I'll agree with you on this one. David Jacobs original idea was for each episode to be standalone. I to find it a little difficult to watch the first few seasons until Sue Ellen discovers she is pregnant...and so the saga begins.

 

To clear up that post dream rewrite for you, the angry woman in the blonde wig who was in her car outside Pam's house was Katherine. The same blonde wig falls off of her after she hits Bobby. That blonde wig is significant because Katherine appears to have been originally planning to kill Pam that night as "Jenna" and frame her to get both of them out of her way so she could have Bobby, but then he showed up and ruined her plan. She saw the light go out and knew that they would be spending the night together. She came back the next morning to kill Pam with her car in front of Bobby, but when he pushed Pam out of the way, she decided to take him out anyway because if she couldn't have him, nobody could.

 

That's what happened in the dream and explains Katherine being the woman in the car that run over Bobby and that she herself died, but where was this woman in the car when Bobby and Pam left the house after events were reset back to the 3 quarters of the way through Swansong in the opening episode of Season 10 (DVD)? There was no car there.

 

Maybe it was Morgan Fairchild´s Jenna who also wanted a chance to get into Bobby´s pants again!!

"No, no, dammit, not again! Even Francine Tacker could kiss Bobby!
I won´t let that happen again! If I can´t have him, no else can!"

​

 

Katherine's car wasn't there the morning after Pam's dream ended because Katzman wanted to erase the entire previous season as if it never happened.

 

I agree with you about Pam and Bobby. I heard that they were supposed to be the main stars at first, but then apparently people developed more of a fascination JR and Sue Ellen's relationship. I think it was probably because Bobby and Pam seemed a little TOO perfect as a couple in the mini-series. While JR and Sue Ellen had a more complicated relationship that people wanted to know more about. That would certainly explain how Linda Gray started showing up in the main credits with her picture after the mini-series. Pam and Bobby were still great, though.

 

Personally, I think the decline started after seasons 1-7 (dvd). Although I will say that season 7 (dvd) was what I would call a bit "teenagery". Not just with Lucy and Peter, but also how they had all of those women sort of cat fighting over Bobby, who in my opinion is not even worth cat fighting over. I did like the dream season. It seemed like a lot of cool stuff happening at once. And I loved that the women in the show couldn't waste their time trying to get Bobby anymore. I would say that (dvd) seasons 8, 10 (and even 11 in some rare moments) had some good things in them. But it all went to hell in 12.

 

Yeah, it was all pretty confusing! Here's my theory about the stuff right before the dream that was probably confusing to people: Katherine did come back for a while just to grumble at the news. Then, while hanging around in front of Pam's house all night, she finally realized that it might not be such a bad idea to get a life, and then drives away sometime in the morning before Pam and Bobby leave the house. Dusty was a figment of Sue Ellen's imagination at the party due to someone spiking the punch.

 

In a way, I do understand what you mean about the first two seasons. It seemed like a lot of the episodes were separate, stand-alone storylines. The story didn't seem as tied together until season 3 (dvd). I don't know why the heck they decided to let Jenna stay so long. Maybe it was because she was Elvis' wife. I felt like it was the writers' intentions to turn Dallas into a comedy once season 12 came. It seemed like a lot of scenes were designed to have a purely comedic effect. I swear, even the music started to contribute to this!

 

And there were some pretty horrible stand alone episodes, too. Remember Kidnapped?

 

If anything, I'm glad that the dream made Katherine sane again.

 

Agreed. But for what point. Years later we learn she died. We don't know where or when. Katherine was wiped off the face of this Earth mid-sentence by Bobby in Dallas TNT.

 

I agree with VP to a degree. Original mini series was fantastic, but Season 2(dvd) I always find a bit slow, with self contained episodes and little of what we came to expect from the show.

For me I enjoy the series up to Season 12 when Sue Ellen leaves, but without Sue Ellen the show really lost a crucial part of it's chemistry.

I actually loved Callie (hated her intro though), but I found her a breath of fresh air once she got to Dallas - one of my all time favourite scenes is when she meets Sue Ellen at the Oil Baron's Ball - the look on Miss Ellie's face when they meet is priceless - and then Sue Ellen decks J.R...absolutely brilliant TV.

I think though that Dallas was a victim of it's own success. It had a large cast that over the years became more and more expensive and expanded - salaries were killing the show.

But its success was also the reason that Dynasty was launched and then felt that it had to go head to head with it to the point where storylines got more and more crazy (not as crazy as the competition though - for every Pam's dream I give you U.F.O's, evil dopplegangers, Poisonous wallpaper etc etc).

So when Dallas replenished the cast none of the newbies stood a chance of competing with the originals.

With regards to storylines too - Dallas had already had a whodunnit (more than one), major deaths, resurrections, marriages, births, divorces, family at war, brothers at war/in competition....so it was just a matter of time before it ran out of steam.

 

I myself thought Bobby being shot was the end of the great years, so I really loved Season 7. I know what Victoria was saying but I think Season 8 really served her well personally even if I was not as thrilled with the season as a whole. She had some of her best acting scenes in that scene- her with Gerald Kane might be her best scene on the show, acting wise. So I am glad Victoria got to show what a great actress she really was, as some of those early seasons, some of her acting was a bit questionable.

 

I always say seasons 1 - 8, the first few episodes of season 9 (before Angelica Nero and her Eurovision Song Contest troupe took over) and season 10 were the best.

Swami