Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) goes to the park to see Ann in this publicity shot from “Revelations,” the 10th episode of TNT’s “Dallas.” Photo credit: Bill Matlock/TNT.
Things Ewings Say
August 7, 2012 by 15 Comments
Don’t darlin’ her either
J.R. isn’t the only sharp-tongued Ewing on TNT’s “Dallas.” To help you prepare for tomorrow’s telecast of “Revelations,” the first-season finale, we offer this review of memorable lines from other characters.
• “Count your blessings, Christopher. Those two old geezers would still find a reason to fight.”
Lucy (Charlene Tilton), after her cousin announces J.R. and Cliff won’t be able to attend his wedding in “Changing of the Guard”
• “We ain’t family, bro.”
John Ross (Josh Henderson) to Christopher in “Hedging Your Bets”
• “OK, can we just go bake something?”
Rebecca (Julie Gonzalo), after failing to hit the target during shooting practice with Ann in “The Price You Pay”
• “Hair loss isn’t one of them, right?”
Bobby (Patrick Duffy), upon hearing his new medication has side effects in “The Price You Pay”
• “You got your daddy’s charm. Let’s hope you didn’t get his morals.”
Miss Henderson (Margaret Bowman), responding to John Ross’s sweet talk in “The Last Hurrah”
• “He was dyslexic, not stupid.”
Elena (Jordana Brewster), responding to J.R.’s quip about John Ross’s childhood aversion to reading, in “The Last Hurrah”
• “I know all the things Daddy used to say.”
Bobby, after J.R. quotes Jock for the umpteenth time, in “Truth and Consequences”
• “I like your husband. And I always thought his brother was a prick.”
Harris (Mitch Pileggi), agreeing to Ann’s request to help Bobby by cancelling his contract with J.R. in “Truth and Consequences”
• “The people in Texas are way too friendly. It tries my nerves.”
Tommy (Callard Harris) in “The Enemy of My Enemy”
• “What now?”
John Ross, after Bobby and Christopher enter his room in “The Enemy of My Enemy”
• “I’m sorry I threw up in your bathroom.”
Rebecca to Elena in “Collateral Damage”
• “The first thing I thought was, ‘Yep, he’s his mama’s son.’”
Lucy, recalling the time she found John Ross drunk after he broke into the Southfork liquor cabinet as a child, in “Collateral Damage”
• “You’ve been writing more prescriptions than Michael Jackson’s doctor – which is odd, since all of your patients are dead.”
Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), blackmailing a medical examiner in “No Good Deed”
• “If I catch you anywhere near Bobby’s room, I’ll shoot you. And since you have no heart, it’ll be somewhere more vital.”
Ann (Brenda Strong), chasing J.R. away from her ill husband in “Family Business”
What’s your favorite quote from “Dallas’s” first season? Share your choices below and read more features from Dallas Decoder.
Drill Bits: TNT’s ‘Dallas’ Wins Cable Ratings Gold
August 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
You should see the other guys
“Dallas” brought ratings gold to TNT this week: Despite tough competition from the Olympics, “Family Business,” the show’s latest episode, debuted to 3.2 million viewers on August 1, becoming the evening’s most-watched cable program.
The “Dallas” audience included more than 1 million viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, the demographic advertisers pay a premium to reach. Ratings in this demo were up 8 percent from July 25, when roughly 850,000 18-to-49-year-olds watched “No Good Deed,” TNT’s previous “Dallas” episode.
This makes “Dallas” one of the few shows to get a ratings boost in the crucial demo during NBC’s Olympics coverage, which has delivered blockbuster numbers each night since the games began last week.
J.R. Ewing, Superlative Senior
Younger viewers may love “Dallas,” but the show is making waves among older audiences, too.
TNT’s depiction of J.R. as an elderly man who is nonetheless full of life is smart and refreshing, writes Elizabeth Newman, senior editor for McKnight’s, a trade publication for caregivers.
“[I]n all our pop culture portrayals of either lauding saintly grandmother types, trying to make people cringe laugh at the idea of old people being sexual (I’m looking at you, Betty White), or introducing the wacky grandfather, it’s refreshing to see a complex character in his 80s get a new lease on life,” Newman writes.
The Woman Who Saved J.R.’s Life
Speaking of superlative seniors: The Star Newspapers of Plano, Texas caught up this week with Barbara Kain, who was a stand-in for Barbara Bel Geddes on the original “Dallas” series and also played the nurse who treats J.R. after his shooting in “No More Mr. Nice Guy, Part 1.”
“I always say that I helped save J.R’s life,” Kain tells the publication.
The Double-Crosser’s Double
While we’re nosing around community newspaper websites: The Abilene Reporter-News recently profiled Gregg Dickerson, a J.R. Ewing lookalike who hires himself out for parties and other events. By the way: The Reporter-News has a long history of finding local angles in its “Dallas” coverage.
Department of Misleading Headlines
She loves it
The Toronto Star and a handful of other news outlets carried the following headline this week: “Brewster: I couldn’t live in Dallas.”
What’s this? Is “Dallas” heroine Jordana Brewster dissing show’s namesake city?
No, silly. Read the whole story.
“I love it there,” the actress says, adding that she met her husband while filming a movie in Texas.
Here’s the rest of Brewster’s quote: “We would love to be able to have a house there, but I don’t know if I could live in Dallas. I live in California, where you can basically wear whatever you want and be pretty casual and the lifestyle is laid back. In Dallas the women are dressed up at 7 a.m. and they’re always in heels and if you go out to a restaurant they’re never in jeans.”
See? Brewster likes Dallas just fine, thank you very much.
Line of the Week
“No, J.R., your lapses aren’t when you do wrong. Your lapses are when you do right.”
Bobby (Patrick Duffy) to his older brother in one of the many moving scenes from “Family Business.”
A Twist, But No Zing
The latest “Dallas Drinks” recipe from Cook In/Dine Out: The Sue Ellen. To honor Linda Gray’s reinterpretation of her classic character, this drink is a fresh take on an old standard: the Cosmopolitan.
And yes, it’s a “mocktail.” Who do you think we are, Harris Ryland?
“Drill Bits,” a roundup of news about TNT’s “Dallas,” is published regularly. Share your comments below.
Critique: TNT’s ‘Dallas’ Episode 9 – ‘Family Business’
August 2, 2012 by 39 Comments
The man who came around
“Family Business” offers nothing less than the redemption of J.R. Ewing. In this deeply poignant episode, our aging antihero is called upon to face hard truths and make tough choices, and for once in his life, he does the right thing. By the time the closing credits roll, J.R. has a grown as a person. “Dallas” has grown too.
Rather brilliantly, “Family Business” ends with Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” playing under a series of chilling scenes that leave the fates of several characters hanging in the balance. J.R. is not among them, but no matter. There’s no doubt the song is meant to evoke the journey he takes in this episode, when one by one, the three people J.R. loves most – John Ross, Sue Ellen and Bobby – persuade him to end the war for Southfork.
These are moving, meaningful scenes. In the first, John Ross pleads with J.R. to give the ranch back to Bobby, prompting J.R. to ask his son, “What’s gotten into you, anyhow?” John Ross’s cutting response: “A little decency.” Later, Sue Ellen storms into the room, slaps J.R. and reminds him how his past schemes left him with “nothing.” When J.R. remains defiant (“Well, I’m back honey, and I’m gonna be bigger than ever.”), Sue Ellen’s exasperation dissolves into pity. “And you still have nothing,” she says.
Only after J.R. speaks with Bobby does he finally, fully see the light. In the scene, Bobby sits in his sickbed and gently admonishes his oldest brother, then tells him, “J.R., I love you. No matter what. You remember that.” J.R.’s face falls – and with it, so do the last vestiges of his bravado. “Well,” he says softly, “My memory’s not what it used to be either. You’re just going to have to keep telling me.”
In each of these scenes, director Michael M. Robin’s clever staging tells us as much as scriptwriter Bruce Rasmussen’s heartfelt dialogue. J.R.’s confrontation with Sue Ellen ends with him standing in front of a mirror that reflects the back of his head, a reminder that there is another side of J.R., even when he can’t see it himself. In the exchange with John Ross, J.R. sits on his bed while the younger man stands over him, symbolizing how the son has achieved moral superiority over the father. In the third scene, the positions are reversed: Bobby is in bed, while J.R. stands. This is when we know J.R., who has always been the big brother, is about to become a bigger man.
Indeed, the next time we see J.R., he is sitting alone in his bedroom, staring at the Southfork deed, a glass of bourbon to his right, his old oil-derrick model to the left. With heavy eyes, he glances at the framed picture of Miss Ellie, sips his drink, puts pen to paper and finally returns ownership of the ranch to Bobby.
The man has come around.
‘He’s J.R. Ewing’
Scarred inside, too
If there is justice in television, “Family Business” will be the episode that earns Larry Hagman an Emmy next year. The actor is full of wicked charm here, but more than anything, his performance has heart. J.R. has never felt so human.
And while we’re on the subject: Is it too much to ask for Patrick Duffy to receive some Emmy recognition too? I love the sad-eyed, world-weary demeanor he brings to his scenes with Hagman, but Duffy also deserves praise for making Bobby’s seizures look and feel frighteningly real.
Among the younger actors, I’m most impressed by Julie Gonzalo, who knocks me out with Rebecca’s hopeless desperation in “Family Business’s” final scene, when Rebecca turns the gun on Tommy (“Please, please you have to go!”), as well as Josh Henderson, who shows us what John Ross is made of during his character’s confrontation with J.R.
Henderson also shines when John Ross stands in the Southfork driveway and pours out his heart to Elena. “I spent my entire life missing him, wanting to be with him, wanting to be him,” John Ross says of his father. After a beat, he adds: “He’s J.R. Ewing” – letting us know the son’s mistake wasn’t that he failed to live up to his father’s legend, but that he tried in the first place. The “Dallas” makeup artists might be responsible for the cuts and bruises on John Ross’s face, but Henderson gets the credit for showing us the scars his character carries around on the inside.
Other great “Family Business” moments: Christopher reminds John Ross that Bobby was like a surrogate father to him growing up and later proposes going into business with John Ross and Elena – signaling the beginning of an intriguing story arc for the series. Meanwhile, after Harris tries to blackmail Sue Ellen – and mocks her sobriety by pouring her a glass of wine – she confides in Ann her plan to drop out of the gubernatorial race. “I would have made a good governor, don’t you think?” Sue Ellen asks through wet eyes. Has Linda Gray ever been more heartbreaking?
Speaking of Ann: Brenda Strong is wonderful in the scenes that depict her character as devoted wife and friend, but I get the biggest kick out of seeing Ann spar with her wily brother-in-law. I loved J.R. and Ann’s storage barn encounter in “The Price You Pay” and their heated exchange in “Truth and Consequences,” but the “Family Business” scene where she chases him out of Bobby’s room (“Don’t you darlin’ me!”) is the best of the lot. Strong is one of the few actors on the TNT show who can hold her own against the mighty Hagman in every way.
‘Hear the Trumpets, Hear the Pipers’
Have gun, will unravel
“Family Business” is a technical achievement as much as anything. Since TNT’s series began, I’ve sometimes struggled to get used to the background music, which is so different from what we heard on the old show. But the new style really works here. Rob Cairns scores several scenes in this episode with sentimental strings, which fit well with the intimate atmospherics.
Of course, “Family Business’s” standout sequence is that Johnny Cash montage. Notice how perfectly his haunting lyrics match what we see on screen. Rebecca pulls the gun out of the safe deposit box as Cash sings, “The hair on your arms will stand up.” Tommy’s face fills the frame when we hear, “Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still.” Bobby’s monitor flatlines as Cash’s voice booms, “Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.” And then the punctuation: the ping of the shell casing hitting the counter as blood splatters the stuffed animals Rebecca brought home at the top of the hour.
After I saw this sequence for the first time, I went back and watched it again and again, reveling in how good it is. It reminded me of how I kept “A House Divided,” the episode where J.R. gets shot, on a seemingly endless loop when I was a kid.
But the comparison goes beyond the fact both episodes end with gunshots. The original “Dallas” was never the same after “A House Divided,” and “Family Business” feels destined to become a landmark episode too. I have a hunch we’ll one day look back and remember this as the moment the TNT series became the show we always knew it could be.
Grade: A+
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Blood monkeys
‘FAMILY BUSINESS’
Season 1, Episode 9
Telecast: August 1, 2012
Writer: Bruce Rasmussen
Director: Michael M. Robin
Audience: 4.8 million viewers (including 3.2 million viewers on August 1, ranking 17th in the weekly cable ratings)
Synopsis: After Elena discovers a way to extract Southfork oil from a neighboring property, John Ross, Christopher and Elena form a company, Ewing Energies. When Harris tries to blackmail Sue Ellen, she decides to quit the gubernatorial race rather than submit to his scheme. Bobby is diagnosed with a cerebral aneurysm, prompting J.R. to return ownership of Southfork to him. After Bobby learns he may have to incriminate J.R. in the fraud, he suffers a seizure. Tommy is revealed to be working with Frank Ashkani, Cliff’s henchman, who tells Tommy his services are no longer required. Tommy attacks a gun-wielding Rebecca; the weapon fires during their struggle.
Cast: Jordana Brewster (Elena Ramos), Mari Deese (bank manager), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Marlene Forte (Carmen Ramos), Julie Gonzalo (Rebecca Ewing), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Callard Harris (Tommy Sutter), Josh Henderson (John Ross Ewing), John McIntosh (Dr. Bennett), Jesse Metcalfe (Christopher Ewing), Glenn Morshower (Lou), Kevin Page (Bum), Mitch Pileggi (Harris Ryland), Brenda Strong (Ann Ewing), Tina Parker (nurse), Faran Tahir (Frank)
“Family Business” is available at DallasTNT.com, Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.
Dallas Styles: Lucy’s Wedding
August 1, 2012 by 6 Comments
Sue Ellen’s dress, part 1
Lucy’s wedding in the fourth-season episode “End of the Road, Part 2,” gives the “Dallas” cast a chance to dress up and show off like never before. No one rises to the occasion quite like Linda Gray, who gets to wear two outfits.
When the ceremony begins, Sue Ellen wears a brownish-gray satin dress with shoulders so wide, it makes Gray look like she’s been wrapped in a king-sized bedspread.
… And part 2
This might be intentional. During the reception, a waiter spills a drink on Sue Ellen, and when she retreats to her bedroom to change, she discovers J.R. has been sleeping with Afton – in the same bed he shares with Sue Ellen.
Old-fashioned girl
Until this point, Sue Ellen has been resisting the charms of her old college boyfriend Clint Ogden, a guest at the wedding who has been shamelessly flirting with her. Once she knows J.R. is cheating on her again – and with her “bedspread dress” stained – Sue Ellen apparently decides she has nothing to lose.
She changes into a much different outfit: a form-fitting pinkish-orange garment with three big white flowers printed on the front.
The u-shaped neckline swoops down across Gray’s chest and leaves her shoulders exposed, making this dress much sleeker and sexier than the bedspread. Sue Ellen seems to be letting the world know she’s available again.
Lucy’s wedding gown is also revealing – figuratively, that is. She gets fitted for the dress in “End of the Road, Part 1,” when we learn Miss Ellie wore the gown during her wedding to Jock a half-century earlier.
This seems appropriate. Lucy is a modern girl in almost every sense of the word, but she harbors some pretty outdated ideas about marriage.
In “Start the Revolution with Me,” a later fourth-season episode, Lucy suggests she’d like to drop out of school so she can become a full-time wife to Mitch. At that point, it becomes clear: Lucy didn’t just inherit a wedding dress from the 1930s; she got a Depression era mentality to go along with it.
Dallas Drinks: The Sue Ellen
July 31, 2012 by 3 Comments
This summer, the “Dallas” fans at Dallas Decoder and Cook In/Dine Out are offering “Dallas Drinks,” a series of cocktails inspired by the characters from TNT’s new series. This week: The Sue Ellen, a “mocktail” as elegant as Linda Gray’s beloved alter ego.
Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘All Our Men Are Ambitious’
July 30, 2012 by 1 Comment
Fit for a queen
In “Dallas’s” fourth-season episode “End of the Road, Part 1,” the Ewing women – Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes), Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) and Pam (Victoria Principal) – chat with Lucy (Charlene Tilton) in her bedroom, where a tailor pins her wedding gown.
ELLIE: That dress has been waiting a long time for you. My daddy had a woman come all the way from Paris with the material for it – and money was hard for him to come by in those days. But he was very determined to show all those oilmen that a Southworth wouldn’t be put to shame.
LUCY: What about Granddaddy?
ELLIE: He was something. All decked out in formal clothes. He would’ve felt better in boots and jeans. He kept tugging at his collar, trying to breathe. [Chuckles] He was the handsomest man I’d ever seen. Still is.
SUE ELLEN: I believe my wedding day was the most wonderful day of my life. All those bridesmaids, all those ushers – and hundreds and hundreds of people. I can close my eyes and still think that I’m reliving it, all over again.
PAM: Well, ours was a different setting. A justice of the peace in New Orleans city hall. We were both scared to death. Bobby Ewing marrying Digger Barnes’ daughter.
ELLIE: Well, when I was first married, my daddy didn’t like Jock any better than Digger did. There comes a time when you have to let your family know who really has the last word in suitable husbands.
LUCY: Is that really true, Grandma?
ELLIE: Well, we’d all like to think so, anyway.
LUCY: I don’t know. Mitch is so darn stubborn. All he ever thinks about is going to medical school and studying.
SUE ELLEN: Well, Lucy, you should consider yourself very lucky. Ambition is a fine quality to have in a man. Isn’t it, Pamela?
PAM: I suppose so, if the ambition doesn’t become an obsession.
ELLIE: Well, I’m not sure I would have loved Jock as much if he’d been different. All our men are ambitious.
LUCY: Except for my daddy, and he’s doing just fine.
ELLIE: That’s true, Lucy. But Gary has other qualities that make him special. Very special.
The Art of Dallas: ‘Executive Wife’
July 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
J.R. and Sue Ellen (Larry Hagman, Linda Gray) are seen in this 1981 publicity shot from “Executive Wife,” a fourth-season “Dallas” episode.
Drill Bits: Ratings Rise Again for TNT’s ‘Dallas’
July 20, 2012 by 8 Comments
Viewers love Lucy
TNT’s “Dallas” isn’t pulling the kind of numbers it did on opening night, but the show continues to perform well. The July 18 telecast of the latest episode, “Collateral Damage,” was seen by 3.9 million viewers, making it that evening’s second most-watched cable program behind USA’s “Royal Pains.”
“Dallas’s” July 18 audience included 1.2 million viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, the group advertisers covet.
This is the second week “Dallas’s” audience grew. The July 11 telecast of “The Enemy of My Enemy” attracted 3.6 million viewers, ranking 26th in the weekly cable ratings. On July 4, “Truth and Consequences” was seen by 3.4 million viewers, finishing 16th.
“Dallas’s” numbers haven’t gone unnoticed by the press: Larry Hagman graces this week’s Entertainment Weekly cover, while USA Today, in an article this week about the broadcast networks’ summer struggles, called the series “a summer bright spot.”
Read All About It
Speaking of Entertainment Weekly: Karen Valby has penned a terrific spread that includes some juicy tidbits from the season’s remaining episodes (murder! near-death experiences! marriage proposals!).
Also featured: a preview of the second season’s overarching theme and sidebars on Patrick Duffy and Hagman’s bromance, Josh Henderson and Jesse Metcalfe’s rivalry and yes, J.R.’s eyebrows.
The other highlight: Jill Greenberg’s fantastic photos, including a cute recreation of this season’s best scene.
If you’re a “Dallas” fan, you owe it to yourself to purchase a copy (or two).
Strong Emmy Contenders
“Dallas” won’t be eligible for Emmys for another year – and if Hagman isn’t nominated, Dallas Decoder is going to raise hell – but Brenda Strong, a.k.a. Ann Ewing, received a nod yesterday for her voiceover work during the final season of ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.”
This is Strong’s second Emmy nomination for narrating “Desperate Housewives.” The award will be handed out during this year’s Creative Arts Emmys ceremony, which will be held Saturday, September 15.
What is Ann’s Secret?
While we’re on the subject of Brenda Strong: In a new interview with Celebuzz, the actress reveals Ann is “going to have a mini breakdown, and then it’s like a phoenix rising from the ashes. She’s going to come back stronger than she was before.”
To hear Strong describe it, “No Good Deed,” next week’s “Dallas” episode, will be essential viewing. “[B]y the time I got the script for episode eight, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough,” she says. “I called our writer and said, ‘Thank you for giving me such an interesting woman to play.’”
Gray and Gonzalo in the News
Many faces of Rebecca
Two other “Dallas” leading ladies – Linda Gray and Julie Gonzalo – also gave revealing interviews in the press this week:
• In a chat with the McClatchy-Tribune newspapers, Gray recalls what it was like to balance the demands of fame, family and career during the original show’s heyday. “I was just kind of going along, this is part of the job and trying to fit it all in. And I couldn’t do it,” Gray says.
• Gonzalo tells the entertainment news site Collider.com she uses “different voices” to play the mysterious Rebecca. “The scenes that I have with Tommy and another member of the family, I’m changing faces all the time, but that’s the most fun I had,” Gonzalo says.
Hagman’s Ten Grand Ten Gallon
Larry Hagman wears a $10,000 Stetson and has a “personal costumer” who holds it for him between takes. These and other interesting tidbits – including cool insights from “Dallas” wardrobe designer Rachel Sage Kunin – are included in USA Today’s recent article on prime-time television headgear.
Line of the Week
“The first thing I thought was, ‘Yep, he’s his mama’s son.’”
Lucy Ewing (Charlene Tilton) in “Collateral Damages,” recalling the time she found John Ross drunk after he broke into the Southfork liquor cabinet as a child. Only on “Dallas” do sentimental childhood memories involve children getting soused.
Pow!
In “Truth and Consequences,” we saw Metcalfe’s character, Christopher Ewing, beat the stuffing out of brother-in-law Tommy Sutter (Callard Harris). Fittingly, The Christopher, the latest cocktail from Cook In/Dine Out, also packs a punch. If you like your “Dallas Drinks” spicy, be sure to give this one a try.
“Drill Bits,” a roundup of news about TNT’s “Dallas,” is published regularly. Share your comments below.
TNT’s Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘I Hope You Choose Wisely’
July 19, 2012 by 7 Comments
Mama knows best
In “Collateral Damage,” a first-season “Dallas” episode, Elena and Sue Ellen (Jordana Brewster, Linda Gray) discuss John Ross’s business problems while having lunch in a posh restaurant.
ELENA: Why doesn’t he just ask me himself?
SUE ELLEN: Because he’s a man. And worse, he’s a Ewing man. And the Ewings always have to believe that they have everything under control. But the bigger truth is John Ross is a good boy – and he has a good heart. And he doesn’t want you to feel that he’s taking advantage. But his father’s investors are very impatient – and very unreasonable. And the barrels you would be giving him would only help to tide them over until John Ross can get his operation fully going.
ELENA: John Ross knows I want no part of drilling on Southfork. He respects that. It’s what he wants.
SUE ELLEN: You wouldn’t be drilling Southfork. You would be helping John Ross keep his head above water. His father just dumped this into his lap, warts and all. And John Ross is just trying to make the best of it. I want my son to succeed.
ELENA: And so do I. You’re not the only one that cares about John Ross. But I also care about Christopher and Bobby. Don’t you?
SUE ELLEN: Elena, when the day comes that you have to choose between your child and anybody else, I hope you choose wisely. [A waiter places the bill on the table.] And as the sole investor in your growing enterprise [signs the bill], I hope you always make the wise choice.
She rises and leaves.
Dallas Decoder 