Sci Fi in dramas

[roadman65]

A bit of science fiction in a drama that makes a show strange:

The Ninth Season of Dallas finale (The famous shower scene that brought Bobby Ewing back from the dead) was stranger than it seemed.

Apparently Victoria Principle, who was in that scene, did not know that she would have opened the door to Patrick Duffy taking a shower.  In fact it was edited only an hour before the episode aired as producers wanted to keep the whole Patrick Duffy return a secret.  Victoria Principle actually thought that Pam Ewing Graison was going to find her character's new husband dead in the shower which is why she reacted the way she did.  In filming it was just an empty shower that she opened the door to.

The whole ninth season was a bomb as the departure of Patrick Duffy the previous year lost a lot of viewers who used to watch the show previously.  Producers were desperate and had no choice but to bring back Duffy.  Larry Hagman, even threatened to walk off the set as he gave the brass an ultimatum: Either Phillip Capice goes or I do, as it was Capice who made all the story lines in which Hagman hated in real life.  Both Larry and Phillip did not get along at all.  Being that Bobby died in the hospital, as at the time Patrick Duffy insisted that he be killed off as he did not wish to return to the series, it would be hard for writers to write him into the script again.

They were faced with a big challenge and came up with three options.  An evil twin also played by Duffy, Bobby who really never died but was recuperating in a clinic someplace without anyone knowing, or the one used which was a nightmare Pam had which was the whole season 9 of the show.  They opted for number 3 as number one would not work as people who loved Dallas not just wanted Patrick Duffy, but Bobby back who the character was pivitol in the series.  So erasing the series and firing other supporters was the best choice as Patrick Duffy was worth a lot more than some of the other casts that joined season 9.

Being that John Beck ( Mark Graison) was not returning for Season 10, they would have killed him off in the shower that last finale episode, so they used that filming to edit Duffy's return in to it.  Remember, that was a surprise to all of us watching as we expected Pam awakening from her first night sleep as Mrs. Mark Graison.  When she headed for the bathroom, we all thought Mark was showering, until the door opened and we saw whomever Patrick was to play next season in there instead.  They did not tell the cast and Patrick Duffy though he was in an Irish Spring Soap commercial as well.  So it fit right in.  Hey it created a great cliffhanger as we not only wondered what was going on as Mark is now replaced with Bobby, but why is he in there and just who was the man with Bobby Ewing's face?

That probably was the strangest way to bring back a character to a show and to actually make 31 episodes of a continuing story a nightmare of one character erasing a whole slough of story lines.  Lets face it Linda Gray did a superb job of playing a drunk in that scene of her in the rehab clinic!  JR and Sue Ellen both had an amazing story in the end of Season 9 where they finally got back together and had some good chemistry finally after years of love to hate among the two.  The Krebb's adopting Tony, a boy with Down's Syndrome.  All gone to bring back the key actor of the show. Only Steve Forest remained as the fake Jock story would have been even if Patrick failed to return and was in 3 episodes of the the dream season.

What really is strange is the irony of it as it not only did not get the viewers back, but caused Victoria Principal to want out and got Susan Howard fired in the end of Season 10.  As Pam became a strong woman once divorced from Bobby, now she became a weak character once married to him again.  The only reason why Pam and Bobby reconciled in the first place was to bring closure to Bobby and Pam before the Bobby Ewing character was written out as dead from a hit and run to explain Duffy's departure.  If Patrick did not leave in Season 9, Bobby would have married Jenna instead.  Plus many who liked Bobby back also hated that stories in that dream season were also nixed like the Krebb's adopting Tony and JR and Sue Ellen finally a believable husband and wife (as even critics praised that reconciliation) and that Pam even became that strong character now even more so as a widow.

Me personally, I like Bobby back, but I hated that the previous season's story lines were ended.  I would have rather seen Ray and Donna back together again (as Ray and Jenna were boring and unbelievable), Cliff and Jaime still happily married (although if Duffy did not return Jaime would have died in that car explosion as her contract was not originally intended for renewal in S10), and JR and Sue Ellen trying to make it work (well at least for a while anyway).   It was indeed strange.

Also some retrofit errors were clearly visible.  Pam's hair in the end of Season 8 when Bobby proposed to her was short as in Season 10 (were the next moment on TV continued) it was much longer.  Then Katherine and Dusty both developed Chuck Cunningham syndrome as both were present at the end of Season 8, with the former shown stalking Pam and Bobby the night of the dream hell bent on murder.  As Katherine was a sociopath framing Jenna for murder, trying to kill Bobby before, and making sure that Pam did not reconcile with Bobby which is why she tried to run her over in the dream and ended up killing herself and Bobby instead.  All which means that something had to make her leave which a sociopath never gives up, but yet she was not brought back nor closure to that story.  Plus, there was the clinic in Hong Kong the previous season where Pam thought the missing Mark Graison was hiding, in which was he was not, but a phone call was made when Pam left Hong Kong to tell someone that Pam had left, only in the dream to reveal that it was Mark himself who set Pam up not to find him in that clinic admitting to hiding in another room while Pam searched his hospital room.  Now with no Mark to return (as it was in the dream, so it never happened) then the phone call and the mystery of the clinic was not revealed.

Strangest of all now that the behind the scenes were made clear via our lovely internet and you tube videos.

   

[bandit957]

Anyone remember the storyline about Mikkos Cassadine and his weather machine on 'General Hospital'? I was only 8 when this aired, but it was one of very few things that actually got me interested in a soap opera when I was only 8!

[roadman65]

General Hospital had the alien too in 1985 when Robin was a little girl

[abefroman329]

There was...whatever the fuck the last few eps of Felicity were.

[NE2]

Do shaggy dogs count as sci fi?