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We all know Conundrum did a rubbish version of It's a Wonderful with its "what would have happened if JR hadn't been born?" thing. A more interesting variation would have bee n "What would have happened if Mitch has no sister?" Cliff dies from his overdose, Bobby dies from being shot, nobody picks up on Clayton's feelings for Sue Ellen or Katherine's obsession with Bobby, Christopher has no-one to marry in the opening episode of New Dallas ...
JR wouldn’t have strayed at Lucy’s wedding, which means he and Sue Ellen would have still been together, so Cliff wouldn’t have been after Sue Ellen the following year, so no suicide attempt.
Rebecca wouldn’t have been on the warpath against the Ewings and JR the following year, and with no Crash of ‘83, Bobby and Pam would have stayed together.
Without the pressure of having a megatalented younger sister (the true cause of his stubborn pride), Mitch would have been a better husband and he and Lucy would have stayed together.
Mickey Trotter wouldn’t have been urged to jump in the car with Sue Ellen, who wouldn’t have been drunk, so he would have been alive and ambulatory and free to marry his true soulmate, Muriel Gillis.
Young Peter Richards would have been a positive mentor to John Ross, and with no reason to develop a Sue Ellen obsession, would have gone on to be a well-respected psychologist, eventually going into partnership with Dr. Ellby (in more ways than one, some would speculate).
With Bobby and Pam happily together and Rebecca still alive, Katherine wouldn’t have developed her Bobby fixation, and would have worked her way up to lead reporter at KGIM, eventually beating out Dan Rather and Connie Chung for the head job at CBS, quickly becoming the nation’s most respected news anchor since Walter Cronkite.
The Dream Season wouldn’t have happened, since Katherine would have had no reason to don a blonde wig, throw tomato juice at the TV, and run Bobby down in a Buick.
Jenna and Charlie would have stayed wherever they were before they reappeared on the show, and Ray and Donna would have worked out their differences and adopted Tony and also a blind girl played by the versatile Shalane McCall.
Basically, everyone would have been happy and the show would have brought such joy to viewers that it would have stayed on air so long that the only ‘New Dallas’ would have been the relatively brief switch back to self-contained episodes, with the one featuring Bobby tracking down his basketball coach winning an Emmy.
Eventually, Cidre would have taken over as showrunner and brought in some of her more modern, audience-expanding ideas without alienating existing fans. The show would still be on air, more popular than ever, with Eric Farlow in his rightful place as Christopher Ewing, TV’s most compelling character.
It’s all Afton’s fault that none of this happened.
