Dynasty, The Colby’s, Falcon Crest, I loved ’em all! The eighties was the heyday of the nighttime soap. Rich families jockeying for money, power and position, willing to take out one of their own to get it; of all the nighttime soaps, Dallas was the undisputed King. Centered on the Ewing clan, anchored by Larry Hagman’s portrayal of the ruthless J.R., the Ewing’s brought new meaning to the phrase “dysfunctional family.” Heck. These guys slung mud at each other with as reckless abandon that made the show a must watch for several years.
Even Dallas, which made its name with over the top storylines an acting went a bit to far during the series ninth season. Pam (Victoria Principal) awakens from a dream to find Bobby (Patrick Duffy) in the shower. As it turns out, Bobby isn’t dead and Pam was never married to Mark Graison. While I’m sure the folks at Lorimar were thrilled to have Duffy back and I’m sure Patrick didn’t object to the huge checks he was receiving. Making the entire ninth season of Dallas a dream was a risk I don’t think the show ever fully recovered from.
The tenth season brought Wes Parmalee (Steve Forrest) to town, a man who claims to be the long thought dead Jock Ewing. I always thought Dallas would’ve become a more interesting show if producers had let him be the long lost Jock. It would have shaken things up on a show that was becoming a bit stale at this point and it would have returned Dallas to the family dynamic of a father pitted against two warring sons. When I think back to the first season of Dallas, it is the troubled father/son relationships that created the most dramatic tension on the show.
Watching the episodes that involve Parmalee made me think the producers at least considered having him be Jock. Each episode leaves open the possibility that he is the real Jock. Things reach a fairly tense conclusion when Parmalee shows up at Bobby’s wedding to Pam. Yet, just when the viewer is ready for a big showdown between the Ewing boys and Parmalee–as well as between Miss Ellie and possibly her dead husband–the producers backed off. Miss Ellie and Parmalee say their goodbyes off camera and he disappears. Later, Parmalee’s true identity is revealed and Clayton (Howard Keel) plots revenge. However, the producers seemed to lose interest in the story and the subplot was inexplicably dropped. By the ninth and tenth seasons of Dallas it was clear producers were having difficulty sticking to storylines and maintaining the sense of excitement around the show that had existed in earlier seasons.
As to be expected, J.R. had his own major story arc during the tenth season. As the season begins, the price of oil has gone way down. J.R. is worried about the survival of the American oil industry as the Saudi’s flood the market with cheap product. J.R. doesn’t have the time to lobby Washington to set up tariffs. Instead, he hires the patriotic B.D. Calhoun (Hunter Von Leer) and his men to fly to Saudi Arabia and blow up a huge oil field. However, J.R. chickens out and informs the C.I.A. of Calhoun’s plans (only after it appears J.R. himself might go down for the crime). What follows is not Dallas at its best–Calhoun begins stalking J.R. and his family, which results in a strange shootout between the Ewing boys and Calhoun.
I know Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) is the wacky one of the Ewing clan but her subplot this season is truly ridiculous. She develops a Victoria’s Secret-inspired lingerie line called Valentine’s for the sole purpose of employing JR’s bimbo-of-the-moment, Mandy Winger (Deborah Shelton) to model the lingerie At first, the writers make it seem like Sue Ellen wants to embarrass J.R. with Mandy’s role as a lingerie model but then they get her involved in making movies with Mandy starring in them, to get her out of town (once again, the story turns into a muddled mess). Linda Gray’s talents are seriously underused all season.
As with previous seasons, Dallas employed its famous cliff hanger at the end of the tenth year. First, Pam drives under a propane truck and explodes. Ewing Oil was finally broken up, with the family turning against J.R. and selling off their shares to him. All was not rosy for J.R. though, he was left alone while facing a major Department of Justice inquiry into his dealings with Calhoun.
By the close of the tenth season, it was clear Dallas was running out of steam. Despite the scattershot plots and quickly disappearing characters, Dallas still finished its tenth season ranked 11 in the Nielsen ratings, which speaks to the long running popularity of the series. However, by the end of the next season, the show had slipped to 22, signaling that audiences had lost faith that the quality the show had once possessed would ever return.
Dallas: The Complete Tenth Season comes crammed onto three flipper discs, as opposed to previous seasons’ five-disc offerings. An additional episode has been added to each side, making for some obvious compression problems, including some shimmering and halo effects. Even on a smaller monitor, these transfers look more akin to VHS copies than digital. There is noticeable digital debris: scratches and dirt.
The Dolby Digital English mono audio track accurately reflects the original network broadcast presentation. Subtitles and close-captions are available.
No extras are included.
