How about a Dallas reboot?

Grant Jennings

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I think a reboot could work if it were taken seriously and produced for a streaming service or premium cable channel. Twelve episodes a season, high production values with a lot of location filming. I'd start the story earlier, prior to Bobby and Pam getting together. Maybe have Gary still living at Southfork. The characters should be close to the originals but I wouldn't want the plots to be outright copies. Southfork needs to be huge, closer to the mansion in the original mini-series, not the cramped quarters of the Duncan Ranch.
 

Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

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I think a reboot could work if it were taken seriously and produced for a streaming service or premium cable channel. Twelve episodes a season, high production values with a lot of location filming. I'd start the story earlier, prior to Bobby and Pam getting together. Maybe have Gary still living at Southfork. The characters should be close to the originals but I wouldn't want the plots to be outright copies. Southfork needs to be huge, closer to the mansion in the original mini-series, not the cramped quarters of the Duncan Ranch.

I was with you until you mentioned using a bigger ranch.

For me the Duncan Acres Ranch is Southfork. It shouldn't be changed. It's far too iconic. :)

southfork3.jpg
 

stevew

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I think a reboot could work if it were taken seriously and produced for a streaming service or premium cable channel. Twelve episodes a season, high production values with a lot of location filming. I'd start the story earlier, prior to Bobby and Pam getting together. Maybe have Gary still living at Southfork. The characters should be close to the originals but I wouldn't want the plots to be outright copies. Southfork needs to be huge, closer to the mansion in the original mini-series, not the cramped quarters of the Duncan Ranch.
I've got you but to me they really have to diverge from the original, including the location, to really set it up on it's own. If they get to close to the original as a reboot then to me it would just be trying to act out what we already saw and in the first years it was so at the top of it's game anything they attempt would look like a failure. I'd go with: a northern city in the chemical industry tied to a dairy farm set in 2022 where the name of the farm is Dallas, keeping the same cast formation and names and the broad story line the same - and then see what happens.
 

Willie Oleson

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Also there is another series named LAND MAN from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan which is about the era of the oil boom and bust of West Texas.
Wow, Sheridan is really sinking his teeth into this, isn't he. Yellowstone + two prequel spin-offs + Land Man!
 

Pamela_E

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I've got you but to me they really have to diverge from the original, including the location, to really set it up on it's own. If they get to close to the original as a reboot then to me it would just be trying to act out what we already saw and in the first years it was so at the top of it's game anything they attempt would look like a failure. I'd go with: a northern city in the chemical industry tied to a dairy farm set in 2022 where the name of the farm is Dallas, keeping the same cast formation and names and the broad story line the same - and then see what happens.

There is no point having a reboot without touch points with the original series.

The whole reason Dallas worked was kind captured by that ranch. It wasn't some massive mansion, it was a working ranch, these were working class people who lived the American dream and made good.

I think that is still important for any reboot. The shows sense of nostalgia to the past with their home was part of the shows charm.

But on the flipside I think it would be really weird seeing new actors playing the parts in the same house. It would be like Sue Ellen's movie :)

I still think it should be called Southfork, even if it looks different.
 

Grant Jennings

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A prequel or a continuation. Obviously all about Muriel Gillis, the Ewings' accountant for 60 years.

The show begins with a reporter going to visit the elderly Muriel, her health is deteriorating but mentally she's as sharp as a tack. The show begins as a series of flashbacks told from Muriel's perspective. She wouldn't have to be in every scene, she could relate stories she heard around the office water-cooler. Muriel would function similarly to Mary Alice on Desperate Housewives.
 

Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

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The show begins with a reporter going to visit the elderly Muriel, her health is deteriorating but mentally she's as sharp as a tack. The show begins as a series of flashbacks told from Muriel's perspective. She wouldn't have to be in every scene, she could relate stories she heard around the office water-cooler. Muriel would function similarly to Mary Alice on Desperate Housewives.
I can see it now!

"My name is Muriel Gillis and this is Eden! Here my Father was King. On the day he died, I was 23. Lonely and afraid. If I'd known of the nightmare which followed, I think I'd have chosen to die with him!"

Let's call it Return To Eden instead though rather than Dallas! :D
 

stevew

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There is no point having a reboot without touch points with the original series.

The whole reason Dallas worked was kind captured by that ranch. It wasn't some massive mansion, it was a working ranch, these were working class people who lived the American dream and made good.

I think that is still important for any reboot. The shows sense of nostalgia to the past with their home was part of the shows charm.

But on the flipside I think it would be really weird seeing new actors playing the parts in the same house. It would be like Sue Ellen's movie :)

I still think it should be called Southfork, even if it looks different.
I agree. I’m not saying make it a mansion like dynasty, but a working farm. To some extent you are correct that Jock was a working class guy who made good but in no way were his sons working class and certainly Miss Ellie and Sue Ellen we not Jock rich, but they were blue bloods. So I don’t agree the whole show was based on this working class people made good. But yes I agree with the role the house and ranch played but there are lots of places all over the us like that.

The reason I called the farm Dallas us because I don’t believe a reboot should be in the city of Dallas, so to keep the name I’d name the farm Dallas. Maybe chance Miss Ellie’s maiden name to Dallas. I agree the “touch points” must be there but the rest should be significantly different and current. If not just watch the DVD’s.
 

Rove

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The whole reason Dallas worked was kind captured by that ranch. It wasn't some massive mansion, it was a working ranch, these were working class people who lived the American dream and made good.
...and why many of us could easily relate to Dallas and the Ewing family. Though rich the family was relatable and touchable. They could easily have been our next door neighbours. I think that was clever on the writers part in those early seasons of Dallas; not thrusting the wealth component in our face. I look back at Southfork and think, "My goodness that house is a mansion." It wasn't. It's truly a beautiful home (not the real interior) and sits comfortably in its environment which Miss Ellie so dearly loved and protected.

If a reboot wanted any type of success it would have to use Southfork Ranch. New actors walking those grounds would feel the presence of Jim Davis, Barbara Bel Geddes, Howard Keel and Larry Hagman. Perhaps this would be incentive enough to ensure a reboot wished to emulate the success of Lorimar Dallas. Possibly not on the same scale but if those behind the scenes created something extraordinary...well I might just get on board.

Crikey. Am I changing my tune? Perhaps it's my desperate need to care once again for the Ewing family...in whatever form.
 

Willie Oleson

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It wasn't some massive mansion, it was a working ranch
It's possible to have both.
The Highlands Ranch Mansion also featured in the mini-series CENTENNIAL (renamed as the Venneford Ranch).
1631308528748.png

The Southfork house is iconic but I prefer the mansion from the mini-series. The Ewings are not supposed to look like our "neighbours" imho.
It's TEXAS, the word "small" doesn't even exist in their vocabulary.
 

Snarky Oracle!

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With Sue Ellen living in the posh Southfork attic, overseeing all the ranch from her regal perch...


With JR's portrait hanging in the living room where Jock's was .... and not that lame painting from the 2012 reboot.

Maybe this one, where JR's eyes follow you around the room:


 
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stevew

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There’s two options here - a continuation where yes we should see a picture of Larry Hagman as JR at least at some point, and South Fork should feel like the original. But then there’s a reboot. In a reboot we would not see LH. And South Fork should not be the house we know but a new house and a new interpretation. If we just do the original over again why bother? Buy the DVD’s. I’m good with either.
 

Rove

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Here is a property which I find would sit well with a Dallas reboot. The property sits about 15 minutes drive from Round Top, Texas. While not in or anywhere near Dallas I think if the Dynasty producers could hoodwink an audience into the thinking the Carrington (Filoli) mansion actually sat in Denver, Colorado then anything is possible.
House.jpg
This property has a similar vibe to Southfork and just look at that land, no new builds surrounding it which is happening with Southfork. The above property even has a little attached house for JR and Sue Ellen. @Snarky Oracle will be pleased it has an attic for his beloved Sue Ellen if she ever has to move out of JR's bedroom. The swimming pool is a given for a dead body. And that silo I see in the distance is perfect for Lucy to peer back at the house through her binoculars when Bobby brings home that Barnes woman.​
 
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Karin Schill

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I never thought of the Ewings as being working class. Ray Krebbs was working class, Pam and Cliff were working class.
But not the Ewings. They were upper middle class at least or new money. They were not blue bloods.
 
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