‘Dallas’ 2013: Hail and Farewell to Those We Lost

Ben Stivers, Dale Robertson, Dallas, Frank Crutcher, Franklin Horner, Joan Van Ark, Julie Harris, Knots Landing, Laurence Haddon, Lillimae Clements, Ray Krebbs, Steve Forrest, Steve Kanaly, Valene Ewing, Wes ParmaleeIn 2013, “Dallas” fans said goodbye to several people who contributed to the original series. Here’s a list of those we lost, along with a few notable deaths that occurred among the show’s extended family. Click on each person’s name to learn more about his or her career at IMDb.com.

Bruce Baron, Dallas, Linden Chiles, Martin Cassidy, Marc Breaux

Deanne Barkley

Died April 2 (age 82)

Barkley wrote “Curiosity Killed the Cat,” a ninth-season episode. She also produced several television movies.

Bruce Baron

Died April 13 (age 63)

In the eighth-season episode “Shattered Dreams,” Baron played the Texan who tried to chat with Sue Ellen and Pam during their visit to Hong Kong. He also headlined several Asian B-movies in the 1980s and ’90s.

Marc Breaux

Died November 19 (age 89)

Breaux is best known as the choreographer of “The Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins.” He also acted, including appearing in the fourth-season episode “End of the Road, Part 1” as Mark Harrelson, Jordan Lee’s attorney.

Martin Cassidy

Died August 26 (age 75)

Cassidy played Frank Carp, the private detective J.R. hired to learn more about Mandy Winger, in the eighth-season episode “Shadows.” Cassidy also played various roles in four “Knots Landing” episodes in 1983 and 1990.

Linden Chiles

Died May 15 (age 80)

Chiles played Christopher Mainwaring Sr., father of Lucy’s closeted fiancé Kit, in the second-season episode “Royal Marriage.” His other roles include the dad on the acclaimed ’70s family drama “James at 15.” Chiles continued to work until his death; his final role will be in “Road to Paloma,” a film slated for release next year.

Charles Cooper

Died November 29 (age 87)

Cooper played Herb Reynolds in the second-season episode “The Heiress.” “The Heiress.” In “The Crucible,” a 13th-season episode, he played Curley Morrison, one of the men murdered by Jessica Montford. Cooper also did several episodes of “The Practice” and made appearances in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Ben Stivers, Dallas, Dan Gerrity, Franklin Horner, Julie Harris, Knots Landing, Laurence Haddon, Lillimae Clements, Steve Forrest, Wes Parmalee

Steve Forrest

Died May 18 (age 87)

After starring in the ’70s cop show “S.W.A.T.,” Forrest joined “Dallas” at the end of the 1985-86 “dream season” as mysterious ranch hand Ben Stivers. When Pam woke up, Forrest stayed with the show, except now his character was named Wes Parmalee, who claimed to be the presumed-dead Jock Ewing. Forrest appeared in 15 episodes altogether.

Dan Gerrity

Died November 20 (age 59)

In the 13th-season episode “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” Gerrity played Mike, the bartender who served Cliff in the scene where he meets and flirts with Rose McKay. Gerrity also played a maitre’d on “Knots Landing” and became a stage actor in Los Angeles and a public radio journalist in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Laurence Haddon

Died May 10 (age 91)

Haddon played Franklin Horner, the Ewings’ banker, in 17 episodes from 1980 to 1986. He also played Mitch Ackerman, the doctor who delivered Val’s twins and helped arrange their kidnapping, during “Knots Landing’s” sixth season. The character was named after the production supervisor for “Dallas,” “Knots Landing” and “Falcon Crest.” Haddon was also a regular on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” playing one of television’s first non-stereotypical gay men.

Julie Harris

Died August 24 (age 87)

Harris, the most celebrated actress in Broadway history, played Lillimae Clements, Lucy Ewing’s other grandmother, on “Knots Landing” from 1980 until 1987. (The 1982 episode “Daniel” briefly reunited her with Larry Hagman, her co-star in the 1959 Broadway production of “The Warm Peninsula.”) Harris received six Tonys, an Oscar nomination and an Emmy nomination during her storied career.

Arthur Malet, Dale Robertson, Dallas, Jane Kean, Paul Mantee

Jane Kean

Died November 26 (age 90)

In the third-season episode “Mastectomy, Part 1,” Kean played Mitzi, the waitress at the diner where Sue Ellen and Dusty Farlow have a secret rendezvous. Kean is probably best known as Joyce Randolph’s replacement in “The Honeymooners” revivals of the 1960s and ’70s. She also did two guest spots on the David Jacobs-produced ’80s western “Paradise.”

Dudley Knight

Died June 27 (age 73)

Knight played the Dallas hotel shop manager where Val signed copies of “Capricorn Crude” in “New Beginnings,” the fourth-season “Knots Landing” episode that also featured appearances by Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Eric Farlow.

Arthur Malet

Died May 18 (age 85)

During the fifth season, Malet appeared twice as Forest, the Herbert Wentworth loyalist who tipped off Rebecca to Cliff’s embezzlement scheme. The actor returned during the 13th and 14th seasons as Ryan, one of the inmates who befriend J.R. during his stint in the sanitarium.

Paul Mantee

Died November 7 (age 82)

Mantee played Cochran, the Air Force general who told J.R. about Holly Harwood’s contract to supply the military with fuel, in the sixth-season episode “A Ewing is a Ewing.” He later became a regular on “Cagney & Lacey” and “Hunter.”

Shirley Mitchell

Died November 11 (age 94)

Mitchell played the woman who let Jenna into the missing Jack Ewing’s apartment in the ninth-season episode “Twenty-Four Hours.” Mitchell’s career spanned six decades and included guest spots on “I Love Lucy,” “Petticoat Junction,” “Three’s Company,” “CHiPs” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

Dale Robertson

Died February 27 (age 89)

During the sixth season, Robertson appeared in five episodes as Frank Crutcher, the first man to court Miss Ellie after Jock’s death. He is best known for his many western roles, including starring in the 1960s television series “Tales of Wells Fargo.” Robertson joined “Dallas” after appearing as a regular during “Dynasty’s” first season.

Mann Rubin

Died October 12 (age 85)

Rubin wrote two episodes of “Knots Landing,” including “New Beginnings,” which drew 21.3 million homes, becoming the most-watched broadcast in the show’s history. (It’s the only “Knots Landing” episode to follow an original episode of “Dallas” on CBS’s Friday night schedule.) Rubin’s TV writing credits date to the 1940s.

Bea Silvern, Dallas, Jane Sincere, Kirk Scott, Valentin de Varas

Kirk Scott

Died November 16 (age 77)

Scott played Ewing Oil’s public relations chief in the sixth-season episode “Barbecue Three” and one of the private eyes J.R. hired to find Jenna after she jilted Bobby in the eighth-season entry “Déjà Vu.” During Season 13, he made three appearances as Mr. Spangler, the lawyer who executed Atticus Ward’s estate.

Bea Silvern

Died August 23 (age 87)

In the 10th-season episode “The Ten Percent Solution,” Silvern played Senator Dowling’s maid. Two years later, she returned in “Fathers and Other Strangers” as Sarah Ewing, one of the Jews rescued by Jock Ewing during World War II. She was also a regular on “The Secrets of Midland Heights,” one of the Lorimar-produced nighttime soaps of the early ’80s.

Jean Sincere

Died April 3 (age 93)

In 14th-season episode “Heart and Soul,” Sincere played the hotel maid who discovered Johnny Danzig’s dead body. She began her career in the 1940s and continued to perform after she turned 90, including a recurring role on “Glee” as a librarian.

Valentin de Vargas

Died June 10 (age 78)

De Vargas played Patrick Wolfe, the first prosecutor in Jenna Wade’s murder trial, in two eighth-season episodes. His first role was as a Latino student in the “Blackboard Jungle” in 1955.

What do you remember about these artists? Share your memories below and read more features from Dallas Decoder.

The Best & Worst of Dallas: Season 2

“Dallas” was still figuring itself out during its second season, which means there was plenty to hail and heckle.

Performances

Barbara Bel Geddes, Dallas, Miss Ellie Ewing

Don’t mess with Mama

Although every member of the ensemble has great moments this season, no one is as consistently wonderful as Barbara Bel Geddes. Miss Ellie becomes a somewhat frustrating character as “Dallas” progresses – she too often casts a blind eye to J.R.’s shenanigans, in my view – but Season 2 is the year you do not want to mess with Mama. We see her demand J.R. clean up his act, order Julie to stay away from Jock and urge Pam to fight for her marriage. (There’s also Ellie’s encounter with the poor sap who makes the mistake of sneaking onto Southfork; see “Scenes” below.) In just about every second-season episode, Bel Geddes demonstrates how lucky “Dallas” is to have her.

Episodes

“Black Market Baby” is the most intriguing, “For Love or Money” is the saddest and “Royal Marriage” is a sentimental favorite, but “John Ewing III, Part 2” gets my vote for the season’s all-around best episode. Linda Gray is mesmerizing in the scene where Sue Ellen tearfully confesses her sins to Bobby, but Larry Hagman, Ken Kercheval and Victoria Principal all have terrific moments too.

Hands down, the season’s weakest hour is “Runaway,” the first – and so far only – “Dallas” episode to receive a “D” grade from me. Run away, indeed.

Scenes

Ten words of dialogue are all you need to describe Season 2’s best scene: “Ray, get me the shotgun out of the hall closet.”

The worst scene? The “Call Girl” sequence where Leeann Rees (Veronica Hamel) lures drunken Ben Maxwell (Fred Beir) into Pam’s bed while J.R.’s sleazy photographer furiously snaps pictures outside the window. What a farce. I half expect Mr. and Mrs. Roper to come charging into the room, wondering what all the commotion is all about.

Supporting Players

Dallas, Joan Van Ark, Valene Ewing

Knockout

I don’t care how many times I watch it, Joan Van Ark’s performance at the end of “Reunion, Part 2” always knocks me out. In the blink of an eye, Valene goes from anguished when she bids Gary adieu to enraged when she confronts J.R. for driving away his middle brother. With the exception of Linda Gray, no actress in “Dallas” history has better chemistry with Larry Hagman than Van Ark. What a shame she didn’t spend more time at Southfork.

My least-favorite guest stars: the three actors who portray the bad guys in “Kidnapped.” What’s the bigger crime here: holding Bobby hostage or the witless Edward G. Robinson imitations these villains-of-the-week deliver? Then again, what do you expect when performers are given lines like, “We may have the wrong goose – but he can still lay the golden egg!”

Costumes

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

Timeless

I loved the striped hoodie, green pants and knee-high tan boots Pam wears during the “Election” scene where Cliff persuades her to organize a fashion show fundraiser for his state senate campaign. You could put this outfit on Jordana Brewster on TNT’s “Dallas” and she’d look just as stylish as Victoria Principal does in 1978.

Pam also gets my vote for worst outfit: the weird “pants dress” she sports in “Black Market Baby.”

Music

Season 1 gives us Jerrold Immel’s classic “Dallas” theme music, but Season 2 brings us many of John Parker’s magical background tunes, including “The Only Lovers,” Bobby and Pam’s theme; “The Adulteress,” Sue Ellen’s bluesy signature; and “The Loyal Foreman,” Ray’s anthem. (If you don’t own it already, do yourself a favor and purchase Parker’s classic “Dallas” soundtrack today.)

Quips

Best: “Bobby, come on. Women marry homosexuals all the time. It seems to suit a lot of them.” – J.R.’s response in “Royal Marriage” after Bobby questions his insistence Lucy marry the closeted oil-and-cattle heir Kit Mainwaring.

Worst: In “Fallen Idol,” J.R. expresses his annoyance with Guzzler Bennett’s name-dropping thusly: “The next thing you know, the name of that actress is gonna be Farrah Fawcett-Guzzler.” Oh, J.R.! Leave the pop culture references to Sue Ellen.

What do you love and loathe about “Dallas’s” second season? Share your comments below and read more “Best & Worst” reviews.

Dallas Isn’t ‘Brokeback Southfork,’ But It’s Pretty Gay

Dallas, Linda Gray, Sue Ellen Ewing

You go, girl

By today’s standards, “Dallas” isn’t a “gay” show. Southfork never hosts a “Brokeback Mountain”-esque love story. There are no same-sex office romances at Ewing Oil. Dusty Farlow wears ascots to keep dust out of his face, not because he’s fabulous.

Yet “Dallas” is very much a show with gay sensibilities. It regularly explores themes – empowerment, identity, gender roles – that resonate with gay audiences, and often in ways that are surprisingly smart.

I didn’t catch a lot of this while watching the show in the 1980s, when I was a pretty confused gay kid. But when I think about those years now, I wonder if “Dallas’s” gay subtext helps explain its appeal to me. Maybe my middle-school gaydar was stronger than I realized.

Kit, But Not Much Kaboodle

“Dallas” makes subtle references to homosexuality in early episodes like “Election,” when J.R. questions Cliff’s close relationship with his male campaign manager, and “Call Girl,” when J.R. creates a scandal by making it look like Pam is involved in a three-way relationship with a man and another woman.

The show stops dancing around the issue in “Royal Marriage,” the 1979 episode where Kit Mainwaring, an oil-and-cattle heir who is secretly gay, breaks his engagement to Lucy and comes out of the closet. This episode, which reflects the ’70s trend toward “socially conscious” television (see also: “All in the Family,” “Lou Grant,” et. al.), is handled with surprising sophistication, making Kit one of prime-time television’s breakthrough gay characters.

Kit is also a footnote: “Dallas” ran 14 seasons and produced 357 episodes, yet he is the only character whose homosexuality is ever acknowledged on the show.

There are only fleeting gay allusions in later episodes. During the sixth season, Lucy wonders if John Ross’s camp counselor Peter Richards is gay because he doesn’t want to date her (she doesn’t realize Peter is in love with Sue Ellen), but the show never again identifies a character as being gay.

This isn’t altogether surprising. Prime-time television mostly retreated to the closet during the AIDS hysteria in the 1980s. Also, once “Dallas” became television’s most-watched show, it embraced its escapist bent and pretty much stopped doing “issues” stories. Both factors probably explain why the producers notoriously dropped plans to make villainess Angelica Nero a lesbian during the 1985-86 season.

Sue Ellen: Icon – and Avatar

The absence of gay characters on “Dallas” doesn’t mean the show lacks characters and storylines gay audiences could identify with. Consider Sue Ellen, whose boozing, philandering and sharp tongue make her an icon among gay fans who love camp.

But Sue Ellen shouldn’t be treated only as a joke. If you consider her arc during the course of the series, she makes an ideal avatar for gay audiences.

When “Dallas” begins, Sue Ellen is the show’s most sexually repressed character. In the first-season episode “Spy in the House,” she tries to spark J.R.’s interest with a sexy negligee, only to have him cast it aside and accuse her of being unladylike. J.R.’s rejection sends Sue Ellen into the shadows, where she finds sexual fulfillment with other men and develops her drinking problem. This double life must have felt familiar to gay men and women who spent the ’70s and ’80s trapped in the closet.

By the end of the Reagan era, when AIDS was galvanizing gay people and giving the gay rights movement new momentum, Sue Ellen finally begins pulling herself together. She quits drinking, embarks on a successful business career and leaves J.R. for good.

During Linda Gray’s final appearance on the show in 1989, Sue Ellen turns the tables on J.R. and tells him off, one last time (“You will be the laughingstock of Texas.”). All “Dallas” fans cheered this moment, but for gay viewers, I suspect it had special meaning. Sue Ellen was standing up to her oppressor at a time when many gay Americans were beginning to do the same – in the voting booth, in the workplace, in the streets.

There’s Something About Gary

“Dallas’s” gay viewers might see themselves in other characters, too.

The series often explores the theme of confused identities. Two notable examples: Pam and Ray each learn they were raised by people who aren’t their biological fathers, and for both characters, this discovery triggers a lot of angst.

“Dallas’s” recurring theme of estranged fathers and sons is probably familiar to a lot of gay men. At various points, Jock has tense relations with each of the Ewing boys, especially Gary.

In fact, the dialogue during Gary’s homecoming in the second-season “Reunion” episodes makes me wonder if the producers were considering making the character gay. Pam points out Gary is “different.” Bobby calls him “gentle.” Lucy says she hopes Val will “straighten” him out. Was this coded language, dropped into the scripts to lay the groundwork for Gary’s eventual coming out?

Maybe, maybe not. But a gay Ewing is an interesting idea to contemplate.

Are you listening, TNT?

Do you consider “Dallas” a gay-friendly show? Share your comments below and read more opinions from Dallas Decoder.

Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Could You Learn to Live with Sam?’

Charlene Tilton, Dallas, Kit Mainwaring, Mark Wheeler, Royal Marriage

Facing the truth

In “Royal Marriage,” a second-season “Dallas” episode, Lucy (Charlene Tilton) and Kit (Mark Wheeler) are in his apartment, seated on the sofa and talking about their future.

KIT: Lucy, I can’t marry you.

LUCY: [Flabbergasted] What are you talking about?

KIT: I can’t go through with it.

LUCY: I don’t understand. You said you loved me.

KIT: I –

LUCY: Didn’t you mean it? Did you lie to me?

KIT: No, I didn’t lie.

LUCY: But if you love me –

KIT: OK, listen. Remember when we met Sam the other night when we were dancing?

LUCY: Yeah.

KIT: He wasn’t just my roommate. We were lovers.

LUCY: [Stunned] What?

KIT: I’m a homosexual.

LUCY: You can’t be. I don’t believe it.

KIT: I am.

LUCY: Then why –

KIT: Because I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be socially normal. I wanted to be accepted. [Stands up, turns away] I wanted to make my parents happy, to make them proud of me. There are a whole lot of reasons. When I first started to care for you, I was like a drowning man who just found himself a life raft or something.

LUCY: Then that’s OK, Kit. [Stretches across the sofa, reaches and pulls him back down] Then everything will be all right. If a life raft is what you need, that’s what I’ll be.

KIT: Lucy, it’s not that simple.

LUCY: I love you, Kit. I don’t like what you’re telling me, but I can learn to live with it. I know I can.

KIT: Could you learn to live with Sam, too?

LUCY: Sam?

KIT: Or if not Sam, someone else? I’m telling you Lucy, I’m not going to change. I know it. I’m tired to trying. I’ve got to learn to like myself the way I am. Now could you marry me under those conditions?

LUCY: I don’t – No.

KIT: [Moves closer to face her] Lucy, somehow by loving you, I’ve managed to find out a whole lot about myself and I’m very grateful to you for that. I can’t tell you how badly I feel that I’ve hurt you. If I’d known it was gonna end up like this, I never would have let it get started.

LUCY: [Sobs] Oh, Kit.

KIT: Now it’s gonna be messy, too. Because Bobby understands but J.R. is furious and he’s not gonna keep his mouth shut.

LUCY: Bobby and J.R. know?

KIT: I told Bobby this morning. J.R. has known it all the time. Now, I’ll tell my folks. I don’t know how, but I will. But that’s not gonna satisfy J.R. He’s gonna want some kind of a scandal, I know it.

LUCY: I know how to deal with J.R. There won’t be any scandal. [Kisses him, stands over him] Kit, can we still see each other sometimes?

KIT: I would love to see you again. But I think we bought ought to wait until it stops hurting first.

LUCY: Well, that’s not going to be for a very long time.

She leaves.

Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 26 – ‘Royal Marriage’

Charlene Tilton, Dallas, Kit Mainwaring, Mark Wheeler, Royal Marriage

Beard and groom

“Royal Marriage” is historically significant television. When this episode debuted in 1979, it offered one of prime time’s first positive depictions of a gay character: Kit Mainwaring, the closeted oil-and-cattle heir who becomes Lucy’s fiancée.

“Dallas” goes out of its way not to scorn Kit. This was a mark of progress in the ’70s, when gay characters were rarely seen on television, and when they did show up, they were usually depicted as clowns, freaks or sociopaths.

A year-and-a-half before “Dallas” introduced Kit, Billy Crystal’s gay character sashayed around in dresses on “Soap.” Earlier in the decade, a gay patient on “Marcus Welby, M.D.” was advised to “fight” his impulses so he could lead a “normal” life, while Angie Dickinson tangled with a trio of lesbian killers on “Police Woman.”

On “Dallas,” Kit is never depicted as comical, strange or dangerous. He becomes engaged to Lucy after a whirlwind romance, but realizes it would be wrong to marry her and comes out to Bobby, who is mostly sympathetic toward him. “Your personal life is your own business, Kit,” Bobby says. “But, damn it, why did you have to bring Lucy into it?”

Bobby is “Dallas’s” moral compass, so by making him respectful toward Kit, the show seems to instruct its audience to treat the character the same way. When Kit finally reveals the truth to Lucy, she is devastated but ultimately supportive, even telling him she’d like to remain friends.

This might seem a little pat, but Lucy probably understands Kit’s turmoil better than most. His feelings of alienation aren’t unlike Lucy’s own struggles to fit in at Southfork, where she is a young woman in a houseful of deceitful adults.

Predictably, J.R. is the only Ewing who isn’t supportive of Kit, mostly because the young man’s broken engagement to Lucy means the Ewings and Mainwarings won’t be joining forces in business. J.R. does exhibit a hint of homophobia, though, wondering if Kit is “man enough” to stand up to him. This prompts Bobby’s notable retort: “Kit Mainwaring is more a man, J.R., than you will ever be.”

Of course, the most striking part of Kit’s coming out isn’t how J.R. rejects him or Bobby and Lucy accept him – it’s how Kit accepts himself. He tells Lucy, “I’m not gonna change. I’m tired of trying. I’ve got to learn to like myself the way I am.”

Camille Marchetta’s sensitive script makes “Royal Marriage” one of “Dallas’s” classiest episodes. It’s also surprisingly durable, with one exception: Kit’s constant use of the word “homosexual” – no character in this episode ever says “gay” – makes it sound like he has a clinical condition.

“Royal Marriage” is also elevated by strong performances from Mark Wheeler and especially Charlene Tilton, who is quite touching during Kit’s coming-out scene. In interviews, Tilton has called “Royal Marriage” one of her favorite episodes, and I see why. The actress is really good here, demonstrating how interesting Lucy can be when she is given meaningful storylines.

“Royal Marriage” is a sentimental favorite of mine, too. I watched this episode for the first time in 1991, when I was a teenager struggling to accept my own homosexuality. Back then, seeing my favorite show offer a positive view of gay people meant a lot to me.

It still does.

Grade: A

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dallas, Kit Mainwaring, Mark Wheeler, Royal Marriage

Prince of a gay

‘ROYAL MARRIAGE’

Season 2, Episode 21

Airdate: March 9, 1979

Audience: 15.8 million homes, ranking 20th in the weekly ratings

Writer: Camille Marchetta

Director: Gunnar Hellström

Synopsis: Lucy gets engaged to Kit Mainwaring, who is secretly gay. When Kit tells Lucy the truth and calls off the wedding, she is hurt but prevents J.R. from creating a scandal.

Cast: Robert Ackerman (Wade Luce), Barbara Bel Geddes (Miss Ellie Ewing), Linden Chiles (Chris Mainwaring), Dante D’Andre (Jesus), Jim Davis (Jock Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Fern Fitzgerald (Marilee Stone), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs), Joan Lancaster (Linda Bradley), Jay W. MacIntosh (Mrs. Mainwaring), Victoria Principal (Pam Ewing), Paul Sorensen (Andy Bradley), Charlene Tilton (Lucy Ewing), Mark Wheeler (Kit Mainwaring), Chuck Winters (Sam Gates), Buck Young (Seth Stone)

“Royal Marriage” is available on DVD and at Amazon.com and iTunes. Watch the episode and share your comments below.