Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category

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.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry has announced that he will seek an unprecedented third term for Governor.

After beginning his political career as Agricultural Commissioner, then Lt. Governor and took over as Governor when George W. Bush won the Presidency.

Texas has really thrived and held steady under Perry’s reign. For the most part he keeps a low profile and works hard for the betterment of Texas. There are some issues we would like to see him do better on like environmental but all in all, he’s given us nothing to be ashamed of.

The Texas unemployment rate is among the lowest in the country. Our industries are diversified, we have stable government leaders at the helm and we thankfully aren’t going through much of what the rest of the country is going through.

Read the details here.

American by birth….Texan by the grace of God.

It’s going to be a truly spectacular spring weekend in the Dallas area.

Jump on your bike - or for you poor souls that only have a car you can get into that - and head towards Ennis for the annual Ennis Bluebonnet Trails Festival.

You’ll see first hand why this is state flower of Texas!

A new license plate design will be forthcoming next year and WE get to offer our feedback in which design we like the most!

Also, there will be 7 characters on the plates from 6 which will give us more options for customizing the plates.

***Check out the Texas License Plate Designs HERE.***

As of late Monday afternoon, Lone Star Texas is first in the votes followed by Natural Texas. While I like the Lone Star Texas design, Natural Texas might be nice to help prevent road rage by all those damn yankees that have moved here!

It’s on boys and girls…the great State Fair of Texas opens for it’s 3 week run tomorrow.

A lot of people go on weekends or on specially priced days…in our camp, we prefer to go on Day 1.

The park is clean and the grease is fresh so it’s the perfect time for that once-a-year corny dog treat!

According to recent news reports, there is more than $32.8 billion in unclaimed funds in the US. And yes, that’s “B” for Billion!

I’m pretty diligent about checking once per year to see if I’ve overlooked anything and to date, I’ve only once found money owed to me and it was around $90. Not earth shattering, but a welcome treat.

I checked on my mother’s name and the name of the company she used to own and found FIVE separate accounts in two states totaling $1,705.47. Not a bad haul for a few minutes work on my side and she was delighted to find out about this.

It’s very easy to generate your own claim online, photocopy and mail in the necessary info. Your money is usually sent to you within 60 days (depending upon the state and if you have all the correct documentation).

Check this site out for yourself and see if you or your loved ones (even check deceased relatives) to see what’s out there…no sense in it generating interest for someone else!