses him]
JOHN ROSS: Mother.
SUE ELLEN: Don’t tell me. You’re here to take me out to lunch, hmm?
JOHN ROSS: I’m afraid not. [Turns away] I came because I need your help.
SUE ELLEN: Well, whatever you need. You know that.
JOHN ROSS: Harris Ryland of Ryland Transport. Is he a friend of yours? [Turns to face her]
SUE ELLEN: I wouldn’t say he’s exactly a friend. I know him a little socially.
JOHN ROSS: Socially is enough. He’s pulled his tanker trucks from Southfork and I can’t pump oil without something to transport it in. Now, I need you to convince him to send his trucks back.
SUE ELLEN: What are you asking me to do, exactly?
JOHN ROSS: You’re running for governor. I need you to play politics. Promise Ryland something. Whatever you want. I don’t care. I just need those trucks back so I can get pumping.
She looks away.
JOHN ROSS: I should’ve known.
SUE ELLEN: [Faces him] No, John Ross, I want to. I need you to believe that. But I made a promise when I got into this race to my backers and my supporters.
JOHN ROSS: Screw your promises! You’ve been compromising everything with me since I was born.
SUE ELLEN: John Ross, if I start down that road. [Pauses]
JOHN ROSS: J.R.’s investors hold a note to the ranch. We’re paying them back with 14 percent of the oil. If we don’t pay them on time, they could take the ranch. And I got a feeling they’re going to do a lot worse than that.
SUE ELLEN: My God. [Touches his face] Who have you gotten yourself into business with?
JOHN ROSS: [Walks away] Save it, mother.
SUE ELLEN: Wait. [He turns to face her.] I can help you in other ways, John Ross.
JOHN ROSS: There’s a simple solution you can do, now. And you turn me down. Some things never change.
He leaves.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘… A Clash Between Those Two Boys’
July 11, 2012 by 2 Comments
Father knows least
In “Taste of Success,” a fourth-season “Dallas” episode, Jock and Ray (Jim Davis, Steve Kanaly) come to a stop while riding horses.
RAY: You all right?
JOCK: Yeah, why?
RAY: You’re riding awful hard. That usually means you got something on your mind.
JOCK: You know me real good, don’t you?
RAY: Yes, sir.
JOCK: Well, it’s Bobby and J.R.
RAY: I thought Bobby was working out all right.
JOCK: Well, he is. Of course, he’s got a lot to learn. But that’s not the problem.
RAY: Well, what is the problem then?
JOCK: Well, you know J.R. likes being president. He’s about ready to go back to work, as you can see.
RAY: So?
JOCK: Gonna be a clash between those two boys. Some kind of explosion. And I’ll be damned if I know what to do about it. I just wish that there was some way that I could get those two boys together. You know, work side by side.
RAY: Well, there ain’t no way. You know that as well as I do, Jock.
JOCK: Yeah, I know, but that’s not the worst part of it. After the clash, Bobby may pull out and leave Dallas. And if that happens, well, Miss Ellie’s gonna blame me. And so help me, I, I just don’t know what to do about it. [Pauses] I’ll see you. [Takes off on his horse]
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