The entire Ewing clan will return to Southfork, as the entire cast and crew of the popular 1980s nighttime soap Dallas are reuniting this fall for the show’s 30th anniversary.
Dallas aired for thirteen seasons on CBS from 1978-1991, spawning the spin-off Knots Landing (1979-93) the next year, as it involves oil, power, greed, romance, deception, betrayal, and ambition within the Ewing family both professionally and personally on the Southfork Ranch.
Larry Hagman said in an interview with the Dallas Morning News that he is excited about this reunion.
“I may not be able to do the 40th” states the 76-year-old. “Thirty years is pretty good, and the show is still popular.”
Hagman has been Dallas‘ front and center from day one. His character, J.R. Ewing, was America’s Favorite Villain: the man viewers love to hate, the man viewers hate to love, and the man viewers both loved and hated. J.R. was ruthless, immoral, and irredeemable — yet fans were rooting for him and saw him as a “hero.”
Dallas‘ third season ended in the spring of 1980 with television’s lovable scoundrel shot and near death. The finale was one of the most watched episodes in small-screen history, with fans all over the world wanting to know that summer the most important question: “Who Shot J.R.?”
That became a catchphrase and part of pop culture, with shows such as FOX’s The Simpsons and CW’s One Tree Hill, featuring villains loved and hated by both characters and viewers. Their lives were hanging by a thread in a cliffhanger season finale, and was resolved in the fall with their would-be killers revealed.
When Dallas began its fourth season in the fall of 1980, over 350 million people turned in to discovered that it was J.R.’s sister-in-law, Kristin (Mary Crosby), that shot him.
Besides Hagman, both co-stars Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing) and Linda Gray (Sue Ellen) are also coming for the celebration, which promise to be a good time — without no fights or alcohol.
“Larry and I will have a bowl of Mueslix and a small shot of prune juice and be in bed by 9 o’clock” Duffy said to the News. “We’ll let people file by the bed and watch us go to sleep. I think we can hang with the best of them until midnight.”
The ranch reunion is open to the public that includes a Q&A session with the cast; tickets will go on sale a week from Friday at somewhere between $100 and $1,000. Dallas‘ 30th anniversary at Southfork will be on November 8.
Source: Associated Press