- Awards
- 18
Bye, Bye Love (KNOTS, 17 Dec 92) v Bypass (DALLAS, 14 Oct 78)
These two episodes take place at opposite ends of the C20th Ewingverse — one in the first year of DALLAS, the other in the final season of KNOTS — thereby circumventing the 1980s altogether.
As in Buying Time, the central character in Bye, Bye Love is Mack. In the former episode, he had his hands full with the Wolfbridge Group and Karen’s shooting. In the latter, he’s similarly beleaguered by Mary Robeson getting her claws into Meg. In his desperation to be rid of her, he comes up with a cockamamie scheme to secretly film her taking a million dollars in bribe money, but ends up getting fleeced for one half of the money by Claudia Whittaker, a woman who couldn’t be more obviously untrustworthy if she had the word “devious” tattooed on her forehead, and for the other half by Mary herself, who is little more than a small-time con artist. If it’s sometimes hard to square the scared man we see here with the swaggering “Mack Solves All” version of the character who has taken down crime syndicates and crooked corporations, Kevin Dobson does a good job of conveying his feelings of fatigue and helplessness (not helped by Karen continually suggesting they turn to Greg for help and Gary urging him to consult Karen on his latest plan). There's a sense that he's a man past his prime — a small but telling moment shows him swapping one pair of glasses for another to read the instructions on a camcorder.
Bye, Bye Love’s main subplot deals with writing out Bill the baseball player, Paige’s likeable but least memorable love interest. Having introduced the post-LA riots construction project to the Sumner Group, he does what Joseph Berringer did after getting Gary and co all excited about Tidal Energy the season before, i.e. skips town when he gets a better offer (in Bill’s case, it’s to play baseball in Japan). Whereas Joseph bailing on his investors was depicted as a shitty betrayal, Bill somehow manages to get a hero’s send-off — perhaps, at the end of the day, being a sportsman is just more wholesomely All-American than being a nerdy scientist.
From ‘90s KNOTS to ‘70s DALLAS. At the time of Bypass, the series was still being filmed entirely on location in Texas and everything feels that bit hotter and grimier than it would later on. The bulk of the ep focuses on the Ewings going about their daily lives while Jock is in the hospital recovering from a heart attack. (His bypass operation doesn’t take place until the final minutes of the episode and is over almost as soon as it starts.) One gets the sense of the Ewingverse developing in front of our eyes. We are introduced to Willie Joe Garr, Jeb Ames (pretty much unrecognisable from his days as Dr Rossi in PEYTON PLACE — he’s as slimy here as he was heroic then) and Liz Craig, and learn about the existence of the cartel, The Store and a secret codicil to Jock’s will that will enable JR to drill on Southfork after his death. Bobby and his father lock horns for the first, but certainly not the last time about his future (“I do not want you to leave the Ewing Oil company!”) and Jock makes Miss Ellie promise that “if anything happens to me, you keep the family together.” Ellie shows how stoical she can be, only tearing up when there’s nobody else around, while Sue Ellen spends the whole episode glaring magnificently, either at JR when they’re alone or at anyone who disagrees with him when they’re in company. Poor Lucy gets told off every time she opens her mouth, either for being frightened by Jock’s attack (“Think about your granddaddy and not about yourself,” lectures Ray) or for being excited about the birth of a calf (“How about a little reverence for new life?” Bobby suggests primly). There’s even a hint of an explanation as to why JR is the way he is during a discussion between Bobby and Pam where it is reiterated that Bobby is Jock’s favourite son and that “Mama, she always liked Gary the best so …” “That left JR,” Pam concludes. “That helps explain him, but it doesn’t help much.”
And the winner is ... Bypass
BONUS BEATS:
These two episodes take place at opposite ends of the C20th Ewingverse — one in the first year of DALLAS, the other in the final season of KNOTS — thereby circumventing the 1980s altogether.
As in Buying Time, the central character in Bye, Bye Love is Mack. In the former episode, he had his hands full with the Wolfbridge Group and Karen’s shooting. In the latter, he’s similarly beleaguered by Mary Robeson getting her claws into Meg. In his desperation to be rid of her, he comes up with a cockamamie scheme to secretly film her taking a million dollars in bribe money, but ends up getting fleeced for one half of the money by Claudia Whittaker, a woman who couldn’t be more obviously untrustworthy if she had the word “devious” tattooed on her forehead, and for the other half by Mary herself, who is little more than a small-time con artist. If it’s sometimes hard to square the scared man we see here with the swaggering “Mack Solves All” version of the character who has taken down crime syndicates and crooked corporations, Kevin Dobson does a good job of conveying his feelings of fatigue and helplessness (not helped by Karen continually suggesting they turn to Greg for help and Gary urging him to consult Karen on his latest plan). There's a sense that he's a man past his prime — a small but telling moment shows him swapping one pair of glasses for another to read the instructions on a camcorder.
Bye, Bye Love’s main subplot deals with writing out Bill the baseball player, Paige’s likeable but least memorable love interest. Having introduced the post-LA riots construction project to the Sumner Group, he does what Joseph Berringer did after getting Gary and co all excited about Tidal Energy the season before, i.e. skips town when he gets a better offer (in Bill’s case, it’s to play baseball in Japan). Whereas Joseph bailing on his investors was depicted as a shitty betrayal, Bill somehow manages to get a hero’s send-off — perhaps, at the end of the day, being a sportsman is just more wholesomely All-American than being a nerdy scientist.
From ‘90s KNOTS to ‘70s DALLAS. At the time of Bypass, the series was still being filmed entirely on location in Texas and everything feels that bit hotter and grimier than it would later on. The bulk of the ep focuses on the Ewings going about their daily lives while Jock is in the hospital recovering from a heart attack. (His bypass operation doesn’t take place until the final minutes of the episode and is over almost as soon as it starts.) One gets the sense of the Ewingverse developing in front of our eyes. We are introduced to Willie Joe Garr, Jeb Ames (pretty much unrecognisable from his days as Dr Rossi in PEYTON PLACE — he’s as slimy here as he was heroic then) and Liz Craig, and learn about the existence of the cartel, The Store and a secret codicil to Jock’s will that will enable JR to drill on Southfork after his death. Bobby and his father lock horns for the first, but certainly not the last time about his future (“I do not want you to leave the Ewing Oil company!”) and Jock makes Miss Ellie promise that “if anything happens to me, you keep the family together.” Ellie shows how stoical she can be, only tearing up when there’s nobody else around, while Sue Ellen spends the whole episode glaring magnificently, either at JR when they’re alone or at anyone who disagrees with him when they’re in company. Poor Lucy gets told off every time she opens her mouth, either for being frightened by Jock’s attack (“Think about your granddaddy and not about yourself,” lectures Ray) or for being excited about the birth of a calf (“How about a little reverence for new life?” Bobby suggests primly). There’s even a hint of an explanation as to why JR is the way he is during a discussion between Bobby and Pam where it is reiterated that Bobby is Jock’s favourite son and that “Mama, she always liked Gary the best so …” “That left JR,” Pam concludes. “That helps explain him, but it doesn’t help much.”
And the winner is ... Bypass
BONUS BEATS:
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