SOAP WARS:
Episode X:
The Phantom Menace



Spring of ´90. After the end of DYNASTY (that great show that was...), another super soap announces its end: FALCON CREST. So this was its end...

- F. CREST: RICHARD & ANGELA finally make up. FC property ends up split between LANCE & MICHAEL, and KEVIN & MICHAEL, MAGGIE´s sons, though the latter had been given birth by CASSANDRA...EMMA announces her comeback with her baby daughter, PILAR her pregnancy with LANCE´s baby, and FRANK AGRETTI, his coming out from prison. MICHAEL (G. HARRISON) and his alienated son try to adapt to the situation, after knowing the boy is RICHARD´s natural son. He and LAUREN (W. PHILIPS) eventually get married and, at the very last scene, ANGELA toasts to her lands...
The winemakers´ show ended its run under minimum, in spite of having cast the most glittering golden stars. But it ended up badly, partly because of CHARLEY´s raving character...

- K. LANDING: PAIGE is stuck at the church by detective TOM (J. GIAN) when he is blackmailed by jealous guy GREG. GARY & VAL decide to take advantage of the occasion and engage by third time!!! as KAREN doesn´t suspect his workmate JEFF (C. LEMMON) really is the psychokiller who´s been stalking her...

- DALLAS: Will JR end up his days in a sanitarium? In order to take over some shares of WESTSTAR OIL, JR checks himself into the sanitarium where CLAYTON´s sister, JESSICA, is committed. But, after getting his papers signed down by her, he discovers horrified that his son JAMES (S. MITCHELL) and his own wife CALLY (from whom he´s getting a divorce) have joined forces in a revenge plot to keep him locked in there. Meanwhile, BOBBY & APRIL fly to Paris on a honeymoon trip...

After the disappearance of FC, DALLAS & KL brotherly co-existed for a couple of more years. In 199l DALLAS would come to an end and in 1991, its spin-off KL.


Epilogue: It´s a Wonderful Soap Life!


Spring of ´91, already a new decade. The two planetoids were sailing adrift in the outer space. They knew the end was close...

- KNOTS LANDING: On its l2th end of season, the cul-de-sac pack offered the next cliffhanger: after being attacked by a sort of hooligans, KAREN drives after them and, unwillingly, makes them seriously clash into a truck. She is shocked to know her recently adopted son JASON (T.W. BROWN) was inside the car...
Meanwhile, STEVE (L. GUEST), CLAUDIA´s (K. NOONE) secret son, gets shot by a policeman when trying to run away, since he was on parole and had a gun in his car…by courtesy of his mother. Stepsister KATE (S. GALINA) desperately witnesses everything. At the same time, KAREN´s daughter-in-law, LINDA (L.P. LINCOLN), is missing along with her twisted workmate and lover...ANNE is broke again and GARY & VAL eventually got married, after she went through her odd mental sickness...

- DALLAS: THE END. The show gives two simultaneous ends: one of them for the story, on the penultimate episode: thanks to DUSTY, CLAY & CARTER stop JR to take over WESTSTAR OIL. Before that, he had been offered the chairmanship for WO and forced to sell out the family company to Sceptical CLIFF. MICHELLE (K. FOSTER), APRIL´s sister, finally takes revenge for her death, and shoots to death the woman responsible for her tragic end in Paris. JR intercedes on her behalf in exchange of getting back E.OIL but she finds herself all alone, rich and owning an empty house, since his lover JAMES has returned to his real family.
Not long before that, JR had found out that CALLY was living happily in Florida with their baby daughter and a new husband, and he had been rejected by his secretaries SLY & PHYLLIS, as well as by JOHN ROSS, staying in London with his mother. BOBBY let go his revenge against HILLARY (S. LUCCI) and dedicated his time to the ranch. Completely alone and ruined, JR pointed a gun to his head...
But before to shoot, on the final two-hour episode, there was a homage to the film "It´s A Wonderful Life!" with an evil angel called ADAM (JOEL GREY), who came down (or up) to Southfork in order to show JR what would have happened if he wasn´t born: instead of him, another mean brother would have been born, JASON, as BOBBY would have given in gambling and booze, divorced from his wife and his babies´ mother.
SUE ELLEN would have ended up as a TV star married to NICK PEARCE and KRISTIN wouldn´t be dead, but would have become a pro drifter, as she was in real life.
About CLIFF, a coup de grâce would have placed him as the President of US and CALLY would have killed his abusing husband in self-defense in Haleyville. ELLIE & JOCK would have been scared to death when GARY ruined E. OIL as he met his adored VALENE, all over again.
RAY got crippled but had a caring humble family, and Southfork became a third-rate housing development. On the last scene, BOBBY heard a shot and ran into his brother´s bedroom: "Oh, my God!". The rest is history...

"DALLAS" ENDED IN A POOR BUT IMAGINATIVE WAY THAT GOT ALMOST ALL THE FAMILY BACK TOGETHER, EXCEPT FOR VP AND BBG. THE 2 REUNION TVMOVIES SHOT AFTERWARDS PROVED JR HAD SURVIVED TO HIS SUICIDE ATTEMPT AS SUE ELLEN RETURNED TO THE RANCH AFTER GETTING A DIVORCE, AND AFTON COOPER AND RAY KREBBS CALLED ON THEM.
THAT WAS A DISAPPOINTING END FOR ALMOST EVERYONE OF US, THOUGH THE WAY THE SHOW WAS GOING, YOU COULD EXPECT SOMETHING EVEN
WORSE...

MEANWHILE, KL CONTINUED...

- Spring of´ 92: PAIGE shockingly found his presumably drown crazy boyfriend PIERCE (B. GREENWOOD) in her car. This was the end for KL 13th Season, which would also present the split of the SUMNER GROUP between KAREN, PAIGE & CLAUDIA, who was blackmailing ALEX (B.KESTNER), her lover, to keep him apart from KATE. ANNE learns she is carrying GREG´s baby and VAL was about to disappear in Florida during a research about LAURA´s daughter, MEG. A good cliffhanger for a genre already in obvious crisis.

- Spring of ´93: THE END. To everyone´s surprise, the show would end up well with a closed finale, getting missing actresses together: J. VAN ARK & D. MILLS. Before the sympathetic last scene, VAL reappeared in KL after being taken for dead in a car accident, GARY & KATE put an end to their relationship, ANNE, CLAUDIA & NICK became a strange losers´ triangle, MACK & KAREN made up for good and PAIGE & GREG reached an agreement to live together...

No doubt this was the show that offered a better end to get the most demanding audience satisfied, even keeping its major cast (including runaway ABBY) AND ABOVE ALL, THE NEIGHBORLY SPIRIT THAT PREVAILED IN THE SHOW ALL THE WAY, AND SO MANY YEARS LONG.

There was a Reunion Movie in 1997 entitled "Back To The Cul-de-sac" which re-united many other actors who once played on it, but not adding anything new to the plot.
AND THAT´S ALL, FOLKS!

Soon, Sections devoted to the "other" Super Soaps


SOAP WARS section by Pam´s Twin Sister, exclusively for DALLAS UNIVERSE, MUNDO DALLAS and CHARLA ENSERIE.

INDEX