Lack of interaction between Miss Ellie and James

Snarky Oracle!

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Supposing he really thought that way, when right near the end of season 11 a couple of "arm trophies" get the better of Katzman's protagonist, the objective there couldn't have been to make the women look clever. It would have been to show how dumb JR was, as well as tell the audience how stupid they'd been to bother watching the show.
Lenny was just fine with cocky, pistol-packin' mamas --- as long as they didn't live at Southfork.
 

Seaviewer

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But JR cheated on Sue Ellen all the time! What's so sacred about that?? And doesn't that make other offspring likely?
Agreed. It was the idea that JR had a "one true love" we'd never heard of before that grated on me. It would have been better to find out that Julie Grey had a son she'd kept secret.
 

tommie

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Agreed. It was the idea that JR had a "one true love" we'd never heard of before that grated on me. It would have been better to find out that Julie Grey had a son she'd kept secret.

Absolutely. I've pushed for the "daughter" on TNTs Dallas to be the child Julie had while away between season 1 and Julie Returns - timelinewise it would work having her give birth and would explain why she was kept hidden all those years.

If there's one soap character I could see having multiple secret off-springs it's JR. He was a complete manwhore.
 

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Yes he cheated but the true love about Vanessa is bullshit.

I don’t accept the storyline and JR was a cheater.

Bobby didn’t cheat on Pam but many still hate and don’t accept April or Ann. Same thing except one is more logical.
 
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Karin Schill

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I really liked James, as you know @Sarah
But the idea that Vanessa was JR's one true love is laugable. I don't buy it for one second.
Even James didn't believe it as when JR got engaged to Vanessa he did everything he could to make sure that his parents split up since he knew that JR would be unfaithful to Vanessa the first opportunity that he got after they'd tied the knot!
 

tommie

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Yes he cheated but the true love about Vanessa is bullshit.

Oh, I agree that it was a total mess. I was fine with JR having a secret child with some teenage (or college) girlfriend, but that was just the writers trying to make Vanessa and JR "happen" in the most contrived way possible because they had lost Linda Gray; of course it didn't work. If they wanted an age appropriate past girlfriend to come back that was also fine, just don't oversell it.
 

Taylor Bennett Jr.

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Absolutely. I've pushed for the "daughter" on TNTs Dallas to be the child Julie had while away between season 1 and Julie Returns - timelinewise it would work having her give birth and would explain why she was kept hidden all those years.

If there's one soap character I could see having multiple secret off-springs it's JR. He was a complete manwhore.
they should have introduced Julie's daughter in the midst of the storyline about John Ross's paternity. In this case, JR and Cliff would both not want to be the father, I'd assume.

Could it still have been handled in one episode, Double Paternity Suit, perhaps with Harv Smithfield's twin brother Marv telling a shocked Cliff he was the father of Julie's baby in a special simultaneous split screen shot next to Harv's announcement to JR at the Ewing party?
 
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lbf522

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I found the entire storyline a slap in the face and totally unrealistic in that JR didn't even question it. He questioned enough about John Ross or any other 'outsider' he saw come into the family. The writing had got really lazy by then - it wasn't Dallas.

He was an unnecessary and 'what do we do now' addition to the cast. I never believed he was JR's son. Maybe Miss Ellie didn't either ;)


I agree. It was out of character for JR to just accept this person as his son without question when he was that way with Jamie. Also, it destroyed JR and John Ross's relationship with JR treated John Ross as an afterthough which was hard to watch.
 

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@Michelle Stevens Have to agree to disagree on that one. Many men and women make it to 40 without having children, yet still being with lots of people.

It was insulting to me as JR and Sue Ellen's biggest fan and I will shout it from the rooftops that the writers simply HAD NO IDEA what to do next, so introduced this unbelievable element, moreso in that he and his dreadful mother didn't show up until YEARS later and JR asked for no proof whatsoever.

I'm not very objective when it comes to them and my feelings on it are deeply personal, but I hated the whole storyline. I reiterate that to me it's just lack of imagination. I absolutely hated the idea. Just give us ONE thing that is solely Sue Ellen's with JR. One thing. It's not asking too much, especially for those of us that root for them. That's my thoughts on it.


I always felt that JR and Sue Ellen should have had a daughter after John Ross. It was no believable for JR not to ask for proof that James was his son. If they wanted to expand the Ewing family, explore Jock's family then.
 

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I completely agree @lbf522 - all these notions of let's give JR a daughter with one of his tramps, or just welcome James into the fold (when JR would never do that, he was suspicious of all outsiders), just shows a lack of imagination, a lack of respect for the story and really when all is said and done there is no need for it. You sum it up perfectly - expand and explore with the family we already had.
 

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I really liked James, as you know @Sarah
But the idea that Vanessa was JR's one true love is laugable. I don't buy it for one second.
Even James didn't believe it as when JR got engaged to Vanessa he did everything he could to make sure that his parents split up since he knew that JR would be unfaithful to Vanessa the first opportunity that he got after they'd tied the knot!

Karin, JR once told James "Why tell the truth when a good lie will do!"

We all know what JR was like. He would say & do anything to get what he wanted.

He only told Vanessa what she wanted to hear. The same with Sue Ellen & Cally before they outlived their usefulness. :)
 

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I completely disagree about Sue Ellen @Via The Void - he loved Sue Ellen and that was evident up until the day he died. You cannot put his relationship with her into the same bracket as those other two simps.

I got the explanation about Vanessa from the person who wrote the storyline (Lisa Seidman) when I interviewed her. She explained that for JR, Vanessa was simply a moment in time relating to his past, and that it in no way changed his feelings or love for Sue Ellen.
 

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I completely disagree about Sue Ellen @Via The Void - he loved Sue Ellen and that was evident up until the day he died. You cannot put his relationship with her into the same bracket as those other two simps.

I got the explanation about Vanessa from the person who wrote the storyline (Lisa Seidman) when I interviewed her. She explained that for JR, Vanessa was simply a moment in time relating to his past, and that it in no way changed his feelings or love for Sue Ellen.

Of course he loved Sue Ellen. I meant that he only told Vanessa what she wanted to hear in order to keep her.

He would've lied to Sue Ellen in different ways in order to keep her, or get rid of her. But deep down in his soul we both know that the perfect wife & Mother to his child was Sue Ellen. :)
 

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Of course he loved Sue Ellen. I meant that he only told Vanessa what she wanted to hear in order to keep her.

He would've lied to Sue Ellen in different ways in order to keep her, or get rid of her. But deep down in his soul we both know that the perfect wife & Mother to his child was Sue Ellen. :)

Even so, the whole concept of JR somehow maintaining a relationship with someone as hopelessly antiquated as Granny Beaumont just beggars belief. It was an insult to viewers' intelligence to think that JR would even mention her in the same breath as Sue Ellen.

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It’s very hard for me to make rhyme or reason out of the plots of the later seasons without getting a severe headache. Everything is just so over the place. It’s like a totally different show to me.
I dont think I'm going past Pam's exit. I remember watching it originally and hating it.
 
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