Six members of the original cast of "Dallas" get together on Sunday night to celebrate one of TV's great "family" shows.
What?!?
"It's a relationship show," said Linda Gray, who spent 11 of "Dallas' " 13 seasons (1978-91) as the long-suffering, alcoholic Sue Ellen Ewing. "It's like the movies that I adore in the '40s that were all about relationships. I think the ones that last the longest are the ones that have that solid family relationship."
"Solid family?" interjected an incredulous Larry Hagman, who became a sensation as the nefarious J.R. Ewing.
"It is!" Gray insisted. "Ratings started going down when (actors) started leaving. They wanted to see the family. As dysfunctional as we were, they wanted to see that solid core."
Well, she does have a point. There were all those millionaires living on that Texas ranch and doing all sort of things to each other. And several of them reunite for the highly entertaining two-hour "Dallas Reunion: The Return to Southfork" on Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS/Ch. 2.
In addition to Hagman and Gray, the special features Patrick Duffy (Bobby), Charlene Tilton (Lucy), Steve Kanaly (Ray), Ken Kercheval (Cliff), Mary Crosby (Kristin) and even Victoria Principal (Pam), who left the show after the ninth season and has gone out of her way to distance herself from it ever since. But, like everyone else, Principal seems genuinely pleased and touched by the reunion. Even 13 years after the show ended (and six years after the second of two reunion movies), it's obvious these people really like each other.
"It's wonderful when you have a really good bond from the very beginning like we did in 1978," Gray said. "So it's always fun to get caught up on what everybody's doing, and their lives, and their children and grandchildren."
The reunion special is loaded with clips and memories. Sort of hokey in spots, entirely predictable in others (which season-ending cliffhanger do you think fans voted No. 1?), it's also sweet and funny. Cast members pair off — Hagman and Gray, Hagman and Duffy, Duffy and Principal, Principal and Kercheval — to reminisce. There are some funny outtakes, a few minutes of Hagman's behind-the-scenes home movies and a big indication as to why this show lasted 13 seasons and became a worldwide sensation.
The biggest surprise?
"How funny we were," Gray said.
"How much fun we had, too," Hagman said.
The fact that the actors had so much fun playing these people who lied, cheated, stole and backstabbed — and yet, somehow formed a family — helped make the show a success.
"I loved my alcoholic scenes because I got to chew it up," Gray said. "Makeup and hair for Sue Ellen took two hours. Makeup and hair for Sue Ellen the alcoholic took 20 minutes."
"Well, I liked the storyline where I put her in the insane asylum," Hagman said as Gray laughed. "Two guys in white coats taking her away. That's about as low as you can get.
"The ones I didn't like were the ones where we became very compassionate," Hagman said, pointing to a storyline that had Ray (Steve Kanaly) and Donna (Susan Howard) adopting a deaf child. "It interjected something that, I think, wasn't part of 'Dallas.' The caring about people. Once you start caring about people, there's no end to that."
Yet Gray insists that "Dallas" turned out to be a family bonding experience — which, as odd as it seems, was true. "I think people were bonded to us on Friday nights. It was a wonderful, happy, family thing that went on. Not necessarily with the show, but they knew every Friday night that they were going to sit down and spend that time with us. And I think that's kind of nostalgic, and I think they love it and they miss it."
It was, however, a different time, and a different TV world. While "CSI" tops the ratings today with about 30 million viewers, and "Desperate Housewives" is a big hit because it's drawing about 22 million viewers, in its heyday "Dallas" was regularly drawing 45-50 million viewers in the United States (and 300 million worldwide). And 83 million Americans tuned in to find out who shot J.R. in 1980.
"I think that it was a time where there were only three networks," Gray said. "I hear people all the time saying, 'My grandmother watched it and my mother and everybody watched it.' I think there was a fascination of it being a family event on Friday night."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com