Dallas: J.R. Returns

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Dallas: J.R. Returns
Dallas, J.R. Returns.png
UK VHS cover
Genre Drama
Based onCharacters created by David Jacobs
Written by Arthur Bernard Lewis
Screenplay by Leonard Katzman
Directed by Leonard Katzman
Starring
Theme music composer Jerrold Immel
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producers
Production locations901 Main St, Dallas, Texas
Calder House - 4800 Park Lane, Dallas, Texas
Hyatt Regency Hotel - 300 Reunion Boulevard, Dallas, Texas
Southfork Ranch, 3700 Hogge Drive, Parker, Texas
CinematographyDon Reddy
Editor Fred W. Berger
Running time120 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network CBS
ReleaseNovember 15, 1996 (1996-11-15)
Related

Dallas: J.R. Returns is a 1996 American made-for-television drama film and is the first of two Dallas reunion films, produced after the series went off the air in 1991. [1] It originally aired on CBS on November 15, 1996, [2] and was rerun as part of TV Land's salute to 50 years of Warner Bros. Television.

Contents

Plot summary

The cliffhanger ending of the 1991 Dallas series finale is resolved; the gunshot J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) fired was at the mirror, not himself.

Five years later, Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) lives at Southfork Ranch alone with his son Christopher (Christopher Demetral), happily out of the oil business, and Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval) now owns Ewing Oil. Bobby, conscious of the fact that Southfork is now almost empty, considers selling it. Meanwhile, Cliff is looking to get out of the business for good, as he is looking to reconnect with his long lost daughter and use whatever time he has left to be a family man.

Cliff decides to contact Carter McKay (George Kennedy), the chairman of WestStar Oil, and discuss terms for a merger. By coincidence, J.R. is returning to Dallas after five years of living abroad in Paris and has heard about the proposal despite Cliff's best efforts to keep it a secret. In fact, his first stop is Ewing Oil's headquarters, where J.R. pays a visit to his archnemesis and tells Cliff that he plans on returning to the oil business.

In order to do this, J.R. is going to need financial backing and after Bobby refuses to go along with him, he enlists the assistance of his former assistant Sly Lovegren (Deborah Rennard), Ewing family accountant Harv Smithfield (George O. Petrie), and Harv's daughter and business partner Anita (Tracy Scoggins) to try and find some way to get enough money to buy back into the business. In her search, Anita discovers a previously unknown stock portfolio belonging to John Ross, J.R.'s son (Omri Katz).

Prior to his death, Jock Ewing had bought five thousand shares of a technology company named Cyberbyte and had placed them in a trust for his grandson. The shares have a current worth of over $200 million, and Jock left a codicil in the will that John Ross only receive the portfolio once J.R. has died. However, to that point, nobody else but he and Harv had known about it.

Knowing that the money would enable him to purchase a majority stake in WestStar Oil, J.R. has his attorney put the portfolio in his name. He would then sell the shares off, purchase the stake, then buy back the stock he sold and return the shares to John Ross' name; to cover himself, he would claim a clerical error resulted in the portfolio accidentally being placed in his possession.

To set this in motion, he fakes his death and has his attorney "accidentally" put the shares in his name instead of his son's. Bobby holds a memorial service, with John Ross and Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) attending and Cliff in quiet celebration, believing he's won the ultimate victory over J.R. until J.R. returns to Southfork. He claims to have been kidnapped and escaped. Sly is disgusted and resigns as J.R.'s assistant.

J.R. is the majority shareholder in WestStar, and he uses that clout to force McKay to back out of buying Ewing Oil. After being sent a letter notifying him of his daughter's whereabouts, Cliff decided that finding his family is more important than beating J.R., but Bobby figured out a way that Cliff can have both, and he bought Ewing Oil. Bobby later realizes that he was tricked back into the oil business by J.R., who knew getting Bobby off Southfork would force him not to sell. J.R. maneuvered the board to remove McKay as Chairman of WestStar and for himself to take his place.

An unhappy Bobby sells half of the company to his new partner, Sue Ellen. A drunken and bitter Sly (Deborah Rennard) had tipped off Sue Ellen that J.R. faked his own death. Sue Ellen suspected this all along and felt that J.R needed to be taught a lesson. Cliff, meanwhile, greets Afton and their daughter Pamela (Deborah Kellner) outside the sanitarium, and they leave to be a family.

In the last scene, John Ross asks J.R. why he is smiling even though he lost Ewing Oil to Bobby and Sue Ellen. J.R. points out that Bobby is back in the oil business and is no longer going to sell Southfork. Sue Ellen is back at Southfork to stay, and John Ross will remain in Dallas to learn the oil business from J.R. John Ross realizes that his father planned everything to work out this way. J.R.'s last words are, "You see, John Ross? You're learning already."

Ratings

Dallas: J.R. Returns was a ratings success for the CBS Network, and ranked 14th place for the week it was shown, with a 13.4 rating. [3] Its success prompted Warner Bros. to produce a reunion miniseries for the Dallas spin-off series Knots Landing (entitled Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac ) in 1997. A second Dallas TV movie, War of the Ewings, was produced in 1998.

Continuity

As with War of the Ewings (1998), the events depicted in J.R. Returns are ignored for the revival series, which premiered on TNT in 2012.

Cast

Starring in alphabetical order
Guest Stars

DVD release

Warner Home Video released Dallas: J.R. Returns on DVD April 12, 2011 as part of the Dallas: The Movie Collection 2-disc set. [4] It was only available as a region 1 set.

Related Research Articles

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Dallas was an American prime time soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1978, to May 3, 1991. The series revolved around an affluent and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who owned the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork. The series originally focused on the marriage of Bobby Ewing and Pam Ewing, whose families were sworn enemies. As the series progressed, Bobby's elder brother, oil tycoon J. R. Ewing, became the show's breakout character, whose schemes and dirty business became the show's trademark. When the show ended on May 3, 1991, J. R. was the only character to have appeared in every episode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. R. Ewing</span> Fictional character

John Ross Ewing Jr. is a fictional character in the American television series Dallas (1978–1991) and its spin-offs, including the reboot series (2012–2014). The character was portrayed by Larry Hagman from the series premiere in 1978 until his death in late 2012; Hagman was the only actor who appeared in all 357 episodes of the original series. As the show's most famous character, J.R. has been central to many of the series' biggest storylines. He is depicted as a covetous, egocentric, manipulative and amoral oil baron with psychopathic tendencies, who is constantly plotting subterfuges to plunder the wealth of his foes. In the PBS series Pioneers of Television, Hagman claimed the character of J.R. began its development when he played a similar character in the film Stardust, and that he was also inspired by a mean boss he once had.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Ellen Ewing</span> Fictional character in Dallas

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Carter McKay is a fictional character that appeared in the later seasons of the popular American television series Dallas, played by George Kennedy from 1988 to 1991. The character reappeared in the reunion movies Dallas: J.R. Returns (1996) and Dallas: War of the Ewings (1998), again played by Kennedy.

"A House Divided" is the 25th and final episode of the third season and 54th overall of the American television series Dallas. It is the episode known for spawning the eight-month "Who shot J.R.?" phenomenon. The episode ended with the mysterious shooting of J.R. Ewing in his office by an assailant whose identity was not revealed until the following season. The mystery was resolved in the fourth episode of the following season, entitled "Who Done It", which remains the second most-watched episode in American TV history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ross Ewing III</span> Fictional TV character, DALLAS

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Ewing</span> Fictional character in the American drama series Dallas

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References

  1. ↑ Mink, Eric (14 November 1996). "J.R. Reprises That Ol' 'Dallas' Malice". Daily News (New York). Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 24 September 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
  2. ↑ "Picks and Pans Review: Dallas: J.r. Returns". November 11, 1996. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  3. ↑ Curran, Barbara A. (2003). 25 Years of Dallas. United States: VBW Publishing. p. 369. ISBN   1-58939-583-2.
  4. ↑ Lambert, David (8 February 2011). "Dallas - Package Art - Front and Rear - Finally Arrives for 'The Movie Collection' DVDs". TVShowsOnDVD.Com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
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