Jim Davis – Dallas Decoder

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

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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

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

May 23, 2012 by Chris Baker 14 Comments

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

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

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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 Scene of the Day: ‘I Owe You, That’s All’

May 18, 2012 by Chris Baker 1 Comment

Dallas, Dove Hunt, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman

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.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Dove Hunt, Jim Davis, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Robert J. Wilke, Stefan Gierasch, Steve Kanaly, Thomas Callaway

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 35 – ‘The Dove Hunt’

May 18, 2012 by Chris Baker 21 Comments

Dallas, Dove Hunt, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing

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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Dallas, Dove Hunt, Robert J. Wilke, Tom Owens

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.

Filed Under: Critiques, Critiques (Classic), Opinion Tagged With: D.C. and Richard Fontana, Dove Hunt, Jim Davis, John Parker, Leonard Katzman, Robert J. Wilke

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘I’m the Head of this Household!’

April 26, 2012 by Chris Baker 1 Comment

Dallas, Home Again, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing

OK, big guy. Calm down.

In “Home Again,” a second-season “Dallas” episode, Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) is seated in a chair in the Southfork den, where she has called Jock (Jim Davis), J.R. (Larry Hagman) and Bobby (Patrick Duffy) together for an announcement.

ELLIE: This is very hard for me because you know how I love Southfork – and all of you. But I have to do what I think is right. My brother was named heir to Southfork in my daddy’s will. When he was lost at sea, your father and I declared him dead and claimed the ranch. It was right that we did that then. Now that he’s back, Garrison must have what is really his. We have to give Southfork back to him.

JOCK: [Angry, rising to his feet] What do you mean give Garrison Southfork? What kind of reasoning is that?

ELLIE: Jock, even when I thought he was dead, that day in court when we made it official, I felt I was stealing something from him.

JOCK: Miss Ellie, it was my life, my sweat and my money that saved this ranch. When Garrison ran away, he was bankrupt, the sheriff was knocking at the door.

ELLIE: Jock, I know how hard you worked – but it’s still ours by default. We have to correct that.

BOBBY: Mama, you are talking about giving up our home – a place we grew up in.

J.R.: Even if Uncle Garrison had stayed, he couldn’t have saved the ranch. I’m with Daddy. I don’t mean any disrespect, but what’s done is done, Mother.

ELLIE: What’s done can be changed. [Rising] Jock, I never told you how hurt I was when I found out that my daddy made Garrison the sole heir – but that’s the way things were done in those days: father to son. Daughters – daughters always came second. It was my daddy’s wish that Garrison have the ranch. My conscience won’t let me do differently.

J.R.: I knew he came here for some reason. He used to hang around with Digger Barnes – used to sing the same refrain, over and over again. The Ewings stole everything from them.

BOBBY: J.R., we’ve got enough problems without turning this into a Barnes-Ewing feud. Now leave it alone.

JOCK: [Raising voice] Miss Ellie! There’ll be no more talk about giving away Southfork. [Turns to leave]

ELLIE: Jock, we do need to talk about it!

JOCK: [Serious] You’re overstepping your place, Miss Ellie.

MISS ELLIE: [Screaming] My place! Just what is my place?

JOCK: It isn’t running this ranch! It isn’t running Ewings’ businesses! It isn’t saying what we keep or what we give away. I am still the head of this household – with or without your permission!

ELLIE: I’ve asked Garrison and Cathy for lunch tomorrow. Do I need your permission for that?

Jock glares at Ellie and leaves the room. Moments later, she leaves, too.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Home Again, Jim Davis, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 19 – ‘Home Again’

April 26, 2012 by Chris Baker 14 Comments

Dallas, Garrison Southworth, Gene Evans, Home Again

Missing heir

I can’t watch “Home Again” these days without thinking about “Downton Abbey,” PBS’s hit British soap opera. Both shows feature land-and-lineage stories that entertain but also baffle.

In “Downton Abbey,” a World War I-era nobleman is legally prohibited from leaving his estate to his daughters because, well, they’re daughters. It’s an odd concept for American audiences to grasp, but “Dallas’s” take on patriarchalism is even harder to understand.

In “Home Again,” when Miss Ellie’s long-believed dead brother Garrison Southworth turns up alive, she offers to give him Southfork because she feels he’s the rightful owner.

It seems Ellie inherited the ranch only after Garrison, the intended heir, was lost at sea. “My daddy made Garrison the sole heir,” Ellie tells Jock and her sons. “But that’s the way things were done in those days, father to son. Daughters, daughters always came second. It was my daddy’s wish that Garrison have the ranch. My conscience won’t let me do differently.”

Sorry, “Dallas.” I’m not buying it.

Ellie may feel bad about Garrison missing out on his inheritance, but this is her home, not a family heirloom. It’s a bit much to ask the audience to believe the character would give away Southfork so easily.

My guess is the “Dallas” writers came up with the “Home Again” storyline to show how Ellie is more principled than the rest of her cutthroat family, but the plot just doesn’t work. How can we respect Ellie’s desire to do right by her brother when it means giving the rest of her family the shaft?

I might be more willing to forgive the unconvincing plotting if “Dallas” used “Home Again” as a jumping off point to explore sexism, but the show never really goes there. We never find out, for example, how progressive Pam feels about Ellie’s decision.

Of course, “Home Again” has its strengths, beginning with Gene Evans’ fiery turn as Garrison. The actor proves to be an effective foil for Jim Davis and Larry Hagman.

It’s too bad Garrison didn’t stick around longer. He might have made an interesting addition to Southfork – just not as its owner.

Grade: B

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Big brother’s house

‘HOME AGAIN’

Season 2, Episode 14

Airdate: January 7, 1979

Audience: 19.1 million homes, ranking 11th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Arthur Bernard Lewis

Director: Don McDougall

Synopsis: Miss Ellie’s brother Garrison Southworth, whom she believed died 40 years ago, visits Southfork. Ellie considers Garrison the rightful heir to Southfork and offers him ownership of the ranch, but he reveals he’s come home to die.

Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Gene Evans (Aaron Southworth), Melinda Fee (Cathy Baker), Meg Gallagher (Louella), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Michael McManus (Matt), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Charles Wilder Young (Charlie Watters)

“Home Again” 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: Gene Evans, Home Again, Jim Davis, Larry Hagman

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘I’m So Scared, Cliff’

April 25, 2012 by Chris Baker 1 Comment

Cliff Barnes, Dallas, Ken Kercheval, Kidnapped, Pam Ewing, Victoria Principal

Words are cheap

In “Kidnapped,” a second-season “Dallas” episode, Pam (Victoria Principal) passes through Southfork’s foyer before dawn and notices Cliff (Ken Kercheval) standing on the porch.

PAM: [Through the window] Cliff? Cliff, didn’t you sleep?

CLIFF: No. Did you?

PAM: [Joins him on the porch] I’m so scared, Cliff. You like now, don’t you, since you got to know him?

CLIFF: Yeah, I do. I like him.

Jock and Miss Ellie (Jim Davis, Barbara Bel Geddes) step onto the porch.

JOCK: Time to go, Cliff.

ELLIE: You bring my son home safe, I’ll be grateful to you forever. We all will.

Jock hands the bag of money to Cliff, who takes it and walks away.

Filed Under: Dallas Scenes of the Day, Dallas Scenes of the Day (Classic), Features Tagged With: Barbara Bel Geddes, Jim Davis, Ken Kercheval, Kidnapped, Victoria Principal

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 14 – ‘Survival’

April 19, 2012 by Chris Baker 12 Comments

Bobby Ewing, Dallas, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Survival

Crash of the titans

Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy appear three times in “Survival:” twice in the first act, when J.R. and Bobby board the Ewings’ private plane and when the aircraft begins its descent into Louisiana swampland, and again in the final scene, when the brothers return to Southfork, battered and bruised.

It’s a testament to the strength of “Dallas’s” ensemble that the show’s biggest stars aren’t missed that much. “Survival” seems designed to showcase “Dallas’s” other cast members, and they make the most of it – particularly Barbara Bel Geddes and Jim Davis, who do some of their finest work in this episode.

In one of my all-time favorite “Dallas” scenes, a tense Miss Ellie is talking with Ray in the Southfork foyer when someone knocks on the door. She opens it to find a snoopy newspaper reporter seeking a quote about the crash.

“Ray, get me the shotgun out of the hall closet,” Ellie says. Holding the gun, she tells the reporter, “Anybody on my land, without invitation, is a trespasser. So unless I see your tail heading out of here right now – and fast – I’m going to blow it off.”

I love the sight of Ellie, wearing pearls, wielding a shotgun and forcing a stranger off her property. The words and images are quintessential “Dallas:” modern people defending old values like land and family.

(TNT’s “Dallas” revival appears to pay homage to this scene in promos for its first episode, when elegant Brenda Strong, playing Southfork’s new lady of the manor, is shown cocking a shotgun.)

In another great “Survival” scene, Jock stands on the darkened Southfork patio and orders Ray to join the search party for J.R. and Bobby. “No matter how it turns out, dead or alive, bring my boys home,” Jock says.

Davis delivers the line with characteristic solemnity, but he pauses briefly before and after the “dead or alive” part, as if Jock has to muster the courage to utter the words. It’s a nice, gravity-adding touch.

Davis also does a nice job at the end of the episode, when Jock receives Ray’s call and learns J.R. and Bobby are alive. With quivering lips and wet eyes, he tells the ranch foreman to “bring them home.”

If you’re able to watch Davis here and not get choked up yourself, you’re a tougher “Dallas” fan than me.

Grade: A

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Call waiting

‘SURVIVAL’

Season 2, Episode 9

Airdate: November 12, 1978

Audience: 15.6 million homes, ranking 18th in the weekly ratings

Writers: D.C. Fontana and Richard Fontana

Director: Irving J. Moore

Synopsis: The Ewings’ plane crashes with J.R. and Bobby aboard. The family spends a tense night at Southfork awaiting word of their fate. Ray brings the brothers home, bruised but otherwise OK.

Cast: Barbra Babcock (Liz Craig), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Andy Jarrell (Ken Jackson), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), John Zaremba (Dr. Harlan Danvers)

“Survival” 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, Jim Davis, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, Survival

The Art of Dallas: ‘Bypass’

April 12, 2012 by Chris Baker Leave a Comment

Jock (Jim Davis) suffers a heart attack and receives help from J.R. (Larry Hagman) in this 1978 publicity shot from “Bypass,”a second-season “Dallas” episode.

Filed Under: Art of Dallas, Art of Dallas (Classic), Features Tagged With: Bypass, Jim Davis, Larry Hagman

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘We’ve Had a Good Life, Ellie’

April 12, 2012 by Chris Baker 3 Comments

Barbara Bel Geddes, Bypass, Dallas, Jim Davis, Jock Ewing, Miss Ellie Ewing

Heart to heart

In “Bypass,” a second-season “Dallas” episode, Jock (Jim Davis) lies in his hospital bed, talking to Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes).

JOCK: [Smiling] You know, Ellie, sometimes I worry I, I don’t think I’ve been a very good father.

ELLIE: Yes, you have.

JOCK: Gary pulling out. Drifter. Maybe I could’ve done better by him but just didn’t know how.

ELLIE: Jock, don’t. Look at J.R. He may get on your nerves once in awhile, but he’s done wonders for Ewing Oil – a natural born businessman. And Bobby’s working the ranch. I like that. Maybe that’s the way to solve the whole problem.

JOCK: Maybe. [Serious] Ellie if, if anything happens to me, you keep the family together, you hear?

ELLIE: Nothing’s going to happen.

JOCK: Promise me. It means a lot.

ELLIE: [Smiling] To me, too. [Chuckles] Remember when my daddy didn’t give us five years together? [Jock laughs.] Sometimes I think he was right. We’re both so headstrong. Well, we’ve raised a family – and we’re still together.

JOCK: [Pushes a tray table away and Ellie moves closer] We’ve had a good life, Ellie.

ELLIE: We still do.

She kisses him.

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