Would Victoria Have Stayed 1 More Season If She Hadn't Been Misled About Pam Dying In The Accident?

Angela Channing

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The producers effectively wrote Pam out long before she left the series. In her final season they didn't give her a single decent storyline and she was reduced to a character that just a sidekick to Bobby or Cliff. Victoria was shrewd and knew that Dallas's best days were in the past and the time was right to move on to do other things.
 
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Karin Schill

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I think the fact that we are still talking about this proves that there will never be a way to truly get closure to Pam's story that will satisfy all of the fans.

Personally I hated what TNT did with it and wish they would have left it alone unless they had actually planned to bring her back. I know I am not alone either as some people I knew tuned out after it was revealed that Pam had died all those years ago and just gave up on the show. :(

Oh and to answer the original question. I wish VP would have stayed one more season or at least come back for the final episode to give us closure and a happy ending for Bobby and Pam. But I don't think she would have stayed one more season even if she had known. It was time to move on and she made her decision based on what was right for her and not what was right for the fans.
 
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TJames03

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If I were VP, I would have demanded am onscreen death that couldn't leave any doubts that Pam was dead.
 

Rove

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If I were VP, I would have demanded am onscreen death that couldn't leave any doubts that Pam was dead.
Well, I'm guessing Patrick requested the same scenario and look what occurred there. Victoria has stated herself she said goodbye to the character when she filmed "Pam's fatal car accident." The assumption here is Victoria believed that was it. Done. Dusted. Finished. "I cannot be held responsible for any choices made by producers, once I left ‘Dallas’."

You'll note the word fatal. Victoria is stating in her own words she considered those finals scenes the end of her tenure with Dallas.
 

MenaceTheDennis

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Victoria knew Pam was alive when she did a Letterman episode shortly after she left the show and stated someone was on the show wrapped in bandages. I'm not sure why she thinks it was fatal in her statement about not being on Dallas TNT. Poorly worded or faulty memory who knows. Dallas being Dallas it's hard for me to believe she actually thought the car accident would be fatal considering how they brought Duffy back.
 

tommie

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I dunno
Victoria knew Pam was alive when she did a Letterman episode shortly after she left the show and stated someone was on the show wrapped in bandages. I'm not sure why she thinks it was fatal in her statement about not being on Dallas TNT. Poorly worded or faulty memory who knows. Dallas being Dallas it's hard for me to believe she actually thought the car accident would be fatal considering how they brought Duffy back.

Well, to be fair - shows films months in advance and in this instance the show had to also start writing early because of an impending writers strike.

So, it's possible that at the time of filming Victoria didn't know the fate of Pam, but found out as the season finale had aired. In her head it was still her, dun dun duuuun, swan song. She wasn't coming back and they didn't really re-cast her but that one brief scene. She didn't create the character so she really had no power what the writers decided to do with Pam anyway - just that for her Pam was dunzo. And I think she was right.
 

TJames03

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Oh, she was right... but it seemed odd that someone so astute wouldn't have seen the oddly glaring inconsistencies RE: Pam's "fatal" car accident......
 

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Heaven forbid people in the public eye tell conflicting or contradictory versions of things. Especially if they're pretty.
 

pete lashmar

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Reading between the lines of what she had said in various interviews, most notably that the first 5 years were fantastic, I suspect that VP was too professional to make her true feelings on Bobby's resurrection known. Any criticism would have been seen as an attack on execs and PD in particular. Therefore, when she left she never had any intention whatsoever of returning - alas her storyline & character were then totally destroyed by the writers.

She was absolutely right to leave when she did & I admire her for taking the decision and sticking with it.
 

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Reading between the lines of what she had said in various interviews, most notably that the first 5 years were fantastic, I suspect that VP was too professional to make her true feelings on Bobby's resurrection known. Any criticism would have been seen as an attack on execs and PD in particular. Therefore, when she left she never had any intention whatsoever of returning - alas her storyline & character were then totally destroyed by the writers.

She was absolutely right to leave when she did & I admire her for taking the decision and sticking with it.
No doubt she was right to leave when she did. But "too professional" is a matter of opinion -- as David Jacobs said a couple of years ago, she didn't have the best relationship with the DALLAS executives and that that shouldn't affect the way a character is written out on screen, but sometimes it does anyway.

i.e., Pam and her exit were swept under the rug because the brass didn't like Victoria.

This is a woman who was able to shut down the entire Lorimar studio circa 1986 when she was pissed off about something ("Victoria knows how to play the game," said a co-worker).

Whether those actions and behavior were warranted or not, we're not in a position to say. But the fawning idea that Victoria was some kind of shrinking violet -- and one who always tells the truth -- is downright silly. Even she'd think so... although she'd appreciate the support, while holding you in contempt simultaneously.

 
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MenaceTheDennis

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I believe she did have an exit plan in leaving Dallas. There are interviews in the early to mid 80s where she said she didn't plan on staying with the show for its entire run. I really believe she was negotiating for one more season (1987-1988) and that was going to be it for her, but the producers balked at her salary demands.

I would've been irked too to see Duffy return to the show and get a raise while still not making what he was. The Pam character in my opinion was even more important than Bobby and she at the very least deserved parity with Duffy. Plus she stood by the show when he leaves it at its near peak and then he gets rewarded for returning making more money than her.

I don't believe however that they made her an offer to make her the highest paid actress on TV like she says. She probably WANTED this much money. She also claims there was no amount of money that could make her stay when it was common knowledge in the media she was negotiating with the show. Come off it Victoria! Loved what she brought to Dallas but there is a huge ego there to be served.
 
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Snarky Oracle!

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I believe she did have an exit plan in leaving Dallas. There are interviews in the early to mid 80s where she said she didn't plan on staying with the show for its entire run. I really believe she was negotiating for one more season (1987-1988) and that was going to be it for her, but the producers balked at her salary demands.

I would've been irked too to see Duffy return to the show and get a raise while still not making what he was. The Pam character in my opinion was even more important than Bobby and she at the very least deserved parity with Duffy. Plus she stood by the show when he leaves it at its near peak and then gets rewarded for returning making more money than her.

I don't believe however that they made her an offer to make her the highest paid actress on TV like she says. She probably WANTED this much money. She also claims there was no amount of money that could make her stay when it was common knowledge in the media she was negotiating with the show. Come off it Victoria! Loved what she brought to Dallas but there is a huge ego there to be served.
Yes.

Her claims that they offered to make her the highest paid actress on TV might be true, though, because that still may not have given her parity with Duffy -- they gave him a ton of cash to return, because Larry and Lenny wanted him back. At the time, Linda Evans (not Joan Collins) was TV's highest paid actress, so Lorimar may very well have offered to exceed that.

But I agree that she had every right to demand that she be paid as much as Patrick, given that they were the introductory Romeo & Juliet couple of DALLAS.
 

pete lashmar

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Wasn't the production shutdown due to her refusal to say the word fagot
(or another slang word) for a character that was Gay?

If it was then it was during an era of our History when AIDS was rearing it's head and gay people were under enormous scrutiny. VP refused to use the word in the script, causing a shutdown.

To me, that's someone standing up and having a serious opinion on something that millions of viewers will see and hear her character say worldwide (and probably not a word Pam would use),and I applaud her for asking for the word "Gay" to be used instead. If execs had just agreed, and it's something they could have done in a second, then production wouldn't have been halted.
 

Snarky Oracle!

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Wasn't the production shutdown due to her refusal to say the word fagot
(or another slang word) for a character that was Gay?

If it was then it was during an era of our History when AIDS was rearing it's head and gay people were under enormous scrutiny. VP refused to use the word in the script, causing a shutdown.

To me, that's someone standing up and having a serious opinion on something that millions of viewers will see and hear her character say worldwide (and probably not a word Pam would use),and I applaud her for asking for the word "Gay" to be used instead. If execs had just agreed, and it's something they could have done in a second, then production wouldn't have been halted.
I know, I know you all want to praise Principal's principles and integrity. So applaud away. But when was there a(n openly) gay character on DALLAS after 1978?

Victoria said she'd refused to use a slang word for gay in a script. True or not, that's apparently not what this shut down was about.
 

tommie

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I dunno
I know, I know you all want to praise Principal's principles and integrity. So applaud away. But when was there a(n openly) gay character on DALLAS after 1978?

Victoria said she'd refused to use a slang word for gay in a script. True or not, that's apparently not what this shut down was about.

Um, refusing to use a slang word for gay actually shows a lot of integrity - she might have not been comfortable with using the word "fag" (I assume that's the word you're referring to) as she knew it was degrading and insulting as well.

Queen V forever.
 

Snarky Oracle!

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Um, refusing to use a slang word for gay actually shows a lot of integrity - she might have not been comfortable with using the word "fag" (I assume that's the word you're referring to) as she knew it was degrading and insulting as well.

Queen V forever.
You're not listening. That's not what the 1986 shut down was about -- it was eight years later.

Victoria doesn't even need to make things up when her fawning fans do it for her!
 

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She is amazing. Queen VP actually is on her way to cure cancer and wrinkles. You will still stay hatin' I bet!
You're not reading. The shut down had nothing to do with her supposedly refusing to say a gay slur -- there hadn't been a gay character on the show for 8 years.

And it sounds like one of her made up stories anyway.
 
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