Once Bobby was resurrected there was no way Wes was going to turn out to be Jock. They weren’t bringing two characters back from the dead so I think that Ben stood a much better chance of being Jock than Wes ever did.Yeah, the Ben Stivers character maybe would've stood a better chance of staying on the show as a recast Jock Ewing.
Was the plan to make Wes turn out to be Jock and then they changed their minds at the last minute due to fan backlash or was it never even seriously considered? I was kind of young at the time.
I've heard there was a fan backlash not receptive to Steve Forrest playing Jock which they felt was an insult to the memory of Jim Davis. So they wrote the character of Wes out asap despite the fact he really was meant to be Jock after all.
I see. Well, I do understand the backlash and why people felt that way. It’s hard for me to see someone playing Jock other than Jim Davis but I honestly wouldn’t have had a problem with Wes turning out to be Jock. That’s just me but I know most don’t agree.
I'm the same. I feel it would be more of a tribute to Jim Davis if his character had been brought back with another actor. Steve Forrest had the gravitas to be a great Jock Ewing. Such a shame they chickened out and wrote him off the show. The last few seasons would've been far better with Jock back on the show.
I tend to look at it like this. The glory days of the show were already behind it. Could the last four seasons have been any worse than they ended up being had they gone this route?
Who knows! Dallas was a victim of its own success. I'd like to think the show could've recovered better with Jock back. It's all academic now, still it was fun while it lasted.
www.ultimatedallas.com
Except they quite clearly did, judging by how swiftly the storyline was dropped once the viewers complained about it.Here's an excerpt of David Paulsen's interview on ultimatedallas.com
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David: I don't believe we ever really entertained the possibility of replacing Jock.
James: Right.
David: How could we? His picture was right over the fireplace. We may have played with the idea - forgive me if I'm wrong about this - the idea that this Wes Parmalee could be posing as Jock, might have let the audience think he was Jock for a while, but never did we entertain the possibility of actually making him Jock.
James: Right.
Agreed. I loved Dallas for this long-lasting storylines which had an impact on many characters even after long time in between.
Apparently it leaked whilst the season was being filmed that Steve Forrest would be playing the new Jock Ewing, so you could well be right Chris that instead of continuing the storyline and making him Jock they dropped the repurposed storyline asap.
Nice work if you can get it. Patrick was adamant he never wished to return to Dallas so the producers killed the character off. Then Larry believes the series is suffering so sets up secret meetings to get Patrick to return. Possibly while slurping dirty matinees and contemplating why his movie career didn't take off Patrick agrees to return for an increased salary, a bonus and gets to tell the writers how his character will no longer be the nice guy.
It would've served them better if they had kept the original cliff hanger of Steve Forrest revealing to Miss Ellie that he was Jock.
