Should they have killed off John Ross instead of Christopher?
Not that I accept that Christopher is really dead, mind you, but it occurs to me that, in story terms, it is John Ross that is the superfluous character.
A lot of us have expressed the opinion that the real conflict should have been between Christopher and Lucas, with Bobby as the Jock figure.
The late-in-the-game sidelining of Christopher as part of an attempt to rekindle the Bobby vs JR rivalry, but with the older Bobby against his young nephew John Ross, just seemed wrong.
I agree it seemed wrong, and I’d guess so did David Jacob’s, which is why he proposed John Ross as the Bobby character and Christopher as the JR character. Bobby torn between his son who is wrong and his nephew who is right would have been real drama. Plus the actor playing Chris would have done a much better job, IMO, at being a son of a bitch, literally, than a good guy. Now bring in Lucas in the role of Ray (ironically) and we’ve got a retcon. IMO, Ann was not needed. Sue Ellen could have moved into South Fork at Bobby’s request and filled that void, even though they wouldn’t be married. And John Ross could have had a child at 17/18 putting them late in high school to fill the Lucy role and there you have it, a recon of continuation.
As directly to your question since this isn’t what they were doing, my answer is no. John Ross, IMO, was the only interesting part of the series. Bad Bobby was frustrating to me. Drunk Sue Ellen was annoying. Ann was weak as water. Christopher needed a good ass kicking. I don’t know who Elena was. Pamela was Sue Ellen all over again. Cliff was nuts yet they never explained him as such. Ryland needed to stay in prison if I’m to buy JR’s mater piece so that just pissed me off. I liked Judith, especially with John Ross (except for “momma likes” but I could live with that). Other than being weak by as water himself, they had the most potential with John Ross’s character and the actor, IMO.
I would have loved to have seen Ann live up to her potential and tell back at Bobby sticking up for John Ross. Now that would have been tension. Made her character stronger and driven Bobby more into the curmudgeon old man character. “Now your mad and John Ross for sleeping with Emma! You set up a busy marriage for him, you son shoves in his face Elena, then just tosses her aside, and you let Sue Ellen out to nearly kill her self and John Ross is the bad guy! You’re either an idiot or the biggest son of a bitch I’ve ever been, Bobby Ewing!”
But as for Christopers death, I think at that point they just needed to take him full on bad, not kill him off. Return to Jacob’s original suggestion.