More Ewings Checking in to Southfork

I'm getting more and more excited over the new Dallas update as the days pass. Earlier this month came the news that another Desperate Housewives alum was joining the cast, this time actress Brenda Strong, who will be playing Bobby Ewing's wife Ann. I can't wait to meet the new Mrs. Ewing!

Today I read that two more original Dallas cast members will be in the pilot! Steve Kanaly will be back as ranch foreman turned Ewing half brother, Ray Krebbs, while Charlene Tilton will reprise her role of Lucy Ewing Cooper.

Ray was in the second reunion movie, War of the Ewings (which, sadly, sucked), but we haven't seen Lucy since way back in 1990. It will be very interesting to catch up with these two characters!

I wonder if the new writers will remember that Bobby has a second son, Lucas? His mother is Jenna Wade and he was adopted by Ray, who married Jenna and moved off to Europe with her. That could make for an interesting story in a lot of ways, this nephew/son of Bobby's who wasn't raised as part of the Southfork branch of the family. I wonder if we'll be seeing Jenna, too?

Speaking of the Southfork clan, this picture of Larry Hagman, the still beautiful Linda Gray, and their new TV son Josh Henderson, which was posted by the latter on Facebook, leaves me feeling like a kid anticipating Christmas morning! I can't wait!

Casting the Ewings

It won't surprise you to know that I've been avidly following all the casting news about the new Dallas pilot that TNT has ordered. I've written before about how much I loved the 1978-1991 series.

I'm thrilled that Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, and Patrick Duffy will all be reprising their roles from the original series. I cannot imagine Dallas without J.R., and even though both Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray left the series during its run, they're certainly an integral part of what made Dallas what it was and, hopefully, what it will be.

I'm a bit more wary about some of the casting choices for the new generation, though.

I'm fairly happy with Josh Henderson as John Ross, at least based on the fact that he's roughly the right age for the part (born in 1981, whereas the character was born onscreen in 1979), quite attractive, and seems to have some soapy experience already, having done time on both Desperate Housewives and 90210. I've never actually seen him in anything, though, so I can only hope that he's got some acting talent.
Henderson also looks like he could be John Ross, by which I mean it's somewhat believable that young Omri Katz could have grown up to look like this. I cannot, however, same the same thing when it comes to the actor they hired to play Christopher Ewing.

Jesse Metcalfe is certainly an attractive man. A decade ago, back when he was on Passions (a soap that I detested), I admit that I would occasionally record the show just to see him in a state of undress as the dim-witted hunk Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald. I've even caught a few glimpses of him on Desperate Housewives, for much the same reason.

He just doesn't seem right as Christopher, though. I can't see the kid on the original series or Chris Demetral, who played the role last in Dallas: J.R. Returns, becoming this beefcake version of Bobby and Pam's son. I'm also worried about Metcalfe not being the actor needed for the part, but that may be because I haven't seen him in much other than Passions and John Tucker Must Die. Hopefully his acting skills have improved since then? He's terrific eye candy, certainly, but I'd like Christopher to be more than that!

I was interested to see that Christopher's fiancee, the character that Julie Gonzalo is going to be playing, was named Rebecca. Could she be Pamela Rebecca Cooper, the character that Christopher was interested in when we last saw him in J.R. Returns? I'd heard no mention of Ken Kercheval returning as Cliff Barnes, but if Rebecca had been the same character that would have opened the door for him, since Rebecca turned out to be his daughter with Afton Cooper. Sadly, this character's last name appears to be Sutter.

Jordana Brewster, meanwhile, has been cast as a character named Elena who is reportedly in a love triangle with John Ross and Christopher, which I guess means that Rebecca may not be holding on to her man for long.

I'm not familiar with Julie Gonzalo, but I know Jordana's recent work from the show Chuck and I think she'll be a good addition to the cast.

I can't wait to see how all of this comes together onscreen. TNT had better pick this up as a series!

Southfork Calling

I've written before about my undying love for Dallas, the Grand Dame of 1980's prime time soaps, and about how excited I was that TNT was thinking about updating the show with a series that focused on the younger generation of Ewings: John Ross (son of J.R. and Sue Ellen) and Christopher (son of Bobby and Pamela). The best part, though, was that there was also talk of Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, and Linda Gray reprising their roles from the original show.

Since that time, there hadn't been a lot of news about the project. I read awhile back that TNT had decided to order a pilot, which was fantastic news since that's obviously the first step in the series becoming a reality. But overall, news was scarce and that was a bit worrisome since I'd been through the same process earlier in the decade when there was a lot of talk of a big screen adaption of the show and it ultimately came to nothing.

Just when I was starting to despair of ever hearing anything more, a new article popped up on the TV Guide website earlier this week. The show is clearly very much in the works, as original series stars Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray (J.R., Bobby and Sue Ellen) discuss the script and reveal certain details, like the fact that matriarch Miss Ellie and her husband Clayton have both passed away (as, of course, have their portrayers, Barbara Bel Geddes and Howard Keel) and Bobby has remarried.

Larry Hagman notes that he remains 'ambivalent' about the idea and is waiting for a firm offer, but Patrick Duffy sounds a much more optimistic note:

"I read the script and was extremely impressed with it," says Patrick. "I'd managed to read the scripts for the feature films Fox was planning a few years ago and they were atrocious. Just awful, so I didn't know what to expect from TNT. But this read like one of the better episodes at the height of Dallas. It's a perfect sequel to continuing the Dallas tradition."

I'm so excited to see this show become a reality! If they manage the mix between the older and younger characters just right, throw in some real eye candy as John Ross and Christopher (and, for those who are into that sort of thing, some attractive women to play their love interests), this thing could be great!

I feel like a little kid counting down the days until Christmas, only I'm starting on December 26th and it's going to be a looong wait!

Don't Mess With Miss Ellie!

I'm still excited about the prospect of the new Dallas series, which I wrote about earlier this month. I have to keep reminding myself that it's just a pilot and not to get my hopes up too high, just in case.

It doesn't help me contain my excitement, though, when I read that Linda Gray is in talks to return as Sue Ellen:

She has yet to see a script, but Gray, 69, said she hoped Sue Ellen had not been turned into a sweet-natured grandmother, in the style of Ellie Ewing.

"I'm not going to wear little boring dresses with pearls around my neck. At this age, Sue Ellen should be a powerhouse role model," Gray told TV Guide.

By the end of her run on the series and in the two reunion movies, Sue Ellen had really come into her own as a confident and strong woman, after many, many years of being a complete doormat to J.R. and of course battling her addiction to alcohol. In fact, by the reunion movies she was actually running Ewing Oil with Bobby!

I wouldn't expect her to be anything less in the new series than the strong woman she'd become after years of struggle.

Of course, it's not entirely fair to dismiss Miss Ellie as a sweet natured grandmother. It's true that she didn't usually have the most exciting stories and was often there to listen to others over iced tea, but Miss Ellie is actually one of my favorite characters from the original series, thanks largely to the incredible talent of the late Barbara Bel Geddes.

Barbara won the only Emmy and Golden Globe awards for acting on the series and did some incredibly moving work during Miss Ellie's breast cancer storyline and in the aftermath of her husband Jock's death.

But the reason I really loved Miss Ellie is that while she was normally mild mannered, there was true fire in her when she was angry. Some of my favorite scenes are the ones where Miss Ellie would show that side of herself and be far more intimidating than any of the men in her family ever were. If Miss Ellie raised her voice at you, you were quaking in your boots!

The most memorable of these scenes was in the very first season, when J.R. and Bobby were in a plane crash and feared dead. Jock had recently had a heart attack and Miss Ellie was doing her best to keep him from hearing the news until they knew for sure if their sons were alive. A reporter somehow managed to get past the extra security on the ranch and rang the doorbell to ask for a comment.

Miss Ellie greeted him with a shotgun in hand, but her fury alone would have sent any sane person running. It's truly one of my favorite moments in the entire run of the series, because you just didn't expect that from her. Later, when such moments happened from time to time, they were enjoyable but less of a surprise because you already knew that at heart, Ellie Ewing wasn't meek.

I have a feeling that Barbara Bel Geddes herself probably relished such scenes. I wish she was still around today to make a return appearance to Southfork in the new series! I also wish that someone would write a biography of her, since her work actually went far beyond Dallas. For instance, she originated the role of Maggie the Cat in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway and had an illustrious stage career long before Dallas. I can't tell you how much I wish I could hop in a time machine and see her as Maggie!

One of my favorite quotes from her: "They're always making me play well-bred ladies. I'm not very well bred, and I'm not much of a lady." I've heard great stories about her being what was once referred to as a 'salty dame' in real life. Seriously, someone write a biography already! Maybe I'll do it myself one day.

Back to Southfork?

Updating old prime time soaps with next generation casts seems to be all the rage at the moment, what with 90210 and Melrose Place, and it looks like the trend is going to be continuing. You can't possibly know how excited I was to read on the New York Times website yesterday that the latest update will be of Dallas, the Grande Dame of all such shows.

I happen to be a huge fan of the prime time soaps from the 1980's. Dallas and Knots Landing in particular were fantastic shows, and I've been buying the DVD box sets as they've been released over the past few years. I love how in the 80's they weren't afraid to make the shows straight up soap operas. Now, they'll make teen dramas, but anything with older characters that isn't a medical, legal, or police drama has to be a satire, not a soap.

A few years back there was talk of a feature film version of Dallas, which I thought was an interesting idea until I heard some of the casting ideas: John Travolta as J.R.?! J Lo as Sue Ellen?! Completely wrong.

The idea of a film seems to have fallen through, which is probably for the best. But now TNT has ordered a pilot for an updated version of the show revolving around the next generation: J.R. & Sue Ellen's son, John Ross, and Bobby and Pam's son, Christopher. Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, and Patrick Duffy are said to have been contacted for their participation in the project, though to what extent they'd be involved is still not known.

Of course, TNT may decide not to order a full series, so I'm not going to get my hopes up too high just yet. I think it's a great idea, though. When they made J.R. Returns, the first of the two Dallas reunion movies, they included both Christopher and John Ross and laid the groundwork for a potential rivalry between them that could have developed into something more. They also included Cliff Barnes and Afton Cooper's daughter, Pamela, which bolstered the idea of a whole new generation.

Sadly, the second reunion movie, War of the Ewings, was pretty terrible and dropped the younger characters completely. Now, finally, they seem to be picking up on the idea they were developing back in 1996.

Dallas remains hugely popular all over the world even though it has been off the air as a weekly series for a full 18 years. I think the popularity of a potential new show depends on how involved the original characters and their portrayers are and on how well they cast the roles of the new generations of the Ewing and Barnes families.

If you thought I was excited about a Melrose Place update, just wait until the Ewings are gathered around the dinner table at Southfork again!