Dallas Decoder

Summer!

May 28, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Thanks, Teresa

I’m making some changes at Dallas Decoder, just in time for summer.

Starting next week, I’m going to begin critiquing “Knots Landing” episodes that feature J.R., Bobby and other “Dallas” characters. If you haven’t seen these installments, think of them as the Southfork saga’s lost chapters. My “Knots Landing” posts will be sprinkled among my usual “Dallas” critiques, in the order in which the episodes were originally broadcast.

In addition, I plan to write about the new “Dallas” episodes that TNT will telecast on Wednesdays, beginning June 13. My goal is to post these items on Thursdays and then take Fridays off because, hey, even “Dallas” fanatics deserve a little down time in the summer, right?

In this spirit, I want to thank everyone who reads Dallas Decoder. I’m having a blast blogging about “Dallas” and I appreciate your support. I hope you’ll leave some comments on my posts. I really want to hear what you think.

(Also, don’t forget to “like” Dallas Decoder on Facebook and follow Dallas Decoder on Twitter and Pinterest.)

With the premiere of TNT’s “Dallas” just 16 days away, this promises to be the Ewings’ biggest summer since 1980, when the whole world waited to find out who shot J.R. Let’s enjoy this “Dallas” renaissance and make the most of it.

See you at the Southfork swimming pool!

Filed Under: Announcements, News Tagged With: Dallas Decoder, Knots Landing, TNT

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Our Little Secret’

May 25, 2012 by Chris Baker 1 Comment

Charlene Tilton, Dallas, Heiress, Lucy Ewing

User friendly

In “The Heiress,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Lucy and Alan (Charlene Tilton, Randolph Powell) chat at a piano bar.

LUCY: And when I didn’t get married, I thought I was gonna die. But instead, I went to college. I saw more of a future in that. [They laugh.]

ALAN: You’re a delight, you know that?

LUCY: I’ve been talking all evening. I haven’t let you get one word in edgewise.

ALAN: I’ve enjoyed every moment.

LUCY: Have you really?

ALAN: [Takes her hand] Can’t you tell?

LUCY: Wouldn’t J.R. have a stroke if he could see us right now? [Laughs]

ALAN: Sometimes I get the feeling my main attraction for you is J.R.’s dislike.

LUCY: Oh, no. I just happen to be with the one man who has guts enough to stand up to him – and that’s pretty rare in this town.

ALAN: I’ve never been afraid of him because he’s never had anything I wanted. Until now. But I don’t want you ever to get hurt because of me. If you think you’ll get in trouble with your family and you’d rather not see me anymore, I’ll understand.

LUCY: No. They don’t have to know, do they?

ALAN: No one has to know.

LUCY: Be our little secret.

ALAN: That’s my girl. [Smiles, then looks serious] You’re so beautiful.

LUCY: Alan?

ALAN: Let’s go home.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Charlene Tilton, Heiress, Randolph Powell

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 40 – ‘The Heiress’

May 25, 2012 by Chris Baker 9 Comments

Fickle finger

“The Heiress” focuses on Lucy, and it’s one of the weakest entries during “Dallas’s” third season. This isn’t a coincidence.

At this point during the show’s run, the producers can’t decide who they want Lucy to be. Sometimes, she is a troublemaking teenager who blackmails Pam (“Lessons”) and runs away from home (“Runaway”). At other times, she is a sweet young woman who deals gracefully with a broken engagement (“Royal Marriage”) and struggles to forgive her deadbeat mama (“Secrets”).

In “The Heiress,” Lucy is all over the place. We see her seduce Alan Beam, which is a pretty grownup thing for a college freshman to do, but we also see Jock ground her for getting too many speeding tickets, which is not. Lucy’s zig-zagging from childhood to adulthood and back again is dizzying.

I don’t blame Charlene Tilton. She’s a spirited actress, and when she’s given good material, she’s one of “Dallas’s” most charismatic performers. I admire Tilton’s work in many episodes, especially “Royal Marriage.”

But in “The Heiress,” Tilton is given a weak script and bad direction. When I watch the episode, I get the feeling she’s trying her best, but there’s only so much she can do.

Consider the scene where Lucy goes to Alan’s office to flirt with him. At one point, Tilton fixes an unblinking gaze on Randolph Powell and rests her chin on her left index finger. I suppose director Leslie H. Martinson thought this would be seductive, as if Lucy is sizing up Alan and imagining what it would be like to sleep with him, but it comes off looking like an exaggerated gesture out of a Mae West movie.

Later, when Alan takes Lucy to a swanky piano bar, Tilton delivers her lines with such girlish enthusiasm, the scene takes on a creepy tone. It’s almost as if Powell’s character is robbing the cradle – in the most prurient sense. Not helping matters: the “Dallas” makeup artists pancake Tilton’s cherub face in this scene, making her look like a child playing dress-up.

“The Heiress” also leaves me feeling embarrassed for other “Dallas” cast members, including Larry Hagman and Jim Davis, who are each given sitcommy scenes involving faked phone calls in the Southfork foyer.

Of course, both actors are given lots of great scenes in future episodes. Tilton’s opportunities are much more limited, which is a real shame. She deserves better.

Grade: C

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Charlene Tilton, Dallas, Heiress, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing, Lucy Ewing

Call a script doctor!

‘THE HEIRESS’

Season 3, Episode 11

Airdate: November 23, 1979

Audience: 17.7 million homes, ranking 8th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Loraine Despres

Director: Leslie H. Martinson

Synopsis: Lucy pursues and seduces Alan after witnessing another staged fight between him and J.R. Cliff moves closer toward running for Congress and vows to win back Sue Ellen. Bobby learns about Ewing Oil’s Asian venture but J.R. won’t reveal his financing.

Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Joe Bratcher (Harry Shaw), Charles Cooper (Harry Shaw), Jeff Cooper (Dr. Simon Elby), Karlene Crockett (Muriel Gillis), Mary Crosby (Kristin Shepard), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Walker Edmiston (Roy Tate), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Eugene Jackson (Pianist), Laura Johnson (Betty Lou Barker), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Joan Lancaster (Linda Bradley), George O. Petrie (Harv Smithfield), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Marcus Wyatt (Jimmy)

“The Heiress” 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: Charlene Tilton, Heiress, Jim Davis, Larry Hagman, Leslie H. Martinson, Randolph Powell

The Art of Dallas: ‘Mastectomy, Part 2’

May 24, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

After her cancer surgery, Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) is comforted by Jock (Jim Davis) in this 1979 publicity shot from “Mastectomy, Part 2,” a third-season “Dallas” episode.

Filed Under: Art of Dallas, Art of Dallas (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis, Mastectomy Part 2

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Jock, I’m Deformed’

May 24, 2012 by Chris Baker 3 Comments

Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas, Mastectomy Part 2, Miss Ellie Ewing

First, you cry

In “Mastectomy, Part 2,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Jock (Jim Davis) enters his bedroom to find Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) on the floor, crying.

JOCK: My God, Ellie. What’s wrong?

ELLIE: Go away, Jock.

JOCK: I wanna help. I can’t leave you like this.

ELLIE: Nothing, nothing fits.

JOCK: I’m telling you, it’ll be all right. It doesn’t matter.

ELLIE: Why doesn’t it matter? Because I’m not young anymore? Don’t you think I care the way I look? Don’t you care?

JOCK: I care for you, Ellie. You. I’m just so happy that you’re alive. Nothing else matters. Nothing at all.

ELLIE: Doesn’t it? Jock, I’m deformed. Doesn’t that matter?

JOCK: You are not deformed, Ellie. If you lost an arm or a leg, I’d suffer that loss with you, too. But it wouldn’t change anything between us.

ELLIE: I’m not talking about an arm or a leg. I’m talking about my breasts. What do you know about that?

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis, Mastectomy Part 2

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

May 24, 2012 by Chris Baker 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

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Filed Under: Critiques, Critiques (Classic), Opinion Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis, Mastectomy Part 2

The Art of Dallas: ‘Mastectomy, Part 1’

May 23, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) lies in a hospital bed after having a breast removed in this 1979 publicity shot from “Mastectomy, Part 1,” a third-season “Dallas” episode.

Filed Under: Art of Dallas, Art of Dallas (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Mastectomy Part 1

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘He’ll Turn Away From Me’

May 23, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas, Mastectomy Part 1, Miss Ellie Ewing

The face of fear

In “Mastectomy, Part 1,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Pam and Miss Ellie (Victoria Principal, Barbara Bel Geddes) discuss Ellie’s medical problem over lunch at a restaurant.

PAM: What do you do now?

ELLIE: Keep going back for regular checkups.

PAM: Well, that doesn’t sound too difficult.

ELLIE: I don’t wanna tell Jock.

PAM: Miss Ellie, why not?

ELLIE: He gets better looking as he gets older. Tall and lean. There’s not an ounce of fat on him. I admire his beauty. I know he still has an eye for a good-looking woman. How can I tell him that, that I may need a mastectomy? [Begins crying]

PAM: It’ll be all right.

ELLIE: He’ll turn away from me. I know he will.

PAM: No, he won’t.

ELLIE: I just don’t think he’ll ever be able to accept me again. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to, to face the possibility of that.

PAM: You once told me that your marriage to Jock was based on honesty. Now more than ever, you’ve got to trust your love for each other – and that honesty.

ELLIE: Well, I, I guess that’s what I wanted to do all along. [Smiles, wipes away tears] I’ll try to tell him tonight.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Mastectomy Part 1, Victoria Principal

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

May 23, 2012 by Chris Baker 14 Comments

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

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

Filed Under: Critiques, Critiques (Classic), Opinion Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Dove Hunt, Jim Davis, Mastectomy Part 1

Dallas Styles: Sue Ellen’s Jeans

May 22, 2012 by Chris Baker 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.

Filed Under: Dallas Styles, Dallas Styles (Classic), Features Tagged With: Linda Gray, Rodeo, TNT