What if JR had not died

Elizabeth Ewins

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I just read that Star Wars next movie will feature Princess Leia with Carrie Fisher. How? They are using old unreleased footage for the role. Now I see simularies between Star Wars and Dallas. They are both about families and their businesses and their relationships between family members. Its interesting,Carrie Fisher is dead but her charactor Princess Leia lives on. It makes me wonder if JR could have lived on with unreleased film footage. If he could have lived on what would his story have been. Its sad we will never know.The funny part is that JR did survive Larry Hagmans death but it was only to see JR plausibly killed off. I wonder what could have been.
 

Seaviewer

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As a practical matter, I doubt that there would be enough unused footage to put together but maybe they could have kept him alive offscreen, planning operations from the shadows, giving instructions to Bum via one-sided phone calls.

The Bold & The Beautiful's original Sally Spectra has survived Darlene Conley for years now.
 

Matthew Blaisdel

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It makes me wonder if JR could have lived on with unreleased film footage.

But that's what they did for his last appearances. Well... sort of. He never really had that last conversation over the phone with John Ross. ;)
 
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Rove

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The Bold & The Beautiful's original Sally Spectra has survived Darlene Conley for years now.
Slightly off topic but I recently read that myself. I thought that's an odd thing for the producers to leave hanging out there. Something similar happened recently in Neighbours (a show I don't watch) but read an article how the writers were going to deal with the death of an old character, two years after the death of the actor.

But back to this topic. Considering the circumstances surrounding Larry's ill health and death the creative types of TNT Dallas decided they needed to kill off J.R. Was this a knee-jerk reaction? Possibly. Could they have continued with the series where JR is alive off-screen for a little while longer? Yes. Especially if the writers continued with the story JR had been searching for Pam for several months. Nothing like a good yarn involving two of the most iconic characters to breath life into this series. Missed opportunity.
 

Michael Torrance

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THE COLBYS ended up using Connie in season 2, and she actually had a pivotal role in a plot from the past, though Barbara Stanwyck left --and that is more than the tangential way B&B has weirdly kept Sally alive drinking margaritas somewhere in Mexico. I think TNT Dallas could have kept JR longer as a shadow looming over the family same as Pam did, but frankly I think Cidre thought it was a blessing in disguise. After Hagman died, the de-Ewingization of the show accelerated, to the point that by the time the title sequence was completely like the original in season three, almost nothing else was.
 

Willie Oleson

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Could they have continued with the series where JR is alive off-screen for a little while longer? Yes. Especially if the writers continued with the story JR had been searching for Pam for several months.
How is that a satisfactory ending for JR? He wouldn't return anyway and Pam wouldn't be found anyway. It would be Pam's disappearance all over again.

They turned it into a great storyline and JR haunted the Ewings (especially Bobby and Cliff) from the grave. Even if Larry Hagman hadn't died, I still think they should have done it this way.
 

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The four things that nuDALLAS did right were: shooting in the fall and winter, casting Josh Henderson, JR's masterpiece, and the resolution of what happened to oldPam. (Okay, and maybe Mama Ryland).

But everything else was so wrongheaded that the ratings had plunged well before Larry died. So un-killing Larry couldn't have saved nuDALLAS.
 

Matthew Blaisdel

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Over in the original Dallas they kept Jock alive onscreen but unseen, which afterwards, when he finally was declared dead, resulted in one of Dallas' finest storylines ever - the war over Ewing Oil.
 
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Rove

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How is that a satisfactory ending for JR?
I'm not saying they should have kept JR alive off screen indefinitely but just long enough to explore the JR looking for Pam angle, which had me intrigued when Bum announced it to Christopher, Bobby and John Ross. Who knows where this could have led us. Instead of JR discovering Pam he instead stumbles upon Katherine Wentworth who in turn kills JR. Off course we see none of this and the family is clueless as NEWS filters through JR is found dead in Abu Dhabi.

Personally I would have enjoyed the air of mystery surrounding JR's death involving a former character or characters rather than the Ewing family visiting some obscure room in Mexico with white tape sprawled across the floor outlining where JR had died. But that's just me.
 

Rove

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An off-screen KW, do you think fans would have liked that?
:think:
Just to clarify myself a little here. After NEWS had reached Dallas JR was murdered in Abu Dhabi the writers could easily have created a scene where a body double was used as a stand in for Larry. We only see the back of him as he approaches a front door wearing that famous Stetson of his. The door opens and there stands Katherine Wentworth. The writers then use dialogue from Lorimar Dallas by having JR call out Katherine's name. End scene.

This of course creates the mystery I so desired around JR's death. It also allows a much loved but deeply flawed character from the past to return which I believe many would have appreciated because as others have pointed out here on Soapchat...some believe Katherine was involved with Pam's disappearance all those years ago. On the plus side I would have liked to see Katherine return to Dallas just to see the look on Bobby and Cliff's face.

As Matthew points out;
Over in the original Dallas they kept Jock alive onscreen but unseen, which afterwards, when he finally was declared dead, resulted in one of Dallas' finest storylines ever - the war over Ewing Oil.
Larry's ill health and death didn't require the writers of TNT Dallas to rush a story to the screen.
 
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Kenny Coyote

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Slightly off topic but I recently read that myself. I thought that's an odd thing for the producers to leave hanging out there. Something similar happened recently in Neighbours (a show I don't watch) but read an article how the writers were going to deal with the death of an old character, two years after the death of the actor.

But back to this topic. Considering the circumstances surrounding Larry's ill health and death the creative types of TNT Dallas decided they needed to kill off J.R. Was this a knee-jerk reaction? Possibly. Could they have continued with the series where JR is alive off-screen for a little while longer? Yes. Especially if the writers continued with the story JR had been searching for Pam for several months. Nothing like a good yarn involving two of the most iconic characters to breath life into this series. Missed opportunity.

They absolutely could have kept JR alive off screen for a while. I know because that's exactly what was done when Jim Davis died. The difference is that while keeping Jim Davis alive off screen served a purpose, keeping JR alive off screen would not have saved TNT Dallas from its inevitable fate.

Real Dallas did a wonderful job of keeping Jock a part of the storylines even when he was declared dead on Dallas. The best example is the way his memory was kept alive during the contest for Ewing Oil which was set up by the terms of Jocks will. That was brilliant! Even though Jock was dead, his memory loomed over Dallas heavily as both sons tried to continue earning his approval by striving to win the contest to each show Jock that his faith in each of them was well placed. Jock realized that control of Ewing Oil had to go to the best man for the job and that it would have been unfair to just gibe one of them control of the company without giving the other a chance to prove himself to be the most capable man for the job. Of course he ultimately wanted them to work together but had that not been possible, had the bus not been able to agree to do that, then only the most capable man for the job was deserving of becoming the man to follow in Jock's footsteps.

Realistically Jock could have pointed to Bobby quitting Ewing Oil when he had been given control of the company after JR had been shot. At first Bobby acted as if he didn't even want the prestigious position and acted as if he were just doing it as a favor to his parents. He showed his true feelings and motivations when he proved himself ruthless enough to renege on his agreement to only run Ewing Oil while JR was recovering from his gunshot wounds and actually used his brother's brush with death as a way to not only take control of the company but to then try to use JR's shooting as a way of permanently taking control of Ewing Oil away from JR. That showed how devious Bobby could be and that he would be a worthy adversary to JR in the future should they have to compete for control of the company. Bobby also expertly manipulated his mother's emotions into getting his way by threatening to take Pam and leave Southfork for good of Jock didn't give him power to run Ewing Oil as he saw fit.. He knew that would make Ellie advocate for him to Jock to allow Bobby to keep JR's job. That led to Jim Davis's finest single scene in Dallas when he gave Bobby the speech on "Real Power." "Nobody gives you power! Real power is something you take"! That scene can still give me goosebumps.

Despite all of Bobby's manipulations of his mother's emotions in order to get her to beg Jock to let Bobby keep JR' job long after JR had recovered from his wounds, despite Bobby originally saying he would only run Ewing Oil until JR recovered, ultimately Bobby found the stress of the job too much to take. He spoke of almost dong something he would have regretted (selling Brady out to Jeremy Wendell for the 15 million dollars Wendell agreed to give him as an incentive to make the deal with WestStar). He said words to the effect that he didn't ant any part of running Ewing Oil anymore because he hated being out in the middle of difficult situations such as the one between Brady's independent gas stations and WestStar, who were willing to offer more money for Bobby's oil than Brady did.

Jock could have referred to that in is will and said that Bobby displayed that he didn't have what was necessary to be the man in permanent control of Ewing Oil. Had he done that though, the viewers would have been deprived of seeing JR and Bobby in competition for the leadership of Ewing Oil during the contest made necessary by Jock's will. Seeing JR and Bobby in competition as per the stipulations of Jock's will was arguably the most exciting, long term storyline Dallas ever had!
 
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Lastkidpicked

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Yeah, but I really liked Bum
Watching Bum interact with Sue Ellen brings up a question:

Could Sue Ellen have gotten the upper hand from time to time if she had a person like Bum helping her?
 

Rove

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Watching Bum interact with Sue Ellen brings up a question:

Could Sue Ellen have gotten the upper hand from time to time if she had a person like Bum helping her?
It's the one constant throughout the story of Sue Ellen. She always found a way of burning a friendship, especially if she and JR were having good relations. The claws were out and the venom would spray at anyone criticizing her beloved. But when separated or divorced she wished to be everyone's best friend.

But this is what I love about the character. She loved. She hated. She drank. There was never a dull moment when Sue Ellen was around. Damn I miss this character.
 

lbf522

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I would have preferred something like with Jock's death. Any thing other than JR dying in some seedy Mexican hotel.
 
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