What could have been done instead of the "Dream Season"?

[ClassyCo]

This seems to a popular debate among Dallas fans, and since we're starting all over here, I thought this would be a good one to kick off some discussion.

I think something could most definitely have been done instead of writing off an entire season (of 31 episodes, the longest season the show had!) as a one-night dream of one individual. An entire season of plot development just casually tossed out the window...

So, how could Bobby's miraculous return been explained? I personally would liked it if it had been explained that Bobby faked his death because of involvement with some shady cartel, who perhaps wanted millions from him, or who had some dug some skeletons out of his closet. Something dirty...

 

[Mustard]

We saw Bobby run down on screen, and we saw him flatline and die on screen. Therefore, the only way that Bobby could be brought back after that is via the dream revelation that they did. Bobby obviously shouldn't have been brought back, even though Season 10 had some good storylines like the B.D. Calhoun storyline and the Nancy Scottfield shutting down Ewing Oil storyline. Bringing Bobby back from the dead is now an iconic part of Dallas' history, but there's no doubt that at the time it shattered Dallas' credibility in the eyes of the public, going from being seen as a serious drama to being the butt of jokes.

 

[Karin Schill]

I voted for that the dream resolution was the only way it could be done.
I know it made Dallas lose credibility and believe me when I first started watching the show some of my friends told me "oh that silly show where he came back in the shower" or "Oh Dallas? I have just stopped watching that!"

Yet I really do believe it was the only way it could be done considering that we'd seen Bobby die before our eyes. If his death had happened off screen like Pam in the TNT version, it would have been easy to retract it and say it was only a faked death certificate. But well with Bobby dying so we could see it that wasn't an option.

Anyway just for fun, I thought I'd share an old TV Guide article with you that I've scanned. This article was published in 1986 and famous authors got to guess how Bobby was going to be brought back on Dallas. I found it hilarious to read their theories the first time around and I hope you will enjoy reading this too!

Take care,
Best wishes:
Karin.

 

[Tatianna]

I sort of believe it would have worked for Bobby to never have actually died, rather have him "come out" of the coma and everything that had gone on during his comatose state was what had been going on in his mind as a result of his head injury and meds.

 

[Ray_Krebbs]

When Season 10 opens, it shows Pam looking at Bobby, who suddenly turns into Mark. He asks what's wrong, and she answers nothing. Pam leaves the room and questions her marriage. It then shows Bobby unconsious in some weird facility on a life support system. A woman played by his Step by Step costar Susanne Summers walks in, strokes his hair, and assures him he will always be hers.

 

[Presea]

I voted for that the dream resolution was the only way it could be done.
I know it made Dallas lose credibility and believe me when I first started watching the show some of my friends told me "oh that silly show where he came back in the shower" or "Oh Dallas? I have just stopped watching that!"

Yet I really do believe it was the only way it could be done considering that we'd seen Bobby die before our eyes. If his death had happened off screen like Pam in the TNT version, it would have been easy to retract it and say it was only a faked death certificate. But well with Bobby dying so we could see it that wasn't an option.

Anyway just for fun, I thought I'd share an old TV Guide article with you that I've scanned. This article was published in 1986 and famous authors got to guess how Bobby was going to be brought back on Dallas. I found it hilarious to read their theories the first time around and I hope you will enjoy reading this too!

Take care,
Best wishes:
Karin.

Oh man! These explanations are as funny as heck! I like the Judith Krantz one the best. An evil Bobby sounds awesome! I loved it when he played dirty during the contest for Ewing Oil! He was hot then! Much better than the self-righteous goody-two shoes that he was the rest of the time!

Make all of season 8 (dvd) Katherine's dream. And make Bobby's shooter someone else. That way, Katherine won't have attempted murder charges and could stay on the show as a non-crazy villainess.

 

[Angela Channing]

I would have left Booby dead and not brought back Patrick Duffy at all. If he had to return, then a far fetched kidnapping plot in which done hospital staff were in a conspiracy with someone, maybe Angelica Nero, to fake his death and then take him away as part of a wider plan to destabilise Ewing Oil.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I suppose his death could've been faked but they would have had to come up with a good explanation for doing so, and I'm not sure there is one!!


The dream was probably the only way they could go. He did die in front of most of the family.

 

[Mustard]

So if we are agreed that the dream was the only way to bring Bobby back, that raises the question of why bring Bobby back at all?

 

[Michelle Stevens]

So if we are agreed that the dream was the only way to bring Bobby back, that raises the question of why bring Bobby back at all?

Bobby was in a way of thinking the Yin to JR's Yang. Without Bobby, JR would not be as balanced and whoever rose within the Ewing family to oppose his will would never have the same impact or gravitas as Bobby. Bobby was Dallas' Abel to JR's Cain so to speak. I think in 1986 the writers needed someone like Bobby to keep JR in check and may have found other choices less interesting. Just my guess.

 

[TomParks2016]

So if we are agreed that the dream was the only way to bring Bobby back, that raises the question of why bring Bobby back at all?

Exactly. The dream season had one heluva cliffhanger up to the point of Pam opening the shower door. Bobby was dead and season 10 should have been the last season. The core cast was still intact and the Justice Dept. shutting down Ewing Oil would have been a good ending.

 

[ClassyCo]

We saw Bobby run down on screen, and we saw him flatline and die on screen. Therefore, the only way that Bobby could be brought back after that is via the dream revelation that they did. Bobby obviously shouldn't have been brought back, even though Season 10 had some good storylines like the B.D. Calhoun storyline and the Nancy Scottfield shutting down Ewing Oil storyline. Bringing Bobby back from the dead is now an iconic part of Dallas' history, but there's no doubt that at the time it shattered Dallas' credibility in the eyes of the public, going from being seen as a serious drama to being the butt of jokes.

Oh, I don't agree. Just because we saw Bobby die on-camera doesn't mean the writers couldn't have had his "death" explained through some "he faked it" scenario. Several soap operas have "killed" their characters, and later, when the stories/audiences/writers desire it, they are miraculously brought back from the dead. Taylor Forrester died on The Bold and the Beautiful, but when her character was brought back a few years later, it was explained she had been in a coma during her absence. Yes, the "Dream Season" is a big part of Dallas history... However, just as you said, it did damage the show's credibility, with critics and audiences. Had Bobby been "resurrected" without the dream, I don't think it would have hurt the show any worse than the dream scenario. In fact, I honestly think the public/critics would have accepted that better.

When Season 10 opens, it shows Pam looking at Bobby, who suddenly turns into Mark. He asks what's wrong, and she answers nothing. Pam leaves the room and questions her marriage. It then shows Bobby unconsious in some weird facility on a life support system. A woman played by his Step by Step costar Susanne Summers walks in, strokes his hair, and assures him he will always be hers.

That exactly sounds pretty good, but would Season 9 still have been written off as a dream?

So if we are agreed that the dream was the only way to bring Bobby back, that raises the question of why bring Bobby back at all?

I don't agree with "the dream was the only way" solution at all... But why should Bobby have returned? Well, he was the counter-balance to J.R.'s evil streak, and because the show wasn't nearly as good without him.

 

[JROG]

No, I don't think we're all in agreement that the dream scenario was the only way.

Judith Krantz got it right: Following the flatlining, what would happen in ANY movie/show is that nurses and doctors would have rushed in, the family would have been escorted out, and they would have attempted to revive him. Sometimes teams work on a person for several minutes before succeeding or giving up. Even ER featured 20 minute plus resuscitation attempts.

So the episode freezed right after he flatlined... so what? If we are expected to believe Pamela dreamed every single damn thing that happened in Season 9, then why can't we accept that, after the freezeframe, the team came in and tried to revive Bobby? That's all the family would need to know. Katherine or J.R. or whomever was involved in making Bobby look dead. It's a little far-fetched, and not DALLAS' style, but so was the dream, much more so! Even if they did end with the shower cliffhanger, they could spend the first episode of Season 10 having Pam and Bobby talk about how Bobby woke up in some clinic, he was Katherine's prisoner, a few flashbacks to show his escape and reunion with Pam, voila! It still would have hurt credibility a little bit but the audience would prefer having Bobby back.

There's only a couple reasons it happened as a dream: It was the quickest, easiest (and cheapest) way out, and I strongly suspect Katzman may have wanted to say a big "f**k you" to what had transpired on the show when he was no longer in power. Plain and simple. Not only is he back now, but he will literally wipe off every single thing that happened when he was gone.

 

[Presea]

Bobby was in a way of thinking the Yin to JR's Yang. Without Bobby, JR would not be as balanced and whoever rose within the Ewing family to oppose his will would never have the same impact or gravitas as Bobby. Bobby was Dallas' Abel to JR's Cain so to speak. I think in 1986 the writers needed someone like Bobby to keep JR in check and may have found other choices less interesting. Just my guess.

The only problem with this is that the rivalry completely lost it's spark in the later seasons. Instead, they made Bobby into JR's babysitter when it came to Ewing Oil.

I would have left Booby dead and not brought back Patrick Duffy at all. If he had to return, then a far fetched kidnapping plot in which done hospital staff were in a conspiracy with someone, maybe Angelica Nero, to fake his death and then take him away as part of a wider plan to destabilise Ewing Oil.

Booby? Was that a typing error, or intentional? I will completely understand if it is the latter. No, seriously!

 

[Mustard]

Bobby was in a way of thinking the Yin to JR's Yang. Without Bobby, JR would not be as balanced and whoever rose within the Ewing family to oppose his will would never have the same impact or gravitas as Bobby. Bobby was Dallas' Abel to JR's Cain so to speak. I think in 1986 the writers needed someone like Bobby to keep JR in check and may have found other choices less interesting. Just my guess.

We'd already been through all that with J.R. and Bobby though, with the first 8 seasons (DVD). As brilliant as it was, that was the past.

Oh, I don't agree. Just because we saw Bobby die on-camera doesn't mean the writers couldn't have had his "death" explained through some "he faked it" scenario. Several soap operas have "killed" their characters, and later, when the stories/audiences/writers desire it, they are miraculously brought back from the dead. Taylor Forrester died on The Bold and the Beautiful, but when her character was brought back a few years later, it was explained she had been in a coma during her absence. Yes, the "Dream Season" is a big part of Dallas history... However, just as you said, it did damage the show's credibility, with critics and audiences. Had Bobby been "resurrected" without the dream, I don't think it would have hurt the show any worse than the dream scenario. In fact, I honestly think the public/critics would have accepted that better.

Who else has come back from the dead after being seen to die on screen? The on screen bit is what is vital with Bobby's death. There's been many characters who have died off screen and been brought back, as that can be explained away as a mistaken news report or a faked death. It happened with Dusty on Dallas. It also happened with Gary on Knots Landing when Mack was trying to nail the Wolfbridge group.

That exactly sounds pretty good, but would Season 9 still have been written off as a dream?

It would have to be. Bobby on life support at the start of Season 10? So what was that funeral we watched the previous year? What was all that painful mourning of Bobby from characters in the previous season?

 

[JROG]

LOL.

 

[ClassyCo]

Who else has come back from the dead after being seen to die on screen? The on screen bit is what is vital with Bobby's death. There's been many characters who have died off screen and been brought back, as that can be explained away as a mistaken news report or a faked death. It happened with Dusty on Dallas. It also happened with Gary on Knots Landing when Mack was trying to nail the Wolfbridge group.

I gave you a reference to The Bold and the Beautiful where Taylor Forrester did die on camera. She was later "resurrected" (if you will) and it was explained as if she had been in a coma.

Yes, Dallas did have characters "die" off-camera only to bring them back in later episodes/seasons. Just because Bobby did actually "die" before our eyes, does not mean that having the entire 31-episode run of Season 9 being writing off as a dream was the only way it could have been done.

I see it like this: The public was already miffed that Bobby was dead, right? The producers and particularly Larry Hagman wanted Patrick Duffy back because ratings had dipped. Okay, but I honestly do not think the audience or the critics would have been quite as upset had Bobby "faked" his death instead of writing an entire season off as a one-night dream. Quite honestly, I'm sure that ticked most of the audience off, and I wouldn't be scared to guess that's why the ratings dipped even further in Season 10. With Bobby having faked his death, there would have been no need for Season 9 to be a dream. I mean, come on, we're talking about a soap opera. Yes, no matter how Dallas (or any of the others for that matter) liked to disguise themselves, they were soap operas. Sure, Bobby was buried. But we didn't see him in the casket did we? Then how would we know that Bobby wasn't actually and pretending to be dead? It isn't that far of a stretch of the imagination. I think if one can accept that Pam dreamed long enough to fill up 31 hours of TV (including commercials), I think one can believe that Bobby just might not have been dead, and there there would not have been a dream.

 

[Mustard]

But Bobby did die. The way I see it, the fact that people missed Bobby and were miffed that he was dead doesn't mean that he should have been brought back from the dead. Death is a part of life's experiences that shape people. Characters evolved for 31 episodes in the aftermath of Bobby's death with all the grief (which the viewers were a part of), and that was completely undone as if it had never happened. Storylines being reset to a year earlier and taking a different path in Season 10 left a much worse taste than Bobby coming back from the dead per se. It's no coincidence that I find the best storylines of Season 10 to be completely new storylines unrelated to a different take on the previous year's events, i.e. J.R.'s involvement with B.D. Calhoun and the fall out, with Nancy Scottfield's desire to take down Ewing Oil.

 

[Presea]

I gave you a reference to The Bold and the Beautiful where Taylor Forrester did die on camera. She was later "resurrected" (if you will) and it was explained as if she had been in a coma.

Yes, Dallas did have characters "die" off-camera only to bring them back in later episodes/seasons. Just because Bobby did actually "die" before our eyes, does not mean that having the entire 31-episode run of Season 9 being writing off as a dream was the only way it could have been done.

I see it like this: The public was already miffed that Bobby was dead, right? The producers and particularly Larry Hagman wanted Patrick Duffy back because ratings had dipped. Okay, but I honestly do not think the audience or the critics would have been quite as upset had Bobby "faked" his death instead of writing an entire season off as a one-night dream. Quite honestly, I'm sure that ticked most of the audience off, and I wouldn't be scared to guess that's why the ratings dipped even further in Season 10. With Bobby having faked his death, there would have been no need for Season 9 to be a dream. I mean, come on, we're talking about a soap opera. Yes, no matter how Dallas (or any of the others for that matter) liked to disguise themselves, they were soap operas. Sure, Bobby was buried. But we didn't see him in the casket did we? Then how would we know that Bobby wasn't actually and pretending to be dead? It isn't that far of a stretch of the imagination. I think if one can accept that Pam dreamed long enough to fill up 31 hours of TV (including commercials), I think one can believe that Bobby just might not have been dead, and there there would not have been a dream.

This reminds me of Criminal Minds when Emily Prentiss faked her death. After she was seen bleeding on the floor, they cut to the hospital where one of the other agents on their team shakes her head at the rest of the team when she meets them in the waiting room. Then, they had a fake funeral for her with an empty coffin and even went so far as to put up a framed picture of her on the wall with the other photos of dead FBI agents. Cut to the end where we see Emily talking to one of the team about passports and other travel stuff. For the rest of the season, almost everybody on the team believes she is dead until she comes back at the beginning of the season after and gives them a heart attack.

 

[ClassyCo]

But Bobby did die. The way I see it, the fact that people missed Bobby and were miffed that he was dead doesn't mean that he should have been brought back from the dead. Death is a part of life's experiences that shape people. Characters evolved for 31 episodes in the aftermath of Bobby's death with all the grief (which the viewers were a part of), and that was completely undone as if it had never happened. Storylines being reset to a year earlier and taking a different path in Season 10 left a much worse taste than Bobby coming back from the dead per se. It's no coincidence that I find the best storylines of Season 10 to be completely new storylines unrelated to a different take on the previous year's events, i.e. J.R.'s involvement with B.D. Calhoun and the fall out, with Nancy Scottfield's desire to take down Ewing Oil.

I still don't think you are getting what I am trying to say. Just because we saw Bobby "die" does not mean he was really dead. You mentioned Gary's "death" on Knots Landing. As I recall, he was actually given a funeral. I cannot remember if we actually saw Gary "die" on camera, but I do fondly remember the showing of his funeral. Bobby's death could have been as easily faked as Gary's had been, and in saying that, I don't think Knots Landing would have drifted away from the Dallas world. The Knots could have simply addressed that Bobby faked his death, and the revelation of that could have the necessary affects on Gary, Valene, Betsy and Bobby et cetera.

In the simplest terms: I think the writing off of Season 9 as a dream was lazy on the writers' part, and I do believe it undermined the audiences' involvement with the characters. You said that the audience also mourned Bobby's death with the other characters throughout Season 9. I'm sure they did, and I'm sure that's why they must have been ticked when Season 10 told that that it was all a dream, thus making the emotions they had felt false and unnecessary. The thing I cannot seem to get over is the fact that a entire season of acting, writing, and of watching is just pointless to the entire show. I started watching the first three or four episodes of Season 9 just to see how different the show was, and, of course, it was. I was going to watch it to see if I would have preferred Bobby stayed dead or the fact he was brought back alive. Well, I'm not going to do that now. I see little point in spending my time watching 31 episodes that will have absolutely no ties to what comes after it. I will pick up where I left off with Season 8 at the start of Season 10. I my mind, I guess I'm not going to acknowledge that Season 9 even exists.