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Re: 'Dallas' to be revived on TNT network
This a GREAT interview with Patrick Duffy, talking about his career, classic "Dallas" and the revived "Dallas" next summer.
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Patrick Duffy on 'Dallas' Reboot: "As Good or Better Than The Original"
by Parade Magazine
Before Patrick Duffy rocketed to fame on the ever-popular series Dallas, he was sporting yellow swim trunks and webbed feet on the short-lived series Man From Atlantis, which is being released on DVD by the Warner Bros. Archives collection.
Duffy, 62, talked to Parade.com about the sci-fi show that gave him his Hollywood start. Plus, why he can’t wait for the return of Dallas in the summer of 2012, which will once again see Duffy playing good-guy Bobby Ewing, alongside Larry Hagman’s J.R. and Linda Gray’s Sue Ellen.
His fans span generations.
“When I was on Dallas, I was known to audiences of the '80s. And then when my sons, who are in their 30s now, were going to college, Dallas was the cult thing to watch because it was being done on the soap channels, so a whole new generation saw it. And then I have the young fans that knew me from Step By Step in the '90s. It’s interesting when I walk out in public to see the age ranges of people and what they call me. Whether they refer to me as Frank or Bobby.”
Did he ever imagine he’d be playing Bobby Ewing again on Dallas?
“No! And Larry and Linda will tell you the same thing. We never thought that we’d be back playing those characters again. Larry and Linda and I truly love each other like family members. We’re the closest of friends, but we never thought we would work together ever again. But when we got the script and went down to Texas and stepped onto the Southfork Ranch, it was the happiest that we’ve been as actors. It was so much fun and we’re so looking forward to doing the series now.”
The new Dallas will carry on with the next generation, while not forgetting the previous one.
“We won’t just have cameos, like you go visit them at the old folk’s home. Larry and Linda and I are involved in every aspect of each of the episodes. I think that’s what the audience will expect. It’s not like a remake of Hawaii Five-O where they mention the old characters every now and then so you think it’s the same show. This is Dallas — it’s just 20 years later. We’re 20 years older and our children are now adults and the drama goes on. The young people are going to carry a large portion of the show, and that’s the way it should be, but we’re not marginalized in any way.”
He had zero doubt about heading back to Texas.
“There was no hesitation, but that’s only because of the script written by Cynthia Cidre, who is now going to oversee the writing of the show and be executive producer. She is the only person since our original producer Leonard Katzman died that knows what this show’s about. Larry, Linda and I read her script and realized we could now do Dallas again because it will be as good if not better than the original.”
What fans can expect from Bobby Ewing…20 years later.
“He’s the patriarch of the Ewing family now. There is no mama or daddy on the ranch obviously, so Bobby is the combination of Jock and Miss Ellie in terms of his responsibilities and being the head of the family. Bobby is the cornerstone of the morality factor of doing what’s right. I think that’s been his function in a positive way for the 13 years it was on TV and that’s not going to change.”
He’s happy playing the mild-mannered brother.
“Everyone says, ‘Don’t you want to do something like J.R.’s character?’ But I always say no because the more J.R. does, the more fun my character has. I’m happy the way this dynamic has worked out. My goodness, if we could get 13 more years of Larry being J.R. and me being Bobby, I’d be the happiest man around.”
Hollywood isn’t the same place it was during the '80s.
“What I miss about that time is being that large of a character and a person in the business with still an appropriate amount of anonymity in your personal life. I don’t think that’s possible anymore. If the new Dallas series were to reach even a half of what the popularity was in those days, our lives won’t be as easy as they were in the ‘80s. There’s just too many market needs out there, there’s too many shows about celebrity. We’ll be photographed coming out of restaurants where we never were before. The paparazzi will be out there trying to get a picture. That didn’t happen to us in the old days. But we’re prepared for it. We’re old ponies in this parade. We know the drill; we just have to be ready to expect that now. It’s what the industry is.”
On the new kids on the ranch.
“The dynamic is perfect. I think we have the best young crop of actors playing these parts with Jesse Metcalfe, Josh Henderson, Jordana Brewster, and Julie Gonzalo. I didn’t know any of these people prior to coming on the set and they’re such good actors. It’s just a perfect marriage with the old Dallas. I couldn’t be happier and I just hope that they have the same kind of experience as we did thirty years ago when we started.”
Re: 'Dallas' to be revived on TNT network
"Dallas" returns to TNT: Does the new show do right by the Ewings?
by Rick Porter / Zap2it.com
The rebirth of "Dallas" on TNT Wednesday night (June 13) felt pretty familiar -- in both good and bad ways.
On the good side, it's clear that Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray still enjoy the heck out of playing J.R., Bobby and Sue Ellen. There's nothing like a 20-year break (give or take a couple of TV movies) to refresh an actor's approach to a familiar character, and all three commanded the screen in their scenes.
The downside of that, though, is that the three "Dallas" veterans tended to overshadow the new cast members. The focus of the new show is on the conflict between J.R.'s and Bobby's sons, John Ross and Christopher, but as mentioned in Zap2it's review of the show, it often felt like they were playing out things we'd seen many times before in the show's prior iteration.
It would also be nice to see Jordana Brewster's Elena, Julie Gonzalo's Rebecca and Brenda Strong's Ann come into their own more. They were mostly reactive characters in the premiere, which may be a necessary evil dictated by all the scene-setting pilots and early episodes have to do. Here's hoping they get more to do as the rest of the season unfolds, because all three are capable of a lot more.
A couple other thoughts on the premiere:
- Nice cameos by Charlene Tilton and Steve Kanaly as Lucy and Ray, who returned to Southfork for Christopher's wedding. As a whole, it felt like the premiere did a pretty good job of balancing old and new -- if, say, you don't know who Lucy and Ray are, you can just accept that they're relatives, but if you're a fan of the first "Dallas" you likely got an extra kick out of the scene.
- Another nice touch: The opening credits don't just use the classic theme song, but mimic the look of the old show almost perfectly.
- You knew the Del Sol Conservancy woman was double-crossing Bobby, right? But did you also peg her as the person in the Ferrari?
What did you think of the "Dallas" premiere? If you're a fan of the old series, do you think TNT did right by it, and if you're a newcomer, will you be sticking around?
Re: 'Dallas' to be revived on TNT network
"Dallas" gets off to a strong start for TNT
by Rick Porter / Zap2it.com
No one was expecting "Who shot J.R.?"-level ratings for TNT's new version of "Dallas," but by the standards of cable ratings the show did very well Wednesday night (June 13).
The two-hour-and-change premiere averaged 6.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched show on TV Wednesday night -- both cable and broadcast. It also became the top-rated premiere of 2012 for a scripted series on cable, following in the footsteps of two other TNT shows, "Falling Skies" in 2011 and "Rizzoli & Isles" in 2010.
Unsurprisingly for a show based on a series that debuted in 1978, the "Dallas" audience skewed slightly older: About 1.9 million of the premiere's viewers fell in the adults 18-49 demographic, and 2.5 million of them were in TNT's core 25-54 age group.
At its zenith in the early 1980s, "Dallas" was the No. 1 or No. 2 show on TV for five consecutive seasons. The "Who shot J.R.?" episode (officially titled "Who Done It?") on Nov. 21, 1980, drew more than 80 million viewers and 76 percent of the entire viewing audience that night.
Re: 'Dallas' to be revived on TNT network
I watched last night and although it was decent it didn't even remotely grab my attention enough for me to make a point of watching it again or pvring it. One problem I had was John Ross was a total douche. Good Ol' J.R. was always this crooked bastard who had this odd likeability to him but the guy who played John Ross came off as a total whiney sniveling little bitch I thought.
It was kinda cool cause my dad has been visiting this week so we watched it together and he was trippin' hard on nostalgia. Dallas was THE show back in the day and I'm not kidding my parents and their freinds had Dallas viewing parties. It aired on Friday night's where we lived and we only had one channel so you either watched or you didn't watch tv at all. We lived way the fuck up in the arctic in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. Coldest place in Canada on average, right on the arctic ocean and we'd get 3 months of total drakenss in the winter(and of course 3 months of 24 hour daylight in summer). There were no trees, no grass just ice and tundra and I'm not kdding we'd get polar bear warnings from time to time and the kids would not be allwoed to leave school untill a parent came to get them because the polar bear would be in town. Also nobody owned a car or tuck. We just had snowmachines, quads and 3 wheelers.... anyways off track here.
So every Friday night my parents and their friends would alternate houses and they'd have these viewing parties. I asked my Dad about it last night and you'd get kicked out if you talked during the show 
they were hardcore so last night was kind fun to watch with my dad.
It's a tough thing to watch though being I'm from Alberta, Canada which is the oil capital of Canada. The way they simplify the whole thing is so absurd and to have these two young guys(John Ross and Christopher) at the helm of this mega company is too ridiculous to take seriously. The opening scene where gusy were on an actual drilling rig and people were just pulling up in their trucks as if it was no big deal and the site was all nice and clean. So fake 
I have too many friends who work in the industry and I've been connected to it through various jobs over the years so watching this show it's hard not to roll my eyes. Kinda like how my Dad was never able to watch Police dramas on tv cause as real as the genral public thinks those shows are they are aboslute bullshit
Maybe a new generation will latch on to this I don't know. I'm not sure it's gonna keep the attention of the fans of the original though. I'd expect it to do well for a while and then fizzle once the novelty wears off. The lead characters aren't strong enough and it seemd pretty clear that as involved as JR and Bobby are now that isn't the long term direction they're gonna go so....
Re: 'Dallas' to be revived on TNT network
WOW. Highest-rated scripted series on cable so far this year? Pretty good.
Watched the 2-hour premiere, and it's probably the best revival series i've seen of all the attempts on the 70s, 80s, & 90s series that have been attempted to be revived, rebooted, and remade.
What was very well done about the new "Dallas" is that in fact it's not really new at all. It's basically just the Season 15 premiere, delayed for the last 21 years since the series end in May of 1991. Except fast-forward two decades to the current time.
Overall the premiere mixed the best of the old show, while bringing it forward to the modern day. The look of the series was new, but reminiscent of the old show, down to certain cinematography movements, the lock out cliffhangers of the old show, as well as the throwback "Dallas" intro and, but with a modern flair.
The show itself started strong. J.R. as usual is up to his old schemes, with son John Ross following, while Bobby's story is a bit new and refreshing, as is son Christopher. While this seems familiar for the right reasons, it seems tired for the wrong reasons. It would've been cooler if John Ross was made the face, and Christopher the heel to create an interesting dynamic of J.R. having to deal with a good son, and Bobby having to deal with a bitter, resentful, hateful son still hung up on his mother Pam abandoning him.
At the same time it's still an interesting and engaging "new" show on it's own with shades of FX's "Damages" and HBO's "Mad Men".
One complaint, like the critics is that the women are sorely under-utilized. Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) is basically "just there", who only really gets two scenes in two whole hours to really do anything interesting, one to tell her son "i'm sorry. think of me as your ally", and another to loan Jordana Brewster's character money to buy some oil fields.
The new cast members are strong, and act well enough to pass as sons of J.R. & Bobby, and Jordana Brewster's character immediately has significant power on-screen. But it will take time to bond to any of these characters the same way the old ones are, and at the same time despite the fact that this new show is FIRMLY the new cast members shows, you can't help but want to see the old cast members more, and the old cast members over-power the new ones on-screen.
Either way, good show. Still addictive, and with the good ratings, hopefully something that sticks around for awhile.
Re: 'Dallas' to be revived on TNT network
Great idea Axlin about having John Ross the face and Christopher the heel. That would've been better actually.
i don't thik I'll watch again to be honest. Gave it a shot, not overly interested in the young cast members. I have no problem with a new young cast but none of them stuck me as interesting. Chrsitopher's wife is hot, that's about it really.
Re: 'Dallas' to be revived on TNT network
I watched last night and although it was decent it didn't even remotely grab my attention enough for me to make a point of watching it again or pvring it. One problem I had was John Ross was a total douche. Good Ol' J.R. was always this crooked bastard who had this odd likeability to him but the guy who played John Ross came off as a total whiney sniveling little bitch I thought.
Remember something. They have to build the character. The 2nd episode featured some redeemability for John Ross when you find out that he didn't send the e-mail that broke up Christopher and Elena. John Ross truely loves Elena, and that exact reason right there might crack open a door for his vunerablility. When Elena shut him out, he truely came across as hurt by it. But in an asshole dude sort of way. She hurt me, so i'll go get drunk and cheat on her. But I still really love her.
Like with his dad J.R., that will probably be what gives him some vunerability and ultimately a door to liking him on some level.
But ultimately I agree with your point. J.R. in the early days of the show was a mean, vindictive, HATEFUL son of a bitch. Very similar to John Ross now. But one thing that would melt J.R.'s heart, was he always LOVED his daddy and his momma. He would put down his guns, and regardless of how much he upset them or screwed up the family, he would submit to Jock or Miss Ellie.
That made J.R. likeable. Family was important to him, regardless of his pre-Tony Soprano personality. John Ross doesn't have that. He seems to care for Elena, but hates his dad and mom and Uncle Bobby and Christopher, etc.
But in some ways -- it's correct. Based on how J.R. & Sue Ellen raised John Ross, and based on kids i've known under similar circumstances... they grow up hateful, narcissistic, and ruthless. That's pretty much John Ross Ewing in 2012.
It was kinda cool cause my dad has been visiting this week so we watched it together and he was trippin' hard on nostalgia. Dallas was THE show back in the day and I'm not kidding my parents and their freinds had Dallas viewing parties. It aired on Friday night's where we lived and we only had one channel so you either watched or you didn't watch tv at all. We lived way the fuck up in the arctic in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. Coldest place in Canada on average, right on the arctic ocean and we'd get 3 months of total drakenss in the winter(and of course 3 months of 24 hour daylight in summer). There were no trees, no grass just ice and tundra and I'm not kdding we'd get polar bear warnings from time to time and the kids would not be allwoed to leave school untill a parent came to get them because the polar bear would be in town. Also nobody owned a car or tuck. We just had snowmachines, quads and 3 wheelers.... anyways off track here.
That is so cool dude. It might not mean much to you, but i've always wanted to go up there some day and see what it's like "that far north". It's so un-settled up there, like the last undiscovered country in a way, at least in North America.
It's always fascinated me up there. Very cool to know you grew up in that. Thanks for sharing.
So every Friday night my parents and their friends would alternate houses and they'd have these viewing parties. I asked my Dad about it last night and you'd get kicked out if you talked during the show
It's a tough thing to watch though being I'm from Alberta, Canada which is the oil capital of Canada. The way they simplify the whole thing is so absurd and to have these two young guys(John Ross and Christopher) at the helm of this mega company is too ridiculous to take seriously.
I don't think they're running anything. Or if they are, I don't know what they're running. The new series seems to be ignoring the reunion movies, (1996's "J.R. Returns" and 1998's "War of the Ewings"), and basically just retconning those from ever existing. They seem to literally pick up 20 years into the future from the end of the series in 1991, and Cliff Barnes is still running Ewing Oil.
John Ross threw it up in Sue Ellen's face that had she not rushed him off to boarding school in Europe (which is how his character ended at the end of the original show), that John Ross would have been learning the oil business from his father all that time, and would be running Ewing Oil right now instead of that "idiot Cliff Barnes" (which is also how the series ended; J.R. and Cliff Barnes get double-crossed by Michelle Stevens into each getting 50% of Ewing Oil; J.R. & Cliff are sworn enemies, and J.R. thinks he's gonna get the voting rights to a far bigger company--West Star; so J.R. sells Cliff his 50% swearing he'll never be in a company with him, and then J.R. gets double-crossed by Carter McKay & Dusty Farlow out of getting into West Star... which ends the series with J.R. contemplating suicide because he loses West Star AND gives up Ewing Oil to his mortal enemy)
So right now I think John Ross & Christopher are trying to break into their own, unless I missed something. John Ross is looking to tap into the famed 'Section 40' a birth-right left to family from 'Grandpa Southworth', Miss Ellie's father. Jock originally wanted to pump it, but swore to Miss Ellie he'd cap the well and never destroy Southfork. In Season 2 or 3 of the original series, J.R. himself tried to pump that same well and got caught by Jock and ranch foreman Ray Krebbs (who cameo'ed last night at Christopher's wedding). J.R. was basically explained to that he was breaking the law, and that there were legal protections in to protect that land from being pumped. Later it was thrown into Jock's will as being left to the grandchildren (it named John Ross, not Christopher as he wasn't born yet) as inheriting it, but Miss Ellie (owner of Southfork then) was to oversee it and do with it and the ranch as she saw fit.
Miss Ellie later leaves the ranch to Bobby at the end of the series years later.
Which is where we are today. John Ross wants his birth rite and doesn't feel Christopher deserves any consideration because he was adopted. And once again the same process is repeating itself, John Ross illegally pumping oil and contesting Miss Ellie's will, and trying to fight Bobby over it.
Christopher on the other hand is wanting financial backing by Bobby to get into renewable energy, and cleaner energy and trying to steer towards the future. Bobby did a similar venture when he tried to get into the natural gas and wind business earlier on in the series much to Jock's chagrin and J.R.'s chastizing.
If you saw something that said they were running the company, that's news to me. And if true, I agree -- that would be foolish and hard to believe. These guys still are not much older than me, and I can honestly say i'm too young to be running Ewing Oil.
The opening scene where gusy were on an actual drilling rig and people were just pulling up in their trucks as if it was no big deal and the site was all nice and clean. So fake
Yeah I know what you mean. I grew up in a mining town (aggregates, not shafts), and i've been around drills that mine for special soils and also check water tables and such.
The ground is tore to hell. It's very tore up.
Hey it's TV. Whatta 'ya gonna do?
And yes on police dramas. I personally love them, but I always knew as a kid they were beyond realistic. My aunt loved "C.S.I.: Miami" and basically convinced herself it was real, and was an honest representation to her son as to real police work if he was interested in doing that as a job path. I basically laughed in her face and said that show was one of the most unrealistic pieces of horse shit you could imagine. She took GREAT OFFENSE, like I had called her a whore or something and didn't know what I was talking about.
I basically told her that what David Caruso's character does -- is the job of a homicide detective. CSI's don't walk around with guns solving murders, AND they don't get back blood, DNA, semen results in 45 seconds running it through a computer. That stuff can take weeks and weeks. They don't have scanners that scan tire treads in seconds, so they can identify the vehicle. It's all bullshit.
She then threw in my face "so you think that's not real, but you watch Miami VICE!!!"
And I threw back at her, "I watch Miami Vice because it's ENTERTAINING. I knew when I was 7 years old that Miami Vice detectives don't wear Armani suits, drive Ferrari's, and fuck Sheena Easton & Pam Grier in their off time"
And that offended her more. Use Your Illusion I guess. Some people really hold on strong that these shows are REAL! No they ain't. I loved recently when I got into a discussion with a cousin of mine about "The Walking Dead" and a zombie apocalypse. He talked like it was a real thing that could happen anyday, and I just rolled my eyes.
Maybe a new generation will latch on to this I don't know. I'm not sure it's gonna keep the attention of the fans of the original though.
As long as Larry, Patrick & Linda are around -- the old fans will be there. They still are the grease that keeps the show moving.
Bobby isn't getting killed off. You can BANK on that. They already made that mistake once. He's the new Jock character, and they'll play that up, plus Patrick Duffy ain't got anything better to do. He will be a male anchor on that show for awhile.
Linda Gray is also gonna be the female character that bridges a new generation. I don't see Christopher's new bride Rebecca staying around as she's just a con-artist, plus Christopher is madly in love with Elena still, and vice versa. Gray has great chemistry with Jordana Brewster, and they'll probably bring other younger female characters in to work with Gray. She's staying too (and looks great by the way; stunning she's like 71).
Larry Hagman is the big question. Larry is loving what he's doing now. His long-time wife Maj was recently put into a old folks home (she sufferes from Alzheimer's), and Larry NEEDED this to keep going. Playing J.R. again with his "second family" (Patrick & Linda) has been like a breath of fresh air, and he looks totally renewed and happy again to put on the cowboy hat & boots.
But Larry suffers from throat cancer (or is fighting it), and with his age (Larry is actually 10 years older now, than his TV father Jim Davis was when he died from brain cancer in 1981). There's always that question with how cable TV works with whole years passing between seasons, will Larry be there and if he is will he be physically able to play J.R. on a full time-level?
You lose Larry, that's a huge HUGE blow.
But as long as those old timers are there, and have something to do, even if just briefly -- the old audience will still be there imho.
I'd expect it to do well for a while and then fizzle once the novelty wears off. The lead characters aren't strong enough and it seemd pretty clear that as involved as JR and Bobby are now that isn't the long term direction they're gonna go so....
J.R. & Bobby will always be involved, as long as they're alive and willing to do it.
But from what i've seen they're not blowing their load on overly-promoting the old cast. Why do that? You're shooting yourself in the foot. If you play up too much of the old cast, you lose new viewers, and audiences never really connect with the new cast. If you do like the new 90210 & Melrose Place reboots, and play up too much of the new cast and too little of the old cast, you lose your old audience.
Dallas so far is not doing that. They are evenly blending it. So far. Even Ray & Lucy's cameos at Christopher's wedding were incredibly "blink and you'll miss it". They showed them enough to be a familiar treat for old fans, but not distracting to the story.
As for fizzling once the novelty wears off... really just depends on how well-written it is. It's not a BAD show, honestly. In fact, it's kinda good. Even if the old show had never existed. It's worth coming back next week. Cable is set up far better for 'niche' audiences today and also set up far better for prime-time soap opera dramas.
If they can back it up with good writing, a built-in worldwide fanbase, and alot of hype going into this... they could get some seasons out of this. Will this have a Mad Men-type run? Not at all. Even Damages only like 3 seasons on FX, and 2 seasons on Direct TV.
Dallas might be able to squeeze a few more seasons out of the orange.
It was the highest-rated show on TV in America Wednesday night, including cable and network TV, and the highest-rated scripted series on cable so far this year. Now that number will drop, but I see no reason why "Dallas" can't settle into at least 4 million viewers a week and ride that juice for quite awhile. Even top-rated, critically-acclaimed shows like "Justified" & "Sons of Anarchy" only get 3-4 million viewers a week and these shows have had multi-year runs.
Now as for 'the young cast'. I think John Ross & Elena are good. I have my doubts about Christopher & Rebecca. I don't know how long-term Rebecca is. She's poor (imo so far) daytime soap-quality, and Christopher ain't far behind. He needs time to grow.
But Brewster's character is VERY strong, and the John Ross character pops on screen and can carry a show. I just think Christopher might need some more episodes, and I think Rebecca needs to be dropped, as well as some tooling around with additional younger cast members that could be added. But that might come in time.
Anyways, thanks for watching and thanks for sharing those cool stories about your dad. My family was also very big on Dallas, so much that I was actually named after a Dallas character. I HAVE to watch!
Dallas was that big back then that it was water cooler talk not just for a season (like alot of people think) but was water cooler talk FOR YEARS. So much to a point that the show got to it's 9TH SEASON, and was still front-page news.
Would never happen today, so I get what your dad was saying. I didn't actually watch the show last night, I had to wait until this evening because my parents wanted to come over and sit down and watch it together, so I waited.
