Dallas TV Show Trivia
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48 free Dallas TV Show trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
40 free Dallas TV Show trivia questions with answers. Dallas ran for 357 episodes on CBS and taught the world what a cliffhanger was. This quiz covers the Ewings from the 1978 five-part miniseries to the 1991 finale and the 2012 TNT revival: Jock and Miss Ellie, J.R. and Sue Ellen, Bobby and Pam, Lucy, Ray Krebbs and the Barnes-Ewing feud, Southfork and Ewing Oil. The big moments are all here: the shooting of J.R. and the 83 million people who watched 'Who Done It', Kristin Shepard's confession, Jock's death, Bobby's death and the shower scene that turned a whole season into Pam's dream, Knots Landing, and Larry Hagman's record of appearing in every single episode. Easy questions ask which network aired it and who played J.R.; the hard ones want the Nielsen seasons at number one, the ranch that stood in for Southfork and the Republican campaign button of 1980. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the show, its cast and its spin-offs, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which network did Dallas air from 1978 to 1991?
CBS
It premiered on 2 April 1978 and bowed out on 3 May 1991.
Q 02Dallas debuted in April 1978 in what form?
A five-part miniseries
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.
Q 03Who created Dallas?
David Jacobs
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.
Q 04Dallas spent most of its run on which night of the week?
Friday
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.
Q 05Dallas originally centred on the marriage of which couple?
Bobby and Pam
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.
Q 06Who played the scheming oil tycoon J.R. Ewing?
Larry Hagman
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.
Q 07Which future film star turned up in Dallas in 1987 as a teenager's boyfriend called Randy?
Brad Pitt
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.
Q 08Who played Bobby Ewing in Dallas?
Patrick Duffy
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.
Q 09Which actress played the hard-drinking Sue Ellen Ewing in Dallas?
Linda Gray
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.
Q 10Which actress played Pam Ewing in Dallas from 1978 to 1987?
Victoria Principal
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.
Q 11Which 1960s sitcom star played J.R.'s secretary Julie in the first episodes of Dallas?
Tina Louise
Tina Louise, the movie star Ginger of Gilligan's Island, played Julie Grey, the secretary who turns on her boss and is later murdered.
Q 12After Jim Davis died in 1981, what kept Jock present at Ewing Oil?
His portrait
His portrait hung over key scenes for years as a focal point of the set, and the part was never recast.
Q 13Charlene Tilton's Lucy Ewing was what relation to J.R. and Bobby?
Their niece
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.
Q 21While America waited to learn who shot J.R., what was the star playing him holding out for?
A pay rise
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.
Q 22What delayed the resolution of the 'Who shot J.R.?' mystery in 1980?
An actors' strike
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.
Q 23During the 1980 presidential campaign, Republicans handed out Dallas-inspired buttons reading what?
'A Democrat shot J.R.'
Q 14Ken Kercheval played which character, J.R.'s lifelong archrival in Dallas?
Cliff Barnes
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.
Q 15Steve Kanaly's Ray Krebbs worked at Southfork as what?
Ranch hand
Ranch hand Ray rose to foreman of Southfork before the show revealed him as Jock's illegitimate son, a Ewing all along.
Q 16Which famous ex-wife of a rock star played Bobby's childhood sweetheart Jenna Wade in Dallas?
Priscilla Presley
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.
Q 17The 'Who shot J.R.?' craze is credited with popularising which television device?
The season cliffhanger
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.
Q 18Who shot J.R.?
Kristin Shepard
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.
Q 19The woman who shot J.R. in 1980 was what relation to him?
His sister-in-law
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.
Q 20The 1980 Dallas episode revealing who shot J.R. set a US ratings record that stood until which 1983 finale?
M*A*S*H
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.
'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.
Q 24The whole 1985-86 season of Dallas was later revealed to be whose dream?
Pam's
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.
Q 25Where does the dead Bobby reappear as Dallas's 1985-86 season ends?
In the shower
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.
Q 26Why did Dallas's producers woo Bobby's actor back a year after killing the character off?
Ratings had fallen
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.
Q 27Which spin-off, launched in 1979, followed middle brother Gary Ewing to a California cul-de-sac?
Knots Landing
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.
Q 28Which actress played Gary Ewing's wife Valene in both Dallas and its California spin-off?
Joan Van Ark
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.
Q 29The ranch used for Southfork's exterior shots is in which Texas town?
Parker
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.
Q 30In 1990, J.R. had himself admitted where to win a business deal, only to find he could not get out?
A mental institution
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.