My Top 25 Favorite TV Shows: #13!

Given our mutual love for the TV soap opera "Peyton Place," I would have loved to have enjoyed watching "Dallas" with my grandmother. But, sadly, she was out of it by the time that the show first showed up on CBS for its first seasons. I can just imagine sitting around with her speculating on all the possible shooters of J.R. Ewing.

But, as the passage of time and life would have it, I did all that talking with my friends. Indeed, I got turned onto "Dallas" by Djinn from the Bronx, who could very easily shift between some very deep and thoughtful poetry and this outlandish eye candy/junk. Because as a prototype for the latter, "Dallas" was the best. It was stupid. It was laughable. It frequently made no sense.

It was the perfect entertainment. Primarily because the expert cast knew how to play it. All the drama was done tongue-in-cheek. We got the joke because Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, and company got the joke.

For about six seasons, "Dallas" was the number one show in the nation. Rarely do we all get to experience a national phenomenon together and this certainly was one. Everybody talked about it for an hour before the Friday night airing. Then, everybody would talk about it immediately after. Then the weekly cycle started all over again. Of course, all the frenzy got even more manic when the producers decided to have the villain J.R. shot by an unknown assailant during one season's final episode. All summer long, the shooter's identity was debated worldwide. And in all the circles around me. On the night of the big reveal, I actually had one of my first dinner parties and we all gathered around the TV for the big letdown. Here's the historic moment one more time.

I was always amused by the press on how the producers kept this all a big secret from the cast. They allegedly didn't see the script for this scene until minutes before filming. Everyone was holding their breath thinking they would be out of jobs. Blah, blah, blah. All hogwash. Knowing a bit about the TV production world now, there is no way they could have hid this, given that lawyers needed to work on Mary Crosby's out clause, etc.. Besides, there are scenes in subsequent episodes that subsequently discuss Kristin as the shooter. All filmed in advance. Here's a word of inside advice: when you read that shows are shooting multiple scenes to hide big secrets, they really aren't. It would be too expensive.

Nevertheless, it was all great fun for the audience. Of course, like any national fad, "Dallas" did wind itself down. The aborted season of shows, as erased by Victoria Principal's crazy nocturnal imagination, was pretty much the final nail in the casket. For some reason, I hung in with the show longer than all of my friends. I even lasted through a year where they desperately employed Susan Lucci, who is arguably the worst actress ever to appear on a TV screen anywhere. I have no clue why I did. I certainly had better ways to waste time. I suppose I didn't want to desert an old friend. Oddly enough, there have been friends I have cut loose a lot quicker.

And that is a story for another entry. In the true spirit of the continuing drama, you'll just have to tune in next week.

Executive Producer: Philip Capice.

Dinner last night: Chicken teriyaki sandwich at Islands.