Covers, covers... Scheming little sisters

Hello y'all!

I'd like to dedicate this post to the scheming siblings of Dallas, and to be precise, naughty little sisters. There were many, because for some reason Dallas producers loved to make the little sisters wicked. I don't recall any older sisters that were particularly evil. Of course there was April Stevens, (Sheree J. Wilson) who technically was an older sister and quite evil, in the beginning at least. However, when she was first introduced, we didn't know she had a sister, and finally, when Michelle (Kimberly Foster) showed up, April had already given up her wicked ways. Therefore, she doesn't really count.

The epitome of scheming sisters - and the first of her name - was of course Sue Ellen's (Linda Gray) little sister Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby). Here's a cover of her in Katso-magazine 1984. "Dallas continues - and so does the curse!"

Inside we find out that stars of Dallas are cursed: they have little luck in their love life or they can't find roles after leaving Dallas.

I had a quite indifferent relationship with Kristin, because originally I started watching Dallas after she had been killed. So I kind of knew who she was, but I didn't know what she looked like. This was of course the time of innocence before our dear friend World Wide Web.

So, when me and my friends were playing Dallas, and some poor random kid had to take the role of Kristin (no child ever wanted to play older folk like Miss Ellie or Jock, so even the dead girl was a better option), I always pictured her as a blond woman. I don't know why. Later Suosikki-magazine published a story of Dallas and I finally saw Kristin for the first time. For a long time I had a hard time picturing this beautiful brunette as the person in our role plays.

Eventually, during first round of Dallas' reruns in the 90s, I finally saw Kristin in action. I liked Mary Crosby's work a lot, although her character was not very likeable. I miss those days, when there still were Dallas episodes to watch for the first time ever. Sigh.

But I digress. Moving on to the next piece of fierce female energy: Morgan Brittany as Katherine Wenthworth. Here she is on the cover of Katso 1984. "Morgan Brittany was afraid of Hitchcock". (I think it should've been another way around, I mean look at those eyes!)

Now, Katherine was someone I loved to hate. Although when I was younger, I guess it was not so much love, only hate. She was, after all, the one who destroyed Bobby and Pam's happiness with that awful letter. This I couldn't forgive.

Later on, I learned to admire Morgan Brittany's portrait of Katherine and was sad to see her go. She was fun! If only TNT's Dallas had brought her back...

There were at least two other little sisters, who were quite wicked: Jessica (Alexis Smith), Clayton's (Howard Keel) sister, and Michelle Stevens. Sadly I don't have any pictures or articles of Jessica. Nevertheless, she deserves to be mentioned, as she was very, very memorable character. Bless her dark, little heart. Kimberly Foster's cover is already on another post of this blog.

So, Dallas loved to make it's little sister -characters wicked. These women also had something else in common: all of them shot - or at least tried to shoot - a main character. Kristin shot JR (duh!), Katherine shot Bobby, Jessica aimed her gun at Miss Ellie and Michelle shot Sheila Foley.
It really must have been pure hell to grow up in the shadow of your older sibling in Dallas!

Covers, covers... Victoria Principal Edition

Hello my friends!

Picture it. Northern Finland, 1982-83-ish. Dallas was the show among the 8-17-year-olds. Everyone was watching it and talking about it. 

Everyone except me. 

I couldn’t care less about those fictional characters on TV. After all, there were so much more interesting things to do on Friday nights! Like playing police and robbers outside. 

I don’t remember how I came to open the TV and actually watch Dallas for the first time, but it was all it took – I was completely hooked. Instantly.

I had heard about JR, of course, and I was eager to see what the bastard looked like. Then this gorgeous black-haired hunk appeared and I was like "who knew JR was such a piece of meat"? Of course, my dad told me that was not JR, but Bobby. What a relief!

However, when Victoria Principal appeared on my screen, I was stunned.

Stunned, I say!

I had never seen a woman so beautiful! I quickly learned that she was Pam and she was in a mental institute, because she couldn’t have children. Oh no! I only hoped that Pam and Bobby would be together so that those beautiful people could live happily ever after. I was devastated to learn that Bobby was in love with that Pamela-woman and therefore couldn’t be with Pam. You can imagine my embarrasment when I realized that Pam and Pamela were the same person. 

(Come on, I was only 10 and English wasn’t my first language! It was like those Tsekhov plays where every character has Russian nicknames and you never know who are they referring to... oh, well.)

Since those days Victoria Principal has been my absolutely favourite Dallas star and therefore the topic of this post, as well. J

It’s surprising how few Finnish magazine covers there are featuring her, given that she was probably the most popular cast member after Larry Hagman. I have already published a couple of her covers earlier, but here are a few more for your pleasure! (If you have more Finnish VP covers that I don’t know about, please let me know and we’ll be BFFs forever.)

The first cover from 1982 Seura has rather small picture of VP, however, it is the classic photo of her with Linda and Charlene. "The girls of Dallas return to our screens." This issue also has a complete family tree inside, however, they have Gary Ewing and Mitch Cooper mixed up. After all, they are both... well, men. Therefore, identical.  

The next one is 1984 cover of Apu declaring that ”Happy Victoria Principal wants to be a mom soon”. Nevertheless, this was not meant to be. 

The other cover from 1984 is from OK magazine. It says that "Victoria Principal destroyed Andy Gibb!" Oh dear. OK magazine was like a National Enquirer of the rock magazines. 

Funny thing about this cover though: it has a red heart over the pic of VP saying "Hundreds of pen pals". I always thought that it was Victoria Principal who had hundreds of pen pals and wanted desperately to be one of them. 

Another thing: Hanoi Rocks was a quite famous band from Finland, but I used to think that heavy rock and hanoi rocks mean the same thing. That's how much I cared about rock music.  

Fast forward to 2002: Victoria is on the cover of Katso magazine's Soap opera special. It was during the time she was on the short-lived Titans. It says "Age only makes a woman better" or something like that. 

Well, that's all for now, darlings.  #stillwaitingforthenextvictoriacoverinafinnishmagazine

Dallas vs. Dynasty

The most famous cold war in the 80s was not the one between the Soviet Union and the United States. It was between Dallas and Dynasty. Everybody was talking about it. 

Well, maybe not everybody, but, you know… me.

Dynasty began in 1984 in Finland, and the press wasted no time creating headlines about the bitter rivalry between the two super soaps. I personally preferred Dallas, of course. However, Dynasty was also one of my favorites at the time.

Here’s a bold article from 1984 ”Apu”-magazine about the rivalry. ”Which Pamela do you watch?” and (loosely translated) ”Battle of the breast size: Dallas vs. Dynasty”. Oh my. 

I remember being totally in shock after seeing this cover. It wasn't usual to a family-oriented magazine such as Apu to have bare-chested women on the cover, let alone mega-stars like Pamela Bellwood. Wow!

”Dallas leads over Dynasty! Two shows are fighting for the viewers wearing less and less clothes.”

Dynasty’s Pamela Bellwood (Claudia) is the one who has showcased her talents the most generously of them all. These pictures have been taken by her husband in Kenya. 

”First they were fighting over the best clothes. Now they are fighting without them. Priscilla Presley is pursuing a career as an actress quite diligently. She is the new attraction of Dallas. "

"Victoria Principal is following Jane Fonda’s footsteps. Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) gets a young lover on Dallas, while Alexis and Krystle (Joan Collins and Linda Evans) keep on fighting on Dynasty, although they are best friends in real life."(ß Really?)

"Originally Audrey Landers had only a small part in Dallas, but as her role grew, so did her singing career. Charlene Tilton has been having troubles in her personal life."

"JR wanted to have her own mother Mary Martin to play Miss Ellie after Barbara Bel Geddes left the show. Doris Day was also interested in the part. However, Donna Reed got it eventually. "

Covers, covers everywhere!

1980s was very exciting time for Dallas collectors like me. Hardly a week went by without a magazine featuring a story of my favourite tv show. I almost passed out every time I saw Dallas made it to the cover as well! Here are some scanned covers of my collection. 

First one is from 1983 Seura. It features lovely Charlene Tilton on the cover.
In this exclusive story we learn that she has been forced to use welfare services to make a living. 

By the way, ”Seura” means company. The magazine still exists, however, I don't even remember when was the last time it had Dallas stars on the cover. Perhaps in the 1990s. 

Second Seura from 1985 has beautiful Priscilla Presley on the cover. Seura is starting to publish her revealing memoirs and states here that Elvis made an ideal woman out of a child bride. Good stuff!

Next cover is one of my all time favorites. Suosikki from 1983 has gorgeous Victoria Principal on the cover. "Dallas-extra! All the scandalous events of '83!"

Suosikki means a favorite in English. It was a very popular pop/rock magazine which featured Dallas quite regularly in the 1980s. Last Suosikki came out December 2012.

Another Suosikki from 1984. It says that Priscilla Presley is now the number one star of Dallas. I must say the article was probably originally from National Enquirer given how "scandalous" it was. Oh, well.