Dallas Character 21 November - 40th anniversary of 'Who Shot JR'?

Sarah

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Today mark's the 40th anniversary of what turned out to be the highest rated programme in television history at the time and the 'shots that rang out around the world'.

Who Done It?? Who Shot JR??

Do you remember that long summer of waiting and who did YOU suspect by the time 21 November 1980 rolled around?

1605969544433.png


And if you're a new fan - have you even seen it yet??

40 years and still talked about. That's something. Proud to be a lifelong Dallas fan :)

I was lucky enough to be able to hold the actual gun that shot my main man, back in Dallas in 2008. I wasn't a very good gun holder though, so I definitely wouldn't have been on target to shoot him. :eck:
 
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Sarah

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Little article from The Independent -
BELOW ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS INCASE YOU'VE BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK.



It’s been 40 years since one of the biggest TV events of the 20th century took place, as millions of people around the world tuned in to find out who shot JR on Dallas.
Airing from 1978 to 1991, Dallas revolved around a wealthy Texas oil family, the Ewings, with JR (Larry Hagman) becoming the soap’s resident villain and break-out star.
However, viewers were left astounded by the season three finale “A House Divided”, which saw JR shot in the chest by an unknown figure.

The season was left on a cliffhanger, with viewers forced to wait eight months before the show returned and gave them an answer. During that time, the question of “Who shot JR?” quickly became a national catchphrase in the US.

It was also not an easily solvable question. JR’s unsavoury behaviour – The New York Times once described him as “the nastiest man on television” – meant that any of the show’s characters could have had the motive to stage the attack.

Hagman and Mary Crosby, who played JR’s sister-in-law Kristin

Hagman and Mary Crosby, who played JR’s sister-in-law Kristin
(Rex Features)

The culprit was finally revealed during the fourth episode of season four, titled “Who Done It”. An estimated 83 million viewers tuned in to find out the answer after months of suspense, with the episode airing on 21 November 1980.

While JR’s wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), whom he had threatened to reinstitutionalise due to her alcohol addiction, was the prime suspect, the culprit was finally revealed to be her sister Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby), with whom JR was having a long-term affair.

Kristin then revealed that she was pregnant with JR’s child, leading him to not press charges against her but instead send her away from the town.

“Who Shot JR” became a pop culture phenomenon in the summer between seasons three and four of Dallas.

In the build-up to the 1980 presidential election, Republicans produced badges reading: “A Democrat shot JR”, while president Jimmy Carter also joked that he would be able to finance the campaign if he knew who did it. The Queen and Queen Mother were also reportedly intrigued.

Many people around the world bet on the outcome, but actor Hagman claimed that neither him nor the cast knew who had actually shot JR when the finale aired.
 

Ukdallasfan

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I remember this like it was yesterday! My mum and I were already hooked on the show and couldn’t wait for the big reveal. I recall the BBC news footage of the show reels arriving at Heathrow Airport accompanied by security guards. We were so excited for the new season to return. I betted on Kristin as the culprit but my family members were divided. My mum thought Sue Ellen had done it in a drunken rage and my dad reckoned it was Cliff who had finally cracked where his rival was concerned. My sister didn’t care because she was younger than me and not into the show.
I was relieved when it turned out not to be Sue Ellen because I just loved watching them as a couple, even as a teenager, recognising the massive chemistry that they had on screen. I don’t think a TV show will ever make the same impression on me as Dallas did. I adored it then and I still adore it now :)
 

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I've always regarded 1980 as the final year of the '70s --- it's just how it felt. In America, it was the hottest summer in a century in many areas, with Dallas going to 110 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 consecutive days in late-July and early-Augustus, a record... Where I was, it went to over 100 degrees F for the same period, also a record, with almost no rain for months, and you could sunbathe beginning in February.

That kind of above-body temperature heat, with little moisture, for months and months, creates a hypnotic sense of floating, timeless hallucination almost. (I spent my days helping my mother teak-panel a room, but the windows had to be left open due to the fumes from the fixative, so it was pretty slow going; a lot of time that summer was spent at the lake, or nights at a local bar --- songs like Christopher Cross' "Sailing" and The Manhattan's "Shiny Star" seemed the perfect summer anthems for 1980; I always want to hear those ditties when Claudia goes on her dynastic "am I a whore??" barhopping).

Anyhoo, 'WSJR?' became one of the top two or three news stories globally for the calendar year, despite not being a slow news period, and despite DALLAS being fiction. That same summer, Travolta's URBAN COWBOY was a big dopey hit -- and all that implies -- and began the ubiquitous feathered-Stetson craze (one of the few fads I've ever really liked) which lasted for 18 months, but was gone by 1982.

The Whodunnit episode of 21/11/80, however, was awfully stiff. Even the papers pointed it out. And the rest of the 80/81 season, DALLAS' most highly rated year, was similarly pedestrian. I'm still not sure what's wrong with it --- the storylines seemed to be okay. But the execution was bored with itself... Perhaps the viewer should have been tricked into thinking Kristin was stalking JR and Sue Ellen before it was revealed to be Dusty risen from the grave.

1605989573065.png
 
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Top Jimmy

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Little article from The Independent -
BELOW ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS INCASE YOU'VE BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK.


It’s been 40 years since one of the biggest TV events of the 20th century took place, as millions of people around the world tuned in to find out who shot JR on Dallas.
Airing from 1978 to 1991, Dallas revolved around a wealthy Texas oil family, the Ewings, with JR (Larry Hagman) becoming the soap’s resident villain and break-out star.
However, viewers were left astounded by the season three finale “A House Divided”, which saw JR shot in the chest by an unknown figure.

The season was left on a cliffhanger, with viewers forced to wait eight months before the show returned and gave them an answer. During that time, the question of “Who shot JR?” quickly became a national catchphrase in the US.

It was also not an easily solvable question. JR’s unsavoury behaviour – The New York Times once described him as “the nastiest man on television” – meant that any of the show’s characters could have had the motive to stage the attack.

Hagman and Mary Crosby, who played JR’s sister-in-law Kristin

Hagman and Mary Crosby, who played JR’s sister-in-law Kristin
(Rex Features)

The culprit was finally revealed during the fourth episode of season four, titled “Who Done It”. An estimated 83 million viewers tuned in to find out the answer after months of suspense, with the episode airing on 21 November 1980.

While JR’s wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), whom he had threatened to reinstitutionalise due to her alcohol addiction, was the prime suspect, the culprit was finally revealed to be her sister Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby), with whom JR was having a long-term affair.

Kristin then revealed that she was pregnant with JR’s child, leading him to not press charges against her but instead send her away from the town.

“Who Shot JR” became a pop culture phenomenon in the summer between seasons three and four of Dallas.

In the build-up to the 1980 presidential election, Republicans produced badges reading: “A Democrat shot JR”, while president Jimmy Carter also joked that he would be able to finance the campaign if he knew who did it. The Queen and Queen Mother were also reportedly intrigued.

Many people around the world bet on the outcome, but actor Hagman claimed that neither him nor the cast knew who had actually shot JR when the finale aired.
I love the photo of Mary and Larry. I've seen other photos from that same episode, but never that one.
 

Top Jimmy

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Today mark's the 40th anniversary of what turned out to be the highest rated programme in television history at the time and the 'shots that rang out around the world'.

Who Done It?? Who Shot JR??

Do you remember that long summer of waiting and who did YOU suspect by the time 21 November 1980 rolled around?

View attachment 23783

And if you're a new fan - have you even seen it yet??

40 years and still talked about. That's something. Proud to be a lifelong Dallas fan :)

I was lucky enough to be able to hold the actual gun that shot my main man, back in Dallas in 2008. I wasn't a very good gun holder though, so I definitely wouldn't have been on target to shoot him. :eck:
I do remember that long summer. I thought it was Cliff, and I remember thinking that it was ridiculous that my sister thought it was Miss Ellie. LOL. I had watched it sporadically the previous season, but that whole storyline got me hooked, and I rarely missed an episode after that until some of the later seasons.
 
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Sarah

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I believe the photo with Mary is a rehearsal. See how she is pretending to hold a glass? You see in the scene she actually has a drink in her hand.
 
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Toni

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One Mighty Hobble

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Unfortunately, a continuity problem exists in the reveal that has always bugged me. When Sue Ellen is recalling the chain of events on the patio and refers to Kristen planting the gun in her closet, she handles the gun without gloves on. Prior to this when Sue Ellen was arrested for the shooting, the police said only Sue Ellen's fingerprints were on the gun. Kristen did hold it loosely, but still at least a partial print would have been present. She never wiped it clean which would have also removed Sue Ellen's prints.

Maybe a minor detail, but I noticed it and can't be the only one who did!

I did love that reveal scene and admired Kristen's statement about a headline....
"Jock Ewing's Grandson - Jail Baby."
 

Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

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I remember this like it was yesterday! My mum and I were already hooked on the show and couldn’t wait for the big reveal. I recall the BBC news footage of the show reels arriving at Heathrow Airport accompanied by security guards. We were so excited for the new season to return. I betted on Kristin as the culprit but my family members were divided. My mum thought Sue Ellen had done it in a drunken rage and my dad reckoned it was Cliff who had finally cracked where his rival was concerned. My sister didn’t care because she was younger than me and not into the show.
I was relieved when it turned out not to be Sue Ellen because I just loved watching them as a couple, even as a teenager, recognising the massive chemistry that they had on screen. I don’t think a TV show will ever make the same impression on me as Dallas did. I adored it then and I still adore it now :)
Well, you got it right buddy.

Kristin did pull the trigger, I thought Cliff had done the dastardly deed. :)

What a great cliffhanger it was. Dallas became a big hit for the BBC during & after the shooting of JR.

Happy Days for us all. :)
 

Jon Ewing Jr.

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Someone help me understand something.
How could all the characters not have known who actually did it until it happened when they filmed the entire season before any of it is released. Or am I wrong about that?
 

Sarah

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They filmed everyone shooting him - literally all the major cast members from Sue Ellen to Miss Ellie @Jon Ewing Jr.
 

'V'

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Someone help me understand something.
How could all the characters not have known who actually did it until it happened when they filmed the entire season before any of it is released. Or am I wrong about that?
This has bugged me as well since the first time I heard someone say that even the actors didn't know until "Whodunnit?" was broadcast. I don't know about the entire season, but even as a kid I felt sure they would have filmed the next few episodes, almost certainly the very next one where Kristin explains why she did it, in front of the family, otherwise there would have been a week to rehearse, film, process, edit and deliver the episode to CBS, and the rest of the season would have also been like that. To really keep it a secret and also avoid such a production nightmare, they would have had to film not just different characters pulling the trigger but also what came immediately after in this and the next few episodes as well, with someone different either going to jail or being let off by JR. Otherwise, all the actors, filming crew, sound and film editors etc must have known. And I think Linda Gray once said something like "of course we knew who did it - we'd filmed it!" So yeh, I think it's bollocks that none of them knew until the reveal was broadcast.
 
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