What if they’d been a season 15

Grangehill1

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Depending on who you talk to and what you read it’s debatable whether the producers knew from the beginning of season 14 that this year was the last.

The series is winding down. Characters being written out left, right and centre.

But what if they’d been a last minute reprieve? Even after Conundrum had gone out. The powers that be decided to give another year.

It would be foolish of us to think ots of the old cast would have come back as financially the show couldn’t have afforded it.

So what do you think would have happened in season 15? I’m looking for genuine, thoughtful answers
 

Clubsoda

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JR and Bobby continuing as leads with the rest of the budget used on rubbish like Michelle and no doubt more cheap filler.

It could only have gotten worse. I don't think Dallas belonged in the nineties.
 

Swami

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Based on seasons 13 and 14, it wouldn't have been great especially if they had continued to recruit so many talentless newbies, and not retain the strong original cast.

Swami
 

Michelle Stevens

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A good question @Grangehill1 . If season 15, 1991-'92, would pick up right after Conundrum no doubt JR's suicide attempt would have to be explained. I would assume JR, Bobby and Cliff would return. That is of course if Mr. Hagman was healthy enough and I can't remember when Patrick Duffy signed to star in Step by Step. I assume that was dependent on if Dallas was out of production. I'm sure Michelle Stevens and Carter McKay would return too. One wonders if a battle to have Cally's baby would be an issue and if James Beaumont returned. Surely new cast additions would have come. As in all other seasons within a few episodes the past cliffhanger would have been hopefully ironed out and a while new season dynamic would be in place.

I do think a push for a younger cast was a good one in the final years as Bobby was in his early forties by this point and the whole idea of James Beaumont was to have a young "Ewing" be the new focus for the younger generation as John Ross was still too young as a main character, sadly. I've always believed a Melrose Place in Texas vibe could have worked with a new generation of characters if written right. Cliff running Ewing Oil would have been interesting a probably would have been a part of the focus of a season 15.


it would have been backstage footage of JR and Bobby playing pranks on each other while a series of 8 year-olds seized control of Ewing Oil


...... :p
 

stevew

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I can’t say what if because it works probably be bad but what I’d have suggested:

1) JR in a sanatorium not talking to anyone. Miss Ellie returns and gets Bobby to give her back Southfork. She begs JR to come home and gives him SF. Sue Ellen and John Ross come home trying to help JR. He stays silent. Miss Ellie leaves, distraught.

2) Bobby leaves Christopher at SF with Sue Ellen to find Pam.

3) Cliff runs Ewing Oil. Sue Ellen takes the reigns of the family and bankrupts Cliff, taking from him BW and EO as well as Wentworth Industries, revealing he’d been helping his sisters stay in hiding. She then takes on and wins control of West Star.

4) Sue Ellen also comes across JRs other family on the side, 3 twenty something children and powerful wife he’d kept a secret.

5) Then JR returns.
 

Snarky Oracle!

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In my head, there is a Season 15. But then, the previous three years would have been better than they were, too.

BBG stays one year longer than she did, dies when thrown from a horse while taking her family out to Section 40 to "show them something." The final 1991-1992 season focuses a lot on the aftermath of that. And the series ends with much of the family crashing into the dormant oil well on Southfork, opening it up for drilling against Ellie's wishes.

JR and Bobby continuing as leads with the rest of the budget used on rubbish like Michelle and no doubt more cheap filler.

Yes. That is what would have happened.
 

MarkDallasAddict

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This is a brilliant idea.

Season 15 would have been a great opportunity to reset the show as so many of the cast were gone (Pam, Sue Ellen, Donna, Ray, Miss Ellie, Clayton, April etc).

I would have released Jeremy Wendell from prison on a technicality, he would have been out for revenge against Carter McKay and the Ewings for having him sent down. I wouldn't have killed off McKay as George Kennedy was a fine actor and did a brilliant job, but I would have had Jeremy Wendell try and oust him from West Star.

I would have brought back Vanessa Beaumont. Hear me out on this. Dallas or Southfork needs a matriarch. If BBG was determined not to return as Miss Ellie I would not have replaced her, but I would have brought in a new matriarch and Vanessa could have done a brilliant job as the moral centre of the show. I'd have her marry JR and then find out James is not JR's son..... there wasn't DNA evidence back then as far as I am aware.

I would also have thought about introducing some relatives from Miss Ellie's deceased brother, Garrison Southworth, and possibly giving him two daughters - twins, one good (like Bobby) and one bad (like Katherine or Kristin).

I would definitely have kept Michelle, as brassy as she was, and she was made part of the main cast too soon, Kimberly Foster was a real fine actress, and I would have had sink to rock bottom, and then climb her way back up again. She would have been a brilliant nemesis.

Just a few initial ideas......
 

Snarky Oracle!

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I would have released Jeremy Wendell from prison on a technicality
Oh, I would have released him within weeks of being incarcerated -- his arrest always seemed forced and unconvincing anyway. So I'd have JR and Bobby figure out Wendell had faked the entre thing for some nefarious reason.
 

Michelle Stevens

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I would definitely have kept Michelle, as brassy as she was, and she was made part of the main cast too soon, Kimberly Foster was a real fine actress, and I would have had sink to rock bottom, and then climb her way back up again. She would have been a brilliant nemesis.

:gp: Welcome to Soap Chat @MarkDallasAddict and I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. :obvious:
 

stevew

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This is a brilliant idea.

Season 15 would have been a great opportunity to reset the show as so many of the cast were gone (Pam, Sue Ellen, Donna, Ray, Miss Ellie, Clayton, April etc).

I would have released Jeremy Wendell from prison on a technicality, he would have been out for revenge against Carter McKay and the Ewings for having him sent down. I wouldn't have killed off McKay as George Kennedy was a fine actor and did a brilliant job, but I would have had Jeremy Wendell try and oust him from West Star.

I would have brought back Vanessa Beaumont. Hear me out on this. Dallas or Southfork needs a matriarch. If BBG was determined not to return as Miss Ellie I would not have replaced her, but I would have brought in a new matriarch and Vanessa could have done a brilliant job as the moral centre of the show. I'd have her marry JR and then find out James is not JR's son..... there wasn't DNA evidence back then as far as I am aware.

I would also have thought about introducing some relatives from Miss Ellie's deceased brother, Garrison Southworth, and possibly giving him two daughters - twins, one good (like Bobby) and one bad (like Katherine or Kristin).

I would definitely have kept Michelle, as brassy as she was, and she was made part of the main cast too soon, Kimberly Foster was a real fine actress, and I would have had sink to rock bottom, and then climb her way back up again. She would have been a brilliant nemesis.

Just a few initial ideas......

I totally agree with the reset and should have been done sooner. I agree with the matriarch but I’d have moved heaven and hell to get Sue Ellen back for the role.

Jeremy was a must - and Sue Ellen vs Jeremy was a reckoning. James had to go imo. JR needed another set of twenty something kids. Jeremy’s kids could be ready to take the reigns as well and join the right. A new Ewing Wendell feud.
 

stevew

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Oh, I would have released him within weeks of being incarcerated -- his arrest always seemed forced and unconvincing anyway. So I'd have JR and Bobby figure out Wendell had faked the entre thing for some nefarious reason.

Agree 100%
 

Kenny Coyote

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The approach they went with in the last few years looked like they justified everything they did with "The audience will never expect this", regardless of whether it made sense and if it was anything people would want to see. I guess if I were an actor who wasn't looking to make any trouble on the set and they'd asked me what I thought of the script, I would have said "It's unbelievable."
 

Laurie Marr

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They toyed with the idea of returning to the individual story per episode format of the early years. One advantage of that approach is that the writers would have been forced to make coherent and engaging storylines. In a way, it would have suited the 90s. Alas, the Ewing family had been reduced to a rump by 91 and so there wasn’t enough of them to sustain a season of individual stories.
 

Willie Oleson

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They toyed with the idea of returning to the individual story per episode format of the early years
Larry Hagman and Linda Gray mentioned that in an interview for Dutch television, but that was about season 12. And it wasn't just an idea, they said it was going to happen.
Did it?
 

Laurie Marr

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Larry Hagman and Linda Gray mentioned that in an interview for Dutch television, but that was about season 12. And it wasn't just an idea, they said it was going to happen.
Did it?
No it didn’t. The show (apart from a temporary reprieve provided by the oil tanker storyline) continued to limp on for a couple of more seasons.
 

Willie Oleson

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Funny that I should remember that interview after all those years, I also remember not liking the idea at all.
Linda Gray's last performance on Dallas (her threat about the JR movie) kind of felt like one of those stand-alone episodes.
 
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