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<blockquote data-quote="Daniel Avery" data-source="post: 143525" data-attributes="member: 27">There was a healthy chance that there would not be a 14th season at all.&nbsp; They had mapped out season-long plot arcs* but I doubt they&#039;d broken the plots down into individual episodes when they negotiated to get a final season.&nbsp; So when the network agreed to renew for a final season and cut the licensing fee so deeply, it was up to the producers to &#039;do more with less&#039;.&nbsp; If they had stretched it out to 22 episodes, they would have been forced to do a lot more cost-cutting tricks (stars excluded from even more episodes, no location work, etc.) that rarely go unnoticed.&nbsp; I have no way of knowing if the decision to only do 19 episodes was made by the producers or by CBS, but I always assumed it was the producers&#039; call because it was the best way to cut the spending.*During the whole fiasco with Joan Van Ark&#039;s departure to do a pilot/series for another network, the producers claimed they could not simply &quot;write her back in&quot; once she became available again that summer (the pilot was not picked up) because they had already mapped out the season and Val was not part of it.&nbsp; They worked her in at the end, of course, but did not seem willing to rewrite the plot outlines.&nbsp; They also may not have been able to afford to have her any more than two episodes in a guest-star capacity.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Daniel Avery, post: 143525, member: 27"] There was a healthy chance that there would not be a 14th season at all. They had mapped out season-long plot arcs* but I doubt they'd broken the plots down into individual episodes when they negotiated to get a final season. So when the network agreed to renew for a final season and cut the licensing fee so deeply, it was up to the producers to 'do more with less'. If they had stretched it out to 22 episodes, they would have been forced to do a lot more cost-cutting tricks (stars excluded from even more episodes, no location work, etc.) that rarely go unnoticed. I have no way of knowing if the decision to only do 19 episodes was made by the producers or by CBS, but I always assumed it was the producers' call because it was the best way to cut the spending. *During the whole fiasco with Joan Van Ark's departure to do a pilot/series for another network, the producers claimed they could not simply "write her back in" once she became available again that summer (the pilot was not picked up) because they had already mapped out the season and Val was not part of it. They worked her in at the end, of course, but did not seem willing to rewrite the plot outlines. They also may not have been able to afford to have her any more than two episodes in a guest-star capacity. [/QUOTE]

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Who played JR Ewing?