Dallas: J. R. Returns (1996)

My Review

“J. R. Returns” is a made-for-television movie revisit to the television series “Dallas” after a five year absence. Most of the cast from the final year of 1991 are reassembled here, along with producer-director-teleplay writer Leonard Katzman of Lorimar Productions. (He passed away before the film’s airdate in November, 1996; the movie is dedicated to him.)

“J. R. Returns” retains the excitement of the series, which ran for thirteen seasons, 1978-1991, albeit with more predictability and less polish. The teleplay by Katzman and Arthur Bernard Lewis has J. R. uttering such corny lines as “Some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug.”

However, Larry Hagman still “cooks” as an aging John Ross Ewing Jr., now a teetotaler by order of his doctors. He returns to Dallas after five “relaxing” years in Europe. Other returnees include Linda Gray as Sue Ellen, Patrick Duffy as Bobby, Omri Katz as John Ross, Ken Kercheval as Cliff Barnes, Audrey Landers as Afton Cooper, George Kennedy as Carter McKay, Deborah Rennard as J. R.’s secretary Sly Lovegren, and George O. Petrie as Ewing family attorney Harv Smithfield. This would be Petrie’s final film/television appearance, in a career which began in 1944; he passed in 1997.

The newcomers seem to fit right in: Christopher Demetral as Christopher Ewing (Bobby & Pam’s son), Deborah Kellner as Pamela Cooper (daughter of Cliff & Afton), Rosalind Allen as Bobby’s new girlfriend Julia, Buck Taylor as Steve Grisham, and Tracy Scoggins as Anita Smithfield.

“Dallas: J. R. Returns” is a fun reunion of what is probably the most popular soap opera of all time. Of course, as with all nighttime dramas, beware of excessive soap and soap suds. The second reunion movie would be “War of the Ewings” (1998). Lorimar Productions would also release a “Knots Landing” miniseries called “Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac” on CBS in May, 1997. A second “Dallas” television series would run for three season on TNT from 2012 to 2014.