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!
