{"id":1189,"date":"2014-11-29T12:49:28","date_gmt":"2014-11-29T17:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1189"},"modified":"2014-11-29T12:49:28","modified_gmt":"2014-11-29T17:49:28","slug":"how-and-why-tnts-dallas-failed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/11\/how-and-why-tnts-dallas-failed.html","title":{"rendered":"How and Why TNT’s “Dallas” Failed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Word broke last month that Dallas\u2014<\/em>TNT\u2019s contemporary version of the spectacularly successful 80\u2019s series\u2014has been cancelled after three seasons.\u00a0 The \u201cSave Dallas\u201d campaign designed to relocate the show to another network bore no fruit.<\/p>\n

To long-time fans like yours truly, this news is disappointing\u2014even if not altogether unsurprising.<\/p>\n

For starters, though it was off to an impressive start in 2012, it wasn\u2019t before long that this continuation of the iconic show began to suffer a precipitous ratings decline.\u00a0 Furthermore, TNT must be judged to have done a less than adequate job at merchandising its product, and its split seasons and program scheduling left much to be desired.<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t just the network\u2019s handling of Dallas <\/em>(or, for that matter, the death of Larry Hagman) that accounts for its demise.\u00a0 At least some of the blame is due to substantive and stylistic considerations.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t that this incarnation of Dallas <\/em>was without its redeeming qualities: it (almost) never failed to engage the interests of those who cared to watch it.\u00a0 Yet, at the same time, there is an ecology of elements\u2014no less \u201cfinely tuned\u201d than any natural ecological system\u2014that a show like Dallas, <\/em>invested as it is in preserving continuity between the old and the new, needed to achieve.<\/p>\n

It failed to do so.<\/p>\n

When Dallas <\/em>TNT began in 2012, I wrote then that the show\u2019s success depended in no small measure upon the same imaginative exploration of the contrasts\u2014industry and agriculture, the \u201cBig City\u201d and \u201cthe land,\u201d love and betrayal, the good and the bad, etc.\u2014in which the original series engaged so masterfully.\u00a0\u00a0 I also contended that it must slow down its pace long enough to remind readers that, at the end of the day, Dallas <\/em>centers in the fortunes and misfortunes, the virtues and vices, the joys and the sufferings, of a family.\u00a0 <\/em>Thus, scenes of the Ewings seated around the dinner table, or splashing around in the pool, or gathered for cocktails, were critical.<\/p>\n

The so-called reboot largely neglected this counsel.\u00a0 Whether this was a function of budgetary considerations and the like, is anyone\u2019s guess.\u00a0 Still, the fact remains that TNT\u2019s continuation of Dallas <\/em>would have at least felt more like, well, a continuation, <\/em>had it contained its share of scenes harkening viewers back to its counterpart from nearly a quarter of a century ago, reminding us all of the familial cornerstone of this series.<\/p>\n

Dallas<\/em> TNT had a formidable challenge to meet: Though new, it also, in a real sense, had to remain old.\u00a0 <\/em>That is to say, unlike most shows, it was not <\/em>beginning from scratch.\u00a0 Just the contrary: Success depended upon the new Dallas assimilating itself<\/em> to the old.<\/p>\n

None of this happened.<\/p>\n

While exterior shots of the homestead\u2014\u201cSouthfork\u201d\u2014featured prominently enough, the interior was unrecognizable to fans of the original series. \u00a0This matters, for in the imagination of fans, the identity of the Ewing family<\/em> is indissolubly bound with the Ewing home<\/em>.\u00a0 In unveiling an interior design to Southfork bearing few if any similarities to that of the original, it\u2019s as if a new actor had been hired to portray not just any old and beloved character, but a star of the show: Southfork is arguably more essential to Dallas <\/em>than is even JR Ewing.<\/p>\n

Then there were what appeared to be some rather dramatic inconsistencies between the storylines of contemporary Dallas <\/em>and its forerunner.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t, necessarily, that these conflicts couldn\u2019t<\/em> be resolved. The problem is that, for the sake of the integrity of the series, to say nothing of respect for viewers, they needed <\/em>to be resolved.<\/p>\n

Take, for instance, Ken Kercheval\u2019s Cliff Barnes, a staple of the original Dallas. <\/em>In spite of having put to rest his quest to avenge his father against the Ewings several seasons before the original Dallas <\/em>finished its 14 season-run, and in spite of his having acquired ownership of Ewing Oil in 1991 at the series finale, Cliff is now, decades later, consumed with a quite literally murderous <\/em>vengeance vis-\u00e0-vis all <\/em>of the Ewings\u2014including his own nephew.\u00a0 Not only can viewers be forgiven for thinking that Cliff never had the epiphany that marked a decisive turning point for his character in CBS\u2019s Dallas.\u00a0 <\/em>The ease with which Cliff seeks the annihilation of the Ewings at all costs<\/em>\u2014including the cost of lives, even the lives of those, like his adopted son (who we never heard about during the 80\u2019s), his daughter, his nephew, and his unborn grandchildren\u2014leaves viewers thinking either that Cliff\u2019s soul has been taken over by Darth Vader or that something very, very bad has happened between the end of the original series and the present day.<\/p>\n

Near the end of the original series, JR and Cliff still despised one another, but this no longer had anything to do with an intergenerational family feud.\u00a0 As Cliff once told Miss Ellie, he and JR would have been enemies regardless of their surnames.\u00a0 And, considering both that Cliff had beaten JR in assuming control of his company, and, presumably, JR had spent who knows how long in a virtually catatonic state wasting away in a senior citizens\u2019 facility of a sort, some <\/em>explanation for this metamorphosis of an original character into the embodiment of evil was necessary.<\/p>\n

But it was never forthcoming.<\/p>\n

Another problem with the new Dallas <\/em>was, for lack of a better word, the heavily \u201cHispanicized\u201d texture that it was made to assume.\u00a0 The characters, in some way or other, were involved with Mexico and Mexicans with a frequency that left viewers wondering whether this third world country was a suburb of the city of Dallas.\u00a0 The cowboys and good ol\u2019 boys of the original series had been traded in for Hispanic gangsters and the like.<\/p>\n

Again, it isn\u2019t that the introduction of some<\/em> Hispanic characters should have been off-limits.\u00a0 However, to this viewer, at any rate, it seemed like a transparently contrived effort to insure that Dallas <\/em>would be in keeping with the Politically Correct zeitgeist. <\/em><\/p>\n

Its weaknesses aside, it should be noted that Dallas <\/em>most certainly was <\/em>an entertaining show.\u00a0 I, for one, enjoyed beholding an evil Cliff Barnes.\u00a0 Moreover, to Cynthia Cidre\u2019s credit, she is virtually a minority of one <\/em>among contemporary television writers who did not shy away from depicting non-white characters in a villainous light.<\/p>\n

Dallas <\/em>has proven itself to be a resilient series.\u00a0 Maybe, in another few years, someone else will succeed in resurrecting it.\u00a0 If so, whomever this person is, he or she should bear in mind that success demands that Dallas <\/em>recall its roots.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word broke last month that Dallas\u2014TNT\u2019s contemporary version of the spectacularly successful 80\u2019s series\u2014has been cancelled after three seasons.\u00a0 The \u201cSave Dallas\u201d campaign designed to relocate the show to another network bore no fruit. To long-time fans like yours truly, this news is disappointing\u2014even if not altogether unsurprising. 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