Dallas: J.R. Returns

*Dallas: J.R. Returns*
Dallas: J.R. Returns
	UK VHS cover
Genre	Drama
Based on	Characters created by David Jacobs
Written by	Arthur Bernard Lewis
Screenplay by	Leonard Katzman
Directed by	Leonard Katzman
Starring	Rosalind Allen; Christopher Demetral; Patrick Duffy; Linda Gray; Larry Hagman; Omri Katz; Deborah Kellner; George Kennedy; Ken Kercheval; Audrey Landers; Tracy Scoggins;
Theme music composer	Jerrold Immel
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Lee Rich; Leonard Katzman; Rich Heller;
Production locations	901 Main St, Dallas, Texas; Calder House - 4800 Park Lane, Dallas, Texas; Hyatt Regency Hotel - 300 Reunion Boulevard, Dallas, Texas; Southfork Ranch, 3700 Hogge Drive, Parker, Texas
Cinematography	Don Reddy
Editor	Fred W. Berger
Running time	120 minutes
Production companies	Warner Bros. Television; Eagle Point Production; Olive Productions;
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	November 15, 1996
Related
	Dallas; Dallas: War of the Ewings;

Dallas: J.R. Returns is a 1996 American made-for-television drama film and is the first of two Dallas reunion films, produced after the series went off the air in 1991.^[1] It originally aired on CBS on November 15, 1996,^[2] and was rerun as part of TV Land's salute to 50 years of Warner Bros. Television.

Plot summary

The cliffhanger ending of the 1991 Dallas series finale is resolved; the gunshot J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) fired was at the mirror, not himself.

Five years later, Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) lives at Southfork Ranch alone with his son Christopher (Christopher Demetral), happily out of the oil business, and Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval) now owns Ewing Oil. Bobby, conscious of the fact that Southfork is now almost empty, considers selling it. Meanwhile, Cliff is looking to get out of the business for good, as he is looking to reconnect with his long lost daughter and use whatever time he has left to be a family man.

Cliff decides to contact Carter McKay (George Kennedy), the chairman of WestStar Oil, and discuss terms for a merger. By coincidence, J.R. is returning to Dallas after five years of living abroad in Paris and has heard about the proposal despite Cliff's best efforts to keep it a secret. In fact, his first stop is Ewing Oil's headquarters, where J.R. pays a visit to his archnemesis and tells Cliff that he plans on returning to the oil business.

In order to do this, J.R. is going to need financial backing and after Bobby refuses to go along with him, he enlists the assistance of his former assistant Sly Lovegren (Deborah Rennard), Ewing family accountant Harv Smithfield (George O. Petrie), and Harv's daughter and business partner Anita (Tracy Scoggins) to try and find some way to get enough money to buy back into the business. In her search, Anita discovers a previously unknown stock portfolio belonging to John Ross, J.R.'s son (Omri Katz).

Prior to his death, Jock Ewing had bought five thousand shares of a technology company named Cyberbyte and had placed them in a trust for his grandson. The shares have a current worth of over $200 million, and Jock left a codicil in the will that John Ross only receive the portfolio once J.R. has died. However, to that point, nobody else but he and Harv had known about it.

Knowing that the money would enable him to purchase a majority stake in WestStar Oil, J.R. has his attorney put the portfolio in his name. He would then sell the shares off, purchase the stake, then buy back the stock he sold and return the shares to John Ross' name; to cover himself, he would claim a clerical error resulted in the portfolio accidentally being placed in his possession.

To set this in motion, he fakes his death and has his attorney "accidentally" put the shares in his name instead of his son's. Bobby holds a memorial service, with John Ross and Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) attending and Cliff in quiet celebration, believing he's won the ultimate victory over J.R. until J.R. returns to Southfork. He claims to have been kidnapped and escaped. Sly is disgusted and resigns as J.R.'s assistant.

J.R. is the majority shareholder in WestStar, and he uses that clout to force McKay to back out of buying Ewing Oil. After being sent a letter notifying him of his daughter's whereabouts, Cliff decided that finding his family is more important than beating J.R., but Bobby figured out a way that Cliff can have both, and he bought Ewing Oil. Bobby later realizes that he was tricked back into the oil business by J.R., who knew getting Bobby off Southfork would force him not to sell. J.R. maneuvered the board to remove McKay as Chairman of WestStar and for himself to take his place.

An unhappy Bobby sells half of the company to his new partner, Sue Ellen. A drunken and bitter Sly (Deborah Rennard) had tipped off Sue Ellen that J.R. faked his own death. Sue Ellen suspected this all along and felt that J.R needed to be taught a lesson. Cliff, meanwhile, greets Afton and their daughter Pamela (Deborah Kellner) outside the sanitarium, and they leave to be a family.

In the last scene, John Ross asks J.R. why he is smiling even though he lost Ewing Oil to Bobby and Sue Ellen. J.R. points out that Bobby is back in the oil business and is no longer going to sell Southfork. Sue Ellen is back at Southfork to stay, and John Ross will remain in Dallas to learn the oil business from J.R. John Ross realizes that his father planned everything to work out this way. J.R.'s last words are, "You see, John Ross? You're learning already."

Ratings

Dallas: J.R. Returns was a ratings success for the CBS Network, and ranked 14th place for the week it was shown, with a 13.4 rating.^[3] Its success prompted Warner Bros. to produce a reunion miniseries for the Dallas spin-off series Knots Landing (entitled Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac) in 1997. A second Dallas TV movie, War of the Ewings, was produced in 1998.

Continuity

As with War of the Ewings (1998), the events depicted in J.R. Returns are ignored for the revival series, which premiered on TNT in 2012.

Cast

Starring in alphabetical order

Rosalind Allen as Julia Cunningham
Christopher Demetral as Christopher Ewing
Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing
Linda Gray as Sue Ellen Ewing
Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing
Omri Katz as John Ross Ewing III
Deborah Kellner as Pamela Rebecca Cooper
George Kennedy as Carter McKay
Ken Kercheval as Cliff Barnes
Audrey Landers as Afton Cooper
Tracy Scoggins as Anita Smithfield

Guest Stars

Deborah Rennard as Sly Lovegren
Buck Taylor as Steve Grisham
George O. Petrie as Harv Smithfield

DVD release

Warner Home Video released Dallas: J.R. Returns on DVD April 12, 2011 as part of the Dallas: The Movie Collection 2-disc set.^[4] It was only available as a region 1 set.

References

^ Mink, Eric (14 November 1996). "J.R. Reprises That Ol' 'Dallas' Malice". Daily News (New York). Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 24 September 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
^ "Picks and Pans Review: Dallas: J.r. Returns". November 11, 1996. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
^ Curran, Barbara A. (2003). 25 Years of Dallas. United States: VBW Publishing. p. 369. ISBN 1-58939-583-2.
^ Lambert, David (8 February 2011). "Dallas - Package Art - Front and Rear - Finally Arrives for 'The Movie Collection' DVDs". TVShowsOnDVD.Com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2012.

External links

Dallas: J.R. Returns at IMDb

[1] Mink, Eric (14 November 1996). "J.R. Reprises That Ol' 'Dallas' Malice". Daily News (New York). Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 24 September 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2012.

[2] "Picks and Pans Review: Dallas: J.r. Returns". November 11, 1996. Retrieved 2013-04-19.

[3] Curran, Barbara A. (2003). 25 Years of Dallas. United States: VBW Publishing. p. 369. ISBN 1-58939-583-2.

[4] Lambert, David (8 February 2011). "Dallas - Package Art - Front and Rear - Finally Arrives for 'The Movie Collection' DVDs". TVShowsOnDVD.Com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2012.

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