MUNDODALLAS presents

EWING EMPIRE

STARRING:

(In alphabetical order):

PATRICK DUFFY (BOBBY)

LINDA GRAY (SUE ELLEN)

KEN KERCHEVAL (CLIFF)

AUDREY LANDERS (AFTON)

SASHA MITCHELL (JAMES)

CATHY PODEWELL (CALLY)

VICTORIA PRINCIPAL (PAM)

TED SHACKELFORD (GARY)

JOAN VAN ARK (VAL)

RECURRING STARS:

SUSAN HOWARD (DONNA)

STEVE KANALY (RAY)

HOWARD KEEL (CLAYTON)

CHARLENE TILTON (LUCY)

CO-STARRING:

OMRI KATZ (JOHN ROSS)

CHRIS DEMETRAL (CHRISTOPHER)

DEBORAH KELLNER (BECKIE)

DAVID MARSHALL GRANT (WILL)

And

SPECIAL APPEARANCE by

LARRY HAGMAN

Episode 1: “BACK TO SOUTHFORK”

- Bobby James Ewing, I don’t believe you... - she said, as she put a lock of hair behind her ear, unsuccessfully trying the wind not to ruin her hairstyle. Pamela Ewing was in her late forties, but she still looked like a young happy woman. Her husband Bobby was driving his black BMW on the freeway to Dallas. They had spent the whole week in a luxury New Orleans hotel. But they had been married for five years, and it was their third marriage to each other. However, they never could have a honeymoon trip before.

- And what is that so unbelievable? - He said, taking a quick look at her, while he drove on to a nearby gas station.

- I can’t believe we spent four years away from Southfork, and, what’s more, away from our son.

- Oh, come on, Pam: you perfectly know that Chris is not an ordinary boy. He became independent from us long ago...

- I guess a mother always has a hard time letting her son live his own life, even if his I.Q. is so high and he’s not a minor any more...

- And now, we are living our second youth all over again, and we’re going back to where our family awaits to make a celebration...and, this time, be sure my folks won’t throw you off the ranch...

The couple laughed out loudly, as they remembered a very similar conversation they had had, not far away from there, but twenty-two years ago...

Also far away, a car with a Ewing 8 plate was heading to Southfork too. That was the Ewing family home, located in Braddock. The driver was John Ross Ewing III, the heir to one of the biggest fortunes in Texas, who was already twenty years old and had everything he could wish...everything material. Except for his parents...

Suddenly, as if it came out of blue, a fancier sports car went after Ewing 8. The driver was a man in his thirties, wearing dark sun-glasses, who drove his car closer to John Ross’s. Unexpectedly, he tried to get him off the road.

- Who the hell must that mad guy be? - John Ross whispered, as he speed off and let him overtake him. But the other driver seemed to be determined to cause an accident....At last, he parked his car on the right place and, when he saw the other do the same thing, he got out of his car to face him bravely. He got quite a surprise when he saw that the driver was none other than his older brother, James Beaumont Ewing, whose rare sense of humor used to kick John Ross off.

- Hi little brother - he said, putting his sun-glasses off...

- You damned pig... - the boy answered, hugging the young man...

- I’ve just come back from Miami and thought you’d like to be the first to admire my great tan...

- You’ll never change, will you?

- Nope, but my little brother did, and I’m so proud of him... - James pointed out to the sports car with personalized plate and all...

- So, what are you doing here?

- I’ve got good news: I’m gonna marry.

What he didn’t say to John Ross was the bride’s name: the one to become his wife was...John Ross’s ex stepmother.

Those two guys were on their late fifties and seemed to be brothers, though they just were half-brothers, sons of the same father. Gary and Ray had settled down in Southfork forever, after a long time living far away: Gary, in a Californian suburban area called Knots Landing, and Ray in Switzerland, with her late wife Jenna and her breed.

Now, Gary lived in his independent ranch house along with wife Valene and their twin kids, Bobby and Betsy. Ray owned the next door’s house, with his wife Donna and their teenage daughter Maggie.

Five years before, the best-known ranch in all Texas had been demolished after a one week storm shook the Braddock area, near Dallas, and ruined the basements of the white house that had been the Ewings´home for many decades.

- Sometimes, I still look up and see the old ranch, down there, shining as ever at the morning light...

- Me too, Ray - Gary nodded. - After I ran away home, when I was a kid, every time I thought about Southfork, I didn’t think of the fights with my dad or my brother, but of the image of that big white house, where my mother used to spoil me and taught me how to ride a horse...Now, Southfork means a lot of things, partly thanks to you and Bobby, who worked hard to renew the waste lands and find another purpose to those acres of land...The Southfork family resort, the last Southfork oil fields, placed where the ranch used to be, and the Southfork Stables, where the best breed horses in Texas are born...

- Too bad Jock and Ellie are gone now, I wish they could see all this; they’d be damn proud of the results, and of you too, Gary...

- Thanks Ray. You are a good brother...Remember that Clayton will come back in a couple of weeks... - After that, they rode back to the ranch, where their families were waiting for them, at six o’clock, when the Ewings usually have dinner...

Bobby and Pamela had made a break by a road café, and were about to continue their way to Southfork. But they wanted to talk to his son Chris before. Finally, she got him to answer his cell phone...

- Hello honey. I find you at last...How are you?

- Mama, I am glad to hear from you, finally. Since you are on your honeymoon, it’s not been a surprise though...

Pam got slightly blushed up and then smiled at his husband.

- Chris, son, don’t be insolent to your mama... - she mocked - We decided to go to New Orleans anyway...Why that? Your daddy and I got married there the first time and...we were following the same route we did then...

- So it is a sentimental journey...You 20th Century parents are incorrigible. Everything’s fine here, though I haven’t been at the ranch for a few days...John Ross seems to be planning something, and plays the mystery man...

Then, Bobby firmly but tenderly took the cell phone away from his wife:

- Hello Chris. Are you still on your own? I thought you’d be bore to death and back to Southfork by now...

At that minute, an urgent message appeared on Chris’s computer screen. The sender was a familiar key name from which he expected really important information...

- Dad, I’m sorry, I must leave now, call you later...

Chris switched his cell off and clicked on the mail message, whose sender was "Illegal Eagle"...The contents of the message let him open mouthed...

"KREBBS QUITS EEG: A COMPANY TO SINK, ANYONE?" - read the "Dallas Press" headlines. Donna had put the newspaper on her desk, for her husband Ray to read that malicious hint, as he was sitting in her armchair.

"Why, after so many years, cannot they understand what I did it?" - She asked, expecting no answer.

"Very simple: out of ethics, cause you are an honest woman and had the chance to uncover one of the biggest cases of corporative fraud in Texas history..."

Ray, that simple ex Southfork foreman, had become a philosophical cheerful analist of anything related to his family, the Ewings. Four years earlier, Donna Krebbs had discovered a number of secret files, hidden by the late family lawyer, Harv Smithfield, which exposed the dark reasons the biggest oil company of the State, WestStar Oil, went on uphill for, though it had to let behind a lot of murders, attacks a wide net of prostitution and gun traffic...

Donna had to choose between keeping the file secret or sharing it with the media, and let the people responsible for that pay for the crimes they committed every day. The 95´s court trial following that was such a turning point for that year’s critical economy, and such a good business for the Ewings, who had just found oil in the house’s basement land, that Donna Krebbs, married to two State Senators but a proud mother and a cowboys´s proud wife, was immediately emarginated from any public charge, political or administrative. After she overcame a depression, Donna concentrated on her family: Ray and little Margaret, and now, they all lived with the rest of the Ewings in the new Southfork mansion...

"Hold me...- she begged to her husband - ...and promise me that the world will forget it, some day..."

(Fade out)

Now a strawberry blonde, full of energy and owner of a singing voice adored by the Dallas audiences, Afton Cooper was the big star of one of the primetime shows of the local network.

She finished her song and introduced her next guest, to act after the commercial break.

"And, how was I? - Afton asked to a blonde young woman who turned out to be her daughter. "Like always, mum. You are the best..." "Every time I mention the sponsors´ name, I have the feeling that someone just made it out, it sounds so fake..."

Afton was a very insightful woman and her long singing experience had made her a sly business woman who didn’t need an agent. Even so, it was so tremendously easy to her to find a sponsor for her show...The Afton Cooper Show was a talent-searching weekly program.

"Mum, when will you realize that your voice is worth a million dollars?" - "Why do you think I married her for? - Both women heard to say. It was Cliff Barnes, happy father and happy husband. "Sweetheart, why didn’t you call me before coming? I’m sorry, I have to be on air in a minute..."

The Make-Up girl came to give her the last touch. Beckie accompanied her mother on stage as Barnes was using his cell phone to make an urgent call: "Lloyd, get my wife’s contract renewed for two more years...no conditions. Anything she asks for, give it to her. Afton deserves that and much more..."

James Beaumont parked his car in front of his luxury apartment and came in, ready to have a cold shower as soon as possible...He began to take his clothes off vigorously and, once naked, he went to his equally well-equipped bahtroom...His muscled body, marked by a few scars and a tattoo on his arm saying "I Love Mum", revealed what that good-looking young man had went through, since the death of his father, J.R. Ewing.

"James, I was waiting for you..." - a sexy deep voice yelled, from the Jacuzzi at the end of the bathroom. She stood up, lather all over, and exposing her exuberant, still youthful body...

James smiled openly and walked on her way, making slow but self-assured steps..."Maybe you don’t know, but I’m gonna marry soon...and you are a temp..."

"And, your would-be wife, what’s her name?"

"Cally" - he said. "You liar... - she joked mmischievously.”You perfectly know that her name is Calpurnia...and that’s me."

The two bodies melt together and the couple made love for hours...

Far away from there, at the Texan island of Galveston, a sailing ship dropped anchor. Two blonde teenagers, a male and a female, got out of it and ran away, after warning their parents about it: "We are going for a drink, meet you at the marina club..."

Following them, came a mature blonde couple: she was utterly slim and her name was Valene. He was healthy, still attractive and almost sixty, as she was. He was the one considered, at a time, as that loser son of the Ewings, the family’s black sheet who, ironically, had become one of the richest Ewings on his own and, indeed, the one who had a most fulfilled personal life...

"Gary, it was a great idea to buy this ship, the boys are just crazy about it..."

"I wish Lucy came along with us once in awhile..."

"You know she is an independent woman, and her dear child comes first to her..."

"Little Pete...how old is he, three or four?"

"Five. Gary Ewing, you never were good at Maths..."

"I hope the kids will fit in the new high school, it’s uneasy to accept their parents´ decisions at their age...though they know best..."

"I do know what best for me is..." - she added, kissing passionately her husband, ignoring the fact that Bobby and Betsy were watching them from a distance, with a big smile in their faces...

John Ross had to return to college too, but there was a very important deal for him to close before...

"No, I won’t let it go - he assured as he was driving, talking to someone hands-off - I want that office, at any price, and IIII want it for this week. You say the amount and you’ll get it. And remember we the Ewings don’t forget our friends..."

John Ross Ewing III, though still was at S.M.U., had already learnt part of the advices his father J.R. had given to him since he was a child, including the one saying "Get close to your friends, and still closer to your enemies..."

John Ross was preparing a surprise for a very special person who was coming back to Dallas two days later...

The new Ewing mansion proudly raised fifteen miles away to West from the place where old Southfork Ranch had sheltered the Ewings. Presided by a high six-column portico, white and blue colored, with three independent wings belonging to Gary, the Farlows and the Krebbses...Leafy trees near the main house were a protection from the weather inclemency and its basement was the strongest ever built on lands like those, which had fed cattle for long decades...

A lonely woman in her fifties was staring at the house, suddenly feeling melancholic and missing it already, as if she were abandoning what she at long last achieved: her own roots and a family to count on. The woman’s name was Barbara Baxter, and she was the natural daughter of Ellie Southworth Ewing´s brother, Garrison, and, besides, now she was a co-owner of the wealthy Ewing estate, which included that house...

A couple of hours later, at a quarter to six, the mansion opened its doors to the members of the family who gathered for the ritual, more unusual but not less important than it used to be. The Southfork family dinners were hold at six o’clock since ages and pity anyone who discussed business at dinner...

"Boys, I don’t want Bobby and Pam to be uncomfortable before your fights, so please behave yourselves, won’t you? - Valene begged with a smile.

"If I remember well, my youngest brother defends himself at the home front as he does in a bar quarrel with several drunken cowboys..." - Gary mocked, as he stared at John Ross’s new portrait on the mantelpiece.

"By the way, shall we count on our dear John Ross this evening?"

"John Ross called awhile ago - Beckie explained, since her parents Cliff and Afton also agreed to attend the dinner in honor to the prodigal couple.”He had some unfinished business in Dallas, and asked me to make excuses for him."

"John Ross is a nice boy, despite of his parents..." - Lucy honestly remarked, but she regretted that when she had time to think about it...

Donna came over and joined her husband and her beautiful daughter Maggie. "Teresa says today’s dinner will be very special, she has made Bobby’s favorite meal..."

"I can’t wait to see them...- Afton said - It’s been a year since we visited them up there in Toronto."

"Why did your parents moved so far away, Chris?" - Beckie asked.

"Some people hear the call of the wild; he seemed to hear the call of the crude..."

"Well, and speaking of liquid, what about a drink? - Cliff proposed. Afton´s look made him feel guilty...

Valene was the first one to get up and serve her husband a glass of...mineral water. With a slice of lemon.

Once everybody was served, Ray made a toast raising his glass of champagne: "As J.R. used to say, let’s toast...to the Ewings´ tradition...”

"Can we toast too?" - the whole family turned around to the hallway and, over there, like two teenagers in love, holding each other’s waist, the best of the best of the Ewings and the Barneses was standing there: Bobby and Pamela.

Each and every one of them hugged the newcomers warmly. Despite of the journey’s fatigue, they were happy to be back home...Bobby and Pam only had lived in that house for one year, though they had helped to build it up after the tragedy of ´95. As anyone else felt, it symbolized a new beginning and the fact that all their misfortunes could be left behind and they could look ahead. Shortly after, they were sitting at the dining-room, sitting at the big table, full of all kind of tasty dishes, cooked by the Ewings´ faithful servants, Raoul and Teresa.

"So we went to the New Orleans City Hall and almost got married for the fourth time! in the same place where we celebrated the first wedding..." - Pam told happily.

"At last, I don’t know why, we thought that might be a bit over-the-top..." - Bob added.

"I could never live with a woman I wouldn’t marry at least thrice - Gary said, looking into Valene´s eyes.

"On a rainy day, I’ll tell you all about what we went thru before our very last marriage..." - Val said, appealing her sons´ interest.”Was it due to your riding accident, mother? - Bobby asked. "Due to that and a hundred other nonsense things..."

"We lived a couple of years together, before...making apart." "Though, thanks God, - Afton slightly blushed up - our ways crossed again, and thanks to a little beauty called Pamela Rebecca..."

"Oh, you know I’d rather be called Beckie, that name is so affected..."

"You’d remember I named you after your father’s mum, an outstanding woman." - Pam put her hand over Afton´s, expressing affection and thankfulness for those words..."She would be so proud of the woman you have become, honey" Pamela said.

"Anyone here married the same person only once?" - Ray asked.

"Yes I did..." - a voice from the hallway said.

Another couple had just come in and joined the conversation.

They were Cally Harper, J.R.´s ex wife, and James Beaumont.

"We knew you were having a special celebration this evening and thought the family reunion would be the best occasion to announce our marriage. In a month exactly..."

(Fade out)

James and Cally´s arrival wasn’t so welcomed as Pam and Bobby, but these broke the ice and got up to congratulate them...

"Congratulations, nephew, and, if you wanna live here, just say it: we can always add another house."

"If Bobby had lived in Knots Landing, he wouldn’t offer them next door’s house that easily" - Val whispered to Gary, who laughed sarcastically...

"As I can see, my little brother is the only one missing the party..."

"Cally, sweetheart... - Lucy couldn’t repress herself any longer - hopefully you won’t be tempted to get married here in Southfork..."

"Well, Lucy, partly, that’s why we’re here. We wanna ask you to let us the Southfork garden to celebrate the wedding, so we could hold one of those entertaining reunions we used to have before...the floods."

"You are a Ewing almost so much as we are, if not more, since you survived to a two-year life here with my brother, and you deserve enjoying the best..."

"If you can call James the best..." - Lucy muttered to Beckie and Betsy...

Next morning, Donna and Valene went shopping to the biggest mall in Dallas. Their friendship had developed through the last five years, and Val´s support had been vital to Donna, who had been suffering so long, due to her unlucky divorce from Ray, Maggie´s illness or the way his unfaithful husband, Senator Andrew Dowling, blackmailed her back home. Not to speak of the West Star affaire...

"You are such a good friend, Val" - Donna told her in confidence when they stopped by for a tea. "All through the years I was married to Ray, the first time, I only could count on Miss Ellie and Pamela’s friendship, until she left..."

"Funny enough...When we left Knots Landing and came to Southfork to help to re-build the ranch, I was so sorry to let my friends the Mackenzies there. Somehow, you made me think of my dear Karen. You both are strong, idealist women, you wanna improve the world...Karen raged when we said to her that, after all, she just wanted to be a Pollyanna, the movie girl, and she answered we were wrong, she really wished the world to be a much better place..."

"Also, I wanted to talk to you alone, Val, in order to be completely sure of one thing: you know that we are flying to Sydney on vacation the day past tomorrow. Jimmy, James’s son, will be living with his dad again, and, when we come back, we’ll start a new business...I need you to promise me that, come what may, nobody else will know our secret, especially Ray..."

Both women gazed at each other and Val, deeply moved, promised her girlfriend to keep their secret, as they hugged warmly...

In a fancy restaurant next to the "First Commercial Bank" Building, its Vice President, Clifford Barnes, chatted with his boss Dennis...

"My dear friend, you don’t know how glad I was to hear about your retirement...Time is right for you to enjoy life and stop thinking about the company’s and other people’s interests... "

"Cliff, I must confess that, without the Barnes Industries investment, this bank would have gone to hell just like that..."

"Qui pro quo, friend, and one thing for the other - Cliff pretentiously added, since he hardly passed the Latin exams when he was studying Law...- I know that I’ll can count on you in the future, when you need someone reliable..."

"I think I already have the perfect candidate for my charge and, believe me, it’s been the easiest choice I’ve ever made..."

"I believe you, that’s for sure, hahaha... - Cliff laughed out loudly, very self-assured - Alea jacta est! He he he..."

Little Jimmy was twelve years old, a happy blond kid, though his father James’s absences had caused him a bit of emotional confusion. He had spent the last year with the Krebbses in Southfork, as a special favor to James, who had spent so much time devoted to business, shoulder to shoulder with Gary at the Ewing Energy Group.

Now, James wanted to have a family along with Cally and his son, but things didn’t seem that easy. Donna was very fond of the boy, and, as for Ray, he was like the son he never had: he took him out to ride his pony and drove him to the Braddock school personally, with his daughter Maggie.

Cally was determined to win the child’s affections. James told her that his mother had given him away, but truth was very different. She had been a pawn in the fight for power following J.R.´s suicide. That afternoon, James, Cally and her ten-year-old daughter, little Ellie, went to the Krebbses to pick up the boy.

When he was getting into the car, Jimmy looked back and ran to the people who had been his parents for a year. He hugged them good-bye tightly, which was a sign for the younger couple to keep the child away from them, to ease him accept James and Cally as his own dad and mum...Cally was silently crying inside the car...

When Monday came, John Ross received an unexpected visit. Not the person he had been waiting for, but his aunt Barbara, his late father’s cousin. She had come to say good-bye, since she was going to move to Houston...

"Almost all my friends are there, though my family will always be that group of people who live in a place called Southfork. - she confided to John Ross - My rooms in the main house are ready for you whenever you want to..."

"You are a great gal, Auntie Barbara - he said, embracing her.”But I don’t think I’m able to bear the pressures of living there. I still remember the last months I spent in the old ranch and how I was about to die at the floods, but my brother James saved me..."

"Keep the bad things in mind to regain the strength we the Ewings must always have: we are survivors, even me, just a Southworth..." - Barbara took a pack out of her purse: "I’ve brought you a present: your dad disposed in his last will to have this video tape given tot you when you are twenty-one, but I think you should watch it now..."

John Ross gazed at the tape his aunt had given to him, and a thousand memories of his father came to his mind. "Thanks, Barb. You are my favorite aunt, and I have quite a lot of them..." Barbara laughed out loudly and hugged the boy again. "I’ll get back in four months, on time for the EEG Board Meeting, but remember, kid: if you ever need to talk to someone, to a friend, this is my cell phone number..." - she said, giving him a personal card.

John Ross was standing alone in his apartment. The video tape was on his bed, still packed. Suddenly, he took it and put it into the safety box he had in his library. He locked the box and laid on the bed...The person he was waiting for would be coming soon...

At that moment, he looked up as he was feeling watched: up there, staring at him tenderly, he could see his daddy, the only and one J.R. Ewing...

"Hi son!" - He said. John Ross just twinkled...

"I just came to give you some advices...I hope you took up notes and use them in the future."

"Ol´ J.R. Ewing´s number one rule was: trust yourself only. Whatever you do in your life, do it for you, not for the others...Don’t believe the weak people’s lies...

"My second rule is: when there’s a will, there’s a way. Anything goes and you can use anybody for anything. If it was okay for Machiavelli, why not for us the Ewings...

"Number three: Get close to your friends and still closer to your enemies. I think you know that, he he he, we are two of a kind, yeah..."

"Four: Your granddaddy used to say that power is something you take: no one can give it to other person...

"Five: When they blame you for something you´ve done or play moral to you, remember there’s always a way to make them believe that you did it for the family’s sake, or for the company’s...even if it’s not true..."

"Six: If you got trouble when putting these advices in practice, think that, once you forget integrity, the rest is a piece of cake..."

"Seven: Lie, theft, con and betrayal are words that weak people made up for themselves. Don’t feel guilty for what you did, but for what you didn’t ...

"Eight: Never get angry to anyone, just get even: smile like a snake and show your teeth. Then, strike back with revenge. Everybody has a weakness...

"Nine: Women are one of the true pleasures in life, but just for one night. When you look down, they wanna change you and manipulate you. Find a powerful gal who got enough with her personal goals...

"Ten, last but not least: Never, and I say never, lend a cent to your mama. As our marriage lasted, she made a hell out of my life with her jealousy, her vices and her boyfriends...And now, I gotta go...There´s a little man in red chasing me and he thinks he can catch me, me! Ol´ J. R. Ewing...Ha ha ha!"

That laughter echoed for a few minutes in his head. When he opened his eyes, daddy was not there any more. Had it been a dream? Or did his dad return from the dead to talk to him? And, above all, why didn’t he ask him if his death had anything to do with him, with the way he rejected him, earlier that same day in 1990...?

(Fade out)

The Barnes brothers took flowers to their parents´ graves: Willard Digger Barnes and Rebecca Barnes Wentworth, he died in 1980 and she, in 1983. Cliff and Pamela embraced at the graveyard. Many years had passed by since the last time they had visited the cemetery...

"At last, they ended up together..." - Cliff whispered, with tears in his eyes.”I wish they’d never made apart and we’d been a happy family..."

"We’ve got to think about all the good things they left us - she said - we were sure that, despite of all, they both loved us and made us what we are now. If Beckie and Christopher are the way they are, maybe we owe it to them..."

"Thanks God you came back when I was shot, Pam. My life was awful without you. I was becoming a new J.R. and I wouldn’t have been strong enough to walk again. I wouldn’t have agreed to undergo surgery in Paris and I’d still be paralysed..."

"And thanks to you, my dear Cliffie, I got to see my son again, and my relationship with Bobby grew up into love again, and now, we are happier than ever..."

"Let’s go back with them - she said, looking at Bobby and Afton, waiting for them by the cars.”When I think that, if she didn’t kill herself, Katherine would have killed us off..."

Far away from there, at the Wentworth family pantheon in Houston, a cold flowerless headstone said:

"Katherine Wentworth. 1958-1991. Gone but not forgotten."

That evening, Bobby Ewing was going to be interviewed for a local TV show that would be re-cast on the national network. One of the most important TV hosts of Texas wanted to offer a profile of that Texas-born successful business man, who also made it big in a country like Canada.

"Tell us, Mr. Ewing, why you went to work to Toronto, leaving his Dallas family company and the Ewings´ Ranch in Braddock..."

"A former business associate I worked with in Ewing Oil, Thorton McLeish, called me one day for some advice. His brother was deceased and Canadian laws were giving him a hard time for the oil drilling in his country. I just felt I had the obligation of turning him a favor back. Once there, I realized I’d been missing oil business unknowingly and it might be interesting to spend some time in the Toronto head offices..."

"And time passed by and you’ve been there four years, no more, no less...Why did you quit business in order to devote yourself to Southfork, Mr. Ewing?"

"As you must know, Boyd, my second wife was killed in a terrorist attack in an OPEC convention. That made me get rid of Ewing Oil and dedicate my life to what I cherished the most: taking care of the land my mother had left me and that she had inherited from her father...Later on, came the New Southfork Project, along with my brother Ray, and we renewed the Ewing lands to be able to share them with anybody who wanted to spend some days in a peaceful place with a Texan skyline as a background and where they could have a quiet ride along with their kids. To sum it up, a sort of a dream season resort..."

In her Southfork bedroom, close to Bobby and Pam´s, Lucy was packing up to return to her Florida house. Her five-year-old Peter was staying there, at charge of a good friend. Lucy worked as a talent-seeker who financed young talented artists and enjoyed careless life.

"Cally, you know that I wish you the best, but, do you think that James will be a proper husband for you?" - Lucy asked to her friend and associate on the phone... "Yes, all right, of course I’m gonna respect your decision, yeah, I know James has changed but don’t forget that a Ewing is always a Ewing...and you already went thru that experience."

Once she hung down, Lucy received the visit of her mother.

"Hello, sweetheart. I’ve brought you a couple of things I bought for the baby..." - Val said, putting two wrapped packages oon the bed. "I’m sorry, but this time I cannot take them along, my bags are about to explode..."

Valene was not able to speak with her older daughter in confidence. They had spent all their lives separated, and the fact of living in Southfork now, didn’t change a thing, because Lucy was travelling more often than ever.

"Sometimes I wonder if you’re just escaping...from us, from your brothers, from the Ewing name..."

"Why don’t you get to the point, mother? Are you gonna ask me if Mitch is my son’s father again?"

When they met face to face, Valene felt as a loser. But she reminded herself of worse times and thought that the woman was the same baby daughter who was taken away from her...

"Baby, I’d love your brothers to know you better before attending university classes, you still are a stranger to them..."

"I did not decide to move to California and spend fifteen years there with no life signs. When I came over, you pretended to play the good parents and everything went wrong...

"Years went by and you divorced dad married that horrible blond, Abby, and then he got involved with one neurotic woman after another. And you, instead of telling him that your two babies were his, shut up and kept on dating guys who were still weirder than dad’s women..."

"I see that you have been reading the gossip section of the Californian press..." - Valene turned around, with a sad look iin her eyes..."I just want you to know that I’m gonna be here, if you ever need me..."

Lucy walked on to her mum and hugged her, saying:

"My best memory of those years is the day that father, you and me went to the beach and took a swim and splashed about the ocean, with our clothes on..." - Mother and daughter were touched and made up, though none of them said anything else...

At the TV network studio, the interview to Bobby was going on. Behind the cameras, Afton, Beckie and Pam were watching with a smile in their faces...

"Tell us, Mr. Ewing. Is it true that you are going to run Ewing Energy Group again?"

"No, I’m afraid not, Boyd. This company wasn’t created just for making money, but also for joining the efforts of all the Ewing family: my brothers Ray and Gary, Donna, my cousin Barbara and my stepfather Clayton...and, of course, my nephew John Ross and my son Christopher, when they are old enough..."

"If our source is right, your son already owns a computer research company and finished two careers, at only nineteen...Do you think that he needs your help?

The audience laughed shyly...

"Well, maybe he doesn’t but I do might need it from him..." - at this point, everybody was laughing openly... - "Five years ago, we had this idea of funding a company to canalize our experience in oil business to explore new energy resources. Therefore, my nephew James specialized in wind and sun energy, Gary in hydraulic and natural gas, Ray and Donna in environment care..."

"What about your wife Pamela? What is her specialization?"

"Me, just me." - More laughs again. "No, just kidding, Pam...She is a dream wife and, what’s more, an experienced P.R. and helped us to re-launch McLeish Oil around the world..."

"Now, we request Pam’s presence..."

Afton winked to her sister-in-law...

Pamela finally agreed to join her husband on camera and sat by him. "Bobby’s got a great sense of humor..."

Cliff was walking nervously thru the corridor leading to the Boardroom of the First Commercial Bank...he got the feeling that he was going to be announced as the new President of the company. At last, all the efforts and investment rewarded...without dirtying his hands with the oil business...

At last, he went into the already full room, and sat in his armchair. He said hello to Dennis, and he began his speech. Cliff got more and more nervous and felt happier and happier, picturing himself as the new master of the Dallas banks, controlling every business in town...without listening to Dennis.

"...Therefore, I proudly introduce you my successor, the new president of FCB, Mr. J. W. Monahan...

Cliff went to reality in a shock, and saw a man in his forties coming in, elegantly dressed, self-assured, and bright-eyed and smiling a naughty smile that Cliff powerfully reminded him to himself, twenty-five years younger...Who the hell was that stranger...?

Somewhere else in town, a limo was driving thru the streets to the building formerly known as Ewing Building. Inside the car, a woman dressed in black, short-haired, a blonde with brown streaks and a glass of Perrier on the car’s table, was speaking on her cell phone:

"Oh, no, Deborah, you just can’t be pregnant, think that you’ll have to go to the Milan fashion show and I’m gonna need you to cover the event...Sorry, I have a waiting call..." "Yes, hello, Ian. Oh, really? Remember what I said: if shares go down, you sink down with them, and, especially, buy a lot more of Warner. They weren’t able to promote our last two TV movies; we’ll be the last to laugh..." "Yes. Oh, Josh...I was missing you. London’s got all my attention. Of course. Talk to Don about all this but don’t forget that I have the last word about it..."

The limo reached its destination and the woman got out elegantly, getting her slim legs out of the car in the first place..."Thanks, Ken" - she kindly said to the driver. The woman looked up to the building with reverence, raising her eyes up there to that office where her husband had spent so much time...

Five minutes later, Sue Ellen Lockwood came in the former Ewing Oil executive offices. As she walked in, she saw a solemn picture of J.R. Ewing hanging on the front wall. She raised an eyebrow and winked at him, stepping in. She found her son John Ross there. After kissing him, she asked:

"You’re gonna tell me what’s on your mind, won’t you?"

"Very simple: I’m gonna win the town of Dallas back. Once again, we the Ewings are back in oil business."

Sue Ellen ironically stared at J.R.´s portrait and whispered: "You were a great master, weren’t you, darlin´?"

END of EPISODE 1

NEXT EPISODE: “DIGGER´S NEPHEW”

EWING EMPIRE" is a web-based Fan-Fiction created, written and edited by TONI DÍAZ.

The main characters of this net super soap were created by DAVID JACOBS for the shows "DALLAS" and "KNOTS LANDING".

This Pilot Episode is dedicated to all the fans that preceded us at writing a DALLAS-based Fan-Fiction and to all of you who are going to read us: you will decide the characters´ future.