What was your opinion of Clayton Farlow?

I lost all respect for Clayton when he knew that Bobby needed to focus on saving his marriage to Pam but still unfairly placed responsibility for Miss Ellie's well-being on his shoulders. Responsibility that was Clayton's. Clayton was perfectly capable of overseeing the post fire repairs to Southfork himself and Ellie would have been just fine with that because she would have wanted what was best for Bobby.

 

Wasn't anywhere near as good a character as Jock.

He kept John Ross from JR as mentioned earlier, which even though Sue Ellen was staying at Southern Cross at the time, Clayton shouldn't have been taking sides.

Swami

 

I absolutely loved Howard Keel as Clayton.

Adored the character & the actor.

You always knew were you were with Clayton & I loved that.

Rest In Peace Howard Keel.

 

I love Howard Keel's voice. I could listen to him read a phone book.

But I think the writers didn't quite know what to do with him.

They could have Clayton, Punk Anderson, and others of Jock's friends interact more. That could have given us some insight into the older generation and how they built their businesses.

 

I really liked Clayton. He wasn't perfect but was an honorable man and good husband to Miss Ellie.

I agree, the writers didn't know what to do with him over time, but I was glad he stayed around until the end of the original series. I do wish he would have shared a scene with Jock before Jim Davis passed away.

 

Clayton was very refined.

 

I totally agree with you @Barbara Fan, personally I found Clayton always a better man for Miss Ellie, both characters were very caring but could also be very hard and straightforward, while Jock could sometimes seemed very blunt in my eyes. But maybe that's also because I started watching Dallas when it was already in their fifth season on tv.

So yes in my opinion, i really liked Howard Keel as Clayton Farlow, he was always one of my favorite male charactors of Dallas.

 

He hated charlatans.

 

Clayton is great, a more gentlemenly version of Jock, yet didn't take crap from anyone and had a vicious temper when riled enough. I laugh whenever I think of that scene in Season 7 DVD when he comes charging up to J.R.'s office after getting reports that somebody was looking into his (Clayton's) background.

 

The addition of Howard Keel as Clayton Keel was a stroke of genius in my opinion. I've never understood the view from Dallas viewers Clayton was simply a replacement for Jock. In my eyes they were two different characters however it's a real shame Jock and Clayton never had the chance to interact as both delivered tremendous screen presence. Clayton's installment into the Ewing household is exactly how we react when a future stepmother or stepfather appears. The families reaction when Miss Ellie and Clayton surprise the Ewing clan while enjoying their evening meal is natural. I'm talking about the scene when Clayton takes Jock's place as head of the table.

I also feel Clayton (Howard Keel) receives rough treatment because of the shenanigans occurring with the recast of Miss Ellie. Even for an accomplished actor like Howard it would be difficult to accommodate such a radical change. Howard and Barbara Bel displayed genuine warmth whereas I wasn't getting this at all with Donna Reed. I agree with sentiments above where the writers didn't seem to know what to do with Clayton at times but from the Miss Ellie recast onwards Dallas lurched from one crisis to another and well by the end it ran out of puff.

 

Some people think Jock was treated badly by Ellie. That Jock supposedly loved her more than she did him, and that she took advantage of it in some way.

Not my opinion, I'd like to point out.

 

I liked Clayton He was a good match with Ms Ellie after Jock died ..

 

.

I'm on the Donna Reed season in my Dallas marathon right now. Her relationship with Howard Keel's Clayton seems warm enough, but it does lack that extra spice and natural warm enthusiasm that Barbara Bel Geddes had with Keel. Keel was excellent during the bit where Jessica was around at Southfork. I don't know about you, but my biggest criticism of Reed's Miss Ellie is a lack of strong emotion in her portrayal. Only her chemistry with Susan Howard seems strong among the cast. Susan Howard clicks very well with both Miss Ellies.

There's a bit of truth in that argument. It's not a secret that one of the big reasons that Miss Ellie married Jock was because Jock had the money to save Southfork Ranch, and that Digger was her first love but undependable, so Digger wasn't marriage material for Miss Ellie. Miss Ellie also said that she and Jock had to really work at their marriage at first, which suggests that they weren't particularly in love originally, although Jock spoke of being in competition with Digger for Ellie, so Jock had a certain attraction to his friend's girlfriend.

Miss Ellie is a very strong woman herself, and capable of pursuing her interests very well. Jock could easily have settled for a softer woman who would cater to him more easily, and let Southworth-owned Southfork go bust. Miss Ellie expressed a few times in the show how so many bad things happened for her family in the 1930s, and expressed her disappointment when recalling how her father Aaron Southworth left Southfork to Ellie's brother Garrison in his will, thus expressing the sexism of the time, as Garrison was a wanderer like Digger (except at sea) while Ellie really loved Southfork and the land very strongly.

On a purely personal level, taking business out of the equation, it seems that Digger is Ellie's big love. In her dark moment after the mastectomy and while still angry at Jock, she went to a sober Digger. She also told Digger a few times that she never regretted anything (i.e. marrying Jock).

Remember during Season 5 DVD, when J.R. had completely snookered himself by stockpiling 5 million barrels of the Farlow's crude oil and was then stuck in a falling market with Vaughn Leland, Cliff Barnes and the Cartel waiting to finish him off? Miss Ellie bailed him out totally, making a deal with Clayton despite taking a $10 million loss compared to what J.R. had paid, which is better than a $25 million loss or more, which would result in default and a foreclosure by Leland, Barnes and the Cartel. Even though J.R. objected to Miss Ellie taking a $10 million loss, he was freed from his debt troubles totally, so he should have been thanking his mother strongly, and he did laugh once he was alone in the room.

Yes, Miss Ellie was very strong. I believe Bobby said once "I was raised by a strong mother, and a very tough father".

 

I liked Clayton too. Sorry I preferred him to Jock. He was still strong but more a gentleman and nicer. Until after Pam left (which I don’t count anyway lol) he treated Miss Ellie well. Howard was good in his part. He had some good scenes with Sue Ellen aswell. Very well written second-time around golden generation love for Ellie and Clayton

 

I never really cared for him but I loved it when he rolled down those stairs after punching JR. I just wish that one time he would have gotten his ass stomped good.

 

He and Jock did appear in the same episode once though.

But I have to correct some people. JR wouldn’t have liked Clayton no matter what and he didn’t exactly keep John Ross from JR.

 

No he wasn't. Clayton never had a scene as good as the scene with Jock telling Bobby "Nobody gives you power. Real power is something you take"!

It would have been fun to see Jock handle that situation with John Ross being kept from his family when Jock returned from his trip if he hadn't died, wouldn't it?

 

It would have been damn near impossible to find anyone to play a character similar to Jock who could have compared well to the work Jim Davis did because he was just so good. I don't know that there is even one show on TV today that has a character as interesting, as tough, and has as good a mind for business as the character Jock Ewing. If there is a character on TV show that's still in its original run right now who can match up well to Jock in terms of those qualities such as the ability to kick ass in a fistfight just as well as his ability to kick ass in business, and at the same time be such a good father that he has sons who look up to him almost as a god, I'd like to know who it is.

I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Howard Keel wrote in his autobiography that he found the Clayton character boring because as he put it he got stuck playing "that goody-goody Clayton Farlow." I'll bet Dallas went that route with the Clayton character because they knew if they tried to create another Jock-type character, whoever played it would have compared so unfavorably with the brilliance Jim Davis played Jock that it just would have reminded people "This guy is no Jock Ewing." So they chose to have Miss Ellie's next husband be very different and considering all of that, and that there was only one Jock Ewing, I think Howard Keel did a very good job playing Clayton. If Miss Ellie had to get married again, I'm glad the role of that character went to Howard Keel.