Why not another spin off?

[stevew]

With the great success of Dallas at one point, I always wondered why there wasn’t another spin off. Originally Knots Lansing and Dallas did a lot of cross over stuff, but that wasn’t necessary for most spin offs. And the two shows were very different in their concept. It just always seemed to me that instead of watch characters fizzle out or actors just get tired of the same gig, they should have looked at spin offs.

Maybe Lucy goes to NYC. Not an entire show about Lucy but like Knots Lansing, one character tied to a new show. Maybe a L.A. law sort of thing. Lucy’s modeling, taking art classes, dating an up and coming lawyer in a prestigious firm.

Or Bobby goes to D.C. He’s elected senator or congressman and spends most of his time in Washington and an ensuing political drama.

To me such a concept would have helped the main show as well. Those interested in Lucy and Bobby wouldn’t be disappointed in their absence. Certainly wouldn’t have had to go into the dream season idea if he were just off in D.C. If good ideas came up to use such characters again, they’re available. It also didn’t mean Dallas would be watered down but instead it might grown - instead of more JR as he’d always been, JR filling his daddy’s shoes. Larry Hagman was the one guy who could have filled Jim Davis’s void and then they could have groomed a second generation to fill JR’s void. Based on Hunt the possibilities were endless. But I think they were hesitant for JR to come out on top. But I digress.

Ant thoughts on missed spin offs opportunities from the original?

 

[Swami]

Were there some brief discussions about a possible Ray/Donna spin-off? I remember reading about that, I think in Barbara Curran's book.

Swami

 

[stevew]

Were there some brief discussions about a possible Ray/Donna spin-off? I remember reading about that, I think in Barbara Curran's book.

Swami

Interesting. Would Ray go with Donna to D.C. or would Donna go with Ray to Kansas?

I find the very idea interesting, to take relatively minor characters and move them. I guess Gary and Val were even more minor. Maybe there was a fear of moving a major character like Bobby or Pam so they ended up with these crazy kill them off story lines. To me Ray and Donna wouldn’t have crossed my mind because I would have thought of them as characters to develop on the original, Donna getting more involved in the oil business via its relationship to politics. Ray and Donna struggling to gave a family with a working mother. I wouldn’t want to strip the show of all talent.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

With the great success of Dallas at one point, I always wondered why there wasn’t another spin off. Originally Knots Lansing and Dallas did a lot of cross over stuff, but that wasn’t necessary for most spin offs. And the two shows were very different in their concept. It just always seemed to me that instead of watch characters fizzle out or actors just get tired of the same gig, they should have looked at spin offs.

Maybe Lucy goes to NYC. Not an entire show about Lucy but like Knots Lansing, one character tied to a new show. Maybe a L.A. law sort of thing. Lucy’s modeling, taking art classes, dating an up and coming lawyer in a prestigious firm.

Or Bobby goes to D.C. He’s elected senator or congressman and spends most of his time in Washington and an ensuing political drama.

To me such a concept would have helped the main show as well. Those interested in Lucy and Bobby wouldn’t be disappointed in their absence. Certainly wouldn’t have had to go into the dream season idea if he were just off in D.C. If good ideas came up to use such characters again, they’re available. It also didn’t mean Dallas would be watered down but instead it might grown - instead of more JR as he’d always been, JR filling his daddy’s shoes. Larry Hagman was the one guy who could have filled Jim Davis’s void and then they could have groomed a second generation to fill JR’s void. Based on Hunt the possibilities were endless. But I think they were hesitant for JR to come out on top. But I digress.

Ant thoughts on missed spin offs opportunities from the original?

My thoughts on Bobby being in a spin-off instead of in Dallas are echoed by these words Jock wrote in his letter to be read at the end of the contest for Ewing Oil: "My deepest wish is that at the end of this year, you two will have learned that you're far better off together than apart."

 

[Chris2]

There was talk of a Ray and Donna non-serialized spinoff set in Hawaii, possibly where they adopted a bunch of children. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Bobby was really needed on the main show.

I’m not sure who you could really spin off other then them. “Pornstache in Paradise” (Mark’s plane crash lands on some Polynesian island)? “Leslie Stewart: PR Lady”? “Katherine: On the Lam”? “Muriel”?

 

[stevew]

My thoughts on Bobby being in a spin-off instead of in Dallas are echoed by these words Jock wrote in his letter to be read at the end of the contest for Ewing Oil: "My deepest wish is that at the end of this year, you two will have learned that you're far better off together than apart."

There was talk of a Ray and Donna non-serialized spinoff set in Hawaii, possibly where they adopted a bunch of children. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Bobby was really needed on the main show.

I’m not sure who you could really spin off other then them. “Pornstache in Paradise” (Mark’s plane crash lands on some Polynesian island)? “Leslie Stewart: PR Lady”? “Katherine: On the Lam”? “Muriel”?

I’m not sure Bobby was needed. I liked the season with out him much better than the last few with him. His character just ran its course I felt. The last few years needed more character growth then rehashing. I also think an issue of interest toward the end of the series, the writers didn’t want to see JR win.

 

[Swami]

There was talk of a Ray and Donna non-serialized spinoff set in Hawaii, possibly where they adopted a bunch of children. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Bobby was really needed on the main show.

I’m not sure who you could really spin off other then them. “Pornstache in Paradise” (Mark’s plane crash lands on some Polynesian island)? “Leslie Stewart: PR Lady”? “Katherine: On the Lam”? “Muriel”?

Oh dear, the thought of a Leslie Stewart-inspired spin-off is too horrible to contemplate.

Swami

 

[Michael Torrance]

But we must not forget that Knots Landing only appears as a spin-off to the television audience, yet that concept was the first one David Jacobs had. After Dallas became wildly successful, he could have his much tamer show with the condition that a Ewing brother would be one of the couples. But Knots Landing eventually became successful on its own terms, not as a Dallas spin-off.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

I also think an issue of interest toward the end of the series, the writers didn’t want to see JR win.

There were lots of times during the peak years of Dallas that JR lost. He lost the contest with Bobby. His scheme to bankrupt Cliff backfired and Cliff became successful. Towards the end of the series, they took the character of JR into a new direction of not just losing but outright incompetence and nobody wanted to see that! The ratings show prove it. The less competent JR was shown to be, the less people watched.

 

[Chris2]

There were lots of times during the peak years of Dallas that JR lost. He lost the contest with Bobby. His scheme to bankrupt Cliff backfired and Cliff became successful. Towards the end of the series, they took the character of JR into a new direction of not just losing but outright incompetence and nobody wanted to see that! The ratings show prove it. The less competent JR was shown to be, the less people watched.

Well put. The Haleyville storyline is a perfect example of this. This storyline would never have happened in the prime years of the show. And if it had, it would have ended with J.R. paving over Haleyville for a huge shopping mall, or something equally punitive.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

Well put. The Haleyville storyline is a perfect example of this. This storyline would never have happened in the prime years of the show. And if it had, it would have ended with J.R. paving over Haleyville for a huge shopping mall, or something equally punitive.

Yes! That's a great example of how that story could have ended.

JR was not the kind of character that people wanted to see beaten down badly, or having become incompetent. JR could lose to keep other characters relevant such as losing custody of John Ross to Sue Ellen, since they have to, to keep her relevant. If he divorces her and gets custody of John Ross, there would be nothing much for Sue Ellen to do, so she has to keep at least one type of power - custody of John Ross - to remain relevant in the show.

A JR who was still a threat was an entertaining JR - that's why we had so much fun when he was still very dangerous. A JR who has become too incompetent to be taken seriously is not an entertaining JR.

If people wanted to see JR get "payback" for all the years he was underhanded, fans would have gotten n their phones and called all their friends when JR was sent to prison in Haleyville. They would have called their friends who had quit watching and said: "I know you quit watching Dallas, but, what's going on right now is exactly what you had always been waiting to see: JR is in prison and working in a chain gang"! Except that didn't happen because people didn't want to see that.

Face it, if you were watching Dallas since the beginning and your biggest hope was to see JR get his comeuppance for the bad things he did - You were watching the wrong show! Nobody would wait 10 seasons just to finally see JR lose Ewing Oil. If your hope was to see JR lose Ewing Oil, you were going to be watching for many years, and be very disappointed for a very, very long time until you got your "reward."

How did the executives in charge of how the storylines went and decided how JR was portrayed not learn any of the above???

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

I would have gone with at least one spinoff based on the early season minor characters.

In addition to the above-mentioned Muriel (a no-brainer for network execs if there ever was one), who wouldn't tune into a new series called Garr focusing on the life and career of the dynamic Willie Joe Garr? ...or perhaps the gang who kidnapped Bobby, or marauding one-man crime spree Willie Gust of Kidnapped, or a series where the dastardly Edison Faraday Haynes criscrosses the country attempting to bilk the families of women he married while on leave in Juarez before shipping out to 'Nam? (there were dozens in addition to Pam) Garnet and the Guzzler, chronicling the dynamic duo's scheme to take over the entertainment industry would have been a sure-fire megahit. The possibilities are endless!

 

[Chris2]

Mr. Eugene and Wife. An elderly oilman solves mysteries in his spare time, with the help of his sexy, younger wife.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Strait-Jessica. Lady Montfort slips out of the asylum and into her own horror spin-off occurring in a sleepy hamlet where the townspeople keep getting murdered mysteriously -- sort of like Murder, She Wrote, only in reverse: the star doesn't solve the crimes every week, she commits them.

 

[stevew]

But we must not forget that Knots Landing only appears as a spin-off to the television audience, yet that concept was the first one David Jacobs had. After Dallas became wildly successful, he could have his much tamer show with the condition that a Ewing brother would be one of the couples. But Knots Landing eventually became successful on its own terms, not as a Dallas spin-off.

Good point. The powers that be don’t seem to have had it in mind to have even created one spin off, it just kind of happened. And it was successful. But I’m left puzzled as to why? If one was successful, and the original was so highly rated, why not go for another? Was there some distaste among executives for linking dramas at the time?

 

[stevew]

There were lots of times during the peak years of Dallas that JR lost. He lost the contest with Bobby. His scheme to bankrupt Cliff backfired and Cliff became successful. Towards the end of the series, they took the character of JR into a new direction of not just losing but outright incompetence and nobody wanted to see that! The ratings show prove it. The less competent JR was shown to be, the less people watched.

good point.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

Were there some brief discussions about a possible Ray/Donna spin-off? I remember reading about that, I think in Barbara Curran's book.

Swami

I wouldn't be surprised if there had been a spin-off in mind for Donna which was going to a half-hour sitcom to be titled "Donna Knows Best."

 

[Jon Ewing Jr.]

Should have done something with the "charleton" Wes Parmalee

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

I once read that during the very development stages of Flamingo Road that it was to have been a spin off of both Dallas and Knots Landing, in which from Dallas, Cliff Barnes was to have moved there, while Annie Fairgate and a nephew of Sid Fairgate were to come from Knots.

 

[Toni]

"Darius, the Horse in High Heels", starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Special Guest Stars: Babe and Miss Piggy.