Victoria Principal in Dallas (1978-1991)
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Review
Dallas, the primetime soap opera classic, debuted in 1978 and ran for a whopping thirteen consecutive seasons. To say that it was a “hit” would be quite the understatement…
The story followed the exploits of several Texas oil magnate-type families, the central clan being that of the “Ewings,” the patriarch (“Jock”) played by the late Jim Davis until his death in 1981, at which point, in typical soap opera style, the character was killed off the show. “J.R.” (Larry Hagman) then took over all of the family’s operations and for thirteen long years, all Hell broke loose.
The series was filled with more than its fair share of deceit and super-villainy, not only within the Ewing ranks but between the various feuding oil-baron clans. The “Barnes” double-crossed the Ewings on several occasions, in spite of the fact that second-son “Bobby” (Patrick Duffy) married Barnes-Babe extraordinaire “Pamela” (Victoria Principal) in a decidedly Romeo & Juliet-styled set-up. J.R. consistently double-crossed Bobby. “Gary Ewing” (David Ackroyd, Ted Shackelford, et al…) triple-crossed Bobby. The “Shepards” quadruple-crossed the Barnes. And basically everyone else double-triple-quadruple-East-West-Northern-Central-criss-crossed the Ewings every step of the way. In other words, if one only managed to catch one episode of the series, then one was most likely to be pretty darned lost…
The show was most definitely groundbreaking, as well. Dallas wasn’t the first production ever to utilize a “cliffhanger” ending to a season, but when J.R. was shot in the final episode of one season in particular, the premiere the following year broke more records than you could shake a stick at. A few seasons later, the producers went back to the tried-and-true, killing off Bobby at the beginning of the year only to have him resurface during the last episode when his “widow” Pamela finds him in the shower. Viewers then tuned in by the millions for the next season’s premiere, only to find out that the previous year’s storyline had all been ol’ Pam’s dream. If you ever wondered where the producers of Roseanne got the idea for that little plot device, now you know.
Of course, being a primetime soap, Dallas spawned or furthered the careers of quite a few hot-assed babes, including the likes of Lindsay Bloom, Joanna Cassidy, Jenilee Harrison, Charlene “My Future Ex-Wife” Tilton, and the aforementioned Victoria Principal. Unfortunately, being on such a long-running series put quite a damper on some of their Skinematic careers, but you can be sure they shed their collective threads somewhere or another!
Written by: Vance Moravian