Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) is forced to remove her raincoat in this 1978 publicity shot from “Winds of Vengeance,” a first-season “Dallas” episode.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Guess You’re Elected, Sugarplum’
April 5, 2012 by 1 Comment
Be still
In “Winds of Vengeance,” a first-season “Dallas” episode, Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes), Lucy (Charlene Tilton) and Pam (Victoria Principal) sit on the living room sofa while Payton (Cooper Huckabee) points a gun at them, trying to decide who he’ll rape.
LUCY: [Crying] Ray used to go with Pam before she married Bobby!
ELLIE: [Holding Lucy] Lucy!
LUCY: Grandma, why should I have to…?
ELLIE: Lucy, you be still!
PAYTON: [To Pam] That true, beautiful?
PAM: Yeah.
PAYTON: Did pretty good for yourself.
PAM: I think I did.
PAYTON: So you was one of us?
PAM: I still am.
PAYTON: Well, then, you’re off the hook. We didn’t come here looking for one of us. We come looking for two of them. [To Lucy] Guess you’re elected, sugarplum.
Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 4 – ‘Winds of Vengeance’
April 5, 2012 by 21 Comments
Two of a kind
There’s an unlikely symmetry between Sue Ellen and Luther Frick, her tormentor in “Winds of Vengeance.”
Both characters are married to cheating spouses, both avoid acknowledging these infidelities, and both feel humiliated when the truth finally comes out. Sue Ellen is by far the more sympathetic figure, but Frick is a victim, too. This doesn’t excuse his vile behavior, but it helps explain it.
And make no mistake: Frick and his cohort Payton Allen are despicable characters.
Not only do they objectify the Ewing women – Frick plans to rape Sue Ellen, while Allen will choose between raping Pam and Lucy – they also treat them sadistically. Allen yanks Pam off the sofa and makes her dance with him, while Frick forces Sue Ellen, a onetime Miss Texas, to don a swimsuit and her old beauty pageant sash and sing for him.
The latter sequence is the most disturbing moment in an episode full of them. Frick forces Sue Ellen to act against her will and derives pleasure from it. It’s mental rape.
Brian Dennehy is effectively creepy during the singing scene, but the standout is Linda Gray, who painfully sobs her way through the song – Barbra Streisand’s “People” – while wearing almost nothing. This is one of Gray’s gutsiest performances.
“Winds of Vengeance” climaxes when Pam makes Frick realize J.R. and Wanda’s encounter was probably consensual, and then Jock and Bobby burst into the house, attack Frick and Allen and send them away.
But “Dallas” doesn’t allow us to bask in this moment of triumph.
In the episode’s final moments, Jock and Miss Ellie put Lucy to bed and Pam walks away with her head on Bobby’s shoulder, leaving J.R. alone in the living room with Sue Ellen, who has collapsed in tears.
He bends down to help her cover up with a raincoat, but she turns away, stands and slowly walks out of the room.
The message is clear: The woman who just sang about people who need people will be recovering from her ordeal alone.
Grade: B
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Domestic disturbance
‘WINDS OF VENGEANCE’
Season 1, Episode 4
Airdate: April 23, 1978
Audience: 15.3 million homes, ranking 12th in the weekly ratings
Writer: Camille Marchetta
Director: Irving J. Moore
Synopsis: J.R., Ray and the Ewing women are held captive by Luther Frick and Payton Allen, two working Joes who want revenge after J.R. and Ray slept with their women. Frick claims J.R. raped his wife, then realizes their encounter was probably consensual. Allen is about to rape Lucy when Jock and Bobby arrive and rescue the family.
Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Brian Dennehy (Luther Frick), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Nicki Flacks (Wanda Frick), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Cooper Huckabee (Payton Allen), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing)
“Winds of Vengeance” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.
The Art of Dallas: ‘Spy in the House’
April 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
J.R. and Sue Ellen (Larry Hagman, Linda Gray) have a spat in this 1978 publicity shot from “Spy in the House,” a first-season “Dallas” episode.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘There’s Nothing Eating Me Up, Pam!’
April 4, 2012 by 2 Comments
Focus, Julie!
In “Spy in the House,” a first-season “Dallas” episode, Pam (Victoria Principal) sees Julie (Tina Louise) leaving Cliff’s apartment building and begins walking alongside her.
PAM: I want to talk to you.
JULIE: I’m on my way to the office, Pam.
PAM: How long have you been seeing my brother?
JULIE: Who said I’ve been seeing your brother?
Pam grabs Julie’s arm. They stop.
PAM: Hey look, I know you gave Cliff the file – and it seems to be my business now.
JULIE: Pam, if you can’t hold your own with the Ewings – [Begins walking away; Pam quickly catches up to her]
PAM: Is that what’s been eating you up?
JULIE: [Flustered] There’s nothing eating me up, Pam!
PAM: I see, both of us working girls. You settled for what you could have with J.R. and I married Bobby. I did what you were afraid to even try!
JULIE: Listen, will you leave me alone?
Pam again grabs her arm. Again, they stop walking.
PAM: Maybe way back when, if you’d stood your ground, you could have been Mrs. Ewing. What have you got now, Julie? Nothing. Not even your self-respect.
Julie storms off.
Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 3 – ‘Spy in the House’
April 4, 2012 by 13 Comments
The spy who loves him
Julie Grey isn’t just J.R.’s longtime secretary and mistress, she’s also his protégé. In “Spy in the House,” when Julie tires of J.R. taking her for granted, she seeks retribution the only way she knows how – the way he taught her.
Consider: Julie is angry when J.R. mistreats her, but she never confronts him. Instead, she connives behind his back – just like J.R. plotted behind Bobby and Pam’s backs in “Digger’s Daughter,” “Dallas’s” first episode.
And just as J.R. uses Julie for sex, she uses Cliff for sex and revenge. Notice how she leaves the incriminating document at Cliff’s bedside after they sleep together – just like J.R. leaves the $100 bill on Julie’s pillow after their sexual encounter at the beginning of this episode.
Julie’s final scene in “Spy in the House” is also telling. Wracked with shame and guilt, she finally comes clean to J.R., then cleans off her desk and walks out of his life – just like he walks out on Sue Ellen in the episode’s first act.
The denouement makes it clear: Julie, the woman who once longed to become Mrs. J.R. Ewing, has instead become J.R. himself.
Despite the havoc Julie wreaks in “Spy in the House,” Tina Louise’s sympathetic performance leaves us rooting for the character, even if Julie doesn’t root for herself. It’s too bad “Dallas” didn’t make Louise a regular cast member or at least give her more screen time as a guest star. She’s a terrific actress.
As for Larry Hagman, he makes J.R. seem genuinely wounded by Julie’s betrayal, infusing his character with a degree of humility that isn’t always evident as the series progresses.
Julie won’t be J.R.’s last mistress – or secretary – to use his own tricks against him, but the look on Hagman’s face when J.R. learns the truth about her suggests she may be the one who hurts him most.
Emotionally, that is.
Grade: A
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Threesome
‘SPY IN THE HOUSE’
Season 1, Episode 3
Airdate: April 16, 1978
Audience: 11.5 million homes, ranking 40th in the weekly ratings
Writer: Arthur Bernard Lewis
Director: Robert Day
Synopsis: J.R. angers his secretary and lover Julie Grey, who retaliates by sleeping with Pam’s brother Cliff Barnes, a crusading government lawyer investigating Ewing Oil. Julie leaks to Cliff a document that proves the company bribed a state senator, who is forced to resign when Cliff makes the document public. J.R. accuses Pam of being the “spy” and is stunned to learn the real culprit is Julie, who quits in disgust.
Cast: Norman Alden (Senator “Wild Bill” Orloff), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Donna Bullock (Connie), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Hugh D. Gorrian (reporter), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Tina Louise (Julie Grey), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing)
“Spy in the House” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.
TV Critics Had Little Love for the Ewings at First
April 3, 2012 by 4 Comments
What’s not to love?
Television critics never loved “Dallas” – especially in April 1978, when CBS introduced the series as a late-season replacement for “The Carol Burnett Show.”
The New York Times’ John J. O’Connor dismissed “Dallas” as a “daytime soap opera gussied up with on-location Texas settings.” He called the show “enervating” and made the curious observation it offered “innumerable scenes of people getting into, driving or getting out of cars.”
O’Connor also lamented how “the fine stage actress” Barbara Bel Geddes was relegated to “wandering around among the players with about three lines of dialogue,” and he described Charlene Tilton as “sulking sexily through was appears to be an audition for a remake of ‘Baby Doll.’”
According to Barbara A. Curran’s 2005 book “Dallas: The Complete Story of the World’s Favorite Prime-Time Soap,” the Hollywood trade publication Variety assailed “Dallas” as “dull and contrived,” “the TV equivalent of women’s-magazine fiction” and “a limited series with a limited future.”
The Associated Press was a bit kinder, praising CBS for filming “Dallas” in Texas. “[T]he look it gives the show was worth the effort,” wrote the wire service’s critic, who wasn’t given a byline.
This critic also pointed out how “Dallas” was conceived as a star vehicle for “a certain glamorous actress” – Linda Evans, although the review doesn’t name her – and suggested Larry Hagman stole the spotlight from Victoria Principal, who was cast as Pam after Evans was dropped from consideration.
“By far, the meatiest role, at least in the opener, goes to Hagman,” the AP’s critic wrote. “He is deliciously wicked as he attempts to reject Miss Principal from the family bosom by any foul means.”
In the Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, Blaik Kirby declared Hagman “curls a lip better than anyone,” while the Los Angeles Times’ Cecil Smith asserted the actor’s “smiling villainy is the role you remember.”
Smith also praised Jim Davis’s “flinty ferocity,” but the critic bemoaned how “Dallas’s” first episode spent so much time introducing the characters and their backstories “that there isn’t much room for plot.”
Still, Smith saw some promise in the new series.
“[T]he scene is set,” he wrote, “for some very steamy drama to come on the arid Texas plains.”
What did you think of “Dallas” the first time you watched it? Share your comments below and read more features from Dallas Decoder.
The Art of Dallas: ‘Lessons’
April 3, 2012 by 3 Comments
Hal (Larry Tanner), a Southfork ranch hand, and Ray (Steve Kanaly) are seen in this 1978 publicity shot from “Lessons,” a first-season “Dallas” episode.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Of Course We’re Not Enemies’
April 3, 2012 by 6 Comments
His alone
In “Lessons,” a first-season “Dallas” episode, J.R. (Larry Hagman) sits on his office sofa and chats with Bobby (Patrick Duffy).
J.R.: I want to tell you how you filled your daddy’s heart with joy when you decided to settle down and come into the business with me.
BOBBY: Well, that’s just it. I’m in the business. I think I have a right to know everything there is to know.
J.R.: Do you? Well, it’s not as simple as that. [Gets up and moves to his desk]
BOBBY: I don’t see why, J.R. We’re brothers – we’re not enemies. [Sits on the desk’s edge]
J.R.: No, of course we’re not enemies. But while you were out there sowing your wild oats, I was learning the business. While you were out there playing football and winning all those honors and everything – I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that – but I was here, busting my butt under our father. And let me tell you, he’s not an easy man to work for.
BOBBY: I think I can appreciate that.
J.R.: Can you? [Sits and leans back in his chair] And in the last few years, you’ve been out there spreading the b’s around, wining and dining friends of Ewing Oil, and hanging out with fancy women and, in general, being charming. I’ve been making the company work – and I’ve been making it grow.
BOBBY: Well, that’s true enough. Ever since I can remember, all you ever thought about was running Ewing Oil. Seems to me you’re doing the thing you love best.
J.R.: I am. Yeah, I truly am. [Chuckles] But what I’m trying to say is this: I’ve had to make decisions and I’ve had to make deals that the man who runs the company has to make. And that’s my business – and mine alone. [Leans forward] And as long as I’m running this company, Bobby, that’s the way it’s going to stay. Does that answer your question?
BOBBY: Oh yeah. Answered a few of ’em I didn’t even ask. [Leaves as J.R. chuckles]
Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 2 – ‘Lessons’
April 3, 2012 by 10 Comments
Driving Miss Lucy
For a teenager on television in the 1970s, Lucy manages to find herself in an awful lot of sexual situations. “Dallas” is surprisingly cavalier about this.
In “Lessons,” Pam is the only Ewing who knows Lucy is sexually active, but when she takes it upon herself to straighten out her rebellious niece, Pam’s priority is addressing Lucy’s truancy, not interfering in her sex life. We never see Pam ask Lucy why she is having sex or whether she is protecting herself against the risk of pregnancy and disease.
“Lessons” is also pretty indifferent about Lucy and Ray’s age gap. She’s a high school student and he’s a silver-haired cowboy, but the only acknowledgment their relationship is immoral – if not illegal – comes when Ray tells Pam the Ewings would “kill” him if they discovered he is Lucy’s lover.
In retrospect, all this is pretty shocking.
“Dallas” debuted in an era when television shows routinely dropped moral messages into scripts involving sensitive subjects. Two months before “Lessons” was broadcast, the drama “James at 15” aired an episode in which its lead character, a 15-year-old boy, lost his virginity to a Swedish exchange student. Network censors insisted the boy and girl exhibit remorse after having sex, prompting the show’s head writer to quit in protest.
With “Lessons,” “Dallas” bucks the trend toward “responsible” television. The show renders no judgment on Lucy’s sexuality, trusting viewers to make their own decisions about her choices.
Not dwelling on the script’s provocative aspects allows the producers to concentrate on fleshing out their characters. For example, “Lessons” includes a conversation between J.R. and Bobby that establishes J.R.’s envy over his youngest brother, as well as a nice scene where Miss Ellie and Pam bond over coffee in the Southfork dining room.
But “Lessons’” most enlightening moment is the climactic sequence in the Braddock disco, where Bobby and Pam dance to an electronic version of Jerrold Immel’s “Dallas” theme music.
This is where we learn the biggest lesson of all: Not only is Victoria Principal a terrific actress when “Dallas” begins – she can dance, too!
Grade: B
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No class
‘LESSONS’
Season 1, Episode 2
Airdate: April 9, 1978
Audience: 11.1 million homes, ranking 50th in the weekly ratings
Writer: Virginia Aldridge
Director: Irving J. Moore
Synopsis: Pam learns Lucy is skipping class to be with Ray and makes her attend school. Lucy retaliates by making it look like her math teacher attacked her, but a classmate knows Lucy faked the attack and tries to blackmail her into sleeping with him. Bobby tells Ray to stay away from Lucy and persuades his niece to give Pam a chance.
Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Donna Bullock (Connie), Jeffrey Byron (Roger Hurley), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Tina Louise (Julie Grey), Jo McDonnell (Maureen), Ryand Merkey (Mr. Daley), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Larry Tanner (Hal), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Paul Tulley (Mr. Miller)
“Lessons” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.
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