Original dallas was not destroyed by TNT

Frank Underwood

Telly Talk Winner
LV
1
 
Messages
3,790
Reaction score
2,409
Awards
6
Member Since
June 2001
I am sure this was posted before, probably in the old forum, but I didn't see it anywhere here.

https://www.showbiz411.com/2012/06/...aster-how-shows-creator-was-cut-out-of-reboot

And from another interview, once the show was running

Well, what about you? Do you like the new show?

I do. It’s great to see Southfork in H.D. and widescreen. Beautiful. I do wish they would slow things down. Mike and I were talking recently and said we could’ve gotten 10 shows from the first five. [Laughter] And not by stretching, but by making it more complex and by making the stories less plot-driven and more character-driven. I think it was Chekov who said plot is character. Whoever said it, I agree with.

https://dallasdecoder.com/2012/12/03/the-dallas-decoder-interview-david-jacobs/
Cidre's shitty and dismissive treatment of David Jacobs is exactly how she treated his show. For such a mediocre hack writer, she sure is full of herself.
 

Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

Telly Talk Champion
LV
7
 
Messages
4,648
Reaction score
9,674
Awards
15
Location
Northern Ireland
Favourite Movie
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Cidre's shitty and dismissive treatment of David Jacobs is exactly how she treated his show. For such a mediocre hack writer, she sure is full of herself.

Anyone who has Daffy Duck has an Executive Story Consultant is quackers.

Any wonder the ratings slid over the course of the shows three years.

Here's the picture of Daffy just before he told Cidre to "Kiss my little black butt!" as she attempted to get storyline ideas out of him! :)

daffy1.jpg
 

Laurie Marr

Telly Talk Well-Known Member
LV
1
 
Messages
530
Reaction score
1,358
Awards
7
Location
Manchester,UK
It’s such a shame the message archive was lost to us. The conversations that took place at the time were often more compelling than what happened on screen.

TNT did not destroy anything. It tried, with varying degrees of success, to write a continuation in a way that reinvented the show in a way that would appeal to a modern audience. Henderson was outstanding and some of the photography was superb. Ultimately what made it fail was what makes any project fail dramatically - it couldn’t sustain conflict. Big reveals had little pay off and there was an increasing number of gratuitous sucker punches to the audience that came from nowhere, went nowhere and squandered any good will that was left.

On balance, I would still not have wanted to miss revisiting Southfork.
 
K

Karin Schill

Guest
I agree, I wouldn't have wanted to miss it either. I just wish it would have happened a few years earlier instead. But better late than never.

The new show was too plot driven though. There were some wonderful moments that came from when they focused on the characters. They got some things right. But on a whole the pacing of the new show was too fast and the plot twists too many. We never got a moment to feel with the character before something new happened. Like for instance John Ross and Elena get engaged. We get 30 minutes to be happy about it before they break off. o_O

JR dies, we get one or two episode to mourn before it's time to blow up the oil rig that will kill Pamela Rebecca's unborn babies. :eyes:
On the original Dallas they spent much more time mourning Jock and the fight for Ewing Oil lasted for a whole season. JR's masterpiece lasted like 7 episodes and that was it.

I think the main problem with the pacing is that in a soap opera all things that happens to the characters are plausible. They can happen to people in real life too. But usually more things happens on soap operas than in real life. Still back in the 1980s they could make kidnappings and over the top plots work for them since the story was moving along slowly in a way that gave the audience the feeling of being a fly on the wall. On Dallas TNT the plot moved along so fast that it all felt unrealistic and you stopped caring what happened to the characters because it all seemed unreal anyway.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Willie Oleson

Telly Talk Schemer
LV
8
 
Messages
18,829
Reaction score
32,274
Awards
22
Location
Plotville, Shenanigan
Member Since
April 2002
On Dallas TNT the plot moved along so fast that it all felt unrealistic and you stopped caring what happened to the characters because it all seemed unreal anyway.
Thankfully the characters didn't stop caring. Everything that happened mattered to them, even if it was fast-paced or twist-y.
 

Frank Underwood

Telly Talk Winner
LV
1
 
Messages
3,790
Reaction score
2,409
Awards
6
Member Since
June 2001
Thankfully the characters didn't stop caring. Everything that happened mattered to them, even if it was fast-paced or twist-y.
I'm sure they cared deeply about all of the unorganic plot contrivances and out of character actions that happened to them on a regular basis. They ate it up because it was so delicious!
 

Frank Underwood

Telly Talk Winner
LV
1
 
Messages
3,790
Reaction score
2,409
Awards
6
Member Since
June 2001
Cidre's guide to writing a "hit" continuation based on her words and actions:

1. Write backwards from a cliff hanger you have in mind.

2. Act as if the reveal of a character's true identity was some genius move you pulled off, even if fans of the original saw it coming a mile away.

3. Turn a cheap, mediocre oil man who loved his family into a billionaire gambler who is willing to sacrifice the lives of his family for the revenge he already got.

4. Place more emphasis on "delicious" reveals and twists, even if you have to sacrifice logic and character development to do so.

5. Tease the possible return of a beloved original character, and then slam the actress who played her for telling fans she's not coming back.

6. Kill off a next generation character, while adding to an already bloated cast of newbies.

7. Give an unnecessary amount of screen time to a drug cartel simply because you think they were cast well.

8. Shoe horn new characters into the original show's timeline.

9. Promise to treat the continuity and history of the original show with respect, only to do the exact opposite.

10. Blow off the creator of the show you're continuing, try to strip him of his "created by" credit, and accuse him of being aggressive and difficult.
 

Rove

Telly Talk Champion
LV
0
 
Messages
4,774
Reaction score
7,891
Awards
5
Location
Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
10. Blow off the creator of the show you're continuing, try to strip him of his "created by" credit, and accuse him of being aggressive and difficult.
This is the one which really had me fired up. Sometimes a Union body can be a bit aggressive but I'm thankful they stood up for David Jacobs in this regard. He may not have had much influence with Lorimar Dallas as the seasons rolled by but this was his baby, his idea, his creation. How dare those pretentious newbies come along and think we own this.
 

Frank Underwood

Telly Talk Winner
LV
1
 
Messages
3,790
Reaction score
2,409
Awards
6
Member Since
June 2001
One thing I find interesting about the people who like and defend TNT Dallas is they almost always bring up that the original Dallas was a flawed show as well. As if most of us hadn't already conceded that point long before TNT Dallas came along. But supposedly, nobody noticed when it originally aired. Well I never watched the original airings on CBS, but I did watch the reruns on TNN. And yes, it was apparent what the flaws were even then. Things like the recasting of Miss Ellie, the muddled and over the top storylines of the dream season, and the campy/cornpone elements of the final three seasons were extremely apparent to me during my first viewing of the show. And this was between 1996 and 1998, so it's not like I watched it through "today's lens." I personally think that's a meaningless, bullshit phrase. I don't see what the era a show airs in has to do with the ability to notice its flaws or not.

The difference is that the quality and competency of Dallas at its best blows away most of what came out of the new series. With TNT Dallas, I can only list a handful of scenes that were done well and felt consistent with the original show. With the original series, I can list entire episodes and even seasons that were excellent from start to finish.
 

Willie Oleson

Telly Talk Schemer
LV
8
 
Messages
18,829
Reaction score
32,274
Awards
22
Location
Plotville, Shenanigan
Member Since
April 2002
One thing I find interesting about the people who like and defend TNT Dallas is they almost always bring up that the original Dallas was a flawed show as well
I agree, that's a weak argument.I liked it because I enjoyed it, not because it was as flawed as O.Dallas.
And I like The Colbys because it's an awesome show, not because it was better written than Dynasty at that time.
With TNT Dallas, I can only list a handful of scenes that were done well and felt consistent with the original show
I liked it because it was good, consistent or not.
 

Frank Underwood

Telly Talk Winner
LV
1
 
Messages
3,790
Reaction score
2,409
Awards
6
Member Since
June 2001
I agree, that's a weak argument.I liked it because I enjoyed it, not because it was as flawed as O.Dallas.
And I like The Colbys because it's an awesome show, not because it was better written than Dynasty at that time.
Some people believe that those of us who are critical of TNT Dallas have a rose colored view of the original, but that's certainly not the case with all of us. And I'm not some impossible to please, die hard fan either. For example, I think the Roseanne continuation is enjoyable and captures the spirit of the original show. I just didn't get that vibe often from TNT Dallas.

I have nothing against your enjoyment of it, or any other show for that matter. I know people who thought I was weird for liking the original Dallas. It's all subjective.

I liked it because it was good, consistent or not.
And that's fine, of course. But everybody has their own interpretation of good. I certainly thought some of it was good, perhaps great even. But for me, most of it missed the mark.
 

Toni

Maximum Member
LV
9
 
Messages
5,141
Reaction score
10,672
Awards
20
Location
Fletcher Sanitarium, Barcelona, Spain
Member Since
September 12, 2001 (poster formerly known as Pam's Twin Sister)
7. Give an unnecessary amount of screen time to a drug cartel simply because you think they were cast well.

How true all of your post. And this drug plot proved also that she had been a Knots fan because she copied it bit by bit from the Santa Tecla storyline in Seasons 9 & 10. She might be a Latinxxxxl or whatever they call us now, but her Season 3 Mexicans were the most clichéd characters in the show.

...And then she makes Gary and Val appear, and there goes another character assassination by making poor poor Val a mean-spirited woman who called names to poor poor Sue Ellen. What a clash of universes...
 

Toni

Maximum Member
LV
9
 
Messages
5,141
Reaction score
10,672
Awards
20
Location
Fletcher Sanitarium, Barcelona, Spain
Member Since
September 12, 2001 (poster formerly known as Pam's Twin Sister)
Speaking of the devil, today I was shopping at the supermarket and stumbled upon this:

upload_2019-2-7_22-35-53.jpeg


Of course, I ran scared in the opposite direction...​
 

TJames03

Banned
LV
0
 
Messages
1,902
Reaction score
780
Awards
4
Location
California
Hey, at least TNT Dallas kinda explained why Miss Ellie was different when she returned with Clayton after getting married!!
 

Barbara Fan

Admin
LV
12
 
Messages
10,199
Reaction score
23,149
Awards
28
Location
Scotland
Member Since
2000
Favourite Movie
Witness, Vertigo, Spellbound
Speaking of the devil, today I was shopping at the supermarket and stumbled upon this:

View attachment 14970

Of course, I ran scared in the opposite direction...​

Bet they tasted awful, very bland, sour, and nothing like what they are supposed to taste like!
 
Top