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Dallas Styles: Miss Ellie’s Pearls
Don’t mess with Mama The second-season episode “Survival” features one of my all-time favorite “Dallas” moments: the scene where Miss Ellie points a shotgun at a snoopy newspaper reporter and orders...
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Dallas Cliffhanger Classics: Season 8
Dallas Decoder celebrates “Dallas’s” classic cliffhangers with weekly summertime flashbacks. Collect all 14 images and share them with your friends.
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Dallas Parallels: Requiems for the Heavyweights
The funerals of J.R. and Bobby Ewing were filmed 28 years apart, but they draw upon similar themes, including the idea that grief and anger are sometimes indistinguishable. The episodes also show how...
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#DallasChat Daily: What Are Dallas’s Best/Worst Recasts?
“Dallas” recast several roles over the years. Which ones worked? Which ones failed? Among the choices: Miss Ellie (played by Barbara Bel Geddes and Donna Reed), Gary (David Ackroyd, Ted Shackelford),...
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Critique: Dallas Episode 161 — ‘End Game’
Best shot The “End Game” cliffhanger is still powerful, especially when you watch the entire episode. In scene after scene, we’re led to believe everyone is gunning for J.R., just like they were four...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 162 — ‘Killer a Large’
Reflected glory “Dallas’s” seventh season winds down with half the cast once again gunning for J.R. In the final scene, an unseen assailant enters the darkened Ewing Oil offices and fires three shots...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 168 — ‘Homecoming’
New mom rising Even after all these years, it’s still strange to see Donna Reed play Miss Ellie. Reed’s first episode is “Homecoming,” and as soon as she enters the frame in the famous scene where...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 169 — ‘Oil Baron’s Ball III’
Look who’s lurking “Dallas’s” Oil Baron’s Ball episodes are fan favorites, and for good reason. Not only do they show the cast dressed to the nines, we also get to see the actors together in one place....
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Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘That Blue Thing’
Drive him crazy In “Oil Baron’s Ball III,” an eighth-season “Dallas” episode, Miss Ellie and Clayton (Barbara Bel Geddes, Howard Keel) exit their car in the Southfork driveway, where Raoul (Tony...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 170 — ‘Shadows’
Frame love The final scene in “Shadows” trembles with tension. Miss Ellie summons J.R. and Bobby to the Southfork living room, where she tells them she’s going to take down the painting of Jock that...
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Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘You Can’t Do It, Mama’
The defiant one In “Shadows,” an eighth-season “Dallas” episode, Miss Ellie (Donna Reed) stands in the Southfork living room, where J.R. (Larry Hagman) is seated and Bobby (Patrick Duffy) stands....
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 171 — ‘Charlie’
Gone girl On “Dallas,” children are seen and heard. The series often involves its youngest characters in major storylines, unlike other 1980s prime-time soap operas where kids are treated as little...
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Dallas Scene of the Day: ‘Be Nice to the Little Orphan’
Hard knock life In “Do You Take This Woman?,” an eighth-season “Dallas” episode, J.R. (Larry Hagman) is ranting in the Southfork living room, where Miss Ellie (Donna Reed), Clayton (Howard Keel), Bobby...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 174 — ‘Déjà Vu’
Game of phones What could be unholier than an alliance between J.R. Ewing and Cliff Barnes? In “Déjà Vu,” the sworn enemies agree to work together to keep Bobby and Pam apart. The scene where J.R. and...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 177 — ‘Winds of War’
Scene from a marriage In “Winds of War,” J.R. insists he’s been faithful when Sue Ellen accuses him of cheating. He’s lying, of course, but why? Is he trying to spare his wife’s feelings, or is he...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 178 — ‘Bail Out’
Truth to power Bobby springs Jenna from jail in “Bail Out,” while Sue Ellen liberates her own tongue. After discovering J.R. has cheated on her yet again, she stops playing the dutiful wife and begins...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 181 — ‘The Brothers Ewing’
The dark side In “The Brothers Ewing,” J.R., Bobby and Ray join forces to protect the family business from the increasingly dangerous Cliff Barnes. You’d think by now we’d all be used to seeing the...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 185 — ‘The Verdict’
Stand by your woman, man Bobby Ewing fights to save Jenna in “The Verdict,” but the real man of the hour is Patrick Duffy. After an unusually long stretch of disappointing episodes, Duffy takes his...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 187 — ‘Terms of Estrangement’
Hello, stranger Jack Ewing is a bad boy who makes a good impression. “Terms of Estrangement” introduces the character, a long-lost cousin who comes to town offering to sell J.R. information that could...
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Critique: ‘Dallas’ Episode 191 — ‘Swan Song’
Exit the hero “Swan Song” is a masterpiece. This is the best “Dallas” episode ever made because it dares to set aside so many of the show’s conventions — wheeling, dealing, double-crossing — to focus...
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