‘Dallas’: THR’s 1978 Review
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On April 2, 1978, CBS premiered its primetime soap opera Dallas, which would go on to run for fourteen seasons at the network. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review, which appeared as part of a TeleVisions column, is below:
PASSING IN REVIEW: Melodrama emerges full blown with Dallas, a new CBS limited run series which debuted over the weekend, and with it TV has a new Peyton Place. As the title suggests, the series takes place in Texas — yes, Dallas, Texas — and revolves around the more sordid adventures, schemes and romances of the Ewing clan.
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That’s short for Texas oil. The ads for the hour-drama read “A family ruthless in its quest for power and passion. Ready to destroy two people who dared their own blood for the right to love.” The two people, as it turns out, are Patrick Duffy of Man From Atlantis fame and Victoria Principal.
Duffy’s the family youngest son who marries Principal one weekend in New Orleans. The fact that Duffy’s papa and Principal’s papa are the worst of enemies sets the stage for what follows — fascinating, juicy nonsense on the level of the $1.25 supermarket paperback.
Jim Davis stars as the elder Ewing with Larry Hagman well cast as his oldest son — and heir to the reins. David Wayne pulls out the stops as Digger Barnes, Principal’s father and the man out to bring the Ewing oil empire back down to earth. Barbara Bel Geddes plays the family matriarch with an appropriate lack of compassion, with Charlene Tilton a little too giddy for belief as the Ewing daughter, just bent for trouble.
Robert Day directed the opener (the first of five episodes in the series) with the kind of knock-em-over-the-head and move-onto-the-next-shot that surrounds everything in plastic — Not that you believe the action anyway.
David Jacobs wrote and created the show with a comfortable handle on his subjects and potential viewers — housewives looking to escape their dishwater. Lee Rich and Philip Capice are executive producers for Lorimar Prods, with Leonard Katzman producing.
Outlook: Hello-goodbye. — Richard Hack, originally published on April 4, 1978.
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