Dallas - Season 9

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Customer reviews

review by: Carry On fan date: 2008-10-05 rating:
Dallas keeps going !
Dallas: War Of The Ewings

Well it is a pretty stand alone season since Pam was dreaming it all up ! It is a bit far-fetched with Angelica going on a killing spree & trying to pretend that a very rich shipper is still alive . Seeing JR caring for his son and Donna & Ray's grief over the loss of their child injects realism into things a bit by showing the characters as more multi-dimensional than one might think at first . Pam going missing in South America invokes memories of Jock's death in an accident there and Mark returning provides Pam with some consolation after Bobbies death .

Sue Ellen finds yet another boyfriend while JR schemes and annoys the cartel - so no change there then ! It is lovely to see the portrait of Jock being given some screen time and to see Cliff & Jamie married . Jack is an interesting character - seeing a gay guy play a straight man does lend the proceedings a curios edge ( like Frankie Howerd chasing girls in Up Pompeii ! ). It is a joy to see Barbara Bel Geddes back as Miss Elie and Howard Keel is on cracking form as Clayton Farlow .

It is odd not have Bobbie or Miss Lucy on screen and even more bizarre to see Pam working at Ewing Oil ! The great strength of this show is that it ought to appeal both the left by showing the dark side of the 1980's (i.e. greed & dishonesty ) and to Reagan fans by showing the sunny optimism of that decade (i.e. the charity work done by the rich & the companies being built up via hard-work ). It is an historical documentary in its own right as well as being great drama - as one minute you can tear up over Jenna Wade suffering after Bobbies death and next minute being moved to laugh at JR the arch crook either seeing off one enemy or farcically getting his just deserts !

While it is a bit far fetched and the writers are running out of ideas the cast do their best and the editing & lavish way in which it is filmed are a joy . But there are hints of self-parody as old concepts are rehashed with alarming regularity . But that said it is as alarmingly addictive as ever and so is a great buy as Amazon insist on offering it at such good value for money . I look forward to Season 10 even though Dallas was passed its best thereafter . At least the theme tune evokes some lovely feel good 1980's type memories .

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review by: date: 2008-10-02 rating:
Dallas Season 9:Pam's Dream Is A Nightmare At Times
I have to say I love Dallas but found this season a bit hard going at times,Patrick Duffy's Bobby is sorely missed,the glances between Bobby and his ex wife Pam(Victoria Principal)were what kept fans glued to Dallas over the years,yearning for them to get togethor again.
Barbara Bel Geddes makes a welcome return as Miss Ellie,its interesting to find out in the documentary on this DVD,"Dallas:Seasons of Change" that when Barbara Bel Geddes after qutting over a pay deal,asked for her role back,when Donna Reed was announced as her replacement,was told it was too late.
This turned into a disaster for Dallas,Donna Reed was so different from the orginal Miss Ellie,more glamarous and not as Mumsy as the orginal,that Miss Reed was dropped after one season,BBG was brought back and Lorimar had to pay Miss Reed a lot of money after she won a court case against them and then sadly died.
Special praise belongs to Linda Gray's Sue-Ellen who goes to hell and back,literally ending up on skid row,Sue-Ellens's role really is increased to make up for Patrick Duffy's absence and Linda Gray raises to the occassion.
Susan Howard also excels as Donna Krebbs,she discovers,she is carrying a Down Syndrome child,which she miscarries,she and Ray(Steve Kanaly)then adopt a deaf boy,only for all this to be wiped clean,when its all revealed as a bad dream by Pam.
Victoria Principal as Pam,is great throughout,she has a way of looking at J.R. with hatred,no-one else in the show can match,her loss at the end of the following season,a real blow to Dallas and to me,it wasn't the same without Pam around.
Dallas does turn into sort of Dynasty with the arrival of evil superbitch Angelica Nero,(Barbara Carrera)whose OTT outfits make Joan Colins'Alexis look tame!
The storyline of Jack(Dack Rambo)set to impersonate a Greek shipping tycoon,goes on and on,and the sight of Larry Hagman in another OTT carnival outfit,must have been the time Larry Hagman said "Bring Back Bobby!"
The picture quality of this season isn't very good compared to the previous two seasons and that is one reason I've not given this season five stars,also the OTT Angelica storyline.
Highlights though are Mark Graison(John Beck)returning form the dead and the welcome reappearance of Sue-Ellen's mother Patrica Shepherd,veteran actress Martha Scott,playing against type as the scheming,power hungry,mother from hell,unlike her sweet character as Steve Austens' mother,Helen,on "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman".
One storyline that reappears next season is the mysterious old man working on the ranch,Ben in the dream season Wes in the next season,is it Jock?
I wasn't a fan of the dream season first time round,but I welcome Bobby's return next season,hey this can only be Dallas!

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review by: date: 2008-09-30 rating:
Top of its Game
This is the season of Dallas that everyone claims started its eventual demise, but I totally disagree. To me, this single season embedded Dallas as a class act - the wonderful storylines (Pam's fight against JR for Ewing Oil; Sue Ellen at rock bottom; Donna's miscarriage and JR & Sue Ellen's reconcillation) highlighted the shows diversity.

I, personally, failed to see the significance of the loss of Patrick Duffy (aka Bobby) and also didn't respond particually positively to the return of the 'original' Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes) as I was happy with the turn given by Donna Reid to the character in the previous season. I think the international-themed storylines added elements to the show not really seen before and Angelica Nero (Barbara Carriara) was a wonderfully camp, yet evil match for JR.

There is also a visable increase to the 'glamour' of the show, as the ladies start to really get fabulous. This is highlighted best by Angelica's amazingly 80's-esque wardrobe - gotta be seen to be believed. This is Dallas on top form - not to be missed!!

I only wonder what would have happened had Bobby not 'returned' in the shower in the very last episode - would Sue Ellen have lived? I read somewhere that the plan was they were going to make her blind after the explosion, but I guess we'll never know.... and that is perhaps the greatest cliffhanger of this series. What would have happened had it all not been a dream?

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review by: date: 2008-08-25 rating:
Last of the great Seasons
This is the last of the great Seasons before the show fell apart.
Philip Capice is in complete charge while Leonard Katzman left as producer. The changes are obvious but not all for the worse. Some of the stories this Season are the best out of the entire series. The down syndrome story with Susan Howard is absolutely fantastic. Susan should have had an emmy for her work. There is the show's most sinister villain in the form of the beautiful Barbara Carrera as Angelica. We have more glamour this Season as that is what was wanted at the time with the success of Dynasty in 1985. The Season starts off absolutely brilliant then from about episode 13 it starts to go a little wonky with trips abroad and some lame stories, but don't be put off by this, there are still some wonderful moments and by the end of the Season all gets back on track and back to that wonderful Dallas feel. If only Pam had stayed in bed, because it is when she awakes that the show falls apart and in to constant silliness. Until that moment enjoy this wonderful Season.


review by: date: 2008-07-26 rating:
Much better than I expected! [Season 10 out on 19 January 2009]
I was pleasantly surprised that this season 9 is actually a good season and much better than I remembered. There were changes made in this season to freshen up DALLAS and I found that most of the changes were okay, and there is some strong writing at times and strong lines. It appeared the story-lines of the Marinos and emerald mine scams went on for a couple of episodes too long. This season 9 is best viewed as an exclusive and self-contained/standalone season.

It's great having Barbara Bel Geddes back as Miss Ellie and she is a breath of fresh air and this season 9 is all the better because of her return. In fact, Barbara Bel Geddes and Larry Hagman are both strong in their performances and they both demonstrate their fine acting skills throughout. There are some good and interesting plot-lines too. There are scenes in overseas locations which, like in the season 8 dvd, gets the characters out of the soundstage sets and into the outdoors.

There's some amazing acting by Linda Gray during Sue Ellen's rock bottom period. Linda Gray is on record as stating that her rock bottom story-line this season is one of her two favorite Sue Ellen story-lines of the entire series; her other favorite Sue Ellen story-line is the Valentine lingerie one in the next season.

Victoria Principal is great this season too and she's impressive at times, and in one powerful scene Pam explodes in a restaurant at Cliff, while in another scene Ken Kercheval gives a good performance when Cliff explodes at Pam in a nightclub. I would have liked there to have been fireworks between JR and Pam whilst she worked at Ewing Oil rather than the feeble sparks on one or two occasions. I found it an emotional moment as a viewer when Pam turns around and shockingly lays eyes on a past lover. I was caught by surprise at feeling emotional when you-know-who is back in the end-of-season cliffhanger!

There is some great acting by Susan Howard and Steve Kanaly during their story-line of Donna's pregnancy abnormality. Susan Howard is credited for writing the episode "Sitting Ducks", and she is on record as stating that her downs syndrome story-line during this season is her favorite story-line of the entire series.

Larry Hagman steals a lot of scenes he's in and he's on fine form as nasty ol' JR - "Now you listen to me, Kenderson. There was a time I wouldn't waste a minute on you. I'd simply have your legs broken." Barbara Carrera of James Bond "Never Say Never Again" fame is good as the femme fatale (and the series' most sinister villain) but a lot of her outfits are outlandish. The character of Mark Graison makes a return and there are good scenes where Graison punches JR to the floor and another where an angry Graison threatens JR due to JR digging up dirt from his past.

JR is also digging into the past of Sue Ellen's new beau Jerry Kenderson and he tells his stooge Detective McSween, "I want dirt on Kenderson. Go back to Kindergarten if you have to. And Harry, the dirtier the better!" wearing his devilish grin! Martha Scott plays Sue Ellen's mother this season and in one witty line J.R. tells his mother-in-law (after she puts down Mandy Winger), "Of course, Sue Ellen descended from Royalty on your side of the family, or maybe her daddy's ?!"

I did enjoy the new 15 minute featurette "Seasons of Change" and found it more interesting than the several featurettes since the season 5 dvd. DALLAS producer and writer David Paulsen repeats the official line when he says, "I never heard anybody come up with a better solution to bringing Patrick Duffy as Bobby back onto that show, which is what was needed. I thought it was an absolutely perfect solution because of the reality of the unreality of dreams."

The episodes this season are available to be chosen from the initial dvd menu as soon as the disc is inserted. There are now four episodes on each side of the discs (the same as many other TV shows on DVD). There are four double-sided dvds housed in two slimline cases. Each side of the two slimline cases has a brief description for each episode and some nice pictures. [The U.S. NTSC Region 1 version is locked to region 1 only and not region-free like previous seasons].

The spoken languages available are English and German, while the available subtitles are English, German and Swedish.

I'm really looking forward to the excellent season 10 dvd - the last best season DALLAS had, IMO - released in UK/Ireland on 19 January 2009. I hope to complete my DALLAS dvd collection as I like ALL seasons of DALLAS and there are some good episodes and some good drama even in the final three seasons which are better than some of the junk on TV nowadays.

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