The Bobby & Pam wedding flashback

[Snarky Oracle!]

Most people seem to agree that the flashback of Bobby and Pam's January 1978 elopement, which was used to as a counterpoint their 1986 second wedding, is cheesily awful.

The idea is good. So why is it so laughably lousy??

I'd do several things differently:

*we know it's supposed to be winter but the flashback is shot in the summer... using a blue wash would be more effective than B&W to cool it down.

*unlike DYNASTY, the DALLAS brass had a "no hairpieces" rule (except for Larry's toupee). But if Jenna can don a wig for her Laredo motel room flashback, why can't Victoria wear one for the flashback of her first wedding to Bobby nearly nine years earlier?? I mean, DALLAS was too famous a show to get away with this bad "fakey" attempt at pushing Victoria's totally different 1986 cut into the 1978 "bob" she'd had in the pilot... Principal even went to the effort to redo her 1978 eyebrows -- and yet they can't give her a wig for even that one scene??

I swear, this is the kind of thing where I'd use digital tricks to "correct" even today, as much as I'm against on principle (pun?) sweetening during restoration.

*you just can't flat-light a flashback like that. Patrick and Victoria needed to be gently soft-lensed and side-lit, with two-thirds of their jaw line in shadow, to obscure the 8 1/2 years of additional age now on their faces. Not that they weren't still quite lovely. But 1986 was not 1978.

It's almost as stupid as DYNASTY's "flashbacks" of Krystle's marriage to, and break up with, Mark Jennings.

 

[Karin Schill]

All good points. I agree that the flashback didn't quite work. It's a nice idea but the fact is that they were 9 years older when they filmed it and it showed. It's not what they looked like when the show began.

With a show as popular as Dallas became (it was the most popular show in the world around 1980) I'm surprised they never filmed a flashback scene of when Bobby and Pam got married in an earlier season. But I guess they didn't have any use of it then.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

All good points. I agree that the flashback didn't quite work. It's a nice idea but the fact is that they were 9 years older when they filmed it and it showed. It's not what they looked like when the show began.

But there are things they could have done to make it work far better --- but they didn't even try (except for the B&W and Victoria's eyebrows)!

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

I hated Krystle's flashback, even though it was supposed to have been 1972 the whole scene screamed "Yeah this is a flashback to the early 70s, a very recent era for us but hey its the 70s and we the 80s hate the 70s so screw you 1972, we're giving you a 1982 makeover!"

As cheesy as the Pam/Bobby flashback was at least they tried to make it more 1978 than 1986 remaking 1978.

I wasn't crazy about the black and white either, since the 70s wasn't that too far back into the past in 1986, and I tend to associate black and white flashbacks with anything pre 1965 going by an cinematic aesthetic standpoint.

But it was still a nice touch, it was like the TPTB wanted to recall the old days of the series.

 

[Garry]

I loved it. They looked nothing like they were supposed to back then but I still loved it.

 

[Victoriafan3]

I wanna be cheeky. You know I love Victoria dearly. And it was so good Pam and Bobby getting back together was wonderful. Unfortunately I was never a huge fan of Pam's headpiece in her wedding to bobby. So, even though the sweet-intended wedding 'flashback' didn't quite work as well as it could have, it did mean I didn't have to look at her wedding hat for as long ;-) naughty victoria fan. Sorry Victoria!

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

It was quite clear in that flashback that they were the same age currently in the show.

Patrick Duffy doesn't look any younger & neither does Principal.

It's quite clear in that flashback (if you could call it that) that the Dallas Producers had lost there principles in trying to give us a decent scene of the two of them getting married the first time round.

It didn't work then & it doesn't work now, which is a pity as it's a nice idea but badly executed. Capice & Katzman both need a swift kick up the backside because of that scene. Mind you I can forgive Capice but Katzman made the situation a lot worse later on when he brought Duffy back in (DVD) season ten & explained away the whole of the previous season as a dream. Katzman did more harm than good when it comes to being the showrunner of Dallas.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

*we know it's supposed to be winter but the flashback is shot in the summer... using a blue wash would be more effective than B&W to cool it down.

 

[Garry]

CGI Bobby ad Pam. We can do this with Donna Reed now and replace her with BB Geddes.

 

[Chris2]

Ha! Very nice.

In the official version, Victoria was now in her 40s. And she looked it. Still beautiful, but she could no longer pass as a twenty something Pam.

 

[mrpitkin]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned how horrendous Pam's wedding dress was. It was like some cheap off cut Charlestown throwback from the 20s!

 

[Toni]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned how horrendous Pam's wedding dress was. It was like some cheap off cut Charlestown throwback from the 20s!

Probably from a bargain at The Store! Anyway she didn´t use an old wedding dress like Melissa on "Falcon Crest".

"So you are sure you don´t want that wedding dress just in case?
I will keep it for you if you change your mind..."

9 years later:
"Damn Liz! The dress got termites!"​

 

[LMLDallas78]

How anyone ever has the cheek to critisise Sue Ellen's flashback in the Miss Texas competition. At least that was done from a distance on a TV screen.
Showing Pam and Bobby like they did wasn't needed and was laughable. I could imagine how their rushed wedding might have looked and their so called flashback ruined that image.

 

[the-lost-son]

Flashbacks work when they add sth. to the storyline. This one didn't, but it was somehow nice despite the cheap production. The whole episode felt stretched with conflicts being identified way in advance (Jenna pregnant). It's not only the much discussed picture quality but this wedding in general doesn't feel grande/majestic. Some episodes prior, Pam&Mark's wedding felt real classy. This one was just a gathering in the drive.

Back to the topic:
Flashbacks are tricky. Some shows manage to include them in a meaningful way, like CobraKai for example when a character's inner struggle etc. is the center of a storyline. But in general most flashbacks are there to remind an (assumed less intelligent) audience of something obvious or even worse to stretch things. Dallas was once firing on all cylinders and didn't even have time to show Rebecca's funeral or MissEllie's wedding. These days are over and time needs to be filled.
In that regard I find SueEllen's flashbacks during her movie problematic. Not only did they add nothing to the plot but they emphasized the huge drop in quality of the show.

Furthermore the flashback didn't completely do justice to Bobby&Pam's long history.
I would have loved some rocky moments as well. They came a long way. To include the reactions of Cliff and MissEllie for example on their 1st marriage would have been a nice touch as they both were present on their 2nd.

 

[Toni]

Aside from VP´s poor attempt at duplicating her hairstyle 9 years before (what about her white streaks?) I just LOVED that flashback. Lance Rubin´s love theme from "Swan Song", the accurate wardrobe recreations, and Victoria and Patrick just crying their eyes out in that scene was a tearjerker. And also iconic because...what other couple of the 80s could have married with a big flowery heart in the background...except these two?

 

[Mel O'Drama]

what other couple of the 80s could have married with a big flowery heart in the background...except these two?

Does this count?

 

[Toni]

Does this count?

You got me!

 

[KayLloyd]

I loved it. They looked nothing like they were supposed to back then but I still loved it.
View attachment 5052

Me too, it was very sweet and showed how in love and excited they were. They did the best that they could with the technology that they had at the time. Today they would be able to just use AI to make the scene with Patrick and Victoria 's 1978 selves.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Me too, it was very sweet and showed how in love and excited they were. They did the best that they could with the technology that they had at the time. Today they would be able to just use AI to make the scene with Patrick and Victoria 's 1978 selves.

Not quite -- the right lighting, the right 1978 hairstyle for Victoria... That didn't require state-of-the-art technology.

The scene was a nice idea, but their attempts at reproduction were middling at best, and seemed to involve little thought (other than Principal's attention to those eyebrows, which is notable).

 

[DallasFanForever]

I enjoyed the flashbacks as well. I thought it was a nice touch as they said their vows at their second wedding with their first wedding as the visual. It was a nice tribute to them and their long history. The fact that things didn’t exactly match up a hundred percent physically never bothered me. I love the idea and I thought it played out well.