TNT revived Dallas for a 2012–14 series. Would you revisit it again?

stevew

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DALLAS also has to be sexy, and - no offence - that wasn't going to work for the older original actors so it simply had to be about the next generation.
I thought they took their soap very seriously, as opposed to the childish dramedy in New Dynasty.
PEYTON PLACE also focused a lot on the younger characters but I don't think young viewers were their exclusive target audience.

DALLAS simply has to be a good and modern soap, and that's what it was. It's not possible to make it look like the LORIMAR days because that was a 70s and 80s soap.
Well said.

1) sexy John Ross as a gentleman cowboy raising his young kids on the ranch, a good love story with his sexy younger wife, Pamela, Romeo abs Juliet that works out - awe so sweet.

2) Calley’s son would have been fresh out of college - sexy, single, wild play boy, every bit as arrogant and ruthless as his daddy - and think of the girls (and guys) they could have had him with - maybe a young Anderson granddaughter who could have been the suitable marriage JR would want, maybe a under Frank and Claire Underwood partnership. He could have been Lance to JR’s Angela Channing.

Instead we got two thirty somethings acting like teenagers where they older generation keeps getting involved in old stories, with no satisfied ending to those old stories. Uggggg
 

the-lost-son

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Lorimar Dallas was a success because its structure was so simple:
1. Romeo / Juliet and their feuding families
2. Cain vs. Abel

So if you want to reboot it, keep that structure:
1. John Ross Ewing marrying Pamela Barnes in the first scene
2. John Ross (good) vs. Christopher (evil)

Keep that structure and go from there. The rest is just small potatoes.

In my opinion the interference from higher management were too severe. The 3 years of Dallas are too erratic to blame one person.

I like the series Cobra Kai, a continuation of the Karate kids-movies. The series runs successfully on Netflix, 10 episodes per year. I think something like that would have been possible for Dallas, but it wasn't meant to be
 

stevew

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Lorimar Dallas was a success because its structure was so simple:
1. Romeo / Juliet and their feuding families
2. Cain vs. Abel

So if you want to reboot it, keep that structure:
1. John Ross Ewing marrying Pamela Barnes in the first scene
2. John Ross (good) vs. Christopher (evil)

Keep that structure and go from there. The rest is just small potatoes.

In my opinion the interference from higher management were too severe. The 3 years of Dallas are too erratic to blame one person.

I like the series Cobra Kai, a continuation of the Karate kids-movies. The series runs successfully on Netflix, 10 episodes per year. I think something like that would have been possible for Dallas, but it wasn't meant to be
Well said.
 

Pamela_E

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Lorimar Dallas was a success because its structure was so simple:
1. Romeo / Juliet and their feuding families
2. Cain vs. Abel

So if you want to reboot it, keep that structure:
1. John Ross Ewing marrying Pamela Barnes in the first scene
2. John Ross (good) vs. Christopher (evil)

Keep that structure and go from there. The rest is just small potatoes.

In my opinion the interference from higher management were too severe. The 3 years of Dallas are too erratic to blame one person.

I like the series Cobra Kai, a continuation of the Karate kids-movies. The series runs successfully on Netflix, 10 episodes per year. I think something like that would have been possible for Dallas, but it wasn't meant to be

Your point about the simplicity of Dallas is spot on, the concept and characters were it's success.

JR was simply the baddie, his victims the characters we cared about. That was it.

Cynthia Cidre had a difficult job on her hands.

What show would start with two brothers, cousins,an estranged wife. It was a bit of a mess.

I also think the show felt more 90's, the shock factors of threesomes and drugs may have been talking points 10 years earlier but in the 2010's it was all very passé.

Not only that, but some of the decisions left little to like about many of the characters.

There were various ways to take the series, this just didn't work.
 

lbf522

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When they did, "JR Returns" that was a good idea and its a shame they did not create a new series from that. For one thing, we would have had Larry Hagman and Ken Kercheval longer and the writing would have been better. The main problem with Dallas TNT, was that they put someone in charge who did not care about the show as it was obvious in the writing.
 

stevew

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When they did, "JR Returns" that was a good idea and its a shame they did not create a new series from that. For one thing, we would have had Larry Hagman and Ken Kercheval longer and the writing would have been better. The main problem with Dallas TNT, was that they put someone in charge who did not care about the show as it was obvious in the writing.
I agree - that would have been a good time to do a continuation - J. R. should have been at SF (owning 1/2 of it) and running the company from home - like Jock with John Ross and Chris in the roles of Bobby and J. R. Bobby should have owned half the house and owned all of ranch with Lucas having arrived to work for him in an awkward sort of set up, sort of a Lucy and Ray type of character waiting for the big reveal. Two brother's living together passing on their life to the next generation.
 

Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

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I'd rather stick my head in a bucket of manure than watch any of it again.

There's only one Dallas for me and it's the one which starred these two fabulous actors.

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Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

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Today I was looking at my boxsets of this show and wondering should I give it another go.

The first two seasons weren't bad but it didn't feel like proper Dallas for me.

Anyway I have a bucket of horse shit standing by and may stick my head in it today to remind myself never to watch this version of Dallas ever again! :innocent:
bucket of horse shit.jpg
 
K

Karin Schill

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Your point about the simplicity of Dallas is spot on, the concept and characters were it's success.

JR was simply the baddie, his victims the characters we cared about. That was it.

Cynthia Cidre had a difficult job on her hands.

What show would start with two brothers, cousins,an estranged wife. It was a bit of a mess.

I also think the show felt more 90's, the shock factors of threesomes and drugs may have been talking points 10 years earlier but in the 2010's it was all very passé.

Not only that, but some of the decisions left little to like about many of the characters.

There were various ways to take the series, this just didn't work.
I agree. I think the show would have stood a better chance at working if it had been character driven instead of plot driven. It was also a mistake not to listen to David Jacobs. I mean if they had made John Ross the good guy and Christopher the bad guy the show's set up would have worked better as there would have been conflicts with their parents and a lot of character driven drama could have come out of it.

I did like Ann though, so I don't think it would have been necessary to give Bobby an African-American wife, which was also Jacob's idea. I think it was enough with having the Ramos representing the hispanic population in Texas. But they shouldn't have tried to crowbar them into the original show. It would have been better to say that Carmen began working at Southfork like in 1992 when Chris & Elena were 11 and John Ross and Drew were 13.

They also should have skipped the kinky sex stuff (threesome, brothel and sex with man in dog costume) the shock value wasn't there. It was just :re:

They also should have skipped having Chris marrying his cousin without knowing it. The wedding in the first episode should have been John Ross & Pamela Rebecca and their parents should have been there hating it, thinking their kids were making a huge mistake!
Can you imagine Cliff getting up when the minister says "If any man can show just cause why these two shouldn't be lawfully married?" like he did at JR/SE's wedding. :lol:
Speaking of, I also missed a fight in the pool with...maybe John Ross & Chris.

But yeah it's easy to look back and say this could have saved the show since hindsight is 20/20.
 

Jabari Lamar

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I like the series Cobra Kai, a continuation of the Karate kids-movies. The series runs successfully on Netflix, 10 episodes per year. I think something like that would have been possible for Dallas, but it wasn't meant to be
Just saw this comment and wanted to concur, as I am a huge fan of Cobra Kai. I grew up on the Karate Kid films, even started taking Karate classes after seeing the first film (I dropped out after 3 months, though, it wasn't as fun in real life as looked in the movies). And when folks have asked me about CK, I saw the series better than it has any darn right to be. The creators of the show are hardcore fans of the films, and it shows in the care that they put into the storylines. They've said in interviews that they consider the films to be their "Star Wars" in terms of impact on their lives, and that they'd privately been talking about how they revive the franchise for years just for fun (like we do about Dallas here) before they actually got the opportunity.


In my opinon, the series straddles the perfect line between revisiting the past and moving forward, attracting both old and new fans equally. It's got many of the older original cast back, appealing to use Gen Xers and Millennials who grew up watching the films either when they debuted in theaters or in the ubiquitous reruns on TV, and it's attracting the young Zoomers, as it's creating interesting new young characters for them to relate. I participate on the fan forum on Reddit as well interacting on Twitter, and the age-range is from teens to 50's, and I'm frequently seeing fans posting about how they discovered the TV series (especially once it moved to Netflix, a much broader reach than Youtube) and loved it without ever seeing the movies which they went back to watch after.

And that's the key for modern show like this. The writers have all sorts of Easter eggs and callbacks to the films, some blatant some more subtle, so if you saw the films you'll get it , but they're not absolutely required in order to follow along and enjoy the show. Plus they also occasionally cut in scenes from the films, to use as flashbacks. And from the start the premise was nice and simple, you had two guys, a bully a nerd, who fought in High School, 34 years later the bully is a loser while the nerd is rich and successful, so the bully is trying to get his life back together while coming into contact with the nerd who still resents him from the past. Conflict ensues. And it works.

They're also wise in how they bring back and utilize older characters. Just like I saw with many Dallas fans here, I've seen older fans who impatiently want all their favorite character brought in as soon as possible, and want them all to be a regular character on the show, and be connected to the new characters (there's tons of speculation and "theories" about certain young characters on the show being the secret child of some of the older characters, even though most of the theories make no sense), but the writers said they only want to bring characters back when it's logical for the story they're telling, not just to show up for random cameos or try to force them into roles they don't fit. So like the ex-girlfriend from high school of the two leads was teased since season 1, and then finally showed up in the last couple of episodes of season 3, and IMO she was used perfectly. She was basically the catalyst to get the two leads to finally stop fighting and realize that they needed to get over their high school feud once and for all, and then she left again. Before that there were some fans who actually wanted her to get back together with one of the guys, so they could fight over her again, but I don't think that would have made sense for any of the characters. And I'm glad the writers know that and they avoid those type of easy fan-servicey stories. And it's that type of approach that I think the Dallas continuation needed.
 

bmasters9

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No!

No way.

I liked the first two series. Nothing would get me to watch series three.

I don't want to watch the first two series again either. The show just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. :(

A bit hard to swallow for me too (IMO, the only good part of the TNT show was the title sequence; it may not have been exactly like what we knew on CBS for a good portion of the CBS run, but IMO, it did make a pretty good stab at recreating it, especially that third and final go).
 

Luke_Krebbs_Ewing

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A bit hard to swallow for me too (IMO, the only good part of the TNT show was the title sequence; it may not have been exactly like what we knew on CBS for a good portion of the CBS run, but IMO, it did make a pretty good stab at recreating it, especially that third and final go).

Ahem, the bitter taste in my mouth is probably the horse shit!

I should've closed my mouth tighter when I stuck my head in the bucket! :)
 
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