Season 3 (1980 - 1981)

Episode 55: No More Mr. Nice Guy, Part I

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Bobby to Pam: "Honey, what's the matter?"
( Geez Bobby. Your father just named her brother as the prime suspect. )

Pam Award: I'd have to say Pam.

Angelica Award: Kristin looks really grungy. Sue Ellen's brown polka dot blouse at the hospital wasn't too hot either.

Bobby Award: Ditto. Borrow Sue Ellen's hairbrush, Kristin.

April Award: Bobby for leaving his car abandoned by the interstate.


-  Last year I wrongly said that the door to Ewing Oil was unlocked, until it was pointed out that the cleaning lady's keys are hanging in the lock when she finds JR on the floor. But who locked the door? The killer? I find it hard to believe that the killer actually had the keys; and even if he or she did, he or she locked the door after shooting JR. The only thing that might make sense of this is that the killer must be someone who had the keys...but when we find out who the real killer is, this doesn't make sense. I'll expound on this when we find out who it was, so as not to ruin it for anyone.

- When Ray receives the call from the hospital that JR's been shot, he presses a line button on the phone. We've never seen that before.

- Sue Ellen comes back to the ranch and has her eye on the well-stocked liquor cart until Kristin arrives not long after her. Didn't JR ask Theresa to lock up all of the liquor to keep Sue Ellen dry, even to the point of searching her room? It never amazes me how lightly Raoul and Theresa take their duties, and yet they manage to hang on to their jobs.

- How exactly does Jock know that Alan Beam had a strong motive for shooting JR? I don' t think JR would have told him about the threatened rape charges. Jock knows that JR had him fired from Smithfield-Bennett, and he's seen them fight, but would this rank him all that high on the list of suspects? Somewhat odd.

- Despite the confusing phone system at Southfork [see below] and the recent trauma of her son being shot, Ellie is amazingly adept at using the hospital phone system. The nurse [who is awfully young, by the way] tells Ellie that there is a call from Gary on Line 3. Ellie pushes two buttons on the phone and gets connected to Gary instantly. Clearly, one of the buttons is probably flashing and is labeled 'Line 3'. But what is the other button, and how does Ellie know to press that one? She must have been a telephone operator in a previous incarnation.
Denise Wood points out: Regarding the "Nurse" the one who looks really young. She isn't actually a nurse. She is called a candystriper. My sister used to be one.   They are volunteers at a hospital and they do odd jobs.  (Change bedpans, deliver food, serve pancakes, etc)  It is sort of a warm up job and usually they are too young to actually get paid anywhere else thus making them look really young.

- Sue Ellen has her empty purse from last episode in her flashback, and Kristin carts an empty one around today. Pam also has an empty black purse when she gets into the chopper. Ellie wanders with a small black purse.

- Just a note: I would have totally marked out if, after Jock asked Sue Ellen where she was the night of the shooting, he immediately yelled at her, "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU WERE!". Do you smell what the Jock is cooking?

- I'm not too sure that even the Ewings could get the state police to go out on a full-fledged hunt for Pam and Bobby, and then have them escorted directly to Dallas Memorial. Maybe the county sheriff would do them such a favor, but the state police? That seems excessive.

- Something else just occurred to me. The State Police finding Pam and Bobby is a BILC! If Pam and Bobby need to be informed about JR's shooting, couldn't they have heard it on the car radio, or stopped at a diner and seen the newspaper headline or a TV bulletin? This happens all the time in later seasons - people halfway around the world are up-to-date on Ewing affairs because every significant happening is relayed as a bulletin on the radio or TV or whatever communication medium happens to be handy at that time. So why the need for the helicopter to inform and fetch Bobby and Pam? Because it looks cool.

- And when stopped by the chopper, why does Bobby pull his car into the ditch at the side of the road? Wouldn't the shoulder have been sufficient?

- And speaking of the chopper...who in the hell would land a chopper right near a freakin' HOSPITAL? You're supposed to keep it quiet around there. In an absolute emergency where every second counts, I suppose you might want to land on top of the hospital, but certainly there's no reason to land near it at ground level.

- We see Capitol Cab again in this episode. Aside from the fact that Capitol Cab belongs in Austin rather than Dallas, this taxi has a different phone number and colour scheme from the one we saw in Episode 52.

- Damn, John Ross is big! He's mushroomed over the course of three episodes [when we last saw him].

- Pam's new car [see below] is still at Southfork. Was Bobby planning to get one of the hands to drive it to California?

From Bill Withrow: I know that the plot called for J.R. to survive the shooting. But I have never understood why the killer would have only fired 2 shots. After J.R. was down, he or she could have emptied her gun and finished him off.

AHN Todd's corner:

- When Ray and Miss Ellie are at Southfork the phone rings. Why is Ray up at the house in the middle of the night, when no one else (but Miss Ellie) is there? I guess Miss Ellie was just lonely or something. Why didn't she go with Jock to Punk Anderson's house and hang out with Mavis, though?

- Ellie tells Ray to call one of the hands.  He picks up the phone and starts talking immediately. Good one Ray! This could explain something. If there is a direct line to the ranch hands, then when someone wanted to get an outside line, they would have to dial "9", explaining why people have such a hard time using the phones. Ah, yes. A direct line to the bunkhouse. That explains everything. Amazing that despite her recent trauma, Ellie can still manipulate phones with the best of them. See above

- This episode was supposed to be a continuation from the last season, but since it was filmed several weeks (or months) later, MANY things have changed.
1. Raul got a moustache, a new haircut and looks totally different after the face lift.
And he talks, too!
2. Sue Ellen went on a bender and sold her car to buy booze.  She used to drive a Ford Crown Victoria LTD.  Then she bought another one that looks similar, but is a different model: a Mercury Grand Marquis station wagon.
3. Lucy was shagging with the teacher.  She also sold her car in the middle of the night.  She got rid of her convertable that Bobby gave her and bought a Porsche 944.
Mike Watts actually points out that it's a 924 - but who's counting.
4. Pam and Bobby left town.  While they were on the highway, Pam thought that she should have a new car.  She got rid of her late 70s Corvette, and bought a new Porsche 911. I guess the Licensing offices stay open 24 hours in Dallas!
They do for the Ewings. I wondered who parked in front of the main entrance to the Licensing office? Or did they take turns?

- Pam comes out of the hospital because Jock said that Cliff was the prime suspect, so she wants to go see him.  Bobby chases her out, and then they start talking about whether Cliff is capable of killing JR. Suddenly a taxi appears to take Pam away.  Impressive!  She didn't even pick up the phone and a taxi is there for her.  Hospitals aren't generally taxi hangouts like the downtown core or bars. This is definitely egregious.
Not only that, but the cab stops right in front of them. Neither one of them flagged the cab down. The driver was just awestruck by Vicki's figure, I guess. Or maybe, as I suspect, the cab read the script.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Sue Ellen drives Ewing 2.  She also leaves the keys in the ignition of her car and the window rolled down while she was passed out.  It would be so easy for her to be robbed ala the Dream Season. Yes it would. Good call.

- Mrs. Forrester looked WAY too happy when she answered the door to Ray.  And I am shocked that she would actually know where her husband shags his students. I bet she's had some suspicions. I'd also bet that she knows he's been spending time at the Sundowner, but may not have known with whom.

- Kristin has no purse when she first goes to the hospital, yet she has one that looks empty (but we know isn't) when she arrives at Southfork. Also, did she have keys to Southfork or did Ray just leave the doors unlocked?

- The long haired Theresa is back.

- Kristin should have done a better job with her version of the vision. She claims to Sue Ellen that she was scared but she hardly looks that way when we see her in the vision.

- I am seriously considering lobbying for a Ray Award for hypocrisy. He tells Lucy how horrible it is for her to be involved with a married man yet he shagged Sue Ellen when she was married to JR and later on he will cheat on Donna and Jenna when married to them. Hey...good call! In fairness to Ray, he has to forget about the Sue Ellen thing because of executive order.

AHN Alett's corner:

- It's such a cliche that the one who finds the body screams.  It would make sense if there were a pool of blood etc.  Heck, JR looks like he's sleeping. Maybe there's some blood - there ought to be more, considering a bullet lodges near the spleen.

- Also, everyone is going to complain that Ray could just get the professor's phone number rather than go to his house.  It's just too heavy handed a way to find out about the motel.  Man, the professor's poor wife has a hard life.  She looks old enough to be his mother.

- This is just the next day after the cliffhanger, but both Sue Ellen and Pam have longer hair.

- I'm surprised no one called Gary to come home for Ellie during her mastectomy. She probably didn't want him there - painful enough as it for her. Plus he was busy being cast by the producers at the time.

AHN Mike's corner:

- I pointed this out during the marathon on New Year's Day. When they wheel JR out in the middle of the night, not only are the streets way too crowded with people for a business district long after business hours are over but there actually appear to be people across the street sitting in temporary bleachers watching the filming and serving as crowd extras. Clearly I wasn't watching close enough.

- The budget is tight and yet they bring that annoying Muriel character back for another season? The budget ain't tight any more. Watch what kind of wardrobe they trot out today...Janine Turner. Oww!

- What is the urgency of Ray finding Lucy? She serves no purpose. I could understand if they needed her to give blood or if JR were her favorite uncle. But why is this Ray's top priority in this crisis? By the way, since nobody knows yet that Ray is a half-breed Ewing, he doesn't get a prime reserved spot at Dallas Memorial when he arrives with Lucy. It's for Ellie's sake - the family has to be together and be strong. But today Lucy gets to forget all about it.

- At the hospital, Jock in so many words accuses Sue Ellen of being a drunk, an unfit mother, a "gallivanting" tramp and due for another trip to the sanitarium. JR would have been proud of his daddy.

- Why all the screen time and dialogue for that teenage candystriper? Must have been a relative of somebody's, though it wasn't evident from looking at the cast credits.

- More of Miss Ellie's delusions. She says JR may be dying because of Ewing Oil. Wrong, he may be dying because of his own unscroupulous business practices. Which are due to his fervor and zeal in running Ewing Oil. I see your point.

- How can Pam, of all people, criticize Cliff for not being at work when he's supposed to be? When was the last time she went to work at all? Well, as of now she's quit, but your point is well taken.

AHN Pam's corner:

- The porcelain dog was obediently waiting in the living room when Sue Ellen looked in at the bar.

- By all accounts, Lucy left Southfork the morning J.R. was shot, and didn't go home that evening.  When she left Southfork the morning J.R. was shot, she said good-bye to Bobby and she was wearing black pants and a white blouse.  When she arrived at the hospital with Ray, she had on a blue dress.  Did she stuff that in her duffle bag to change for her date or did she do some shopping? She may have come back at some point during the day - this is worth pointing out, though.

- Someone mentioned the other day that Kristin doesn't have a car.  She must have one.  She got to the hospital by herself and Ellie told her to go out to Soutfork and wait for Sue Ellen.  She could've cabbed it both places I suppose.  But then why wouldn't they have taken Sue Ellen's car back to the hospital from Southfork?  Her car was parked in the driveway when Pam arrived home in the cab. Kristin may have taken Uncle Jock's car...this is interesting. Maybe they did cab it back because Sue Ellen was too distraught to drive.

- If Val was so worried about Gary handling a 'crisis' why didn't she offer to go back to Dallas with him?  I'm sure if they didn't have the money, Ellie would pay for their plane fare.  My guess is the producers don't want to PAY Joan Van Ark for more than one guest appearance.....of course they will later.

- Gary couldn't get a flight from L.A. to Dallas earlier than the one he planned to take? LAX is a major international airport.  I'm sure there are several daily flights between L.A. and Dallas.  I can't believe that every flight on every airline was completely booked. You know the airlines. They're stupid that way. This isn't entirely impossible.


Episode 56: No More Mr. Nice Guy, Part II

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Gary to Bobby: " You're tougher than I am, and stronger."
(Now the distinction between these two traits would be........?)

[courtesy of Sara]

> Gary (after bringing up a bunch of unpleasant things from Sue Ellen's past): "I'm not trying to bring up old ghosts."

Pam Award: Anybody in a swimsuit. That includes Pam [nothing we haven't seen before], Bobby [I'm sure all the ladies liked that!], Lucy's friend Paula who likes really nice from behind, and a very young Janine Turner! Yee-oww.

Angelica Award: Lucy at Da Vinci's. Not necessarily a bad outfit, but she looked just awful drunk. Nominated by Jason.

Bobby Award: Pam. [KIDDING!] Just wanted to see if anyone was paying attention. Dr. Elby wins, of course. Duh. Gary was close.

April Award: Lucy's friends for potentially letting her drive drunk.


- At the very beginning of the episode, JR has only been awake for about a minute before the nurse comes in and tells everyone that he needs his rest. HUH? How did the nurse even know he woke up? And even if she did, couldn't she have given the folks a couple of minutes? What's her problem?
She does it again near the end of the episode just before JR goes into surgery. Sue Ellen's talking to him for about fifteen seconds and in she comes to break it up. Pushiest nurse I've ever seen.

- That Marilee Stone is insatiable. Her husband died about five days ago and she's already putting the charms on Bobby.

- I thought that this one was particularly timely, coming soon after War of the Ewings. There was quite a bit of debate raging about the fact that Weststar had become an independent oil company and JR made remarks that suggested that Ewing Oil had become public. This was very odd. Click here to go to that discussion.
In this episode, Bobby says something which only struck me two hours after I watched the episode. Bobby complains to Connie that he wants to make decisions but the 'Chairman of the Board' and the 'President' of Ewing Oil will just overrule them. Clearly he is speaking of Jock and JR, respectively.
Here's the problem: Jock Ewing can not possibly be the Chairman of the Board of Ewing Oil. Why not, you ask? Because Ewing Oil has no Board of Directors! The Board of Directors of a corporation is comprised of representatives of the major investors, in a private corporation, or stockholders in a publicly traded corporation. Ewing Oil is not publicly traded; nor does it have a group of major partners. It is wholly owned by Jock Ewing, presumably under the umbrella of Ewing Enterprises. So there can be no Board of Directors, ergo there can be no Chairman of the Board! I can't believe the writers overlooked this. When Bobby says stuff like this it makes him seem totally dense.

- Sue Ellen carries an empty brown purse in this episode.

- I won't hazard any guesses as to where this Da Vinci's place is, but is ten dollars enough cab fare to get Lucy home from an [apparently] downtown night spot? Must be a special Ewing fare.

- Nice new haircut on Dr. Elby! I almost expected Sue Ellen to drop her line of conversation and comment. I can just picture it:

SE: "Oh, Dr. Elby, what am I going to do if JR...what happened to your hair?"
Elby: "Nothing, I just felt like getting it cut."
SE: "Well, your stylist didn't do a very good job."
Elby: "Never mind that...tell me about your feelings. What about JR?"
SE: "Forget about JR! I'll take you to my stylist. Alejandro will take care of you."

zzz Someone lock up this man's stylist.

- Those darned hospital phones. Today, Bobby gets a phone call from Fred Hopper, and the nurse tells him to pick up Line 2. Bobby goes to the phone and just starts talking! What? Yesterday, Miss Ellie picked up a hospital line and had to press two buttons before she was connected. What gives?

From Bill Withrow: The doctor tells Jock and Ellie about J.R.'s need for surgery. Jock then goes in and tells J.R. what the doctor said. Shouldn't the doctor have told J.R. first with J.R. then breaking the news to his parents? I mean J.R. is not a minor. Didn't the doctor violate normal procedure? Or, am I being too picky? I'll have to review the tape...no, I won't. I remember this now. I think the excuse was that JR was sleeping or something like that. I'd have to review my "Medicine and Law" books to be sure about this, but I think you're right.

AHN Todd's corner:

- Last episode Gary said that he was going to come in to Dallas at around 6am.  Lucy said that he was going to pick him up.  So Lucy and Gary pull into Southfork together and the sun is FULLY RISEN!  OK, so maybe they are closer to the equator than Toronto or Ottawa, but the latest time they would come to the ranch is about 7:30am.  Bobby is suntanning. Bull!  I don't think that anyone would be out tanning or relaxing that early in the morning, don't you have to do work before you relax?  Go back to bed everyone! Actually, being close to the equator has very little to do with when the sun rises; it only determines how high it is when it is fully risen. I see your point - either everyone got up really early to have breakfast, or something is very wrong here.

- Sue Ellen tells JR that John Ross misses his daddy.  I know that JR likes to think that he has a hand that controls the world, but does he really think that his son misses him?  He has never even touched him! Well, he did once, the episode he found out that he was the real father. Since then he's been busy destroying lives. Let's give JR the benefit of the doubt on this one - throughout the series, one thing is for sure and that's that JR loves his daddy and his son very much.

- The doctor comes out to talk to Jock and Ellie about some risky surgery that JR will have to go thru in order to remove the other bullet that is in his spine.  The doctor comes out in a two piece suit and tie.  When a surgeon works, he wears the cape or gown, if not in the OR, then they would wear pretty casual comfortable clothes, not dress like he is going for a job interview.  Doctors dress in suits when they are consulting with patients all day, but this is a surgeon, and i don't think that this was appropriate.
Some surgeons do wear suits all day. Not right after performing surgery, perhaps, but I knew lots of doctors who reach for a suit as soon as they possibly can.

AHN Alett's corner:

- JR couldn't care less about Gary's life in California, so how would he know about the good-looking neighbor, Karen Fairgate?  Even if Bobby had met her when he was out there, he would have no reason to discuss Gary's good-looking neighbors.  This is just a plug for *Knots Landing*. Yes it is but JR really liked her when he visited Knots. She used him and spurned him, which peaked his interest even more.

- Purse problems again. Kristin leaves the hospital with no purse, no keys in her hand, and goes to her car which has its window down.  There are NO pockets in that dress.   I hate to think where she's stashing those keys. A drunk Lucy has her purse in her hand while she's leaning out the cab's window.  Cut to the cab pulling away, and there's no purse in her hands. Can't believe I missed that last one.

- The cops have a search warrant.  It's very possible Cliff has another gun in the place.  This is pretty shoddy police work. But they only had a search warrant for the one gun . THAT part of it may be shoddy.

AHN Jason's corner:

-  Lucy drives EWING 5.  So how come Pam doesn't? Pam got her first "EWING" Car before Lucy.  Also have we yet to see Ellie actually drive anywhere herself?   Sue Ellen drives EWING 2 so this seems to suggest that Ellie does not have a car, at least at this point. We have not seen Ellie definitively drive anywhere yet. I have no idea why Pam doesn't have Ewing 5. Lame.

- During Gary and Sue Ellen's talk in the nursery, it looks like they are standing very close together while talking/arguing.  Since these two have never been close, I find this interesting.

- Notice Sue Ellen's hair at the hospital.  It looks noticeably flatter after the first commercial break (first 15 minutes).

- Aside from giving us some plot info, what exactly was the point of Kristin and Alan shooting the #$%@ outside of the hospital?  These two act like they are best friends and seem very casual about the whole  "JR got shot" affair.   In real life, I couldn't see people having a conversation like this out in public.   Also, why exactly did Alan come to the hospital? He had been cleared by the police and I hardly think he would want to wish JR his best. Good call! It's the only way he could find Kristin I guess. Excellent point which I totally missed. I suppose the writers needed a way to get himon-screen so he could give us his alibi.

- Bobby tells Marilee that $500,000 is peanuts one minute than offers her a half a million the next. Think about it. I think he means it's peanuts compared to the legal fees.

- While we are on the topic of babes, so how come Muriel isn't at Lucy's bikini party or at the dance club?  I thought she was Lucy's best friend. But I bet she looks awful in a bikini. Plus she's not a rich bitch.

AHN Sara's corner:

- Bobby was the first person to see Gary coming up the driveway, yet it took him a good five minutes to get from the pool to the breakfast table to greet him.

- Bobby and Gary drove down the Southfork driveway, then stopped.  A couple of seconds elapsed and then Gary asked Bobby to pull over to the side of the road.  That just looked weird.  I think Gary's voiceover should have started before Bobby stopped the car.

- By the way, this is the second time in two episodes that Bobby has pulled off the side of a road by inexplicably verring off into some grass.  Is it that hard to pull over and stay on the road? Apparently for Bobby it is. Maybe his car likes the grass.

- Yet again underage Lucy is given alcohol.  I can't believe that her friends let her walk out of the club in her condition.  Also, why did she bring her car?  I find it hard to believe that Lucy and her friends all took separate cars to the club. They're all rich girls as far as I can tell - in a few days Lucy will have a snob party and they're all invited, even though Muriel curiously is not.

AHN Mike's corner:

- JR has suddenly gotten grey at the temples. Guess the makeup department ran out of that black shoe polish they've been using to make his sides match his rug.

- Jock got a haircut and a new gold necklace.

- Did you notice when Paula walked to her lounge chair she was wearing spike heels? Who wears spiked heels with a bikini around the pool?

- Sue Ellen tells Gary "Baby John is my whole life". Your whole life other than the significant portion you dedicate to drinking, Sue Ellen? Ah, but she doesn't drink any more right? [I see your point.]

- Once again we see the immutable law that the TV only gets turned on at SF when there's news relating to the Ewings, as Pam turns it on to hear about Vaughn Leland being cleared as a JR murder suspect. I see the point...but does anybody really want to watch Pam watch TV? Maybe in lingerie...

- The two detectives that come for Cliff are not only dressed like used car salesman but look like two five pound bags with ten pounds of sh*t in them. Prime  heart attack candidates. That's your typical 80s police officer. I don't know about New Jersey, but only recently here in Toronto has the police force stopped becoming the proverbial donut shop patrons.

- When JR's doctor enters the waiting room, his chest is completely soaked with perspiration.

AHN Pam's corner:

- Gary flew all the way from California for one two minute conversation with J.R. and then left before his surgery?  They said it was very risky, you would think Gary would want to hang around until it was over, just in case.  His excuse was that he had to get back to his job.  If I remember my "Knots" history correctly, Gary was working for Sid Fairgate at the time, a neighbor and friend.  I'm sure under the circumstances, Sid would have given his friend some time off to be with his family during their 'crisis'. I'm not too sure what the circumstances were here. This is sort of lame but frankly, there's no REAL reason for Gary to stick around. There's frankly no reason for LUCY to be hunted down, or Pam and Bobby for that matter. It's just for Ellie's sake because she's a total jellyfish and gets her strength from her family being around her. Lame.

- Kristin does have a car, she went to it after talking to Alan in the parking lot.   It's kind of an old man car, not something I would think Kristin would choose for herself.  Maybe it came with the condo, ya know, kind of like the dresses in the closet. Or is it Uncle Jock's car or something like that? That'd be my guess.

- I loved watching J.R. wheel and deal from his hospital bed.  He can pull all the strings even from there.  But I have to ask, even though they said it had been a few days, didn't J.R. seem to recover quite quickly?  I know he can't feel his legs, but shouldn't he at least have been somewhat weak even a few days later? Yes, it is a miraculous recovery of sorts. Maybe the damage wasn't as bad as originally thought.

- Pam carried an empty purse to the police station.

- When Lucy returned that whopping cab fare to Mitch, did she say the club had given her his address?  If not, how did she know where he lived?  If so, I'd be mad as hell if I were Mitch that my employer would give out my address to anyone who asked for it. What if Lucy had been some psycho?


Episode 57: Nightmare

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Jason]

> Lucy: "My mom was a waitress.... I know all about hard work and poverty."

Please.. she may dress like a girl from the Prairie but she sure doesn't act like one.

Pam Award: Kristin's white street walker outfit.

Angelica Award: Lucy's outfits.

Bobby Award: Even Lucy's braids cannot oust Dr. Elby from here.

April Award: Lucy for confronting her professor about their affair out in the open, so everyone can hear when a slut she is. Sue Ellen for sending Kristin to "cheer JR up".


- The producers got away with some stuff in this episode. In the first Pam and Bobby scene, we're outside and it's really windy. Pam's top is flapping in the wind, revealing her bra underneath. Then when Sue Ellen wheels JR out of the hospital, she learns over to talk to him and we're treated to a nice cleavage shot. And then of course, when Kristin goes to JR's hospital room she strategically cradles her chest for maximum exposure. Tame by today's standards, but this was twenty years ago.

- And why DOES Sue Ellen wheel JR out of the hospital to get some sun? Shouldn't a hospital worker do that, for insurance purposes, even if JR is not leaving for good? Later, when he does leave for good, a hospital worker does wheel him out, as it should be.

- This one really bothers me. As JR points out, why is Kristin still in Dallas? Harry McSween had express orders from JR to escort Kristin out of town if she didn't leave of her own volition in Episode 54, the cliffhanger. Unlike Alan Beam or Vaughn Leland, there is no evidence in the dialogue that suggests that Kristin is a suspect in JR's shooting. So why is she around? Harry must be losing his touch. Either that or everyone on the Dallas PD is working on the JR shooting, so Harry's got no backup, or something like that.

- Doesn't it do your heart good to see how understanding Pam is of Bobby's need to give full attention to his job? [That's sarcasm on many levels, if you don't get it.]

- Hey, the INS guys finally checked Southfork out! The new Raoul has been sent back to Mexico, and a new clean-shaven guy sneaked over in the meantime, and brought over a new chiquita with a green outfit to be Theresa.

- Jock finds the gun in "JR's closet". But since when has this been only JR's closet? It appears to be the only closet in the room, and we've seen Sue Ellen put things in there quite often. And would it be possible to tell that it had recently been fired by sniffing it? It's been a week or so.

- And speaking of the gun, at the end of the episode it is identified as being JR's gun. So why in the world did Sue Ellen have it in her drawers back in Episode 53?

- Detective Horton tells the Ewings that the only fingerprints found on the gun belonged to Sue Ellen. So does the Dallas PD have Sue Ellen's fingerprints on file? Why? Has she ever been booked before?

From Tina Niblett: Rather interesting note about Ray's house.  Before he even moved in a clothesline was in place.  Guess that's why we always saw him working bare-chested.  He had no clothesline at the bunkhouse, and his shirts were at the cleaners.  Now he can do his own laundry while he's out chopping wood or planting trees.
Val comments: If you look closely at this scene, you will notice a small trailer off to one side. I'm assuming that's where Ray lived while he was building his "hand-built cowboy house". And if I remember correctly, it was a very small trailer--too small to hold laundry facilities, hence the clothesline. There was probably a wash-tub around the back. And while we're on the subject of Ray's house, here's something that's always bothered me. As you know, everyone who comes to that house enters and leaves through that sliding glass door between the living room and kitchen. These sliding glass doors are very widely used in the Southwest. In fact, I have one on my house. But there's a problem. These doors can not be locked from the outside. There is just a simple latch that can be locked ONLY from INSIDE the house, but outside there is nary a keyhole--only a handle. Ray's may very well be different, but I have NEVER seen one of these doors that can be locked from the outside. The point I'm trying to make is that the slider seems to be the ONLY door on Ray's house. (Southfork has these doors too, but there are other doors). So when he leaves, it can't be locked (unless he crawls out the chimney, a la Santa Claus). Sure this may not be a problem when you live out in the middle of nowhere. I have relatives in rural areas who never lock their doors. But what about when leaving on long trips? Surely, he'd want to lock his doors then. Perhaps this is merely a subtle form of foreshadowing. Ray seems to care about his personal security about as much as the Ewings.

AHN Todd's corner:

- JR gets home from the hospital.  Did they keep the wheelchair from when JR got shot in the hunting accident?  Pretty impressive that they had it on hand like that.

- Lucy goes to pick up Ray at his new house and he says that he'll be along after he has a beer.  Does anyone else notice that he has a sip and then gets into Lucy's car with it.  I am surprised that Lucy would let him do this.  I'm sure that Texans do this frequently when they are off shooting stuff with their rifles though. They'd never do something like this in today's politically correct climate - interesting.
Terri Thomas comments: Believe it or not, Texas used to allow open containers--EVEN FOR THE DRIVER--as long as the blood alcohol level was below  the legal limit.

Terri also mentions: Another thing I've been wanting to get off my chest: The producers of the show are so cheap that they often show some other college campus (probably UCLA) and try to pawn it off as SMU.  Anyone who knows SMU knows that ALL buildings on that campus are required to be designed and built in the Georgian style of architecture.  Thus, every building on the SMU campus is red brick, with the pillars, etc.  When you see footage of "SMU" with other types of buildings, you'll know it's the fake SMU.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Lucy wears the same dress to yell at Forrester that she wore when Ray took her to the hospital to see JR in #55.

- It is established in this episode that several weeks have past since the shooting.   So it has taken Lucy this long to go find and yell at Forrester? Doesn't she still go to his class?   Also doesn't Mitch say something along the lines of apologizing for his behavior toward Lucy (in #56) that happened THE OTHER DAY?  (I could be wrong on this one.) Time has passed in an odd way. This is still POSSIBLE, although the Forrester thing is not very believable.

- The shot of Horner's office looks like Elby's.

- Sue Ellen and Kristin seem to have empty purses outside of the hospital.

- Sue Ellen wears that blue dress at the beginning of the episode when she visits JR and Elby.  At the same time or a day later, Lucy wears her blue dress to yell at Forrester.  Later, Mitch goes to see Lucy and she is dressed like Melissa Gilbert on Little House.  Later in the episode, Sue Ellen and Kristin meet outside the hospital and S.E. is wearing her blue dress again. The scenes must have put in the wrong order on the show. Quite probably. I had a feeling there were some weird things going on.

- I'd like to know WHO these "security" people are supposed to be keeping away from JR.  In #56 Alan tries to visit.  Today, two other people that JR knows have very good reason to shoot him come to visit and get in- Jordan and Kristin.  I can't believe that JR didn't tell these guys who to tell in and who not to.  In fact, he should have given them a list of people who COULD visit him- it would be a LOT shorter than his list of enemies. Daddy, Momma, Bobby, Gary, Sue Ellen, Lucy and maybe "that Barnes Woman" if she behaves herself. I have no idea what's going on here.

- I got a kick out of Jock and Ellie thinking that JR needed slippers. He is in a wheelchair.  Why would he need them to go home?  I could understand them bringing slippers to him if he was in the hospital, say doing physical therapy-like earlier in the episode, but now that he is going home, it doesn't make sense. Well, you can't expect to go home with bare feet, I guess.

AHN Alett's corner:

- It looks like Dr. Elby has this new haircut because in his off-hours he's in a production of *Julius Caesar*. The Doc isn't earning his pay.  Even though Sue Ellen's dream seems pretty straight forward, he could at least talk to her about it.

- Maybe the philosophy in rehab is learn to walk in the shoes you're most likely to wear, but JR in dress shoes and black socks just looks ridiculous. I would think tennis shoes would be a better choice.

- Outside the hospital, Kristin's hair is down and fairly straight.  Inside with JR she has it pulled back and it's curlier.

- All Bobby seems to have to do is sign the papers so they can out by 1:00. He could still have lunch with Pam. I guess he has to review them or something. I agree.

- Geez Ray.  Seal the paint can and clean your brush before you leave.

- Finally Theresa is able to get out of those black heels and get into some sensible walking shoes. Well, it's a different Theresa and Raoul. Maybe the shoes were bought in Juarez when they crossed over.

- Since this is attempted murder, the spouse should be the first suspect, but it's been weeks and they haven't even questioned Sue Ellen. Yeah, I suppose you're right. But I guess it's one of those things where you don't want to stir up trouble with the Ewings if you don't have to.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Sue Ellen wears lipstick, eyeshadow, earrings and her lethal weapon diamond ring to bed at night. Was her nightmare about JR or Dr. Elby's new 'do?

- Why did Lucy suddenly call Greg "Professor Forrester" when she was publicly dressing him down? I don't know. I also don't know why she wants to publicize the fact that she's a slut.

- There's more than a little irony in Sue Ellen's advice to Kristin to go up and "help JR get his mind off his troubles". Not only isn't she doing that anymore but she proceeds to goad him about the fact that he can't do it anymore.

- Pretty shrewd of Jock to put his fingerprints all over JR's gun and then use it as an alibi to make sure the police knew why they were there. And speaking of fingerprints, how did Kristin get hers off the gun but leave JR's and Sue Ellen's on. Even if she used gloves and had no need to wipe hers off, wouldn't handling the gun with the gloves have smudged the other prints? I assume the bullets were already in the gun and would have the prints of the person that loaded them and I presume those would be JR's. This is a bit on the weird side, I agree. When we see Kristin holding the gun today, she'll have gloves; maybe she was careful enough not to smudge the prints too badly.

- And why do they assume there's only one person (Sue Ellen) who could have used the gun? Aren't there at least three Raoul's and a half dozen Teresa's wandering the house at any moment? JR doesn't exactly treat them like family or friends.

- Why does JR need a blanket around his legs on what appears to be a very warm day, based on the lack of clothes and the skin exposed on everybody else around him?

AHN Pam's corner:

- When Sue Ellen was screaming during her nightmare, it looked as if the light were on in the room.  But when the scene changed and Ellie opened the door, the room was completely dark.

- Somebody said that Lucy went to pick Ray up at his house.  Is it my imagination or did she say she was picking him up because J.R. was coming home.  At this point, no one knows that Ray is really a member of the family, so why does he need to be there when J.R. arrives home?  Come to think of it, Lucy, Ray, Bobby and Pam were nowhere to be found during cocktails for J.R.'s 'special' welcome home dinner. I'll have to review this. I forget what the real reason was.

- Pam's a bitch.  Bobby had to sign a few papers, so she couldn't wait for him to go to lunch?  Didn't she just tell the trailertrash the day before that she was bored out of her mind and had nothing to do?  So even if she had to wait a half hour for Bobby to review and sign a few papers, I think she could spare the time.

- Sue Ellen and Kristin kissed in front of the hospital.  Strange, we've never seen this before, they're quite friendly lately.

- Lucy told Mitch she'd drive him to work after the movie.  That's really very nice of her.  But, his job is within walking distance of his apartment or Lucy planned on picking him up, how's he supposed to get home if she drops him off? Maybe he'll catch a ride back with someone.

- Lucy found Mitch at school and said they were going to dinner because she knew his entire schedule by heart.  It doesn't seem like they've known each other very long, I doubt he gave her an itinerary.  So how exactly would she know his entire schedule, is she stalking him? Yup. She wants to jump his bones. Actually, finding out where a second-year medical student is at any given moment is not as hard as you think - the schedule is pretty standard.


Episode 58: Who Done It?

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of me]

> Kristin to Sue Ellen: "You think you've got it all figured out..."

Well, actually, Sue Ellen does... she just told us the whole story.

[courtesy of Jason]

> Ellie (at breakfast)- "Sue Ellen is too dangerous to be let out of jail."
> Ellie (at dinner that night)-  "I'm not sorry that she is out of jail."

Pam Award: Kristin in the brown wrap dress at the end.

Angelica Award: Sue Ellen's dress with the multi-colored leaves was awful, as was Donna's hat. Sue Ellen's half-black, half-white outfit including matching shoes wasn't too hot either.

Bobby Award: Dr. Elby edges out Sue Ellen's grungy looks. Jim Redfield deserves mention.

April Award: The cab driver for thinking that he could only get as  far as the gate of Southfork...   I mean, come on... EVERYONE knows that ANYONE can visit Southfork any old time they want. Nominated by Jason.


- Sue Ellen is taken to the police station wearing a black and white dress...so the cops let her change before they put her in the police car? She was wearing a tan dress when Detective Horton arrived at the ranch that evening.

- When Sue Ellen is booked, her fingerprints are taken. Now this may be standard procedure - but it makes me believe I was right yesterday in pointing out that her fingerprints probably weren't on file.

- The morning after Sue Ellen is booked, Cliff's having breakfast and spots the news on the Dallas Press which is being read by someone else. Why hasn't he already seen the news? Does he get the evening edition? If so, why did he have the morning paper waiting for him as he arrived home the morning after JR was shot? Very odd.

- Sue Ellen tells Kyle Bennett that she doesn't have enough money in her own name to post her bail. So how is it that fifty episodes or so from now, she will practically be a millionaire in her own right? See Episode 101 for details.

- Why is Cliff allowed to see Sue Ellen in the private discussion room, unescorted? He says he's not coming on behalf of the DA's office and he is also a suspect in the case. The police would NEVER allow two suspects in a murder case to sit in a room and talk - what if they're accomplices and need time to get their stories straight?

- Sue Ellen has a really bad hair episode. When she's released from jail, her hair is straight and 'unglamorous'. Then she goes to Southfork and her hair is the same. Then she goes back to Dallas and heads to Cliff's place with the beautiful hairdo she usually has. [It's not impossible - I just wonder why Sue Ellen would go to a hairdresser before seeing Cliff. And just how much cash does she have? Enough for a cab ride to and from Southfork, and then a hairdo? Hmm.] Then the next day she meets Bobby outside Ewing Oil - grungy hair again! Then when she meets John Ross in the park, she has the nice hair again! Could it be the humidity? I doubt you could get such great hair with just a brush.

- Kristin appears to be making coffee for herself when Sue Ellen arrives. She drinks her own coffee? Courageous girl.

- A VERY interesting thing happened today. John Ross was eating grapes or something in this episode, and he was doing it with his left hand. We'll have to see if John Ross continues to be left-handed in future episodes.

- The flashback thing was great. I looked at Monday's tape to compare the two flashbacks - in Kristin's flashback on Monday, Sue Ellen takes the drink with her left hand and doesn't put the gun down on the liquor tray, then she walks back to the door with the gun in her right hand. In today's flashback, Sue Ellen puts the gun in her left hand and then takes the drink with her right hand. She walks back towards the door with an empty right hand. Of course, we now know that Kristin was lying, so this isn't really a nit - Sue Ellen should remember things differently.
Also, when we see the flashback of JR getting shot, suddenly the office is slightly better lit than I recall. But of course, we're really seeing Sue Ellen's flashback of what happened, and she wasn't there, so this is still possible. Did any of that make sense?

Yoti Kale pointed out: I was wondering if anyone but me noticed that from the time John Ross was born he was and up until episode 57 he was known as "Little John" suddenly in episode 58 the family is referring to him as "John Ross." And, while I'm at it isn't it customary procedure when you are arrested that they take all of your personal possessions from you (jewelry, money, shoelaces etc.)?  So, why did Sue Ellen still have her belt on in the holding cell? You're right about John Ross. Usually they refer to him as 'the baby' or 'Little John'. I guess they figure since he's growing up so fast, he might as well learn his real name. It does occur to me, however, that his name IS John. Ross is his middle name, technically. As for Sue Ellen, I'm sure the police could see that Sue Ellen's belt was relatively important to maintaining the shape of her dress, but I think they probably would take it away in the real world.

- Semmens pointed out: Ok I just have to say something about yesterday's meeting in the park. Supposedly Sue Ellen was so desperate to see and spend time with her precious baby boy. Can someone tell me why it takes four adult women to deal with a child who can't even walk yet ? Surely Miss Ellie didn't always have servants when her sons were little; I just didn't understand why she and Pam had to haul Theresa or whoever it was along for a brief outing to the park. Maybe it was in case little John Ross needed a diaper change.
To which Patrick responded: Clearly, the point of the scene was for Sue Ellen to have contact with the two Ewing women, so we (the audience) can see where she stands in the Ewing household.
Both fellows are absolutely right. How many Ewings does it take to change a diaper?

- Hugh Brown submitted the following: If Harve's law partner is a competent enough criminal trial lawyer to defend Sue Ellen for attempted murder, why didn't he defend Jock at the McKinney trial instead of the extraneous character Scotty Demarest? Speaking of bad attorneys, the actor who played the detective who investigated the JR shooting was the same guy who was Carter McKay's lawyer in the Johnny Dancer trial. Not only did he never solve the JR shooting, but he also got McKay convicted for a murder McKay didn't commit. I think this is explainable bcause Bobby says he personally got Kyle Bennett involved - he probably didn't want to talk to Harve because Harve's an old poopy pants who would have blathered to Jock and then Jock would have nixed the whole thing. Bobby probably figures he can trust Kyle. You're right about the other part though - but if it weren't for bad attorneys and stupid cops, we'd miss out on a lot of fun!

- Julie Hofius mentions that since Kristin put the gun in Sue Ellen's bedroom closet, her fingerprints should have been found on the gun since we didn't see her wearing gloves. AHN Pam mentions that since it's Sue Ellen's flashback she really doesn't KNOW whether or not Kristin was wearing gloves or not, so this is still possible.

AHN Todd's corner:

- When JR and the lawyer are eating lunch they order two drinks.  JR has the usual bourbon and branch, and the lawyer orders a scotch on the rocks. The waitress brings the drinks to the table and fumbles on who had what drink.  She must have realized that the order was messed up, because where I come from both bourbon whisky and scotch whisky are brownish. She brought one brown drink and one clear. I think she gave him some gin, in which case he would be quite pissed off.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Sue Ellen changes her clothes after she is out of jail...  Did she buy new ones or was it an outfit she borrowed from Kirstin, whom she was staying with. She doesn't look to be the same size as Kristin but she might have had enough money to get something.

- Look carefully at the scene where Donna, Dave and Cliff talk.  Donna's purse seems to disappear between takes....

- When Sue Ellen visits Kristin, Kristin has her hair back in barrettes.  Watch as they sit down and Sue Ellen says "Can I stay with you?"   Sue Ellen suddenly looks like someone moused the front of her hair and Kristin's locks suddenly are down her front.

- When Bobby talks to the family about letting Sue Ellen see the baby, he seems to have a huge clump of hair sticking up in the back of his head.

- Watch Sue Ellen's hair in the "dream".   In footage taken from #54, her hair is just above her shoulders.  But in new footage (at the bar and at Kristin's) her hair is about an inch longer. Sue Ellen's hair also seems to get redder as the episode progresses.

- Sue Ellen and Kristin seem to carry empties.  I wasn't too sure about Donna's- there seem to be a bulge in the ones she has. 
But look carefully as she and Dave leave Cliff at the political rally. Her purse changes arms mid sentence.

- I found it weird that Sue Ellen and Kristin would be allowed to stay at the Ewing condo.   I mean, JR wanted Kristin out of the state weeks ago. Why would he permit her to stay at the Ewing Condo?

AHN Pam's corner:

- John Ross got to leave his room again.  He's been downstairs more with the family in the last two episodes than during the entire last season. Yup. He's also gotten more sun than Christopher EVER did while in Pam's care.

- Bobby said he could raise $100,000 himself for Sue Ellen's bail.  PUHLEEZE!!!   Bobby's wealthy, he could write a check from his personal account for this much money and he'd barely dent the interest.  I know he didn't mean it literally, but he could've phrased it a little bit better.

- Sue Ellen's attorney said that he came as soon as she called him.  During the next scene Bobby said he called him.  So who persuaded him to come, Sue Ellen or Bobby?   He didn't even mention to Sue Ellen that he had talked to Bobby. Excellent nit.

- Bobby got the cushy parking spot outside of Ewing Oil.  Mitch must have the parking fairy looking after him as well.  He got a cushy parking spot right outside of the building where his class was being held.  Actually, he was parked right behind Lucy.

- Why was J.R. sitting around the patio in his bathrobe in the middle of the afternoon? It was after 1:00 because that's when Ellie and Pam met Sue Ellen.

- Doesn't a person arrested for a crime generally go to a bail hearing?  Did we miss it due to a TNN cut? Good call.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Sue Ellen's black and white outfit was fascinating for a number of reasons. It was quite resilient as Sue Ellen went to jail and got out of jail in it and then spent that day and part of the next in it without a wrinkle. After her first night in jail her hair is a mess, a nice realistic touch. Also, a nice character foible by Linda Grey as SE attempts to smooth her messed up hair when she realizes her visitor is Cliff.

- And why did Sue Ellen panic so much over spending a night in jail? Could it be because there's no liquor cart in the cell? Something like that.


Episode 59: Taste of Success

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of me]

> Jock, after being told several times that Bobby is going to reopen Ewing 23: "You mean to tell me you're going to reopen Ewing 23?"

Pam Award: Connie looked really great in that dress towards the end.

Angelica Award: Sue Ellen's dress at the airport.

Bobby Award: Jim Redfield again.

April Award: Bobby for waiting so long to go to another bank for his loan.


- When Kristin puts on her dog and pony show at the beginning of this episode, the whole family is assembled at Southfork, except Pam and Bobby. Where are they? Bobby may be working, but where the heck is Pam?

- Okay, so it's confirmed that Kristin's the would-be killer. So I must go back to my point on Monday about Ewing Oil's door being locked after JR is shot. Sure, Kristin's worked at Ewing Oil as a secretary so she probably had a key...while she was employed. But she no longer is. Shouldn't she have had to turn over her key? Or did JR let her keep it, just like he let her stay in the condo? Frankly, if JR trusted Kristin enough to give her a key in the first place, then he's got no one to blame but himself for what happened.

- Bobby says that Jim Redfield is in town and staying at a hotel. When we cut to Jim Redfield in his 'hotel', it looks suspiciously like an office! He's got a big desk with papers strewn around, and a nice padded chair. Must be some hotel!

- Cliff asks Donna to grab a bite...of Mexican food? Zuh? Won't his regular Chinese takeout place feel disrespected?

- I find it interesting that Bobby has put his name on JR's office door. Yet he still says he only plans to run the company temporarily.

- Jock answers the Southfork phone by saying, "Jock Ewing here". Why? Normally he and everyone else answer by saying, "Hello", or "Southfork Ranch".

- When Pam comes down the stairs at the end of this episode, she's dressed in a very modest sweater and slacks. Poor Pam. Just when she's getting used to having dinner at Southfork every night, Bobby springs a surprise celebration on her. Bobby doesn't even give her a chance to go upstairs and put on a dress before whisking her away.

AHN Todd's corner:

- There was no mention of JR being able to get out of the wheelchair soon, he just stands up and starts walking.  Pretty successful physical therapy. To which Dana Kepplewhite adds: Something has bothered me for sometime on this episode.  JR was barely able to walk, yet he did in this episode and he was able to have sex with Sue Ellen.  I work at a hospital and I know that people who have been temporarily paralyzed can't necessarily have sex right away. If they can't walk, they can't have sex.  Trust me on this. I trust you and I heartily agree with your assessment. The miraculous recovery is a bit much.

AHN Jason's corner:

- It appears that only a few days have passed since #58.  (Judging on Kristin still being around, Elby's comment to Sue Ellen that a few weeks ago she wanted to shoot JR, Liz waiting for Pam's reply) but JR is already walking.  I have to wonder why JR didn't get Kristin far far away as soon as he found out she was the shooter.  I mean in the course of three or four days she could have tried again or bailed out. I guess having the family hear the sob story is necessary.

- I agree with Sue Ellen.  JR seems to take Kristin's word that her baby is JR's.   Not a wise thing since he knows she shagged Rudy during their affair.  And she also bagged Jordan and possibly Andy (gag).  In a few weeks, she will bop Kenny Ward on Knots Landing too. It's kind of dumb on JR's part but at this point he can't take the chance.

- Oh my.... Donna has what appears to be a non-empty purse.  Must be a portable shrine she has of Sam Culver.

- Watch while Lucy undresses.... She just unbuttons a top button then the whole blouse is ready to peel off. It's a Bobby special!

- Looks like a new outer shot of Elby's office.

- This is kinda gross.  Elby sits down on the desk and pours a glass of water and chugs most of it.  Sue Ellen (with nothing in her hands) walks over to him and in a verbal match, grabs the glass and swallows the last bit of water. There was only one glass on the desk as far as I can see and I did not hear the sound of another glass of water being poured. Weird. Guess he really got to her.

- Did Wade Luce even speak today?  Why bring him into the scene if he didn't even have a line.  Jordan and Andy could have done it. Also, since Marilee is the "real" power behind her late husband and father's company why didn't Bobby invite her to the Cartel meeting?  I am sure she would love to discuss any offer Bobby makes.

- I am rather surprised that Clayton Farlow's name is not mentioned during this whole refinery saga...  Isn't he the head of the largest group of refineries in Texas? But he doesn't exist yet. :)

- Not to bash Liz, but why is she always desperately recruiting Pam to work for her?   I mean Pam's work record leaves a bit to be desired and I can't believe the Store is THAT short on quality help.  Look at that dedicated Jackie Dugan...... Everything about The Store is just pure lame. And PLEASE bash Liz.

AHN Mike's corner:

- That was a wonderful look of disgust on Sue Ellen's face as Kristen acted out her story in the SF family room. Apparently the only one more disgusted than SE was the porcelain dog who must have walked out mid-story because his usual spot was vacant.

- In this scene, the adoption lady's glasses suddenly materialize on  Jock after being absent for quite some time. And Miss Ellie owes Sue Ellen no apologies. While she may not be a murderer as Ellie once thought, she is still a drunk, a tramp and an unfit mother.

- Are those elephant tusks are the credenza behind Franklin Horner? They look too big, too white and too straight to be steer horns, which is what you'd expect. They're probably supposed to be steer horns but I'm sure you're right.

- Lucy finally got it right. There's nothing wrong with a med student doing some first hand study of anatomy. I would have appreciated this sort of gesture in med school. [Hell, I'd appreciate it NOW...]

- How does Connie dial Les Crowley's number by heart if Ewing Oil doesn't do business with him before now? Excellent question. It's possible that he's on Bobby's rolodex for other reasons.

AHN Pam's corner:

- Bobby asked Connie to make him a dinner reservation and Connie told him he promised Pam he'd be home for dinner.  Bobby must really be in the dog house with Pam if even Connie knew he was supposed to be home for dinner. That's a good angle on it.

- Lucy tried to cook Mitch dinner, what a laugh. I would assume any wine taken from Southfork would be a good bottle.  But I hope Mitch's apartment doesn't burn down while they're out having their cheeseburgers, neither of them blew out the candle before they left.

- Bobby and Pam bought a new picture for over their bed.  Last season there were three small ugly pictures. Now there's just one really big ugly picture.

- Bobby and I would assume Pam thought they were Ewing grandchildren at the breakfast table, they left nearly full plates of food.

- Liz, the trailertrash, must really be a drinker!! She drank straight scotch in the middle of the afternoon!!!

- Sue Ellen wore a blouse from the Bobby Collection during her visit with Dr. Elby.   It was unbuttoned very low, maybe she wanted to give the good doctor a little sneaky-peak.

- John Ross was out of the nursery again today while J.R. was on the phone.

-  Lucy was reading a magazine while Mitch was studying.  She's in college too, so why wasn't she studying too?  I guess now that she's not shagging her professor anymore, she doesn't care about good grades. I guess she figures she's got that A in literature all wrapped up.


Episode 60: The Venezuelan Connection

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of everybody]

> Mackey: I have some good news for you.
> Pam:  Is it about my mama?

Insert your own joke here.

Pam Award: The pool party was nice, but I'd have to vote for Connie in the blue dress. Mitch would have probably been considered except that AHN Pam points out that he was wearing tube socks.

Angelica Award: Ugh. Louella's butt-ugly dress when Jock comes to the office.

Bobby Award: Since Sally is so resourceful, maybe Mr. Eugene should ask her to get him a hairbrush next time she heads to the drugstore.

April Award: Bobby for telling JR all about the deal with the Bullocks.


- There must have been a huge sale on print dresses. The wardrobe guys stocked up for the opening scenes. Sue Ellen, Pam, and Connie all have them, and they even found an ugly purple one for Louella.

- Hey, it's Punk Anderson! Finally! Jock tells him that they haven't seen each other for a long time. Several times in both the first and second seasons, Jock mentions that he plans to go over to Punk's office or to Punk's house. Also, I distinctly remember Ellie and others mentioning that Jock's gone to see Punk, several times. The last of them was the night JR got shot. Remember? Ellie said that Jock was over at Punk's place. How long is 'a long time'?

- Speaking of DA MAN, he's finally dumped the DA CHAIN in favor of the DA MEDALLION of the golden lion. On a sad side note, he seems to be developing DA GUT.

- Larry Hagman may be a great actor, but he sure doesn't know how to walk with a limp.

- The sun at Southfork is weird. At the beginning of the episode, Bobby's tie appears to be a solid light color. When he arrives at the office that day, it's a darkish tie with a bit of a patterned look. It's hard to tell for sure whether they are actually different ties, though.

- When John Mackey calls Southfork to tell Pam he found a lead about her mother, he asks for Mrs. Ewing. It's possible that he recognizes Pam's voice, but Pam makes no indication that she recognizes his voice. Shouldn't Pam ask which Mrs. Ewing the person would like to speak to? There are three of them in the house.

- Bobby's conversation with the Bullocks is interesting. First of all, there's a new Sally Bullock who's actually worth a second look. But she's still got the same old annoying habit of invading someone's personal space while talking to them. The real nit here is the pathetic amount of cabbageing that is done because we the audience are obviously way too dumb to understand the intricacies of the oil bidness. "I just bought a refinery which is operating at half its capacity." "Oh. Then you need more oil to refine at your refinery...which you just bought." "That is correct. I would like to buy the oil from you." "Oh, so that is why you invited us to your office?" "Yes." "Okay. So we will sell you some of our oil. Should we send it to you in our tanker?" "Oh, yes, please, since I do not own a tanker." Sheesh.

- When Jock and Ray meet Punk and his friend at the auction, they stand up, shake hands, and start talking. Wait a minute...the auction is still going on! Shouldn't the people in the row behind them tell them to sit down and shut up, or at least get the hell of the way so they can see what's going on? Like I said before, must be nice being a Ewing.

- When the Ewings head into dinner after Lucy's interlude, none of the women appear "dressed" for it.

- Why did Lucy go ALL THE WAY to Mitch's place to invite him to the barbecue and then leave, when she could have just called him on the phone? Did she think that Mitch would think she wasn't serious about it if she didn't extend the invitation in person? Lame.

- Speaking of Mitch's apartment...I have to call a time out here. I was a second year medical student once. I know exactly how it is. And I know that there is no way that any male second year medical student has a whole bunch of PLANTS around his apartment, not to mention arts and crafts on the wall. For the record: while in med school, the only things adorning my room were my books, my TV, pictures of my family, a poster of Nolan Ryan [my sports hero forever], and the biggest poster of Cindy Crawford I could find.

- The guy at the bar who asks about Jock and Ray talks as if finding them was pure coincidence. As we will see tomorrow, he's come to Dallas from quite a ways - it's hard to believe that he didn't come with the specific intention of finding them.

- Janine Turner has a ridiculous amount of eye shadow or mascara when she's frolicking in the pool. Why? Wouldn't that turn the water purple in a hurry?

AHN Jason's corner:

- Pam drives with a Ewing 5 plate today.  So what about Lucy's car? It had it last time.  You'd think the prop guys would get this right. I thought I noticed that too. I think that since they both have Porsches now, they'll be fairly interchangeable.

- It sounds like Jackie over the intercom at Pam's office but I didn't see her name in the end credits. It was definitely Jackie. She must have been dubbed.

- I found it kinda strange that the Bullocks and Bobby didn't worry about paperwork on an $18 million deal. I would. Shhh...

- What the heck is that old coot Jock's problem?  He asks Bobby to run the family "bidness" while JR is laid up, then starts to whine about "the way" he runs it.  Excuse me, but you seemed to turn the other cheek on MANY occasions when JR pulled all kinds of dirty tricks to profit Ewing Oil. (Can anyone say Asian fields?   mortgage of Southfork?  Seth and the Cartel?  I thought so..)  And Bobby is being honest and upfront about his dealings. What kind of a business man does Jock want running Ewing Oil?  So much for honor and all that crap he crams down people's throats.  Cards on the table, I bet he would rather see Ewing Oil screw over his friends (like the Cartel boys) than to sell off some precious Ewing assets... Nice value system Jock.  Watch out Punk! I think that Jock is not wholly to blame here. JR is a master manipulator. I think JR probably did just enough [for the most part] to convince Jock that he was still an important part of Ewing Oil. And it worked until Jock saw Bobby in action for himself.

- JR goes upstairs to get dressed for dinner with Sue Ellen in broad daylight.  It must have taken him a LONG time to wash and dry his toupee because in the next scene it is totally dark outside.

- Mitch doesn't seem to lock the door to his apartment. Maybe it locks itself.

- I found it kinda funny that Ellie talks about how sorry she would be if Bobby left, then when Jock says,  "What about JR?"  she sort of looks blank, like it wouldn't be a big deal.

- It is supposed to be the next day from #59 but Pam is already heading back to work.   Didn't she tell Liz in #59 that she needed to think about it some more?  Maybe time went by faster than I realized. I guess it did.

- Pam wears THAT dress again. Must be her favorite. And she carried an empty purse at the beginning of the episode. I think it was empty at the end too.

- Here's a thought.  Pam is  a tad obsessed with her parents' background right?   So why doesn't she check out Hutch's side for relatives? Probably because she has no lead on him - plus Hutch is definitely dead and it would tough to find out information about him. I sort of see your point.

AHN Alett's corner:

- What's with this eating breakfast on the far side of the pool?  I wouldn't think they'd want to eat in the sun.  Even Bobby is sweating through his dress shirt before he has to go to the office.

- There seems to be only one reason for the long shot of watching Pam get into her Porsche and drive away - product placement.  Frankly, as red-blooded Texans, the Ewings drive way too many foreign cars.

- It's not too obvious, but there is a boom shadow behind JR when he first goes into Bobby's office.

- Jock tells Lucy to ask her grandma about the BBQ.  Then Lucy proceeds to ask Jock again, and again he tells her to ask her grandma. She's not too bright.

- I have a theory about Jock and those monster glasses.  When he's sitting with Ellie on the sofa, he seems to be reading his lines.  Glasses = Jim Davis is screwing up his lines.  Get out the cue cards. That's a very interesting theory and I'll wager it's quite right.

- JR is really a fast healer.  In the pool he has no wounds at all, not even a trace of a scar.

AHN Pam's corner:

- When Bobby picked up the phone to ask Connie what they had to celebrate with, he just picked up the phone and started talking.  He didn't push a button to buzz her.   Does he have some sort of strange phone system that the second he picks it up Connie is on the other end?

- Bobby's got a great car too.  When he was leaving after his argument with Jock, he got in and started the car immediately.  Maybe the key was already in the ignition, ala Ewing style, but I didn't even hear the engine turn over.

-  The porcelain dog is back from his walk and at a different spot in the room.   Usually he's by the wing back chair, today the top of his head was visible next to the fireplace when Sue Ellen moved away.

- There's a great use of symbolism today with Bobby's hat rack.  When J.R. walked in Bobby's office, Bobby's hard hat was on the second hook.  J.R. placed his hat on the top hook, symbolizing that he will ALWAYS be on top and over Bobby... somehow. Again, I missed that. Great call.

- Bobby told Pam that he didn't want to worry about her because he had too much on his mind running Ewing Oil.  This is very un-Bobby-like, not very sensitive at all.   But I have to say, it's nice to see Pam get a dose of her own medicine after last season's avoidance technique. Yup. But then again, Bobby is really saying that "Pam, I want to help you with what you're doing...just take it slow so I can be a part of it." Pam wants his undivided attention.

- Poor Muriel, snubbed again by Lucy.  Lucy came bouncing in to the living room saying she had just come from Muriel's and asked if she could have a barbecue, then poor Muriel was a no show.  I wonder if Lucy mentioned this at her house.  If so, she's a pretty rude friend to mention it and then not invite her. It's either that or see Muriel in a thong. I'll pass. You're right that it is odd - why couldn't she have been at Beth's or Susan's or Paula's?

- Pam seems to be a much more conscientious employee than in the past.  While Lucy was having her BBQ, on Saturday afternoon, Pam was in the office working.  Not that it's wrong, I mean, she was meeting Cliff there to go to lunch, why they couldn't meet at the restaurant is beyond me, but whatever.  It just struck me funny that Pam could manage to find her way to the office on Saturday, but not during regular business hours. Being a buyer SHOULD mean that you work odd hours, but I see your point.

- It was convenient that Pam answered the phone when Mr. Mackey called to tell her he had a lead on her mother.  But I thought it was funny when she looked around the corner at the bottom of stairs, I guess to see if anyone else was going to answer the phone.   Who would do that?  Theresa?  Raoul?  I doubt it.

- I guess it's fashionable for rich snobby chicks to wear high heels around the pool.   I noticed at least three pairs.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Not only is this a new Sally but it's an accomplished actress - Joanna Cassidy. I suspect one of the reasons she invaded Bobby's space was she was interested by the idea of doing both Ewing boys. Sally doesn't need a contract, she has a more unique way of closing a deal. Don't you just love the way Mr. Eugene sits back and enjoys releasing this little pet cobra and watching her do her stuff? Eugene definitely has an interesting way of conducting business. Sally should know better than to try and entice the Bob-man, though.

- Lucy's stupidity is rampant thoughout this episode. Not a real good idea to invite your boyfriend to meet your girlfriends who look like Playboy centerfolds in their skimpy bikinis while you're looking right chubby in that unflattering one piece. Both Sue Ellen and Lucy dipped into Pam's collection of boring one-piece swimsuits today. I didn't want to belabor the point, because I'm often accused of Lucy-bashing, but she's a porker.

- I assumed the reason Mitch wore knee-length white socks and sneakers to the barbarcue was he knew there was a hoop and backboard in the Ewing driveway and he got game. And why did he let the valet park his car - professional courtesy? I think so. It's nice when the shoe is on the other foot. My aunt and uncle are caterers and don't often get invited to parties because people are afraid that they won't be impressed with the food. But they appreciate any invitations they get - especially when they don't have to cook!

- What was up with that delivery truck that came up the driveway at SF and parked behind Bobby and Pam while they were talking? We never found out. I tried to see where it was from, but couldn't.

- I'm also surprised that nobody noticed that Jock calls Louella "Betsy" when she greets him in the Ewing oil offices. I had to replay that to make sure I heard it right.

- Mitch's hair is decidedly blonde on top and brown on the sides.

- Observation: this episode must have set an all-time record for people pouring and having drinks with one another. Every scene seemed to have somebody pouring and drinking. Jock seems to be turning into a real boozer. He isn't five seconds out of his car and JR is handing him a drink and he's drooling like a junkie needing a fix. On the couch with Ellie, drinks in hand, he looks decidedly plastered. I've mentioned in the past that Ewings do way too much drinking at all hours of the day and at the drop of a hat. Maybe that's why he called Louella Betsy.


Episode 61: The Fourth Son

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Amos whips out Margaret's diary.  Jock : "Is my name in there?"
(Ah, yeah.  The guy's trying to blackmail you.)

Pam Award: Connie in that white dress slit up to her cha-cha.

Angelica Award: Jason mentioned Jock's sports coat. Not much to choose from here.

Bobby Award: I think Amos deserves it for his pathetic attempt at the Jennifer Aniston flip. Mort Wilkinson deserves mention too.

April Award: Bobby for trusting Sally about the insurance arrangements.


- Susan Howard is listed as a guest star as the episode begins, yet she is not seen in this episode.

- There's a younger Raoul and the long-haired Theresa hanging around the house today. I was almost certain that this episode was filmed earlier than it was aired, possibly even last season - but then I noticed that Jock is wearing his medallion, which means that that is probably not the case.

- Val pointed out to me some time ago that the front door of Ray's house seems to be a sliding door, which many of us have as our back doors. The reason is that most of these doors are only lockable from the inside. But today, when Ray leaves his house, he seems to make some motion to lock the door from the outside. At least, there IS a clicking sound. Must be a specially made door.

- Speaking of Val: there are some blessings to NOT having cable. At least that way you're spared the sight of Steve Kanaly shirtless.

- When we first see her, Connie is still wearing the blue dress she had on at the end of yesterday's episode, even though it's clearly the next day.

- Brady York arrives at Ewing Oil when Connie is in Bobby's office and says that there was no one at reception. Why is Louella not in this episode...not even unseen at her desk? Was there a need to cut costs? At first I thought there might be some budgetary reasons, but no one appears in this episode who wasn't around yesterday, so that's really odd.

- Brady York tells Bobby that he hasn't dealt much with the Ewings over the years but he also claims that he and Jock go back a long way. How is this possible? I find it hard to believe that Jock would have a friend who was in the gasoline business but never cut a deal with him.

- Convenient that neither the new Raoul nor Crystal Gayle-Theresa answer the phone when Sally calls for JR, despite the fact that it rang about seven times.

- During the nits and commentary for the first season, I didn't mention anything about Ray and Lucy's incestuous relationship, because I didn't want to spoil the storyline for anyone who didn't know by saying that Ray is actually a Ewing. But at this point, I would have loved to have seen Lucy run upstairs, screaming, and lock herself in the shower for a few days after learning that she had spent a significant part of her life having sex with her half-uncle!

- The driveway at Southfork seems to be on a string. Yesterday, when Pam drove her Porsche out to head to work, it took her about five seconds to get to the main gate. Today, as we see Jock pulling out, it seems much, much longer. Very odd.

- Instead of trying to discredit Bobby's business sense and ruin Ewing Oil in the process, why doesn't JR just point out that Bobby can't count? You know what I'm talking about. Twice Bobby has way too much fun with rotary phones in this episode. The first is when he calls Steve Taylor from the tank farm - he dials five, perhaps six numbers before immediately starting his conversation. Then, to top it off, from Sally's room he calls Connie at the office, dialing at most three numbers! I can just see JR now: "Daddy, Mama, I have some very disturbing news to tell you. That college education you provided for Bobby...it just didn't help. The boy just does not know how to count! Now, I tell you, if I were you, Daddy, I'd think twice before I handed over my company, that I worked my whole life to build, to someone who can't count to seven. What do you think?"

- Okay, here's today's obligatory shot at Pam: boy, that woman sure is "a fighter", isn't she? Exhorting her husband to leave Ewing Oil when the chips are down?

- Not a nit, just an observation: don't Eugene and Sally Bullock make JR and Sue Ellen seem like Ward and June Cleaver? What is up with those two?

- These insurance adjustors are real weasels. First they tell Bobby that they have questions about whether the value put on the oil was accurate; then they say the cargo wasn't insured; then they say there may not have been any oil at all on the tanker. I can understand that the writers want to try to establish a mysterious attitude about what happened, but this is totally egregious.

- Just to show that there are no small nits: when Amos starts to follow Jock, he doesn't make a complete stop at the intersection, despite the fact that there is a clearly posted stop sign. [Pick, pick, pick...]

- When showing Margaret's diary to Jock, Amos turns to the date of October 19th, Ray's birthday. The page he reads from is very close to the end of the diary...too close, in fact. Most diaries and planners have sections at the end with maps and room for phone numbers and what not. It's possible that Margaret's diary could have those at the beginning, but it seems odd.

- Mr. JREwing pointed out: Today Amos Krebbs read Ray's mom's diary which states Ray's birthday as Oct 19, 1945. When Jock gave Ray that land in Season 1 it was to celebrate his 20 years of being at Southfork. That was in 1978, which means he came to Southfork in 1958. Ray said today that he came when he was 15, which means he should have been born in 1943. Yet again, I guess the writers just thought no one would ever notice.

From Bill Withrow: Do we know how far it is from Southfork to the Ewing Oil offices? I ask you that because Amos Krebbs was able to follow Jock for that entire distance without causing Jock any undue concern. After having been through two kidnapping ordeals, I would have thought that Jock would have seen this as a reason for worry. Braddock must be about a half hour or so from Dallas - that's the impression I get. This is quite a good point.

AHN Todd's corner:

- Amos Krebbs pretends to have a flat tire right at the end of Ray's driveway. Ray drives by and doesn't stop.  Ray is usually the type of guy to stop and help out a stranger. Yes, but that would have made it a really short episode. Maybe if Amos was a short blonde psycho.

-When Amos goes to talk to Ray at his house he lights a match on the bricks.  It was pretty windy; you could see everything blowing in the wind.  As he lit the match and pulled it away it went out: as he first puffed on his cigarette, no smoke came out.  Then as the camera returns to Amos, the smoke is lit. Ray must have lit it with his fiery temper.

- Pam was up late reading, waiting for Bobby.  She implies that she is almost done the book, she had to find out if someone got married.  I think that she was only on page 5 or 6, nothing too stressful for Pam. It's getting very hard to say nice things about Pam that don't have to do with her body or her clothes.

AHN Val's corner:

- There is one scene where Bobby goes over to Sally's house.  Do you recognize the inside of that house?  It's a recycled set.  It's the living room of Abby Cunningham's cul-de-sac house on Knots Landing.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Watch closely as the show returns after the 2nd commercial break. Jock's briefcase disappears between breaks as he tries to leave the cafe.

- Just a note.. Jock looked less fat today. Yes he did. Another reason why I thought this episode was from much earlier.

- What the heck did "Mr." Eugene mean by the comment, "I want to keep her". Does he really think Bobby would trade in his wife for Sally? I don't really know. The only thing I can think of is that Eugene figured that Bobby might want to prosecute Sally and send her to jail or something and what Eugene wants is for Bobby to just shake her up a little.

- I got a good kick out of Jock's comment to Ray.  "I never realized before that you were my son."  Of course not,  it hadn't been written yet!

- Was it just me, or did Steve Kanaly look like he was constipated or something when he and Jock had their heart to heart.  He looked almost like he was about to burst out laughing.

AHN Alett's corner:

- It's a nice helicopter scene, but is it really necessary for Bobby to fly down to the tank farm when he could find out the same info. on the phone? Nope. But then it wouldn't be the same when he yells at the boss.

- The photo Mr. Eugene has of Sally is a still taken from yesterday's show.

- That oiling of JR by the pool was rather risque considering how far down Sue Ellen's hand moved.  Sue Ellen seems to operate in only two modes - Madonna or whore. I don't get Linda Gray at all. She's wearing a paper dress that looks ready to fly off at a minute, and getting REAL cozy with Larry.

AHN Mike's corner:

- This is two episodes in a row with JR in a bathing suit. Larry H. is looking fairly slim but I suspect he starts to gain weight soon and we don't see him in a bathing suit again.

- Contrast this tanker sinking with the one from the latter seasons. Have you heard one person or comment expressing concern of leaking oil into the Gulf or the environmental risks? I haven't. Surely this was filmed BEFORE the Exxon Valdez heightened environmental concerns. Oh, yeah. Although in fairness, there wasn't any talk of the oil spilling - just the tanker crashing. I suppose it is possible that a tanker could crash without spilling oil, but I suppose that's unlikely.

- The Angelica to Jock's ugly sport coat, though we've seen it before. I had to laugh when Jock had to consult his watch before deciding to talk to Amos. Like he's got anything important to do? Maybe meet with the Takapa bunch. Who knows?

- And who was that mafioso sitting behind Amos in the cafe wearing a black shirt with white tie? It looked like a bald Johnny Dancer.

- My wife points out exactly how clueless Jock was about Ray. Of his four sons, Ray is the only one who bears any resemblence at all to Jock.

- Why is Mr. Eugene in the office when he has constantly told JR and Bobby that Sally is running the business and he's stepped down? And I see he's dipped into the Punk Anderson garish jeweled string tie collection. Probably for the same reason that Jock still has an office at Ewing Oil.

- This episode is full of Steve Kanaly's worst acting tic: delivering any lines that require emotion though a set of clenched teeth. Oh, yeah. We've seen so little of him until now that I nearly forgot about that.

AHN Pam's corner:

-  J.R. was wearing a hat in the pool?  That was strange even for him.

- Sue Ellen has become subservient to J.R.  When the phone rang he asked her to get it for him, she didn't just answer the phone, she picked it up, brought it to him and then started rubbing oil on him again and let him answer it.  I was waiting for her to start peeling grapes and feeding them to him while calling him "Master". All she needs now is a pair of pink pants and bikini top with a short red jacket and her Jeannie act would be complete. Maybe presaging Barbara Eden. I'll have comments in the "I think" this week.

- The coffee cups that Jock and Amos used at the coffee shop were rather odd.  Coffee cups like this, that appear to be on a 'pedestal' for lack of a better word, are generally used for Irish coffee.  Besides, this a coffee shop, any coffee shop I've ever been to uses the standard cup and saucer.  This is possible, just kind of strange.

- In reference to Margaret's diary.  Amos said that it was of course for sale. Jock went ahead and told Ray and the family that he in fact was Ray's father.  I would assume he did this so as to avoid giving in to Amos's blackmail.  Horray for Jock!! But the thing I found strange was that Amos NEVER contacted Jock again.  Jock didn't mention during their meeting that he had ANY intention of telling Ray, not to mention the family, that he was Ray's father.  So I would think Amos would've contacted Jock again trying to get a payoff from him, any good blackmailer would do this, otherwise there was no reason for telling Jock in the first place.  Besides, I would've enjoyed a scene where DA-MAN lays the Smackdown on that sleaze ball Amos. Yes, I see your point. Perhaps this scene was cut but I can't imagine why.

- I think this may have been from episode 61, but it's worth mentioning today.  The porcelain dog was out for a walk during the first scene in the living room, but he was back in his usual spot by the wing back chair for the second scene in the living room.

-  Bobby used his extra-special phone system again today.  He picked up the phone to get Connie and again doesn't need to push a button or anything, Connie was immediately on the line.


Episode 62: Trouble at Ewing 23

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Bobby: "Bombs?  There's more than one?"

Pam Award: Donna at Cliff's place.

Angelica Award: Louella's purple dress resurfaces.

Bobby Award: Gillis, I guess.

April Award: Pam for being a loudmouth and then complaining about herself.


- Bobby still is having a lot of trouble with these telephone thingamajigs. When he calls Connie from the oil field, he dials five numbers on the rotary phone. He should take a cue from Ray, who skillfully dials '0' to reach the operator.

- What is up with Ray's mailbox? It looks like he used a key or something to etch "RKREBBS" into it. Since he was already at the hardware store, couldn't he have picked up some stick-on letters? Or were they out of K's that day?

- Ray is really confused today. He tells Donna that he was about to head out to pick up Bobby, but a few minutes later, Bobby drives up to Ray's house. Was he just trying to get rid of Donna or does he find her so sexy that she makes him lose contact with reality?

- Apparently, being near Donna DOES make Ray lose touch with reality. Ray tells Bobby he's been around the Ewing family for over fifteen years. As was pointed out yesterday, two years ago Jock said that Ray had been around the ranch for twenty years. Technically, Ray is right, buy why wouldn't he say that he's been around for over twenty years? This is something Ray would be awfully proud of.

- I'm really straining to understand why Bobby is so insistent on getting the secretaries to find Jock once he learns of the mad bomber's threats. The only thing I can think of is that Jock might be able to get in touch with someone who can get the money together quickly. But then Bobby waits until Jock is confirmed to be incommunicado before he decides to go ahead and call Les Crowley himself. Why didn't you call Les right after you called the office, Bobby? I know that there's no 10-10-321 in your time period, but I think it's worth the long distance charges. This is really close to being classic plot trickery. The real reason for this, of course, is so that JR can come to the office, find out about what's happened and formulate a plan of his own to make Bobby look bad. But that could have happened anyway - I just don't see why they had to bring the search for Jock into it. [Hey, that's neat... Dallas III: The Search for Jock, just like Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.]

- I'll need confirmation on this last one. After noticing that the county sheriff's police car had "Dawson" on it, I took out my atlas. Sure enough, there is a Dawson County in west Texas, near New Mexico, and the county seat is indeed called Lamesa. And it's about two hundred and fifty miles away from Dallas. JR leaves the office at about 3:15, and gets to Lamesa just before 4 PM. He obviously needed a little bit of time to get to the Ewing jet - maybe five minutes, if it was nearby. So the jet was able to travel at about 400 miles per hour? I'm just curious if a jet like that should be able to achieve such a speed. If anyone has any first-hand knowledge, please let me know.
Joaquin Bolivar was kind enough to let us know that the plane JR was flying was a Lear 35, which is capable of achieving a speed of 425 mph. That makes this scenario amazingly accurate!

From Kent Westmoreland: Not really a nit. Donna tells Ray that Cliff is "easy to be with".  I don't think anyone else associated with Cliff during the entire run of the series would make such an outrageous statement.  I know he's playing Donna but still being easy to get along with is not in Cliff's nature.

From Rob Trimble:

- Maybe I yawned and missed it, but when the workers were sent out to look for bombs, no one reported anything back. Someone should have seen at least some of them taped to the derricks. It seemed rather obvious when the camera focused on them, but maybe Gillis was able to camouflage them.

- And how did Gillis get to all those derricks and hang around Ewing 23 without ANY of his former co-workers noticing and reporting  him ? It took a lot of time and effort to carry all those bombs to all those derricks.

- And when the plane lands and Gillis moves towards it, the door opens and two uniforms come out with visible weapons and J.R. behind them. Gillis is still quite a ways from the plane. They should have waited inside till he was closer so there shooting was more accurate and they could have then rushed him. They just shot him, stood there, and let him lay on the ground so he could push the button.  I woulda kept shooting till Gillis quit moving.

AHN Todd mentioned: One that I have had since yesterday that continued to today was the Ewing fleet of tankers and helicopters. Whenever you see a tanker go by on the street it usually has a slick paintjob and a huge decal on the side with the company name on it. Yesterday we saw the "EWING OIL" round sticker on the side of one of their tankers, that is the only marking on the truck.  The rest of the tank is just a bland silver, same as any other truck. Today we saw Ray flying the chopper. The helicopter had the exact same sticker on the side, with no other recognizable markings.  Must be to save costs. I think you're exactly right.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Look at Donna and her hair when she talks to Ray about Cliff. When she says the line, "It's about Cliff Barnes." you can see her hair is much closer to her eyes than in the more distant shot. I thought so. She looked quite different in the close-ups.

- JR drills Louella about someone using his office.  Is this leading up to a plot or just small talk? It's leading somewhere kind of disgusting.

- Why are there so many lines into Ewing Oil?  How many times do they need 7 or 8 lines? Whenever there's a crisis and they need to track Jock down.

- I liked it how antsy JR tells cool and collected Connie to calm down.  I was half hoping that she would pull a Phyllis and tell him off.

- It lost me why the cops gave Bobby the drunk's bottle at the trailer park. Did they? I missed that.

AHN Alett's corner:

- On the phone JR says, "Have you found the bombs"?  No one told him there was more than one bomb.

- Da da da da, DAAAAAAAAA. That hokey music used with the bomb threat made me think Dracula or the Mummy would leap out. It was pathetic.

- Hey, the white dog is back with a new litter.  There are twin puppies in the bookcase.

- Jock.  Dorky glasses.  He's reading off of cue cards again.

- Great police work again.  Dukes could have been faking being drunk.

- Oddly no bullet holes or blood appear on Gillis when he's shot. In Texas, they must use the kind of bullets that kill you without going through you.

- I guess we're spoiled by modern special effects because that fire is so fake looking.

AHN Pam's corner:

- Sue Ellen was wearing high heels AND panty hose while lying out in the sun.   Besides the fact that it's completely ridiculous, she'll have some nasty tan lines. I totally missed that.

- Pam carried the empty purse over to Cliff's apartment.

- Cliff and Pam went for Mexican food today. Cliff's favorite Chinese restaurants must be going broke by now he's been dining on Mexican food quite a lot lately.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Jock and Miss Ellie drinking iced tea instead of bourbon? Must be Long Island Iced Tea which has alcohol as a main ingredient.

- Ray's insecurity never recovered from his breakup with Donna and today he gets the below the belt shot from Donna finding out she has taken up with the biggest loser of all-time (Cliff) who apparently IS good enough for Donna. But not for long. That really has to suck for Ray. I am going to make a statement in the "I think" about Donna which shocks even me.

- Those Ewings sure know how to watch out for their employees. Any other business with a real bomb threat woudl evacuate the work area for the employees' safety. Bobby sends them out to look for the bombs!! If those roughnecks don't have a union, this is a real good reason to start one!

- And how does the local yokel Dawson policeman know enough about bombs to analyze a minuscule piece of shrapnel and tell Bobby what a sophisticated device Gillis is using? They must get a lot of trailer park trash laying bombs around. But this is a good point given that someone says they don't have a bomb squad.

- Frankly, this episode was a big disappointment because I thought JR somehow had a hand in the bomb threat as a way of discrediting Bobby with Jock. That might have been neat but kind of out of character for JR - he'd never do something like this which would REALLY hurt Ewing Oil. But I see your point - if he had, it would have signaled the beginning of a much more evil, darker JR. Ruthless to a T.


Episode 63: The Prodigal Mother

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Mackey: "I believe I have some news [mmmkay]."
> Pam: "You've found something?"

Pam Award: Donna at the fundraiser.

Angelica Award: Pam's wardrobe in the show's first half was rather awful. Lucy's suspenders and her cowgirl boots were bad too.

Bobby Award: A toss-up between Lucy's ponytails and Pam's too-long hair.

April Award: Bobby for continuing to talk about his plans for Ewing Oil to JR.


- I wouldn't have caught this without keeping track of trivia. I noticed that the cab that Pam took to go to Rebecca's house looked familiar - in fact, it belongs to Capitol Cab! The phone number of the cab company, displayed on the side of the cab, started with 555-93, which is exactly as the same phone number on the cab that Sue Ellen took when she was bailed out of jail in Episode 58. So Capitol Cab has a franchise in Houston, as well as Dallas - and they have the same phone number? Very odd.

- Lucy is wearing a Bobby special shirt when talking to Mitch at school. I'd say that to avoid getting arrested for indecent exposure, she might want to do up one more button.

- Just a note: Rebecca says she never divorced Digger, and there's no evidence that Digger initiated divorce proceedings himself. Technically, this does make her a bigamist. As Terri Thomas confirmed for us in Episode 43, once you're married, you continue to remain married until a judge says you are not. Not that anything becomes of this, it's just an interesting point.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Empty purse meter-  Pam at Rebecca's place.

- Jordan Lee seems awfully understanding and willing to work with Bobby on this deal.   I don't know if I would under the same circumstances.  And he really badly cabbages the Asian deal and Refinery plot.

- So where is Dave Culver's wife?  I know that she hates these political things but I am surprised she didn't show up to support her hubby. I thought it was that woman beside him. Maybe it was supposed to be but that sure ain't the one from last season.

- Pam leaves the Store with two friends.  I am surprised that they didn't use this as a Jackie plug. She has been popping up a lot lately. I guess Sherril was elsewhere today.

AHN Alett's corner:

- Bobby's sensitivity level is at an all-time low, but Jock's is worse.  He spouts out, 'What the Hell would I have to talk about with a parking lot attendant?' with Mitch clearly within ear shot. There's no reason for Lucy to not have already told everyone he's studying medicine.  It doesn't make sense that only Ellie knows.  It's just a phony set up to show what a gulf there is between them.  And Mitch's whining that he'll never have power or money rings false too.  Unless he's planning on working for free in a third-world country, he'll have money, power, and respect as a doctor. Well, doctors don't have much power. The other two are quite prevalent.

- The last time we saw Rebecca was in the flashback with Pam (looking like an American Indian) playing her. It seems Rebecca has not only changed her name but her eye color as well.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Jock is seen stirring his drink with his finger. Meanwhile Mitch isn't going to fit in with the hard-drinking Ewings daily happy hour sitting around nursing a coke.

- This is the second episode in a row where the ever non-confrontational Miss Ellie breaks up a family row at happy hour by announcing "I think it's time for dinner." Ellie's counseling skills are right up there with Dr. Elby.

- No horses in front of SF meter: two. But immediately after one of these shots, the horses are suddenly visible when Jock and Lucy are outside at the pool.

- If that's The Cattleman's Club Jock and the boy's are eating at, why is there an oil rig centerpiece in the center of the table? Seems like that would be more appropriate for the Oil Barons' Club. But the Oil Barons' doesn't exist yet.

- Rebecca Wentworth has one of those ugly, ostentatious AT&T Design Line telephones we placed on Dallas in those years. Your fault again, huh? [Kidding.]

- Once again Lucy swears to Ray that she won't let Mitch slip through her fingers. Then, as if Ray wasn't already devastated by the fact Donna had taken up with the world's biggest loser, Lucy low blow's him while he's down by saying "I won't botch up my life, Ray, like you botched up yours." If this is the way Lucy treats her "friends", is it any wonder nobody likes her? It's no wonder to me.

- Dave Culver was slightly wrong. Miss Ellie doesn't exactly look like "a million dollars". More accurately, she looks like a million dollars stuffed into a sack dress.

- Not only is Lucy popping out of her blouse when she's on the SMU lawn with Mitch but they appear to be wearing matching shirts. I have no clue as to what these two see in one another other than sex. Mitch wants to constantly break off and Lucy is willing to humiliate herself to any degree to keep him. It's the perfect co-dependence, I guess.

AHN Pam's corner:

- Pam's hair was playing tricks of it's own today. During the scene where she and Bobby were in their bedroom and she was packing, her hair looked very overgrown.  By the time she got to Houston she looked like she had a trim on the airplane.  But, when she returned to Dallas and had her chat with Rebecca, her hair was very overgrown again.

- Pam took quite an extensive wardrobe to Houston. She had three different outfits, the leopard dress, the ivory dress and the red outfit, and two purses, the tan one and the black one.  No wonder Bobby doesn't take her anywhere - he probably knows how much luggage she'd take along.

- Empty purses galore! Pam snagged her ever present tan purse back from Sue Ellen so she could take it to Rebecca's.  Sue Ellen carried an empty white one to the fundraiser, I'm not sure if Ellie or Rebecca had one or not, but Pam didn't carry one, I guess Bobby carried all of her crap.  Rebecca carried a navy one while walking with Pam.   Pam carried a black one to Mr. Mackey's office, during her walk with Rebecca and to Cliff's apartment.

- How did Rebecca know where Pam worked?  They never discussed it and I doubt that would've been mentioned in any of the blurbs she'd read in the society pages.

- Rebecca told Pam to come to her house around 5:00. A couple of episodes ago when Bobby and Mr. Eugene were trying to figure out Bobby's tanker problem, they mentioned that the tanker left on October 2.  That was a couple of episodes ago, so I would assume at least a couple of weeks have gone by so it should be at least mid October by now.   Even if it's not, it seemed much too light for 5:00 when Pam arrived at Rebecca's, it looked more like noon. I figure it COULD be the angle of the light that we see through the window. Our windows face east and in the morning it can be very bright, even though it's only 8 or 9 o'clock.


Episode 64: Executive Wife

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Alex to Pam: "When you're ready, I'll be here."
(He'll lose a lot of privacy moving into that restaurant!)

Pam Award: Pam in general, except for the rather tacky outfit at the end. I'd be willing to entertain other suggestions.

Angelica Award: Many today. Louella's ugly [what other kind does she have?] pink dress is back. Sue Ellen's dress that looks like it came from a bookbinding factory was bad. Connie's pink dress early in the episode makes her look like a giraffe, and then her orange dress looks like a halloween costume.

Bobby Award: Donna looks like a school matron. I personally think Pam's hair is hideous when she meets Alex.

April Award: Bobby for still not knowing when to shut up when he's around JR.


- At some point in the series [I don't remember exactly when], it's established that Jeremy Wendell does not drink. So why is he drinking when sitting in Bobby's office?

- This is really something for the "I think", and this topic will got a LOT of attention, but why in the hell does Bobby even bother MAKING lunch dates with Pam, when he knows there's a good possibility that he will not be able to make it? That is just dumb. Once or twice, I can understand that he had good intentions and just wasn't able to follow through. But eventually, you have to realize what's going on and not make commitments you can't keep.

- I don't understand what purpose is served by having the Takapa bunch meet for a third time to convince Jock. Punk Anderson talks to Jock about how great the deal is as if he never actually mentioned how much money was involved. This is pretty stinky cabbage.

- When Bobby heads to the Cattlemen's club to confront Jock, why does Bobby buzz Connie to tell her he's leaving? He can say that on the way out, can't he?

- Connie's green dress, seen in her final scene today, is recycled from earlier in the week.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Plastic Surgery meter-  Looks like THE Theresa is finally here. I thought so too - hard to say for positive because I didn't really get a good look at her face.

- Ray calls his new dad Jock  "Jock" instead of "Daddy or Dad". Probably Jock is more comfortable with that.

- Pam has an empty purse when she leaves breakfast and argues with Bobby. And when she arrives home and argued with Bobby.

- I may be entering dangerous territory here but I thought Liz was a total riot today.   Her facial expressions with Pam and Alex at lunch and later in the "flower" room were great.  I think I sensed something no one seemed to have brought up before.  Liz may have a crush or something on Pam. She seemed kinda of jealous when Alex took an interest in her. I never said Liz was good for nothing. She does occasionally provide a bit of comic relief. Sort of like the porter in "Macbeth".

AHN Alett's corner:

- After their dance, Alex has a little ruffled hair on his forehead, but as he turns toward Pam, it's all neat again. Don't remind me about that. I'm still seething about that whole thing. Any guy who puts his hands [not to mention tongue] on a married woman like that should be castrated.

- Pam phones Liz and asks if Alex is there.  She says yes.  One second later Pam says, "Alex?"  It would have made more sense for him to say something first, and then Pam could respond to it.

AHN Mike's corner:

- On the photo shoot, Pam's spiked heels appear to be transparent.

- Even dumb Liz can see right through that horny bastard Alex Ward. Most women wouldn't have fallen for his schtick, especially most happily married women. Any woman with working brain cells.

- Punk Anderson garish, jeweled string tie meter: one and a second scene wearing a scarf from the Dusty Farlow RIP Collection.

- Bobby has to go to the condo to sleep apart from Pam? What about all those other empty bedrooms upstairs at SF? Good for him. Don't give her the satisfaction of being around at breakfast, Bobby. Let the family know what a stupid person she is. You know what Jock, JR, Sue Ellen, Lucy, and maybe even Ellie [a little bit] are going to think when your seat at the table is empty - it's that Barnes woman's fault for driving him away.

- Guess it wouldn't be an official season of Dallas if Lucy didn't announce to the shock of the family that she's getting married. Concerning Jock's dressdown of Mitch for not being able to provide for Lucy: I thought Lucy had a hefty trust fund she comes into when she's 21. The real joke here was Mitch saying he needed to finish med school before getting married and Lucy saying "I have to finish college too." Really? For what possible reason? So you can get a good job? That was very stupid of Lucy to say. Lucy does have a trust fund coming to her, but that's only after Jock dies. I guess he doesn't plan on doing that yet.

- The length of Bobby's hair seems to vary from scene to scene.

- Sue Ellen has the empty purse on her jewelry run with JR.

AHN Pam's corner:

- Bobby pulled up to the corner for the sole purpose of blowing Pam off for lunch.   He had no intentions of staying, but he turned the car off.  When he pulled away I clearly heard him start the car and heard the engine turn over. I guess he's energy conscious.

- Sue Ellen met J.R. at the jewelry store.  I'd really like to know how her car got back to Southfork, unless she cabbed it of course.

- Where did Bobby pick up the bouquet of flowers he gave to Pam, a street corner?   They looked positively cheap compared to the arrangements Alex sent over while attempting to impress Pam.

- Lucy needed to make a visit to her manicurist. While she was talking to Ellie she raised her hand to her face and the polish on the ends of her nails was chipped.

- Bobby was rather impolite while drinking in his office.  Connie was standing there and he didn't bother to offer her a drink until after he had already had one and was going back for a refill. Perhaps he knows Connie doesn't drink - or else maybe she doesn't drink around him. Otherwise she might end up pregnant.


Episode 65: End of the Road, Part I

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Louella: "Sometimes I feel it's not right 'cause I'm married and all."
SOMETIMES? Um......explain to me under what circumstances adultery would be right.

Pam Award: Donna and Sue Ellen at the DOA meeting.

Angelica Award: Louella's dress at the beginning of the episode.

Bobby Award: Louella by default.

April Award: Bobby for gimpily not even being able to make something up when Pam asks him about the last time they knocked boots.


- I don't really intend to be overly mean to Lucy or to Charlene Tilton for that matter. But does anyone comprehend how she could fit into Ellie's wedding dress? I can't, very frankly. I'm thinking both vertical and horizontal here.

- Bobby of course parks right in front of Ewing Oil when he first arrives.

- Why is there an American flag at the DOA meeting? Shouldn't it be the Texas flag? They're the Daughters of the Alamo, aren't they? So why not the flag symbolizing the Alamo?

- Bobby tells Pam he's not in the mood for nookie because he has a meeting first thing in the morning. Okay, fine. So why is it, that when Bobby is having breakfast the next morning in preparation for his early meeting...Jordan Lee is already at his office?

- Something hit me the morning after I watched this episode: why does JR offer Mitch a well-paying job at Ewing Oil, just for becoming Lucy's husband? I thought JR's agenda was to get Lucy away from Southfork so that he could keep his brother Gary away from the family riches. Wouldn't making Mitch a rich Ewing Oil executive increase the likelihood of Lucy's hanging around? Or is JR so devious that he knows that his offer will just make Mitch upset?
I find the latter somewhat hard to believe, because until the end of this episode, Mitch has never really blown his stack in front of the Ewings. I can't believe that even JR is such a keen perceptor of minds that he could divine this. Very odd. And even if JR did know that Mitch would go nuts, what purpose of his would it serve to break up the impending marriage?

- Not a nit, just a comment: I found it amazing that JR and Wendell got along so well together in this episode. After seeing some of the later seasons, it's very hard to believe.

From Joyce: Sue Ellen comes out of the bathroom tying her robe.  She talks to JR for like two seconds, walks over to her dresser, and then unties her robe again.  What was the point of tying it in the first place?

- AHN Todd Saveland points out that many of Lucy's friends that we've seen over the last few weeks are noticeably absent from her shower. Where's Muriel? And where's Janine Turner? I was hoping to see her again. I guess they all abandoned Lucy when they found out she was going to marry a poor guy.

AHN Jason's corner:

- JR mentions getting lunch soon after Bobby arrives at work in the morning.

- Were those Lucy's pool party friends at the bridal shower?  Yet again that babe and a half Muriel is not present. (Just kidding..)   What is it about her avoiding pools?  Is she hydrophobic? I couldn't really tell who they were. Certainly Muriel ain't around, but she will be tomorrow.

- Plastic Surgery meter-  Looks like we are treated to two or three different Teresa's today.  I think the long haired one was in one scene. And another Raoul was passing out champagne.  Just for the record, it looked like the Southfork set today too. Definitely a new Raoul but I'm not convinced that any of the women in the pink uniforms are supposed to be Theresa.

- I am a bit confused over this "condo".  Is Jock referring to the love nest JR set up for Kristin?  I assumed that place was down town because Kristin seemed to walk to Ewing Oil. However, Jock tells Lucy and Mitch that it is the condo "in Oakridge".  Is Oakridge a town? or a complex? That is an interesting point. The condo in which Lucy and Mitch live is DEFINITELY the same as the condo we are currently seeing, in which Kristin lived. The implication is that it's sort of suburban, so maybe Kristin DIDN'T walk to work - but that doesn't make sense. Why would the Ewing condo be a significant distance away from Ewing Oil? My guess - the writers are more interested in saving money on a set that making this realistic. [Big surprise there.]

AHN Alett's corner:

- Afton: "I was looking for Lucy's room.  I left my sweater there." (What a dopey excuse for making her way to JR's room.
She's so dumb she can't find a room she left a half hour before. Apparently Mitch got all the brains in the family.) Actually, it was a pretty decent excuse. It was a lie! She probably doesn't know Lucy's room from any of the others. Notice that when she comes back down the stairs she has no sweater....

- If the good old boys want to make sure no one knows they're the ones involved in Takapa, they shouldn't be holding their meetings at the Cattlemen's Club let alone saying the word "Takapa" 15 times loudly. LOL! Good point.

- I guess since Lucy's wearing Miss Ellie's wedding dress, she also decided to borrow one of her sack dresses for the shower. Must be that "I wanna be like grandma" phase.

- Since Mitch is such a dang tightwad where did the money come from for his mother and sister to FLY to Dallas?  I would think he'd make them drive. Also with Lucy's last-second request to have Afton as a bridesmaid, Lucy will have to pay for her dress.   I suppose he'll make a stink about that too. Mitch is a total jabronie. Good point about the flight. Maybe they were carrying packages and got a special rate.

- Does anyone else think Jock has had a face lift?  Maybe he was dipped in a vat of acid peel, but those wrinkles are noticably less pronounced, and I don't think it's just lighting. I have a suspicion that this episode was shot earlier than it aired. Just a guess. The whole mood and scenery looks really different.

AHN Sara's corner:

- I'm surprised that, with his history with the Ewings, Cliff would want to speak at Southfork.  The same goes for Donna.  By the way, doesn't the DOA have anywhere else to hold their meetings? I guess not. I don't think Cliff has a problem with Ellie and I daresay he wanted to get close to Sue Ellen again. Donna doesn't have a severe problem with anyone other than JR.

- I fail to understand why important scenes like Sue Ellen sleeping with Ray get cut but those car-driving-up-the-Southfork-driveway scenes get to stay in.

- Drunk driving gets another promotion as we see Jock and JR go to their car after a long afternoon at the bar.

- Pam answers her phone at The Store with a very professional "Hello, Pamela Ewing." Good.  But her boyfriend wannabe replied to this with a "Alex Ward."  What the hell is that?  Why wouldn't he, knowing it was Pam on the phone, just say "Hi?"  That's just the kind of thing I would expect from Alex though. Yes it is. Man, I'd love to rip that guy a new one. "I don't care if you're married." Bastard.

- In the scene where the Ewings meet the Coopers, JR and Sue Ellen's interesting conversation about building platforms was suddenly silenced upon Mitch's entrance. I guess it wasn't as important as embarassing the pretty boy.

- Most of the people at Lucy's bridal shower (what were those middle-aged women doing there anyway?  Maybe they were professor's wives who were all too happy to see Lucy Ewing get married off) looked bored and disinterested. Yeah, I see what you mean. A bridal shower should be a small thing where everyone can sit in a room and ooh and aah over things. This is just boring for anyone not at the head table.

- From the way Mitch was dancing around during his big "I don't want your Ewing money!" scene, it looked like he had to go to the bathroom.  It was unnecessary and distracting.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Afton looks so much better when she first arrives with that fresh off the farm, little makeup, simple clothes look, than she does later on as she keeps adding more and more makeup and dressing like a hooker. YES! I totally agree! But I guess the series is too young for an innocent country girl...maybe in 1988.

- Jock says to JR "We haven't been drinking together in a long time." What? How about every night before dinner and several times during the day? Jock's drinking has reached critical proportions here as he is rarely seen without a drink in hand and when he hasn't got one he's asking someone for a drink or to go drinking. I guess "going drinking" is different from "drinking".

AHN Pam's corner:

- I never noticed this before, but Pam's chair in her office is definitely not the best chair one would use to sit in all day long.  There is absolutely NO support for her back. Perhaps this is why she doesn't spend much time at the office.

- Pam was once again the conscientious employee. Jackie said that Liz was expecting her for a meeting and Pam said that she couldn't make it because she had to get home for a family dinner.  But then she had time to chat with Alex.

- It was a little strange that Connie stayed in the office and stood behind Bobby while he signed the contracts with Jordan.  She didn't sign on as a witness or take notes or anything, so there was no purpose for her being there.  She should have known her role and gone back to her desk after showing Jordan in. Sly used to do this all the time. I think there's something about having another person standing behind you - maybe not from a legal standpoint, but more of a moral support thing.

- As was said by someone it is established at some point that Jeremy doesn't drink but that he had a drink last episode.  J.R. offered him yet another drink again today and all Jeremy said was that it was too early for him, he said nothing about not drinking at all. No, he did not. And this Jeremy plays poker, not to mention carries around a cowboy hat. Very un-Wendell-like, as Kent Westmoreland pointed out.

- Lucy's shower looked like a snooze fest.  Where was her bridal party?  Her maid of honor Muriel was nowhere to be found, I didn't see any of her 'friends' there and Afton wasn't even sitting with her.  Who was keeping track of the gifts and making a list so Lucy could write her thank you cards later or making the cheesy paper plate and bow bouquet for the rehearsal?  LAME! I wonder if Lucy even bothered with thank you cards.


Episode 66: End of the Road, Part II

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Jason]

>Afton to JR: " You probably think that I am easy now. I am not."

Pam Award: Donna. Sue Ellen comes in a close second, and Afton is third.

Angelica Award: Sue Ellen's bordello dress. She looks fine in it but the dress is awful.

Bobby Award: Arliss in the first scene. Blech. Valene got some mentions too.

April Award: Afton for thinking JR is her easy ticket to the top.


- Suddenly Muriel reappears in this episode, as Lucy's maid of honor. Where was she yesterday at the bridal shower? Lucy's best friend should certainly should be at the head table. And where's Janine Turner?

- Sue Ellen says that she and Clint went to 'the university' together. Question for you, Sue Ellen: did this institution of higher learning have a name, by any chance? Usually, when people talk about their college days, they don't talk about going to 'the university'; they talk about their days at the University of Texas or SMU or Podunk State. But not 'the university'. This is very odd.
Bruce Sinclair lays the smackdown: Ahhh...sorry, it is pretty much always "the University" down here. (As in: You're obviously a real nobody if you didn't go to UT and we all are so in and hip that no one,  least of all no Aggie,  would NOT know what we mean by the University!) Some society type Dallasites go to SMU (read: Lucy) but that is more to meet a proper mate than for an education. Spending four years in Austin partying and sleeping with the future rulers of the GREAT State of Texas is considered a necessary rite of passage for the in crowd down here...

- Jordan Lee calls Bobby on Line 3 - but who is using the other two lines? Are the secretaries making personal calls? There's no one else in the offices!

- Not only that, but Jordan tells Bobby that he "heard" about Lucy's wedding - why isn't he invited? Why aren't ANY of the cartel members invited? Yeah, I know that the cartel members are upset at Ewing Oil because of the Asian thing - but would this extend to being off the personal invitation list as well? Based on experiences within my own family, I'd say that's usually not the case.

- Jeremy Wendell comes to the office with his lawyer, Howard Barker...I know I've heard that name before. Oh, yeah! Howard was JR's divorce lawyer in Season 4. So wait...is he a corporate lawyer, or is he a divorce lawyer?

- The first song the band plays as the guests are arriving for the wedding is TRULY lame. It sounds like a combination of muzak from hell and a Styx extendamix.

- At the wedding, the camera goes back and forth showing us all of the significant cast members glancing around. Should all of the Ewings be on one side of the aisle?

- Another thought hit me. Mitch has a really nice tuxedo in the same style as the other Ewing men. You figure he rented it? Or did he overcome his pride and allow the Ewings to procure it for him?

- Clearly there were several significant scenes cut from this episode. The details of one of them are provided below by AHN Pam. I can guess what another one was: probably a scene between Ellie and Gary where she mentions how sad she is that neither one of her sons is interested in the land that was so precious to her father, but they'd rather bicker over Ewing Oil. That's the only way I can make sense of what happens afterwards - Gary's statement that the pressure is suddenly "off of him" to remain at the ranch once he discovers that Ray is his half-brother; and then Ellie going ballistic at the end at Gary's imminent departure. I hope someone can confirm that this is right.

AHN Jason's corner:

- The last bridesmaid seems to run down the aisle; must have been afraid that the song was ending. Yup. Bear in mind, of course, that during the actual filming they don't hear the music. The sound track is put in afterwards, so she really wouldn't have had an auditory cue.

- Pam claims to have been holding that hanky "on the day she married Bobby"   This may be true but it sure didn't look like she was at the moment she married Bobby, based on the flashback we see in 1986. Maybe she put it away before the actual ceremony started.

- So stud muffin Clint (gag) is married.  So why isn't his wife at the wedding? She's probably in Japan or something.

- Empty purse meter-  Val at the airport, Donna at the wedding.

- It sure didn't look real when the waiter bumped into Sue Ellen. He seemed to be aiming the tray at her leg.

- The blankets under the bedspread in JR's room look a lot more rumpled than they appear when the spread is over them. Does seem excessive. I think you COULD get away with this amount of rumpledness and still have the top blanket look sort of straight.

AHN Alett's corner:

- That airport gate looks like the same one Mrs. Cooper and Afton came through. Probably is....but I'm fairly certain that they came in Gate 20, and this was Gate 3. I'll double check.

- The strand of pearls Valene gives Lucy means so much to Lucy she cries, but she doesn't have them on during the ceremony. Are you sure? I think I saw something like them around her neck. Denise Wood says she doesn't have them on when dancing with Gary, either.

- That wedding kiss was so tacky.  They look like they're in the back seat of a car.

AHN Sara's corner:

- Note to the Casting People:  Clint and Alex look very similar.  I don't think it would have been too hard to cast those crucial roles with different looking and therefore less confusing actors. I would love to see a Clint/Alex death match, but my storyline would be to have them BOTH die. I hate them both, but Clint a little less.

- Lucy's wedding, like all Southfork events, was treated to a crowd of extras that we will never see again, even though they are supposed to be Lucy and Mitch's friends and family. Yup. And Jordan Lee gets NO invite. And neither does Marilee or any other cartel member. Or Janine Turner.

- Continuity lapse: after sex with Afton, JR's got a smile on his face so big that his teeth are showing.  Then the camera switches to a diffrerent angle and JR is no longer showing his teeth.

AHN Pam's corner:

- I can't believe I or anyone else didn't mention this yesterday.  Everyone questioned why Muriel and the rest of Lucy's friends weren't at her bridal shower.   The real question is where the hell was Val! She's Lucy's mother, she definitely should have been at her bridal shower.  Even the poor relatives Arliss and Afton managed to fly in for it!  I think the writers should've forked over a few extra bucks and had Gary and Val present for this sort of thing. Probably had more to do with the Knots Landing schedule than anything else.

- We were treated to a wedding at the fake Southfork. See above.

- Afton referred to Mitch's apartment as crummy. I'd say it's pretty nice for a second year med student working his way through school. As a former second year med student, I'd say that's quite right. I only rented a room in a house, because that's all I needed. Other people rented apartments but 90% of them had roommates and the other 10% now have a disgusting amount of student loan money to pay back.

- I wonder what day of the week Lucy got married. For some reason I'm thinking it was a Saturday, I can't remember if anyone said this for sure or not. If so, it's rather odd that Connie and Louella would be working in the office.  Could it have been a Friday?   This wasn't very common back in 1980-81, but I suppose it's possible. Interesting point. It's worth pointing out that JR and Sue Ellen's second wedding [in two seasons], which is actually given a date, was on a Friday. I suppose it's POSSIBLE since all of the invitees are supposed to be rich folks...but I sure hope Mitch didn't have any exams or anything.

- Pam said Bobby came home drunk and had lipstick smeared on his face.  Well, the lipstick came from Connie.  There was a scene right before this that was cut in which Bobby and Connie went out for a drink and she tried very subtly to put the moves on him and he was completely oblivious to her charms.  She gave him a peck on the cheek before leaving the bar.  I remember seeing this scene at some point. REALLY? THANK YOU SO MUCH! Oh, yeah! You go girl! I am SO DAMN PROUD of Connie. Thank you for telling me this. I had lost all hope for her.

- J.R. had absolutely no class when he boinked Afton. I think he wanted Sue Ellen to find out.  He obviously didn't give a damn if she did.  If he were trying to be discreet he would've been smart enough to use one of the guest bedrooms.  Of course this way the writers can have a juicy plot line and work in a remodel for their bedroom. Of course. I'm not sure whether I would call this over-convenient - I guess JR is just sort of used to having sex in that particular bed. The home-bed advantage, I guess.

- Bobby was at his rudest today, not at all the sensitive guy we know.  When he went to get J.R. he didn't even bother to say excuse me before interrupting J.R. and as Sue Ellen put it 'their new in-laws', very un-Bobby-like. He's very gimpy today. More preoccupied than his wife, which is really saying something.

- Did Lucy and Mitch ever even cut the wedding cake? It certainly didn't look like it. I didn't even see the wedding cake.

AHN Mike's corner:

- I think we should give a lifetime Angelica achievement award to that ugly sport coat of Jock's and remove it from further consideration. Sounds good to me.

- What was your interpretation of why Sue Ellen was suspicious when she entered the bedroom? The bed had been made up and she got suspicious when she wasn't looking at it. The implication seemed to be that the smell of sex was in the air, causing her to confirm her suspicions by rolling down the covers. I have a feeling scenes were cut where JR and Afton might have gotten a little bit cozy, or perhaps he might have said something suspicious about her. Lord knows no one made any bones about cutting significant scenes out of this episode..

- The lady AHN's can check me on this but wasn't Lucy supposed to turn her back and toss the bouquet over her head and shoulders instead of facing the single ladies? Val says you are quite right. Otherwise, what's to stop her from tossing it straight at someone?

- I guess this is the episode where Miss Ellie starts her heel turn with her remark about never forgiving Jock for "you and your Ray Krebbs" driving off Gary for good. Takapa is next. You are quite correct. It's a shame Jock has to go out this way. He deserves a better angle.


Episode 67: Making of a President

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Jason]

> JR: "Hank, are you still in the Far East?"
(Doesn't Hank work for Ewing Oil?  JR should know where he is.)

Pam Award: Pam, except during for the day she has lunch with Alex. Her hair is perfect again. Take a mental picture because tomorrow it'll be gone...

Angelica Award: Lucy in the overalls.

Bobby Award: Dr. Elby, since he's on screen. But Phyllis's bun is terrible.

April Award: Bobby for his continuing ignorance of his wife.


- When JR talks to Askew the first time and the waitress comes over with the check, Larry gives her the once-over big time. Then after he walks away, she's shaking her head and smiling. Was she not expecting that?

- During her first scene, Pam's dialogue to Bobby and then to Alex sounds dubbed. And why is it that during the day of her big lunch, her hair is all wavy? Did she set it in curlers and then decided against it the next night?

- Here are some interesting tidbits: ANDY BRADLEY SPEAKS! JOHN ROSS LEAVES THE CRIB! And AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH Afton sings.

- Louella spends this episode in the ugly purple dress again.

- When Jock and Ray briefly meet with Punk Anderson, Punk says he's worried about "that organization that Miss Ellie belongs to...the DOA." Wait a minute - doesn't Punk's wife Mavis also belong to that organization? Or does Punk consider her too insignificant to mention?

- Sue Ellen and Clint eat at Bruno's which looks like a really classy restaurant on the inside. Certainly a place like this would look better from the outside too. The place says "RESTAURANT" in big truck stop lettering.

- In the middle of this episode, we see the newlyweds at their condo. It's early morning and Mitch is cleaning up pillows and other items that were strewn around the living room. Why was the living room such a mess? The bedroom, maybe, but why the livingroom? For heaven's sake, they just moved in! Jason suggests they might have been used as knee pads.

- Mitch says that Lucy "doesn't want to know" what class he's going to. That could only be Gross Anatomy - but Gross is a FIRST YEAR medical class. The first one you take. Mitch should be going to Pharmacology or Pathology or something, but not Gross Anatomy.

AHN Jason's corner:

- There is a continuity nit when JR puts on his tie while talking to Sue Ellen.  The tie is draped around his neck, then the camera cuts to him and he already has it under his collar and almost completed.

- When Pam and Sue Ellen talk, they appear to be the same height. Sue Ellen is usually much taller than Pam.

- Did they remodel the Ewing Condo after Kristin left?  It looks brighter. I think Kristin just liked the lights down low.

- I can guess at the real world reason, but why aren't the servants carrying Lucy's luggage to the car?  Slow week on the border patrol. No, GOOD week. INS caught the whole lot of illegals who were working the wedding. Only one with a bad Mexican accent who managed to hide out in the cellar stuck around.

- JR puts his drink down on Leslie's sketches when she lays them out on the table.   She also leaves without them or the briefcase thing they were in. Maybe she planned to let him look at them and then retrieve them later.

AHN Alett's corner:

- Unless you'd have the ringer turned off, you wouldn't want a phone in the baby's room.   It might wake him up.  The ringer on this one seems to be on because Little John responds to the noise. Excellent nit. I totally missed that.

- Instead of mellowing JR, that near-death experience makes him more of a thrill seeker.   Sex with Afton in his own bed and now at the office during business hours. What's next? In the elevator? Nice allusion to Aerosmith. That's kind of an interesting point about JR - he's big on this sex as power thing, but he never has wild or crazy sex, as far as we can tell. Always in a quiet little room.

AHN Pam's corner:

- Pam carried the black empty purse to the restaurant and Leslie carried one two Ewing Oil during both of her visits.

- Mitch sure didn't worry much about his principles when he allowed Jock and Ellie to send him and Lucy on their honeymoon to Padre Island.  Good thing they seemed to spend all of their time in the room.  If they planned on going out on what Mitch could afford, they wouldn't get very far.

- Bobby came up with the idea of his alternate energy company in a hurry.  Why didn't he just go back in to the construction business? I guess he doesn't have any other brothers who need houses in California.

-  Jock and J.R. both signed the papers agreeing to Bobby's terms to relinquish the presidency of Ewing Oil.  J.R. read from those papers that Bobby asked for 25% of the profits from the refinery.  Jock told him that was too high and they agreed on 12.5%.   Well, since Jock and J.R. BOTH signed the papers, I'd say they agreed to Bobby's original figure of 25%. Shouldn't they have had that changed before signing, I would think so. Good point, although since this is a family arrangement I'm sure no one's going to have a problem if it's changed afterwards.

- The tan sweater and rust pants that Pam was wearing in her office was a recycled outfit from season 1. Yes, and not only then - it was the same outfit she wore the evening Bobby got the refinery.

- Sue Ellen must have the eyes of a hawk.  She seemed quite a distance away from Alex and Pam yet she could tell they were holding hands. Well, Pam doesn't strike me as the type of person who would be discreet about it.

- Elroy told J.R. he hated to eat and run.  Well, he ran, but he must have thought he was a Ewing grandchild.  He left nearly all of his food on the plate.

- Louella and Leslie managed to get down the hall very quickly after J.R. asked her to show Leslie in.  J.R. himself barely had time to cross his office before Louella had Leslie in the office.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Why does Pam have a stuffed giraffe on the floor of her office? I didn't notice. Probably a symbol of Alex always sticking his neck in where it doesn't belong.

- Like Sue Ellen, Pam awakes in the morning in lipstick and full eye makeup.

- Yeah right, Pam. You're having innocent business lunches with Alex. That dress was cut to the navel and your Pam pompoms were hanging out all over the place. It's a dead horse now, but I don't mind beating it.

Why did Sue Ellen wear her lunch napkin home? Did she? I thought that was part of the outfit.

- For a brief second I thought Lucy had borrowed one of Miss Ellie's sack dresses. But then I realized it was a nightgown. For Lucy, one of Ellie's dresses IS a nightgown.

- Message to Anne Francis: mothers of two kids in their 20's should not be wearing bangs.


Episode 68: Start the Revolution with me

EDITORIAL RANT: Okay, this time my target is Ellie. What is her problem? She's forever whining about wanting all of her sons at Southfork, unlike normal parents who can't wait for them to leave the house, and how Jock doesn't appreciate her and how nobody loves the land anymore and how Ray has taken over Gary's place in the house....Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary. Sheesh!
Why am I bringing this up now? Well, today was the final straw. She said she liked Pam's new hairdo! Come on, Ellie. Pam's new do is absolutely, unequivocably pathetic. I had put up with all of her other whining because at least it was based on her opinions. But Pam's hairdo is horrible - and that's a fact. You can't debate a fact.

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Bobby: "Honey.  Hi, it's me."
> Pam: "Bobby?"

(Hmmm. Let's see.  Who else besides Bobby would start a conversation with her with these words.) If it were not for a phone ringing, perhaps it would be Alex.

Pam Award: Pam's foldover dress returns.

Angelica Award: Pam's awful green dress while dancing with Alex. Also Louella's ugly purple dress and Sue Ellen's furs.

Bobby Award: Pam over Dr. Elby. No, I am not kidding. I am dead serious. Her hair is HORRIBLE and I am convinced it contributed to Andy Gibb's death.

April Award: Ellie for telling Pam her new hairdo is nice. Also Pam for getting zonked in Houston - she's lucky she wasn't raped.


- When Pam spots the envelope on the door between her room and Alex's room, what does she do? She opens the door, without even touching the envelope! It's still there when she and Alex return to her room after their night out. It's almost like she knows that Alex is behind the door...she must have read the script.

- Crystal Gayle Theresa reappears in this episode. I was fairly certain that Roseanna Christiansen [the real Theresa] was a regular by this point, but that shows how much I know.

- Pam has an empty purse when leaving Southfork for Liz's party. Pam also wears that foldover dress again.

AHN Alett's corner:

- Apparently Sue Ellen can "let her hair down" around Clint because in the next scene with Dr. Elby she has it pulled up on one side with a barrette.

- Theresa is too busy, there's no downstairs closet, Southfork didn't pay the heating bill, or the DOA ladies are afraid of theft.  One of these must explain why they are all sitting around crushing their furs instead of hanging them up. Or perhaps they're just a bunch of snobby old hags.

- Dave Culver looks like a pansy in those thin, 2 inch heels on his boots. I've never seen boots like this on any other Texas man.

- So Leslie is a whiz public relations woman.  Well, that ad in the Wall Street Journal looks pretty cheesy.

- *Camille* Revival Nite - for a movie?  Revival suggests a play.

- Man, those photo shoots are so queer.  The one on the dock is especially dumb.   If they're trying to sell clothes, only the three goofy girls in the front will be seen anyway. I wondered about that too. I have no clue what the point of this is.

- JR tells Claude to withdraw "the amount of money Hank Johnson and I discussed."  We've heard the phone conversations, and no specific amount of money is ever discussed.  I guess this is a public service kind of thing so that no one watching the show will know the amount needed to overthrow an unnamed Asian country.   You just can't be too careful, you know. Maybe. You never know, right? I mean, this was late 1980 or early 1981 and I'm sure that the Iranian hostage crisis was still fresh in people's minds.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Two more fashion offenses: Dave Culver wearing brown cowboy boots with blue pants and Dr. Elby wearing a blue striped shirt with a brown tie and sportcoat.

- Just once I'd like to see somebody enter a room with Jock and not have him offer them a drink. That man is getting to be a real lush. We never seem to see him without a drink in his hand, an offer to make drinks or an invitation to go drinking.

- "Ewing Oil. People Before Profit". Barf!!! That would have been a ridiculous ad even in those days. If my PR person came to me with such crap, I would have fired her on the spot.

- If Alex weren't such a total jerk, it would be cruel to watch Pam run him around like she's doing. But since this man apparently has never said one thing that wasn't totally designed to get him over on Pam or wasn't entirely calculated or just plain B.S., it's fun to watch.

- Throughout this episode JR's hairpiece appears to be lacquered down.

AHN Pam's corner:

- Not a nit, just an observation.  It sounded like Ellie had a terrible cold throughout this episode.

- This drinking thing is getting out of hand.  Sue Ellen told Ellie that John Ross wanted his grandma to tuck him in.  Ellie told her she'd be there in a minute.   That would be right after she slammed her drink.  Just what every toddler needs right at bedtime, a good strong whiff of alcohol from grandma's breath.

-  Liz told Pam at that boring dinner party that she was going to send Jackie to Houston to supervise the catalog shoot.  Then she offered Pam, who accepted, the chance to go along.  Well, I thought JACKIE was supervising the shoot.  Once they were in Houston, PAM seemed to be supervising the whole thing and Jackie was assisting her.  If Jackie is just her assistant, shouldn't Pam have been scheduled to go on that trip in the first place?  If not, I'd be pretty pissed if I were Jackie, being bumped to just checking on the clothes. When you're Jackie, you take what you can get. This whole angle was lame.

- I had a good laugh when Pam told Liz that there was only so many hours she could spend at the office. Would that be per day, per week or maybe per month? Take your pick. Other than during this whole pathetic Alex story, the only other time we've seen Pam at the office much at all was during last season's avoidance period.

- There must be some very thin walls in the hotel where Alex and Pam stayed and he heard her arrive. Otherwise how long did he plan to stand there waiting for her in his room nursing his cup of coffee? Knowing Alex, he's been there a LONG time.

- This is a show that depicts the lives of the wealthy, no the EXTREMELY wealthy.   Well, someone better clue in the costuming people.  The pearls Pam wore in her hotel room with Alex had to be some of the worst fakes I've ever seen.

- Pam wore high heels to supervise the catalog shoot.  I've been to these sorts of things. She's going to be on her feet for MANY hours, flats would be more appropriate footwear.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Empty purses galore...Sue Ellen in her first scene, Pam at office and at Southfork, Leslie at office.

- It could be me, but is this episode the first one where ALL of the Also Starring cast get a So and So AS So and So... I know they used to do this with Mitch but I didn't remember if they did it with Kristin, Alan, Donna or Leslie before. I remember that Mary Crosby never got an "AS", and neither did Randolph Powell. I'm fairly certain that Susan Howard did not until now either, but I could be wrong.

- I think JR says that he lost a lot of money with the Asian deal.... I think it was to Leslie.Didn't he actually make a killing? Yes, he did, but given that he wants to get back into the good graces of the cartel, I don't think he would want it to get out.

- Would the tape recorder work through a desk?  Leslie seems to think so. The receiving microphone [which could be very small] might be strategically positioned on the edge of the desk. I looked for a wire or something but I couldn't tell for sure. I think we can give Leslie the benefit of the doubt here.

- Look closely at Clint and Sue Ellen when they walk out of "Camille".   She has one arm around his neck and leans into his shoulder.  And what does he do with his arm.  He holds it across his stomach ala Napoleon.

- Jackie and Pam's scene by the pool was clearly dubbed.

- In a rather rude gesture, Pam tosses away her full wine glass on the floor of her hotel room.  Messy Messy.. hope she left a good tip.

- I failed to see why Alex left Pam's room just because Bobby called. He left BEFORE their conversation got too mushy and it never bothered him before that she was married. I didn't quite get that either. I find it hard to believe he has a conscience about this. I guess it just might not have seemed right to rape a semi-drunk married woman, whose husband happens to be twice as big as you are, right after he calls her to find out whether everything's okay.


Episode 69: The Quest

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Louella : "There's a Mr. Claude Brown to see you.   He says it's very urgent."
> JR: "He's here?"

Pam Award: I liked Sue Ellen's look for some reason.

Angelica Award: Leslie's blue bathrobe dress that wouldn't stay shut...JR, PLEASE hand that woman a safety pin!

Bobby Award: Pam still outdoes Elby.

April Award: Sue Ellen for going to Denton alone, against Kyle's advice.


- Sue Ellen went out and bought a new station wagon - it's a Mercedes now! AOL Dave tells us that she actually did not buy it for herself, JR bought it for her. This scene was cut from TNN. It was in the episode when they "made up" in their bedroom after Kristin left town.

- Clint calls Sue Ellen and tells her that arigato is Japanese for thank you - no, not quite. Domo is. Domo arigato means thank you very much. Now, my knowledge of Japanese comes almost entirely from watching Shogun, so I'm not positive about it, but I'm fairly certain.

- Mitch comes home from school carrying some hardcover-novel-sized books. I dare you to find me a medical textbook that's that small. I carried them around for two years. I seriously dare you.

- Pam has an empty purse when she arrives at her hotel until she puts her room key in it.

- In keeping with the fur coat craze of recent weeks - even Ellie wears one today! That's the only time ever, I think.
AHN Pam reminds me: Ellie wore a black fur coat during one of her meetings in the park with Matt Devlin (they went to lunch afterward) and other members of the DOA last season.

- Donna tells Bobby that the party wants him to be their candidate for senate because of his well-known record of thinking about people rather than about Ewing Oil. Now...when would that record have come about? Only recently was Bobby ever put into the position of having to decide between his company's interest and that of the public. And that was only once. In the last two years, he hasn't had to make any big decisions about Ewing Oil. Before that, he was just Ewing Oil's PR guy. So where is Donna pulling this "public record" crap out of?

- When nabbing Appleton, Kyle and Sue Ellen seem to be standing right next to each other when the camera focuses on them, but in the distant shots they're a few feet apart.

From Hagadorn:

- Why was Pam surprised that Alex was leaving that morning - wasn't she leaving that morning, too? Her job was over! Something was bothering me about this. Thank you.

- The guy who plays Clint drives me crazy, the way he takes a breath and holds it before every sentence and that upturned eyebrow when he talks! Who does he think he is, Valentino? The sooner he leaves, the better. No offense to Monte Markham who is a fine actor but the Clint character just plain sucks.

The long-awaited return of AHN Val's corner:

- The diesel engine on Sue Ellen's new MB station wagon is awfully loud. I was surprised Bobby could hear her talking to him over the din of that car. No wonder she doesn't keep it long. Nobody buys American any more...

- When Alex summons the waitress, it sounded like he was right next to her, but when the waitress went to see what he wanted, he and Pam were a good three tables away. Ordinarily, he would have had to raise his voice a little to be heard from that distance.

- Maybe it was just the soundtrack, but Afton's singing sounded like she had a frog in her throat. Also in that scene, when she and JR started talking, I could swear I heard the "Taxi" theme playing in the background. I just fast forward Afton's songs, so I can't comment.

AHN Alett's corner:

- Now with Sue Ellen's Mercedes station wagon, the foreign car count is up to 5.   Jock is the only true Texan. The Mercedes is definitely a step up, but WHY a station wagon?  It's not like Sue Ellen ever goes grocery shopping. I have absolutely no clue. The Ewings do NOT seem like station wagon people. Maybe Linda just feels comfortable with a boat.

- It seems that JR sees Afton sing the same night she has dinner with Lucy. Her red beaded dress seems to fit the club, but the low-cut blue number she wears to dinner is a bit much. It's just the family. Why is cleavage necessary? Well, she WAS going straight to the club. And I think that there was at least a day in between Afton's scenes.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Now Jock is drinking alone, refilling alone and passing out upstairs in the adoption lady's glasses.

- What the hell is a vermouth casisse, which Alex orders two of? I have no idea, not being a drinker.

- I half expected Mitch upon arriving at the apartment to say in a Cuban accent "Lucy, I'm home!" That would have been hilarious.

- Sue Ellen conveniently neglects the fact that Kyle was the only one who believed her innocence in shooting JR because he was her lawyer and was paid handsomely to "act" like she was innocent. Yeah, I suppose that's true to some extent.

- There's that fur bulk discount again. besides Miss Ellie and Sue Ellen earlier, Donna wears a black fur in Bobby's office and a white one with Cliff in the very next scene. Does she keep a spare in the trunk of the car like a tire?

- How did Bobby find out Alex was with Pam at the Gulf? Must have been a scene cut. Well, he called yesterday to interrupt their intimacy. She probably left a number at Southfork or The Store for emergencies.

- Louella isn't too bright if she still has to announce to JR that Hank Johnson is "overseas".

AHN Jason's corner:

- Empty purse meter- Ellie at Southfork, Pam at the hotel, Leslie at Ewing Oil, Donna at Bobby's office

- Sue Ellen is an expert at being followed?  WHEN? Let's see...well, in the first season, JR had a PI track her, and that's how he learned she was going around with Cliff. JR seemed to do a lot of informal checking-up on her during the first two seasons as well. I see your point - it's a bit early in the series for her to be saying this.

- The exterior shot of the Ewing Condo looks a lot different from last season. The same goes for Elby's office. The producers want to make us think it's not the same Ewing condo, but obviously it is.

- Alex is used to being pursued?  By angry husbands maybe...  Since when is he bothered by being the pursuer?  This is all his relationship with Pam has ever been. True enough. I don't get why he's suddenly bothered by this after three episodes.

- There is a problem with Donna's wardrobe. The following events happen in today's episode..
>         Poodle hair Pam says good riddance to Alex at the hotel.
>         Donna gets Bobby to run for office.
>         Donna tells Cliff (wearing a different outfit than when she saw Bobby.)
>         Poodle Pam comes home and has her daily fight with Bobby, wearing the outfit from the hotel.

- I had to laugh when JR tells Hank Johnson that he should call no matter what time it is in Dallas.  Heck, we all know it is always bright and sunny in Dallas and ANY foreign country that people call from. True enough.

- Would Denton have enough people in it to have over 45497 Post Office Boxes?  Also I could be wrong but wasn't that a PO DRAWER that the guy got the mail from?  (there is a difference but since we are nit picking...) Technically, it's still called a box. And usually post office box numbers don't start at 1 - they generally begin at 1000 or 10000, depending on how many are needed. Maybe 45497 is a bit egregious.

AHN Pam's corner:

- Sue Ellen's dress at the restaurant with Clint was recycled from last season.   She wore it to the DOA fundraiser the night J.R. found out he was John Ross' father.

- Jock was asleep in that wing back chair that looked horribly uncomfortable. Apparently he didn't think so. But I can't understand why Ellie didn't wake him up rather than just taking off his glasses and covering him with a blanket.  I'm thinking he'd have one stiff back and neck in the morning.  OUCH! You're probably right but it's just supposed to be a cute scene.

- Jackie said Pam and Alex looked like they were headed for a long night together because she saw them in the bar.  Then she said Alex just disappeared. What did he do, just get up and leave Pam sitting there in the bar all by herself, possibly with the check and full vodka and cacises?  Maybe there was a scene cut or something, because it's not like Alex to be away from Pam for one second if at all possible. That was rather odd. I'll have to think about it.

- Does anyone else NOT believe the maid cooked the dinner Lucy served to Arliss and Afton?   It's hard to believe that someone who doesn't seem to be able to boil water could whip up something like this, especially considering the mess she made of it last time. Maybe she's read some books. Or perhaps she got it catered. Who knows? Apparently this maid is only for cleaning, not cooking.

- A first at the breakfast table!!!!  It seemed as if no one felt they were a Ewing grandchild.  Pam's plate was nearly empty, so was J.R.'s and Sue Ellen's. I'm not sure if Ellie ate breakfast or not, and Bobby was still eating breakfast.  The only one who may have left anything was Jock.  I guess everyone was hungry that morning......or Theresa refused to cook......


Episode 70: Lover Comes Back

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Sue Ellen: "Would you mind if I talked to Dusty alone for a minute?
> Clayton: "Of course."  (Of course you'd mind, Clayton?)

[courtesy of Pam]

> Mitch to Lucy:  "You did lie, you didn't tell the truth."

> Donna to Ray:  "You know what we're doing? We're making small talk, ya know nice polite conversation."

Pam Award: I think Leslie deserves a mention here. Alett thought that Jackie's hair should be mentioned.

Angelica Award: Sue Ellen's fur vest was a unanimous decision.

Bobby Award: Gotta be Pam.

April Award: None.


- While arguing at Cliff's place, he and Pam start out standing. Cliff then sits down and there's a sudden cut after which Pam is sitting. Then she abruptly leaves.

- ANDY BRADLEY speaks! I sense a tote.

- Ray seems to have a fairly decent collection of books on one of his shelves. Were they gifts or are they all about ranching? He doesn't seem to me to be the kind of guy who spends any time reading.

- Towards the end of this episode, Clayton calls Dusty "Steve". This is new. He ALWAYS calls Dusty "Steven".

AHN Jason's corner:

- It appears that in today's episode, the maid strongly implies that it was Dusty in the limo as she says he won't be back for several days.  So, unless she was lying, it was Dusty.....  Also this brings up another point.  If Dusty wanted Sue Ellen to stay out of his life and never find him, WHY did he have a PI follow her?  That could open up all these doors that he wanted to keep closed. Yeah, but then he's back the very next day, so I think the maid is just trying to get rid of Sue Ellen. Clearly Dusty is interested in making sure that Sue Ellen is "okay" and readjusting to life. It's a shame he didn't know that any PI involved in one of her storylines is going to mess it up.

- Watch as Sue Ellen sees the limo in the opening of the episode. It looks like there is some glare that lets us see in the windshield for a split second as it drives out of the driveway.  I don't remember seeing into it as the Limo pulled out on Fri. Could just be the angle of the light during that particular take.

- Watch as Sue Ellen walks to the house. She was not carrying a purse when she races out of her car to say "Oh my god!" but then she has one by the time the opening credits end. Maybe she went back to the car to get it.

- Empty purse meter-  Sue Ellen when she first comes to Dusty's house, then when she meets Dusty, then when she meets Clayton.  Pam at Bobby's office, Cliff's apartment, and at Southfork after breakfast.  Lucy also has one that looks rather empty at breakfast.

- How would Louella know what was on TV?  I never saw a secretary watch it at their desk before. Maybe Hank told her to tell JR to turn it on - but then again, how would Hank know, unless he specifically placed the call to the station. That's actually possible.

- I find it interesting that the writers seem to have no problem with Donna jumping into bed with Ray whenever they "date" but they seemed to be very careful not to show her and Cliffy get it on. I think this was somewhat deliberate on the part of the Lorimar people who were responsible for cutting stuff out for syndication. Remember how they cut out the Ray/Sue Ellen thing? [Who doesn't?] Well, it seems to me that wherever possible they tried to cut out whole storylines so as to give the effect that the story really does flow. Of course, this sort of task is impossible because they HAVE to leave in certain scenes such as Cliff and Donna in the office, and that has the unfortunate opposite effect of making the cuts be more awkward.

- Watch Marilee in JR's office. When the Cartel hears the good news on the oil leases, she has her pocketbook still on her arm, swinging by the strap. As she hugs the other Cartelians, the purse manages to leap to the near by table between takes.

AHN Val's corner:

- Cliff keeps houseplants and potted trees in his apartment?!?! Not just one or two, but SIX by my count. What's more, they appear to be ALIVE and HEALTHY! This seems odd considering that Cliff's a bachelor. And a sloppy one at that. Unless Cliff's a closet gardener. Nah, I doubt it.

- Jordan referred to Leslie Stewart as "young lady". Yeah, right. Although I'm sure she's younger than Jordan. Just about everyone is. Dr. Styles probably is, and that dude is OLD. This is just another example of Leslie being put over as a hot irresistible babe.

- During the cartel pow-wow, Hank Johnson read the script and knew to stop talking when Leslie turned up the TV news report.

- Bobby's campaign boys kept interrupting Pam whenever she tried to put in her two cents. Now, the first offense I could overlook, but after the second and third times, she should have hushed them. But then she's probably too much of a lady to say anything. But at least Gimpy James Ewing should have intervened on his wife's behalf and hushed the boys himself(chicks dig that stuff). I wonder whether Bobby even heard her. Somehow I doubt it.

- Tyler Banks was credited but didn't appear...or perhaps he fell victim to the TNN cutting-room floor.

AHN Alett's corner:

- It's clear Pam is no Hillary Clinton.  I hope she made the world's worst coffee for them, or better yet, just walked out. She's too much of a sweetheart to do that. I don't think she's quite dumb enough not to realize that someday she'll need her husband's support in something.

- Mitch the cheapskate should call Dolores back and let her keep working until Lucy's hand is better.

AHN Pam's corner:

- The same thing happened to Sue Ellen's hair twice during this episode.  When she walked up to the front door of Dusty's house her hair, the part that covers her forehead, was very wind blown.  Then when the maid opened the door and the camera went back to Sue Ellen, her hair looked perfect.  This happened at the beginning of the episode and then again when she showed up in the fur.

- The porcelain dog must be out studding again.  He wasn't around during yesterday's episode or today in the scene at the end in the living room.

- J.R. poured himself a drink after the cartel left. He was drinking it, then he lowered it and then he brought it back up to take another drink.  Then he left with Leslie, but he never put his drink down, so what did he do with it?

- The costuming crew did it again!  Pam was wearing some very CHEAP looking gray pearls in Bobby's office.

- I'm no expert here, but could Dusty really have crawled if his legs wouldn't work?   I doubt he could go any significant distance he'd be dragging dead weight. I have to think about my anatomy labs a little bit. I suppose it depends on your definition of "crawl". To crawl on hands and knees like babies do requires the use of your whole legs. But with enough upper body strength, as long as you have use of your abdominal muscles, you could conceivably move yourself around. Nominal ability to move your quadriceps and hamstrings would help.

- Lucy sounded like she thought she was too good to work at The Store.  Good thing, if she's dumb enough to trip over sprinkler heads imagine the damage she could do to herself by tripping over things like displays. Quite right. And I daresay Pam breathed a sigh of relief when she said she didn't want to work there.

- I guess the writers hadn't come up with a name for Clayton at this stage of the series.   He introduced himself to Sue Ellen as Dusty's father.  If he'd had a name he could've said "I'm Clayton Farlow, Dusty's father".  I guess Clayton didn't get a name until after the real-life passing of DA MAN. Are you sure about this? I thought he mentioned his name...I could be wrong. I'll double check.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Why can't Dusty afford a doorbell instead of a knocker? Maybe the bell sound gives Clayton seizures or something.

- What was the point of Lucy's bandaged hand? Must have been a real life injury they were trying to explain away.

- Dusty is paralyzed and won't be getting in the saddle to ride broncs anymore. What's that? "Little Dusty" is also paralyzed and won't be getting in the saddle to ride Sue Ellen either? My wife asked during this impotence scene "Hasn't Dusty ever heard of oral sex? Could you even say those words in public in 1980? I doubt it.

- Dusty really isn't himself anymore - no scarves in this episode. And why does he need a blanket over his legs? He has no feeling there, including feeling cold. The blanket isn't to prevent him from feeling cold; it's to keep the muscles, nerves, and other tissues "warm", which can theoretically help the healing process. He can't feel it, of course, but I'm sure it's very warm down there.

- Jackie's wardrobe while working at The Store is much better than anything she wears in her later secretarial years.


Episode 71: The New Mrs. Ewing

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of me]

> Jordan: "It's that son of yours...JR."

Pam Award: I'd go with Pam at Bobby's campaign office. Jackie got another mention today.

Angelica Award: The bad fur continues with Pam today, but my vote goes to Lucy's ridiculous outfit at her audition. Louella's ugly purple dress resurfaces too. Ellie puts her pearls under her necklines, which is pretty lame.

Bobby Award: Gotta be Pam, although I didn't care for Marilee's hair.

April Award: Pam for letting Lucy audition in that outfit, and then Lucy for telling the whole family that she got a job based on no merit whatsoever.


- First of all, how come nobody [except JR] has noticed Sue Ellen's absence lately? She's been out an awful lot! I guess everybody's busy trying to keep their marriages together.

- Pam recycles her ugly brown dress at the beginning of this episode. Perhaps she figured that Lucy's outfit was better by comparison.

- When Alex Ward calls Pam's office, Jackie answers the phone and says "Jackie Dugan." All well and good...but why is she answering Pam's phone in this manner? Shouldn't she say something like, "Pamela Ewing's office"? After all, it is Pam's private office - she's just Pam's assistant.

- Clint has a direct incoming line to his office? Most CEOs don't. If they did, there would be a lot of unemployed secretaries.

- Lucy returns to Alex's office with black and white pictures - wouldn't color be more appropriate? Or can she not afford them on Mitch's money?
Pam responds: Not necessarily. First of all, these are publicity shots taken of Charlene Tilton, I've seen them several times.  Second of all, I've seen portfolio work and they are not always color photos.  Many 8x10 glossies are shot in black and white. You're quite right though, there should be SOME color photos mixed in (and usually are) with the black and whites just for Alex or whoever to see how Lucy photographs in color. I'd think he would've actually asked her to go back and have a few done.  Many photographers like to photograph in black and white because they find it sexier.  Also, it can enhance things like cheek bones but also hide many flaws such as minor imperfections in the skin.

- I'm not sure why the scissors guy at TNN decided to include the scene where Clint and Sue Ellen get hot and heavy in his hotel room. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense given what they must have cut out.

- Louella tells JR that Leslie's secretary [whom SHE called] is on Line 3. I still want to know who's on the first two lines.

- Just how dumb is Pamela Ewing? Let's examine Lucy's status when she arrives at Alex's office:

1. No resume
2. No experience
3. No pictures
4. A god-awful outfit
5. A pathetic hat

Does Pam expect Lucy to get hired, given these conditions? I can't believe that she's upset that Alex did her a 'favor' by hiring Lucy - he certainly couldn't justifiably hire her based on her interview!
Look at it another way: someone comes to you for a job interview saying that she's related to a good friend of yours. She has no experience and no idea what's involved with the job. What's the first thing you think? This person must be in desperate need of help, right? Doesn't Pam understand that that's how this situation looks? Rent a clue, Pam.
Juanita put it best: I must be mellowing out, but I am beginning to tolerate Lucy, and now I like Jock a lot better than I did at the start. But why, oh why, would anyone going on a job interview dress like she just climbed down from the Swiss Alps? Surely Pam could have said something to Lucy about proper job-hunting attire. She looked like a twelve-year old that just stepped out of "The Sound of Music." I expected her to start yodeling when she left Alex Ward's office.
Also, it seemed a little silly for her to be soooo excited over $1000, when for the Ewings that would be pocket change.

I thought so too, Juanita. But I let this one pass because given Lucy's recent situation, it
IS a lot of money.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Looks like a new Raoul at the dinner table.  Same long haired Teresa though.

- Ray, Jock and Punk watch Bobby on TV as he gets ready to make his speech.  They then decide to HEAD OUT to go to his campaign HQ so they won't miss his speech.   Exactly how far away were they from the HQ? The next room? Bobby only walked about 15 feet to the podium and then started speaking. By the end of the speech, Jock was standing on one side of him. Either they flew there or something is wrong here.

- Empty purse meter- Donna when she and Ray plan the wedding, Sue Ellen at Dusty's old house, Pam at the court house.

- Bad background noise when Bobby makes his speech. Sometimes there is the murmur of people, sometimes it sounds like this was edited out.

- Clint answers his phone "yeah". And he has a private line into his office. Most CEOs do not have a private incoming line.

- Memo to Bobby-  A bit of advice... be worried when you hire someone and the first thing they say is "I'm not doing this for you.  I am doing it to see the look on your brother's face when I tell him I am working for you." Not quite the enthusiasm I would want out of an employee.. Look, if I'm Bobby, the only thing I'm thinking about is some way I can convince my wife to have sex with me again. I'm just surprised that after he told her and said "You're welcome", he didn't pull a Ray and say "Can we have sex right here right now?"

- Bobby is really upset with Pam, right?  So he heads to her place of work to confront her, right?  So he heads to the wrong room and Jackie tells him where she is.  What does he do?  Leaves and confronts Alex instead. If he was already at the Store, why not finish what he started out to do? No, I think he was really after Alex all along, and just figured that Pam was probably with him [or he with her]. Just a stroke of good fortune that she was in a meeting, I guess.

AHN Val's corner:

- Alex runs the magazine AND auditions the models. I would think that a man in his position would hire a talent scout, as he couldn't be bothered with such details. Ah, but then there's that perk of hanging around with Dallas's most beautiful women, right? Quite correct from a real world standpoint.

- When Bobby was about to give his victory speech, someone was waving around a campaign sign. The sign clearly read BOBBU EWING. I rewatched it twice, once in slo-mo, and sure enough.... The only Bobbu I have ever known was that Pakistani guy on "Seinfeld" whose restaurant went out of business. Even then, I'm sure the spelling was different. Wasn't that guy hilarious? He had the Pakistani accent and mannerisms down perfectly. "You're a very bad man".

- As Jordan approached Jock's table at the Cattleman's Club, I noticed a bowl of popcorn on the table. POPCORN!!! The Cattleman's is obviously not the class joint I thought it was.

- Mitch keeps his wallet in his jacket pocket. I always thought men kept their wallets in their pants back pocket. I don't. I actually keep mine in my front left pocket, and my keys in my right front pocket.

- Suddenly, Pam has developed a positive work ethic. TWICE today, she excused herself from friendly banter/social events to attend IMPORTANT MEETINGS! Amazing. It's a sure sign she's not long for the job.

AHN Alett's corner:

- Man, what's up with Jim Davis?  OK he's lost the Coke bottle glasses, but he seems to be reading most of his dialogue.  It's really pathetic when he congratulates Bobby in the morning.  He's not even looking at him.  He's reading over his right shoulder.

- In Sue Ellen's seduction scene with Clint, she tells him not to make a decision now, not today.  Well, he obviously made a decision because he runs off to the hotel to immediately sleep with her. That's a pretty easy decision to make. I daresay it was actually Sue Ellen's.

- The secretary calling her Miss Lucy Ewing Cooper could be excused as a Southern thing like Miss Ellie, but how can she really be MISS young Dallas when she's married? You know, I completely missed that! Wow. And so did the other few AHNs who were helping me out last year. Thanks! Sheesh...I can't believe I missed this...

- After Cliff accepts the job from Bobby, he says: "I can't wait to see the look on JR's face when he hears the news."  Literally, Cliff will probably be no where near JR when he learns about it. Quite so.

- When Bobby toasts Ray and Donna, Bobby is about the only one who tastes his drink.

- The only practical reason I can see for Jock to not tell Ellie about Takapa is that she unwittingly tells him a great deal about what the DOA is up to because she's proud of it.   He knows enough about their dealings that this injunction shouldn't be such a shock.  The good old boys have just been too cocky and haven't moved fast enough. I agree - but consider Jock's position. Suppose he DOES tell her. Does that change anything? She's still going to be totally upset at him and unwilling to listen. I think, based on past experience, he knows that the DOA is most likely to just fan the flames for a while, not really accomplish much, and then move on to next month's social event. I guess he doesn't really realize what Donna's influence has done for them - they have some real political power now. Your last statement is quite correct.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Ray and Donna don't eat a single bite of the breakfast Ray cooks.

- Leslie's boy-toy, Justin, borrowed Jock's brown leather coat for his one scene. Justin obviously never went to med school. He talks about being there for Leslie with bandaids and "ma-cura-comb". Not sure about the spelling but his pronounciation was way off. I assume he was referring to mecurochrome. Do people still use that as a disinfectant? Mercurochrome. I don't think it's used much any more because it's a known carcinogen [cancer-causing agent]. But it's still a proverbial thing.

- Speaking of Jock, not only was he reading cue cards over Bobby's shoulder, he had a real deer-in-the-headlights look while doing it, which made the whole scene lack credibility.

- The porcelain dog is still out to stud.

- If the DOA got an injunction against Takapa in the AM, how come Jock and the others still don't know when the evening happy hour comes around? Maybe if they'd sober up and get out of the Cattleman's Club and stop patting each other on the back, they'd know what the hell was going on. Quite so. Alett said that they were just dumb for dragging their feet this long and they have no one to blame but themselves.

AHN Pam's corner:

- There was a scene cut from today's episode that solidifies the assumption that Pam and Bobby are again having sex and that
she's happy about it.  After the election, there is a Pam/Bobby scene at Southfork where they're sitting on the staircase in the dark talking, about something, I can't remember what, but they get very cozy and start kissing and Bobby gives her this grin and she gives him one back and they head upstairs together. That would have been have really nice to have seen. Certainly they could have cut out Clint and Sue Ellen in his hotel room for this.

- Bobby told Pam they had to get going, I would assume because she was going to (yet again) skip work to be with him on election day.  He sounded like they were in a hurry to go someplace. If so, how did Pam manage to have time to take Lucy to her ridiculous interview?  She then excused herself from Alex claiming she had an important meeting, maybe that was just an excuse to get away from him. I think it was.

- Clint told Sue Ellen before he left for Japan that he was going to be gone for awhile.   Then when she called him, he said he hoped she would call.  Why? Unless there was a scene cut he never let her know he was back from his trip, which didn't seem very long at all, so how would she know he was back anyway?  Lucky guess? I'm sure there was a scene cut.

- Lucy still hasn't seemed to learn the value of a dollar.  How long had she been carelessly carrying that $1000 check in the pocket of her outfit?  She's lucky it didn't fall out somewhere. She also seemed very unimpressed with Mitch's $60 check which he worked very hard for.

- Why did Sue Ellen drive over to Dusty's if she had no intention of going to the door?   She saw the real estate sign, but that doesn't mean that Dusty and Clayton aren't still occupying the house.

- The KGIM reporter must never go home. She was wearing the same outfit while reporting about Bobby's impending victory as she was during the last episode when reporting about the Asian oil wells which in was at least a few days ago in their time.


Episode 72: Mark of Cain

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of everyone]

>  Leslie to JR: "It won't work because you are married."
>  JR: "You mean Sue Ellen?"

Pam Award: Phyllis looked quite nice. Pam's new purple foldover dress was neat, too.

Angelica Award: Lucy's Swiss miss outfit and well as Mitch's gray/brown ensemble.

Bobby Award: Pam's frizz ties with Leslie's ugly bun.

April Award: Nothing terrible.


- This has been bothering me for some time. Here's as good a place to put it as any. I understand what the writers are trying to do by having Mitch and Lucy at the same school and everything, but there's one major problem with that. Southern Methodist University has no medical school!

- A continuity error: if you taped it, watch closely when Jock returns to the ranch at the beginning of the episode. Bobby gets some food from the buffet, and turns around to watch Jock walk up to the table. There is a cut as Jock sits down, and Bobby turns around to face him again.

- When Sue Ellen answers the phone to take Clint's call, she just says "Hello". Normally, she answers by saying "Southfork Ranch".

- This is normally Mike's domain, but let me point out some really weird fashion statements, other than the ones above. Dr. Elby's brown slacks were worth gagging at. Louella showcased her two [and only] dresses today yet again, and Sue Ellen goes to visit Clint in that paper dress.

- JR parks right outside the Ewing building, but today he appears to have company. Who else would park alongside that street without fear of getting a ticket?

AHN Dave's corner:

- Yet again, Punk berates Jock and Ray for not being able to 'handle' their wives in this Takapa situation. What about his own wife, Mavis? She is most definitely part of the DOA.

- The Senate boys shouldn't be terribly worried about Bobby's conflict of interest because he's got a conflict from both sides of the issue. That is true, but no matter how the decision got handed down, it wouldn't look very good for the committee or for Bobby.

- Why is J.R. being so civil to Leslie? She just completely screwed him with those final ads, and he can only think about having sex with her? First of all, if it wasn't for some plastic surgery, she would look like his grandmother. Second, now she won't have sex as long as he is with Sue Ellen. My goodness J.R., you've gotten much easier sex before, why are you putting up with this one?! (Bigger question: why are you with Sue Ellen, period?) Just another example of JR being caught up in 'the chase'. It is rather odd, however: JR usually doesn't put sex before business. And I don't know who told Susan Flannery that platinum blonde looks good on her.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Long Hair Teresa is still hanging around today.  This also is part of a nit.   Twice, we see her standing by the phone and on both occasions, she does not even make the effort to pick it up.  Instead, the Ewings do. Now, if they wanted to make this believable, they should have had Jock and Pam stand right by the phone when it rings and have Teresa placed somewhere else. She is basically window dressing anyway. Quite right. That was really weird, especially when Pam walked ALL THE WAY around her to get the phone.

- Watch Bobby as Jock arrives home all huffed up. He watches Jock sit down and says, "Well, you look like you could use a cup of coffee."  As he says this, he has a coffee cup near his hand, on the buffet table.  As we switch camera angles, it is clearly moved.  Maybe Jock DID need that cup of coffee and he mentally wished it towards himself.

- Louella lets Leslie into JR's office to wait for him. Why not the lobby?  I know, no one ever waits in the lobby. I think the secretaries just don't like having anyone in the lobby staring at them doing nothing.

- Empty purse meter-  Pam and Ellie at breakfast.  Rebecca at Pam's office and lunch, Leslie's looks pretty empty at JR's office.  Sue Ellen's at Clint's hotel room bounces on the bed, so I think it is safe to say. I wasn't positive about Rebecca's, though surprisingly Pam's purse at lunch seemed to have a bit of a bulge.

AHN Val's corner:

- Today must have been purple dress day in the land of Dallas. Louella had two different purple dresses. Pam had the purple foldover suit and a pinkish purple pants suit. And Sue Ellen wore a light purple dress to her rendezvous with Clint. Must have been a sale.

- The "Also Starring" credits still have Donna listed as a Culver. She's a Krebbs now. Or at the very least a Culver-Krebbs. I guess the producers were too cheap to change the credits.

- Jock was sure putting away the booze today. He kept his newspaper close and his drink even closer.

- In Episode #5 (Barbecue One) a drunken JR proudly announced that "one man and one man alone has known that Mrs. Ewing". Obviously, he was referring to sex with Sue Ellen. Yet today, SE and Clint were reminiscing about an afternoon tryst they shared back in college. So either Sue Ellen hasn't been truthful to her husband, or this is just another case of TPTB rewriting history. I suspect the latter. Hey, that's a good point. Certainly you're right about it being the latter - the whole premise of JR's marriage to Sue Ellen was that she was this "pure" being and he wanted her to stay that way which is why he barely touched her.

- That morning show producer all but threw Mitch out of his own apartment. If that jerk had treated my husband that way, I would have blown my top at him, reporters and cameras or not. No, no. Maybe not that, but I would have at least gone to bat for him and told the guy that I wanted him to stay.

- Cliff got the prime parking spot right outside the courthouse. This probably only happened because he had Bobby in the car. I wonder what happens to Patrick Duffy in real life. Does he just go ahead and park in handicapped spots? I bet he does.

AHN Alett's corner:

- Theresa in those 3" heels works hard to make that coffee, but both Pam and Jock don't touch a drop after it's been poured. Well, to make up for it, they do answer the phone for her.

- Pam looks pretty well-rested for having thought about the problems in her marriage ALL night.

- There doesn't seem to be a good reason for that overhead shot when JR's on the phone with Leslie.  It suggests someone's on the stairs listening, but it's just Sue Ellen coming down, and it's no big deal.  She just is conveniently there to take Clint's call.  Speaking of which, he says, "Sue Ellen?" and she answers, "Clint, is that you?" A little dumb. What if it hadn't been Clint?

- We have some major phone rudeness here.  First Pam is too abrupt not to mention that second ring happens a little too fast.  Then Jock answers with a loud "YEAH!"

- JR tells Louella to get Jock on the phone just as he's taking the press into his office.   He won't be able to talk to him until they're gone, so just wait until then to call him. I think she knows what he means.

- How many hats and suspenders does Lucy own?  That reporter is supposed to be talking TO Lucy when they're on the sofa, but she's staring at the camera the whole time she's addressing Lucy.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Punk is so distraught over Takapa, he forgets to put on a garish, jeweled string tie. But that shirt was worthy of an Angelica. Like Jordan Lee, Punk seems to have a real nasty edge to him in these early seasons.

- Sue the DOA? Get real, Harve! The DOA is a charitable, non-profit organization. It has no money. But that doesn't mean they can't be sued. Sure, you might not get much money out of them, but you can sue them.

- Amazing, Bobby's briefcase is open and actually has papers and stuff in it.

- What was that white slop Bobby put on his breakfast plate - grits? I think so.

- Concerning the Sue Ellen/Clint kissing scene: I don't think I can stomach kissing somebody with fish eggs on their breath.

- Why does the phone at the Ewing's breakfast buffet table have a message waiting light? That would be your field, wouldn't it? :) Did they even have these lights back then?

- Cliff was sure right about Bobby needing to learn a lot. How could Bobby be so naive as to not see the conflict of interest and be so surprised when his colleagues called him on it? I think he figures that he's got a conflict of interest from both sides so it shouldn't really matter, but obviously it does. As Pam will tell you, he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to perceiving what people are thinking.

- And was what up with that Shaft music as Bobby and Cliff walk to the building? No idea.

AHN Pam's corner:

- OK, this is REALLY nitpicky.  Pam's purple foldover dress is not new, it's recycled.  She wore it during her big conversation with J.R. on the patio last season when she mentioned knowing that Cliff and Sue Ellen had an affair and that J.R. may not be the father of John Ross.  She also wore it to lunch towards the end of last season with Cliff. It appeared to be more of a navy blue in both cases but it was DEFINITELY the same outfit.  Maybe she's got two of them or the color was off or something.   Sorry to be SO nitpicky, pick, pick, pick..... Are you sure about that? I would remember a foldover because they look SO SWEET and draw attention to Pam's most perfect parts...I'll double check that.

- Louella had on her ugly purple dress during the first scene.  Well, I have to wonder where she spent the night, because she had the same dress on in her last scene of the previous episode which was supposed to be the day before.  Louella's last scene was just before the episode in the living room with Jock's Takapa line which was all in the same day.  Pam clearly stated at the beginning of this episode that it was last night when the 'explosion' between Jock and Ellie occured. Yup. I have a feeling she's only got the two dresses. Man, I can't wait to see Sly next Friday. Somebody should take those dresses, turn them you-know-whats sideways....you know the rest.

- There must have been a run on ugly brown and beige placemats.  Ray and Donna had the EXACT same placemats that we've seen several times in the Cattleman's Club while Jock and the boys sit and drink rather than attend to 'bidness'.

- Bobby and Ray drank that wonderful brew with the brand name simply known as 'BEER'.   Actually, Bobby took one sip and we heard him put the bottle down on the counter as he left Ray's.

- BIG TIME NIT!!!  Clint has the little love nest all set up with caviar and champagne, all well and good. He poured Sue Ellen a glass and she clearly took a drink from it!  Excuse me, shouldn't she have said something like "Clint, I don't drink, I'm an alcoholic"?  I mean come on, she's been off the sauce all season -- and trying hard to stay sober.  Besides, once an alcoholic takes a drink, they generally don't stop at just one.  Also, this just goes to show that she and Clint really don't talk about anything of any significance or she probably would've told him this and he wouldn't have had champagne in the first place. I doubt this was sparkling grape juice for a few reasons. Clint doesn't strike me as a sparkling grape juice type of guy, the bottle clearly looked like a champagne bottle, and if it had been sparkling grape juice, they should've made a point of mentioning it for continuity purposes if nothing else. How did everyone miss this? That's unbelievable.

- Does Jock still have an office at Ewing Oil?  If so, why were he (wasn't present during the scene but they made of point of saying he was there) Ray and Harve using Bobby's office for their meeting? 

- Ray left Donna on their WEDDING NIGHT or at least some time during the night to go sit in a Takapa meeting with Jock and Harve?  Harve mentioned that they have been there since 5 a.m. and Ray was wearing the same suit he had on the night before in the living room at the end of the last episode which was supposed to be Ray and Donna's wedding night. Well, being as delicate as I can be, Donna's not exactly a virgin. Although I'm sure that since they were so hot and bothered over Takapa, it could have been a real great night for them.

- Pam fanned out avocado green material in her office with Jackie.  She then told Jackie to get her Liz's notes from the last show so they could consider ordering some of this material.  Pam's not long for the world, avocado green was not the 'hot' color in 1981. It won't sell very well......she should try pastels, they were absolutely HUGE sellers that year.

- Lucy got the 'job' as Miss Young Dallas last episode.  It doesn't seem like very much time has past at all, but Lucy was suddenly on the cover of the new issue.  It seemed very fast to have already hit the news stands.

- As Mitch was leaving the makeup artist came over and started powdering Lucy's face.   That woman must not have been doing her job very well, this should've already been taken care of.  The disruption was not long at all.  Lucy's skin would not begin to shine again this quickly.

- The restaurant Pam and Rebecca had lunch at looked a little better than a coffee shop on the outside but much fancier on the inside.  It didn't even have that usual token name "Restaurant" on the outside, it just said 'supper' over one of the windows.   Not only that, this place is so cheesy that they don't even provide their patrons with MENUS on the table for them to look at, neiter of them had one.  They should've both had one.  They take your menu when you order.  Lucky for Rebecca Pam knew they had the 'most wonderful Caesar salad' at this restaurant. Pam must be a regular there. Good point.


Episode 73: The Gathering Storm

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Dave]

> Bobby: "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was that late, I lost track of time. Why didn't you tell me?"
> Phyllis: "Oh, no problem."

Pam Award: Phyllis again.

Angelica Award: Donna's butt-ugly blue and white bathrobe or kimono or whatever the hell it was.

Bobby Award: Phyllis's first scene look ties with Pam's frizz.

April Award: Clint for putting up with Sue Ellen's lame excuses for non-commitment.


- I'll leave this one to the AHNs, except for this, which is not a nit, just an observation: Leslie must have stopped bleaching because her hair looks much more yellow today.

AHN Jason's corner:

- John Ross has a new nanny named Kathy.  So what happened to Mrs. Reeves?  and Long Haired Teresa? I have no idea. Clearly Mrs. Reeves was turfed out a long time ago. I guess Theresa is too busy [snicker] to take care of him.

- Wow!  Pam FINALLY has a realistic impression of Cliff.  She actually admits he uses everyone to get what he wants.  Shame she always jumped the gun before and gave him the benefit of the doubt while not doing the same to Bobby. Yup. Rebecca is the only one she has more of a blind spot for than Cliff.

- When Cliff comes home from a night on the town with Dave and the Smith sisters, he fills their glasses with ice from a small ice bucket.  I am surprised that the ice would still be frozen at this point.  It wasn't refrigerated.

- Also I was surprised those two women were able to make it out of his bathroom without passing out. I shudder to think of how often a slob like Cliff would clean the john. Maybe he was nice enough to leave the toilet seat cover down.

- Nice cue-card reading by Jim Davis in the hotel room scene with JR. He clearly looks off into space while JR moves around the room. And in his first scene. Notice how he always gets a close-up when reading his lines.

AHN Val's corner:

- Ok, this has ALWAYS bothered me. Check out the kitchen of Rebecca's new condo. It is CARPETED! That would not go over well in my home. Or in most people's homes, for that matter. I just hope whoever cooks in there is not messy.

- Also, Pam and Rebecca discussed decorating the condo. Except for a few stray boxes, the place ALREADY looks decorated! The wallpaper is up. The pictures are hung. There are even CUSTOM curtains (I doubt they're store-bought) on the windows!!! I'd say she's done pretty good for having only lived there a few days.

- When JR was bickering with Ray about his chair at the breakfast table, the painting behind the buffet table (where JR was pouring his coffee) was crooked. But in the long shot, when Bobby came in, it was straight again. Excellent catch.

- After their tennis outing, Clint took Sue Ellen to the CAR WASH. Geez, what was that guy smoking?? That's not the place to woo the lady with whom you wish to commit to romantically. I'll bet he didn't even buy her the 66 ounce Bladder Buster soda at the convenience store. I can just see the conversation now:
--SE: "So, where to now? Madison's for lunch?"
--CO: "Nope"
--SE: "Then how about coffee. I know this wonderful new place that has the best...."
--CO: "No, Sue Ellen. We're going to the CAR WASH!!!"
......Now, queue up that Rose Royce CD.
That was REALLY weird. I have no idea what purpose what served here. Clearly the car wash owner let the producers film there for free in the hope of free publicity, but couldn't the producers have hit up something a bit more high-class than this?

- Dave Stratton read the script and knew that he would need two dates--one to give to Cliff then he ran into them at the Stardrift.

AHN Alett's corner:

- Interesting parallel that Sue Ellen didn't sleep with JR until they were married, and Leslie is doing the same. I still can't believe JR would divorce Sue Ellen just to be able to sleep with Leslie.  Sure she's intriging to him because she's not his usual bimbo type, but if she sticks to her word, it will be months before she'll sleep with him.   Knowing JR, I don't think any woman can sustain his interest for that long. Quite right. Again, I'm reserving comment till Friday about Leslie's little game.

- That was a nice scene with Ellie and the empty dining room. In a minute and a half she went through nostalgia, sadness, and finally determination. It struck me that no other cast member could have pulled that off as well. No question. MAYBE Linda Gray on her best day. Larry Hagman could, but it wouldn't be the same kind of scene.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Sue Ellen once again wears her fur collared nightie to eat breakfast in bed. I loved JR's line about when they were dating all he thought about was getting her into bed and now he can't get her out of it.

- At breakfast, Jock is wearing Carter McKay's brown leather vest. I have to give the vest, the blue shirt with white polka dots underneath and the brown slacks a dead heat tie for the Angelica with Donna's robe. And JR, like father like son, is seen wearing brown slacks with a blue coat, shirt and tie.

- Back to Pam, my wife noted she got the top of her hair re-permed and it was less flat and a definite improvement.

- Rebecca is staying in the same building where Dusty and Sue Ellen had their little trysts (in Fort Worth?). The trees on the top are the giveaway.

- Ray actually eats his breakfast (which seems to consist solely of fried sausages) despite being confronted with Donna's hideous blue bathrobe, which, one would think, is enough to make anyone sick to their stomach.

AHN Pam's corner:

- Sue Ellen and Clint mention that they've just played a 'good game of tennis'.   If their game was really that good then they should've broken a sweat and should have taken a shower before leaving the club.  They either don't care about good hygiene or they use some really strong deodorant because they're walking around the car wash dressed n their tennis clothes.  I'd also like to know the brand of hairspray Sue Ellen used, she didn't have a hair out of place. Her makeup must really rock too, it wasn't even smudged. Maybe they were playing it in virtual reality.

- Bobby told Pam that he took the first flight out in the morning because sleeping alone in a hotel room made him think of her and miss her. Then he kissed her. Sweet. When they went upstairs he told her that he was going to take a quick shower because he had to be in town by 10:00.  He must have been really anxious to get home for his five minute chat with Pam and really late for his flight since he didn't seem to manage to take a shower before leaving his hotel. I'm also guessing that if he didn't shower then he probably didn't take time to brush his teeth either.  I'll bet he had some really nasty morning breath when he kissed her.  YUCK!!!  Another thing, if Bobby's original intention was NOT to come home (I'm assuming this because Pam was surprised to see him) then I'll bet the suit he packed would've been completely wrinkled since his only luggage seemed to be a leather tote bag. I'm sure he brushed his teeth at least, but you're probably right about the rest.

- Bobby must really be a slave driver!  Even after realizing how late it was I'm still not sure he let Phyllis go home.  She was wearing the same pink blouse and print skirt in her next scene with Bobby the following day. But she let her hair down. Sweet.

- Cliff is really a CLASSY guy!  He and Dave brought those two tramps back to Cliff's apartment, with the intention I would assume of having sex.  Cliff then told these women that the "JOHN" was in the back!  I had to laugh!  This is not the way to impress a woman you barely know that you may try to sleep with.  I guess Cliff just figured he'd use terminology that these two bimbos could understand. I guess so. I couldn't make sense of this either.

- Empty purse meter:  Pam at Rebecca's condo the first time, Rebecca at Cliff's office and Sue Ellen carried either an empty bag or an empty purse at the car wash.


Episode 74: Ewing vs. Ewing

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Val]

> Bonehead Dialogue: Miss Ellie: "You're home early, Pam".
> Pam: "Well, I had some work to do".

Pam Award: Pam by default, now that she's got the hair issues worked out.

Angelica Award: Louella purple flower dress, # 2 of 2. Dave Stratton's tie was pretty bad too.

Bobby Award: Since Pam MERCIFULLY gets rid of the frizz, Rebecca's apparent wig wins today.

April Award: Pam for continuing to bite Bobby's head off.


- Pam must have had a serious talk with Jackie about her poor secretarial habits. Back in Episode 71, Jackie answered Pam's phone using her own name. Now, she's been through some training, because today she correctly answers the phone by saying, "Pam Ewing's office - Jackie speaking." Nice to see some improvement. She'll forget it all when she goes to work for Cliff in a few years, though.

AHN Dave's corner:

- John Ross is crying, so Sue Ellen picks him up, and he stops. So she sets him right back down! Some mother. How is it that she tells Clint he is sick? Babies cry for many reasons, and often none whatsoever. She just assumes he is sick! John Ross may very well be sick - we can't be sure. But it's kind of stupid that she just puts him down again while he's crying like that. I'm glad she's not my mother.

- I saw the nit somewhere else that a private company such as Ewing Oil does not have a "Board." Yet Jeremy Wendell informs JR that he must obtain the signature of Jock, "Chairman of the Board".
They did it again and I'll say it again: a privately owned company does NOT have a Board of Directors, because there are no public investors. Jock's proper title should be 'President' and JR should be 'Executive Vice-President'. Or else, we should be told somewhere who the other people are that have a financial stake in Ewing Oil. Nowhere is it suggested that Jock and JR answer to shareholders of any kind.

- Bobby: "I think the trouble between Mama and Daddy go a lot deeper than Takapa." This is poor grammar. Either "trouble" should be "troubles" or "go" should be "goes."
I'll have to go to instant replay on this one. I'll check the tape.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Empty purse meter-  One of the Smith sisters has one at dinner. Sue Ellen has one at Clint's factory.

- Nice look Louella shoots at Leslie when JR leaves the office.

- Leslie's ex-husband, Craig (played by Craig Stevens) is credited but AWOL.

AHN Val's corner:

- In the "Also Starring" credits, Susan Howard is listed as "Donna Culver". Susan Flannery is listed as "Leslie Stewart". And Leigh McCloskey is listed as "Mitch". Not "Mitch Cooper". Just "Mitch". Did the producers not feel that he warranted a full name listing? Apparently Leigh McCloskey's agent truly sucks at what he does. I remember much later in the series, when Katherine returned after Pam's accident, and Morgan Brittany was immediately thrust into the "Also Starring" and Leigh McCloskey, who also returned, was put in the closing credits. Jason asked me why that was and I responded that if you want Morgan on your show, you have to pay her a lot of money and tell the world she's there. If you want Leigh, you attach five dollars to a string, put it on his doorstep, and wait for him to come out.

- Here's another one that's always bothered me. It's a two-parter: Mitch told Lucy that he had a flat tire. Then he whined that he's so sick of having problems with that car. Well, I'm no mechanic, but flat tires does not a car problem make. Fluid leaking...sure. Thrashed clutch...absolutely. Blown engine...of course! But flat tires happen to all cars--new or old--regardless of mechanical condition. Then the limo came to pick up Lucy. She pretty much took off, leaving Mitch to fend for himself. Here's an idea, Lucy: How about offering Mitch the use of your Porsche? I mean, you're not driving it today. You're getting LIMO SERVICE! Sure, he may not accept, but you could have at least offered him the keys. My husband and I swap vehicles all the time. Most married couples I know do. If my car's in the shop, I take him to work and drive his car. And on days when he needs more cargo room, I let him take the wagon. There's nothing to it. Quite right. Good call. Although we haven't actually SEEN the Porsche - maybe Lucy left it at Southfork? Nah.

- The exterior shot of the courthouse building is actually a building in LA. It was shown all the time as Mack McKenzie's office building on Knot's Landing.

- The land Bobby purchased on Takapa Lake was--in his words--semi-developed. The Unified developers should have asked more questions about what was already there before accepting the compromise. Also, where was Pat Powers? He should have been at that hearing, right up there with Jock, Ray, and Punk.

AHN Mike's corner:

- I had to look this up because Susan Flannery looks so old to me. She was 38 when these episodes were filmed - born in 1943 in Jersey City, NJ. Now we know why she looks so old. Growing up in Jersey City is like living three lifetimes at once. Ah, the truth comes out! I would have guessed early forties.

- Boy that Clint really knows how to romance a lady. Alex Ward has nothing on him. First he takes Sue Ellen to a car wash, then on a tour of his chip plant! I remember that scene. The ironic thing [for me, anyway] is that if I took a woman from my society on a tour like this, we'd be married as soon as we went under the "exit" sign.

- Jackie is all glammed up in flattering clothes and has her hair swept back. I'm getting a whole new appreciation for her. I'm sorry I missed it. I commented in the Babes Poll that Sherril probably a really nice looking gal if she would just let herself look more pretty. It seemed to me like she always wanted to downplay her femininity.

- All right! This time Pam lays the verbal smack down directly on Cliff instead of just trashing him to Rebecca.

- What were those three light bulbs for directly in front of Senator Harbin's committee seat? I think they're for timing. Everybody gets a certain amount of time to speak during these sorts of hearings. The first is to indicate that you're clear to talk; the second is a warning that your time is almost up, and the third is the end. Sort of like a traffic light.

- Ray really is a Ewing after all! That little giving the sleeves of my vest performance was worthy of JR. Big deal! It's easy to give back the trust fund and the land when you're now married to Sam Culver's millions. True enough. I'd LIKE to give Ray the benefit of the doubt and say he wasn't thinking about this, but I'll bet he was.

AHN Pam's corner:

- There was one empty purse that was missed. Ellie had one at Donna and Ray's.

-  Pam did it again! She jumped to conclusions about Bobby before even talking to him.  He must really be used to this by now.  When she apologized to him, he said it was all right.  My husband would have a lot more to say to me than that.  

- It almost seemed like the scene in Ray and Donna's house was very abrupt at the end.   Ellie gave her big speech and forgave Ray and told him to stay, fine.  Then Jock asked if that also included him and Ellie just said yes.  I realize she has forgiven Jock, but she could've said something else to him.
 
- I have to question Bobby's purchase of the portion of Takapa land.  OK, didn't Jock and the boys purchase the land for the purpose of development, if so, didn't they purchase the WHOLE area?  Otherwise wouldn't there have been some land left to preserve in the first place?  If they haven't bought this land, wouldn't there be a freeze on the purchase of this land until the case was settled?  So how could Bobby buy the land?   Also, considering Bobby had a conflict of interest on BOTH sides of this issue, was it really ethical for him to purchase the land even thought he donated it?  I mean, he'll still be making some money off if it himself as a tax write off for the donation. This is interesting. I'll have to give it some thought.


Episode 75: New Beginnings

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Louella: "Mrs. Krebbs is in your office."
> JR: "Donna?"

Pam Award: I liked Sue Ellen's foldover dress.

Angelica Award: Louella's dresses are always worthy. I didn't care for Sue Ellen's hat when she meets Alicia. Sue Ellen's killer white suit with a fur wasn't too nice either.

Bobby Award: Rebecca.

April Award: Leslie and Craig for not closing the door to her bedroom while JR was in her apartment.


- Pam's finally got that awful hairdo straightened out and looks as beautiful as ever. That's the good news. The bad news is that she's got one strange family. Bobby cancelled his plans to have dinner with those two senators so he could meet her mother...whatever happened to that little get-together? We never see it!

- As stated before many times, I try very hard to be nice to Charlene Tilton. But come on. Lucy Ewing Cooper... spokeswoman for Physical Fitness in Young Dallas Magazine? Physical fitness? [Snicker, snicker.] I'll give credit where credit is due - Charlene's done a good job of losing the baby fat.
Alett tells me: No snickering about Lucy being in a Miss Dallas physical fitness layout. Actually in an era that was the birth of anorexia, Lucy is a good role model.  Miss Dallas doesn't have to look like Kate Moss.
I see what you mean...but she shouldn't look like a Delta Burke wannabe. [I'm exaggerating but you see my point.]

- Why the hell does Cliff have a GLAMOUR SHOT of his sister on his coffee table? That must be a real downer when he brings babes over. "Really...she's just my sister!"

- They did it again. They did it again. Again, Jeremy Wendell implies, and JR says, that Jock Ewing is the "Chairman of the Board" of Ewing Oil. This time there can be no argument: during his conversation with Leslie, JR says that Ewing Oil wholly belongs to the Ewings: always has, always will. Which means that Jock Ewing owns it all. He is not the Chairman of the Board because there is no Board. There's just him. If he wants to be an egomaniac and call himself Chairman of a board with one member, I suppose he could. But this would be stupid.

- Something's else has been bothering me about Mitch, but I didn't catch it until today. He and Jean talk about 'dissections'. Now, I spent a year and a half in medical school, and I think I can safely say that the only time you ever do any dissection is in Gross Anatomy. This is usually the first class you take, and it is definitely a requirement that you complete it in your first year of studies. When Lucy first met Mitch, he was in his second year of classes; so now he should be in his third year. He and Jean should be toasting 'clinical rotations' or something like that. I can tell you from experience that the last thing you want to think about when reminiscing about medical school is the Gross Anatomy laboratory.

- Either Ray's a strange eater or Donna's a strange cook. When she makes Bobby's egg salad sandwich, you can clearly see that there's a layer of green in the middle of the sandwich - which looks suspiciously like lettuce. Is lettuce commonly part of an egg salad sandwich? Very odd. But then again, maybe Ray also likes the crusts cut off his bread...

- Let's talk about Clint Ogden for a moment. Every time I see this guy, I am reminded of the profound proverb, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."
For those who don't know what I mean, go back to the summaries page and do a search for 'Clint'. I did and found seven paragraphs prior to this episode. In each one of these paragraphs, there are words to the effect that Sue Ellen refuses to make a commitment to him. So why the hell is he so shocked when Sue Ellen refuses for the eighth time? I can't believe that he's SO giddy that Sue Ellen called that he figures she MUST want him badly this time.
As I've said, I think Monte Markham's a good actor. But I won't miss the Clint character at all. Good riddance.

- This is the first time Jeremy Wendell wears a cowboy hat. The second was at a Ewing barbecue, and that one was so big that it nearly swallowed his head.

AHN Dave's corner:

- This has been bothering me since I started watching the show last summer. How does Sue Ellen manage to speak on the phone through her chin? Good call! I never noticed this until now. You're right...it must be awfully hard to hear her at the other end.

- If Afton isn't working, why is she at the Stardrift, especially all dressed up? Did she know that Cliff would be there?
I think the second question answers the real world issue. Buy maybe she only found out when she arrived. And why does Cliff have to buy Afton a drink - she doesn't get free drinks, as an employee?

- John Ross is awfully big, isn't he? How old is he now?
By the book, he should be two years old...much too big for a crib, don't you think?

AHN Jason's corner:

- Who is that lady standing by Punk at the party?  It is not Mavis, at least the one we know. No it is not. Good point.

- Empty purse meter-  Sue Ellen with Alicia, Sue Ellen with Clint, Donna at JR's office.  Pam actually has a bulge in her purse at Rebecca's.

- Why didn't Leslie hide Craig or at least close the door to her room when she finds out JR is knocking at her apartment door?  He could easily see Craig in that room, based on how the camera shows Leslie walk back from the front door to the bedroom after JR leaves. I'm not sure about "easily". But who wants to take that chance?

- JR is totally lame to accept Leslie's excuse of waiting 'just a little longer'.   Heck, if he needs to take off his shirt to wash out the champagne, why not do it at her place and while he is naked... I completely agree. Maybe he should have grabbed her arms in that special way.

- Really fake sound of the glass shattering on the floor of Leslie's carpeted bedroom.   Why bother putting this sound effect in?  It would be more natural not to hear anything.  Also I hope they don't cut their feet on it in the morning.

- Sue Ellen totally ignores Ray when he comes to Southfork. Is she starting to have visions of their long repressed fling from #10? I think so. Good call!

AHN Alett's corner:

- Poor Jock.  He's looking frail.  It seems they gave him the least stressful scene possible.

- Lubbock - the Gem of Texas.  The Lubbock Project should be condos for prairie dogs. Never been there so I don't know.

- So Lake Dallas is a much better place for Lucy and Mitch to go than Padre Island.   Right.  It's just cheap because he can mooch off a friend.

- Again Clint has the champagne at the hotel.  As was pointed out earlier, this is a good sign that these two really don't know each other at all. Cheers to Sue Ellen for coming to her senses and not letting this drag on and for having some compassion for Alicia.

- Is this an in joke?  Leslie tells "Craig" to shut up before she pounces on him, and he's Craig Stevens.  And talk about a suggestive name - he used to play Peter Gunn! I don't know what the deal is with this. Too bad we never see Craig again.

AHN Pam's corner:

- So, I wonder if Afton STILL considers herself not to be EASY.  Let's see, she slept with J.R. during their second or third meeting and now with Cliff during their first. I wonder what the definition of 'easy' is in Biloxi. Easy in Biloxi is probably letting the guy lift up your skirt instead of doing it yourself.

- Lucy was exercising??  I doubt she got much out of it, she was barely stretching or breaking a sweat. Besides, who exercises wearing pantyhose under their sweatsuit?   They were noticeable on her feet.

- I don't know how J.R. and Sue Ellen expected John Ross to fall asleep.  It looked like his room was very light, much too light for just a night light. Besides that, the hall light was on and the door was wide open. Well, I would say that John Ross is way too big to sleep in a crib, so NONE of this makes sense.

- Sue Ellen held the phone under her chin when she spoke to Kristin.  How did Kristin hear her? Same way Alicia heard her at the beginning of this episode. And it's not like Sue Ellen did much talking when Kristin called.

- The bon voyage sign was nothing short of pathetic!  'Bon Voyage Mama and Daddy'?   This looks like something a five-year old would hang up for his parents.   These are grown-up men throwing this party and hosting it for grown-up guest!!   I think 'Bon Voyage Jock and Ellie' would have been much more appropriate.

- I guess they didn't feel like paying Raoul or Teresa today since Lucy answered the phone and told Sue Ellen she had a call.  Also, that call line button was lit and Sue Ellen didn't even need to push it in order to talk to Alicia. Both good points. It seems to me that the budget was running low towards the end of the season, so frills were sort of cut out.

- Afton's 'performance' was clearly dubbed.  She sang her entire song with a smile on her face.  This is impossible to do.  I was in concert chorus in high school and had voice lessons and you NEVER sing with a smile on your face, it's a big no-no.   You're mouth is supposed to take on many shapes during singing to ensure proper pronounciation and tone quality.  It's no wonder she absolutely SUCKS! That's interesting. I know Audrey does sing her own numbers, so I guess it must be pre-recorded rather than lip-synched.

AHN Sara's corner:

- It's kind of silly that everyone in Dallas is talking about Ellie and Jock's marital problems. We had a guy arrested for child molestation in my small town who was in a prominentish family and no one talked about it like this. I suppose it is a bit on the excessive side. Good point.

- Jeremy drank today, even though he once stated that he never drinks. This looks like a possible tote board category... I missed that. I was paying more attention to the cowboy hat.

- Bobby didn't even touch that sandwich Donna made for him, although it is possible that he ate it after the scene ended. Knowing Bobby and his penchant for not touching food and/or bevarages.

- Mrs. Ogden is more pathetic than Sue Ellen. Possible even more pathetic than Season One Sue Ellen. Yeah, I guess. I think the idea here is to make Sue Ellen think about what she's had to put up with as far as JR is concerned.

- When Sue Ellen arrived at Clint's hotel room she didn't have her arms in the sleeves of her giant fur coat. Why? She probably wouldn't be able to get them out.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Punk not only wears a suit but a normal tie.

- JR was in rare form for this episode in the time he wasn't with Leslie. During breakfast, he manages to piss off Bobby, Pam, Sue Ellen and Ray before he's even finsihed one piece of bacon. In his office he says to Donna about Ray "What do you want me to do?  Call him up and tell him his wife thinks he's too dumb to do a business deal?"

- Bobby isn't going to get far in politics if he keeps getting his fellow senators' names wrong. It's HarBin, Bobby, not HarVin. The sign in front of him at the hearings said so.

- Leslie must be the greatest PR person in the world if she thinks she can sell Jeremy Wendell to the public as "friendliness and warmth". Jeremy, by the way, is not only drinking but drinking during office hours. (are we sure he's not another of Jock's half-breed sons?). I can only assume that after the embarrassment of not getting to buy Ewing Oil and failing to nail JR in revenge that he went to AA and cleaned up his act after he disappeared for a few seasons.

- Who was that Craig guy in bed with Leslie? Her last boy toy was Justin. We've never seen this guy before, have we? Nope and never again. He's supposed to be her ex-husband. I think during the first series run there was a scene with him in the previous episode but it was cut this time around.

- Clint clearly doesn't know Sue Ellen values money over all. That diamond he gives her pales in comparison to that lethal weapon rock from JR she's been wearing from the beginning of the series. If Sue Ellen was wavering on whether to split with him, that mini-rock must have sealed the deal. And once gain, a meal for two (ordered from room service at twice the price) goes untouched.


Episode 76: Full Circle

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Bobby: "Pam, can't they do something?"
> Pam: "Well, under certain conditions, but it's all very uncertain."

Pam Award: Kristin.

Angelica Award: Louella's purple dresses again.

Bobby Award: Leslie's bun ties with Jackie's wacky do.

April Award: Bobby for thinking Cliff wouldn't take the opportunity to screw the Ewings.


- Pam tells Bobby her painful news about not being about to have children by saying, "You know how much I've always wanted a baby...". Excuse me, but didn't Pam spend the better part of last season telling Bobby that she most definitely did NOT want a baby? I realize things have changed drastically for Pam in the last year, but this is very egregious.

- Yesterday, when Cliff began to call Rebecca, you could see that his fingers move from left to right, as if he were dialing three numbers that seemed to be in a row - most probably the number began '4-5-6' or something like that. But today, when he dials Rebecca's number, his fingers seem to move upwards, rather than from left to right. Very odd. [At least he dials seven numbers though. He's a sharp one, that Cliffie.]

- Wait...now I remember what else was bothering me. Back a few episodes ago, Jean was questioning Mitch about the location of the femoral artery. Again, this is a topic discussed in Gross Anatomy - first year class. I suppose I can give them the benefit of the doubt on this one and say that they might have been studying for Board exams or something.

- Rich Loga pointed out that some wholly owned companies have boards for incorporation reasons.  They just don't have meetings. I don't dispute that at all. I just think it's mentioned too often that Jock Ewing is the 'Chairman of the Board' that consists [at most] of himself and his two sons.

AHN Dave's corner:

- Ok, let's think about this. Some guy starts a Young Dallas magazine, and makes Lucy the first Miss Young Dallas (only because of her aunt). Since then, she has had 37 photo shoots, 15 talk shows, and an exercise show. What is this, a year-long appointment? Has she discovered roots to royalty that TNN cut out? This is being just a little overplayed. Lucy really needs to trim that mane of hers. I wholeheartedly agree. But otherwise, Lucy would have no air time. And while some would argue that that would not be a bad thing, the producers are paying her for her work, so they have to make her do something.

- Kristin looks pretty thin for having just given birth. Shouldn't she have the baby with her?
She certainly does look quite good. It must run in the family - Sue Ellen recovered very quickly from her pregnancy too. And I suppose she doesn't have the baby with her because otherwise Jordan Lee would realize that it doesn't really look like him. Or maybe JR would realize it doesn't look like him?

- How stupid is Bobby? Cliff specifically said, when he took the job as Bobby's legal counsel, that he was taking the job to see the look on JR's face when he finds out. Now Bobby sounds shocked when he says, "The only reason you took this job is to get a chance to stab my family in the back." Get a clue, Bobby!
Preach on, Brother Dave!

- Does Bobby ever sit in the Senate, or just on that committee?
Good question.

- Lucy sees Mitch on the couch and thinks he slept with Jean? I suppose it has to do with her (understandable) anger, but this isn't a very logical conclusion. Jean wakes up with perfect hair and makeup. Perhaps she brought cosmetics with her?
My comments above apply here. The producers are trying very hard to give Lucy a 'gimmick'. It is pretty dumb to make this assumption when Mitch is asleep on the couch. And I'm sure even a somewhat plain-looking girl like Jean carries makeup and a brush with her.

- How did Dusty know where and when he would find Sue Ellen? I suppose he might have noticed, as JR has, that she goes into town every day, but I'm sure the "town" is rather large. Perhaps a coincidence? Rather interesting that he was driving around in a limo with no place that he has to be.
I can't think of a better way for him to find Sue Ellen. I guess the writers couldn't either.

AHN Jason's corner:

- Pam tells Cliff that Rebecca is their only living blood relative that loves them... hmm  Aunt Maggie?  Cousin Jimmy?  Katherine? I think she means "her" only blood relative. That's typical Pam - confusing the pronouns to make herself more needy. After all, Aunt Maggie is no longer HER blood relative.

- Mitch wants Jean to come over because she is a good listener but then she insists that they don't talk about Lucy (which I can understand...I don't like being used for a bitching board either.)  But why is Mitch all okay-dokey that they not talk about it.   I have to wonder what does he want her to listen to. Maybe they'll quiz each other over cranial nerves or something.

- Why is the doorknob of Lucy and Mitch's condo in the middle of the door?  How does it open if you turn it?  Don't most doorknobs use some sort of mechanism that is goes through the hole in the wall by the door? I don't think this kind of door knob would have one like that.

- Jordan sure wrote that check out fast. Probably had it ready.

- Kristin isn't in the "also starring" credits anymore.  She has been reduced to the end "honor" of "special guest star".  Bad contract? No, perhaps necessary contract. At this point in the series, I wonder whether anyone would have enough "pull" to demand a whole lot of accolades. Notice that no one has been a special guest star yet - until now. I guess they didn't want to spoil the surprise - but later in the series they don't care and people are more concerned about the credits - like Dack Rambo, Morgan Brittany, etc.

- I am sure others thought there was a MASSIVE conflict of interest with Bobby sitting on a panel that is investigating his family's oil company, with evidence provided by his legal counsel (and brother-in-law).

- Empty purse meter- Leslie at lunch with Jeremy. Pam at Cliff's.(questionable but I thought I would add it.) Rebecca at Cliff's. Donna at the Cattleman's Club. Jean at Mitch's. Afton at Cliff's. Sue Ellen in her bedroom.

- Lucy forgets her bags at the condo.  So what will she wear the next day?  Also she apparently doesn't have a purse with her when she leaves.

- JR's clock in his office says 5:40 and it is dark out. Wasn't this episode supposed to be aired in May or so of 1981?  Did we ever decide what the time frame was that has passed since JR was shot? I thought Kristin gave birth to Christopher in June of 1981 so it should be light out. Excellent call.

AHN Alett's corner:

- Deja vu.  A postcard will arrive from Luke when not being able to have a baby is the issue.

- Here's a new ad slogan - "Licorice - bringing families together!"

- This whole Asian deal should go a lot higher than the state senate committee.  It's a federal offense.  Besides, between the Ewing influence and the Westar influence they're deadlocked. That is a very good point. What JR does here is quite similar to the Calhoun thing, and it is a federal offense - Claude Brown even said so. I suppose it would have gone to the Feds had Bobby not been in the state senate and needed it as part of the angle.

- When is Jordan going to bite the bullet and demand a paternity test? Maybe in some weird way it's flattering to him, but come on.  Does he really think he's the only one who could be the father? Apparently he does. In Jordan's case, it's probably false self-flattery. "Oh, yeah, I'm a stud."

- John Ross has outgrown ALL his clothes and ALL his toys at the same time. Sue Ellen makes it sound like he's in imminent danger of being naked and bored. Even though it's just a plot devise for her to encounter Dusty, JR has a point.  She's so used to flitting she can't stay home.

AHN Mike's corner:

- I thought Jeremy always ate alone. Here's he's lunching and making small talk with Leslie. Perhaps after he went to AA to stop drinking he also gave up social eating.

- Punk is wearing a real tie again!

- How come Punk and Ray's Spanish partner is named Luis and not Raoul? Or is Raoul just the all-purpose name for servants on Dallas? Yes it is. I'm certain of that.

- Cliff is also starting to drink by himself, during the day. And so is Pam except she waits for Ewing happy hour and then gets an early start by herself.

- Cliff baked a bundt cake for his mother! And did you catch that obnoxious music when they hugged? Made me want to gag on my licorish. Me too. That music was SO cheesy. Otherwise I thought it was a pretty good scene.

- Mitch's bottle of wine had a screw off cap.

- Did you notice Jock's hat on the table behind Ellie when she phoned JR? I guess that's all we're going to get from now on are reminders of Jock. Was Jim Davis already dead at this point or just incapable of participating? No, just incapable of participating. He died during the off-season.

- Lucy, spoiled to the end - "Raoul will pick up my things." God forbid little spoiled Miss Young Dallas should have to pack her own bags.

- Talk about perfect product positioning! Did you notice that the commercial after Dusty's reappearance was one for Viagra? Another sign Dusty's returning to his old self was that the omnipresent scarf is back.

- Sue Ellen really is in a dream world. Can you believe she says to Dusty "Please don't ever question my love for your again." Good thing he isn't still having her tailed or he would know about how she was crawling all over JR last week and sleeping with Clint as well. Well, in fairness, she ignored Clint while she thought Dusty was available. I don't get why the producers had to shove Dusty into the picture before she ended it with Clint.

AHN Pam's corner:

- The lobby of the hotel that Kristin checked in to is EXACTLY the same as the lobby of the hotel she and J.R. stayed at last season when they went away together.  This is not necessarily a nit since many hotel chains have locations in various cities and may look similar inside. It's merely an observation.

- Lucy called to tell Mitch that she was planning to stay over in Houston another night because they wanted her to stick around to do a talk show.  She should've known about this before she ever left.  Talk shows generally have their guest booked well in advance. She must be doing a very lame talk show because I seriously doubt Miss Young Dallas is such a hot guest that they'd bump someone else at the last minute. Either that or someone else canceled and they were desperate. That's possible - or else Alex Ward has real good connections.

- I am very surprised at Jock and Ellie!  They only gave Mitch and Lucy a condo with one bedroom??  How cheap!  They could've at least sprung for the two bedroom model.  Hell, they gave Gary and Val a whole house - at least Ellie did anyway.

- Sue Ellen must have been having all of John Ross's 'things' delivered.  I find it hard to believe that Dusty would've found her after only one store. Besides, she was carrying a very small, and apparently empty bag.


Episode 77: Ewing-gate

Bonehead Dialogue Award: [courtesy of Alett]

> Sue Ellen about JR: "If I know him like I know him, he's going to bribe someone."
( A simple 'I know JR etc.' would do.)

Pam Award: A tie between Phyllis's lovely white dress and Pam's foldover.

Angelica Award: Louella's purple dresses again [last time, thankfully.]

Bobby Award: Leslie's bun ties with Jackie's wacky hair for the second straight day.

April Award: Sue Ellen for waiting so long to take John Ross and then dilly-dallying while doing it.


- After leaving Senator Arvilla's office, JR goes to a payphone and deposits a quarter to call Ewing Oil. Wait a minute - he's in Austin! Isn't this a long distance call? How can he make the call for only a quarter? I realize it's 1981 but even then you couldn't make a long distance call from a pay phone for 25 cents.

- Hey, Louella must have gotten a raise! She went out and bought a pink blouse to go with all of those purple dresses. But then later the purple dresses come back, and at one point she's truly hanging out, if you know what I mean.

- Cabbageing lives when Ray talks to Punk about the Takapa development and the Lubbock project. Can we here more of the boring details, guys?

- Speaking of recycled fashions: Phyllis is wearing a blue dress which is exactly the same style of dress that she wore the other day - except that one was pink. The wardrobe guys must be hitting all the sales.

- Cliff is questioning Marilee Stone at the senate hearing and then calls Jordan Lee. He then questions Jordan and calls Claude Brown. Just for protocol's sake, shouldn't he inform the witnesses that they are dismissed? He tells Claude Brown "Thank you" to indicate that he's finished with him.

- Not a nit, just an observation: the ambassador says that they plan to name a hospital wing after JR the philanthropist - so will they call it the Ewing Wing?

- Leslie Stewart begins the annoying trend which reappears in later seasons by responding to JR with the words "And I, you." I hate when people do that.

- And I would be totally remiss if I didn't mention the blatant classic plot trickery that occurs to get this cliffhanger going. Bobby tells Cliff that he has to return to Dallas that evening and conveniently doesn't say why. Then he asks Cliff to meet him, of all places, at Southfork. Why? It's not exactly neutral territory. They could meet at Bobby's office at Ewing Oil [if they want to take the time to hack away all the cobwebs]; they could meet at Cliff's place; they could even meet at Bobby's constituency office. They could meet anywhere, and Southfork is a LONG drive from Dallas. I cannot think of a single remotely logical reason for Bobby to ask Cliff to come to Southfork other than to invent a new dance called the Dead Woman's Float.

Juanita submitted: When the ambassador finished testifying on JR's behalf, he turned and walked off, leaving his photos of the hospital and school on the stand. Seems like he would have taken them with him.

AHN Dave's corner:

- Ewing Oil on the front page of a Paris newspaper? Maybe a small blurb on the inside under "international news," but front page?
Nice catch...but it's written in English so it's probably not a local paper. It's probably a copy of the New
York Times or Washington Post or something like that, which you can get at any posh Paris hotel.

- When Ray calls Washington, the clock shows 11:15, and it is clearly the morning, based on the window behind Dave. He had just finished having drinks with Punk. I know they're Texans, but my goodness -- drinks, at 11am?
I think you must be basing this on the fact that Ray is still dressed in a suit, as he was when he met Punk, as opposed to his normal clothes, which he would be wearing if he had been at home for some time. Good point.

- Is it normal to have TV cameras in a Senate committee?
Sometimes it is. It looks to me like a closed-circuit thing, just for the official records.

- Cliff: "I don't know how the hell you managed to bribe him." What? Hmm, perhaps he managed to bribe him with money? If JR did finance the counterrevolution, clearly the ambassador would be gracious enough to be bribed.

- Does Sue Ellen think that running out on JR for Dusty and having Pamela kidnap John Ross will help her get custody? She seems to discuss it and think about it, but she ultimately decides to do it anyway.
This is a very good point. I think it's normal for her to have the maternal instincts that she does and want John Ross to be with her. I also think she figures that possession is nine-tenths of the law. If she left John Ross at Southfork, for whatever reason, JR could tell a court that she abandoned him. At least this way, she can claim that JR was withholding her son from her and so it wasn't really 'kidnapping'.

- Cliff's last line seems like some sort of precursor to Southpark: "Ohmygod, they killed Kenny! You bastard!"

AHN Jason's corner:

- Empty purses: Leslie at Jeremy's office. Sue Ellen at Pam's office. Donna at Dave's office. Interesting note is that Sue Ellen didn't seem to have one when she went to Southfork to pick up John Ross. Pam mentions that she also has a black purse in Dusty's hotel room.

- I fail to understand why Sue Ellen waited until dark to get John Ross when she found out that JR was away in Austin during the day.  Did she want to get some shopping in first?

- I was a bit bothered that all she had to say to Phyllis was "I'm (a) Mrs. Ewing" and then she blabs all about JR and Louella.  I could understand this more (I supposed) if she ID'ed herself as JR's wife, Sue Ellen.  I mean a nosy reporter could easily have gotten some hot info by using this ploy.

- How did Donna's banker know where to find Donna in DC?  Why would she inform him as to where she was going? No, but Ray might have mentioned it. Excellent question.

- With her hair in that bun, it become very obvious that Leslie has stopped bleaching.   Her dark hair is evident.

- I found it funny that Cliff admitted that he edited Leslie's tape.  Isn't that evidence tampering? Well, he said he removed parts which were not germane to the evidence. He didn't doctor the tapes to imply things that weren't true. I don't think the senators need to hear them kissing.

- Why wasn't JR on the witness stand when he did his testimony? Everyone else was.

- I would have to side with JR based on the "evidence" Leslie provided.  It totally sounds like she was trying to put words into his mouth about the revolution.

- Kristin's second visit to JR's office (shown on the preview but edited out by TNN) shows her in a different dress than what she was shown to be wearing in her hotel room scene, which happens later in that day.  She sure didn't look like she was too into her appearance that afternoon, so I have to wonder why she changed. I think she changed for the pool scene too.

- The guard referred to Pam as Mrs. Ewing at first, then Ms. Pamela Ewing later.

- Cliff is there to visit Bobby and it is 7:30 at night.  Kristin just gave birth to Christopher in June of 1981, so it must be at the most 2 weeks later. (Remember, she wants to make it seem like he is JR's kid so she wanted to rush back to Dallas to get money from JR and Jordan as soon as she gives birth so she can match the dates correctly.) Shouldn't it be more light out?  They showed yesterday that it was dark at 5:30.  That is not June/July weather.

- In the last scene, when Cliff pulls up, there is a car in the Ewing driveway that does not have Ewing plates on it.  I guess this is Kristin's rental. I'll have to look at that again.

- BTW, I looked very carefully at the scene where Cliff jumps into the pool.  He actually jumps into the deep end and appears to be treading water when he surfaces.   They then must have moved him and Kristin to the shallow end to film him turning her over.  This explains a nit sent last year that said he was standing by the diving board.  The only other explanation I have is that the Southfork Set Pool is shallower than the real Southfork pool.  It shouldn't have a diving board, though, if it is less than 9 feet deep.

- Somewhere I remember reading that Linda Gray did the body in the pool b/c Mary Crosby was not available to do this shot. But it sure looked like Mary to me when I paused the tape. I remember reading in the Complete Book of Dallas that Linda, Mary, and Victoria all did this shot, so that the identity of the woman could be kept secret even from the cast.

- A last note on the "Also Starring" credits. I have a theory here. Mary Crosby was "Also Starring" during the first half of the
season. Then she left and Mitch, Donna and Leslie were placed in this.  These three stayed there for the whole second half of the season.   Donna keeps her old name too.  I think they were too cheap to change the credits, that's why they didn't add in Kristin's name back in or change Donna's married name.

AHN Alett's corner:

- Afton, adding tap water to brewed coffee....Yuck.  What does this mean anyway?   The coffee is too hot for little Cliffy?  It's been cooking there for hours and is too strong?  I would just brew some new coffee.  Maybe she already knows Cliff is too much of a cheapskate to do this.  In any case it just struck me as weird.

- Sue Ellen, Sue Ellen....Will you please wise up and talk to a divorce lawyer before making rash choices.  She could leave any time JR goes to the office. All she has to do is tell Raoul she's taking the kid for a checkup and just not come back.  Anyway, finally John Ross is getting some fresh air.  He could be swimming in the pool, riding a Shetland pony, playing in a sandbox..... but no he's a prisoner in that upstairs bedroom.

AHN Pam's corner:

- There was a nice use of symbolism during the staircase scene between Pam and J.R.   At least I interpreted it this way.  Pam was positioned on the staircase above J.R. as if she was morally above him. Well, she is, obviously...but why then is Sue Ellen at the bottom of the staircase too? I think it's more of a hint that Pam intends to put one over on JR.

- Fashion offender:  Kristin.  Her black pants and red blouse were fine.   But one should never wear shoes lighter than the hem line, it draws the eye from the face to the feet. Kristin had on a pair of Spectator pumps, white with a black toe and heel.

- WOW!!  Louella managed to keep Kristin in the lobby while she waited for J.R. Amazing. But I don't think this was too hard because Louella HATED Kristin last season, didn't she?

- Sue Ellen was putting a jacket on John Ross.  Why? By all accounts Christopher was supposedly born in June, 1981.  So it should be hot in Dallas, even at night. Yes, he's a small child, but I doubt he needed a jacket.  Of course if she hadn't taken the time to get him in the jacket she woudn't have run in to J.R. would she?

- The chairs in the senate committee room don't match and they probably should.   Cliff, J.R. and his lawyer were all sitting in creme colored upholstered executive chairs while Sen. Arvilla and a few other senators were sitting in those 1970's ugly gold leather chairs.  I thought maybe the had brought in additional chairs to accomodate Cliff, J.R. and his attorney.  But then I noticed Bobby was also sitting in a creme colored upholstered chair as well.  These chairs looked much more comfortable than the gold ones, must be nice to be a Ewing.

- This drinking thing is really getting out of control.  J.R. took a drink up to the nursery when he went to see John Ross.  He put it on the dresser as he walked out.   Just what every toddler needs to associate when daddy is around, the distinct smell of bourbon. Well, he's gotten it from grandma too, and mama several times.

AHN Mike's corner:

- Ray and Punk sitting together looks like a convention of helmet heads.

- Seeing Afton helping JR shaft Cliff came totally out of nowhere. Did they cut some scenes? Has she be seeing Cliff all along at JR's behest? It's quite possible. Clearly some scenes have been cut. Later we learn that Afton does seem to be doing all of this for JR's benefit.

- Once again, this time at the senate hearing, JR has to TELL everybody that Leslie is attractive, lest we actually realize she is not and the plot falls down.

- No need to set a meter on this event, it won't happen again. Phyllis hugs JR when he returns to the office.

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