Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 39 – ‘Mastectomy, Part 2’

May 24, 2012 by 13 Comments
Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing, Mastectomy Part 2, Miss Ellie Ewing

Ellie and her rock

In “Mastectomy, Part 1,” Miss Ellie gets breast cancer, probably becoming television’s first major character to have the disease. “Mastectomy, Part 2” is equally provocative, as the health crisis prompts the Ewings to ponder the meaning of beauty.

Who says “Dallas” isn’t deep?

In one of this episode’s best scenes, Sue Ellen and Pam debate attractiveness. When Sue Ellen declares she has “never met a man yet who thought of brains when he first looked at a woman,” her sister-in-law is incredulous. “Women don’t just exist for men,” Pam says.

To some, this scene is probably a little Nixon-goes-to-China. When it aired in 1979, “Dallas” – along with fellow hits “Charlie’s Angels” and “Three’s Company” – routinely touting the sex appeal of its lead actresses. Sue Ellen and Pam’s conversation suggests “Dallas” aspired to be something more, at least during the “Mastectomy” episodes.

The scene also invites us to wonder how the cancer storyline might have been different if Sue Ellen or Pam had been diagnosed with the disease instead of Miss Ellie. My take: It might have been more audacious to assign the disease to a younger character, but it wouldn’t have necessarily been more eye-opening.

Consider the “Mastectomy, Part 2” scene where Ellie, having returned home after her surgery, tries on dresses in her bedroom and decides none fit properly. She collapses in tears and Jock rushes to her side, telling her “it doesn’t matter.”

“Why doesn’t it matter?” Ellie says, sobbing. “Because I’m not young anymore? Don’t you think I care the way I look? Don’t you care?”

I’ll confess: I rarely think of Miss Ellie as a sexual character. The notion that a woman her age might want to be physically appealing to her husband hadn’t occurred to me, so this scene makes me appreciate how bold the “Mastectomy” episodes remain.

Ellie’s breakdown also offers another reminder – not that one is needed – of how good Barbara Bel Geddes and Jim Davis are in their roles. This is a big scene for the actors and they perform well, but they also excel in this episode’s quieter moments.

For example, at the end of “Mastectomy, Part 2,” Jock visits Bobby under the pretense of discussing Southfork business, but the conversation soon turns to Jock’s struggle to reconcile with Ellie. “I just had to have somebody to talk to,” Jock says. Davis delivers the line with such desperation, it’s hard to not be moved.

Ultimately, moments like these make “Mastectomy, Part 2” satisfying. This episode raises questions but doesn’t really answer them – and that’s OK, because the goal seems to be making viewers think for themselves.

Grade: B

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Dallas, Linda Gray, Mastectomy Part 2, Pam Ewing, Sue Ellen Ewing, Victoria Principal

Brains and beauty

‘MASTECTOMY, PART 2’

Season 3, Episode 10

Airdate: November 16, 1979

Audience: 22 million homes, ranking 5th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Arthur Bernard Lewis

Director: Irving J. Moore

Synopsis: After her surgery, Miss Ellie struggles to cope with the loss of her breast. Digger urges her to leave Jock for him, but she turns him down and reconciles with Jock.

Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Jared Martin (Dusty Farlow), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Keenan Wynn (Digger Barnes), John Zaremba (Dr. Harlan Danvers)

“Mastectomy, Part 2” is available on DVD and Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 38 – ‘Mastectomy, Part 1’

May 23, 2012 by 14 Comments
Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas, Mastectomy Part 1, Miss Ellie Ewing

Oh, pioneer

In the 1970s, Edith Bunker and a few other major television characters had cancer scares, but no one actually got the disease. “Dallas” upends this convention in “Mastectomy, Part 1,” when Miss Ellie learns a newly discovered lump in her breast is malignant.

This storyline, like the second-season episode about Kit Mainwaring’s coming out, demonstrates the pioneering spirit that distinguished “Dallas’s” earliest seasons. The show’s willingness to venture into unchartered territory is commendable, even if it occasionally stumbles along the way.

For example, some of the dialogue in the “Mastectomy” episodes sounds like it was lifted from the cancer brochure Ellie is seen reading in “The Dove Hunt,” an earlier third-season entry. Various characters refer to “regular checkups,” “frequent self-examination” and “special radiation treatment.”

The clinical talk is clumsy, but in the pre-Google era, at least “Dallas” cared enough about its audience to want to educate them. (A measure of television’s potential back then: The “Mastectomy” episodes were originally broadcast as a single two-hour “Dallas” installment, drawing half the homes that watched TV that night.)

Of course, the heavy-handed dialogue isn’t as bothersome as the subplot about Amanda, Jock’s first wife, whom the “Dallas” writers seemingly invented to drive a wedge between Jock and Ellie before her surgery. This plot device is unnecessary. Cancer is scary enough. “Dallas” didn’t need to artificially heighten the drama surrounding Ellie’s diagnosis.

But don’t let the subplot distract you from Barbara Bel Geddes’ flawless performance, which undoubtedly helped her win the Emmy for best dramatic actress at the end of the 1979-80 season.

The actress is especially good when Ellie’s doctors explain what will happen if her tumor is malignant. In the scene, Ellie sits on her hospital bed, dressed in a pink medical gown, looking tinier than usual. As her doctors speak, tears slowly streak her face. It would’ve been easy to go overboard here, but Bel Geddes was smart enough to know those silent tears were all she needed to convey Ellie’s fear.

This is heartbreaking stuff, but the saddest moment in “Mastectomy, Part 1” comes when Jock turns to his sons and says, “God, why couldn’t it have been me they cut up instead of her?”

The line is made poignant by the fact Jim Davis died of cancer a little more than 500 days after the “Mastectomy” broadcast. Hearing him deliver the dialogue reminds us how real cancer is, and how frightening it remains.

Grade: B

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Dallas, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing, Mastectomy Part 1

Poignant pause

‘MASTECTOMY, PART 1’

Season 3, Episode 9

Airdate: November 16, 1979

Audience: 22 million homes, ranking 5th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Arthur Bernard Lewis

Director: Irving J. Moore

Synopsis: After Jock tells Miss Ellie about his first wife, she refuses to tell him she is having a breast cyst examined. Jock eventually finds out and is at Ellie’s side after her surgery, when he learns the tumor was malignant and the doctors removed her breast.

Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jeff Cooper (Dr. Simon Elby), Mary Crosby (Kristin Shepard), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Jane Kean (Mitzi), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Lev Mailer (Dr. Mitch Andress), Jared Martin (Dusty Farlow), Jeanna Michaels (Connie), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), John Zaremba (Dr. Harlan Danvers)

“Mastectomy, Part 1” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 37 – ‘Rodeo’

May 22, 2012 by 19 Comments
Dallas, Dusty Farlow, Jared Martin, Rodeo

Those eyes

Rodeos pit man against beast and on “Dallas,” no one is more beastly than J.R. In “Rodeo,” Sue Ellen, having failed to tame her savage husband, considers climbing in the saddle with a man who seems far less brutish: Dusty Farlow.

Sue Ellen meets the dashing cowboy when she enters a Braddock café with an armful of packages and accidentally bumps into him. Dusty’s first words – “Let me help you, ma’am” – are prophetic, letting us know he’s a different creature than J.R. The attraction between Sue Ellen and Dusty is instant.

Their brief conversation at the café continues the next day at the Ewings’ annual rodeo, where Dusty is the star competitor. Sue Ellen tells him about her loneliness; he tells her about his nomadic life on the rodeo circuit. They realize they have more in common than either might have guessed.

Linda Gray and Jared Martin have an undeniable chemistry, although let’s be honest: It would be hard for any actress to not have chemistry with him. With his lean frame, passionate delivery and come-hither eyes, Martin exudes sensuality.

Together, Gray and Martin make “Rodeo” a third-season highlight and one of my favorite “Dallas” episodes. I also like Leonard Katzman’s direction, which captures the rhythms of a real-life rodeo. Katzman constantly ducks and dives, cutting between the action in the arena and the drama unfolding in the crowd.

Toward the end of the episode, Dusty tells Sue Ellen he doesn’t need the prize money he’s poised to take home but wants it anyway. “The competition,” he says, “that’s not the important thing – it’s winning.”

The line evokes memories of the second-season episode “For Love or Money,” when Cliff compares his affair with Sue Ellen to a game. We remember how Sue Ellen was hurt the last time she sought love with another man.

In “Rodeo’s” closing moments, J.R., fed up with Sue Ellen’s public flirtation with Dusty, yanks her into their bedroom. She slaps him and he throws her onto the bed – and we’re reminded of another second-season scene: the disturbing climax in “Black Market Baby,” when J.R. forces himself on his unhappy wife.

In that episode, Sue Ellen submits to J.R. This time, she bucks him off.

“I’ve wasted more than enough time on you,” J.R. sneers before leaving.

In “Rodeo’s” final shot, Katzman freezes the frame on Sue Ellen, lying on her bed, while Jock’s voice is heard over the loudspeaker outside, announcing Dusty has won the award for best all-around cowboy.

But is he the best man for Sue Ellen?

Grade: A

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Dallas, Rodeo

Eight-second ride

‘RODEO’

Season 3, Episode 8

Airdate: November 9, 1979

Audience: 17 million homes, ranking 15th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Camille Marchetta

Director: Leonard Katzman

Synopsis: The Ewings host their annual rodeo at Southfork, where Sue Ellen arouses J.R. jealousies by flirting with cowboy Dusty Farlow. Meanwhile, J.R. stages a fight with Alan, who impresses Lucy; Digger drops by to see Jock and Miss Ellie’s grandson; and Ray learns Donna’s husband is dying.

Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Sherril Lynn Katzman (Jackie), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Jared Martin (Dusty Farlow), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Keenan Wynn (Digger Barnes)

“Rodeo” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 36 – ‘The Lost Child’

May 21, 2012 by 7 Comments
Bobby Ewing, Dallas, Lost Child, Luke Middens, Ronnie Scribner

Surrogates

“Dallas” is sometimes thought of as a “man’s show” not just because of its rugged western motif, but also because the Ewing women so often take a backseat to their male counterparts. Consider “The Lost Child,” in which Pam suffers a miscarriage but the tragedy is seen mostly through Bobby’s eyes.

To pull this off, scriptwriter Rena Down has Bobby befriend Luke, the young son of ranch hand Bo Middens. When Bo is bitten by a rattlesnake and hospitalized, Bobby allows eager cowboy-in-training Luke to fill in for his “pa.” Bobby and Luke bond while working together, especially after Luke tells him how he never has a chance to grow close to people because he and his widower father are always on the move.

Patrick Duffy displays an effortless, big brotherly charm in his scenes with guest star Ronnie Scribner, who is believable as sensitive Luke. At times, Bobby and Luke’s relationship feels a bit too “Little House on the Prairie” for “Dallas,” but their sentimental conversations help establish Bobby’s paternal instincts.

Ultimately, this is what makes “The Lost Child” one of the cleverest entries in “Dallas’s” third season. If Luke didn’t exist, we wouldn’t know how loving Bobby is with children – and Pam’s miscarriage might not resonate with the audience as much as it does.

In a way, Luke serves the same function as baby John. At the beginning of the third season, when Sue Ellen brings home her newborn son, Pam bonds with the baby instantly, establishing her parental bona fides. The difference between these two plot devices is John is a newborn and Luke is an adolescent, so his relationship with Bobby feels more substantial.

In “The Lost Child’s” final scene, Luke tells Bobby he is moving to Montana with Bo, who has recovered from his snakebite. Bobby’s farewell scene with the boy is touching, mainly because we know Bobby isn’t saying goodbye to Luke as much as he’s saying goodbye to his dream of becoming a father.

Grade: B

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Bobby Ewing, Dallas, Lost Child, Pam Ewing, Victoria Principal

Love and miscarriage

‘THE LOST CHILD’

Season 3, Episode 7

Airdate: November 2, 1979

Audience: 19.8 million homes, ranking 5th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Rena Down

Director: Irving J. Moore

Synopsis: After Pam suffers a miscarriage, she tells Bobby about her genetic disease and declares she mustn’t become pregnant again. Bobby befriends the young son of a ranch hand and is sad when the boy and his father move away. Cliff tells Digger he is baby John’s father. Sue Ellen begins seeing Dr. Simon Elby, a psychiatrist.

Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jeff Cooper (Dr. Simon Elby), Mary Crosby (Kristin Shepard), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Med Flory (Cal McBride), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Jeanna Michaels (Connie), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Ronnie Scribner (Luke Middens), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Keenan Wynn (Digger Barnes)

“The Lost Child” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 35 – ‘The Dove Hunt’

May 18, 2012 by 21 Comments
Dallas, Dove Hunt, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing

Facing his past

“The Dove Hunt” is a western, plain and true. It drops the Ewing men into the Louisiana wilderness, but it might as well transport them to the 18th-century frontier. The themes scriptwriters D.C. and Richard Fontana explore here – honor, justice, redemption – are timeless.

Throughout “The Dove Hunt,” we don’t know why craggy-faced Tom Owens is stalking the Ewings’ hunting party. In the next-to-last scene, Owens finally comes face to face with Jock and reveals he wants to avenge events from 32 years earlier, when Jock forced Owens to sell him his farmland, ruining him.

The tense confrontation climaxes when Owens points his rifle at Jock, who doesn’t flinch. “Come on,” Jock huffs. “If you’re gonna do it, do it.”

While composer John Parker builds a drumbeat in the background, director Leonard Katzman zooms in for tight close-ups of Jim Davis and Robert J. Wilke, the veteran villain-of-the-week (“Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke”) who plays Owens.

Finally, Owens lowers his gun. “I can’t. I’m not a killer,” he says.

What a great scene. We watch it knowing Owens isn’t really going to kill Jock – after all, this is 1970s episodic television, where the hero never dies – but the confrontation is still dramatic.

Much of the credit goes to Davis and Wilke. Both actors did a ton of westerns before “Dallas,” and they know exactly what a scene like this calls for. Wilke makes Owens menacing, while Davis’s steely courage has us rooting for Jock, even though we never doubt for a minute the Ewing patriarch wronged Owens when they were younger.

I also love the Fontanas’ beautiful dialogue at the end of the scene, when Owens asks Jock why he isn’t pressing charges against him.

“I owe you, that’s all,” Jock says. “Back in those days, I ran roughshod over a lot of people. I don’t remember you, Owens, but I should have – because you got a lot of pride. When you get right down to it, that’s all a man can take to his grave.”

Ultimately, this is what makes “The Dove Hunt” so good. There are no white hats and black hats here. Owens isn’t seeking revenge as much as he’s seeking justice, the only way he knows how; Jock’s redemptive impulses allow us to forgive him for strong-arming Owens all those years ago.

This is a western, but a morally ambiguous one. With “Dallas,” would we expect anything less?

Grade: A

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Dallas, Dove Hunt, Robert J. Wilke, Tom Owens

Not a killer

‘THE DOVE HUNT’

Season 3, Episode 6

Airdate: October 26, 1979

Audience: 20.1 million homes, ranking 6th in the weekly ratings

Writers: D.C. Fontana and Richard Fontana

Director: Leonard Katzman

Synopsis: On a hunting trip, Jock and J.R. are ambushed by a farmer Jock once strong-armed in business. While awaiting rescue, Jock confesses to J.R. he was married briefly before Miss Ellie and later vows to make amends with people he treated unfairly while building Ewing Oil. Ellie has a lump in her breast examined.

Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Thomas Callaway (Dan Owens), Mary Crosby (Kristin Shepard), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Stefan Gierasch (Ben Masters), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Robert J. Wilke (Tom Owens), John Zaremba (Dr. Harlan Danvers)

“The Dove Hunt” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 34 – ‘The Kristin Affair’

May 17, 2012 by 7 Comments
Dallas, J.R. Ewing, Kristin Affair, Kristin Shepard, Mary Crosby

Eyes on the prize

“The Kristin Affair” is quintessential “Dallas.” This isn’t the show’s best episode, but it might be the episode that best captures “Dallas’s” essence during its heyday. Almost everything we love about the series is here.

J.R. is “The Kristin Affair’s” center of attention. We see him clash with Bobby, snipe with Sue Ellen and plot Cliff’s ruin, all while pursuing Kristin, who becomes his secretary at the top of the hour and his mistress by the time the closing credits roll.

“The Kristin Affair”  also offers a rollicking Southfork dinner scene, some nice location shots at the ranch and in downtown Dallas, and another great score from Bruce Broughton. My favorite music during the episode: the ominous piano tune heard during the darkly lit scene where J.R. agrees to mortgage Southfork.

Notably, “The Kristin Affair” also shows the Ewings in the costumes they’re wearing in one of “Dallas’s” most famous cast shots, when the actors posed on Southfork’s front lawn. This photo – which is probably remembered as the one with Victoria Principal in the maroon dress, Linda Gray in the yellow blouse and Charlene Tilton in pigtails – is undoubtedly burnished in the minds of many “Dallas” fans, so watching “The Kristin Affair” is like seeing the picture spring to life.

Of course, no “Dallas” episode is perfect and “The Kristin Affair” is no exception. Ray is nowhere to be found here, Jock and Miss Ellie don’t have a meaningful scene together and it appears Pam has once again misplaced her backbone.

But “The Kristin Affair” has so much good stuff – and so many good J.R. scenes in particular – I’m willing to overlook its flaws.

My very favorite moment is very brief. It comes at the end of the scene where J.R. meets with his government mole and learns how much money he’ll need to win the bidding for the Asian drilling contract. “That’s a tidy little sum. Woo-wee!” J.R. says.

Larry Hagman delivers the dialogue under his breath, making me wonder if he ad-libbed it. Improvised or not, the actor seems to be having a ball playing J.R. In this episode, I have a ball watching him.

Grade: A

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Dallas, J.R. Ewing, Kristin Affair, Larry Hagman

Having a ball

‘THE KRISTIN AFFAIR’

Season 3, Episode 5

Airdate: October 19, 1979

Audience: 18.2 million homes, ranking 10th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Worley Thorne

Director: Irving J. Moore

Synopsis: J.R. secretly mortgages Southfork to finance a risky oil deal in Asia, plots with his protégé Alan Beam to lure Cliff into a no-win congressional race and sleeps with Kristin, who becomes his secretary. Pam tells Bobby she is pregnant but doesn’t mention her genetic disease.

Cast: Robert Ackerman (Wade Luce), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Mary Crosby (Kristin Shepard), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Hugh Gorrian (Lowell Hansen), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Jeanna Michaels (Connie), Dennis Patrick (Vaughn Leland), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Martha Scott (Patricia Shepard), Paul Sorensen (Andy Bradley), Don Starr (Jordan Lee), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Keenan Wynn (Digger Barnes)

“The Kristin Affair” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 33 – ‘Secrets’

May 16, 2012 by 19 Comments
Dallas, Joan Van Ark, Secrets, Valene Ewing

Runaway mama

“Secrets” is about the perils of motherhood. In this episode, Sue Ellen remains aloof toward her newborn son, Valene struggles to reconcile with Lucy, and Pam agonizes over her pregnancy. Poor Miss Ellie is left to fret over them all.

If the eternally wise and loving Ellie is “Dallas’s” ideal mama, then Sue Ellen occupies the opposite end of the motherhood spectrum. In the previous episode, “The Silent Killer,” she refers to baby John as her “punishment” for having an affair with Cliff, although I’m not sure this is how she really feels.

Consider the “Secrets” scene where Sue Ellen gazes at the baby in his crib. She looks more intimidated than resentful. Maybe Sue Ellen, after being hurt by both J.R. and Cliff, is simply afraid to let down her guard?

Val is also estranged from her child, although she spends “Secrets” trying to patch things up with Lucy. To its credit, “Dallas” doesn’t gloss over Val’s mistakes. When Val says she, Gary and Lucy “never had a chance” to be a family, Lucy quickly corrects her. “We had a chance, all right,” Lucy says. “We were all together at the ranch. We could’ve made it, except it got too rough for you two, so you both ran off.”

Lucy’s decision to forgive Val at the end of “Secrets” is a little pat, although Joan Van Ark is so good in the scene where Val stands up to J.R., I’m willing to overlook the tidiness of the resolution.

Pam’s story is less satisfying. In “The Silent Killer,” she discovers her family suffers from a genetic disease that could be fatal to children and decides she doesn’t want to risk having a baby, only to learn she’s already pregnant in “Secrets.”

Pam turns to Cliff for advice. She lets him know she’s considering terminating the pregnancy without telling Bobby, continuing her pattern of keeping secrets from her husband.

I’m sure “Dallas” wants us to feel sorry for Pam, and I suppose I do, but this twist makes me think maybe it’s best if she doesn’t become a mother. After all, she’s turning out to be a lousy wife.

Grade: B

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Dallas, Pam Ewing, Secrets, Victoria Principal

Maybe baby?

‘SECRETS’

Season 3, Episode 4

Airdate: October 12, 1979

Audience: 16.2 million homes, ranking 15th in the weekly ratings

Writer and Director: Leonard Katzman

Synopsis: Val returns but Lucy rejects her attempt to reconcile. J.R. pressures Val into leaving, but she stands up to him, making Lucy proud. Pam discovers she’s pregnant and, fearing the child might die of neurofibromatosis, contemplates an abortion.

Cast: William H. Bassett (Dr. Paul Holliston), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jocelyn Brando (Mrs. Reeves), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Meg Gallagher (Louella), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Jeanna Michaels (Connie), George O. Petrie (Harv Smithfield), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Joan Van Ark (Valene Ewing)

“Secrets” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 32 – ‘The Silent Killer’

May 15, 2012 by 16 Comments
Dallas, Digger Barnes, Keenan Wynn, Silent Killer

The rogue

“Dallas” recasts two pivotal roles in “The Silent Killer:” Keenan Wynn succeeds David Wayne as Digger Barnes and Mary Crosby replaces Colleen Camp as Kristin Shepard. Both newcomers instantly put their own stamp on the characters.

Wayne played Digger during “Dallas’s” earliest episodes, offering an angry performance that helped establish the show’s dark tone when it began. Wayne beautifully captured Digger’s broken spirit, earning the “special guest star” billing he received during his appearances.

The moment Wynn appears in “The Silent Killer,” it’s clear “Dallas” is taking Digger in a different direction. Wynn is taller than his predecessor, and with his bushy beard and cheap fedora, he comes off as more of a charming rogue than a pitiful drunk.

Wynn’s Digger is also mellower. In “The Silent Killer’s” first act, he tells Cliff, “I only want what’s coming to me. I don’t want to see Jock Ewing flat broke.” It’s hard to imagine Wayne delivering that line.

Crosby reinvents her character, too. Camp’s unconventional beauty was unique, but in Crosby’s hands, Kristin is slyer and more seductive. Neither Camp nor Crosby particularly look like they could be Linda Gray’s sister, but Crosby’s bitchy chemistry with Gray is undeniable, as demonstrated in the scene where Kristin asks Sue Ellen if she’ll be joining the family for dinner.

“Were you thinking of occupying my chair?” Sue Ellen asks.

“Somebody will if you don’t pull yourself together,” Kristin sneers.

In another fun scene, Patricia, played by the wonderful Martha Scott, stands with Miss Ellie on the Southfork patio, watching over baby John and imagining the bright future that awaits him. “Someday, I expect, he’ll have a great big office, right next to his daddy’s,” Patricia says.

This rather prescient moment, like Crosby and Wynn’s strong first impressions, make up for “The Silent Killer’s” eye-rolling final scene, when Pam refuses to tell Bobby why she suddenly doesn’t want to have children.

The audience knows Pam’s reason – she fears her children will inherit neurofibromatosis, the Barnes family’s newly discovered genetic disease – but it isn’t clear why she insists on keeping Bobby in the dark about it.

Be careful, Pam. Neurofibromatosis may kill children, but secrecy kills marriages – and if you want to save yours, you’ll have to come clean soon.

Grade: B

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Dallas, Kristin Shepard, Mary Crosby, Silent Killer

The rascal

‘THE SILENT KILLER’

Season 3, Episode 3

Airdate: October 5, 1979

Audience: 14.1 million homes, ranking 31st in the weekly ratings

Writer: Arthur Bernard Lewis

Director: Irving J. Moore

Synopsis: When Digger visits, Pam and Cliff learn the Barneses have neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disease that could be fatal to their children. Pam persuades Cliff to keep this a secret from Sue Ellen, even though he might be baby John’s father. Patricia and Kristin visit and Kristin flirts with J.R.

Cast: William H. Bassett (Dr. Paul Holliston), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jocelyn Brando (Mrs. Reeves), Mary Crosby (Kristin Shepard), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Georgann Johnson (doctor), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Martha Scott (Patricia Shepard), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Keenan Wynn (Digger Barnes)

“The Silent Killer” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 31 – ‘Whatever Happened to Baby John? Part 2’

May 14, 2012 by 4 Comments
Dallas, John Ross Ewing, Whatever Happened to Baby John Part 2

Gone baby gone

One thing about the Ewings is certain: These people believe in doing things for themselves. When emergencies arise, the Ewings don’t dial the police, an ambulance or even a lawyer – they call each other.

Maybe this reflects the rugged, pioneering spirit the family represents, or maybe it reflects life after Watergate, when the nation’s faith in society’s institutions was shaken. Whatever the reason, the Ewings’ can-do spirit sometimes defies logic.

In “Whatever Happened to Baby John? Part 2,” when newly paroled Jeb Ames contacts J.R. and tells him he and fellow parolee Willie Joe Garr have taken baby John, J.R. doesn’t call the cops – he instructs banker Vaughn Leland to get him the $1 million he needs to pay the ransom.

Later, when an angry Bobby tells Pam he believes Cliff took the baby, Bobby doesn’t take his suspicions to law enforcement – he shows up on Cliff’s doorstep.

This might be the episode’s silliest scene. Bobby enters Cliff’s apartment, slams the door behind him, suggests Cliff is responsible for the kidnapping and growls at him – twice. It’s almost as if Patrick Duffy has turned into a paler version of the monster on “The Incredible Hulk,” one of “Dallas’s” Friday night companion series in the 1970s.

Eventually, Bobby, Pam and Cliff – looking a bit like “Dallas’s” version of “The Mod Squad” – head to the hospital, where they snoop around and discover baby John was taken by Priscilla Duncan, a mentally disturbed woman whose own infant died recently.

When Bobby and Pam bring baby John home, Rollins, the Dallas police detective who has been investigating the kidnapping, steps aside so the couple can enter the living room. It’s a symbolic gesture, signifying his deference to Texas’s first family of do-it-yourself crime-fighting.

Don’t feel bad, detective. The Ewings create a lot of work for your department. Be thankful they’re willing to pitch in and help clean up their own messes.

Grade: B

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Dallas, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman, Whatever Happened to Baby John Part 2

Who’ll J.R. shoot?

‘WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JOHN? PART 2’

Season 3, Episode 2

Airdate: September 28, 1979

Audience: 16.7 million homes, ranking 10th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Camille Marchetta

Director: Leonard Katzman

Synopsis: Newly paroled Jeb and Willie Joe tell J.R. they have baby John and demand a $1 million ransom. Pam determines the child was actually kidnapped by a woman whose own infant recently died. Bobby and Pam bring baby John home to Southfork.

Cast: John Ashton (Willie Joe Garr), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jocelyn Brando (Mrs. Reeves), Maryedith Burrell (Nurse Barker), Jordan Charney (Detective Rollins), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Meg Gallagher (Louella), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Sheila Larken (Priscilla Duncan), Jeanna Michaels (Connie), Cliff Murdock (Lieutenant Simpson), John O’Leary (Dr. Freilich), Dennis Patrick (Vaughn Leland), George O. Petrie (Harv Smithfield), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Sandy Ward (Jeb Ames)

“Whatever Happened to Baby John? Part 2” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

Filed Under: Critiques, Critiques (Classic), Opinion Tagged With:

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 30 – ‘Whatever Happened to Baby John? Part 1’

May 11, 2012 by 9 Comments
Dallas, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, Sue Ellen Ewing, Whatever Happened to Baby John Part 1

Meet the press

J.R., how do you do it?

During “Dallas’s” first two seasons, you neglect your wife, mistreat your mistress, forge your daddy’s will, ruin your mama’s reunion with her long-lost brother, sabotage one brother’s attempt to reconcile with his wife and child, drive another brother out of the family business, ruin your rival’s political career and frame him for murder, attempt to blackmail a closeted gay man into marrying your niece and try – twice – to ensnare your sister-in-law in a compromising position.

Yet as “Dallas’s” third season begins, I can’t help but feel sorry for you as you struggle to be a better husband to Sue Ellen, only to be rebuffed at every turn.

What’s wrong with me?

I realize J.R.’s motivation for wanting to save his marriage isn’t altogether altruistic. The character is obsessed with his reputation, and now that his wife has given birth, he undoubtedly wants his family – and Dallas society – to see him as a loving husband and doting father.

On the other hand, Sue Ellen’s near-death experience in the second-season finale, “John Ewing III, Part 2,” seemed to stir long-forgotten feelings that remain strong in this installment. Never before has J.R.’s concern for Sue Ellen seemed this heartfelt.

You have to give Larry Hagman a lot of credit. Can you think of another actor who could make J.R. this sympathetic, even after all the terrible things he’s done?

Toward the end of “Whatever Happened to Baby John? Part 1,” when J.R. finally runs out of patience and forces his frigid wife to accompany him to the hospital to pick up the child, it seems like he’s reverting to his mean, old ways.

But when J.R. and Sue Ellen arrive at Dallas Memorial and learn the baby is missing, he exhibits more uncharacteristic selflessness when he calls Southfork to share the news with Miss Ellie, who responds by saying she’ll have Lucy and Pam brought home.

“That’s a good idea,” J.R. says.

Wait, what?

J.R. Ewing is concerned about his bratty niece and least favorite sister-in-law?

Never mind what’s wrong with me.

J.R., what’s wrong with you?

Grade: B

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Dallas, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman, Whatever Happened to Baby John Part 1

Mr. Nice Guy

‘WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JOHN? PART 1’

Season 3, Episode 1

Airdate: September 21, 1979

Audience: 16.1 million homes, ranking 19th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Camille Marchetta

Director: Leonard Katzman

Synopsis: While her baby remains hospitalized, Sue Ellen returns to Southfork, where she resists J.R.’s attempts to be kind toward her.  When the couple goes to the hospital to bring the child home, they’re stunned to learn he has been kidnapped.

Cast: John Ashton (Willie Joe Garr), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Meg Gallagher (Louella), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Sheila Larken (Priscilla Duncan), Jeanna Michaels (Connie), Cliff Murdock (Lieutenant Simpson), George O. Petrie (Harv Smithfield), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Sandy Ward (Jeb Ames)

“Whatever Happened to Baby John? Part 1” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.

Filed Under: Critiques, Critiques (Classic), Opinion Tagged With: ,
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