Daily Archives: June 13, 2012

‘Dallas’ returns in fine form

JR Ewing is back and he’s sportin’ some damn fine eyebrows.

More importantly, below those tangled white brows is a gleam in Larry Hagman’s eye. In tonight’s premiere of the “Dallas” continuation on TNT, Hagman returned as Texas bidnessman JR Ewing. He began the episode in a nursing home — faking out family members — cast off his walker and ended the two-hour premiere by finding out his son, John Ross, is double-crossing his own efforts to double-cross brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy), in his efforts to seize control of Southfork Ranch, the family stronghold.

The show was really pretty fun. Some quick impressions:

Hagman and Duffy were, as before, the focus of the show.

Linda Gray had some good scenes as Sue Ellen, but unless the character starts hitting the bottle again, she’s gonna need some beefier plot lines.

I didn’t mind the younger generation of Ewings — JR’s son John Ross, Bobby’s son Christopher, Christopher’s new wife Rebecca and Elena, the maid’s daughter who is the object of affection of both cousins — nearly as much as I might have.

John Ross’ wispy little beard-substitute really should go.

We need more Ewing family members. We had cameos from Ray (Steve Kanaly) and Lucy (Charlene Tilton) tonight, but we need bigger roles for them and others, including “Knots Landing” brother Gary and his wife, Val.

Cliff Barnes got name-dropped, but hasn’t shown up. Yet.

Christopher’s new wife, Rebecca, has a brother, Tommy, who just happened to drift into town before the wedding. Of course, Tommy is up to no good. Good soap stuff here.

We really need video/pictures of the cast in the credits. If you’re gonna continue the series and even have a minor variation on them, we need to see the cast in the credits.

The new “Dallas” is fun stuff. I’ll watch again next week.