Friday's Flashback

Okay, so last night I waxed nostalgic about how much I loved and missed Knots Landing. Being that tonight is Friday, I find it only fitting to recall THE SHOW that started it all where prime time serials were concerned. Dallas was the granddaddy of them all. This series not only spawned the spinoff Knots Landing, but other hits of the era like Dynasty and Falcon Crest owed Dallas their own success to a great degree. JR Ewing was the man the world loved to hate; Time magazine called him "a human oil slick." The rest of the Ewing clan was just as exciting. Once upon a time, this show kept millions of us at home and glued to our TV sets every Friday night. For years! Until it jumped the shark with that Bobby-died-but-Pam-dreamed-it-all season.

Dallas came to an end as a weekly series in May of 1991. The final episode was a real disappointment to many of its fans. Instead of the Ewing clan all coming back home to Southfork to give JR his due, we got to see Joel Grey as the devil, taking JR down a fantasy road where he witnessed what the lives of his family would have been like if he'd never been born. Gary was the cutthroat businessman of the family. Bobby was a hustler with a gambling addiction. Ray Krebbs was crippled from a rodeo injury and working as bartender, his Ewing identity unknown to him. Cliff Barnes was the Vice President of the US. There was even another Ewing brother named Jason who was never even born! Yes, this finale really didn't deliver in the manner we all expected. And that final scene! We had to wait a few years, until the first reunion movie, to find out that JR shot the mirror - and the devil! - instead of himself.

So here is the final scene. For those of you who are as nostalgic as I am for this kind of thing. Enjoy!