How Would You Have Liked For John Ross To Be Portrayed?

[Kenny Coyote]

Suppose you had full creative control in TNT Dallas of how John Ross was portrayed. What would you have done?

 

[A Nightmare on Jimmy Todd Street]

I would have liked John Ross to be a basically good person who struggled to remain ethical in a cutthroat business. He would have a complex relationship with JR in that he loved and respected him, yet did not want to become as immoral as JR.
The drama in NuDallas would come from the arrival of Lucas. I picture him as the sociopath. Life with Ray and Jenna has not been kind to him, and he feels cheated out of what he believes is rightfully his. He appears to the family as nice and good-natured, but he manipulates and schemes the way JR did. He preys on the weaknesses and insecurities of John Ross and Christopher. Of course, he particularly resents Christopher, and targets him the way JR targeted Gary.

 

[Trick-or-Treat Stevens]

I overall liked Josh Henderson's John Ross on the TNT Dallas. My only critique was that he acted too young at times, not someone in their thirties.

I would have liked to see John Ross more like how he was being portrayed in the later years (and JR Returns) of the CBS Dallas as Omri Katz. Kinda bratty and arrogant at times. Not a bad kid but certainly someone who felt a level of privilege with his upbringing. It would have been nice if Dallas had gone on a few more seasons on CBS to see how John Ross developed in his teens.

At the beginning of TNT Dallas he would have been thirty-three or so and I think he should have already been in the Oil/Energies business and be a mix of JR and Sue Ellen. Confident, charismatic but also underhanded at times and prone to weakness, bad impulses. From a writing standpoint John Ross is a very interesting character. There is so much we don't know about his life from 1991-2012 that could have shaped who he was in 2012 when we met him again. I think it would be wrong just to make John Ross 'JR Ewing 2.0'. That would be lazy writing IMO.

I certainly would have had him married by 2012 or have an ex-wife.

 

[lbf522]

The writers were lazy in how they wrote for John Ross. Of all of JR's personality traits, they chose cheating? Also they wrote John Ross a a loser. Everything he did blew up in his face. He did rescue Emma though which was good. JR's son married to Cliff's daughter was enough drama without making him a cheater.

 

[stevew]

I would have liked John Ross to be a basically good person who struggled to remain ethical in a cutthroat business. He would have a complex relationship with JR in that he loved and respected him, yet did not want to become as immoral as JR.
The drama in NuDallas would come from the arrival of Lucas. I picture him as the sociopath. Life with Ray and Jenna has not been kind to him, and he feels cheated out of what he believes is rightfully his. He appears to the family as nice and good-natured, but he manipulates and schemes the way JR did. He preys on the weaknesses and insecurities of John Ross and Christopher. Of course, he particularly resents Christopher, and targets him the way JR targeted Gary.

I like it.

Lucas = JR

John Ross = Bobby (hence married to Pamela)

Chris = Gary

Bobby = Jock

Sue Ellen = Miss Ellie

 

[stevew]

I wanted him to be like Jock - a business man with lots of friends (from boarding school to the oil fields), a leader capable of being worst than JR, if called on, but not a man to cheat, though tempted, a man who says, “I’ll kick your ass right over the county line.” A combination of Jock (by DNA) and Clayton (by nurture). A man who retires from business young, running his “empire” out of his house, while growing to love the land. A man who takes power.

 

[Miss Texas 1967]

I overall liked Josh Henderson's John Ross on the TNT Dallas. My only critique was that he acted too young at times, not someone in their thirties.

At the beginning of TNT Dallas he would have been thirty-three or so and I think he should have already been in the Oil/Energies business and be a mix of JR and Sue Ellen. Confident, charismatic but also underhanded at times and prone to weakness, bad impulses. From a writing standpoint John Ross is a very interesting character. There is so much we don't know about his life from 1991-2012 that could have shaped who he was in 2012 when we met him again. I think it would be wrong just to make John Ross 'JR Ewing 2.0'. That would be lazy writing IMO.

I agree with the points about age. I always felt like both "boys" acted like teenagers, or like I was watching a teen drama (especially with the relationship swapping back and forth). With them being in their 30s you'd expect they'd have had plenty of years post-college to get started with some sort of business, whether that was working for someone or doing their own thing. I really feel like TNT should have started with the adults being adults, just like the original show. Bobby went back and forth on what he did for work in the beginning, but before that they established he had spent a good few years being the Ewing Oil "goodwill ambassador". I never got the sense from either John Ross or Christopher that they'd done much before the methane thing or the drilling on Southfork, but surely they had.

 

[Sea - Boo! - Er]

I wouldn't say "exactly" as it was on the show but I did like how he tried to be better than his father but too often succumbed to a baser nature.

 

[Spooky Owl!]

All the voting options seem to be about how "successful" the adult John Ross was.

I liked nuDALLAS' portrayal of John Ross, if only because the casting of Josh Henderson worked -- one of the few things about nuDALLAS which did.

 

[Justine]

Josh Henderson's portrayal was perfect for the John Ross the TNT writers provided but I have always had a different kind of man in mind (and I still need to work on that particular story).