NaBloPoMo Month - "Dallas!"

NaBloPoMo Month - "Dallas!"
Belated - Entry #18 - 11/18/2013

Do you remember where you were on Friday, May 3, 1991? Do you remember what you were watching? Twenty-two years after the fact I still remember where I was and what I wanted to be watching - Boy Scouts meeting and the "Dallas" series finale!

When it comes to television shows I have often arrived late to the party...case in point: "The West Wing" or "The Closer" or "Six Feet Under" - but when it comes to the primetime soap opera that not only evented the cliffhanger, but perfected it - I not only showed up to the party with bells on...I joined the fan club by sending in a postcard with a twenty-nine cent stamp! I still remember coming home from middle school in the late 90s and watching "Dallas" reruns on VHS that Mamma had taped for me or making sure that during our summer vacations the hotel had TNN, which used to air the Dallas reruns!

"Dallas" has always...always...been my favorite television series. Maybe it was the overdramatic storylines or that it was set in Texas or that you could visit the ranch it made famous in Parker, Texas...

Some of my numerous visits to Southfork Ranch

I just truly loved the show!

So you can only imagine my thrill when in July 2011 I first learned that the cable network TNT would be revisiting Southfork Ranch and rebooting my beloved "Dallas." I knew that at least three things had to happen in order for new show to be successful:

1. Southfork Ranch & Dallas - The show had to not only embrace Southfork but also embrace Dallas.
2. JR / Sue Ellen / Bobby - I've always known Victoria Principal (ex-Pamela Barnes Ewing)would never return to the show, even before she publicly announced she wouldn't, but I knew that Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy would need to return to make the show work.
3. Continuation - It had to be a continuation of the story and not a whole new story a'la the 2008 reboot of "Beverly Hills, 90210."

These were three of the biggest elements that I knew it had to have to be successful...and boy oh boy did TNT and Cynthia Cidre deliver!

Over the last two seasons Ms. Cidre has delivered a reboot that any "Dallas" fan should be proud of. She utilized the foundation of the series which was oil, sought out ways to bring the city of Dallas and Southfork into the story by using it as the ultimate backdrop, sprinkled in classic characters (Ray, Lucy, Mandy "the tramp" Winger) and of course earlier this year masterfully dealt with the death of Larry Hagman's iconic JR.

In fact one of my favorite scenes of both the original and rebooted series supports why my #2 point from above was necessary with TNT's version. It was of Sue Ellen grieving at JR's funeral...

But the nuDallas has not been without faults or missed opportunities. Sure they hit the ball out of Ranger Ballpark with oil driven storylines...casting Josh Henderson as John Ross Ewing III...and providing fans with the another Pamela Barnes Ewing, literally in the form of the original character's niece...but there is always something that fans like me think they could have done better. So, because it was announced today that the third season of the TNT drama, the first sans the Devil of Dallas - JR Ewing, I thought it would be fun to list a few things that the show could have done better, how they can fix something that's been semi-broken and what could be done to shake up Southfork and the Ewing family in 2014.

It's in the Past...
 

A true "Dallas" fan will tell anyone who is brave enough to ask in a post-reboot world that the name of the Southfork maid who served Miss Ellie iced tea and answered that rotary style phone every time that it rang was THERESA - not Carmen! Do not get me wrong here...the story of the maid's daughter falling in love with the rich boy is a classic soap opera staple and the fact that Carmen Ramos' daughter Elena was hot in the ass for TWO, yes count them, TWO Ewing boys proved to be not only a great launching point for nuDallas, but was also pretty smart! The problem lies in the name though. Was it necessary to change the backstory that was established during the original run of the series? Miss Ellie never asked Carmen what time dinner was to be served or ordered Carmen to hide the booze from that lush Sue Ellen! No sir, no ma'am...she made THERESA do that. It would have been so easy...so simple for the writers to have just named that damn maid Theresa and called it a day. Then perhaps we would have cared a little more about Elena. Although, the writers did have Elena's stupid brother (a wasted character and boring story on its own merit) call her Ellie and no matter what your momma's name was...that put a stop to my Elena love, although there never was much Elena love to begin with! The writers of nuDallas need to take notice - there is only one Miss Eleanor Southwork Ewing Farlow AKA Miss Ellie...regardless of what Donna Reed would like us to believe!

There's Still Time...
Cynthia Cidre has went on the record in the past by saying that the CBS Dallas movies that aired in 1996 (Dallas: JR Returns) and 1998 (Dallas: War of the Ewings) never happened in the universe that TNT's Dallas currently lives in. So that means fans doesn't know what brought one of my all-time favorite characters...Sue Ellen Shepard Ewing Lockwood back to Dallas and back to Southfork.

 

Because it was never addressed fans are left wondering...what happened when Sue Ellen left Dallas in 1989 with her movie producer lover...what brought her back to Dallas...where did she make all this money...how did she become so powerful that she was able to run for Governor? Cidre and her team have so many unanswered questions in regards to Sue Ellen, that I think Season 3 should focus on answering some of them! It's been established that she is friends with Bobby's new wife Ann Ryland Ewing...but where did they meet...how did they meet...can Sue Ellen bang her friend's ex-husband Harrison Ryland!? So many questions...it's time to give us some backstory on one of the baddest bitches in all of Texas!

 

Daddy, Oh Daddy...

John Ross and Christopher are not the only sons of their respective fathers JR and Bobby! Not by a long shot. Both Ewing brother have sons with their first loves - JR with Vanessa (Son: James) and Bobby with Jenna Wade Krebbs (Son: Lucas), while JR has third son with his last ex-wife Callie Harper Ewing that he presumably never met.

 

And since JR has went to the great beyond...heaven or hell you can decide where...I think it's only fitting that we focus on Bobby's off-spring Lucas. The product of a romance with Jenna Wade, who went on to marry Bobby's half-brother Ray, who also raise the boy as his own.

 

 

Lucas Krebbs would be twenty-five according to an article posted on KSITETV regarding the long lost, never mentioned, but according to Cidre thought of Lucas Krebbs, James Beaumont and Callie Harper Ewing's bastard son with JR.

 

In the article, the writer stated: "We do think about that all the time. We really do," Cidre confirms. "We have it up on the wall. Every character who is still alive from the original incarnation of the show, and all of their offspring."

 

The return of Lucas Krebbs, with his mother Priscilla Presley would be quite welcome in Season 3 of the show. With John Ross screwing both his new wife Pamela Rebecca Barnes Ewing and Ann Ryland Ewing's little girl it would make for the perfect time for cousin Lucas to arrive and shake up Christopher, John Ross and daddy Bobby's world!