First appearing on our TV screens on April 2nd, 1978, 'Dallas' was famous miniseries at first. The show's producers and writers had only made five episodes of the show and thought that that would be enough. But when the first episode came on, the public fell in love with the show, and quickly it was made into a regular series. The whole series is made around a wealthy Texas family named the Ewings.
The Ewings are owners of the Southfork Ranch and also the oil company Ewing Oil. Back in 1991, with 14 seasons and 357 episodes to its name, the show ended. Even though more than 30 years have passed since the series has ended, we have some interesting facts about the series and characters that you never knew before. For some of them, they haven't been revealed until now.
Because of J.R's role in the series, Larry Hagman went on to have a pretty successful career. But the role of J.R wasn't intended for him, the original choice to play the character was Robert Foxworth.
Robert was offered the role first but declined the role because of personal reasons.
Back in the 80s, Gray wanted to be part of the directing team for some of the show's episodes. Plus, she wanted a pay-raise. Directors fired her for her request.
Later she got the role back because of Larry Hagman. He went in with the directors and said that if she isn't given the job again, he will leave as well.
Keel was hired just to appear in cameos.
But his role of Clayton Farlow became so loved by the fans that the show's producers decided that he needed to become a regular in the show.
Unlike other actors in the show, Howard got the opportunity to write a couple of episodes. She didn't try to direct any of them, but she wanted to write.
So she got the opportunity and wrote two episodes, "The Ten Percent Solution" and "Sitting Ducks".
Gray played a character named Sue Ellen Ewing. She was the wife of J.R Ewing. Her role was a depressed woman that had a bit of an alcohol problem. When gray first turned up to do the show, she was just called to improvise some parts in the background. But because the producers of the show saw how hard she worked and how much she loved it.
They decided to give a role that became one of the most essential characters in the show. 6. There is a Dallas video game that was created In the early 80s, the Dallas game came out, and it was created for the commodore 64 computer. In the video game, you can find J.R and Sue Ellen.
Fans of the show were devastated that the character of Duffy was killed off. Because of them, the producers
wanted Duffy to come back on the show.
It was a difficult job to figure out how to implement him back, but Duffy's wife gave the idea that his death was just a dream.
Larry Hagman, who was the actor that portrayed the character of J.R, was the only actor on the show that was in every episode, every 357 of them.
9. Some family members were closer than they should have been Right in the first couple of episodes, you can see that Ray and Lucy were acting like lovers.
Later on, in the show, it was revealed that Ray was actually Lucy's uncle. Then why act like lovers in the beginning?
Barbara Bel Geddes was only nine years older than Larry Hagman, and she still played his mother on the show.
They worked so perfectly that no one noticed that she was not so much older than him.
Talking about numbers, the episode 'Who done it' was the most-watched episode of the show.
The night it premiered, more than 300 million people tuned in to watch the episode.
To this day, ' Dallas' has been dubbed in more than 65 languages and has been shown in over 90 countries.
No wonder so many people love this show.
Brad Pitt's character was named Charlie.
He played a teenaged boy and was in four episodes.
On one occasion, Hagman drank five bottles of champagne before heading off to film an episode. 15.
the show was supposed to be called Houston The directors of the show were thinking about naming the show Houston but ended up calling it Dallas.
Patrick Duffy would join Larry Hagman for a drink before going filming.
Sometimes they would also convince other cast members to drink with them.
When it was time to film, Gray has said that she and Hagman would just look at each other and immediately turn into J.R and Sue Ellen.
Gray had the idea that Sue Ellen would run for governor in the show. She mentioned it to the directors and writers, and they both agreed.
But because they didn't have enough funds to fly her over all the time, she had to
lose.
Talking in an interview, Principal said that when she got the script and got on to reading it, she knew that the show would be a success by the time she finished it.
She played the part of Pamela, and after finishing the script, she wanted to take a moment because she knew her life would change after the show.
Unlike Principal, Tilton didn't have any expectations for the show.
In one interview, she has said that she didn't expect the show to be so life-changing and that she would spend a big part of her life with all her co-stars.
Actors came and went, but Larry Hagman and Ken Kercheval were there for the entire thing, they stayed for the whole of the 357 episodes.
The Ranch that was owned by the Ewings in the show is now turned into a museum.
You can visit the place, buy some souvenirs, and look at different props that were used in the show.
In the show, you can see that several actors were pointing a gun towards J.R. Jim Davis and Charlene Tilton were some of them, but it had never shown who pulled the trigger.
Later on, the directors of the show revealed that it was Sue Ellen's sister, Kristen, that actually killed J.R.
During the filming of a season, the entire cast had to move out to Texas.
Many members of the cast had to leave behind their families for more than seven months.
Before filming season 3, Strong asked the producers and the directors of the show that her character, Ann Ewing, should have more emotions and be happier.
She was getting tired that her role would cry all the time.
When the scripts of the new episodes had arrived, every cast member would read them quickly to see if their character was killed off.
Duff has been reported saying that he didn't want any babies on the show because they would steal all the spotlight.
28. A fair amount of people found the show an inappropriate Millions of people loved the show and couldn't wait for new episodes.
But there were also people who deemed the show inappropriate. One broadcasting network in Germany didn't want to broadcast and translate some of the episodes because they deemed them controversial.
Some cast members have spoken out and said that their characters were boring to play. Larry Hagman was one of them saying that J.R sometimes could be very predictive, and that is boring to play.
30.
Jim Davis was fighting cancer while filming One of the actors who played Jock Ewing, Jim Davis, was battling cancer while still filming the show. At one point, directors had to let him go because no matter how much makeup they put on him, it was apparent he was sick.
At one point, Barbara Bel Geddes wanted to leave the show, and her part was given to Donna Reed. Becoming jealous of the decision that the producers made, Geddes wanted to come back on the show.
She was given her old part, but Reed sued the producer and won.
Hagman always protected his character, and he would say that he wasn't that bad.
He was only acting as an oilman who would act in real life.
She recalled a time when they were taking reaction shots of the cast in the scene, and they didn't include her. 34. Hank Williams Jr.
wrote a song about the show Famous country singer Hank Williams Jr. got inspired by watching the show, and in 1985 he realized a song called 'This ain't Dallas.'
In one interview, Gray had said that at the time when the show was blowing up, it was fantastic for her career, but at the same time, it was hard being a mother and looking after her kids.
36.
'Knots Landing' came before 'Dallas.'
The director and producer of the show wanted it to revolve around four couples and play out their lives filled with drama. But when 'Dallas' first aired, the show was Turned into a spin-off.
Even though the majority of the show was filmed in Dallas, some interior shots were shot in Hollywood.
38.
Terry Wogan was responsible for making the show popular in the UK The famous TV and radio presenter, talked about the show every day on his radio show, making it pop-off in the UK.
Every cast member loved working and being around Hagman. They all thought that he was an amazing person and a more talented actor.
But his daughter, Kristina Hagman, has come out a couple of times and has said that her father had some dark secrets.
Hagman wasn't just an alcoholic It was no secret that he was an alcoholic, he would drink during the day and the whole night. Other things that he would do is smoke a lot od week and take LSD, right before he had his Jacuzzi parties.
Everyone who knew Hagman knew that he always smiled, sang, danced, drank, and got high.
He loved to party, and anyone can tell you that no one could out-drink Hagman.
Hagman's daughter has said that Larry would throw parties at his home in Malibu, California, almost every day. All of his friends and some of their lovers would be naked, and for his daughter, that was too much.
Hagman would always talk about his marriage His daughter recalls that he would often talk about his marriage with her mother. They have had a 'stable' marriage for 58 years.
His daughter also has said that her father would say that he is nothing like the character he plays in 'Dallas,' but she thought the opposite. One thing that they have in common is that Hagman always loves keeping secrets, he thought that that made a man powerful and made him be more in control of things.
The biggest secret One of his most kept secrets was that he had a lot of lovers.
Most of them were acting like his friends and would come over for dinner, get drunk and hop in naked in the Jacuzzi.
His daughter has said that many of the lovers he had were always some family friends, people that came over for dinner a lot, and every single one of them enjoyed his company.
Many of the lovers that he had, after he died, came over to Los Angeles and Dallas to pay their respects. They all told Kristina that they were his lovers.
Kristin, Larry's daughter, knew that her father had other women in his life when he was still married to her mother.
She never had the courage to confront him and didn't want to ruin his mood.
Everybody knew that Larry was pretty good at making things up, and he always had an explanation for everything.
When Hagman first met his wife, she was a fashion designer in London. Maj Axelsson was a pretty talented designer and a hardworking woman.
She could make a costume for her husband pretty easily and cook the finest meal.
At the beginning of their marriage, she was the main provider in the family. Hagman was still unemployed and was looking for a job.
She would always make sure that he was happy and satisfied, and she wouldn't ask anything in return.
When he was out in public or talking to the press, he would always praise her and compliment her, but to his friends, she would complain.
He would blame his wife for many problems that he had in life and even complain that he didn't have certain relationships because of her.
His daughter puts all the blain on him because if they cut someone off, like a friend, it was Larry who did it.
When a certain friend stopped visiting or stopped hanging out with them, Larry would often say that Maj didn't like them, and he had to cut them off.
When in reality, he was the one who cut people off for no reason at all.
Hagman was always suspicious of people and angry at people. The sad thing is that he used his wife as a way out.
He would always blame his wife for cutting off people from their close circle of friends.
He would always smile and look like a happy man. He was deemed such a wonderful person that people never suspected that he was a liar.
Everyone would believe every word he said.
Hagman had a huge house that, the way it was decorated, resembled a nightclub.
He had a giant disco ball in the living room, and a couple of times in the week, he would host big parties with lots of alcohol and food for everyone.
His daughter recalls that it was pretty difficult to get used to all the people that were coming in their home most of the days in the week.
She says that almost everyone that has been in their house, she has seen wet and naked.
Kristina has once said that her father would call her and her brother to join him and their mother naked in the Jacuzzi.
He would tell them that a family that bathes together stays together.