Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Southworth Ewing (1978-1984 / 1985-1990)..... Barbara Bel Geddes

SYNOPSIS

Soap operas have always been a staple of daytime television, but ABC's mid-1960's Peyton Place was the last prime-time soap opera to be a major viewer attraction - until Dallas. It was not a big hit when it premiered in 1978, Dallas's audience continued to build and, by the 1980-1981 season, it was the runaway most popular series on network television, having spawned one spin-off (Knots Landing) and a host of imitators, including Dynasty, Flamingo Road and Secrets of Midland Heights.

Dallas had all the elements that make for a successful soap opera - characters that were larger than life, conflicts based on the struggle for money and power, and lots and lots of  sex. It was appropriate that the series was set in Texas, with its reputation for the excesses of the wealthy. Patriarch of the Ewing clan was Jock Ewing, who 40 years before had struck it rich as an oil wildcatter and then maneuvered his partner Digger Barnes out of both his share of the company and his true love, Eleanor Southworth. Jock and Miss Ellie had three sons, J.R., Jr., Bobby, and Gary. J.R., the eldest, was the man viewers loved to hate. He was power-hungry, unscrupulous, and conniving in his business dealings, and continually unfaithful to his wife, Sue Ellen - even after she bore him a son, J.R. Ewing, III in 1979. When J.R. wanted something or someone, he stopped at nothing to attain his goal. Bobby, the youngest brother, had the morals and integrity his older brother lacked and was a constant thorn in J.R.'s side. Bobby was married Digger Barnes' sexy young daughter Pamela, and seemed to J.R. to represent a continual threat to his control of Ewing Oil. Jock, J.R., Bobby, and their families all lived under one roof, a sprawling ranch owned by the Ewings called Southfork, which was located outside the city in rural Braddock, Texas.

The middle Ewing brother, Gary, was rarely seen on Dallas. Unable to compete with his strong-willed brothers, and suffering from emotional instability, Gary only appeared occasionally to see his daughter Lucy, (he eventually got his own series, Knots Landing). Lucy also lived at Southfork and spent most of her time seducing every man in sight, a not too difficult task in light of her blond sexiness. Management of the Southfork ranch fell to Ray Krebbs, one of Lucy's first conquests. Cliff Barnes, the son of Jock's ex-partner, Digger Barnes, had become a Ewing in-law when his sister Pam married Bobby. But Cliff was an assistant district attorney and was determined to avenge his father's ruination by the Ewings, so he spent most of his time working with the government attempting to expose the family's corruption of public officials and other illegal business practices.

Most of the conflicts on Dallas centered around J.R., aptly described in Time Magazine as  "that human oil slick." He had, among other things, sold worthless Asian oil leases to the family banker Vaughn Leland and a number of other investors, mortgaged Southfork without telling his parents, attempted to get Sue Ellen institutionalized for alcoholism, thwarted the efforts of unscrupulous Alan Beam to marry Lucy and get his hands on part of the Ewing fortune, and left a trail of disillusioned mistresses whom he had discarded like so much garbage. It was one of these mistresses, his wife's sister Kristin (played briefly in 1979 by Colleen Camp), who became the focal point of the major TV story of 1980. In the last original episode of the 1979-1980 season, J.R. was shot by an unknown assailant and rushed to the hospital in critical condition. All summer the question raged - "Who shot J.R.?" Dallas was by this time a huge international hit, and all over the world viewers were trying to figure out which of the 15 or so characters who had just cause had actually pulled trigger. Betting parlors took in millions of dollars in wagers. Security was extraordinarily tight at the studio where Dallas was filmed, and even the actors themselves didn't know for sure (several alternative endings had been filmed). Finally, on November 21, 1980, the world found out: Kristin had pulled the trigger. Pregnant with J.R.'s child, and about to be framed by him for prostitution because she refused his order to get out of Dallas, she shot him for revenge. The episode in which her guilt was revealed was seen by more people than any program in the history of television up to that time. Nearly 80 percent of all viewers watching television that night were tuned to Dallas.

In true Dallas style, however, J.R. lived and Kristin was never prosecuted, although she did finally leave town. J.R. recovered and waged a new war to unseat his brother Bobby, who had taken over Ewing Oil during his convalescence. There were also two Ewing marriages that season. Lucy married young pre-med student Mitch Cooper, and Ray Krebbs (who was revealed to be Jock's illegitimate son, and therefore a Ewing) married attractive, politically powerful widow Donna Culver. J.R. was as malevolent as ever, engineering a foreign coup to regain some of his holdings as well as hiring a sexy (of course) public-relations woman to promote a new image for himself as an "All-American Businessman." If she could pull that off, she would deserve an Academy Award!

As time passed, marriages alternated with divorces. J.R. and Sue Ellen divorced and later remarried, although neither remained faithful to the other. Lucy and Mitch also divorced, and she subsequently had an ill-fated romance with Mickey Trotter. Mickey was grievously injured in a car accident caused by a drunken Sue Ellen; while he was lying brain-dead at the hospital, Ray Krebbs pulled the plug on his life-support system. The jury called it manslaughter. Meanwhile, Pam had an emotional breakdown, separated from, and eventually divorced Bobby (while retaining custody of their adopted son Christopher, Kristin and Jeff Farrady's child).

Pam's brother Cliff proved to be just as greedy as everyone else - if somewhat less talented at it - when he went to work for his mother. His manipulations became more complicated as the stakes got higher and, when he became president of Barnes/Wentworth Oil, he even had hopes of besting J.R. in the world of dirty deals. His conniving and beautiful half sister Katherine Wentworth first tried to ally herself with J.R. to break Cliff, and then fell in love with Bobby - who by that time was back together with an old girlfriend, Jenna Wade (played once in 1978 by Morgan Fairchild and a few times in early 1980 by Francine Tacker).

Even Miss Ellie found a new romance, after Jock passed away in 1982 (actor Jim Davis had died), marrying the wealthy Clayton Farlow. Through it all, her sons J.R. and Bobby fought over control of Ewing Oil. Eventually, to neithers satisfaction, they ended up running the family business together, constantly trying to outmaneuver each other to gain total control.

In the 1984 saw the arrival of still another troublemaker, cousin Jamie, who teamed with Cliff Barnes to fight J.R. for a piece of Ewing Oil; eventually she and Cliff were married. Donna struck oil in an independent venture, introducing strains in her marriage to Ray; and J.R., in between battles with everyone, found time to pursue hard-to-get Mandy Winger. Brother Bobby had a bad year all around. First, he was shot by an assassin, then he broke up with Jenna (who married and then was convicted of murdering Marchetta), and finally, he was "killed" in a hit-and-run accident.

Bobby's demise left a major hole in Dallas. During 1985-1986, his two loves tried to find happiness in new relationships - Pam with the long-missing Mark Graison and Jenna with Jamie's brother Jack Ewing. The season's major new manipulator was Marinos Shipping executive Angelica, who allied with Cliff while flirting with Jack. J.R.'s boozy wife Sue Ellen who was committed to a sanitarium (her mother Patricia bailed her out) had a fling with Dusty, and wound up in a nasty custody fight with J.R. over little John Ross. But still the memory of Bobby lingered. It was renewed when a childhood friend named Matt turned up looking for an extension of the financing Bobby had given him for an emerald mine in South America. Pam obliged and a series of adventures in the jungle ensued.

What Pam - and viewers - longed for, of course, was not ghosts from Bobby's past, but Bobby himself. With ratings sagging, star Larry Hagman made a personal appeal to Patrick Duffy to rejoin the cast. No matter that his character had been killed and buried in an elaborate funeral. In one of the most celebrated cop-outs in soap opera history, the 1986-1987 season opened with a very live Bobby lathering up in Pam's shower. How did he get there? It seems she had dreamt the entire 1985-1986 season, and Bobby had not died at all! With that minor detail out of the way, it was back to normal, and he remarried Pam. Pam, however, was grievously injured in a fiery auto accident and then disappeared, while Jenna was preoccupied with her trouble-prone teenaged daughter Charlie. Over in J.R.'s story, a bitter Sue Ellen found a new way to embarrass him by manufacturing a line of "Valentine's Girl" erotic lingerie - which became an instant hit with Mandy as the model. Inspired, perhaps, by Bobby's miraculous resurrection, a ranch hand named Parmalee surfaced, claiming to be the long-dead Jock Ewing, causing great distress in the family. The Krebbes's marriage disintegrated further when Donna went to Washington as a lobbyist, and fell in love with Senator Dowling. Back home, Jack's ex-wife April was the latest newcomer scheming to snag a piece of Ewing Oil.

The Ewings suffered a major setback in 1987 when proof of J.R.'s illegal dealings finally caused him to lose control of Ewing Oil. Ever resourceful but on the defensive, wily J.R. worked with Casey Denault to regain some of his lost power. He also tried his celebrated bedroom ploy with Kimberly Cryder, the beautiful wife of his new nemesis Winston Cryder. Jenna and Ray were married; Bobby was pursued by Lisa (who sought custody of his son, Christopher) and by April; and Miss Ellie threw Clayton out of the house. Sue Ellen had the right product for them all - she pursued the lingerie business with help from banker Nicholas Pearce.

Three major stories dominated the 1988-1989 season. J.R., on a hunting trip to Arkansas, seduced a rural lass named Cally and was promptly imprisoned on a work farm by her vengeful brothers and their friend, the local judge. He escaped only after agreeing to marry her, then spent the next two seasons trying to get rid of her, while his hayseed bride insinuated herself into his affairs and even bore him a child. J.R.'s previous wife, Sue Ellen, bought a movie studio in order to make (with screenwriter Don Lockwood) a filmed exposé about J.R. that would surely "destroy him." On the business front, Colorado rancher Carter McKay teamed with Weststar Oil chairman Jeremy Wendell to mount a full-scale range war against the Ewings (complete with fatigue-clad mercenaries), as well as to take over Ewing Oil, which was now controlled by Bobby. McKay had his own family problems with wife Rose, drug-addicted son Tommy, and daughter Tracy, but Weststar (which he eventually took over) and Ewing Oil battled it out in Dallas, Washington, D.C., and even Austria and Russia (where episodes were filmed on location).

At the start of the 1989-1990 season, a Weststar and a Ewing tanker collided, resulting in a huge oil spill. A government investigation ensued, chaired by none other than Cliff Barnes, who had launched a political career as a new way to get back at J.R. Assisted by public relations expert Stephanie, he won (and then lost) the position of national energy czar. Bobby, despondent over the death of his beloved Pam, became obsessed with Pam-look-alike Jeanne, but eventually married April. J.R. learned that he had a second son by former flame Vanessa. The now 20-year-old James proved to be a "junior J.R.," wheeling and dealing, bedding many women, and eventually ganging up with the disillusioned Cally against his dad. By the end of the season, they actually had J.R. confined to a mental institution (part of a convoluted plot in which J.R. had entered the facility to try to wheedle Weststar stock out of Clayton's crazy sister Jessica, who had earlier tried to kill half the population of Dallas). J.R. in a straitjacket seemed a perfect reward!

J.R. managed to escape the following season (1990-1991), but what little control he still had over Ewing Oil slipped further from his grasp. Bobby, weary of the battle and grieving over the sudden death of his new bride April (she had been kidnapped by Hillary during their Paris honeymoon), sold his controlling interest to manipulative newcomer LeeAnn, whom J.R. had jilted in college. LeeAnn in turn sold to Michelle (married to J.R.'s plotting son James), who, after murdering her sister April's killer (Hillary) turned half interest over to J.R.'s old rival, boozy Cliff. Cliff soon snared the other half as well. McKay had left town so J.R. made a play for Weststar, but when that failed, he was locked out of the oil business altogether.

In the series' final episode, J.R.'s entire world seemed to have crashed down around him. His business was gone: Ewing Oil now belonged to Cliff. His family was dispersed: Ellie and Clayton were traveling in Europe, beloved son John Ross left him to live with Sue Ellen in London, not-so-beloved son James and his bride Debra Lynn departed with grandson Jimmy, and ex-wife Cally now lived happily in Palm Beach with his other child. Even Southfork had been turned over to Bobby by Miss Ellie. J.R. was left with a bank account and the promise of his ever-forgiving brother that he could stay in the big, now-empty house as long as he wished.

As J.R. drank and contemplated suicide, an apparition named Adam (Joel Grey) appeared to show him what life would have been like if he had never been born. It was like It's A Wonderful Life turned upside down - some Dallas characters were seen with better lives, others with even worse ones. Finally, the "angel" Adam's eyes flashed red - was he the devil? - J.R. raised the pistol, and a shot rang out. Bobby burst into the room. Only he, not the viewer, saw what had happened.