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!

Dallas departee: Patrick Duffy

Hello my fellow fans,

This time I'd like to take you all back to 1985. Dallas was at its peak in Finland, so it was shocking to learn that Patrick Duffy and Charlene Tilton were leaving the show. Whaat? Why would anyone leave Dallas? Where would PD and CT even live if not in Southfork? Madness.

Even in the 80s, the time before internet and mobile media, the Finnish press generously printed this piece of news long before it happened on our television screens. At the time, Finland was about one year, or a year and a half behind in showing Dallas, so when The Swan Song finally aired here, we'd had a long time to prepare.

Apu magazine printed this wonderful article in 1985 about Bobby dying. It is titled "Will Bobby be unemployed?" It came out during the time when Bobby was shot, so it kind of gave mixed signals on how he was going to leave the show.

I remember swooning over this next picture of Patrick in his jeans (according the caption, the writer of this article may've done the same thing: "In one week Bobby gets a thousand fan letters, including roughly a couple of hundred marriage proposals. No wonder though, as he is such a Mr. Longlegs and Sugarbums." Teehehee! He surely is!

Next page has this funny cartoon of the cast. I remember wondering why anyone would draw Cliff as a muscular hunk and Bobby as a mousey elderly person. Oh, well.

As I said earlier, this article is about Bobby's shooting, although it also informs us about PD leaving the show year later. Title screams: "Bobby's shooting was an accident?"

Final page dives into Dynasty, as well. It states rather whimsically that "Even Bobby's dog had a motive", "Donna Reed is the new Ellie" and "Lucy becomes a waitress". Of course one of these was merely a joke.

Random tidbits of the text:

* "Charlene Tilton leaves the show alongside Patrick Duffy, although not quite as voluntarily. She is rather surly, because of the treatment she is getting - to put it mildly."

* "Oh Bobby, why do you have to sit in JR's chair? The bullets meant for JR sink into your pretty head."

* "This time, Bobby survives the attack. Wearing dark glasses (maybe imitating Dynasty's Blake?) we will see him next fall when Bobby's final season starts in Finland."  

* Patrick is a sensible guy and has no grand delusions of himself, which would be quite common in Hollywood. He says "All I want is a more challenging role. In a tv series? Why not, since I already have a familiar audience there."  

Of course we all know that Patrick came back to Dallas after a year. I was happy. However, during that year I was thrilled to see Patrick starring in a tv movie Strong Medicine alongside Dynasty's Fallon, Pamela Sue Martin. It was like Bobby and Pamela back together again, in an alternative universe. :)