YMMV / Dallas

• Archive Panic: Good luck binging the 357 episodes, not counting the revival or Knots Landing.
• Awesome Music:
  • The theme tune. Brought back in all its (though slightly truncated) glory for the new series.
    • And the French version is not bad either. It, like its American counterpart, was updated for the 2012 revival.
  • The dirgelike version of the theme that aired in "JR's Masterpiece", the episode with JR's funeral, also qualifies.
  • The final two episodes of the new series' first season feature tracks by Johnny Cash: "The Man Comes Around" in "Family Business" and "God's Gonna Cut You Down" in "Revelations."
• Broken Base: The third season of the sequel series. Some enjoy it for the rivalries between the Ewings and Pamela, but many others hate it for destroying John Ross and Pamela's relationship by making it into a Love Triangle with Harris' daughter, Emma. It doesn't help that the season came after an otherwise conclusive ending in season two, and then left a number of plot threads hanging.
• Designated Hero: The Ewings. Okay, they all aren't meant to be that good. Okay, they are fighting worse people out there. However, some of their actions are down right reprehensible. Even Bobby has succumbed to this. The original series here had JR the Bad and Bobby the Good, but this has taken a slightly different turn in the revival. It originally had John Ross and Christopher set up to be this. But in Bum's words, "Welcome to the dark side" happened to Christopher. Their latest plan was (JR's actually) to have them imprison Cliff for JR's murder, even though it wasn't him. Maybe it was Laser-Guided Karma, but falsely imprisoning someone is very very bad to say the least. To top it off, when they do something truly bad they get away with it, with no comeuppance whatsoever. They are becoming down right Villain Sue material. Remember we're supposed to root for these people. The only one who really isn't this is Elena, but she's a bit bland and is now going to be something else...
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: When communist Romania started airing this show, they were hoping that people would be appalled at the decadent, materialistic lifestyle of the Ewings. It didn't quite work out that way.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Sue Ellen was originally meant to be a minor character but eventually ended up as the female lead, thanks to actress Linda Gray's amazing chemistry with Larry Hagman.
  • Clayton Farlow was originally going to have a fairly minor role as Dusty's father. He ended up marrying Miss Ellie and essentially filled the role of family patriarch (which was accepted by Bobby and Ray, but not at all by JR).
  • Harris Ryland is definitely becoming one in the new series.
• Fan Nickname: "Pambecca" for Pamela Rebecca Barnes in the revived series.
• Genre Turning Point: The original series was this for the Prime Time Soap, proving that they could be just as popular as, and perhaps even moreso than, daytime soap operas and leading to a general migration of the genre from daytime to Prime Time — especially once prime time shows in other genres began embracing serialized storytelling. We largely have Dallas and its copycats to thank (or blame) for soaperizing being a trope in American television.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Dallas was huge in communist Romania, where it was the only Western show allowed on TV. The idea was that people would be horrified by the excesses of decadent capitalism, but it backfired, because everyone wanted to be that rich. The show's popularity may even have contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.
• Harsher in Hindsight: J.R.'s sarcastic reference to the "Who Shot J.R.?" storyline in the first season of the rebooted series, "Bullets don't seem to have much of an effect on me, dear," is a lot less funny when watching the season 2 episode "Furious and Fast", where he is shot and killed offscreen at the end of the episode.
• He's Just Hiding: Given how the soap opera setting and how much fans desire a Barnes -Ewing mixing of genes, some people wonder if the twins Pamela miscarries in the revival really survived and were spirited away for some sinister purpose, not unlike a twist from one Knots Landing arc.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The 2012 reboot has the Governor of Texas named Sam McConaughey. In 2021; actor and native Texan Matthew McConaughey became the subject of rumors that he was considering running for Governor of Texas in 2022^note though he ultimately didn’t run.
  • Jock's speech about real power being something you take, after this scene in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine shows us that Klingons believe otherwise.
• Jerkass Woobie: Both John Ross and Pamela Rebecca in the revived series. Bonus points for being each others' Morality Pet.
• Magnificent Bastard (2012 series): John Ross "J.R." Ewing, Jr. is a charming elderly man who helps his son achieve his dream of taking over Southfork ranch and tricks his brother into signing over the property to an investor who's secretly one of J.R.'s associates. Taking over Southfork, J.R. starts to drill for oil on it to secure profits while fooling his brother into thinking he was an invalid to throw him off his scent. Discovering he's dying of cancer, J.R. sets about his "masterpiece" and sets about getting revenge on the family's hated nemesis Cliff Barnes, having a minion steal Cliff's gun and kill him in order to frame Cliff for the crime. A man of total class, J.R. even reveals in his will his genuine love for his family and is happy that his son will be following in his footsteps as a master manipulator in his own right.
• Memetic Mutation: The question "Who shot J.R.?" is an iconic phrase in 1980s pop culture.
• Misaimed Merchandising:
  • From boots to Bubblegum Cards to a DALLAS: The Television Show Role-Playing Game.
  • Warner Bros. created a tie-in bourbon whiskey named for J.R. for the third season of the rebooted series, even though 1) J.R. had his fair share of troubles with the bottle, and 2) In real life, his actor Larry Hagman was actually a raging alcoholic.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Dallas Quest (1984) was positively received by Your Commodore. It was even said to be one of the best Commodore 64 games.
• Once Original, Now Overdone: The series was revolutionary for introducing season-ending cliffhangers. Today, such endings are considered some of the cheapest of tricks out there to get audiences back to watch the next season's premiere and are often treated with open contempt.
• Retroactive Recognition: Why is Charlie running around with Tyler Durden?
• Seasonal Rot: The eleventh Season. The ninth (Dream) season and its aftermath was infamous, but it was the eleventh season that really saw a notable decline in writing quality, the loss of key cast members and a turn towards absurd and/or banal plots.

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