Katherine and Mark (Morgan Brittany, John Beck) are seen in this 1983 publicity shot from “Hell Hath No Fury,” a sixth-season “Dallas” episode.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Who the Hell Were You in Bed With?’
August 12, 2013 by 2 Comments
What a stud
In “Hell Hath No Fury,” a sixth-season “Dallas” episode, Pam (Victoria Principal) awakens in her hotel bed and finds Bobby (Patrick Duffy) getting dressed.
BOBBY: [Sits on the bed] Good morning.
PAM: Good morning. [They kiss.]
BOBBY: Did you, uh, sleep well?
PAM: [Giggles] I sure did.
BOBBY: I love you.
PAM: You know, I’ve missed hearing that in the morning.
BOBBY: Well, you can hear it a lot more from now on. [Rises] I’m going to send a couple of the boys in from Southfork to help you pack.
PAM: [Grabs her robe] Pack?
BOBBY: Sure. Oh, honey, it’ll be a lot easier for you that way. [Pours himself a cup of coffee] You don’t realize it, but you’ve accumulated a lot of stuff here between your own things and Christopher’s.
PAM: [Now out of bed, facing him] Bobby, I’m not coming back to Southfork.
BOBBY: Well, what was last night all about?
PAM: I love you, but sex hasn’t changed anything.
BOBBY: Oh, come on, honey. [Sets down coffee cup] This separation of ours is silly. It’s obvious that we both want each other. [Holds her arms]
PAM: Well, of course I want you. Step out of Ewing Oil and I’ll come home with you right now.
BOBBY: Honey, I would do almost anything for you but I can’t do that.
PAM: That is what’s tearing us apart. As long as you’re obsessed with winning the company, you’ll never be the Bobby Ewing I fell in love with.
BOBBY: [Walks away] Honey, if I start giving up on the things that I try and do now, the Bobby Ewing you knew is going to cease to exist anyway.
PAM: He ceased to exist a long time ago!
BOBBY: [Facing her] Then who the hell were you in bed with last night?
PAM: Bobby, that was just a moment.
BOBBY: A moment? Is that what our marriage is to you now, a moment? You make me feel like I should give you a bill for services rendered.
He grabs his jacket and heads for the door, opening it to reveal Mark (John Beck) standing there with flowers.
MARK: Oh, my timing’s terrific again. Bobby?
Bobby brushes past him.
Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 126 — ‘Hell Hath No Fury’
August 12, 2013 by 9 Comments
Those eyes
Sue Ellen is the perfect wife, living the perfect life, when “Hell Hath No Fury” begins. She fusses over J.R. at breakfast, smiles when he brings Roy Ralston home for dinner and gazes at him adoringly during his latest appearance on Ralston’s TV show. Of course, this is “Dallas,” so Sue Ellen’s bliss doesn’t last. During a visit to the hair salon, she runs into Holly Harwood, who later confesses to Sue Ellen that she’s having an affair with J.R. Sue Ellen doesn’t want to believe it, so Holly tells her to go home and check his shirt collar. Sure enough, the collar is smeared with Holly’s lipstick. The episode ends with our heroine clutching the garment and sobbing quietly.
Beauty parlor run-ins, lipstick-smeared collars, tear-streaked faces: If this sounds like the stuff of 1950s and 1960s soap operas, I suspect it’s purely intentional. “Dallas” routinely honors the tropes of daytime dramas and Douglas Sirk movies (witness Rebecca Wentworth’s weepy deathbed scene a few episodes earlier). This is something I’ve always admired about the show. The homage presented in “Hell Hath No Fury” is especially fitting: J.R. and Sue Ellen have an old-fashioned marriage; of course it should collapse under old-fashioned circumstances.
I also love how Lois Chiles and Linda Gray handle the material. Chiles is deliciously cunning as Holly, who wants to destroy J.R.’s marriage to get back at him for costing her company millions of dollars in a bungled deal. In the lunch scene, Chiles smiles — ever so slightly — when Holly sees how much her confession hurts Sue Ellen. Gray is wonderful too. This is another example of Gray using her big, expressive eyes to convey the depth of Sue Ellen’s pain. (I’m usually not one to notice makeup, but Gray’s blue eye shadow in this scene is a work of art. Eat your heart out, Donna Mills.) Even more moving: “Hell Hath No Fury’s” closing moments, when Sue Ellen retrieves J.R.’s shirt from the laundry basket, sees the lipstick and weeps. There’s no dialogue, but none is needed. Gray’s tears say it all.
If Sue Ellen’s marital turmoil in “Hell Hath No Fury” has an unmistakable retro vibe, then Pam’s feels slyly modern. Pam, who is now living in a hotel because she feels Bobby’s ambition has changed him, calls her husband at the office and invites him over for a drink. The couple spends the evening reminiscing, but when Bobby tries to leave, Pam kisses him passionately until they slump back onto the sofa. The next morning, she awakens to find Bobby planning her move back to Southfork. Pam corrects him: Just because she spent the night with Bobby doesn’t mean she’s ready to take him back. Bobby is aghast. “You make me feel like I should give you a bill for services rendered,” he seethes.
Oh, how I love this. How often have we seen the men of “Dallas” treat women as vessels for sexual satisfaction? Isn’t it refreshing to see a woman do the same thing? This entire sequence is about Pam acknowledging that she has sexual needs and fulfilling them. She calls Bobby and invites him over for a drink. When he declares it’s time to go home, she lets him know that she wants him to stay. And in the morning, when Bobby assumes Pam will now come back to him, she sets him straight. Don’t get me wrong: I feel bad for Bobby when he brushes past that chump Mark Graison on his way out of the hotel, and I believe Pam is wrong later in the episode when she agrees to accompany Mark to France. She is married, after all, and if she believes Mark is going to keep his promise to leave her alone during the trip, she’s a fool. Nevertheless, I applaud “Dallas” for depicting Pam as a woman who isn’t afraid to express her sexuality.
I’m also charmed by the scene where Bobby and Pam recall the first time they met. Patrick Duffy and Victoria Principal’s chemistry is effortless, and I love how Arthur Bernard Lewis’s dialogue honors “Dallas” history. Pam remembers arriving at a Ewing barbecue on Ray’s arm and being surprised to discover the family isn’t as monstrous as Digger led her to believe. I also like how the scene ends with Duffy reaching behind him to turn off the lamp while locking lips with Principal. She does something similar during another reunion with Bobby in the eighth-season finale “Swan Song.” Along these lines, I also chuckle when Bobby greets Pam in “Hell Hath No Fury” with a winking “good morning.” This won’t be the last time he’ll say these words to her, will it?
The other highlight of “Hell Hath No Fury”: J.R.’s latest appearance on “Talk Time,” Ralston’s TV show. In typical J.R. style, the guest spot is part of a convoluted scheme. J.R. needs to find a way to visit Cuba so he can claim millions of dollars owed to him in an illegal deal, but of course Uncle Sam doesn’t know allow just anyone to visit the communist outpost. So J.R. goes on Ralston’s show and talks up the need for “businessmen” to get more involved in foreign affairs, apparently hoping his comments will inspire the State Department to send him to Cuba on a diplomatic mission. Whatever. Forget this absurd backstory and focus instead on how J.R. describes for Ralston his philosophy of government. “Government is big business. The biggest,” he says. “They’re in the police business and the land management business, the health and education business. All those bureaus are just departments of one big department store.” Does this not sound like the kind of rhetoric we’ve heard from real-life politicians for years?
Lewis’s script also offers a couple of pop culture references that make me smile. When Ralston visits Southfork, he suggests filming an interview with J.R. and Sue Ellen at the ranch, the way Edward R. Murrow once conducted interviews with celebrities in their living rooms on “Person to Person.” TV historians will recall Murrow’s show was a Friday night staple on CBS in the 1950s, a few decades before “Dallas” became a Friday fixture. In another scene, Holly lashes out at Bobby for interfering with J.R.’s Cuban deal. “You had to play James Bond and prevent the deal from going through,” she fumes. The line, which is clearly a reference to Chiles’s role in “Moonraker,” raises a question: If Bobby is Bond, does that make J.R. Blofeld?
Grade: B
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That smile
‘HELL HATH NO FURY’
Season 6, Episode 23
Airdate: March 18, 1983
Audience: 20.8 million homes, ranking 3rd in the weekly ratings
Writer: Arthur Bernard Lewis
Director: Ernest Pintoff
Synopsis: J.R. schemes to get the government’s permission to visit Cuba. To get back at J.R., Holly tricks him into believing she wants him, then lies and tells Sue Ellen that J.R. is her lover. Mark talks Pam into letting him accompany her on a trip to France. Bobby worries his Canadian field won’t come in. Lucy and Mickey continue to date.
Cast: John Anderson (Richard McIntyre), John Beck (Mark Graison), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Morgan Brittany (Katherine Wentworth), James Brown (Detective Harry McSween), William Bryant (Jackson), Lois Chiles (Holly Harwood), Roseanna Christiansen (Teresa), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Fay Hauser (Annie), Susan Howard (Donna Krebbs), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Howard Keel (Clayton Farlow), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Kenneth Kimmins (Thornton McLeish), Audrey Landers (Afton Cooper), Tom McFadden (Jackson’s partner), Timothy Patrick Murphy (Mickey Trotter), Ben Piazza (Walt Driscoll), Ron Ellington Shy (singer), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), John Reilly (Roy Ralston), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Deborah Tranelli (Phyllis)
“Hell Hath No Fury” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.
Dallas Cliffhanger Classics: Season 11
August 9, 2013 by 5 Comments
Dallas Decoder celebrates “Dallas’s” classic cliffhangers with weekly summertime flashbacks. Collect all 14 images and share them with your friends.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Wait a Minute Now. We’re Not Drunk.’
August 7, 2013 by 3 Comments
Buzzed Bobby
In “The Sting,” a sixth-season “Dallas” episode, an anxious Donna (Susan Howard) is on the phone in her living room.
DONNA: Bobby isn’t there either? Uh-huh. Then you haven’t heard from either one of them? Well, do me a favor, Teresa. If Ray comes up there, would you tell him to call me at home? OK, bye.
She hears rustling outside. The patio door slides open and a tipsy Bobby and Ray (Patrick Duffy, Steve Kanaly) enter.
BOBBY: [Giggly] Hi.
DONNA: Where have you been? [Ray walks toward the kitchen, followed by Bobby.] Well, maybe I need to make some coffee.
BOBBY: Oh, wait a minute now. We’re not drunk.
DONNA: Well, you could have fooled me.
RAY: Now, hold on. [Laughs, tosses Bobby a beer] Here! Just what you need, huh? [Slaps him on the shoulder] We just had a couple of beers in celebration. [Laughs, plops on the sofa]
DONNA: Well, celebration. That’s terrific. I guess you know you’ve had me half worried to death!
RAY: Worried? Why?
DONNA: Why? [Motions toward Bobby] Ever since he called, you two have been running around like crazy. I mean, you don’t tell me why or what for! Do you know what time it is?
RAY: [Rises, approaches her] Oh, honey. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.
DONNA: You know you could have called your wife, Ray Krebbs. Would you like to tell me what it is you’re celebrating?
RAY: Think we ought to tell her?
BOBBY: [Slurry] We rode out in the spirit of John Wayne, Donna.
RAY: Yeah, we headed J.R. off at the pass. [Guffaws]
DONNA: What are you talking about?
BOBBY: OK, in plain English?
DONNA: Please.
BOBBY: [Deadpan] J.R. … [Cracks up, along with Ray] will never sell guns to the Indians again!
Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 125 — ‘The Sting’
August 7, 2013 by 7 Comments
Stung
Which Ewing brother do you root for in “The Sting”? I cheer for Bobby at the top of the hour, when he thwarts J.R.’s illegal sale of 100 million barrels of oil to Cuba. It’s nice to see Bobby finally outfox J.R., who’s been riding high in their fight for control of Ewing Oil. Of course, once Bobby secures his victory, my sympathies shift to J.R. With his plot foiled, J.R. finds himself at the mercy of Garcia, the unscrupulous middleman in the Cuban deal. How can you not feel for sorry for the old boy as he squirms under Garcia’s thumb?
The effortless switching in the role of underdog makes “The Sting” an especially clever episode of “Dallas.” I also love the terrific opening sequence, which picks up where “Caribbean Connection,” the previous hour, left off. J.R.’s crony Walt Driscoll rushes out of his motel room, cash-stuffed briefcase in hand, as he heads to the airport to complete the Cuban deal. As he pulls out of the parking lot in his big Oldsmobile, Ray’s pickup truck suddenly strikes it. With Driscoll distracted, Bobby emerges from the crowd of sidewalk gawkers and switches the briefcase with the replica he commissioned in “Caribbean Connection.” Bobby then follows Driscoll to the airport, where he watches as security guards discover a stash of guns in the briefcase and haul him away.
These are fun, exciting scenes. Jerrold Immel’s tingling underscore, which is also heard when Southfork goes up in flames in the sixth-season finale, lends the sequence a sense of mystery. The music fits the action beautifully since we don’t know what Bobby’s up to until the guns are finally revealed. The establishing shots are crucial too. Imagine if Larry Elikann, the director, and Fred W. Berger, the editor, hadn’t shown Driscoll placing his briefcase on the passenger seat when he gets into his car. We’d have no idea what Bobby is doing when he reaches inside the car and switches the real case with the fake one. I also like how “The Sting” plays on the audience’s familiarity with “Dallas.” The moment we see a white pickup’s fender enter the frame, we know instantly whose truck this is.
The other keys to the success of this sequence: Ben Piazza and Steve Kanaly. Piazza, one of the great “Dallas” guest stars, is believably bewildered as the hapless, in-over-his-head Driscoll. I kind of feel bad for the guy when Ray rams his Oldsmobile, and again when those hulking security guards find the guns in his case. Kanaly, in the meantime, is a hoot. What a kick to see Ray pretend to be the kind of straight-and-narrow, by-the-book yokel who insists on flagging down a cop after a fender bender. Kanaly looks like he’s having a ball here, as well as in two other scenes. In the first, a very drunk Ray and Bobby stumble home after celebrating their coup. Later, Ray confronts J.R. and confirms his role in the sting against him. The scene reminds us that this is Ray’s victory as much as it is Bobby’s.
Speaking of J.R.: “The Sting” showcases Larry Hagman too. He gives some of his best performances when J.R.’s back is to the wall, as this episode demonstrates J.R. is flustered when he finds Driscoll behind bars, enraged when he discovers Bobby undermined him and desperate when he tries to salvage the deal with Garcia. David Paulsen’s script also gives Hagman one great line after another. I love when J.R. refuses to bail out Driscoll, telling him, “I wouldn’t give you the dust off my car.” Later, after he’s ended another frustrating phone call with Garcia, J.R. looks up from his desk and sees Holly striding into his office. “When it rains, it pours,” he says, rubbing his temple. Hagman delivers another great line when Katherine drops by Ewing Oil and tells J.R. the two of them have something to talk about. “Oh, don’t tell me. Not Cliff Barnes. I couldn’t handle that,” he says.
“The Sting” also does a nice job exploring Bobby and Pam’s increasingly awkward separation. Miss Ellie and Clayton bump into Pam while she’s dining with Mark in a restaurant, resulting in an uncomfortable moment for everyone. (In one of the show’s most amusing understatements, Ellie tells Clayton, “In many ways, Dallas is a very small place.”) Later, when Bobby arrives at Pam’s hotel room to pick up Christopher for the weekend, the topic of Pam’s date with Mark comes up. Katherine inserts herself into the conversation. “Bobby, it’s not the way it sounds. … Pam was just trying to help Cliff,” she says. This prompts Pam to snap, “Katherine, stop it! I don’t have anything to hide.”
“The Sting” is also remembered as the episode where Lucy finally tells Mickey she was once raped. Charlene Tilton delivers a tender, moving performance, and so does Timothy Patrick Murphy, who makes his character’s sweetness every bit as believable as the cockiness he exhibited when he joined the show. I also like the exchange where Lucy and Mickey share their first kiss. “Lucy, I never asked a girl if I could kiss her. I just always did it. I’m not real sure what to do right at this moment,” he says. Is there any doubt this is Lucy’s most charming romance?
The other highlight of “The Sting”: Elikann’s direction, which is much more artful than what we usually see on “Dallas.” In addition to his work in the opening sequence, I love when Elikann has Patrick Duffy and Hagman lock eyes and shout at each other in the scene where J.R. confronts Bobby. I also like how J.R.’s roll in the hay with Serena ends with him popping a bottle of champagne, and then the scene switches to a waiter popping a cork in the restaurant where Pam and Mark are dining. Interestingly, although Elikann directed several “Knots Landing” episodes and the “Dallas: The Early Years” TV movie, “The Sting” is the only “Dallas” episode he helmed. Perhaps an exchange between Hagman and “Dallas” creator David Jacobs holds a clue. Elikann’s name comes up in the audio commentary on the “Reunion, Part 2” DVD, which was recorded in 2004. Jacobs remembers the director being “very gruff” and tells Hagman that Elikann recently died. “Did he?” Hagman responds. “Good.” He was kidding … I think.
Grade: A
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Good romance
‘THE STING’
Season 6, Episode 22
Airdate: March 11, 1983
Audience: 23.1 million homes, ranking 1st in the weekly ratings
Writer: David Paulsen
Director: Larry Elikann
Synopsis: Bobby plants guns in Driscoll’s case, which leads to Driscoll’s arrest at the airport. Garcia, Driscoll’s contact in Puerto Rico, demands $10 million from J.R. to complete the Cuban oil deal. Holly vows revenge against J.R. when she discovers the deal is in jeopardy. Katherine offers to spy on Bobby for J.R. After telling him about her past, Lucy and Mickey make love. Pam and Mark’s deepening relationship angers Bobby.
Cast: Mary Armstrong (Louise), John Beck (Mark Graison), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Stephanie Blackmore (Serena), Morgan Brittany (Katherine Wentworth), Lois Chiles (Holly Harwood), Roseanna Christiansen (Teresa), Henry Darrow (Garcia), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Fern Fitzgerald (Marilee Stone), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Susan Howard (Donna Krebbs), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Howard Keel (Clayton Farlow), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Audrey Landers (Afton Cooper), Timothy Patrick Murphy (Mickey Trotter), Russ Marin (Matthew), Ben Piazza (Walt Driscoll), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), John Reilly (Roy Ralston), Debbie Rennard (Sly), Paul Sorensen (Andy Bradley), Don Starr (Jordan Lee), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Morgan Woodward (Punk Anderson)
“The Sting” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.
Tonight on #DallasChat: ‘Surprise!’
August 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Future shock
Dallas Decoder’s next #DallasChat on Twitter will be Monday, August 5, from 9 to 10 p.m. Eastern time. Our theme: “Surprise!,” which I’ll explain at the beginning of the discussion.
As usual, I’ll tweet a question roughly every five minutes. Each question will be numbered and include the hashtag #DallasChat, so your responses should do the same. A few pointers:
• During the chat, enter #DallasChat in Twitter’s search field. This will help you watch the search results so you can follow the conversation. Click “All” to see all the related tweets.
• Include the hashtag #DallasChat in each tweet you send so others can see your contributions to the conversation. Feel free to start side conversations of your own.
• Twitter limits the number of tweets each users can send an hour, so I’m unable to respond to everyone’s answers. I’ll reply to some and “favorite” the others, but please know how much I appreciate everyone’s participation.
I hope we’ll have another fun discussion. See you tonight!
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘You are a Cocky, Snotty Little Kid’
August 5, 2013 by 1 Comment
Ouch, Donna
In “Caribbean Connection,” a sixth-season “Dallas” episode, Mickey (Timothy Patrick Murphy) enters the Krebbs home as Donna (Susan Howard) stands at the kitchen counter, writing on a notepad.
DONNA: Hello, Mickey.
MICKEY: Hi. Is Ray here?
DONNA: [Looks up] No.
MICKEY: Well, I guess he’ll be here any minute, huh? We’re supposed to go someplace together.
DONNA: Well, if you’re gonna wait, why don’t you make yourself a cup of coffee?
MICKEY: Yeah. [Pours himself a cup while Donna moves to the sofa, which is strewn with papers] Boy, I’ll tell you, it’s amazing. [Sips]
DONNA: [Looking at files] What’s amazing?
MICKEY: Well, that people as rich as you and Ray live in a house like this?
DONNA: [Smiles] You don’t approve of the way that we live?
MICKEY: This place? I don’t know. I guess it’s all right for a ranch hand. I tell you, I’ve seen better looking tract houses.
DONNA: [Puts down the file] You know, Mickey, Ray built this house with his own two hands.
MICKEY: [Smiles] Yeah, I built a doghouse once with my own two hands. Doesn’t mean I’d live in it. [She looks away.] Sorry. It was just a joke. I tell you one thing, though. If I came into one-tenth the kind of money you two have, I’d get me a house that showed it. Something like Southfork. [Sits on the arm of the chair near her] Now you have to admit, that’s a fine looking house.
DONNA: Yes, it’s quite a house. Full of loving and warm, tender people. [Mickey chuckles.] Money means a lot to you, doesn’t it?
MICKEY: I wouldn’t mind having a little.
DONNA: Is that why you’re so interested in Lucy?
MICKEY: No. You’re real wrong about that.
DONNA: Am I?
MICKEY: [Gets up, walks away] You know, I really want to know something. What is it that you have against me? What did I ever do to you? [Silence] Come on, really. I mean, is it because once I got in trouble in Kansas? Because Ray had to bail me out. What?
DONNA: No, no. It isn’t that. I happen to think that everybody is entitled to a few mistakes.
MICKEY: Then what? I wanna know.
DONNA: [Stands, raises her voice] All right, I’m going to tell you: because you are a cocky, snotty little kid. And Ray happens to think the world of you. He has a great big emotional investment in you and you know, I just keep thinking that one of these days, you are going to let him down with a great big thud.
MICKEY: [Softly] I won’t let Ray down. Look, yes, I screwed up in the past but I’m really trying to straighten myself out.
DONNA: Maybe you are. Maybe I’m the one who’s wrong. I hope so.
MICKEY: I wouldn’t hurt Ray. Not if I can help it.
DONNA: I hope not.
Ray (Steve Kanaly) enters. He seems rushed.
RAY: Sorry I’m late.
MICKEY: No, that’s all right. I just got here.
RAY: Well, you ready to go?
MICKEY: Yeah, sorry. [Donna takes his coffee mug. Mickey walks past Ray and exits.]
RAY: You OK, honey?
DONNA: [Smiles] I’m fine.
RAY: [Smiles, gives her an air kiss] Bye.
Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 124 — ‘Caribbean Connection’
August 5, 2013 by 4 Comments
Scene to remember
The final moments in “Caribbean Connection” set up one of “Dallas’s” best week-to-week cliffhangers. J.R. is in a seedy cocktail lounge, delivering $100,000 in cash to Walt Driscoll, along with instructions for him to use the money to pay off the middleman in their scheme to sell oil to Cuba. Little does J.R. know that Bobby has discovered J.R.’s plot and is in midst of creating a replica of Driscoll’s briefcase. The next time we see Bobby, he’s on his office phone talking to Ray, who has followed Driscoll to his motel. “I’m on my way. You keep him busy if you have to,” Bobby says. He rushes through the Ewing Oil reception area and runs into J.R., who steps off the elevator as Bobby steps on. The ever-cocky J.R. tells Bobby that it’s going to be “a red-letter day” for his half of the company. Bobby smiles slyly. “Maybe you’re right, J.R.,” he says. “Maybe it will be a day to remember.”
Freeze frame, cue questions: What is Bobby up to? Where’s the dummy briefcase? How will Ray keep Driscoll from getting away? And who is “Ted,” the person Bobby tells Ray to call before he hangs up the phone? The audience won’t learn the answers until the next episode, the appropriately titled “The Sting,” but no matter. Like all great cliffhangers, this sequence is done so well, we don’t require an immediate resolution. Watching this piece of expertly made television is its own form of satisfaction. Surely Patrick Duffy, who directed “Caribbean Connection,” and editor Lloyd Richardson deserve a lot of credit, but no one contributes more to the success of this sequence than composer Richard Lewis Warren. His underscore, with a steady beat that mimics a ticking clock, adds urgency and tension, making this one of the sixth season’s highlights.
Bobby’s attempt to foil J.R.’s Cuban deal also offers another example of how much the younger brother has changed since the fight for Ewing Oil began. Earlier in “Caribbean Connection,” we see Bobby snoop around Sly’s desk in search of evidence linking J.R. to Driscoll. Later, Bobby and Ray sneak into Driscoll’s hotel room seeking more clues. Bobby is also unusually cranky in this episode: He snaps at Ray when they’re staking out Driscoll in the motel parking lot and he’s rude to Afton when she tells him that Pam helped Cliff forge a business deal between with Mark Graison. “It’s amazing how nice she can be to some people, isn’t it?” Bobby sniffs. The sadness that he felt when Pam left him a few episodes ago has gradually turned into anger. Now Bobby seems downright bitter. Notably, this is the first “Dallas” episode in which Duffy and Victoria Principal have no scenes together.
“Caribbean Connection” yields several other good moments, including Donna’s confrontation with Mickey. I’ve always believed she was a little hard on him in this scene, especially when she calls him a “cocky, snotty little kid.” Then again, who can blame her? The audience knows that Mickey has softened since he arrived at Southfork, but Donna hasn’t been privy to his transformation, which has mostly occurred in his private conversations with Lucy. Besides, the most important part of this scene isn’t what it reveals about Donna and Mickey’s relationship to each other, but what it reveals about Mickey’s feelings toward his cousin. “Ray happens to think the world of you. … I just keep thinking that one of these days, you are going to let him down with a great big thud,” Donna says. Mickey’s response: “I won’t let Ray down!” Timothy Patrick Murphy delivers the line with such conviction, there’s no doubt that Mickey has come to think the world of Ray too.
Another great scene in “Caribbean Connection”: J.R. and Sue Ellen’s meeting with Roy Ralston, the local TV host who’s trying to talk J.R. into running for office. Sue Ellen worries a campaign could bring their marital skeletons out of the closet, but she tells J.R. she’ll go along with his political aspirations regardless. “I’m touched, Sue Ellen. I truly am,” J.R. responds. The exchange brings to mind a terrific deleted scene from the new “Dallas’s” first-season DVD set in which Sue Ellen, now a gubernatorial candidate, tells her campaign backers that she won’t run away from her scandalous past. The “Caribbean Connection” scene also seems unusually relevant, given the real-life political headlines from recent years. Ralston predicts voters won’t hold J.R. and Sue Ellen’s marital troubles against them. He tells the couple: “Despite all your earlier problems, you’re still together and more in love than ever before. I can just see it: True love conquers all!”
Spoken like a modern-day politico, huh?
Grade: B
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Modern marriage
‘CARIBBEAN CONNECTION’
Season 6, Episode 21
Airdate: March 4, 1983
Audience: 20.9 million homes, ranking 4th in the weekly ratings
Writer: Will Lorin
Director: Patrick Duffy
Synopsis: J.R. pressures Holly to send 50 million barrels of oil to Puerto Rico, unaware the real destination is Cuba. Bobby discovers J.R.’s connection to Driscoll and works with Ray to set up Driscoll. Katherine encourages Mark to keep pursuing Pam. Sue Ellen worries her past will hurt J.R.’s political prospects. Mickey and Donna clash.
Cast: E.J. André (Eugene Bullock), Mary Armstrong (Louise), Tyler Banks (John Ross Ewing), John Beck (Mark Graison), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Morgan Brittany (Katherine Wentworth), Lois Chiles (Holly Harwood), Roseanna Christiansen (Sly), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Susan Howard (Donna Krebbs), Dulcie Jordan (maid), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Howard Keel (Clayton Farlow), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Audrey Landers (Afton Cooper), Timothy Patrick Murphy (Mickey Trotter), Ben Piazza (Walt Driscoll), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Debbie Rennard (Sly), John Reilly (Roy Ralston), Patricia Richarde (Ms. Finch), Joey Sheck (Mark’s friend), Danone Simpson (Kendall), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing)
“Caribbean Connection” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.
Dallas Cliffhanger Classics: Season 10
August 2, 2013 by 8 Comments
Dallas Decoder celebrates “Dallas’s” classic cliffhangers with weekly summertime flashbacks. Collect all 14 images and share them with your friends.
Dallas Decoder 