Dallas TV Series

This is very great TV shows. Dallas was a U.S. prime-time television soap opera that showed from 1978 to 1991. It revolved around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching companies. The movie debuted in April 1978 as a five-part miniseries on the CBS network, and then was broadcast for thirteen seasons from 1978 through 1991. Dallas was included in Time magazine's 2007 list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME." In 2010, TNT (sister company to Warner Bros. Television, current owners of the series) reported it would order a pilot for a new Dallas TV series.

The show's great character is John Ross "J.R." Ewing Jr., a greedy, scheming oil baron starred by Larry Hagman (a Fort Worth native). J.R. was only intended to be a supporting act when the show premiered, as the series was originally based around J.R.'s brother Bobby and his new bride, Pam. However, J.R.'s machinations became popular with viewers and he quickly became the focus of the series.

Creator David Jacobs originated the idea for a drama series about four married couples (which would later become the spinoff series Knots Landing), but CBS wanted a glitzy "saga-like" performance. Jacobs therefore created Dallas, a series about a wealthy family in the oil business. When Dallas abled to be a popular TV series, CBS reconsidered Jacobs' original idea and turned Knots Landing into a spin-off of Dallas in late 1979.

The Dallas miniseries that began in April 1978 was shot entirely on area in Dallas, Texas, and at the Cloyce Box Ranch in Frisco, Texas. Then, most interiors for the show were shot at the MGM studios in Hollywood, with exteriors being shot at the Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas, and other shot of Dallas, until 1989, when rising production costs brought to all filming being removed to California.

The performance was known for its wealth, intrigue, and power battles. When the series started, the leader of Ewing Oil and patriarch of the Ewing family was Jock (veteran movie actor Jim Davis), a malevolent oil tycoon who had allegedly cheated his one-time friend, Digger Barnes (David Wayne, then substituted by Keenan Wynn) out of his share of the industry as well as Digger's only love, Eleanor "Ellie" Southworth (veteran stage/movie actress Barbara Bel Geddes). Later, the offspring of Jock's brother would claim that their father was intregal to the oil boon that made the Ewing dynasty, and fail sued the estate.

Jock and Miss Ellie raised three sons, J.R., Gary (David Ackroyd and later Ted Shackelford) and Bobby (Patrick Duffy). J.R., the eldest Ewing son, unscrupulous and unhappily married to a former Miss Texas, Sue Ellen Shepard Ewing (Linda Gray), was frequently at odds with his youngest brother, Bobby, who displayed the morals and integrity that his eldest brother lacked. Gary, the middle son, was the "black sheep" of the family. Long estranged from Jock, and treated terribly by J.R., he did have a nice, though distant relationship with Bobby and Ellie. He in turn was also married to Valene "Val" Clements Ewing (later Gibson Waleska Ewing) (Joan Van Ark), who also raised a young lady, Lucy (Charlene Tilton), J.R.'s and Bobby's saucy, yet confused niece, who spent most of her time, residing at Southfork with her grandparents, all the while, she was sleeping with the ranch foreman, Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly). Ray would later become a half- sibling, as he lamented to Hagman that he was planning to leave the series. Hagman suggested the plot line wherein Ray becomes a half-brother. The episode where Ray and half-niece Lucy had a fling is, as Kanaly told Dinah Shore in an appearance on her show, "prayerfully forgotten, we hope".

Ray had previously engaged in a short fling with Pamela Barnes (Victoria Principal), who was Digger Barnes' daughter and Cliff's (Ken Kercheval) sister. However, Pam loved Bobby Ewing and the two married in the pilot episode. J.R., who loathed the Barnes family, was not happy with Pam living at Southfork and tried to constantly undermine her marriage to Bobby. The feeling of acrimony was mutual from Cliff and he too tried to undermine their marriage, but in time he grew to accept it and Bobby as his brother in law.

The series finished each season with ratings-grabbing cliffhangers. Some notable cliffhangers included the landmark "Who shot J.R.?" episode (which TV Guide ranked #69 on its list of "TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time"), an unidentified floating woman corpse in the Southfork swimming pool, a blazing house fire, etc.