Jim Davis – Dallas Decoder

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘… A Clash Between Those Two Boys’

July 11, 2012 by Chris Baker 2 Comments

Dallas, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing, Ray Krebbs, Steve Kanaly, Taste of Success

Father knows least

In “Taste of Success,” a fourth-season “Dallas” episode, Jock and Ray (Jim Davis, Steve Kanaly) come to a stop while riding horses.

RAY: You all right?

JOCK: Yeah, why?

RAY: You’re riding awful hard. That usually means you got something on your mind.

JOCK: You know me real good, don’t you?

RAY: Yes, sir.

JOCK: Well, it’s Bobby and J.R.

RAY: I thought Bobby was working out all right.

JOCK: Well, he is. Of course, he’s got a lot to learn. But that’s not the problem.

RAY: Well, what is the problem then?

JOCK: Well, you know J.R. likes being president. He’s about ready to go back to work, as you can see.

RAY: So?

JOCK: Gonna be a clash between those two boys. Some kind of explosion. And I’ll be damned if I know what to do about it. I just wish that there was some way that I could get those two boys together. You know, work side by side.

RAY: Well, there ain’t no way. You know that as well as I do, Jock.

JOCK: Yeah, I know, but that’s not the worst part of it. After the clash, Bobby may pull out and leave Dallas. And if that happens, well, Miss Ellie’s gonna blame me. And so help me, I, I just don’t know what to do about it. [Pauses] I’ll see you. [Takes off on his horse]

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Jim Davis, Steve Kanaly, Taste of Success

Drill Bits: At the Real Southfork, Business is Booming

July 6, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Changing of the Guard, Dallas, John Ross Ewing, Josh Henderson, Linda Gray, Sue Ellen Ewing, TNT

See you at the souvenir shop

Call it the TNT Effect: Since the cable channel’s new “Dallas” series debuted June 13, tourists have flocked to the Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas.

The number of weekday visitors to the property has doubled to about 300, the Austin-American Statesman reported last week. Southfork’s attractions include daily tours of the ranch house, as well as a museum where props and other memorabilia from the old show – including the gun used to shoot J.R. and Lucy’s wedding dress – are displayed.

“I’ve seen people cry when they get here and say, ‘Oh my Lord, I’ve tried to come here my whole life,” Sally Peavy, Southfork’s sales manager, told the Abilene Reporter-News.

The ranch also evokes a lot of nostalgia for the “Dallas” cast, who filmed several outdoor scenes there for the TNT episodes, just like they did throughout much of the original show’s 1978-1991 run.

“It’s very interesting to drive down that driveway at Southfork because it brought back so many memories,” Linda Gray told me and other bloggers during a recent press call. “And it’s still small. People are always surprised at how small it is. But then on film, they made it look so big and expansive.”

Just Go

Speaking of that press call, it yielded a cute moment that’s too good to not share.

TNT set up the call so folks like yours truly could interview Gray and Josh Henderson, and while Gray was telling us about the camaraderie among the TNT show’s older cast members, two unexpected visitors popped into the room where she was seated.

The transcript:

Larry Hagman: Hello lovely lady, this is Larry Hagman here.

Patrick Duffy: And this Patrick Duffy.

Gray: See what I mean? … Get out. I love you. Get out of here. Go into the other room. Go.

Hagman: I’ve been thrown out of better places than this.

Ratings, Please

Since “Truth and Consequences,” this week’s TNT episode, debuted on Independence Day, the show’s weekly Nielsen ratings have been delayed. Hopefully they’ll be announced sometime today.

A word of caution: Television viewership always plummets on the Fourth of July, so the numbers for “Truth and Consequences” are bound to be lower than usual. “Dallas” averaged 5.2 million viewers during its first three Wednesday telecasts, although the numbers go up when people who record the show and watch it later are counted.

The good news, of course, is TNT announced last week it has renewed “Dallas” for a second season. For the show’s second go-round, the cable channel will produce 15 episodes, five more than we’re getting this summer.

Filming is expected to begin in the fall; no word on when the season will be telecast.

Line of the Week

“I know all the things Daddy used to say.”

Bobby’s line to J.R. in “Truth and Consequences” made me laugh aloud. As much as I love it when J.R. quotes Jock (even though Jim Davis’s character probably never said half the things his eldest son attributes to him), it’s about time someone told J.R. to quit using those down-home euphemisms to justify his schemes.

Drink and Be Wary

A reminder: This week’s “Dallas Drinks” offering is The Rebecca, a refreshing summertime cocktail inspired by Julie Gonzalo’s character.

The recipe comes from Andrew, the devilishly handsome and clever blogger at Cook In/Dine Out. The essential ingredient: Bénédictine liqueur, an herbal beverage from France whose recipe is so secret supposedly only three people know it.

How many people know Rebecca’s secret? We can hardly wait to find out.

“Drill Bits,” a roundup of news about TNT’s “Dallas,” is published regularly. Share your comments below.

Filed Under: Drill Bits, News Tagged With: Jim Davis, Josh Henderson, Julie Gonzalo, Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy, Sally Peavy, Truth and Consequences

The Art of Dallas: ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy, Part 2’

July 3, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Jock (Jim Davis) welcomes Gary (Ted Shackelford) home to Southfork in this 1980 publicity shot from “No More Mr. Nice Guy, Part 2,” a fourth-season “Dallas” episode.

Filed Under: Art of Dallas, Art of Dallas (Classic), Features Tagged With: Jim Davis, No More Mr. Nice Guy Part 2, Ted Shackelford, Who Shot J.R.?

The Art of Dallas: ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy, Part 1’

July 2, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Miss Ellie and Jock (Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis) confer with Dr. Pearson (Peter Donat) about J.R.’s condition in this 1980 publicity shot from “No More Mr. Nice Guy, Part 1,” “Dallas’s” fourth-season opener.

Filed Under: Art of Dallas, Art of Dallas (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis, No More Mr. Nice Guy Part 1, Who Shot J.R.?

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘The Company Isn’t Worth My Family’

July 2, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing. Miss Ellie Ewing, No More Mr. Nice Guy Part 1, Who Shot J.R.?

That’s that, Jock

In “No More Mr. Nice Guy, Part 1,” “Dallas’s” fourth-season opener, Miss Ellie and Jock (Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis) talk while leaving Dallas Memorial Hospital.

ELLIE: Jock, now that Bobby’s back, you’ve got to find a way to keep him here.

JOCK: I don’t know how. He was mad as hell at me when he left.

ELLIE: Well, that was because he felt you’d given him a job to do and then you didn’t stand behind him.

JOCK: Well, I couldn’t. When he opened Ewing 23, he made Cliff Barnes a partner in the profits. After what that man’s done to us, no way.

ELLIE: Does Ewing Oil have to cost us another son? Jock, I know how important the company is to you, but I’ve lost Gary and now, unless you stop him, Bobby will leave again.

JOCK: Ewing Oil has been my life, Ellie.

ELLIE: And J.R. may be dying because of it. [Jock puts his hand on her shoulder.] I don’t think the company is worth my family. I want Bobby home, no matter what it costs Ewing Oil.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis, No More Mr. Nice Guy Part 1, Who Shot J.R.?

TNT’s Dallas Styles: Bobby’s Leather Coat

June 28, 2012 by Chris Baker 6 Comments

Full leather jacket

Bobby wears a brown leather coat in “The Last Hurrah,” but it’s not the same jacket he sported throughout the original “Dallas’s” 14-season run.

On the old show, Bobby rocked a snap-collared motorcross jacket that symbolized the character’s inherent coolness. The first time we see Bobby, in the first scene of “Dallas’s” first episode, “Digger’s Daughter,”he’s wearing the jacket while zooming down the highway in a red convertible with a beautiful redhead at his side. Back then, Bobby was kind of a badass; the jacket was part of that persona.

The coat Patrick Duffy wears in “The Last Hurrah” is more of a traditional western style. It drapes the actor’s broad frame, falling just past his waist. Unlike the tighter motorcross jacket from the old show, this coat is looser, reflecting Bobby’s maturity.

The new coat reminds me of the one Jim Davis wore during the original “Dallas’s” early seasons. This might not be a coincidence. Now that Bobby has succeeded Jock at the head of the Southfork dinner table, it seems possible the new coat is as much a tribute to Davis as it is to the more youthful version Duffy wore during “Dallas’s” first go round.

Filed Under: Dallas Styles, Dallas Styles (TNT), Features Tagged With: Digger’s Daughter, Jim Davis, Last Hurrah, Patrick Duffy, TNT

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘You’re a Drunk and an Unfit Mother’

June 26, 2012 by Chris Baker 6 Comments

Dallas, House Divided, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, Sue Ellen Ewing, House Divided

Can’t a brother have breakfast in peace?

In “A House Divided,” “Dallas’s” third-season finale, Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) follows J.R. (Larry Hagman) into the Southfork dining room, where Jock (Jim Davis) comforts Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes), who is seated at the table.

SUE ELLEN: [To J.R.] You drove Gary away. And now Bobby. You tried to bribe Valene. You cheated your friends. You’ve done everything in your power to get what you wanted. Well, you did it. Congratulations, J.R. You are now the Ewings’ only son.

J.R.: [To Ellie] Mama, I don’t want Bobby to leave. You know that.

ELLIE: All I know is, J.R., he’s gone. [She gets up and leaves the room, followed by Jock.]

J.R.: You’ve had your last say in this house, Sue Ellen. You think you can get away talking about me in front of my mama and daddy like that? You’ve caused me enough humiliation. You’re a drunk and an unfit mother, and I honestly think you’ve lost your reason. I’m going to call Dr. Rogers. The sooner we have you put away in that sanitarium, the better off you’re going to be. [He turns and leaves.]

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, House Divided, Jim Davis, Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, Who Shot J.R.?

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘I Never Meant to Be a Burden’

June 25, 2012 by Chris Baker 3 Comments

Amanda Ewing, Dallas, Lesley Woods, Wheeler Dealer

Lost in time

In “The Wheeler Dealer,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Jock (Jim Davis), accompanied by Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) and Bobby and Pam (Patrick Duffy, Victoria Principal), visits a Colorado mental hospital to see his first wife Amanda (Lesley Woods), who doesn’t recognize him. When Amanda spots Bobby, she runs toward him with outstretched arms.

AMANDA: There you are! You said you’d come and I didn’t believe you. [She embraces him.] How long was it this time, six months? Do you like my dress? [She twirls.] I bought it special, just for you.

BOBBY: It’s lovely.

AMANDA: I know it’s your favorite color. I wanted to look so nice for you.

BOBBY: You do. You look real pretty.

AMANDA: Are you going away again?

BOBBY: Yes, I have to go away.

AMANDA: [Points to Jock] You’re going with him, aren’t you? He’s a wildcatter. Please don’t go. I wish you wouldn’t. I worry so much about you. Please.

BOBBY: I’ll be all right. You just take care of yourself, OK?

AMANDA: I’m nothing but a burden to you, Jock. And I don’t mean to be. I love you so much. [A nurse approaches and comforts her.] I never meant to be a burden. Never. Really, I didn’t. Never.

As the nurse leads her away, Jock touches her shoulder.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis, Lesley Woods, Patrick Duffy, Victoria Principal, Wheeler Dealer

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 53 – ‘The Wheeler Dealer’

June 25, 2012 by Chris Baker 6 Comments

Dallas, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman, Wheeler Dealer

J.R. Ewing here

With “The Wheeler Dealer,” “Dallas” continues tying up its third-season plot threads. The Ewings pay off the mortgage on Southfork, Kristin realizes she’ll never become J.R.’s wife, and Sue Ellen is back where she was a year ago: dreadfully unhappy and boozing herself into oblivion.

“The Wheeler Dealer” also offers a coda to the season’s biggest bombshell: Jock’s revelation that he was married to another woman before Miss Ellie became his wife.

The postscript begins when Ellie persuades Jock to visit the Colorado sanitarium where Amanda has lived for many years. (Trivia: The shot that concludes this scene, where Jim Davis and Barbara Bel Geddes gaze into each other’s eyes, inspired the “portrait” of Jock and Ellie seen on TNT’s “Dallas.”)

In “The Wheeler Dealer’s” most memorable sequence, Jock and Ellie, along with Bobby and Pam, visit the confused Amanda, who believes Bobby is Jock and that she’s still married to him. The saddest moment comes when 60-something Amanda girlishly twirls around to show off the “new” dress she wore to impress her husband. “I wanted to look so nice for you,” she says.

Lesley Woods is heartbreaking as Amanda, but the other actors in this scene shine, too. Jim Davis moves me when Jock gets tongue-tied as his frightened first wife recoils from him, while Patrick Duffy is wonderful as kind-hearted Bobby, who is put in the awkward position of having to pretend to be his own father. (More trivia: In 2006, Duffy played the son of Woods’ character on “The Bold and the Beautiful.”) I also love when Ellie, looking regal in her fur coat, gently puts her hand on Amanda’s shoulder and comforts her. What a terrific scene.

This episode’s other great moment: when Vaughn Leland, the banker who almost foreclosed on Southfork, tells J.R. he’s joining the deal with the cartel members who are buying Ewing Oil’s Asian wells. Leland doesn’t know the wells are about to be nationalized, so there’s something satisfying about knowing J.R. is about to stick it to the man who came close to evicting the Ewings.

I know I probably shouldn’t feel this way, but I bet I’m not alone. There’s probably a little wheeler-dealer in most “Dallas” fans.

Grade: B

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing, Miss Ellie Ewing, Wheeler Dealer

Gaze gone by

‘THE WHEELER DEALER’

Season 3, Episode 24

Airdate: March 14, 1980

Audience: 21.1 million homes, ranking 6th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Barbara Searles

Director: Alexander Singer

Synopsis: J.R. gets an inside tip his Asian wells are going to be nationalized, so he unloads most of them on the cartel. Jock, Miss Ellie, Bobby and Pam visit Amanda, Jock’s first wife. Cliff learns Digger’s heirs are entitled to half the proceeds from the Ewing 23 oilfield. Sue Ellen goes on a bender. Alan and Kristin plot revenge against J.R.

Cast: Robert Ackerman (Wade Luce), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Stephanie Blackmore (Serena), Jeff Cooper (Dr. Simon Elby), Mary Crosby (Kristin Shepard), Sarah Cunningham (Maggie Monahan), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Ron Hayes (Hank Johnson), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ed Kenney (Seth Stone), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Jeanna Michaels (Connie), Dennis Patrick (Vaughn Leland), Randolph Powell (Alan Beam), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Geoffrey Scott (“Dusty”), Paul Sorensen (Andy Bradley), Don Starr (Jordan Lee), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Lesley Woods (Amanda Ewing)

“The Wheeler Dealer” 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, Ellie Saves the Day, Jim Davis, Lesley Woods, Sarah Cunningham, Wheeler Dealer

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Jock, We Love Each Other’

June 12, 2012 by Chris Baker 1 Comment

Dallas, Donna Culver, Sue Ellen's Choice, Susan Howard

A desperate plea

In “Sue Ellen’s Choice,” a third-season “Dallas” episode, Jock (Jim Davis) fixes a drink in J.R.’s office while Donna Culver (Susan Howard) sits on the sofa.

JOCK: It isn’t often anymore that a pretty girl like you calls and asks for an appointment. What can I do for you? [Rests on the desk’s edge]

DONNA: [Rises] It’s about Ray, Jock.

JOCK: Ray?

DONNA: Ray Krebbs. We’ve been seeing each other since Sam died.

JOCK: [Nods] Yes, I heard.

DONNA: I’m sorry. This is embarrassing. [Smiles]

JOCK: Well, now don’t be embarrassed. Something upset you enough to bring you here. What is it?

DONNA: Ray and I were planning on getting married as soon as it seemed respectable. And now, all of a sudden, he’s changed his mind. I want you to talk to him.

JOCK: Well, Donna, there just isn’t a whole lot that I can do about that.

DONNA: You don’t understand. He’s got some crazy idea that he’s not good enough for me. You know him, Jock. You know him better than anybody. You’ve been like a father to him. He respects you. He thinks the whole world of you. And I just want you to tell him that he’s good enough for anybody, anybody at all. Because I know he’d listen to you.

JOCK: Ray’s a pretty smart boy, Donna.

DONNA: Does that mean you won’t talk to him? [Smiles]

JOCK: I never even told my own boys how to live their lives, Donna. I can’t start with Ray.

DONNA: Jock, we love each other.

JOCK: Yes, yes, I believe you do. But Donna, a good marriage is based on a much more solid foundation than that.

DONNA: [Smiles] Well, I’m sorry if I bothered you.

JOCK: You didn’t bother me, Donna. Just wish I could’ve helped you, that’s all.

DONNA: I know. [Puts on her coat, grabs her purse, opens the door, faces Jock]

JOCK: Bye.

DONNA: Goodbye.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Jim Davis, Sue Ellen’s Choice, Susan Howard