An alternate exit for Pam...?

[TJames03]

As we all know, VP/Pam’s exit from the show was a rushed mess (and, as far as I’m concerned, a purposeful blow to what the producers considered as slight to VP’s beauty - the burning and scarring Pam). However, could there have been some alternate exit written for Pam had the producers taken VP seriously when she said that she was DEF leaving the show at the end of that particular season? I mean, they were so terrified of killing off any main character after the Duffy fiasco that I can’t really think of any believable way that Pam would leave her family barring death and since they weren’t going to do that, the burning of her really was the only way out, even as sh-tty as it was....

 

[Swami]

As you say, they really had backed themselves into a corner, not just with bringing Bobby back, but the recasting of Miss Ellie. With the benefit of hindsight, as much as it would have been great to keep fans hoping that Victoria might return, perhaps it would have been best to have written Pam out completely. The way it was left was too much limbo.

Swami

 

[Miss Ellie Fan]

I think it was just fine apart from the body in the hospital afterwards. She should have been killed outright. I think that would have been a bigger shock. She wasn’t as much fun to watch by that stage anyway and I don’t believe Victoria Principal wanted time return. Didn’t she fancy herself as a movie actress?

 

[Grangehill1]

I’ve suggested this before. Towards the end of the season Pam is blackmailed into leaving Bobby and Christopher. If she stays then they die.
She doesn’t tell them the truth but bluffs saying she doesn’t belong in Dallas anymore and doesn’t love Bobby. And Pam leaves.

This way Bobby and Pam can permanently split. Bobby thinks she’s walked out on him thus doesn’t go looking for her. The audience know the truth in the hope that one day it may be resolved.

 

[CeeCee72]

Anythi g would have been better than how it was written. I would have even been okay with her disappearing from the hospital, if it hadn't been voluntary (could have been a kidnap by Katherine).

Leaving Bobby is one thing, but as soon as the wrote Pam leaving the son she adored to the point of obsession for such a flimsy reason, Pam's character was pretty well destroyed.

 

[TJames03]

I’ve suggested this before. Towards the end of the season Pam is blackmailed into leaving Bobby and Christopher. If she stays then they die.
She doesn’t tell them the truth but bluffs saying she doesn’t belong in Dallas anymore and doesn’t love Bobby. And Pam leaves.

This way Bobby and Pam can permanently split. Bobby thinks she’s walked out on him thus doesn’t go looking for her. The audience know the truth in the hope that one day it may be resolved.

Blackmailed by what?

 

[Grangehill1]

Blackmailed by what?

By anything....

By something Original. Not Katherine, not Jeremy Wendell.

An oil company or a media mogul or a crime gang who wants to get to the Ewing’s. Anything!

 

[Miss Ellie Fan]

I don’t understand why she just can’t go - I don’t think there needs to be a big mystery over it.

I think too much is made of her departure - there were far more important characters who had poor endings in my opinion.

 

[TJames03]

No one was more important than VP/Pam. No one.....

 

[Chris2]

I would have had her leave Bobby after the BD Calhoun fiasco. “Bobby, your brother is toxic, and I’m not going to bring up my son around him.” It’s not as if these two hadn’t split several times before. And Bobby gets frustrated with her for running out on him yet again - like she did during the fight for Ewing Oil - and decides not to chase after her.

But that would have still left the show without its Juliet. She was the second most important character on the show after JR. Without her several of the show’s key conflicts and relationships were lost.

 

[Chris2]

I would have had her leave Bobby after the BD Calhoun fiasco. “Bobby, your brother is toxic, and I’m not going to bring up my son around him.” It’s not as if these two hadn’t split several times before.

 

[pete lashmar]

I think the idea of her leaving after the B D Calhoun sounds much more believable, throw in an offer from The Store to open their London/Paris/Rome etc branch and you have a perfect exit.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

I would have Bobby bonding with Jenna and their child as a catalyst for Pam leaving, she would see that Bobby is starting to drift away from her.

This would effect Christopher too as he feels neglected by Bobby, added to this would be JR deliberately stirring the pot and dropping hints that Bobby wants Jenna and not Pam or Christopher after all.

In the end it becomes too much to bear for Pam and she mistakenly thinks that Bobby and Jenna have been seeing each other after a few people around Dallas notice them spending time with together.

Pam would leave Dallas after Bobby slips out that “At least Jenna gave me a son” this would break the camels back and Pam would take Christopher and leave, unbeknownst to Bobby, Pam herself is pregnant but she decides that both her children should be free from the Ewing legacy and the Barnes-Ewing feud and never tells Bobby.

Bobby regrets this for years and realises he’s made a terrible mistake and spends years looking for Pam and Christopher, which he would in a reunion film, he finds Pam, Christopher and his daughter; Eleanor living in Australia where he decides to remain.

 

[Miss Ellie Fan]

No one was more important than VP/Pam. No one.....

Goodness what a sweeping statement. I’m interested why you would think that. It sounds like more of a personal fan opinion than a fact.

I don’t agree. The Dallas cast was an ensemble and the show went on for quite a few years without her.

Plus it’s a shame she didn’t feel that Dallas was that important. She walked away without issue from the show that made her.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Seaviewer]

VP/Pam’s exit from the show was a rushed mess

Not really. It was dragged out with no real resolution.

I think it was just fine apart from the body in the hospital afterwards. She should have been killed outright. I think that would have been a bigger shock.

Agreed. That's almost certainly the way it would have gone if they had taken VP at her word.

The audience know the truth in the hope that one day it may be resolved.

Is that better? We're still left waiting on a VP return (or an MM recast?) that will never happen.

 

[Miss Ellie Fan]

Not really. It was dragged out with no real resolution.

Agreed. That's almost certainly the way it would have gone if they had taken VP at her word.
Is that better? We're still left waiting on a VP return (or an MM recast?) that will never happen.

Exactly. Victoria wanted to leave and had no intentions of returning. I personally was shocked at how she made such a firm decision and remember reading at the time she was unhappy as she thought it was her show but she wasn’t getting as many stories as Larry Hagman (something like that!) I certainly do not agree she was more important than anyone else, even if she felt she was.

 

[Chris2]

I think the idea of her leaving after the B D Calhoun sounds much more believable, throw in an offer from The Store to open their London/Paris/Rome etc branch and you have a perfect exit.

I really like The Store angle as well - it’s believable that she would get fed up with JR and potential tension with Jenna over Lucas, and she wouldn’t be willing to turn down a great career opportunity that would also get her away from those troubles at home.

 

[Chris2]

Or maybe Pamela was a Fembot planted by the Jeremy or some other dastardly character. Bobby discovers this at the end of season 10 and the Fembot self destructs.

 

[Gabriele]

Put Pamela in a coma or she had a breakdown and put her in an asylum

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

The Producers clung to the hope that Victoria would slink back in a years time the way Duffy had done. She didn't.

That whole bandaged Pam storyline of season eleven whilst certainly being dramatic was a bit hard to swallow. It didn't do much for the character especially after she disappeared.

I would've had her kidnapped from the hospital rather than the explanation that she herself wanted to disappear. However if she really did go of her own accord she must've had a very good reason for doing so.

I would've kept the scene with Margaret Michaels at the start of season twelve but after Cliff leaves, the Doctor would've brought in Victoria Principal in a Guest Role.

"I think he bought it, he really thought I was you!" The fake Pam says.

The real Pam begins to cry. "If only I could go back but if I do I risk putting the entire family in danger from Katherine & those associates of hers."

Behind her Mark Graison arrives & put's his arm around her.

"Pam, you don't know that. I know I still love you but if you really want to go back to Dallas, to Bobby then do it!"

Pam says "I can't. The fed's have given me a new identity, I've been told to move on. I have to leave the Ewing's in the past."

Mark sighs. "We'll get out of the US then. The further away the better."

Pam sobs. "Where to!?!"

"Well I just have to get Jenna Wade's son Lucas out of the Meadowvale Sanitarium & we're all going to Northern Ireland, " Mark tells her.

There's movement again behind Mark & the Doctor appears with Wes Parmalee.

"So we're good to go then?" Wes asks.

Mark nods.

"As far as the Ewing's know, I'm dead. Wes here isn't Jock, despite the fact that he is & you've disappeared without trace."

Pam's sobs become louder. "I miss Christopher."

"Don't worry," Mark reassures her. "When the time is right he will come to us."

The fake Pam smiles at the real Pam Ewing who smiles back. The real Pam says, "I will wait to be with my son but I will never set foot in Dallas again."