Did Another Network Seriously Consider A Dallas Continuation?

[Ray&Donna]

I'll never understand why Warner made the seemingly arbitrary decision to hire Cynthia Cidre as the showrunner. Even she sounded surprised at the time, admitting that she had seen very little of the original series. Her previous series Cane had been a flop, so I don't know why they thought she was the right choice to helm an iconic show. I think it would have made more sense to vet potential showrunners in order to find the best choice. I can understand Dallas ending up on TNT if Warner owned a piece of it, but it obviously wasn't a good fit there.

Her subsequent series, BLOOD AND OIL, also died a quick death after ABC reduced its order to ten episodes. She doesn't have a great track record when it comes to serialized television.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Remember, rather than a new TV show, before DallasTNT David Jacobs was trying to get a theatrical film version of DALLAS made. Supposedly with John Travolata as J.R. and Jennifer Lopez as Sue Ellen. Imagine what a trainwreck that would have been!

I remember other reports at the time mentioning the possibility of Jessica Lange playing Sue Ellen and Colin Farrell playing Bobby. I also think it was initially pitched as a straight drama before they decided it would be a comedy, after the success of the Starsky and Hutch movie. Either way, I think we are better off that it never saw the light of day.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

I remember other reports at the time mentioning the possibility of Jessica Lange playing Sue Ellen

Jessica Lange could have done an amazing job playing Sue Ellen.

 

[tommie]

I'll never understand why Warner made the seemingly arbitrary decision to hire Cynthia Cidre as the showrunner. Even she sounded surprised at the time, admitting that she had seen very little of the original series. Her previous series Cane had been a flop, so I don't know why they thought she was the right choice to helm an iconic show. I think it would have made more sense to vet potential showrunners in order to find the best choice. I can understand Dallas ending up on TNT if Warner owned a piece of it, but it obviously wasn't a good fit there.

Her previous series Cane was (positively) compared to Dallas. It didn't do too bad, but was seen as a victim of the 2007 writers strike. Had there not been a strike, I assume it would've at least scored a 22 episode order. Either way, clearly they saw what the critics said and decided to take a chance on her.

Her subsequent series, BLOOD AND OIL, also died a quick death after ABC reduced its order to ten episodes. She doesn't have a great track record when it comes to serialized television.

To be fair, she was put onto Blood & Oil after it had been in development hell for years at that point and was only brought back to ABC at the last minute due to the success of Empire. The show was a mess even before she stepped foot on that set and would've taken a miracle to clear up the messy premise of the pilot, which she had no part in.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

To be fair, she was put onto Blood & Oil after it had been in development hell for years at that point and was only brought back to ABC at the last minute due to the success of Empire. The show was a mess even before she stepped foot on that set and would've taken a miracle to clear up the messy premise of the pilot, which she had no part in.

They fired her or demoted her didn't they? It's my understanding that at one point she was the show runner and then they replaced her.

 

[tommie]

They fired her or demoted her didn't they? It's my understanding that at one point she was the show runner and then they replaced her.

Yup. She was only on the show until episode four I believe. The entire production was a mess, so I don't put that on her to be honest.

 

[Barbara On A Broomstick]

Travolta is actually a very good mimic, so don't be surprised if he could do a good Larry-as-JR... Lopez would have made a better Pam, her Latina ancestry just making her even more unwelcomed by some at snobbish Southfork.

Larry may have liked the idea of Bruce Willis in the role of JR, but Willis is just too gross.

When I saw John Travolta in Primary Colours as a Bill Clinton type of politician that also starred Larry Hagman, I thought JT played the part well and I could see him as a sceming, insincere, philandering, woman chasing JR Ewing

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

Her previous series Cane was (positively) compared to Dallas. It didn't do too bad, but was seen as a victim of the 2007 writers strike. Had there not been a strike, I assume it would've at least scored a 22 episode order. Either way, clearly they saw what the critics said and decided to take a chance on her.

Cane was quite good IMO. I can see why that put her on the radar for Dallas.

I have no way of knowing how conscious it was on her part but in some ways TNT Dallas was more a thematic continuation of that show than of Lorimar Dallas.

 

[Frankenstein Underworld]

Does being a critical darling matter if your series only lasts a season? Even if one could argue that her show was the victim of a writers strike, she had no proven track record in television. I still think the best way to choose a showrunner in this instance is to vet them and find out what they plan to do with it. Especially for a show as iconic as Dallas was in its prime.

 

[tommie]

Does being a critical darling matter if your series only lasts a season? Even if one could argue that her show was the victim of a writers strike, she had no proven track record in television. I still think the best way to choose a showrunner in this instance is to vet them and find out what they plan to do with it. Especially for a show as iconic as Dallas was in its prime.

Bryan Fuller has tonnes of flops behind, in fact I don't think a single of his series can be counted as a runaway audience success (except Pushing Daisies maybe, but that was ironically also a victim of the writers strike), but frequently gets new work because he is talented and often has great creative vision. If anything we should applaud networks willing to take chances on talented people who might not have had that huge success story yet.

I think the biggest problem with Cidre is exactly what @Snarky's Ghost says about these reboots and revivals - the new showrunners just tend to end up making the show they actually wanted to make just under an old name brand. Cane was good and as @Seaviewer notes nuDallas ended up being a continuation of that rather than a continuation of Dallas. It doesn't mean Cidre is some untalented hack. The same thing happened when thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Once And Again creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick got put in charge of Nashville in season five and forward - despite them being arguably talented, it became unrecognizable as a show because they ended up writing what they wanted to write, which was not Nashville since they had signed a development deal and Lionsgate kind of put them there because they had no idea what to do with them.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

The same thing happened when thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Once And Again creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick got put in charge of Nashville in season five and forward - despite them being arguably talented, it became unrecognizable as a show because they ended up writing what they wanted to write, which was not Nashville since they had signed a development deal and Lionsgate kind of put them there because they had no idea what to do with them.

I liked Nashville too. I hardly ever read any behind the scenes information about shows. so I didn't know about these two people you named or about them being put in charge of Nashville in season 5. I'd like to know what things they did that you thought made Nashville so bad in seasons 5 and 6.

My biggest complaint is they stopped making the show about the music business, since that was what Nashville had always been. Nothing was explained anymore. You didn't what record company anyone was working for, or if they were working at all. For example, the man who Rayna married - what did he do with Raynas record label and what was he doing to make a living in the last season?

They also lost Connie Britton. That wasn't anyone's fault that she'd decided she wanted to do different things, but it hurt Nashville badly.

 

[tommie]

I liked Nashville too. I hardly ever read any behind the scenes information about shows. so I didn't know about these two people you named or about them being put in charge of Nashville in season 5. I'd like to know what things they did that you thought made Nashville so bad in seasons 5 and 6.

Well, obviously they turned a lot of focus to Maddie and away from the adults, turned to a lot of "social issues" and then reduced characters like Juliette and Will to glorified extras. Them only giving Juliette scraps of storylines was especially dumb since they already lost a lead actress, so you'd think they'd give the other lead actress more attention but I guess not...

 

[Kenny Coyote]

Well, obviously they turned a lot of focus to Maddie and away from the adults, turned to a lot of "social issues" and then reduced characters like Juliette and Will to glorified extras. Them only giving Juliette scraps of storylines was especially dumb since they already lost a lead actress, so you'd think they'd give the other lead actress more attention but I guess not...

Ok, cool...Just one question I have to ask you: Were there times when you were hoping Rayna would marry Luke Wheeler or were you always hoping she would end up marrying Deacon?

I had mixed feelings about that. I would have been happy if she'd married Luke because he was a very good man, he treated her well aside from that one time at the award show (but nobody's perfect), and he didn't have all the problems that Deacon had. I wasn't sure a marriage between them would work because of all the problems Deacon had. Every once in a while Deacon would do something that showed very poor judgement, such as when he confronted that man (Cash's dad) during the time when Deacon and Rayna were trying to keep Maddie from emancipating herself. He got in that fight and it made it look like Maddie had a case when she said Deacon was violent and she was afraid of him. That being said, I liked Deacon, he was a good man too. and felt bad that he was having such a hard time dealing with his addiction and problems with his father. I loved it when Deacon saved Maddie from the record producer who went after underage girls. What a dirtbag that guy was! So I would have been happy whether Rayna married Luke or Deacon.

 

[Frankenstein Underworld]

Bryan Fuller has tonnes of flops behind, in fact I don't think a single of his series can be counted as a runaway audience success (except Pushing Daisies maybe, but that was ironically also a victim of the writers strike), but frequently gets new work because he is talented and often has great creative vision. If anything we should applaud networks willing to take chances on talented people who might not have had that huge success story yet.

Taking a chance on someone is fine as long as they provide their vision first. Blindly taking a chance on someone seems rather reckless to me.

I think the biggest problem with Cidre is exactly what @Snarky's Ghost says about these reboots and revivals - the new showrunners just tend to end up making the show they actually wanted to make just under an old name brand. Cane was good and as @Seaviewer notes nuDallas ended up being a continuation of that rather than a continuation of Dallas. It doesn't mean Cidre is some untalented hack.

Cidre came off as an untalented hack to me, but not because of the stories she told. It was her emphasis on shock value over character-driven scenes and consistency. Characters often changed personalities for inexplicable reasons because it suited the plot. Cliff is the most glaring example of that. Also, writing backwards from a cliffhanger was as sloppy as it sounds.

That said, the show had a few character driven moments. Pam and JR's deaths, and the scenes between JR, Sue Ellen, and John Ross come to mind. Unfortunately, they were far too rare.

The same thing happened when thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Once And Again creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick got put in charge of Nashville in season five and forward - despite them being arguably talented, it became unrecognizable as a show because they ended up writing what they wanted to write, which was not Nashville since they had signed a development deal and Lionsgate kind of put them there because they had no idea what to do with them.

That's usually what happens. However, you'll occasionally get someone new like David Paulsen who respects a show's premise and actually ends up revitalizing the show.