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. :)

Covers, covers... Linda Gray's relationships

Hello my dear readers,

It's been a while, I know. I apologize. It's been quite a summer and autumn, but now I feel it's time to get back to this blog business. So here we go!

Linda Gray's magazine covers definitely deserve their own post. As you know, I was a Pam-boy myself, but after Victoria Principal left Dallas, I began to see Dallas' other leading lady in a different light. Moreover, I thought that Linda Gray became more radiant and beautiful as she matured. She was also one of the best actresses on the show.

However, before Pamela's departure, I wasn't particularly fond of Gray's character.  When we used to play Dallas with the kids next door, we never had a JR, because nobody wanted to play him, and we also had to force my friend's little sister to be Sue Ellen. It was all about Pam, Bobby and occasional Lucy. We were a bit confused about Sue Ellen's name, though: was 'Sue' her first name and 'Ellen' her middle name, or was 'Ellen' her last name? Eventually we decided  it had to be her last name, after all, no one else on Dallas had two first names. So when the phone rang, our Sue Ellen, 7 years of age, answered accordingly: "Ellen residence, Sue speaking".

Those were the days.

It seems that Linda Gray had more cover stories in Finland than Victoria Principal, although I think it was the other way around globally. Linda seemed to be popular among certain kind of women's magazines, but she never appeared in rock magazines like Victoria, Charlene or even Priscilla.

Especially Linda's divorce seemed to be very popular topic, and particularly in 1983. Here's the first cover story of the year:

I think she looks particularly lovely on this cover. The title of Apu says "Success proved disastrous - Linda Gray gets divorced".

Inside, the magazine dives into Linda's bubbly life: "Nowadays Linda Gray enjoys her baths alone. Earlier she spent much of her free time sitting in the bubbles with her husband Ed".

"Linda caught the disease of Dallas - divorce is happening." Finnish press loved to talk about "the curse of Dallas" or "Dallas disease" when referring to miserable lives of Dallas' stars. I recall several other similar titles of the 1980s.

The story goes on saying Linda doesn't want to be a superwoman anymore. Now she wants peace and quiet. "Sue Ellen is so stupid", Linda is fed up with her. She wants her to be smarter, but obviously it doesn't fit for the story.

Next cover is from Anna later the same year. This is the first time the press hinted that Linda was having an affair with her co-star Larry Hagman:

"Scandalous romance of Dallas stars Linda and Larry!" This was also one of the favourite subjects of the Dallas stories during the 1980s. It used to make me frustrated, because no matter how I wanted it to happen, there were never articles about the scandalous romance of Victoria Principal and Patrick Duffy. It seemed so unfair. Sigh. However, in retrospect we know that these rumours weren't true. Linda and Larry were only good friends.

Next we have September's issue of Jaana telling us that "Linda Gray has fallen in love with a millionaire - even more passionate than on Dallas":

I wonder why they used this old photo of Linda. She already had her famous short look that year, so this old picture really doesn't do her justice.

The year goes on! October issue of Anna spills the T:

"Dallas' Linda Gray opens up about her divorce". Of course this was the time before internet, but it still seems a bit dated: Apu told us about her divorce in March and this is October. Well, inside the mag confesses that the rumours about Linda and Larry were false.

This is all for now. Enjoy and take care, my fellow Dallas fans!

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. "

The First

So, here we go! My first blogpost ever. 

This is a blog about TV’s Dallas, which premiered in the US in 1978. 

I have been a huge fan since 1983 when I first saw an episode of Dallas on Finland’s television. At the time, I was a 10-year-old boy and the only 10-year-old in our neighbourhood who didn’t watch Dallas. Everybody was talking about it all the time. During English classes, where every pupil was assigned an English name, everyone wanted to be called Pam or Bobby. I had no idea why. I thought Charles or Diana were the coolest ones.

However, I finally decided to give Dallas a go and was instantly hooked. I have been collecting Dallas items and pictures ever since. Now, 30 years later, I have quite a few albums and other stuff, which I thought would be nice to share with you all. 
You know, give back something to the community. 

So here we go. Enjoy, and drop a few lines if you have time, it would be most appreciated.

A few of my Dallas albums