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Oh, yes. But Victoria's acting had improved so much (really, by Season 6) that Pam still seemed "stronger" because of it... And, y'know, her mid-season plastic surgery.
Oh, yes. But Victoria's acting had improved so much (really, by Season 6) that Pam still seemed "stronger" because of it... And, y'know, her mid-season plastic surgery.
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they’re just plastic surgery fiends down there in South America! Random bandits abduct Pam from camp for a quick facelift even as the major reconstruction of Jock Ewing into Ben Stivers and/or Wes Parmalee had recently reached its conclusion… Dr. Mitchell Cooper would have wielded like the 8th-sharpest scalpel in the average small-town Uruguayan clinic.
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You could see the fatigue setting in even before Bobby left:
- The silly retcon of the Ewing Oil origin story, now with Jason Ewing, and Jock legitimately buying out Digger and his never-before-mentioned brother (wouldn’t Jock have told Ellie this story at some point?).
- The introduction of the Ewing cousins (note to soap opera writers: cousin relationships are generally not as compelling as sibling relationships).
- Miss Elie’s dull new marriage, which added nothing to the show.
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Although I don't view those things as retcons per se, there's no question that there was a bit of a pall over Season 8 -- which I attribute, if not entirely, to the recasting of Miss Ellie. There was a sense that something special had now been ruined.
Also, a series has a natural arc, and DALLAS' was probably seven years (Season 8 in TV talk)... 1978 to 1985.
I'd've hated to have missed Season 10 (although not the dream resolution which opened it). But Bobby's death, and the months leading up to it, had a finality about we even mentioned at the time.
But that was true about all the nighttime soaps by the Spring of 1985 -- a slightly forlorn sense of ambivalent closure.
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I did notice her face being more rounded just after she was released by the kidnappers (actually, previously too, in the few scenes she did in the episode when she arrived at "The Cats, Colombia", which makes me think that, if she hadn´t had "back problems" then, the plot would have been different...Meeting Ben Stivers there? I wouldn´t have minded that!) but Victoria might have been taking meds for her abovementioned "problems" that affected her looks somehow.
Oh and plastic surgery, at least now, is terribly cheap and frequent in South America (not kidding!).
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I don´t see that as retcons either. I have aunts and cousins I don´t mention by rule (don´t ask why) so the Ewings ignoring everything Jason-related is believable to me. The worst about Miss Ellie wasn´t the recasting only, but the fact that post-Dream Season, her marriage became as dull as Donna Reed´s Ellie´s, only a crying fest for BBG, and having her limited to this kind of scenes is just a crime.
I‘m not saying they retconned Jason’s existence. It’s that they retconned the Ewing Oil origin story.
In the first season, Jock tells Pamela his side of the story of how the feud started: Jock and Digger struck oil, and Jock decided to register the claim in his name only, in order to prevent Digger from gambling his share away. Digger misunderstood and thought Jock was trying to steal from him and went after him with a gun. So Jock decided to keep the well in retaliation, and built Ewing Oil from this well.
In season 8, the Ewing Oil origin story changed. Now, they said that Jason was a partner in the original strike, along with Jock and Digger. Jason and Digger sold their shares of Ewing Oil to Wallace. Windham, who then sold them to Jock. That contradicts the season 1 explanation, that Jock was always the sole legal owner of the well.
In the first season, Jock tells Pamela his side of the story of how the feud started: Jock and Digger struck oil, and Jock decided to register the claim in his name only, in order to prevent Digger from gambling his share away. Digger misunderstood and thought Jock was trying to steal from him and went after him with a gun. So Jock decided to keep the well in retaliation, and built Ewing Oil from this well.
In season 8, the Ewing Oil origin story changed. Now, they said that Jason was a partner in the original strike, along with Jock and Digger. Jason and Digger sold their shares of Ewing Oil to Wallace. Windham, who then sold them to Jock. That contradicts the season 1 explanation, that Jock was always the sole legal owner of the well.
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they introduced/shoehorned Amanda Ewing and Hutch McKinney into the backstory, but in that case a main character was actively hiding that info from the other characters and revealed it to them (and us) in dramatic scenes.
With Jason it was just.. not a word for 7 years, and then “oh of course, you must be Jason’s daughter, ol’ Tumbleweed himself!” — everyone had known about Jason all along but just never bothered to mention him. I’d say there wasn’t occasion to mention him, but we’d heard about Jock and Digger and their feud enough times and from enough sources that it’s weird that Jason wouldn’t have come up.
If it had led to big-payoff storylines, that would have been one thing, but… the “replacement hot girl” from Three’s Company and the Taj Mahal of Nervous Chuckles (who mysteriously was never allowed to even kiss his “love interests”), neither of whom amounted to much of anything dramatically.. (well, Jamie dying 3 or 4 times was kind of interesting)
I guess the whole thing ultimately gave us “Cliff with a chunk of Ewing Oil” and Jack’s ex April?
With Jason it was just.. not a word for 7 years, and then “oh of course, you must be Jason’s daughter, ol’ Tumbleweed himself!” — everyone had known about Jason all along but just never bothered to mention him. I’d say there wasn’t occasion to mention him, but we’d heard about Jock and Digger and their feud enough times and from enough sources that it’s weird that Jason wouldn’t have come up.
If it had led to big-payoff storylines, that would have been one thing, but… the “replacement hot girl” from Three’s Company and the Taj Mahal of Nervous Chuckles (who mysteriously was never allowed to even kiss his “love interests”), neither of whom amounted to much of anything dramatically.. (well, Jamie dying 3 or 4 times was kind of interesting)
I guess the whole thing ultimately gave us “Cliff with a chunk of Ewing Oil” and Jack’s ex April?
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I do think that Season 9 has suffered unfairly by being lumbered retrospectively with the label "dream season." It was real when we first saw it, and is not responsible for the dream explanation added after.
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Oh, no. Although it didn't help.
We complained about what a mawkish mess Season 9 was at the time... The dream explanation certainly preserved the year's errors in amber, and had the unfortunate effect of trivializing the kooky brilliance of the season that it was opening.
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Season 9 started out strong but then it became too sappy. As has been said here before, JR should have been more ruthless than ever, Pam should have stayed at Ewing Oil and her lack of business expertise should have been woven into the plot. She should have enlisted Donna to mentor her, and Pam should have pulled the rug put from under JR vis-a-vis tjat emerald mine thing because, as she explained later, Bobby never mentioned emeralds to her, but she played along with it to mislead JR.
Also, someone should have casually mentioned that Muss Ellie changed the way she dressed and JR, Bobby, and Ray should have all been angry about her giving SF to Clayton.
Sue Ellen should have spent longer getting sober, and a pregnant Jenna should have left with Charlie.
Also, someone should have casually mentioned that Muss Ellie changed the way she dressed and JR, Bobby, and Ray should have all been angry about her giving SF to Clayton.
Sue Ellen should have spent longer getting sober, and a pregnant Jenna should have left with Charlie.
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that’s a good one! I was thinking maybe they could have had her hire Dave Stratton (that Weststar exec who was Cliff’s old friend who may have had a bit of a thing for Pam a couple of years prior) to be her GM or executive consultant or similar..
The story could have been that he was sick of being under Wendell (whom he realized would never retire and hand him the reins) and also liked Pam and was not a fan of JR, and wanted to try something new.
Plenty of opportunity for drama there! Did he have designs on Pam and her chunk of Ewing Oil? Was he a double agent for Wendell or JR, or even Cliff and the Cartel, who still had a grudge about the Asian Wells doublecross?
Was he a reconstructed Mark Graison, who’d been badly burned in a plane crash during his quest for a cure for his disease? Nah…
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aha, that proves that Bobby loved Jenna more than Pam! He didn’t even tell Pam about his love of emeralds! What a farce that reconciliation was - he just felt guilty about Christopher, just like he did with Charlie when he thought she was his daughter..
no wonder Katherine almost sort of ran him down!
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If Bobby didn't feel guilty all the time he probably would have bedded Katherine.
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I didn't.
But I do concede that point. It was a great disappointment when Pam sold out - both literally and figuratively.
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Holly too.
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heh, I’d say I volunteer to retroactively do it in Bobby’s stead, but this is a family site!
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Not to mention a family show.. The Cosby show of Friday nights! Or was it that Cosby was the Dallas of Thursday nights..I dunno. Now I'm so confused. 
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I agree with a lot of the others that feel that season 9 started out promisingly enough. They were just too quick to put Pam right back into Mark's arms, and out of the Ewing Oil conflict. I don't think the quality of season 9 was all that different from 8..it might even be a little more interesting, but neither season is a favorite of mine. I just felt bringing Mark back that fast just seemed kinda tacky, when Pam supposedly just lost the love of her life.
Was it as offensively handled as Bobby's stubborn coolness towards Pam in season 11? Heck no, but she didn't need to have a man that fast.
For me, season 9 actually seems kind of like a season for a series that's coming to a close, at least in some respects. I know that was nowhere in the game plan at that point, but the way a lot of the main characters started being kinder to one another..I dunno. I could have seen this being the last season, but then had it been, that might make one just wish they had ended it with "Swan Song". So, if Swan Song wasn't going to be the ending, I'm glad season 9 didn't end up being the closing season. That said, the way the show proceeded forward, we had to do some major suspension of disbelief.
Was it as offensively handled as Bobby's stubborn coolness towards Pam in season 11? Heck no, but she didn't need to have a man that fast.
For me, season 9 actually seems kind of like a season for a series that's coming to a close, at least in some respects. I know that was nowhere in the game plan at that point, but the way a lot of the main characters started being kinder to one another..I dunno. I could have seen this being the last season, but then had it been, that might make one just wish they had ended it with "Swan Song". So, if Swan Song wasn't going to be the ending, I'm glad season 9 didn't end up being the closing season. That said, the way the show proceeded forward, we had to do some major suspension of disbelief.
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