48 Fun Facts About Dallas TV Show

On which network did Dallas air from 1978 to 1991?

It premiered on 2 April 1978 and bowed out on 3 May 1991.

Dallas debuted in April 1978 in what form?

A five-part miniseries served as the pilot; only when it drew viewers were more episodes ordered, and those five were later counted as the first season.

Who created Dallas?

David Jacobs created it as a weekly drama of stand-alone stories; only a year in did continuing plots turn it into a prime-time serial.

Dallas spent most of its run on which night of the week?

Friday at ten was where it settled after trying Sunday and Saturday, and there it grew from a modest starter into the most popular series in America.

Dallas originally centred on the marriage of which couple?

Bobby and Pam were written as a Texan Romeo and Juliet, a Ewing son eloping with the daughter of his father's old enemy, before the scheming elder brother took over the show.

Who played the scheming oil tycoon J.R. Ewing?

Larry Hagman played the part with such sly wit that a supporting villain became the man viewers loved to hate, and the centre of the whole show.

Which future film star turned up in Dallas in 1987 as a teenager's boyfriend called Randy?

Brad Pitt was an unknown when he played Randy, boyfriend of Jenna Wade's daughter Charlie, a few years before Thelma & Louise made his name.

Who played Bobby Ewing in Dallas?

Patrick Duffy quit in 1985, so Bobby was killed off; a year later his on-screen brother is said to have personally talked him into coming back.

Which actress played the hard-drinking Sue Ellen Ewing in Dallas?

Linda Gray played Sue Ellen until 1989, bowing out as a film producer who takes revenge on her ex-husband by making a painfully accurate movie about him.

Which actress played Pam Ewing in Dallas from 1978 to 1987?

Victoria Principal left after nine years, so the writers sent her character's car into a fuel truck and wrote Pam out of the show.

Which 1960s sitcom star played J.R.'s secretary Julie in the first episodes of Dallas?

Tina Louise, the movie star Ginger of Gilligan's Island, played Julie Grey, the secretary who turns on her boss and is later murdered.

After Jim Davis died in 1981, what kept Jock present at Ewing Oil?

His portrait hung over key scenes for years as a focal point of the set, and the part was never recast.

Charlene Tilton's Lucy Ewing was what relation to J.R. and Bobby?

Their niece: Lucy was the daughter of Gary, the third Ewing brother, who had long ago fled the family ranch and left her to grow up there.

Ken Kercheval played which character, J.R.'s lifelong archrival in Dallas?

Cliff Barnes and J.R. were the only two characters to appear throughout the entire run, their feud inherited from their fathers' quarrel over who owned the oil fields.

Steve Kanaly's Ray Krebbs worked at Southfork as what?

Ranch hand Ray rose to foreman of Southfork before the show revealed him as Jock's illegitimate son, a Ewing all along.

Which famous ex-wife of a rock star played Bobby's childhood sweetheart Jenna Wade in Dallas?

Priscilla Presley's Jenna came back into Bobby's life just as his marriage was ending, in a part two other actresses had briefly played before her.

The 'Who shot J.R.?' craze is credited with popularising which television device?

The season cliffhanger became the show's trademark: every spring ended on a shock, and the answer each autumn was promoted as a television event.

Who shot J.R.?

Kristin Shepard pulled the trigger after he tried to run her out of town; to keep the secret, every cast member was filmed firing the gun.

The woman who shot J.R. in 1980 was what relation to him?

His sister-in-law, and his former mistress as well: she was the younger sister of his wife, who worked out the truth while under suspicion herself.

The 1980 Dallas episode revealing who shot J.R. set a US ratings record that stood until which 1983 finale?

M*A*S*H ended the record in February 1983; until then nothing had matched the night when more than half of America's TV homes tuned in, after a summer of betting on the culprit.

While America waited to learn who shot J.R., what was the star playing him holding out for?

A pay rise: he took off for London while the new season began filming without him, and came back only once a richer contract was agreed.

What delayed the resolution of the 'Who shot J.R.?' mystery in 1980?

An actors' strike halted Hollywood production from July 1980, so the answer did not air until November 21, eight months after the shots were fired.

During the 1980 presidential campaign, Republicans handed out Dallas-inspired buttons reading what?

'A Democrat shot J.R.' was the Republican joke of a summer when even Las Vegas bookmakers were taking bets on who had pulled the trigger.

The whole 1985-86 season of Dallas was later revealed to be whose dream?

Pam's dream was the writers' way out: by wiping a full year of story, they could bring Bobby back as though his death had never happened.

Where does the dead Bobby reappear as Dallas's 1985-86 season ends?

In the shower, lathering up as if nothing had happened, a year after the show had buried him; viewers were left all summer to wonder how.

Why did Dallas's producers woo Bobby's actor back a year after killing the character off?

Ratings had fallen during his year away, as a sitcom revival pushed every evening soap down the charts, so the producers set out to win him back.

Which spin-off, launched in 1979, followed middle brother Gary Ewing to a California cul-de-sac?

Knots Landing ended up outlasting its parent: alone among the prime-time soaps of the 1980s, it was still on the air after Dallas finished in 1991.

Which actress played Gary Ewing's wife Valene in both Dallas and its California spin-off?

Joan Van Ark first played Valene in a few Dallas episodes in 1978, and the guest part grew into a lead she held for 13 seasons of the spin-off.

The ranch used for Southfork's exterior shots is in which Texas town?

Parker's ranch still lives off the show: as of 2026 it runs as an events centre and sells tours of the house viewers knew as the Ewing home.

In 1990, J.R. had himself admitted where to win a business deal, only to find he could not get out?

A mental institution: he checked in to reach a patient whose shares he needed, and his estranged son then made sure he could not get out.

A 1996 reunion movie revealed that the gunshot ending the Dallas finale had actually struck what?

A mirror took the bullet: Bobby explains that his drunken brother had blown a hole in the glass, raving that the devil was looking back at him.

The actor who played J.R. was a real Texan, born in which city?

Fort Worth was his birthplace, but his parents divorced when he was five and he was raised by his grandmother while his mother pursued an acting career.

Which Dallas cast member won the 1980 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series?

Barbara Bel Geddes won where the show's biggest star never did: the actor behind J.R. was nominated in 1980 and 1981 and went home empty-handed both times.

The Dallas finale borrowed its plot from which classic film?

It's a Wonderful Life, turned upside down: instead of an angel, J.R. is visited by the devil's messenger, who shows him how everyone would have fared had he never been born.

The 2012 continuation of Dallas aired on which cable network?

TNT ordered it as a continuation rather than a remake: three of the original's stars came back to their old roles beside a new generation of Ewings.

In the 2012 Dallas revival, Josh Henderson played John Ross Ewing III, the son of which couple?

J.R. and Sue Ellen's son arrived in the original series in 1979 with his paternity in doubt for months, and the revival made him his father's heir in scheming.

Before Dallas, the J.R. actor starred as Major Anthony Nelson in which sitcom?

I Dream of Jeannie cast him as the astronaut who finds a genie in a bottle, and in 1990 Dallas reunited him on screen with his co-star Barbara Eden.

Which Broadway musical star was the mother of the actor who played J.R.?

Mary Martin left her small son with his grandmother while she built the career that made her Broadway's first Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music.

Which actress played the woman who pulled the trigger on J.R. in the 1980 Dallas storyline?

Mary Crosby, daughter of the crooner Bing, turned out to be the one, after a summer in which every cast member had been filmed firing the gun to keep the secret.

Which Hollywood musical star played rancher Clayton Farlow, Miss Ellie's second husband, in Dallas?

Howard Keel was close to retiring when Dallas cast him as a stand-in patriarch after Jock's actor died; the part revived his career and led to his first solo albums.

Which Oscar-winning actress temporarily took over the role of Miss Ellie in Dallas?

Donna Reed was fired after a single season when the original Miss Ellie agreed to come back, and she successfully sued the producers for breach of contract.

Jock Ewing was written out of Dallas when his aircraft went down over which part of the world?

South America is where Jock vanished: the actor who played him had died in 1981, and rather than recast the patriarch the writers lost him in a crash far from home.

Which Broadway star played Adam, the supernatural visitor in the 1991 Dallas finale?

Joel Grey played the white-suited Adam, who turns out to be working for the devil rather than heaven and goads J.R. towards the gun.

Dallas is credited with helping hasten the fall of the communist regime in which country?

Nicolae Ceaușescu allowed the show as anti-capitalist propaganda; viewers instead craved the Ewing lifestyle. The pilot aired again days after his 1989 execution.

Miss Ellie's family owned the Ewing ranch before she married Jock; what was her maiden name?

Southworth was her name: the ranch belonged to her family, not the Ewings, and Jock only came to it by marrying her.

Who played Christopher Ewing, Bobby's adopted son, in the 2012 Dallas revival?

Jesse Metcalfe, the teenage gardener of Desperate Housewives, played Christopher, who was adopted as a baby but is by birth the son of the woman who shot J.R.

Why did the original Miss Ellie step away from Dallas for the 1984-85 season?

Ill health kept her away: she had needed emergency heart bypass surgery in 1983, and she was persuaded to return after a single season off.

The 1980-81 season of Dallas ended with an unidentified woman's body found where at Southfork?

In the swimming pool: Cliff jumps in to see who she is, looks up to find J.R. on the balcony above, and accuses him on the spot.