Archive for the ‘About Dallas’ Category

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P.S. I didn’t know Brad Pitt was on “Dallas”!

Note: This fantastic article about the legacy of the Dallas TV show is copyrighted and was written by Jake Batsell of The Dallas Morning News.

He hangs his hat almost 5,000 miles from Southfork, but Colin Hunter has rounded up a huge herd of fans still infatuated with Dallas.

Never mind that the iconic television show has been off the air since 1991. Each day, some 23,000 people visit UltimateDallas.com, the fan site Mr. Hunter produces out of his north London home.

“There are people from everywhere — Romania, Japan, the U.S., Indonesia,” Mr. Hunter, 36, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve got this whole new fan base, some people as young as 12 and 13.”

Three decades after J.R., Sue Ellen and company began bickering on prime-time TV, Dallas remains an unstoppable force in popular culture.

The show that epitomized American grandeur and greed during the Reagan years is still syndicated in dozens of countries. Southfork Ranch in Parker draws more than 300,000 visitors a year. Diehards and new fans devour episodes on DVDs and cable soap channels.

“Dallas is not a phenomenon of 30 years ago, but actually is continuing to bring in new viewers,” said Janet Staiger, curator of Dallas: Power & Passion on Primetime TV, a new exhibit at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin.

The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 14, chronicles how the show’s memorable characters, scandalous storylines and TV firsts — most notably the “Who shot J.R.?” cliffhanger — spawned a global juggernaut that continues to fascinate legions of fans.

Boosters of modern Dallas, meanwhile, often cringe at the show’s over-the-top stereotypes and the lingering perception that the city remains a mecca for big hair, 10-gallon hats and cutthroat capitalism.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” said Phillip Jones, president and chief executive officer of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The show’s persistent popularity makes it more challenging to promote Dallas as a progressive, ethnically diverse city with plentiful options for culture, dining and commerce, Mr. Jones said.

On the plus side, he said, “everywhere you go in the world, people know Dallas.”

“The curse is, everywhere you go in the world, people know Dallas from 30 years ago,” he said. “People think if they come to Dallas, they’re going to see J.R. Ewing walking down the street.”

First of its kind

When the show first aired on CBS in April 1978, Dallas chiefly was known as the site of the Kennedy assassination. The Dallas Cowboys, fresh off their second Super Bowl victory, weren’t even America’s Team yet.

Then came the TV series, which suddenly recast Dallas as a glitzy universe of shimmering skyscrapers, slick oil barons and gorgeous women clad in fur coats and showy jewelry.

“It was, of course, not a totally accurate image,” said Dr. Staiger, a professor of film and television studies at the University of Texas at Austin. “Not all women dress as beautifully as beautifully as Pamela Barnes and Sue Ellen did when they went to lunch. But it gave Dallas an image of richness.”

By the end of the second season in spring 1980, the show gave America its first prime-time cliffhanger when an unknown assailant gunned down J.R. Ewing in his office.

The scheming, sharp-tongued oilman — played by Fort Worth native Larry Hagman — had a long list of enemies. A prolonged actors strike forced fans to wait eight months before finding out the answer to the now-historic marketing slogan: “Who Shot J.R.?”

In November 1980, roughly 360 million viewers worldwide finally discovered who pulled the trigger. At the time, it was the most heavily watched event in television history.

The success of Dallas also elevated the soap-opera plot formula — serial narratives featuring multiple, intertwined story lines — into prime time.

“Now, you can hardly find a drama on prime-time that doesn’t have this format,” Dr. Staiger said.

The show inspired a crush of merchandise, some of which is on display at the Austin exhibit — puzzles, albums, even J.R. beer in pull-top cans.

Hollywood’s efforts to remake Dallas into a movie have sputtered. Janis Burklund, director of the Dallas Film Commission, said studio executives recently told her that the project is still alive but on hold as writers rework the script.

Actors still pleased

Susan Howard-Chrane accepts that her public persona will always be intertwined with her Dallas character, Donna Krebbs.

George W. Bush, then governor, appointed Ms. Howard-Chrane to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in 1995. During her confirmation hearing, the room went silent when Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, accidentally called her Donna.

“It wasn’t any big deal,” said Ms. Howard-Chrane, a Boerne resident who now serves on the Texas Commission on the Arts and is still constantly recognized by Dallas fans.

“I am never offended by someone calling me Donna — ever,” she said.

Ms. Howard-Chrane said viewers kept tuning in to Dallas because they related to the personal stories of each character — a rare occurrence in today’s prime-time lineup of reality shows and crime dramas.

“It was probably the last of its kind,” she said. “It primarily was a show to entertain, and to showcase actors and pretty clothes and attractive people and relationships. It was entertainment. I think we’ve kind of gotten away from that.”

The show’s success surprised actor Steve Kanaly, who played Ray Krebbs, Donna’s husband and the Ewings’ ranch foreman. Mr. Kanaly, who now grows avocados and citrus crops in Ojai, Calif., said he expected a quick exit after filming the first five episodes.

“I never believed the show had a chance to be successful,” he said. “I did five shows with everybody and thought, ‘Well, this is great; it’s been fun working with you, see you later.’.”

In retrospect, Mr. Kanaly said, the show may have caught on because it provided an escape from real-world issues like inflation, unemployment and the Iran hostage crisis.

“There were a lot of negative things going on,” he said. “And then this show pops up that doesn’t have anything to do with anything except a bunch of rich people in Texas and their crazy, mixed-up lives.”

Worldwide reach

Shady deals, boozy carousing and messy family politics may have been off-putting to some, but the program showed the world that America was a land of big dreams, Cadillacs and swimming pools.

Just ask Tomas Spilacek. During a visit to Southfork last month, Mr. Spilacek remembered watching Dallas in communist Czechoslovakia 20 years ago.

“Every person was watching this movie because Dallas is like all life in the U.S.,” he said. “Over there, communism. Over here, Dallas. Every Saturday night watching this movie is beautiful.”

Sally Peavy, the ranch’s tourism sales manager, hears stories like that all the time. Roughly two-thirds of the visitors who show up to tour Southfork are international.

“I would’ve thought that maybe it would have died down by now,” Ms. Peavy said. “But it’s amazing to me that people are still intrigued about the show, want to come see it, want to come experience it.”

Colin Mallon, a Southfork visitor hailing from Kent in the United Kingdom, said he got hooked on Dallas in the 1980s because “the storyline was brilliant, had a good laugh in it. It’s just something that made you watch every week.”

“Some of the things that happened in the show were just kind of bizarre,” added Angie Green of Wapakoneta, Ohio. “You couldn’t wait until the next week to see what was going to happen with J.R. and Cliff and all the characters.”

Still holds up

On UltimateDallas, the Web site Mr. Hunter started with two friends in 1997, fans interview the show’s stars, debate old plot twists and answer poll questions like: “Which forbidden love would you have liked to see?”

Mr. Hunter runs the site and attached fan forum with help from fellow fans in London, Canada and the United States. He said interest in the show has endured because its human storylines held such universal appeal.

Viewers could relate to Bobby and J.R.’s sibling rivalry, Sue Ellen’s alcoholism, Pam’s insecurity about her inability to have children and the family squabbles between the Ewing and Barnes clans.

“It was a character-driven show in a way we don’t tend to get now,” Mr. Hunter said. “It still kind of holds up, even nowadays.”

If you will check out the right side of this blog, you will now find a Local Search feature to help you quickly find contact information.

Just type in the business name or the type of business you are looking for - this search featured is powered by one of the most up-to-date databases around.

This virtual “yellow pages” helps make this blog just a bit more one-stop shopping for you!

For a city that logistically has no reason to exist as a major metropolitan market, Dallas hasn’t done too bad for itself.

In Forbes Magazine’s recent list of the 400 wealthiest Americans (Forbes does have a fixation with lists!), 14 of that stellar class make their homes here.

They include:

With 6 Dallasites tied at #117 with $1.5 billion each, they include:

Another tie at #380 with $1.3 billion each are:

It was a 100 years ago today that Neiman-Marcus opened it’s doors for the first time and it happened here in downtown Dallas. The flagship store opened in 1914 at it’s current location of Main Street @ Ervay Street.

One of the greatest annual events for shoppers everywhere is the Neiman-Marcus Christmas Catalogue where you can find such necessities as an imperial sacrificial robe worn by a Chinese emperor, sterling silver thermometer case for doctors, and cars galore from Mercedes-Benz to Lexus.

A popular urban legend about the store was the “$250 chocolate chip cookie recepie”. The reason it’s a legend is for the following reasons: The “complaintant” said the charge was on her Visa statement - NM doesn’t accept Visa in the stores; NM didn’t even make a chocolate chip cookie when this legend began and this rumour first began in the 1940’s except then it was the Waldorf-Astoria and their Red Velvet Cake.

So grab yourself a sterling silver bubble wand and start celebrating the 100th of the grand dame of retailing! May you have another 100 successful more!

Darren McGrady was the royal chef to Princess Diana.

After Diana’s death, he turned down an offer from Prince Charles and moved to the U.S. He is currently employed as a private chef here in Dallas.

WFAA had a great interview with him today about his memories and times with the Princess. Click here to watch.

This is a new opportunity to get the word out about what a stellar city Dallas is and I am delighted to be the Editor for this blog.

About Dallas is My Home:
There is a great deal more going for Dallas than JR Ewing, JFK, Dallas Cowboys and Bar-B-Q.
With dozens of high profile businesses having their headquarters in the area (Southwest Airlines, JC Penney, Blockbuster, FedExKinkos, AMR/American Airlines, EDS, ExxonMobil, BNSF), we are a community that thrives on big business deals.

Some of our core industries include Real Estate, Banking, Insurance, Technology, Medical Research and Transportation.

We are a major airline hub (thanks to Southwest and American being based here) conveniently located to both coasts.

For the most part, our weather is nice though we can experience an average of 2 months that are just too hot in the summer but our winters are usually quite mild. Though, don’t throw caution to the wind because as soon as you do we will have an ice storm as we get far more ice than snow here.

We have great sports and are well represented by the Dallas Cowboys (football), Texas Rangers (baseball), Dallas Mavericks (basketball) and Dallas Stars (hockey).

Dallas is chock full of mirrored buildings so we can bask in our own glory. Shallow and vain perhaps, but it keeps out cosmetic dentists, plastic surgeons and retail stores rolling in money.

In fact, there is more plastic surgery per capita in Dallas than in L.A. The NorthPark Neiman-Marcus sells more cosmetics per square foot than any other department store in the country.

Dallas is also the testing ground for many new restaurant concepts and we have more restaurants per capita than NYC. This may explain why Carlson Worldwide and Brinker are both based here as they are responsible for chains such as TGI Friday’s, Chili’s, Romano’s Macaroni Grill and a whole slew of others.

Dallas/Ft. Worth is also the 6th largest media market in the country. We are also the 6th largest motorcycle owners’ market.

So visit us often and learn more about what makes this major metropolitan city rock. We will delve into the history of Dallas often to hopefully explain some of it’s quirks and what it takes to succeed here.

About Raine:
First, I want to thank all the thousands of visitors that have decended upon this blog in just a few short weeks. Without you, this blog would be like a billboard on a dirt road!

As a 5th generation Dallasite, I probably know more useless trivia about this city than a person has a right to. But, when you want to know how to get from Downtown to Richland College by using only one street, I can answer that (Main Street turns into Columbia Avenue which turns into Abrams Road).

I’m well entrenched in the entertainment world as I spent several industrious years handling tour publicity/media relations for a major record label, co-owned a technology company which allowed me to win the coveted Clarion Award, then segued back into entertainment by having a video/TV/webcast production company.

In the meantime, I have also been the editor of the largest motorcycle magazine in the state of Texas and served on the boards of everything from USA Film Festival, Alliance Francaise to El Centro Internet Publishing Program.

I love Corvettes and Harleys and I am definitely a girl into a high octane lifestyle.

Feel free to give me your feedback and suggestions as we work to make this a stellar blog that entertains, enlightens and informs you.