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Why 'Dallas' Had to Rewrite Its Most Infamous Episode

The Unseen

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In 1980, 83 million people watched to find out who shot J.R. Ewing. But that wasn't the craziest part of Dallas. The show had to film EIGHT different endings because the real shooter was kept so secret, even the cast didn't know. Behind the scenes, everything was falling apart. Larry Hagman was refusing to come back unless he got paid more. A huge actors' strike shut down production. And the writers were desperately trying to fix episodes they'd already filmed. Today, we're exposing what really happened during TV's most infamous rewrite.

8 Comments

@laurapenwell9412 5 months ago

I have all seasons of Dallas on DVDs. I ordered them during the Covid-19 pandemic. As I watched them, I remembered being home and watching most of those episodes on Friday nights. I will always love Dallas! 🥰❤

@spectreagent 1 year ago

Just one small error in an otherwise good video. The first five episodes of Dallas wasn't a miniseries. It was a five-part pilot. My source is author Suzy Kalter who wrote "The Complete Book of Dallas" which was published in 1986 prior to the 1986 - 87 season. She had access to all the scripts as well as dozens of interviews with the cast and crew in fact was even on the set during the dream season. I still have a copy of this book. Yeah, cast and crew now refer to those five episodes as a miniseries but it was simply a pilot season. And, I even chatted with the author herself a few years ago, who pretty much confirmed everything.

@keithtorgersen9664 1 year ago

Many people know the Simpsons’ episode of “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” but there was another episode that referenced the famous shooting. Homer has a flashback of watching the followup episode in which someone is saying “That’s right, I shot JR!” But that scene never happened in the show. Ellie makes her speech with the “alleged” shooter in the room with JR, and that person never actually admits it but JR is convinced and the scene becomes sinister when it is implied that JR is going to kill that person.

@sudsysutherland359 5 months ago

I was born in 1977 so i was a tad too young to be watching this great show when it first came out. When i was around 9 or 10yrs old it would have been season 8/9 for Dallas & i remember my Mom watching it & what stuck with me was the Dallas theme song & Larry Hagman who i recognized from the popular TV📺 show “I Dream Of Jeanie” because i remember my Mom watching reruns of “I Dream Of Jeanie” as well lol!!😆