Lucy (Charlene Tilton) is seen in this 1979 publicity shot from “Rodeo,” a third-season “Dallas” episode.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘I Don’t Know Where It’s Gonna End’
May 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Memory lane
In “Rodeo,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Miss Ellie and Digger (Barbara Bel Geddes, Keenan Wynn) stroll together alongside a fence at Southfork.
DIGGER: All those months in California put some money in my pocket. Made me remember how good it feels to work hard and get paid for it. I have been on the wagon ever since.
ELLIE: And have you stopped blaming Jock for every evil that’s ever befallen you? Is that why you’re here?
DIGGER: Look, Ellie, I never held you responsible. You know that. You did what you had to do – and I respected you for it.
ELLIE: So did Jock, Digger. I wish you’d remember that part about what happened. It worries me, all this bad feeling dragging on. What happened between you and Jock was bad enough, but now your boy and mine. They’re out for blood, both of them. I don’t know where it’s gonna end. It frightens me. [Pauses] Digger, why are you here?
DIGGER: [Smiles] To see that beautiful new grandson of yours.
She kisses him, pats him on the back and they continue walking.
Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 37 – ‘Rodeo’
May 22, 2012 by 19 Comments
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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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.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘You’ve Got a Grandson’
May 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Sad men
In “The Lost Child,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Cliff and Digger (Ken Kercheval, Keenan Wynn) walk out of the hospital after visiting Pam, who has suffered a miscarriage.
CLIFF: You feel OK?
DIGGER: A little sad.
CLIFF: About Pam?
DIGGER: And you.
CLIFF: Me? You don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine. We’re both fine.
DIGGER: I wanted a grandchild, that’s the truth of it.
They sit together on a bench.
CLIFF: You’ll have one. Pam and Bobby will probably adopt and you’ll be a grandfather before you know it.
DIGGER: That ain’t the same thing. It’s the end of the Barnes line. You’re the last one.
CLIFF: You’ll have a grandchild. Maybe he won’t look like you, but I can think of a lot worse things. [Smiles]
DIGGER: You don’t know what it’s like to grow old. When a man’s got nothing left but his children, his children’s children.
CLIFF: There’s no sense in talking about it, because it’s not gonna change anything.
DIGGER: Cliff, you ain’t got nobody. Who’s gonna be looking after you when you get old?
CLIFF: I’ll take care of myself, just like I always have.
DIGGER: Son, if a man’s not a father, he’s gonna be a child the rest of his life.
CLIFF: I don’t wanna listen to this. [Gets up, turns his back to Digger]
DIGGER: My whole life, I never got one thing I wanted, except you.
CLIFF: [Faces Digger, still standing] You’ve got a grandson. [Digger nods.] I’m telling you, you’ve got a grandson. John Ross Ewing III.
DIGGER: J.R.’s boy?
CLIFF: Not J.R.’s son. Sue Ellen and I had an affair last year. That baby’s mine.
DIGGER: Yours? And you let Jock Ewing have him, huh? Well, he ain’t gonna keep him. They’ll keep him over my dead body.
CLIFF: Daddy, please.
DIGGER: That’s my grandson. And he’s not gonna steal him like he stole everything else from me.
CLIFF: Daddy, just hold on. I’ll get him back, I promise. If he lives.
Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 36 – ‘The Lost Child’
May 21, 2012 by 7 Comments
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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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.
The Art of Dallas: ‘The Dove Hunt’
May 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
J.R. (Larry Hagman) comes under fire during a hunting trip in this 1979 publicity shot from “The Dove Hunt,” a third-season “Dallas” episode.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘I Owe You, That’s All’
May 18, 2012 by 1 Comment
Down and out in Land Down
In “The Dove Hunt,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, an injured Jock and J.R. (Jim Davis, Larry Hagman) come face to face with Tom Owens (Robert J. Wilke), the man who attacked their campsite, and Owens’ son Dan and friend Ben Masters (Thomas Callaway, Stefan Gierasch).
JOCK: What do you want?
OWENS: You still don’t remember, Ewing. You steal a man’s farm, wipe him out, you still don’t remember.
JOCK: Now you look, mister –
OWENS: Owens.
JOCK: Owens, I do business with a lot of people.
OWENS: Thirty-two years ago, you came to my farm, personally. We stood as close as we are right now. You tried to get me to sell. When I wouldn’t, you spread some money around – and suddenly, nobody would buy my crops.
JOCK: All right, maybe I did lean on you too hard. But it seems to me you’ve waited a hell of a long time to get revenge.
OWENS: I didn’t want revenge. I wanted to spit in your eye.
JOCK: Then what’s all this?
OWENS: You crushed me like a bug – and after 32 years, you don’t even remember my name. You’re gonna pay for that. [Cocks his gun] My boy and I had to start all over again from nothing in Land Down.
MASTERS: Mr. Owens has made a lot of friends around here, you –
JOCK: The kind of friends that ambush people.
DAN: They all know my father’s story and who ruined him in Texas. Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for whatever happens here.
JOCK: So that’s it? You’re gonna kill me in cold blood, huh?
J.R.: Maybe we could make a deal, sir.
JOCK: No, J.R. [Leans forward] All right, Owens. Come on. If you’re gonna do it, do it!
OWENS: [Aims his rifle at Jock, holds it for several seconds, then lowers it] I can’t. I’m not a killer. When I thought you were gonna shoot my boy, I was gonna kill you. You got away with it. Give the devil his due.
Bobby and Ray (Patrick Duffy, Steve Kanaly) arrive and aim their guns at Owens’ group.
BOBBY: All right, drop your guns! We’ll blow you away! [The other men lower their guns; Bobby and Ray run toward them.]
RAY: Back up, both of you. Come on!
BOBBY: You all right, Daddy?
JOCK: I’m OK, Bobby.
J.R.: You bring a sheriff?
BOBBY: There’s no law in Land Down – and damn little help.
RAY: Forget that two-bit town. Let’s run these jokers down to state police.
JOCK: No need to involve the law here. I’m not bringing any charges.
BOBBY: Daddy, they tried to kills us.
J.R.: They should be put away, Dad.
JOCK: Just a hunting accident. Happens all the time.
OWENS: What are you trying to pull?
JOCK: Nothing. I owe you, that’s all. 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. And when you get right down to it, that’s all a man can take to his grave. You made me think, Owens. Maybe this business has become too impersonal. J.R., we get back to town, there’s some records we’re going to go over. There might be some housecleaning we’ve got to do.
J.R.: Dad, you’re gonna need some rest, after you’ve been tended to. You lost a lot of blood.
JOCK: I’ll manage, J.R. Ray, Bobby, give them back their guns.
OWENS: This ain’t gonna buy you a place in heaven, Ewing.
Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 35 – ‘The Dove Hunt’
May 18, 2012 by 21 Comments
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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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.
The Art of Dallas: ‘The Kristin Affair’
May 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Kristin and J.R. (Mary Crosby, Larry Hagman) flirt with each other in this 1979 publicity shot from “The Kristin Affair,” a third-season “Dallas” episode.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Mama, I Remember Everything’
May 17, 2012 by 1 Comment
Coded language
In “The Kristin Affair,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Patricia and Kristin (Martha Scott, Mary Crosby) return to their hotel after having dinner with the Ewings at Southfork.
PATRICIA: J.R.’s such a fine man. The way he stands behind Sue Ellen. [Kristin takes Patricia’s shawl as the older woman puts her keys in her purse] Lately, that hasn’t been easy. Kristin, someday you’ll find a man like that just for yourself.
KRISTIN: I think that’s possible, Mama. Quite possible.
PATRICIA: Now, I’m going to leave tomorrow – and you’ll be entirely on your own. [Sits on the sofa, places her purse on the coffee table] I know I can trust you to remember all the things I’ve taught you, like watching for the right opportunity.
KRISTIN: Mama, I remember everything you’ve taught me. [Sits next to Patricia]
PATRICIA: So then wherever I am, I can be relaxed knowing that you’ll never do anything to harm your sister. I’m worried about Sue Ellen. Keep an eye on her, dear. Keep me informed.
KRISTIN: I don’t think she’s been succeeding too well with J.R.
PATRICIA: Sue Ellen may be a little depressed right now. That often happens after giving birth. But if it turns out she’s not entirely happy with the life J.R. has to offer –
KRISTIN: Well, above all, we want Sue Ellen to be happy.
PATRICIA: Of course, dear. We could give her all the love and support she’d need to start a new life elsewhere. I’d certainly miss having a son-in-law like J.R. [Chuckles] I’ve never met a man who enjoys the chase as much as he does. Almost more than winning.
KRISTIN: Why don’t you let me worry about J.R. Ewing?
PATRICIA: Whatever you do, Kris, it’ll be the right thing for all of us.
KRISTIN: You can trust me, Mama. I won’t let you down.
PATRICIA: I know you won’t.
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